The principal objectors to such a compromise would probably be the teetotalers. But they would do well to consider whether it will not hasten forward the coming of that sober England for which we all long if some method can be found of breaking through the present intolerable deadlock. There is nothing opposed to temperance in granting compensation. It is merely a matter of policy, not of principle: though, to hear some reformers talk, it might be imagined that the idea of partly recompensing licence holders for their loss involves some terrible wrong. Both Sir Wilfrid Lawson and Mr. Caine have in the past admitted that a compromise about compensation might be worth considering. In the House of Commons (5th March, 1880) Sir W. Lawson said: "Honourable members tell me that there ought to be something about compensation in my resolution. If I would only do that they would find it in their hearts to vote for me. Now I do not want to condemn compensation, but this is not the question which is before the House. The question is, whether it is right to force these houses upon an unwilling neighbourhood; and if it cannot be done without compensation, let us have compensation. I am very sure that if ever my resolution is crystallised into an Act of Parliament this House will never refuse a fair demand from any body of men." Mr. Caine, in talking to a _Pall Mall Gazette_ interviewer, said, when dealing with the compensation proposals of the Church Temperance Society: "The time plan would work in this way: You might give to all old licences a definite lease of life, ten years being the utmost limit conceivable.... At the close of the ten years' term licences would be granted for one year only, and no compensation whatever would be granted in case of extinction.... (It) would present to temperance reformers the attractive and important feature of finality. It certainly demands most careful consideration on all hands." Mr. Chamberlain, in 1876, proposed terms very similar to these. His idea, when discussing the buying up of licensed premises in order to commence municipal public-houses, was that compensation should be paid to the licence holder alone at the rate of five years' profit, based on the average profits of the previous three years. Truth compels the admission, however, that Mr. Chamberlain's views on this point have greatly altered in recent years. In writing to me in April, 1894, he said:--"Further consideration has convinced me that the method of compensation proposed by me in 1876 would not be the best guide to a fair settlement, and that it would be impossible to ignore the interests of other persons besides the licensed holder. I think now that the best way would be to submit all claims to an official arbitrator, who would be instructed to give for the property such sum as would be given by a willing buyer to a willing seller in the open market--in other words, the fair market price."