The House of Lords has been occupied throughout the week
with the consideration of the Licensing Bill, and, as usual in that House, the debating has been on a high level. But though the need for discretion and moderation in treating the momentous issues raised by the Bill has been most ably and convincingly stated, the weight of the Government majority has been used to vote down all protests quite as effectively as if the " guillotine " were in use, and the Bill, we fear, will emerge very little improved from Committee. On Thursday the Archbishop of Canterbury moved a new clause introducing the time-limit, but the Government spokesman, Lord Salisbury, rejected it as "nothing less than pillage." It has come to this, then, that not to go on throwing away a valuable State monopoly for ever is pillaging the people who have been accustomed to get it for nothing or next to nothing. Henceforth a contractor who for yeara has had "a soft thing" in supplying a Corporation or a Government office will be " pillaged " if the Town Council or the Department insists on better terms for the public. The Archbishop's proposal was rejected by 74 (126 to 52).
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