The drink problem and its solution / by David Lewis.

  • Lewis, David, ex-magistrate of Edinburgh.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The drink problem and its solution / by David Lewis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    left matters precisely where they were, with the power of granting licences ad infinitum in the hands of the magistrates and justices, who are to a large extent irresponsible ; and, also, because it provided no adequate machinery for carrying its details into operation. The former objection, it must be admitted, has great force in it—more especially in view of the fact that magistrates very frequently, if not generally, dispense licences in utter disregard of the prevailing opinion among the inhabitants.1 It must, however, be noted that it is an objection incident to the very nature of the proposal—which leaves the ratepaying constituen- cies free to choose whether the sale of liquor shall be prohibited in their districts, or whether magis- trates and justices shall continue to grant licences as hitherto. The constitution of local boards for the popular control of the traffic has been suggested as an improvement on the Permissive Bill ; and it will be seen that the second objection against the 1 In October 1880, three Justices of the Peace in Mid- Lothian forced a licensed liquor shop into a newly erected colony of workmen’s houses at Tynecastle when eighty per cent., or four out of every five, of the householders petitioned against it. This arbitrary proceeding was all the more aggravated seeing that there were already two licensed places in the immediate neighbourhood. O