THE PERMISSIVE BILL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 242, 19 September 1872, Page 5

THE PERMISSIVE BILL.

• ; ■ (From the Australasian.)

At a time when many professed friends of liberalism are so ready, at the demands of the clamorous sects of teetotallers, to sacrifice the liberty of the. individual to the easygoing convenience of society, it is very gratifying to meet with so outspoken and manly a defence of personal freedom as that made the other day in the House of Lords, in a debate on the Licensing Bill, by the Bishop of Peterborough (Dr.Magee). His Lordship ewi, inwis§ and weighty worda ;•—

r~!«T'ent^lyftgTeffwit»thTnoiJiri6l«lS ; n^~ preceded me as to the mischief, and I would even say the absurdity, of the Permissive Bill. - -I believe such a Bill would be socially mischievous, and where most needed it would be the least operative. It proceeds on this most vicious political principle — that the tyranny of a mere majority, not of represent afve men, but counting merely from door to door, should govern any people. I hold that it is the right of Englishmen to be governed by their representatives in Parliament, and not by the haphazard major ty from door-to-door canvassing. This is one of the dangers of all democracy ; it ignores the rights and privileges of the minority as against the majority. I have a true abhorrence of the Permissive Bill, for, to put it in perhaps rather strong language, if I were given the choice — and this does seem to be the choice involved in the Permissive Bill — I should say it would be much better that England should be free than that England should be sober. That may seem a strong I assertion coming from one of my profession, but I honestly would prefer freedom to sobriety, for with freedom we mutt eventually obtain sobriety ; but on the other hand we should lose both sobriety and freedom together." ...... .