The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-07-27 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL TEMPERANCE
LEAGUE:

Mr. John B. Gough, the well-known temperance
lecturer, who has recently arrived in this country
from America, was welcomed on Tuesday at a garden
party given by the National Temperance League in
the College gardens, Westminster Abbey. Nearly 500
people assembled on the broad green lawns which ad-
join the residences of the Canons, and were placed at
the disposal of the League by the Dean and Chapter.
Among those collected were Mr. and Mrs. Gough,
Mr. John Welsh, tlAe American Minister, Mr. Samuel
Bowly, Dr. B. W. Richardson, Mr. S.
Morley, M.P., Mr. Palmer. M.P., Sir Wilfrid
Lawson, M.P., Lord Claud Hamilton, M.P., Canon
Duckworth, Canon Ellison, Mr. Samuel Gurney,
Dean Stanley, Mr. John Cook, Hon. T. W. Pelham,
Mr. R. Rae, Secretary of the League., together with
ministers of all denominations, and visitors from Bir-
mingham, Dorsetshire, and other parts of the country.
Mr. Gough, whose labours in England eighteen years
ago were recalled to the meeting by many speakers,
tins not come to resume the active work of lecturing
at once. He is on his way to Switzerland in search
of recreation, and his first public lecture will be given
in Mr. Spurgeon's tabernacle ou September 24. He
will also make four addresses in Exeter-hall, and will
then visit the principal towns, such as Birmingham,
Manchester, Liverpool, &c., delivering altogether
thirty or forty lectures before he returns to the Con-
tinent to winter in Rome and Naples.
Soon after six o'clock the guests assembled round a
low platform which faced the setting sun. Mr. Bowly
acted as chairman, and the formal proceedings corn-
menc-d with prayer. After a few words from the
chairman, the American Minister (Mr. Welsh) said it
was very pleasant for him to unite with those present
on that interesting occasion. It was not every one
whose energy was given to so good a cause, or whose
labours had so fair a field as was to be found in this
great, old, and noble metropolis. It was sad to think
that here where beyond all other spots upon the face
of the earth God had bestowed in unmeasured
quantities His blessings, there should be one blot so
foul as to show that those who enjoy His blessings
are unconscious of the evils with which they are
surrounded. When be found himself among a
body of men and women like those present,
it did him good to know that there were some
disposed to labour to remove the foul bolt on the fair
fame of the kingdom. Why was it that when he went
into their gardens he found flowers in abundance culti-
vated with care, and not a weed to be seen, but that
they could net eradicate in morals that which was
eating aviay their national life? How was it that in
that great city one might see, what he defied them to
show in any other part of the world, men and women
frequenting houses for the sole sake of intoxication?
Bad as the evil was in his own country, that they did
not see there. Let them try, at least, if they could raise
the women and the men would follow them. He had
not seen that experiment tried, but it seemed to him
that if the women of England would but show in that
way the divinity with which they were stamped they
might remove, in part at least, this great blot from
their country.
Canon Duckworth was the next speaker. He re-
ferred to the annual temperance sermon preached in
the Abbey by the Dean, and to the formation of the
Church of England Temperance Society. His own
attention was first called to the subject by the splendid
eloquence of Mr. Gough, whom he heard many years
ago in the amphitheatre at Liverpool. He learnt then
that Mr. Gough gave 300 lectures in the year and tra-
velled 10,000 miles, and he believed that his activity
had known no intermission since. _ _ _

Dr. Richardson said that when Mr. Gough left
England he complained that, as in his own country,
science was against him. Now he would find science
seconding morality.
Canon Ellis expressed the hope that Mr. Gough
would visit many parts of England so as to be heard
by country clergymen who could not leave their
flocks.
Mr. Stephen Shirley and Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P.,
welcomed Mr. Gough on the part of the Band of Hope
Union, which numbered 30 or 40 societies in 1860 and
has 2,00 or 3,000 now. Mr. Morley said tkey began
by teaching the young, but not without the consent of
tke parents. The evil of drink obstructed every move-
ment for the help of the worlling man.
Mr. J. B. Gough then addressing the meeting as
"Ladies and Gentlemen and Fellow Citizens" thanked
them for their welcome and deplored the gaps left in
the ranks by those who had gone, not to rest, but to
work without weariness. He said that he went home
in 1860 just in time to vote for Abraham Lincoln,
and that he had seen beyond his hopes the great re-
proach of slavery removed from the escutcheon of the
United States. He augured from that unexpected
victory some hope for the removal of the curse of in-
toxication. When Lincoln was about to proclaim
emancipation, a friend in Illinois sent word to
him that the people were not ready for it. The
answer was by telegram "Dear Dick,—Stand still
and see the salvation of God." America had
also made progress in the temperance cause,
and Mr. Gough referred with satisfaction to the
crusade of the women. He and his like, he said,
accepted with thankfulness the help of Dr. Richardson
and Sir William Gull. When they had moulded and
placed the nail, unscientific people in a common-place
way might drive it home. Some folks said alcohol was
strengthening, and it might be shown them how it was
not by a homely saying he had heard in America, "Sit
on a hornet's nest. It is quickening but it is not
nourishing." So, when he was told that whisky
had saved thousands of lives, he was minded to tell
the story of the school boy who finished a childish
e-say on the pin with the observation that pins, too,
"had saved thousands of lives." How so?' asked
the schoolmaster. "Why, by not swallowing them"
was the young humourist's reply.
Mr. Gough concluded his brief address by speaking
of the pleasure which he had experienced in finding
such men as Dr. Gillespie on his side.