on this subject, speaking under a due sense of the legislative responsibility which lies immediately before him, are well worthy of consideration. After saying that he could not support the Permissive Bill, but that if any practical measure were brought forward giving to the ratepayers a larger control over this trade than they now possess, there was nothing in any vote he had given to prevent his giving it a careful and, he might add, favourable consideration," he added:

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"I would earnestly urge upon the advocates of temperance reform that they should meet us, as we are accustomed in this country to meet each other, in a spirit of reasonable compromise and of reasonable concession, and acknowledge, as I think they must acknowledge, that whatever may be the opinion in particular localities, the general opinion in this country is not now ripe, and in my opinion it will be long before it is ripe, for any measure of general, or even partial prohibition, such as that upon which they have set their hearts. Acknowledging this state of things I ask them whether it would not be reasonable that we should endeavour to agree together upon some measure which would place a trade which must, for a time at all events, exist among us upon a better and more satisfactory footing than that upon which it at present rests."

If space permitted we should gladly have inserted a portion of John Bright's response to the Birmingham Licensed Victuallers, which, though it has been severely criticised by some, embodies, we believe, the germ of valuable practical legislation. It has been an unfortunate circumstance that, whilst there is in the nature of things one vast dividing gulf between publicans and total abstainers, since the latter are steadily bent on making every one teetotalers like themselves, yet that on some legislative points where this opposite interest does not exist, there should be so strong a feeling of antagonism as to prevent all attempt at combined action, or any utilising of their selfish interests to further some of our ends.

Amongst these we might enumerate the extinction of grocers' licenses, the refusal of fresh licenses, and (if it it were not made a shibboleth of party), the closing of public-houses for sale on the premises on Sunday ; and to these might we not add, that which the better class of publicans profess to desire equally with ourselves, viz., the closing of some of the worst class of beer and gin shops? The attempt at a second "Beer Parliament" has signally failed this time, and why might we not try now to scatter their unrighteous coalition altogether by dividing the special interests of publicans from those of brewers ?

A remarkable map of Southampton was published two years since by Canon Wilberforce, showing 522 places for the sale of intoxicating drinks, to supply the needs of a population of 54,000. A red star was placed against each licensed house, and the poorer districts are literally studded with them, whilst in the upper and wealthier parts of the town they are comparatively few and far between. No one supposes that it was by desire of the poor population around that all these places for drink had been thus concentrated; every one admits at a glance that they are twice too thickly placed in these parts for the wants of the most drunken population that could be imagined; and if "local option" meant only that the inhabitants of different streets and districts might have the power of lessening the beershops around their own dwellings, which they themselves do not require, by banishing them to other parts of the town where they appreciate the luxury, we believe that the "liberty of the subject," which so stoutly protests against the whole town becoming "beerless," would heartily embrace the opportunity of freeing certain localities. Doubtless the evil would thus be concentrated in certain "favoured districts, but these could then be more efficiently watched, and severer laws could be enforced against

drunkenness and vice, until the country was ripe for a further step in advance.

The other question, as to which public-houses should be closed first, is a very difficult one; but might not an approach towards its solution be made on this wise? Licenses now have to be renewed annually; and if it were enacted that, subject to some kind of local control, such renewals might be confined only to the lives of the present tenants, it would be an equitable adjustment for the publicans themselves, not one of whom could be expelled through a local option vote during his own lifetime, and they would as a class largely benefit by reduced competition as other houses around were closed through the death of their landlords. At present the publicans are so numerous that it is notorious that many do not earn a living at all; and on this principle they might thankfully accept our local option law, whilst it would get rid of all questions of compensation to the publicans. If it be argued that this process would be too slow in its operation, we would reply that, looking at the shortness of the lives of publicans as a class, we believe that opportunity for closing such houses would offer probably much faster than public opinion would at present sanction the veto.

There would still be the large brewers and owners of houses left to contend with; but if we thus draw a distinct line of demarcation, and separate the interest and claims of the publican from the claims of the brewer, matters would be greatly simplified. The latter have already too largely profited by their monopoly of licenses which are refused to others around. There can be no just reason why their particular houses should have a perpetual license granted, whilst those of other persons next door are perpetually excluded! The "wants of the neighbourhood," and not the enrichment of the brewer, has ever been the

professed reason for the existence of licensed houses in certain localities, and if the local desire vanishes why may not the license follow in its wake without compensation? Should such summary dealing with this long-favoured class of monopolists be objected to, there seems some reason in the proposition attributed to Samuel Morley, viz., that half the public-houses should be speedily closed and compensation be paid to them by the remaining half, whose profits would thereby be so largely increased!

How far these or similar attempts to solve the problem which oppresses us are worthy of adoption we leave others to decide. The main object that we have in view is to descend from the impossible to the possible, and from the ideal to the real in practical legislation; and that, instead of looking towards long years of defeat over the Permissive or Total Prohibition Bill, we should seek out other fields in which victory can be more speedily won. Every advance in legislation is a step gained in the war against drunkenness, and in so great a battle, whilst it needs a standing army of unflinching veterans whose whole soul is enlisted in the service of destroying the enemy altogether, we see no reason to refuse the aid of allies who will join us in the attack on any outposts.

In conclusion, we would reiterate the words that in this country reforming laws must follow rather than anticipate public opinion, otherwise temporary success induces reaction. However important legislative action may be, our great strength as Temperance advocates lies in the conversion of individuals to our principles and practice. The quiet growth of opinion is still more important than the skilful manipulation of political forces, and the most effectual way of closing public-houses is to convert all their customers.

EDITOR.

THE BIBLE IN ENGLISH; OR, "WYCLIFFE" AND "TYNDALE."

IN attempting a slight record of the life of William Tyndale, it seems necessary to take a retrospective glance at the labours for the reformation of religion through the spread of the Scriptures in England, made by that greatest of our reformers, John Wycliffe,—a man raised up by God at a very critical period of England's history, as a Pioneer of Religious Reform. John Wycliffe was born in Yorkshire, at the manor house of the village of Wickliffe, in the year 1324. Nothing is known of his boyhood; it is supposed that he received his education at one of the numerous schools for rudimentary learning then scattered about the country. At the age of sixteen he was sent to Oxford, and ultimately became a fellow of Merton College, one of the most ancient foundations in that city. Dr. Wylie informs us that Wycliffe was one of the scholars of the evangelical "Bradwardine," and thus had his attention early turned to the study of Holy Scripture as the proper foundation for theological knowledge; for, strange to say, the Bachelors of Theology, or at least those of the middle and higher grades, taught a man-invented system, and regarded the Bible as too elementary a book and one beneath their dignity. John Foxe says that there was no mention of the Scriptures in their teaching, but they occupied their time in studying Aquinas, and Scotus, and the masters of sentences. The year 1348 was memorable for a visitation of the plague, which, as D'Aubigne says, sounded like the trumpet of the "Judgment Day in the heart of Wycliffe," and brought him a

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