The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1883-07-10 00:00:00

Puget Coantti expren,

DOROIIESTER, JULY 10tb, 1883.

TEMPERANCE AND THE REVENUE.

The Masan, In the Rides Receipts for the second
quarter of the year need not be taken us sign that •
slackening is taking place in the sobriety of the
nation. The augmentation is to very small that it
might be regarded as an ambient rather than a turn
-
leg of the tide. Whatever the fiscal barometer may
Indicate, it is patent to the ordinary observer that
there is far less drinking now than there was a yen
or two ago. livery section of moiety mems to have
been affected by an legumes which has come over
the land in • seemingly mysterious manner. We my
" mysterious,' though it would be unfair not to admit
that during the pan twenty live years there have been
numerous and by no means silent workers in the
cause of temperance. Perhaps it would be fair to
agnate that the conviction which has graitudly come
over the public mind is owing in a great
measure to these advmates. We gee that even where
oinversion has not actually taken place there ham
been diminished opposition and far less repugnance to
the non-see of intoxicants Not eo very long since
the finger of scorn was invariably pointed at the total
abstainer. A teetotaller was laughed at in society and
regarded with suspicion by the majority of his
egeociates. By some he was even looked upon ea a
hypocrite, it beige difficult to believe that any person,
however earnest or welklisposed, could roust the
temptation of secret indulgence. Publkons even
declared that • considerable portion of their trade was
derived from professing &Nastiness All this is obais.
It has even become fashionable to abstain. We
should not be wrong, insteps, U we predicted that
before very long the no. of intoxicents, in what are
termed '' genteel circles" will be altogether disoon-
Round. The effect is undoubtedly owing to
the changed opinions of medical men. Invalids
took much comfort from Timothy. They derived
• great deal more, however, from advisers who
assured them of the efficacy and necessity of alcoholic
liquors. If the history of therapeutics could be known,
there would be some amusing instances of migraided
advice—perhaps rather lamenting than amusing. It
was difficult 20 years ago to find a doctor who believed
in the virtue of abstinence; it wee still more diffloult
to find one who could fearlessly advise his patients to
refrain from wine or spirits. This state of things in
our day is completely ravened, and there is no doubt
that the re-action commenced when the doctors hod
the wiedom and courage to dimountenanos the use of
fulexioants. Really speaking, the custom of drinking
I. relegated to those '" who like It ;" patients ham no
kora( aa slaws for its use. The healthy find no one
to mows them that stiniolants are the canes of their
strength. lilt were not therefore for the plesenres of
the table, wine and mutts, ale and beg, would have
a very bedtime of it. The fact is promising to the nation.
Health and sobriety iney be expected to grow in a
proportionate degree. What is lost to the revenue
will be repaid three-fold to the country itself. Ohan.
milers of the Sxohequir need not regret the diminu-
tion of retwipts when oorepsesating reeouross are so
01101011001. To the philanthropiste who have preached
the doctrine of temperas*, through evil and good
mart, the result is nothing short of victory. The
outworks are taken; the enemy, if still In pommies
of the girding, is showing signs of distress, and it
would not be mrprising if he 0000 found it emissary
to hoist the flag of surrender.

--
The Feminine Voter btu now got a pretty good
footing in Parliament, and arif her claims delayed
rather than rejected by only an inconsiderable ,
majority on Friday night. She will, of course, be
beard of again, until she has gained her point by
dint of Importunity, which possibly she may yet
.:romp:lab before the I/sowed Wile's Sister attains
tosicoiler success. Tbe former lady at least excites
neither party rancour nor odium iiiroiojriaira. whereas
the latter is a veritable stirrer-up of strife. Her
tentiorary victory roused the High Church partr to
ranoorous anger, and her subsequent defeat imbued
her own advocates with an unaccustomed venom.
Next year It is threatened the Bill will be brought in
without any clause absolving the clergy from the duty
of performing marriages under the Act. if the Bill
Is Inseesd in any shape, sly the extreme clergymen,
then it is time for the Church to be parted from the
State. The controversy will no doubt hasten the day
iisestablishmoot. which will come of pressure from
within the Church rather than of pressure from
without.

Mr. Forster appears to have the faculty of Influents•
log division. in the House in • very remark•ble
manner. By voting for a measure be may do much
to secure Its rejection. The Cumberland people will no
doubt be pleased to hear of tbe manner in which the
Bawdsle Railway Bill ceased the House. The
North-Country people objected to the Bill. It was
not seeded. It would destroy the charm of • highly
nietosesque Me region. A s Tong opposition had
been organised, and the Bill would have been thrown
out bet for the unlucky circumstance that Mr.
Forster was one of the " tellers " of the "no " lobby.
Receiving this. the Irish brigade walked over in •
body to the other lobby, and so made • majority In
favour of the Bill. and expressed their spite against
an Individual by voting annoyance and defacement to
a neighbourhood.

Tho Doke of Marlborough's sudden death elevates
to the peerage • very undesirable powwows, The
Marquis of Blandford has disgrawd hie order in such
• degree SS to el wd the best possible argument against
hereditary dignities, and still more against hereditary
a. ma late Duke sold off the great Libraries in
grinpooeerassioti last year, partly, It la said, to prevent
their coming into the possession of his eldest son, audio
cave as much as posaiblo out of the entailed estates for
his other ohildreo. The new Dasher of Marlborough
—tar she is such until the dowse of divorce which she
has obtained is made " absolute—ie a daughter of the
Duke of Abercorm Abeg with her sisters she
figures in the page* of " lothair." Beaeosafield was
• great admirer of the brut, and grans of the Ransil.
ton family, and of the lady Albertha not least.
Blandford, however, abandoned her for the abandoned
wife of Lord Aylsolord. The new Duke is a man
at sufficient parts to write • pretty good magazine
article, and make • pretty gaud electioneering speech.
the effusive Radicalism was only • display of spits
maast a father who would net find him money to
ding away, and against • brother of whom growing
repotaites be was Isamu.