The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-10-23 00:00:00

THE 'UNITED KINGDOM ALLIANCE.

The annual meeting of the United Kingdon Alliance
was held on Tuesday at Manchester, Sir Wilfrid
Lawson presiding.
In opening the proceedings, Sir Wilfrid said they
met under much more cheerful circumstances than
they had ever met before. In the previous meeting
they had to talk about the different repulses they had
met with during the year. At the meeting six years
ago in the autumn of 1874. he remembered telling those
present that the temperance party at the general elec-
tion of 1874 had met with their "Bull's Run."
(Laughter.) They would perhaps remember what
jubilation there was throughout the ranks of Liquor-
dom, and how it was trumpeted abroad that the
United Kingdom Alliance and the fanatics who
supported it bad received a crushing and overwhelm-
ing blow. It was just what was said after the battle
of "Bull's Run." The temperance party, however,
took for their example the conduct of the Federals
after the great defeat, and, if he might be allowed to
use a colloquial expression he might say that they
"pulled themselves together "—(laughter)—and for
the last six years they had worked harder than they
had ever worked before to carry on their agitation.
The result was the gaining of their first pitched
battle on the anniversary of the battle of Water-
loo in 1880. They must not suppose that he
was snaking too much of victory. He did not go
to the Alliance Heirs, when he wanted to know how
they were getting on, but he went to the licensed vic-
tuallers, who understood the subject better than any
of them, and to his great delight he found that
licensed victuallers wrote in their leading organ that
never, in the whole history of the movement, had the
Alliance possessed half the strength that they did at
present! Speaking of affairs after the late general
election, Sir Wilfrid said that the secretary of the
meeting (Mr. Barker) had written to him stating that
he had gone through the lists of the new members of
the House of Commons, and he found that he (Sir W.
Lawson) had 248 pledged supporters in the House of
Commons. (Cheers.) He himself thought that was a
too sanguine view to take. He was not a sanguine
man himself—(laughter)—as they knew; but on June
19, when he brought forward his resolution, he polled
245. He had looked at the bright side of things, but
he would ask them not to be too joyful—not to be too
cock-a-hoop. (Laughter.) They had only got through
the first stage of their agitation, and they might be
said to have got through the argumentative stage of it.
The House of Commons had admitted the justice of
their policy—that the people ought to be allowed to
protect themselves from the liquor traffic. They had
now entered upon the secoird stage, and that was, how
they were te get the House of Commons to act out the
resolution which it had already passed. There was
only one method of doing that, arid that was by keeping
on the pressure from without—for as the presssure,
so would be the performance in the House of Commons.
He did not persuade the House of Commons on July
18. He had said all his say a dozen times before and
had made no impression on them. The im-
pression was made on them by the electors at
the general election. John Bright—(cheers)—once
said he thought that there were not more
than two men in the House of Commons who
believed in the Permissive Bill. That number two
had become 245; not because the other gentleman be-
lieved in it any mere, but because electors believed in
it, and the other party believed that the electors be-
lieved in it. (Cheers.) They had now to consider
and decide how they would most rapidly bring to
bear upon the House of Commons the weight of their
numbers, of their union, and their energy, in order to
obtain from them the great measure of reform for
which they had struggled together for so many years,
and which now, if they were united and determined,
it was impossible could be much longer withheld from
them. (Cheers.)
Mr. Samuel Pope, Q.C., the hon, secretary, then
read the report, and the declaration that nothing short
of a direct popular veto on the issue and renewal of
licences would be satisfactory was received with loud
and long-continued cheering.
On the motion of Mr. Geo. Barrow (Birmingham)
the report was adopted.'
A resolution was also passed hailing with satisfac-
tion the promise of the Prime Minister with regard to
licensing reform.

Three large public meetings were held in the even-
ing. The Bishop of Manchester presided in the Free
Trade Hall, this being his first appearance on the
Alliance platform, and whilst not pledging himself to
every detail of the future Permissive Bill, he gave a
hearty adhesion to its governing principle.
Sir Wilfred Lawson, Mr. Hugh Mason, Mr.
Arthur Pease, and other membera. of Parliament also
spoke.

The annual report of the United Kingdom Alliance
states that the national agitation conducted by the in-
stitution has at length made a deep and enduring mark
upon the political mind of. the country, and even in
Parliament itself. The just and sallitary principle so
long and earnestly contended for by the Alliance, as
embodied in the preamble of the Permisive Bill and in
the Local Option Resolution, is now conceded, and the
right of the responsible inhabitants of a district to be
permitted to protect themselves against the injustice
and injury of having licences for the sale of intoxicat-
ing liquors thrust upon them by irresponsible licens-
ing authorities has. been endorsed by some of the
foremost statesmen of the nation and by a deliberate
vote of the House of Commons. Local option is no
longer denounced as a crotchet or the dream of enthu-
siastics, but has taken its place within the sphere of
practical politics.
The report also states that it must be the aim of
the Alliance to direct such a voice of public opinion
as to make it difficult for Mr. Gladstone to avoid re-
deeming his promise of official aid.