The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1894-03-03 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

PUBLICAN'S BALL.  TO THE EDITOR OF THE BIRKENHEAD NEWS. SlR,—Win you kindly grant me apace in your valuable paper to reply to Mr. Cameron, as I think he must have misread my letter, as he says that I boldly state that it is the present Government that they (the publicans) have to fear, whereas I only stated that Mr. Churton had said it was only the present Government that they had to fear. said that seeing the present Government had done nothing, what had they to be afraid of. All that the Government had done was to bring in a Bill to give the people the power that Lord Sefton and a vast number of landlords in this country have now to say whether they will have public-houses near their homes or not. Surely this is only fair, and I maintain that if the publicans and brewers all object to this, it simply means that they (the publicans) are afraid of their own customers, as their customers will have the same chance at the ballot box as the temperance party. Mr. Cameron says that the publicans are not afraid. Well, all I can say is, why are they making so much noise against the Bill. Again, he says that when a Government has been bold enough to attack the trade, it has always had to retreat with ignominy. May I ask Mr. Cameron if there ever was a time in the history of this country when the temperance question was so prominent as it is now, as was shown in the last Conservative Parliament, and I venture to say one of the strongest Governments of modern times, when they brought in their now famous compensation scheme. Twice they tried, and twice they had to do the retreat, and with ignominy, and later still in the House of Lords when Lord Salisbury tried to introduce a clause in the Parish Councils Bill, compelling parish council meetings to be held in public-houses. What has brought this about? I venture to say that it is the work of the great temperance , reform, which is the root of all social reform. Mr. Cameron says, if we interfere with the drink we interfere with the man who drinks and pays for it. Now, all we ask is that the man who drinks and pays for it shall have the power to say if the public house shall be by his home or not. Mr. Cameron says with regard to petitions that an inquiry was made, and that four , petitions presented by Mr. H. J. Gladstone bearing 26 signatures, of these no leas than eighteen were signatures of persons under eighteen, i.e., from seventeen years to nine months, and that at one house visited quite aMisk business was being done. Now i when I stated n my letter the number of the petitions for and against, I lave my authority for the statement, and all I ask in return is that Mr. Cameron will state what place the petition came from, and the house where the brisk business in fictitious petitions were being manufactured, as I a temperance man would be no witty to such proceedings; as I should certainly inquire whether it is correct or not. And I lastly I would like to ask Mr. Cameron what he meanie by people eating too much and drinking too little. Surely Mr. Cameron must know when he has had enough, and perhaps he will allow other people to know. But if Mr. Cameron can show me one case of a man committing suicide, or starving his children, or Nine brought before the magistrates and fined five shillings and Costs, or applying to the Guardians tor relief because he has eaten too much and drank too little, I will show him hundreds where all this has happened by drinking too much. What is it, may I ask, that has brought into existence the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and Dr. Barnado's Home and Mos. Birt's Home in Liverpool. I think Mr. Cameron will know it is not drinking too little.—So, thanking you in anticipation, yours, fic.,