THE Thames Guardian AND MINING RECORD. TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 1872.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 222, 25 June 1872, Page 2

THE Thames Guardian AND MINING RECORD. TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 1872.

An emissary from the Permissive Bill Committee is at the present time making a peregrination of the district to obtain signatures in behalf of that great moral panacea. The licensed victuallers on the other hand are contemplating the establishment of a society to protect what they consider their legitimate interests, and through the country a good deal is being said and done in reference to the liquor traffic. Our opinion is that the General Assembly arc not likely to agree on the subject, and that it will be again indefinitely shelved, but so far as this province is concerned, there is already a Permissive Bill in existence, of which, however, the inhabitants have failed to take advantage, not a single house having been closed under its provisions. This does not say much for the popularity of the movement. We have no doubt that the agitators of the permissive question—at all events some of them—believe they are doing good, and they certainly work with a perseverance worthy of a good cause. W c think, however, that they are, as it were, “ working a dead horse,” and will simply have their labour for their pains. One result of the movement here will, in all probability, be the establishment of a Licensed Victuallers’ Association and in this direction it may be good. If the leading members of the trade, who are, as a body, as respectable a class of men as any other tradesmen, will themselves unite to discountenance a few of their body who sell adulterated liquors, they will do an essential service, worth any amount of oratory from a teetotal or any other platform. There is, we believe, some machinery known to the existing law in reference to the sale of adulterated food generally, hut it has seldom if ever been set in motion here that we are aware of. Not only are adulterated wines, beers, and spirits occasionally sold here, but other articles of food also, which would in some cases hardly bear inspection. Short weights and measures might also be looked after a little oftener than heretofore, and the bakers and grocers, as well as the publicans, might now and then be brought to book. As a rule, we believe people here are pretty much the same as they are everywhere else, and that there will be a few dishonest men in all branches of commerce, hut why the hotel-keeper should be held up to igno ininy in every case without cause, and by people no better than himself, we are at a loss to know. It seems also, that so far as the advocates of the Permissive Bill residing

in tins province are concerned, they have already got all they say they want in the act lately passed by (lie Provincial Council. Certainly it has not been taken advantage of, but there it is, and the “ Permissives” have all the necessary instruments of the Law at their disposal to carry out their views, if they can do so. What more do they want? So the Bill they propose to introduce into the General Assembly is a different article altogether l If so, we have not been enlightened to that extent by what we have heard and read lately. The fact, however, remains that the inhabitants are being canvassed in favour of the movement, and we dare say a good many names will be attached to the petition. There are people who will sign anything if it costs nothing to put their names on paper, but that is about as far as a large majority of them will be prepared to go. The canvassers will say this is enough, but to our minds it is but a very small piece of testimony to the intrinsic merits of the Permissive Bill.