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EXPERl-1iE~VTAL LEGISLA TICILK 263
can be thoroughly removed. This then is a striking instauce
of a leap in the dark, which ought never to have been committed
by a prudent legislature. When the Sale of Beer Bill
was under discussion the Chancellor of the Exchequer seemed
to feel that it was Bill which needed experimental trial ; for
when objection mas made that the Act would not extend to
Scotland, he urged that it might be better to try tho Act in
one part of the kingdom in the first instance, and theu, if it
were found to be beneficial, and to answer its intcndod objects,
it might be extended to other parts.*
In more recent gears the grauting of grocers’ licenses for
the free sale of all kinds of spirituous liquors is likely to prove
itself to be an equally disastrous leap in the dark, With
the very best intontious, and 011 the most plausiblo theoretical
ground.r, Mr. Gladstone's Government greatly extended the frcc
snlo of wino and beor, so that now, in sorno popular wnteringplaces,
I have noticed that almost every third shop window
is ornamented with o, pyrnnd of beer bottles. Yct the late
Government have only succeeded in making tho grocer’s shop
the avenue to tho publican’s bar. No one can for a moment
believe that the free sale of liquors for home use hw in the
least degree weakened the publican’s hold on his customers.
If I had on ti priori grounds to plan out a schomo of liquor
traffic, I should just reverse the existing law relating to Beershops
and Grocers’ Licenses. I mould prohibit the (( off ’’
sale of liquor on any premises where other articles were sold;
the purchaser desiring to buy wino, beer, or spirits for home
use should be obliged to go to some one of a comparativcly few
well-marked shops dealing in those things alone. On tho
other hand, where liquor is sold for consumption on the
premises, I should oblige tho seller to furnish food and rewonable
sitting accommodation. This would be nothing more than
a return to the old law about Licensed Victuallers, which yet
exists in the letter, though it ha8 been allowed to fall into
Pmcti-1 abeyance. The very reasonable law obliging publicans
to afford general entertainment was sadly broken down by the
‘‘ H”d’a Debates,” 8th April, 1830, New Seriea, vol. xxiv. p. 26.