The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1866-04-17 00:00:00

Col rcspoilbour.

Lt T 7 AND TIIR LIQUOR TRAFFIC.

To the Editor*.

It is universally admitted that drunkenness is
England's grooves' vice, and the conviction is
growing (het national sobriety would be promoted
by some prohibitory or restrictive ensutinent. biy
wrivinal belief is that the gorillas knot of the
licensing system is inextricably entangled, and will
have tn he severed by the sword of the state; pre-
liminary to which, government roust reliugniab
costly bribe, in return for which it cries "peace,
peeee, when there is no peace."

What is the object a government ? According to
teri.my Bentham 's unchallenged definition, it Ii the
promotion of the "greatest happinees of the greatest
number." Judge Blackstone considered it an asioss
of law that '' if a man mak* his vices public,
though they he such as seem principally to affect
himself, as drunkenness and the like, they then he-
c-mo, by tie bad example they set, of pernicious
I. society, and therefore it is then the business
iif human laws to oonect them." Do we "correct"
this pills° vice of drunkenness? Is not drunken-
ness winked at by those wbo shoold apply the tome-
tioe•ef the a,?l What remains hut that the people
.hnd steinl their power, and revise the Isw that is
ne'-''ingera "tutor to evil doers?"

e.uropotal.for greeter restriction and ultimate

• -robibition of the traffic that causes drunkenness is
neither our nor unconstitutional More than thirty
years ago, a select Committee of the House of
commoos (of which Mr. James Bilk Buckingham,
be then worthy member for Sheffield, was chairman.)
inqoired into the " extent, mum, and consequences
of the prevailing vice of intoxication," and the
report wee printed by order of the Houma That
report is • heavy bill of indictment against the
parrot of nearly all our crime, lunacy, and pauperism.
•• What an appalling consideration is it," exclaims
the benevoh-tit Dean of Carlisle, in his admirable
pamphlet on this report, "that all these fearful con-
sequences have been multiplying and reproducing
themeelves to an almost infinite extent during the
:12 years which kayo aim)e elapsed, and that little or
nothing bas been done by kovernment to diminish
thew?" This unique report eflirins the right nf
!Parliament to interfere, and suggest/ that the
number of public-houses and gin shops should be
limited in proportion to the number of the inhibit.
ants; that they should be closed at earlier hours in
the evening; that all s stria spirit shops should be
mad as open te public view as other shops; that
_an+ nt spirita should not be issued to the army and
IVO iV sod that wages should act be paid at
-public-houses. We have tho testimony of Mr.
Justice Mellor that this unjust and demoralising
practice of paying wages at public.houries is common.
At the late Durham wises Mr. Justice Mellor de. !
flounced the practice in these words: "The amount
of mischief and mime arising from this mode of
paying wages in this trounty is far greater than all
the churches and chapels that can be built will
remedy. I have had seven cases to try of crimes of
violence imputed to men, apparently of good
-character when saber, who have been tried on serious
charges of felonious wounding under the influence of
drink." Mr. Justice Lash, at the amigos just bold
is this city, condemned • young man to death for
warder committed under the inflaence of drink,
sod of which crime the poor fellow declares he re-
members absolutely nothing. The learned judge
was severe in his condemnation of drunkenness, to
which canes be said, a lane number of the oases
tried before him were immediately traceable; adding,
in his charge to the Grand Jury, "it cannot be too
widely known that the law makes no allowance
whatever for intoxication in such cases. A man
cannot shelter himself under the excuse • I was ,
drunk at tbe time, and did not know what I was '
doing" By the common law • person is as liable to
punishment as if he were quite conscious at tbe time
of committing the oflence." What • serious warning
is Ibis, when coupled with the physiological fact
that drink predisposes to crime. Thousands of
moral persons have been known to lie and steal, and
c,m‘init the wont of crimes under the influence of
alcohal, although not "drunk."

There have been numberless attempts to regulate
end restrict the sale of alcohol, but the "drink
demon," (am my friend the venerable Commissioner
Hill. 27 years recorder for Birmingham, cella it,)
cannot be controlled by partial meamirea No remedy
for drinikesneen will be offer:teal that does not pro-
hibit the public sale of intoxicating drink. Hanes
the wisdom of the Parliamentary report before named,
which proposed as safe prospectus measures, the
absolute prohibition of tins importation of distilled
spirit*, and the equally absolute prohibition of all
distillation of ardent spirits from grain. Will it be
objected that such proposals are impracticable? The
practicability of a law bee always been measured by
the determination of the people. The time appears
torus to be approaching when, through the a
of the United Kingdom Alliances, the voice ort2
people will demand the repeal of the iniquitous
license that Dow blots OUT statute book. " Wise
legislators I You faster these horrid dens of evil l"
Thus burst out the righteous indignation of Mr.
Pothook, M.P., when speaking of gin shops before
the House of Commons. Another member of Par-
liament, Mr. Chas. Buxton, the philanthropie beewer,
has declared that "The struggle of the school, and
the library, and the church all united, against the
beerbouse and the gin palaces, is but one development
of the war between heaven mad hell I Add together
all 0,, mi....ries generated in our times by war, pestil.
epee sad faaalse--the three peat emerges of meek inid
—and they do nut excised those that spring from thee
one calamity, ' drunkeenesi." "Drink is the greot
parent of crime." These sr* the weighty words f
"Lb. real father of our Permissive Bill, though he is
now shy of acknowledging his offsprinfi." What is
the Permissive Bill? It. preamble, which has never
been impugned, is as follows Whereas the
common sale of intoxicating liquors isa fruitful source
of crime, immorality, pauperism, dimes., inaffinity, sod
premature death • whereby norbory the individuals
who give way to drinking habiis are plunged into
misery, but grievous wrong is done to the persons
and property of her Majesty's @obis:teat large, and
the public rates sad Wes ere greatly augmented;
and whereas it is right and expedieot to cosier epos
the ratepayers of cities, boroughs, parishes sod
townships, the power to prohibit such memos oak
as at,resaul—Be it therefore enacted, to." The Bill
provides that when a fair majority of two-thirds of
the rate-payers in any pariah are opposed to the
granting of licenses, the magistrates and the excise
shall obey the popular voice. The highest legal
authority in this oountry, Lord Brougham, who ie
one of the vice-presidents of the U. K. Alliance, is
in favour of the Permissive Bill. His Lordship's
words are, "Th. proposal of the Grand Alliance
well deserves a careful cerisideration." The Alliance
hae nearly completed tl • proposed Guarantee Fund
of £50,0110, and tie hundred thousand subettribers
throughout the United Kingdom, beaded by their
brave leader, Mr. Wilfrid Lawson, are not the class
of men to 6:daunted by dilbcolties ; they are en-
those/tic volunteers in a holy crusade against
drunk ens's., and are pledged to coati's's the struggle
until the banner of sobriety is victorious.
Your, truly,
HENRY PITMAN.