The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-10-26 00:00:00

MR. MORLEY, M.P., ON THE TEMPER-

ANCE QUESTION.
At Bristol, on Monday evening, Mr. Samue
Morley, M.P., presided at the annual soirée of the
West Gloucestershire district of the Independent
Order of Good Templars. There were several
thousand persons present. Mr. Morley, who was
enthusiastically received, expressed his hearty
sympathy with the object at which they were aim-
ing, and with their efforts to indoctrinate the
people with sound views on what he held to
be the greatest social question of the day.
(Applause). He asked them to forget all ideas of
political party in this matter. He deeply regretted
that the question had ever been degraded to one of
political party, because he was quite sure that if it
had not been so it would have been long since settled.
He referred with pleasure to the growing interest that
was being felt in the medical, political, and religious
world upon this subject, and went on to express the
belief that though there was less gross drunkenness.
there was more general drinking. In what was called
society frequent drinking was the great evil of the
present day, and among the lower classes the great fea-
ture was the danger to which they were exposed from
the increased facilities for drinking. There was, for in-
stance, an immense increase of refreshment bars, most
perilous to young men in houses of business. He had
been moving about the country lately, and he had been
struck with the large number of young men who went
to the railway refreshment bars for their glasses of
brandy. He was convinced that this evil was growing.
John Bull and his wife and children spent a hundred and
forty millions a year on intoxicants' and he believed
that if they could strike off the hundred millions
we should see a difference in trade in a month.
The money would be spent in our various manufac-
turers and greatly relieve them at a time of un-
usual pressure. The hon. member also dwelt at some
length on the undoubted increase of female drunken-
ness. One of the most eminent medical men in Lon-
don had told him that his own experience convinced
him there was a very large increase of private drink-
ing amongst ladies. The habit of indulgence was
growing on all sides, in the higher as well as the lower
classes, and impatient of the great wrong that was
being done by this evil, he was anxious that those
who were in favour of the tenaperance legislation should
agree upon the maximum amount of legislative inter-
ference they might haps to secure. In the meantime
he should support any measure which commended
itself to his judgment. But he believed they were a
long way yet from an Act of Parliament because of
the difficulty of bringing men to look at the question
with common sense. Incidentally Mr. Morley re-
ferred to the fact that in Liverpool last year there
were twenty thousand charges of drunkenness, and
only six licences were endorsed. This, he added, was
a scandal either to the magistrates of Liverpool or to
the Home Offir:e. (Applause.)
In the vote of thanks to the hon. chairman the re-
solution referred to with deep gratitude to the long,
earnest, and eminent services he has rendered to the
great temperance cause, both in and out of Parliament,
and trusted that he may be long spared to labour in
this cause and to represent the city of Bristol in the
House of Commons.