THE BISHOP OF OXFORD'S BILL.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I read in the " Notes of the Week " in your issue of July 12th that you regard the action of the House of Lords in rejecting the second reading of the Bishop of Oxford's Bill as deplorable. Are your readers to understand that you consider that remarkable Bill a sound and equitable measure of practical reform, or, in the alternative, that it would have emerged as such from the labours of a Select Committee ? In the face of the criticism directed against the Bill from all quarters of the House of Lords it is difficult to see how either conclusion can be sustained, while any number of principles can never turn a bad measure into a [Though opposed to prohibition on the use of intoxicants, we hold that it is highly dangerous that individuals should be tempted to make a profit out of the consumption of intoxi- cants, especially when forced by very high taxation to lose no opportunity to obtain a profit. Therefore we are for State ownership. We do not think the Bishop of Oxford's Bill a perfect Bill, but it is, at any rate, better than the status quo. —En. Spec ator.]
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