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THE UNITED KINGDOM ALWANCE. %?
88 body, but to all who propose in my WRY to sanction the
sale of liquors.
me matter has been made all the worae by the recornmendation
to vote for no Member of Parliament who rafasoe to
npport the Bill. The adoption of suck a policy must surely
be considered as an act of desperation, but in my case, it
W o t be snEciently reprobated and repudiated by all who
+& well to the progress of civilisation. Compromise is of the
very easence of legislative change, and as society becomes
more diverse and complicated, oornpromise becomes more and
more indispensablo. It is tho only ~nodtrs viue?zdi, as taEltee and
opinions gradually diverge. It need hardly be said that reforms
of all kinds must bo immensely rotardsd if the sapportem of
each memure insist upon gotting their own scheme first
through tho House of Commons. Mr. Bright happily protested
against trying to drive half-a-dozen omnibuses abreast through
Temple Bar, but this is what it will come to if we have many
bodies like tho Alliance, each trying to have the r d to itself.
It is espeoially unfortunate when the first one is a, heavy, impracticable
machine, which can noither go forward nor bo got
oat of the way. Yet such I believe the Permissive Prohibitory
Bill to be, and the proceedings of the Alliance altogether
strike me ea the best possible example of how mot to do thhge
in legislation.
On these grounda I hold that the United Kingdom Alliance
is the worst existing obstacle to temperance reform in the
kingdom. It absorbs and exponde the resonrcee of the
temperanoe army on a hopeless siege, and by proclaiming no
quarter, it drives the enemy into fierce opposition to s man,
The Alliance has already been in existence and active opemtion
for twenty-two or nearly twenty-three pears; it hae had the
most zeaJous leaders, and the most faithful followers ; it baa
spent great sums of money, probably greater gums than any
daaociation of the kind ever spent before, ammting to something
like a qrZarter of a million sterling ; its pablimtions haye
been Sown broadcast over the whole ccmnhry J ita petitim to
Pdh~~ent have been numberless; and every Member of
I”nent and every body of e-s hme been vexed by