disadvantage, on the other hand, according to Mr. Wilson, is, that the urban authorities, and the ratepayers generally, are distinctly interested in the multiplication of drinking bars, and in the consumption of alcoholic liquors, inasmuch as all profits over 5 per cent. are paid into the municipal treasury and diminish the weight of public burdens borne by the individual ratepayer. Mr. Wilson tells us that the Norwegians were quick to perceive this blot, and in dealing with the drink question in their own country have adopted the strong and rejected the weak points of the system.

In the cities of Norway as well as in Gothenburg, the municipal councils fix the number of licences required to meet the reasonable convenience of the public, and respectively grant a monopoly in each town to a society formed for the purpose of undertaking the trade, usually for a term of five years. The council retains full control over the operations of the society, and its books are open to the inspection of the council. Its statistics, by-laws, and regulations, and the appointments in the society's service, are all subject to the approval of the council, and, with the exception of that of the servants, must also obtain the royal sanction and seal. The committee of management is formed of a body of representatives, of whom a certain proportion are now generally elected by the shareholders, whilst the remainder are appointed by the municipal council, and may or may not be shareholders, or may or may not be municipal councillors. Usually, however, the municipal council appoints members of its own body to act on the committee of management of the society, which, as at Gothenburg, is not permitted to pay a higher dividend than per cent. to its shareholders.

5

Mr. Wilson tells us that the great feature in the Norwegian system, and in which it differs from that of Gothenburg, is the destination of the annual surplus after paying the shareholders their preferential interest. The surplus, instead of going into the local treasury in reduction of the public burdens, is applied each year in making pecuniary grants to the funds of deserving charities, benevolent societies, philanthropic institutions, or other objects of general utility which are entirely dependent for their existence on the voluntary support of the public. Any charity or institution which derives aid, however small, from the local treasury or rates is disqualified from participation in the grants of societies established under the Norwegian system of local option. The purity of motive of municipal councils in dealing with the drink question (which in consequence of the great financial success of the Gothenburg system is considered to have degenerated in Sweden) is thus in Norway retained, and the licensing authorities are secured against all temptation to stray from the principle which should underlie local option as a social reform.

At the time Mr. Wilson's pamphlet was written (1890) there were fifty-one Norwegian societies which conducted the retailing of ardent

spirits, and fifty-nine towns with a licensing authority. In five smal towns with a collective population of 9,900 souls, licences had beenrefused to all applicants, and in these places no retailing of intoxicating liquors was permitted. In three other small towns with a collective population of 1,280, societies had not been formed to monopolise licences, and the retailing of ardent spirits in them was still conducted by private licences. The authority in every town may or may not grant licences in its discretion; the same may be said of rural districts; in them local option exists and is practised in its most complete form; in some places a few licences are granted, in others none at all, depending on the discretion of the communal body of representatives which is the licensing authority.

Youths younger than sixteen or seventeen years of apparent age are not permitted to be served at bars, and females may not be employed as attendants at them. The bar attendants are clad in a uniform, each man with a number on his collar, like a policeman, to enable him to be identified should a customer have any complaint to make against him, and he is not permitted to hand drink to anyone in an inebriated state, or to serve a customer with such a quantity as may be anticipated to cause intoxication. The bars are quite plainly fitted up, without the slightest glitter of the gin-palace; they arekept clean and respectable; no seats of any kind are provided; no private compartments, nor any conveniences for loitering on the premises.

Mr. Wilson informs us that all places licensed for the sale of spirits must close at five o'clock in the afternoon of the day preceding Sundays and holy festivals, and remain closed until eight o'clock in the morning following these sacred days. Licensed premises may not be opened before eight o'clock in the morning, nor kept open after ten o'clock in the evening. He states that the experience gained since the Act of the 3rd of May, 1871, was passed (which enabled societies to compete as applicants for licences, and to hold any number in the option of the licensing authority) shows conclusively that the vice of drunkenness has received in Norway a staggering blow, and that the consumption of ardent spirits is immensely reduced, while great financial results have been attained, to the benefit of many deserving institutions, charities, and objects of public utility, which but for the life thus given them could not have otherwise existed.

On the passing of the above Act the cry of compensation to the publican was raised. After much discussion, public opinion decided against the justice of the claim made by the publicans, and no compensation was awarded, but they had five and a half years' grace given them to prepare for the event, so that the actual transfer of the licences to the societies did not take place until the 1st of January,

The societies lightened the force of the blow to the publicans by purchasing their unsold stocks of spirits, and by engaging as bar stewards the more respectable of the ousted publicans, many of whom found themselves in their new positions quite as well, if not better off than when they sold spirits on their own account.

The sale of wine and beer is independent of the spirit licence, but also requires special permit, obtainable, however, on much easier terms than the former. Mr. Wilson informs us that the diminution in the consumption of ardent spirits has been accompanied by an increase in that of wines and ales, especially of the latter, but that the diminution in the consumption of ardent spirits which has followed the establishment of the controlling societies has not been accompanied by anything like a corresponding increase in the amount of wines and ales consumed, whilst drunkenness has markedly decreased. He says, however, that the wine and beer shops have proved a great obstacle to the completeness of the societies' work, and that most of these have opened a special fund, to which a portion of the annual profits is applied, for the purpose of buying up the privileges to sell wines and ales that are held under Crown grants. There is little doubt, he adds, that as soon as the last existing privilege to sell wines and ales independently of a licence from the municipal council ceases to exist in a Norwegian town the private licensees of that town are doomed to see all the municipal council's licences monopolised over their heads by the societies. The public will never again permit licences to be granted to private individuals, inasmuch as they are unable to compete with a society in offering advantages to the public in return for the privilege of a licence.

It will be observed, says Mr. Wilson, referring to the tables, in the report of the society in Bergen for retailing ardent spirits that the shareholders' benefit was restricted to 3,140l. in 13 years; that the item of 30l. is for six weeks' interest at 5 per cent. per annum on the capital from the date of the call, prior to commencing to exercise the licences on the 18th of January, 1877; that the municipal treasury received in the thirteen years 25,185l. of excise duty and 5,1201. of ordinary communal taxes; and that the public gained 78,965l., that sum having been earned for the benefit of 53 local institutions, charities, and other objects of general public utility. In other words, the society has earned every year on behalf of the public an average profit of 127 per cent. on its capital since it commenced its operations. The indirect gain to the public from the society's beneficial work is stated to be perfectly incalculable. The visitor to Bergen who walks along the mountain road above the city-the Fjeldvei, as it is called-constructed with funds provided by the society for retailing ardent spirits, and punningly -called in consequence the 'Dram Road,' or who takes a walk in the handsome, well laid-out Nygaard Park, also chiefly provided out

of the profits of the society, can readily understand what an important influence such benefits exercise in elevating the taste and improving the condition of the masses, and in leading them away from temptations that existed in the days of uncontrolled licensed publicans. When we think, continues Mr. Wilson, of the society's artisans' dwellings, of the labourers' waiting-rooms, of the coffeehouses sprung from the society's work, of its contributions to museums, of the workmen's lectures, clubs, reading-rooms, theatre, etc., besides the host of other beneficent objects, it is not difficult to understand why it is that English visitors to Bergen are impressed by the well-to-do look of the population, the absence of drunkenness, beggary, and squalid misery, and the well-clad and well-nourished appearance of the meanest member of the community. There is not in Bergen, or in other Norwegian towns, a tithe of the wretchedness, squalid misery, poverty, and drunkenness, which is, alas! to be found. in British towns of similar size. There can be no question that the difference is due in no small degree to the fact that in Bergen the sale of ardent spirits is strictly controlled, whilst in British towns such is not the case. This marked contrast between two nationalities living under very similar climatic conditions, and closely allied by blood, cannot fail to impress itself on the minds of all who are intimately acquainted with the people and circumstances of both countries.

Mr. Wilson has supplied us in his interesting pamphlet with much food for thought. It is for us to consider whether we cannot extract from the facts he has given us something which may be of benefit to ourselves. Doubtless the circumstances of Norway and of Great Britain are not identical. That which is good for the one need not necessarily be suitable for the other-indeed the presumption is in the opposite direction; but still, when all allowance is made for the essential differences between the two countries, if Norway has in so large a measure regenerated its population by the regulation of the drink traffic, it ought not to be impossible for Great Britain to discover some effective means of freeing itself from the national bondage to the demon of strong drink, which cripples its energies, forces down large sections of its people into the slough of degradation, vice, and misery, and hinders the upward flight of its population towards the higher regions of morality and civilisation.

MEATH.

WOMEN AND THE GLOVE TRADE

THE glove trade in England gives employment to some 15,524 persons, of whom 13,261, or 85 per cent., are women.

The men's share in the manufacture consists in the preparation of the skins and in the all-important function of cutting the leather into pieces of the requisite length and width. They, too, punch out the glove-shapes, the pieces for the thumbs, and the forgets-i.e. the little side pieces of the fingers.

The next stages in the glove manufacture give employment to women; but the final processes again fall to men, since it is they, or, at any rate, boys, who, with the aid of a machine, punch in the buttons of the heavier make of gloves; while they also lay out' the gloves, and give them the final touches before packing them. This finishing work is done in the factories-the last process in a room called the 'laying-out,' or, more jocularly, the 'deceiving' room where the gloves are drawn on to heated iron lasts, so that the creases may get smoothed out.

The women's share in the manufacturing process begins when the glove-shapes have been distributed to them, either by an agent established in the villages, or by bag-women-women who travel from factory to village, and, in consideration of the small charge of ld. a dozen, take in the completed work and bring out the fresh. Pointing-i.e. stitching the backs—is the first operation.

This was formerly done with the aid of an engine, more popularly known as the brass donkey.' This little apparatus-still used for the pointing of fabric gloves-is to be seen in many of the cottages. It consists of a flat stand, out of which springs an upright, wooden stem terminating in two brass clippers with little notches or teeth, through which the worker passes her needle. The work is firmly held between these teeth, and the clippers open and close by means of a spring worked with the foot. The worker sits on a low stool, the stem of the engine between her knees.

When tambour-pointing is in question, the procedure is altogether different. Holes having been previously perforated in the backs of the gloves, these are then stretched tightly in a tambouring-frame,