HC Deb 08 March 1881 vol 259 c553
MR. HARDCASTLE

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether there is any truth in the statement which appears in the "Standard" of that morning, to the effect that a printed draft of the Government measure for regulating the trade of Licensed Victuallers had, by accident, got abroad; and, whether the account given by that paper of the provisions of that measure has any foundation in fact?

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

Sir, of late years, a great many printed drafts of a great many subjects have, by accident, got abroad; but I can confidently state that no printed draft of a Government measure for regulating the trade of Licensed Victuallers has got abroad, and for this reason—that there never has been such a draft, and, therefore, it never has been printed.