And now as to the clauses which refer to the restriction of the hours of sale. Not even the most thorough partisan of the drink interest will deny that the moral effect of those clauses has been very great. For there has been no option. The Act was one for the suppression of the liquor traffic at very unseasonable hours (they are still very unreasonable and unseasonable, for that matter), and, generally speaking, that portion of it has been effectually carried out. The result has been comparative quiet and decency in our streets during the prohibited hours, and a diminution of the worst forms of drunkenness. But the clause for limiting the hours of sale contained provisions which gave some little latitude to the magistrates, and the time of closing and opening was modified to suit the wants and wishes of particular neighbourhoods, the opening hour in some large manufacturing towns, for example, being so regulated as to withdraw temptation from men going to their work. But that did not suit the books of the publicans, and as soon as the present Government came into power, it was found expedient to make the hours “uniform” throughout the country. In other words, the Conservatives threw a “sop to Cerberus,” and extended the hours of opening and closing, so as to increase the profits of the publicans as far as it was practicable without too great an outrage upon public opinion. All parties excepting those who instigated the change objected to it, and the evidence given before the Lords’ Committee shows that it has caused great annoyance and inconvenience to employers of labour, and a material loss of wages expended in morning-drinking and its consequences.[387] The truth is, that the various associations which have been formed throughout the country for the protection of “the trade” saw in this small instalment of “permissive legislation” great cause for alarm, and they accordingly directed all their energies to its repeal. The same line of policy has been adopted by the present Government whenever it was called upon to decide between the wishes of the community and those of the “trade.” The people of Birmingham desired to adopt a measure resembling that known as the “Gothenburg system,” described elsewhere; the Government thwarted their wishes. A resolution was passed by a large majority of the House of Commons in favour of closing public-houses on Sundays in Ireland, but the Government set the wishes of the House at defiance: and why? Because the necessary sequence of Sunday closing in Ireland and Scotland would be a similar measure in England; and it has only been the fear of grave complications which has at length forced the Government to listen to the demands and give a half-hearted acquiescence to the wishes of the Irish people. Have they not a right to complain that their true interests are sacrificed to the corrupt policy of their neighbours, and to clamour for a larger share in the management of their own affairs?