The London County Council sits upon the site of one of London's oldest
casino-gardens ("Spring Gardens"), and no one can therefore wonder
that it sits upon music-halls. It did not open its proceedings on
October 25 with the _Chant du Départ_, which was disappointing. Having
gone wrong on water, was it not only natural that it should go
wrong on gin, and in one great case give a verdict in favour of
hole-and-corner drinking? It invented a new dance called the "Skate
Dance." This is something in these days of choregraphic enterprise.
It should not, however, have fettered its invention with a license.
If skating is "dancing on skates," what is not dancing? Is "dancing
attendance" illegal without a license? Is the "poetry of motion"
illegal without a license, and which is the most illegal?--the poetry
or the motion? Does the "music of the spheres" require a license? Is
the ploughboy, "whistling as he goes for want of thought," infringing
any Act of Parliament? If I copied an old poet, and asked a young lady
to "drink to me only with her eyes," could she do so in an auditorium
without the permission of the L. C. C. and the Brewster Magistrates?