§ MR. CREMER (Shoreditch, Haggerston)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury if he can state the number of public-houses that have been closed during the last ten or twenty years by the ground landlords of London; whether he has any official information showing that when closing public-houses upon their estates the ground landlords compensate the publicans for depriving them of their licences; whether it is the practice of the landlords to give the licence-holders anything besides timely notice that after a specified time their establishments will be closed; and, if not, will he cause inquiries to be made into the matter.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURWe have no official information on the subject on which the hon. Gentleman desires an inquiry, neither have we the machinery for making such an inquiry.