COMPENSATION.

Evening Star, Volume 8505, Issue 8505, 2 May 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

COMPENSATION.

TO THE EDITOR. Stß..—lt was a singular telegram in last night's paper which told us that the English House of Commons had affirmed, by a majority of 61, the principle that publicaus whose licenses are cancelled must be compensated. V\ hy, it is only a few months ! ago that the English Government, in the County Councils Act, inserted clauses providing for compensation to publicans. The proposal raised such a storm of disapproval, both in Parliament and outside, that the Government were compelled to withdraw the compensation clauses. Mr Gladstone is reported as describing the proposal as a Bill for the Endowment of Public Houses. The oountry resented it so strongly that even Lord Salisbury's Tory Government shrank from forcing it further in Parliament. What can this vote mean ? And what is the significance of the " majority of 61." The vote, I expect, was a " feeler "of the pulse of the House. And the " majority of 61" means so narrow a division that the question will not be pushed any further. For when you consider the sort of men who form our English Parliament it is wonderful that the majority in favor of compensation should be so small. I think the vote clearly indicates the strength of the non-compensat on party in the House. Mr Gladstone evidently acknowledges that there is no property in the annual license involving a claim for compensation on its withdrawal. It is Shylock and Portia over again—" Give me my principal and let me go." No; if the question of compensation does really como up it will be one of compensating those whose lives have been ruined by the licensed trade.—l am, etc, c. Caverßham, May 1.