For many years all these things have been admitted and deplored. For at least a quarter of a century statesmen have declared that the present state of the law is disgraceful, and cannot be permitted to longer continue. Yet it still remains the same. Can nothing be done? Are the imagined interests of a small body of rich men to over-ride the welfare of the whole nation? It almost seems as though our legislators had resigned themselves to this. One thing at least is certain. No sweeping change has any hope, at least for the present, of coming into law. A drastic licensing Bill, into which one of the great political parties put all its strength, might pass the House of Commons, but would inevitably be defeated by the Lords. The body which rejected without a division the Bishop of London's Bill, and which mutilated the non-partisan Irish Sale of Intoxicating Liquors Bill, will show but little consideration for any thorough-going schemes. Reformers of one school reply: "Then let us abolish the House of Lords". This is very easy to say; but if we have to wait for licensing reform until the Lords are abolished, then there is not much hope for improvement in this generation. A more politic course would seem to be the carrying of temperance legislation by piecemeal. Little by little the law may be changed; glaring anomalies may be removed, manifest injustices altered, until at last, while our liquor laws will not be theoretically perfect, they may at least be made reasonably workable. The following suggestions as to the lines which such alterations might take contain nothing that has not been approved by many members of Parliament of both parties. 1. It is generally admitted that there are far too many public-houses. No doubt it would be found very difficult to reduce the number of those already licensed, but there should be little trouble in preventing the issuance of new licences. Let it be enacted that in no case shall a person be permitted to apply for a public-house licence unless he has previously obtained the signatures of one half of the resident electors in the immediate neighbourhood to a petition requesting such a licence. Even when such signatures have been obtained, the magistrates would still retain their option of refusal. 2. The second reform has already been before the House of Commons. Let every district have the option of Sunday closing, as provided in the _Liquor Traffic (Local Control) Bill_, 1893. To this might well be added the choice of keeping the houses open on Sundays for two hours only.