The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-06-07 00:00:00

A TEMPERANCE DEMONSTRATION.

On Monday the members of the Catholic Total Ab-
stinence League of the Cross made their annual Whit.
Monday demonstration in Hyde Park, in spite of the
proverbial teetotalers' weather (remarks The Times).
Representatives of some eight or nine metropolitan
branches of the League, with bands and banners,
assembled on the Thames Embankment about noon
and formed in line along the roadway eastward
from the bridge of the Charing - cross Railway.
Some of the large standards displayed between two
poles, besides the name of the branch to which
each belonged, the figures of patron saints, with re-
ligious phrases, while one—that of St. Mary's and St.
Michael's—was embellished with a full-length portrait
of Cardinal Manning, who founded the branch in
May, 1874. On others of green the Irish harp was
painted with the motto, "God save .Ireland." The
children of St. George's Branch carried bannerets
bearing such inscriptions as "'Prevention is better
than cure," "Come and .join the Cold-stream Guards,"
"Pledged to resist our country's greatest foe," "The
drink trade increases taxation and fosters crime." The
men of the several branches were distinguished by
wearing caps and sashes of green embroidered with gold.
About two o'clock the procession started under a steady
fall of rain, which continued without intermission
during the march to the park and throughout the pro-
ceedings there. The meeting place was under a
group of elm trees, half-way across the Park, which
the procession gained about three o'clock, and half-an-
hour later Cardinal Manning arrived. His Eminence,
who was greeted with much cheering, began his address
by congratulating those present on the courage they
had shown amid such dispiriting circumstances in
making this demonstration of their devotion to the
cause they all had at heart. He was glad to know
that the League of the Cross had prospered
during the last year. There were now twenty-
three branches, and the number of members had
increased. He was especially happy to find that the
children of their schools took so heartily to the work
of the league. In St. Anne's School, Spicer-street, he
hat seen about 800 children, of whom nearly all had
taken the pledge. As they ought not to be out long
in such weather, he would at once propose a resolution
on which the meeting would be asked to vote. It WAS
in the following terms :

"That this meeting is of opinion that a legal power of re-
straining the issue or renewal of licences should be placed in
the hands of the persons most deeply interested and effected
—namely, the inhabitants themselves In every locality, who
are entitled to protection from the injurious consequences of
the present system by some efficient measure of locat option."

The Cardinal claimed for the poor man by right of
law that power which the rich man had by right of
property—the power to say that he would not have a
publichouse next door to him when he thought that it
might prove an annoyance and an injury to himself
a d family. He would ask them gathered there in
hundreds—he thought he might say in thousands—to
resolve that when this question came before Parlia-
ment again they would use every constitutional means
in their power to secure the passing of some satisfac-
tory measure of local option.
The resolution, on a show of hands, was declared to
he carried unanimously, and the Rev. J. Brady, the
Rev. W. J. Mnrnane, and Mr. T. Campbell having
addressed the league, the benediction was pronounced
by Cardinal Manning, and the proceedings ended.