The County Council on Friday week decided the dispute as
to the music-halls in a rather unexpectedly sensible manner. A test vote was taken on the renewal of a licence to the Trocadero, and the Council by a vote of 81 to 34 renewed it on condition that the manager should declare in writing that the place would be properly managed. This decision governed most others, and the general result is that music-hall pro- prietors have one year's warning before being dealt with more peremptorily. The Council did not, however, advise, as they should have done, the appointment of a Licenser, and the publicity of their debate on morals was most injurious. What- ever the opinions of the whole body, the speeches of the more conspicuous talkers were so full of sympathy for "unfortunates," and of the idea that they are irresponsible for their conduct on account of poverty, that hundreds of hesitating girls who might, otherwise keep good, will be tempted to think that in the present temper of society evil is condoned. Mr. Burns, the Socialist member, openly attributed prostitution to the low wages which, as society was now consti`nted, working women were forced to take, though he knows better than most men that the majority of the underpaid women of London lead decent lives. This habit of treating " Society " as a kind of Fate will one day destroy morality altogether.
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