The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-10-17 00:00:00

THE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER.

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tartly before ninn_de there ism&
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blinds were drawn, those who were appoineeetto
see the sentence of justice carried into effect. The
,little party crossed the yard and passed into a small
chamber in the part of the gaol nearest the scaffold,
whither the prisoner had been removo„ _
'- P'Seen fii tfeil&ylight the face a C'oppen looked very
pale; his eyes were swollen and red, as if from weeping.
There WM a general dejection, although an entire absence
of fear in his manner. During the proceas of pinioning,
~whith Marotbod effected quickly and sinfully, 13be liki-
lend! who as drellseff lb a Alt Of prisoi clothes, shook
hands with his gaolers. Then the procession was' re-
formed, the condemned man walking meekly buttirruly
beside the chaplain to the foot of the scaffold. Perhaps
the most awful moments in the trying ordeal were
the intervals in the pinioning, where, in the discharge
of his duty, the executioner would interrupt a hand
stretched forth to shake that of the unfortunate man,
or'when his footsteps upon the gravel, as he proceeded
from side to side, would alone break a calm otherwise
almost painful Then, too, startling everyone, the
dead bell would, at an awkward juncture, fling forth
its note. Coppen walked up the steps of the scaffold
without the slightest assistance. From the moment
he left his cell until the white cap was finally ad-
justed, he never once lifted his head. A minute
afterwards the sentence of the law had been carried into
effect.
" The prisoner was a heavy man, and the fall, which
was about five feet, at once broke his neck. The body
hung motionless for three or four seconds, and then a
violent quiver, several times repeated, ran over his
frame from the shoulders downward. It gradually
ceased in the upper portions of the body, extending
towards the feet, one of which trembled in an
extraordinary manner for a considerable time. The
deceased cannot have retained consciousness for above
a minute or so after the drop ; but some of the
warders who have been accustomed ti executions, state
that they never before remember an occasion where
the body continued to be agitated for so long a time.
The black flag was hoisted on the outside of the gaol
immediately after the execution. Through the im-
mense crowd an audibly sympathetic murmur ran, and
many called the attention of their fellows to the
mournful signal. The body was cut down in about an
hour. The usual notice of the execution was posted
on the outside of the gaol, and during the day it was
eagerly scanned by hundreds of people."

,
HE UNITED KINGDOM ALLIANCE. :
im,
e Ann Co meet the rnatetd om
re was Eld nehesteTill Tuesday': Mr rman
Bar n. ,of Bolton, weakling. The, report rr.es read by Mr.
tt .
Pope, Q. ~ the host dretary, e contibtee, re/erring
g
to) the result of th floral ion, 1 .e'd back upon
It ai affording con able od for ncouratMment,
and as indicating 'an amount of podier and dpinion
which, risptly ditogted, hould compel politicians
and 'Nit, leaders to listen to the claims of the
Alliance . The concluding paragrspli of the report
was very hopeful In tone. The balance-sheet showed
that the aggregate amount received during the year
was 11ki.L0 The adoption of the report having been agrt:ed
ts'aii:fiareA Itintau)cliarghtmer ntabefe!Pitieurasrng
priu,iplt of the Perinissilso Bill had been returned at the
genera teethes to the minas of Commons. The Rev. 'I.
Button seconded the resolution, which was unanimously
carried. Further reaulutions. were adopted declaring it the
duty of all the members to make the Permissive Bill a vital
issue at elections, to organise their electoral forces, and to
promote vigorous petition moventents. In the course of his
speech in moving the resolution, Sir W. Lawson remarked:-
- This might be called the annual review day of the
, United Kingdom Alliance; but they had had harder
I work than reviewing during the last few months.
! There had been a political convulsion in the country,
' and they knew that last February a great torrent of
beer rushed through the land with greater force and
volume then -ever it did before. (Laughter.) He was
sorry toga}, that that terrent of beer washed away a cer-
tain number of good and true men. When he went up
to London to attend Parliament in March, ever
and anon in walking through the streets he saw
a melancholy object approaching him. Looking closer
at it, he thought he recognised well-known features.
He thought it looked like a man who had known
better days (laughter), and on coming nearer he gener-
ally found it to be a Liberal member of Parliament
who had lost hie seat at the General Election.
(Laughter.) When their mutual congratulations, or,
at least, recognition (laughter) had passed, he generally
said, "Well, old fellow, how did you come to grief?'
(Laughter.) His friend's face grew longer, and he
almost universally replied, • Beer, beer, beer !"
(Laughter.) That being the case and the Alliance
being the best known opponent of beer in the whole
kingdom they might have thought that this great
flood would have inflicted upon them very great
' and serious damage. But when the storm abated !
, and when the water or the beer began to subside, !
. when they had time to recover breath and look ,
around them, they found not that the Alliance party ,
in the House of Commons had been swept away, but
that they were absolutely as strong as they were
before. . . . . If they read the newspapers they
would find that throughout the country the drink
curse was working more and more mischief. He
wanted to ask them was this to go on for ever? (Cries
of "No.") Were those licensed temptations, whic.o
were the main cause of all this drunkenness, still to
remain among us and no!check to be put upon them?
So far as he knew, no member of Parliament had
given notice of any measure for next Session which
would tend in any way to diminish this great
evil. He did not know of any measure which had
been suggested as likely to be brought forward next
Session, except the Perniiieive Bill. (Cheers.) Ile
did not know of any party who had suggested any
comprehensive plan for attacking this gigantic nuisance
except that prohibition party which was represented
by the members of the Alliance. Should they give up
the battle on which they had entered because the
times were against them? (cries of "No,") and things
at present looked black and gloomy enough. Sup-
Posing to-day that they were to adopt the tactics
of despair, and to say that they could not contend
against those great vested interests, and against
the prejudices and hostility which were so powerfully
set against them, and to Ray that their twenty years'
struggle had been a failure, some people, no doubt,
would rejoice. The professional politicians who found
them a nuisance and obstacle in their wire-pulling
would be pleased. Every corrupt vested interest
would rejoice, and would feel that its hold upon the
neck of the people was stronger than ever it was
before. But there would be regret and lamentation
in many other placei. Every temperance society
belonging to every denomination, and of every form,
would feel that a true ally was gone. All the weak and
the oppressed throughout the conntry,who were suffering
from this great evil, would feel that a great hope was
taken away from them, and, still further, many a
good man and true, who might not see his way to go
with them entirely in their policy at present, would feel
that the future was more hopeless and more dark, be-
cause the great army of prohibitioners had struck their
flag. (Hear, hear.) Well, they must go on in spite of
everything. (Cheers.) How, then, weretheytogoon? He
knew no other way than the way in which they had
been going on, only with redoubled energy. (Cheers.)
They must go on spreading the truth among the
electors of the country, as those who returned the
Parliament which maintained this gigantic evil. Mr.
Bright said that only the ministers of religion could
deal with the evil. The ministers of religion and the
multitude of good men who listened to them could
alone make the reformation which the Alliance were
seeking. If that were the caw, or if Mr. Bright really
thought so, he earnestly trusted that when there was
next month to lie held in Manchester a Conference of
ministers of all denominations on the Temperance
question the right hon. gentleman would talk to them
directly or write a letter to them explaining to them
the way in which they were to proceed. (Cheers.)

The 22nd annual public meeting of the United
Kingdom Alliance for the Suppression of Intemper-
ance was held on Tuesday evening in the Free Trade
Hall, Manchester, which was crowded to excess. Mr.
Arthur Pease, Mayor of Darlington, presided, in the
absence id the Earl id Shaftesbury. Letters of
apology for absence were received from the noble
Lard, from Sir Walter C. Trevelyan, from Mr. Hugh
Birley, KP., Mr. Ernest Noel, M.P., Mr. Joseph
Cowen, M.P., Mr. Thomas Burt, M.P., Mr. S. I).
Waddy, Q.C., M.P., the Roman Catholic Bishop of
Salford (Dr. Vaughan), and others. Sympathetic
greetings were received by telegraph from the Inde-
pendent Order of Good Tempters and from the Dutch
liquor Abolishment Society.
The Rev. Dr. Begg (Edinburgh) moved a resolution
referring to the prevalence of drunkenness and violence,
and calling upon Parliament either to deal directly
and efficiently with the cause of those evils or permit
the people in their respective pareffies and towns to
prevent a nuisance and curse being thrust upon them
or continued in their midst by the action of any licens-
ing authority tor the profit of a mercenary capitalist.
There was no proposal in the field to deal with those
evils but one, and that was that there should be an
effectual dealing with the publichouaes. In suggesting
what form that action should take the Alliance took
as the starting point that the amount of crime and
pauperism was just in proportion to the number of
publichouses. This was capable of the clearest demon-
stration, and justified the policy of the Alliance.
Sir Wilfred Lawson, M.P., rose to support the
resolution amid loud cheers. He said the resolution
portrayed the state of the country. It was to be feared,
from statistics given at the Social Science Congress,
that the prosperity with *hich Providence had blessed
the country during the last few years, instead of being
a comfort and blessing to the masses of the people,
was, through this drinking system, turned into a curse
and an injury. They read in the great public instructors,
slay by day, and week"by week, of increasing brutality
to women and children, and the journals of the conntry
saidthey knew not what was to be done to stop this reign
of terror, this torrent of brutality, and the only thing
they could suggest was a resort to flogging. In the 19th
century we were called upon to go back to the infliction
of torture. These evils would go on whatever was done,
as long as the Government of this country persisted in
licensing 140,000 places for the sale of strong drinks
among the people of this country. When he said
that, it should be understood that neither he nor the
other members of the Alliance meant to find fault
with and condemn in unmeasured terms the men who
were carrying on that trade. They were answerable to
their own consciences. The Alliance dealt with the
political part of the question. In Manchester, where
these traders had the best of characters, there had been
247 more eases of persons charged with drunkenness.
If this state of things was considered satisfactory in
Manchester, what must they expect in places where
the conduct of the licensed victuallers was not so ex-
emplary? It was not the men but the trade that did
the harm. But the evils of that trade were going on
with the public sanction. All this crime and misery were
going on under a system created by Parliament, and
Parliament was elected by them. Therefore they could
not get rid of the responsibility. The late Govern-
ment, under the auspices of Mr. Bruce, did a little
good ; they checked this evil trade to a very slight
extent. But the new Government came in and said
the great requirement of the country was half an
hour's more drinking at night. (Laughter.) A snore
disgraceful episode than the legislation of last Session
on the liquor traffic had never occurred in the history
of English politics. We talked about their Whisky
Rings in America, and lifted our eyes and held up our
hands in pious indignation, but he declared to them
that, so far as he knew, nothing in iniquity and
corruption that existed in America beat the iniquity
aid corruption connected with the Liquor Ring of
the Government of this country. But to whom
was it disgraceful? He was not going to say it was
the publicans whom it most disgraced ; they were
fighting for their bread and cheese, as they sail, and
he did not expect them to be any more self-denying
and philanthropic than arother class of landlords who
had once fought in this country for their privilege of
giving the people dear bread. He was not going to
blame such politicians and statesmen who thought it
of the utmost importance that the party to which they
belonged should be in power to do, as they imagined,
great good for the country. The people to whom it
was disgraceful were those whom no addressed and
himself for allowing the Government to make money
out of the degradation of the people (cheers) ; and it
was disgraceful to another section of the community
who did not choose to take the trouble to inquire into
the evil and its remedy. The relief to this dark picture
he traced in the rising of the country to prevent the
Government doing all the mischief they intended
in giving wider relaxation to this evil trade. No-
body was now satisfied with the past legislation
on this question. He was sure the magistrates
were not satisfied, because it put them in a rather
ridiculous position. They were to decide as to what
should be called a populous place, and they were to
be guided, the law said, by the density of the popula-
tion; but everybody who read the Act said this was a
mistake—the werds of the Act ought to be, " You
shall be guided by the density of the justices."
(Laughter.) The magistrates did not like that, for
nobody liked to be laughed at. The howl tide tra-
veller did not like it ; he was master of the Filtration.
The Howie of Commons devoted itself day after day
and night after night to defining the &ma tide tra-
veller and what he ought to be, They had got into a
hobble about it, and it appeared that the poor bond fide
traveller was now obliged to go three miles from the
plane where he last slept before he could get drunk.
(Laughter and cheers.) He did not like that at all, be-
cause although there might, perhaps, be very little
difficulty in his travelling three miles in the morning
for that noble purpose to which he had alluded, he knew
perfectly well he would has- e the very greatest diffi-
culty in getting home again. (Laughter.) But the
publicans did not like the reeent legislation ; they were
not satisfied either. They ha i got hardly anything
they asked ,for in the great crisis of their unlucky
history at the last General Election. Some provisions
which good Mr. Cross, that great legislator brought
forth bothered his dear friends the publicans and

harassed them more than ever they were harassed be-
fore. The publican was much in the position described
by theietmerican voter who said he had sold his vote
for a mew of pottage, with the result that be had got
the mess, but there were very few indications of the
pottage. The friends of morality hnd golriler Were
not satisfied. Mr. Burt,: M.P.. Am true workihg-
man representatite Philiament, said ip, letter to
the chairman of the meeting that he hoped' there would
be a determination to carry on this agitation Until the
people who offered and had to pay the cost should
have the power of suppressing the traffic in drink,
which was the greatest enemy England had to-day.
Members of Parliament in voting on the
PermiseiVe Bill did not pledge themselves to details,
' but only, for the principle, and every member of
Parliament who voted against that bill voted for this
principle—that magistrates and irresponsible powers
ought to be allowed to force publichouset and beers
buses on places where they were not wanted. He had
given notice of bringing in that bill again (cheers), not-
withstanding what " practical men" in the House of
Commons said against it. Mr. Disraeli described
critics as men who had failed in literature and art. He
(Sir NV. Lawson) described practical men in the House
of Commons as men who spent their time in picking
holes in every scheme that everybody brought forward.
and never bringing forward any scheme themselves. The
practical men said he would never carry the measure.
" Never" was not a word in his dictionary. (Cheers.)
But that was not the question. It was, Can the
practical men carry anything else? (Hear, hear.)
In expressing his determination to adhere to his bill, he
said the world looked upon his course as very foolish.
He knew that every party and vested interest would
unite in ridiculing him, but that was nothing when
one knew what was right. He was not there abjectly
to supplicate them to snppOrt his Bill; still less was
he there dogmatically to dictate what course they were
to pursue. If they honestly thought his plan wrong
they might leave him in the House of Commons as he
had been left before—to defeat and to discomfiture;
but if, on the contrary, they thought his measure shed
a ray, feeble and flickering perhaps, but still a ray of
light to a better...future, then he believed it would be
'their cillty to give it theif unflinching, persistent, and
patriotic support (Cheers.)
The Rev. Dr. Cairns (Berwick-on-Tweed) supported
the resolution, and argued the competency of Parlia•
naent constitutionally to legislate on the principle of
the Permissive Bill.
. _ _

Professor Smyth, 'M.P., who supported the resolu-
tion, in reference to the legislation of past Sessims,
gave the meeting his deep-rooted conviction that the
present House of Commons was utterly incompetent
to deal with this question. If the people had the
power in their Owls hands, which the 'Permissive Bill
would give them, they would tackle this question in
more earnest fashion than the House Commons.
They would grasp the nettle which had stung the
hands of both parties in the Legislature because they
approached it too timidly. (Cheers.)
Professor Thorold Rogers niovegl a resslution thank-
ing the members of Parliament who voted for the
Permissive Bill, and expressing pleasure at Sir W.
Lawson's determination to reintroduce it.
Mr. Pope, Q.C., seconded the motion, which was
supported by General Neal Bow.
The Mayor
.'of Gateshead, the Rev. Charles Gar-
rett, and the Baboo Protap Chandra Mozoomdar
afterwards addressed the meeting, the last remarking
that a difficulty would always attend on efforts to
civilize India so long as we had so frightful a stain as
that of drunkenness on our own civilization.

A vote of thanks to the chairman concluded the pro-
ceedings.