§ Order of the Day for the Third Reading Read.
§ Moved, "That the Bill be now read 3a."—(The Lord Carlingford.)
LORD DENMANsaid, that he had taken great interest in this question. He found that no compensation was given to publicans under the Forbes-Mackenzie Act for Scotland; but, in England, a six days' licence had been granted—one tenant of his having got one. He had offered to another tenant an abatement of one-seventh of his rent, if he would 924 try the plan; but, if he should not lose by it, to continue his present rent. He had, at one time, two licensed houses in the village he inhabited, but had closed one and lowered the rent of the house. No doubt, licensed houses paid a higher rent than private houses, and he believed that Irish landlords, who had been so much blamed, would voluntarily give up a portion of rent if the tenant would lose by Sunday closing; and the Legislature might, as to six days' licences, do as much for Ireland as it had done for England.
THE EARL OF MILLTOWNsaid, that, as a Representative Peer and a Resident Magistrate in Ireland, he desired to make a final protest against that sweeping measure passing their Lordships' House without any alteration whatever being made in the bonâ fide Traveller Clause. It would be extremely hard on respectable publicans in large towns, that their customers should be forced to migrate, once every seven days, to a distance of three miles or more outside the Metropolis, in order to obtain drink; and it would be equally hard on the inhabitants of the suburbs, to be inundated with persons of the class who would leave the towns for that purpose. He spoke, from practical experience, as a magistrate who had had to administer this law ever since it had passed; whereas the noble Lord (Lord Carlingford), who refused to accede to the Amendment he (the Earl of Milltown) moved in Committee, only spoke from hearsay or second-hand information. The matter was not quite so plain as the noble Lord made it out to be. How was it the Committee, which sat in that House on the subject of Intemperance in 1878, reported that the subject was not at all clear, and that disputes regarding it continually arose not only in Ireland, but in this country? He deeply regretted that Her Majesty's Government had not seen their way to accept his humble Amendment, or to have produced a better one of their own; and he could only hope that, during the voyage of this Bill through "another place," and in the full discussion which would there certainly ensue upon it, some means would be found of effectually settling this question.
§ Motion agreed to; Bill read 3a accordingly, and passed, and sent to the Commons.