The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-07-06 00:00:00

HABITUAL DRUNKARDS.

The Select Committee appointed to inquire into the
best plan for the control and management of habitual
drunkards have considered the matters to them re-
ferred, and have agreed to the following report—
That there is entire concurrence of all the witnesses hi
the aUsolute inadequacy of existing laws to check drunken-
ness, whether casual or constant : rendering it desirable that
fresh legislation on the subject should take place, and
I 7 at the laws should be made more simple, uniform, and
stringent.
',This is the more requisite, as there Is much evidence to
show that In large towns and populous districts the great
evil of drunkenness is on the increase, attributed in some
measure to the higher wages and shortened hours of labour.
This does not appear to be equally true of agricultural dis-
tricts and populationa
' •

" That small fines and short imprisonments are proved to
be useless. as well by the testimony of competent witnesses
as by the fact that the same individual is convicted over and
over again, to even more than 100 times.
-•-- • ••

" That drunkenness is the prolific parent of crime, disease,
and p.Areity has received much additional confirmation. It
is evidence that a large proportion of the criminals passing
thr ugh our gaols attributed their fall to drink, one witness
having stated the amount as equal to 75 per cent. in a par-
ticular gaol ; about 20 per cent, of the insanity recorded in
Great Bi itain, and about 14 per cent. in the United Atates of
America, are placed to the same cause; and nearly one-balf
of the idiots in the latter country are stated to be the off-
spring of intemperate parents.
"That occasional drunkenness may, and very frequently
does, become confirmed and habitual, anti Boon passes into
the condition of a disease uncontrollable by the individual,
unless indeed some extraneous influence, either punitive or
curative, is brought into play.
"That self-control is suspended or annihilated ; moral
obligations are disregarded ; the decencies of private and
the duties of public life are alike set at naught ; and indi-
viduals obey only an overwhelming craving for stimulant, to
which everything is sacrificed.
" That this is confined to no class, condition, or sex, and
hardly to any age.
" That the moderate use of alcoholic liquors is unattended
by any had effects, while there is much to prove that excess
In ardent spirits is for more deleterious than similar excess
in wine or beer. There are also strong reasons for believing
that some considerable am ant of helpless drunkenness
and frenzied intoxicati m is due to adulteration, or to the
use of new spirits containing substances of the nature of
ethers.

" That it in n evidence that there Is a very large amount
of drunkenness among all classes and both sexes, which
never becomes public, or is dealt with by the authorities,
but which is probably even a more fertile source of misery,
poverty and degradation than that which comes before the
police courts for this no legal remedy exists, and without
further legislation it must go on unchecked. Legislation in
such cases was strongly advocated by all the witnesses before
the committee.

That the absence of all power to cheek the downward
course .4 a drunkard, and the urgent necessity of prm Wing
It, has been dwelt upon by nearly every witness; and the
legal control of an hkbitual inebriate, either in a reform&
tory or in a private dwelling, is recommended, in the belief
that many eases of death resulting from intoxication, includ-
ing suicides and homicides, may thus be prevented.
- • • • - ••

" That this power is obtained easily, at a moderate cost,
and free from the danger of abuse and undue Infringement
of personal liberty, hue ben stated In evidence, by quota-
tions from American and Canadian statutes (question 2,020 i
as well as by the witnesses from America.
" That though the habit of frequent or prolonged intoxi-
cation leads ix the end to insanity, yet there is a difference
between the paroxysm of intoxication and insanity proper,
it, iliathict as to forbid the plea, in bar id punishment, that
an offence SS conimitted while drunk) still placing inebriates
in lunatic asylums (except for a very brief period—e.g., diving
a paroxysm of delirium tame.) Is improper, and should not
be allowrd. The presence of recovering inebriates in an
ordinary hospital f v the insane is prejudicial to the other
inmates In various import oit particulars, while this d'acipline
anti diet needed for the (inane are unsuitable for the con-
valescing inebriate.
That the question of pros iding more efficient laws againat
initial i.O can lot drunkenness arises so naturally out of this
inrioiry tbst suggestions to remedy the avowed inadequacy of
the law are here offered.

i;etieiift

other

- -
.• That the fine of be. imposed by the 4th and 21st of James
1. was a m ch heavier line 4 the time it was enacted than it
is now. and it might be expedient to raise it to a sum of not
exceeding 4it. The fine should be recorded against the hell-
vtinal it. a Drunkarda. Register, and be made progrewlive
and t!! the fine ,hould be added the costs often incurred by
the police or the public in conveying the offender to the
station. This sh u'd apply to casts of common street
drunkenness ususliy clailed as ' drunk and incapable.'
That, after three convictions within 12 months, the
magistrates should be empowered to require the offender to
find a surety or sureties for sobriety and good conduct for a
fixed period, and in default of the mine, or in case the surety
is forfeited by a fresh offence, then to sentence the offender
to • considerable period of detention in an industrial refor-
matory for inebiates, as hereafter recommended. The
system of sureties ha,. been applied with excellent results in
Sheffield ; and though it appears practicable undar the com-
mon law, it would be well to repeal the old statutes and enact
new.
There is good reason for believing that such a measure
! would not only have much restrictive influence on the
drunkard, but would bring the efforts of relatives and friends.
and especially of the surety, into active exercise.
That all fines and convictions should be registered and
recorded in the Drunkards' Register, and the Court of Petty
Sessions should have the power of estreating the recogni-
zance* when forfeited, without being obliged to resort to

the present slow and expensive mode of recovery.
" That when an offender has been called upon to find
sureties, and has been unable to do so, or when by a fresh
offence he hag forfeited them, or when he has been called
upon a second time to find sureties, he should be deemed and
registered u an 'habitual drunkard,' and as such may be