An agitation in Great Britain which almost equalled for a time that produced in the same period by Mr. Chamberlain’s campaign for a preferential tariff was stirred up by a new Licensing Bill, introduced as a Government measure on the 20th of April, 1904. The bill provided for compensation to be made, at the expense of the liquor trade, for the taking of a license away from any public house, on grounds of public policy, no matter how briefly the license had been held. A fund for the compensations was to be raised by assessment on all engaged in the trade. Authority to refuse the renewal or transfer of licenses on any ground other than ill conduct or character was withdrawn from local magistrates and exercised by the courts of quarter sessions (composed of the justices of the peace in each county) only. When a public house was thought to be superfluous by local magistrates they were required to report the case to quarter sessions, where a hearing upon it would be given. {12} If the Bench of quarter sessions decided to extinguish the license, it must specify the grounds of its decision in writing, and award a compensation, based on the estimated difference between the value of the licensed premises and the value of the same premises without a license. If no agreement on this basis could be reached, the Inland Revenue Commissioners should determine the sum. The Bill was advocated in the interest of temperance, as being calculated to reduce the number of public houses, and to raise their character. Mr. Balfour upheld it as "a great temperance measure." It should be the aim of Government, he argued, to "encourage respectable persons to keep public houses, and with that object they should make the trade secure." On the other side it was opposed with exceeding bitterness as a measure that had the backing and was in the interest of the brewers and the whole liquor trade; that created vested interests in the trade, rooting it to a new depth; that tended to add value to the low class of public houses, and obstructed future temperance reform. Repeated attempts to introduce a limit of years after which the awarding of compensation for the withdrawal of license would cease were defeated, and the Bill passed both Houses in August, substantially as it came into Parliament four months before. ALCOHOL: A. D. 1907. Drink in its relation to crime. Testimony of judges.