THE SUNDAY CLOSING BILL— IRELAND.

Clutha Leader, Volume III, Issue 151, 1 June 1877, Page 3

THE SUNDAY CLOSING BILL— IRELAND.

The second reading of the Bill for closing- public-houses on Sunday in Ireland, says the Weekly Beview, has been earned in the House of Commons by a majority of 171 ; the numbers being 194 ayes, and 23 noes. There was indeed no valid excuse for opposing 1 the measure. The people of Ireland wish to have public-houses closed on Sunday, and, as it is a matter that exclusively concerns Ireland, the Imperial Parliament should not refuse assent to the request, seeing that no one can allege that compliance is fraught with any peril to the country. The most ardent advocates of the public house interests will hardly venture to assert that the people of Ireland will be seriously damaged because, on one day in the week, they will not be able to buy intoxicating liquor. The publicans of England are naturally alarmed. Their Sunday trade is valuable. On that day their tills are filled to overflowing with the money of the working class, and also with the money of what may be fairly described as the " Sunday clothes" class. If the law works well in Ireland it will be tried in England, and the publicans will sustain a loss of business. Last year Lord Beaconsfield and his colleagues opposed the measure to please the publicans, but in vain, and further opposition would bo futile and ridiculous, it is, perhaps, worth while to notice some of the arguments of the publicans' advocates, as that may facilitate the closing of publichouses in England on tbe Day of Rest, the Sabbath which is often made a day of drunkenness, to the ruin and misery j of many thousands of families. To close the public-house on Sunday is, we are told, an infringment of the liberty of the subject. The wish of the majority ought not, it is said, to interfere with the social freedom of the minority. There would be some force in both the arguments if the Bill proposed to prohibit the drinking of wine, spirits, or beer on the Sunday. But it does nothing of tiie sort. After the Bill becomes law, every man in Ireland will be at liberty to drink intoxicating liquor, and, if he is so debased, get drunk, on the Lord's Day. All that the Bill does is to prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquor on Sunday. It is only an extension of the existing law which regulates the trade in drink, and limits the hours of selling on Sunday. There is a minority who would like to have the Post Office and the Telegraph Office open all the year round but the JSundoy closing of those offices does not justily a complaint of the tyranny of the majority. But the drinkers will have still less cause for complaint, for they will be able to drink on Sunday ; only they will have to buy their liquor on Saturday,