Mr. Cross's Licensing Bill is not through yet, or likely
to be. The Victuallers are not satisfied with it, and everybody else is more or leas against it, while Mr. Cross on Tuesday told the House that the hours he had inserted in the Bill were merely suggestions, and the House might deal with the Bill as it liked. That is not what either the publicans or the public- want. The publicans want -the question ended by the Government which they helped so greatly to elect, while the public wants the Government to lead, and not to be a. mere fennel for the contradictory orders of an incompetent Committee of the whole House. The dispute will be arranged somehow, of course, perhaps in the true Conservative way, by' letting things remain as they are ; but there is no subject upon which'Government were expected to be so sharp, decisive, and even Stern as the licensing laws, and no subject upon which they have shown such uncertainty and feebleness. A Government which cannot pass, and pass quickly, the Liquor Bill it likes, may be the best of all possible Governments, but it is not a strong one
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