The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1866-07-10 00:00:00

Or ormsponbtnct.

I •TOY.ICATION, AND THE PERMISSIVE BILL

To Ike Editors.

The nineteenth century hal originated no move-
:Latent of greater promise than the Temperance
Reformation. At first, the abstinence pledge,
which my father wee one of the &et to subscribe,
Ai:tended only to "spirits ;" but in worse of time,
ail iaemioatiee liquors were included in the abstin•
rocs pledge, end, under the leadership of a hoot of
devoted men, of whom Father Mathew may be taken
as the type, teetotaliem became • blessing to millions
of men, women and children, 0! the power of
morel suasion !" so far from saying anything
&guest it, I would that earnest persuasion, enforced
be good example, were naive/val. But alas I after
many years' eutosmfnl advocacy of total abstinence,
it was found that thciumnda of drunkards who had
taken the pledge, and with every desire to keep it,
were tempted to break their pledge again and spin.
This " backelidiog" was forced into • reproach
against teetotalism, but the weapon as used by the
enemies of the pledge cut both ways, and by die.
cloning the keenness of the temptation, naturally
suggested the necessity for • more effectual shield.
People began to ask "Who is the tempter?" The
answer was "The law." Yee, to our shame, the
imperial law of this professedly Christian realm
legalise. this detestable traffic. Than it is for the
people, for whose supposed good the law was made,
to obtain its abrogation. In 1852, a guileless Man-
chester Quaker, bearing the appropriate name of
Nathaniel Card, wee todnoed by the moms. id the
Maisie Liquor Law in some of the Free States of
America, to originate • movement forth. prohibition
of the honor traffic in Crest Britain, and in 1853 was
formed the United Kingdom Alliance. This greed
and bleasfieent organisation is hated by one-third
of the people (the tradiokers and their friends),
ridiculed by another third (the moderate driakers),
and beloved by the remaining third, who have faith
in the justice and policy of the prohibitory principle;
and working zealously with well-regulated machinery
and an abundant exchequer, it is not surprising that
the adherents to the cause are daily increasing. The
advocacy of • Permissive Bill by the Albano. is •
wise and constitutional policy. This Bill does not
ask for power to close every public-bones, and Oom
1"a everybody to become teetotalers it dose not
interfere with private and individual habit; but it
ask, that the people may have power to protect
themselves from the gigantic and liorrible evils of the
drink tnitlic; and aseerta that protection to life,
morality and property, can be secured only by the
prohibition of the traffic, thus piecing it under the
ban of the law, instead of granting it legal sanction.
The Penaiseive Bill simply aaks that when • large
majority of the ratepayen of a perish object to the
public mle of intozioants, they Am have pow? to
Mop the Wow or reaewel of liquor limner ; sod the
Bill is so worded that it would be ioopersitive in
dintriotn where there were not a majority of two-
thirds of the ratepayers in it. favour. To obtain
this majority in every parish Is the work which the ,
United Kingdom Affiance has undertaken. As in
the case cf the great Free-tiade agitation, it is just
a question of educating an entire nation in the min- I
Myles of moral and political smarmy. lem for
giving the Permissive Bill a fair trial, became it is i
certain that its principle has worked well wherever
applied, whether publicity in the United Stems, or I
privattly in our own country, by the late lamented
Primo Comer. mod Lend Paimeelltsik ii. peke cd
Argyll, Sir Walter Trevelyan, and many otbsr living
philanthropists.

.
Yaws truly,
Maubiotic HENRY PITMAN.

WORKING URN% LORD'S DAY REST
ASSOCIATION.

To Mt Editors.

13, Bedford•row, Landon, W.C.,
Joon, 1866.
I beg to forward the following. which I hope
you may think of sufficient importance to occupy
a owner in your Journal.
Ism,
Your obedient Servant,
CHARLES HILL, Secretary.