50
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. JULY 20, iw.
"LOCAL OPTION."
(10 S. vi. 467.)
WHILE Gladstone's use of this term is certainly a " leading quotation," the same can hardly be said of its use by Sir Wilfrid Lawson on 11 March, 1879 ; unless, indeed, our view is restricted within the narrow limits of the British Isles. For the term had for nearly a decade before that been in common use in this country, and the thing for which the term stands had been known in the United States since certainly as early as 1829. MR. ROBBINS'S note, however, raises a point of interest, and one which deserves indeed requires careful investigation.
Let me recall to MB. ROBBINS'S mind a passage he himself wrote in 1894 :
" The House of Lords proved on this last point of the same opinion as Mr. Gladstone ; and it re- mained for that politician himself to invent over thirty years later the term 'local option' to de- scribe the licensing reform he now [1835] denounced, and which was at the time defeated." 'Early Public Life of Gladstone,' p. 231.
The authors of 'Local Option' (1885), quoted by MB. BOBBINS, were more cautious, contenting themselves with the remark that " whether it then issued fresh from the mint of Mr. Gladstone's fertile phraseology cannot be affirmed" (p. 21). But MR. ROBBINS had been anticipated, for in February, 1872, Prof. F. W. Newman said that "Mr. Gladstone learned new lessons from the sad effects of his Wine Laws, and became an apparent convert to the Permissive Bill ; for he gave to it the name of Local Option an excellent title ; and twice declared that ne saw no objection to it." Fraser's Magazine, Ixxxv. 144.
Finally, in November, 1869, Dr. F. R. Lees wrote :
"'Local Option.' This well-known phrase of Mr. Gladstone's seems to be misunderstood in its relation to facts." National Temperance Advocate, New York, iv. 164.
Now these extracts do not prove that Gladstone invented the term, any more than Judge Pitman's remark in 1877 about " this well-known American phrase " proves that it originated in the United States ; but they do prove that for nearly forty years certain Englishmen have thought that Gladstone did invent the phrase or that he might have done so. Did he ? As the facts are complex, difficult to obtain, and have never before been collected, perhaps space can be found in ' N. & Q.' for some of them.
My extracts fall into three classes : (A)
English extracts relating to the British Isles ;
(B) English extracts relating to the United
States and the British colonies ; and (C)
American extracts relating to the United
States.
A.
The authors of ' Local Option ' assert that in "October of 1868.... at the General Council of the [United Kingdom] Alliance, a letter by Mr. Gladstone was read, in which occurred " the term in question (p. 20). What was the exact date of that letter ? When and where was it first printed ? These questions are of the first importance. My guess is that The Alliance News might answer them, but this (the publication of the United Kingdom Alliance) is not in the Boston libraries. Oddly enough, the letter itself is not printed, nor is there any allusion to it, in the Sixteenth Report of the Exe- cutive Committee of the United Kingdom Alliance, dated 13 Oct., 1868, though there is a reference to Gladstone (p. 11). In January, 1869, the Alliance drew up a memorial to " His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias," in which these words occur :
"The Prime Minister of England, the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, is known to look favour- ably upon the principle of ' Local option ' ; whilst several members of his administration lean towards the measure." Seventeenth Report, 19 Oct., 1869, p. 75.
The extracts may now run along without break.
" The result of the [general] election [of 1868] more than doubled the number of those who had the courage to record a direct vote for the Per- missive Bill and to reduce the number of absolute opponents by as large a proportion. This so far modified the opinion of Parliament as to draw a promise of a comprehensive measure from a Govern- ment, the head or which avows his approval of the principle of 'local option.'" Seventeenth Report, 19 Oct., 1869, p. 6.
" There is, however, an unwillingness on the part of many to adopt the simple and effective Bill supported by Sir Wilfrid Lawson, and to which your Committee have felt it their duty and pleasure to render every support within their power. This simple 'Local Option' Bill is said to afford less choice than is desirable." Twenty-Second Report, 13 Oct., 1874, p. 63.
"I shall, therefore, for the present time have to move the discharge of the order of the day for the second reading of the Permissive Bill, which now stands for April 30, being anxious to take a division on the principle involved in the above resolution, uncomplicated, for once, with the details of the Permissive Bill, to some of which I know; that several decided supporters of ' local option ' take exception." Sir W. Lawson, 15 Jan., 1879, in the London Times of 17 Jan., p. 10/1. This letter is headed 'Sir Wilfrid Lawson's "Local Option" Resolution.'
