The bases of the temperance reform: an exposition and appeal./ With replies to numerous objections. By Rev. Dawson Burns.

Tlze Objectioni from Properly.
compensation should be given if licenses are withdrawn i
but every license is now liable to be withdrawn without
compensation; and as suppression would result from a
conviction that the terms of the contract had been broken, and a nuisance had taken the place of a supposed
convenience, it is not easy to see why the people should
(contraryto common law) be called upon to tax themselves for the abatement of this particular nuisance. The
vendor has no moral claim to a renewal of the license,
unless he observes its terms and spirit; and if the locality agrees that this has not been done, but the contrary,
compensation would but add to the wrongs and burdens
already endured by the district. The liquor vendor
knows from the first the uncertainty of the tenure on
which he holds his privilege to sell strong drink; and
when he is proved to have abused that privilege, it is
rather a question how much he should pay society, than
how much society should pay him, as compensation for
loss sustained. To represent this as a case of "spoliation" and "robbery" is to overlook the gist of the
question; it is to overlook, also, the fact that in innumerable cases the tenant is little else than some brewer's
agent; and it is to overlook the fact that the house occupied, and much of the furniture, would be available for
the adaptation of the premises as a bona fide victualling
establishment, free from the noxious associations of the
past. In every populous district, "British Workman"
public-houses would do a thriving trade, and nothing
need prevent hotels under good management enjoying a
commercial success.
The derangemient of thegovernzmentfinances is not a contingency possible unless the liquor traffic were simultaneously suppressed over the whole kingdom, or over a
very extensive area. This is not contemplated, and
would not be attainable, under a permissive prohibitory
act; and the Chancellor of the Exchequer who was not
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