(_a_) The only licences that are to be granted are (i.) a full publican's licence; (ii.) a wine and beer on licence for a refreshment house; (iii.) a wine and beer off licence; (iv.) a licence for an hotel; and (v.) a licence for a railway refreshment room, the two last being special forms of the publican's licence. After 1898, therefore, the following kinds of licence will cease to be obtainable: (i.) The beer dealer's additional licence (off); (ii.) the beer retailer's on and off licences; (iii.) the cider and perry on and off licence; (iv.) the table beer retailer's licence (off); (v.) the wine retailer's on and off licences; and (vi.) the sweets retailer's on and off licences. None of these licences are required by a person holding a superior licence. (_b_) The Board is to have full discretion to grant or not to grant any licence. After this provision comes into effect the present restrictions on the power to refuse certain licences, except on certain grounds, will cease. (_c_) Licences, exclusive of hotels and railway refreshment rooms, are not to be granted in excess of a fixed proportion to the population of each district--one per 1000 in towns, one per 600 in country--but proper notice is to be given to a licence holder before discontinuing his licence under this clause. (_d_) The value qualification of premises is raised. (_e_) A licensed person is not to carry on any other retail business on the licensed premises. The measure came before the House of Lords for its second reading on the 12th May, 1893. It met with a very unfavourable reception, and Lord Salisbury opposed it hotly as being "the wrong remedy for the evil we all deplore". At last Dr. Temple, seeing that it was perfectly evident the measure would be rejected by a considerable majority, consented to allow the motion to be negatived without a division. It is the intention of the Church of England Temperance Society, however, to keep its Bill as far as possible to the front, and to make persistent efforts to have it carried into law. LOCAL OPTION.--Few schemes of reform have been so unceasingly pushed as that for giving to localities the option of prohibition. Forty years ago, when it was first brought before the British public, it was laughed at, and hardly deemed worthy of the serious notice of politicians; in 1893 it was introduced by the Government to the House of Commons; and to-day it has all the weight of one of the two great political parties behind it. Whatever may be thought of the practical usefulness of such an option in the present state of public opinion, it is hardly possible to deny to the men who demand it a tribute of admiration for their persistency and pluck.