LICENSING BILL.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 123, 23 November 1908, Page 7

LICENSING BILL.

THIRD READING CARRIED. A BIG MAJORITY. By Telegraph Press Association.— Copyright. LONDON, 21st November. In the House of Commons yesterday) the Right Hon. H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister, strongly, defended the Licensing Bill, declaring that it represented the good sense and considered judgment of the House. After a vigorous reply for the Opposition, the third reading was carried, the division-list being :—: — s Ayes /. • 350 Noes 113 The measure was sent to the House of Lords and formally read a first time. It is expected that the measure will receive rough treatment at the hands of the House of Lords, despite the threat made by Mr. Birrell in a recent speech, to the effect that the Peers would be treading on very dangerous ground it they rejected the Bill. From reiterated declaration by the ' Prime Minister, it would (wrote Mr. H. W. Lucy in the Sydney Telegraph recently) appear to be a rightful conclusion that rejection of the Licensing Bill by the House of Lords will be followed by immediate dissolution. More than once Mr. Asquith has emphatically declared that the political fortunes of himself and his Ministry are inextricably bound up with the fate of the measure. That is an obvious, inevitable fact. But he has never mentioned a specific time when he would bring the matter to an issue. In this respect his habit differs significantly from that of his predecessor in the Premiership. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman was definite in his frequent threat of dissolution if the Lords persisted in flouting the will of the majority in the Commons. When, at the close of the session of last year, the Lords threw out the two Scottish Land Bills, C.-8., amid enthusiastic cheers from his audience, announced that in the following session they would be re-introduced in precisely the same form, and that, if the Lords again rejected them, the country would forthwith be appealed to to decide which is to be the predominant partner in the legislative firm. The Bills were duly brought in again early this year, and the Lords persisted in rejecting them. But a new Premier was enthroned in Downing-street, and not only did nothing happen, nothing was threatened.