he doggedly voted for the old principles of 'peace, retrenchment, and reform,' for abstention from interference in foreign affairs, and for the promotion of religious equality.
To the furtherance of temperance reform, which the majority of liberals scouted as a crotchet, Lawson was already committed, although he was not yet a professed abstainer, and with this cause he chiefly identified himself in the House of Commons and the country. In the session of 1863 he supported a motion in favour of Sunday closing, and the home secretary, Sir George Grey, who opposed it, said that Lawson's argument was equally good for total prohibition. 'That' (Tote Lawson) 'was just where I wanted my argument to tend.' Thus encouraged, he produced on 8 June 1864 his 'permissive bill,' which provided that drink-shops should be suppressed in any locality where a two-thirds majority of the inhabitants voted against their continuance. The bill was rejected by 294 to 37.
On the dissolution of parliament in July 1865 Lawson stood again for Carlisle, and was defeated by fifteen votes. His radicalism had offended moderate liberals; and the 'permissive bill' had aroused the fury of the liquor-trade. Excluded from parliament, Lawson bestirred himself on the platform, speaking in favour of extension of the suffrage, abolition of church rates, Irish disestablishment, and, above all, liquor-law reform. He became closely associated with the United Kingdom Alliance (founded in 1853 for the total suppression of the liquor traffic), and he was elected president in 1879. He sought every opportunity of pleading for legislation on the lines of his 'permissive bill' of 1864, but the policy acquired the new name of 'local option,' or 'local control,' and later it was known as 'local veto.' Lawson's lifelong principle was: 'No forcing of liquor-shops into unwilling areas.'
In 1867 Lawson's father died, and he succeeded to the baronetcy and estates. After the dissolution of 1868 Lawson, who was an enthusiastic champion of Gladstone's policy of Irish disestablishment, and indeed upheld disestablishment everywhere, was returned for Carlisle at the top of the hill. In the new parliament he was active in support of the government measures, but also identified himself with many unpopular causes. He advocated women's rights; in 1870 he moved a resolution condemning the opium-traffic, which was heavily defeated. At the end of the session of 1870 he voted, with five supporters, against some addition to the army which had been judged expedient in view of the Franoo-German war. In 1872 he moved a resolution to the effect that we should, as soon as possible, extricate ourselves from all treaties with foreign powers, by which we bound ourselves to fight for them and their dominions. He was opposed by Gladstone, and beaten by 126 to 21. To the end of his life he maintained that his proposal was sound and struck at the root-danger of our foreign policy.
On his permissive bill he still concentrated his main energies. He reintroduced it on 12 May 1869, 17 May 1871, 8 May 1872, 7 May 1873, and 17 June 1874. The adverse majorities fluctuated from 257 in 1864 to 72 in 1871, but Lawson's enthusiasm never slackened. Daring the recess of 1871-2 he was busy through the country speaking in favour of his measure. Accompanied by (Sir) George Trevelyan, he met in some large towns a furiously hostile reception. From the republican agitation of Sir Charles Dilke [q. v. Suppl. II] and others Lawson held aloof, but on 19 March 1872 he voted in the minority of two for Dilke's motion of inquiry into Queen Victoria's expenditure, which Auberon Herbert seconded.
In the next parliament (1874-80), for which Lawson was again returned for Carlisle, but in the second place, he continued his fight for temperance, introducing his proposals in each of four sessions, and incurring heavy defeats, but abstaining in debate from controversial questions on which he had no special knowledge. In 1875 the bill was rejected by a majority of 285. He advocated in 1875-6 Sunday closing in Ireland, a measure which was carried in 1879. In 1877 he supported with some misgivings Mr. Joseph Chamberlain's 'Gothenburg system' for municipal control of liquor traffic, which eliminates the element of private profit. In 1879 he changed his permissive bill for a local option resolution, which was rejected by a majority of 88.
Despite Lawson's love of sport and horses, his development of puritan energy led him to oppose in 1874 the traditional 'adjournment for the Derby.' For many years he annually waged war on the proposal to make the day a holiday, and in 1892 he carried his point, with the result that the motion for adjournment was not renewed. On this and all other topics he seasoned
