The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-11-16 00:00:00

CARDINAL MANNING on TEMPERANCE.

As usual on the anniversary of Father Mathew's birthday,
the Catholic Total Abttinence League of the Cross held their
annual meeting in London on Monday evening at Exeter
Hall, which was well filled, all the branches of the league
being represented. The chair was taken by the Cardinal
Archbishop, who was supported by Mr. A. M. Sullivan
MX, Canon Moore, the Rev. Dr Johnson, Father Brady, &c.
Cardinal Manning, who was warmly received, spoke
at some length on the progress of the temperance
movement. The legislature, he said, had created the
drink traffic; and, at the present time, it had the in-
fluence of that enormous capital of £150,000,000, which
were invested, spent, and turned over every year in the
manufacture and sale of intoxicating drinks, This
having been done by the Legielature they must undo it.
(Cheers.) The object of the United Kingdom Alliance
was to use all the power that man could possess by
legal means to influence the Parliamentary elections,
and to return to Parliament men who would pledge
themselves to counteract this enormous, this pestilent
and poisonous influence, which, at this moment, was
making wretched the homes of the people and playing
havoc with the souls of men, women, and children.
(Cheers.) They had been told to use their pastoral
influence, and they were doing so, to mitigate the evils
of drunkenness. The League of the Cross was the off-
spring of the pastoral and moral influence of the
bishops and priests of England. (Hear, hear.) But
they were not content with their moral influence.
Could their moral influence shut up 150,0(.0 public-
houses? Their moral influence might keep men and
women out of these houses, but they wanted some-
thing which would do more than this. They wanted to
repeal the laws which regulated the licensing system
in connection with public-houses; to turn back the
course of legislation from the encouragement of
legalised temptations to drunkenness into sobriety.
(Cheers.) It was an uphill game, and those who had
this work at heart had been jeered at and ridiculed;
but no bones had been broken. (A laugh.) These
jeers had frightened nobody, but they had more confi•
deuce than ever of their ultimate success. (Cheers.)
No one had been more laughed at thalLSir Wilfrid
Lawson, but he had by far the best of the laughing.
(Hear, hear.) Every year his Permissive Bill had
been discussed in Parliament a large number had
voted against it, but he still persevered in his work,
because he wished that public opinion in this
country should be kept alive and made conscious
from session to session that something vigorous and
adequate must be done with this great question.
The Forbes-Mackenzie Act was the first great blow to
the monopoly of capital the drink trade received at
the hands of Parliament, It was not the last. In 1864,
after a long conflict year after year in Canada, an Act
was passed of the nature of the Permissive Bill for the
two provinces of Quebec and Ontario; but in this pre-
sent year the Supreme Legislature of the Dominion of
Canada had extended the provisions of the Act to all
the provinces, so that there was a Permissive Bill on
the Statute-book which had received the assent of the
Crown, and was part of the Imperial legisiation of this
Empire. (Cheers.) Last August in this country he was
glad to state that the Irish Sunday Closing Act became
law, therefore there was now upon the statute-book two
Sunda) Closing Acta, and it needed no prophecy to say
that there would be a Sunday Closing Act for England
before long—(applause)—and that there would be a
law passed by which the people of this country would
be able to determine by their votes whether or not
intoxicating drink should be sold in the midst of their
peaceful dwellin gs—(cheers)—and to determine whether
it should be in the power of any man to enrich himself
by brewing, distilling, and selling that poison which
caused the wreck of husband, wife and children, and
made a havoc of the domestic life of the people,
(Loud cheers.)
Mr. A. M. Sullivan, M.P., rejoiced at the success
of the Sunday closing Act in Ireland, and denied that
it was a coercion bill, or it would never have been so
heartily received as it had been.
Other speeches followed, and the proceedings termi-
nated with a vote of thanks to Cardinal Manning for
presiding.