The leading manager was Edward Clarke, a stanch Whig, who represented Taunton, the stronghold, during fifty troubled years, of civil and religious freedom.
Clarke delivered to the Lords in the Painted Chamber a paper containing the reasons which had determined the Lower House not to renew the Licensing Act.

This paper completely vindicates the resolution to which the Commons had come.

But it proves at the same time that they knew not what they were doing, what a revolution they were making, what a power they were calling into existence.

They pointed out concisely, clearly, forcibly, and sometimes with a grave irony which is not unbecoming, the absurdities and iniquities of the statute which was about to expire.

But all their objections will be found to relate to matters of detail.