The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-03-29 00:00:00

tfle 3tottrltrige (94strver.

SATURDA-r, MARCH 29, 1879.

FEW social topics of our time have com-
manded such attention as that of promoting
temperance amongst the people. To many
minds indeed the word temperance is often
used in a wrong sense, for there is an
enormous proportion of the population which
is practically in favour of temperance ac-
cording to the true meaning of that word,
but which does not endorse the principles of
total abstinence. Temperance and ab-
stinence, although often and confounded as
being the same thing, are really capable of
bearing, and do unquestionably bear, widely
different interpretations. If a man is an
advocate of temperance it does not necessarily
follow that he is also an advocate of total
abstinence, the former is frequently not an
abstainer, while the latter is one rigidly,
both because be believes it is good for his
health, and in order that he may show an
example to those of his fellow men who are
not quite so resolute as himself.
More than a quarter of a century ago the
United Kingdom Alliance was established
for the total and immediate legislative
suppression of the traffic in all intoxicating
liquors. Eloquent exponents of its principles
have laboured year after year, both in the
press and upon the platform, to convince
the masses of the people that abuse in the
indulgence in strong drink is a great source
of poverty and crime. The judges in our
assize courts have repeatedly inculcated the
same doctrine. The question has been
frequently brought before both Houses of
the Legislature; and the way in which a
Ministry has dealt with it has materially
affected the prospects of its supporters at the
polls. We have Band of Hope Unions and
Temperance Leagues; and the children who
were educated in the principles of total
abstinence five-and-twenty years ago, are
the men and women of to-day. They have
taken their places upon the great stage of
human life, and may be expected to impress
upon the rising generation growing up on
every hand around them the evils of the
vice of intemperance. With all these
agencies at work, and the pulpit frequently
enlisted on the side of the temperance re-
former, trustworthy statistics show that in
the United Kingdom the enormous slim of
one hundred and forty millions sterling is
annually expended in the consumption of
intoxicating drinks. Mr. Bright once de-
clared that a Government which could not
conduct the businesS of the nation upon less
than an expenditure of seventy millions a
year was not deserving the country's confi-
dence. Yet a traffic which a powerful
organization was established to suppress five-
and-twenty years ago, absorbs exactly double
the amount named by ?dr. Bright as being
sufficient for the army, the navy, the civil
service, all the other charges incident to the I
administration of a great state, to say no-
thing of the interest upon the National
Debt, which amounts to twenty-eight mil-
lions sterling per annum. Indeed, it is nearly
three times the entire total of the national
expenditure a generation ago.
Lords and Commons have had this matter
under their consideration upon many oc-
casions, and as lately as the 11th of the
present month 164 members of the repre-
sentative chamber voted in favour of Sir
Wilfrid Lamson's resolution laying down
the principle of giving to ratepayers the
power of local option over the granting of
licences. The resolution was not carried,
but it had the largest number of supporters
which the principle had yet received. Since
that time a Committee of the House of
Lords, which had been sitting several months
"for the purpose of inquiring into the pre-
valence of habits of intemperance, and into
the manner in which those habits
have been affected by recent legis-
lation" has issued its report. The most
important recommendations which their
lordships make is that an experiment should
be made with a trial of the Gothenburg
system of licensing, or of some modification
of it, thus placing in the hands of the rate-
payers that power of refusing Gr granting
licenses which was demanded from the house
of Commons. Thus a committee of the peers,
and. a fourth of the representatives of the
people have declared that a community
whose interests are so vitally affected by the
traffic in intoxicating drinks, or rather by
its results, should have some sort of voice in
deciding to what extent it should he carried
on in their midst.

For many a year intemperance has been
described as oar national vice, and of the
evils resulting from it there can be no ques-
tion. Every effort to lessen it, either by
legislative enactment, by argument, by edu-
cation, or by philanthropic exertion, is
entitled to the support of all who wish well
to the future of their country. That it is a
question surrounded by numerous difficulties
few would be inclined to deny. Undoubtedly
the use of stimulants has largely entered
into the social habits of the people—one of
the chief arguments being that it makes a
man appear unsociable if a friend calls upon
him and he fails to place the decanter upon
the table; for half-an-hour's chat, it is urged,
seems all the more genial over a glass of
wine. But whilst it must be conceded that
it is a Herculean task to do battle with the
social customs and the established usages of
an entire people, all should cordially unite in
suppressing drunkenness, and inculcating
the habits of temperanee.

THE IRON TRADE.

WOLVERHAMPTON, Wednesday.

The market to day was a very tame one, and
the orders that were given out were of a limited
character. Mills and forges are now only ran-
ning in order to do, the work reqcired before
quarter-day, no contracts of importance having
been placed since our last report. Japanners'
sheets, tin-plates, and common sheets were in
favourable inquiry, and priers, if anything, were
rather firmer. Common unmarked bars were
selling in small lots at weak rates, varying from
£5 17s. 6d. to .e 6 10s. Nail rods were a little
more sought for, but in nail sheets there wae
absolutely nothing doing. In the larger section
of iron girderplates were the most favoured. In
raw material melting pigs were principally in
demand. Cinder pigs, however, were seiling
fairly well. Beet Staffordshire pigs were not
much called for, prices being still firm at £4 58,
for cold-blast and 5s for hot-air. Cokes
Were tiAt so firm in price, and t.. 1 demand for
fuel being considerably tinder the present re.
stricte,d supply, the effect is to keep down the
quotations.

BIRMINGHAM, Thuradayi
In view of the re:ir approach of quarterly
rsepelfications
specifications
and consumer 6 held back their
and only bought for current
Quotations were unaltered, and with cit.lhlerement icps.
tion of best sheets no description of finished iron
-
can he reported firm. Common iron did not
.n3eet with much demand, Boa transactions were
chiefly effected in uwdinni qualities. There
does not appear to be any probability of an
alteration in the prices of either finished or pig
iron at quarter day, unless there might be a
slight advance in 'narked sheets. Nail rods
were in a little better request for local consump-
tion, but the foreign demand was not improved.
Belgian competition is severely felt, and Belgian
rods are being admitted free into London, whilst
no English iron can enter Belgian ports without
Plying a heavy duty. Tin plates were in active
request, and prices were firui at late quotations.
Pig iron had but a blow tsalu, anti coal was in but
ttle demand.