The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-12-19 00:00:00

l

SIR WILFRID LAWSON AT "PROUD
PRESTON."

On Monday alght there was as Minn nse gathering in the
Guildhall, Preston, in favour of the Permissive Bill. The
Times gives tile folk. mg report of Sir W. 1 aw son's speech .
Sir Wilfrid Lawson said he had never had the plea-
sure of speaking In Preston before, but he had heard of
the town. (Laughter). He knew that it warn called
" Proud Preston,? and he considered that it had
several things to be proud of. First of all he looked
upon Preston as the cradle of the total abstinence
movement. (Applause), lie read the other (lay in
the chief constable's report that in Preston there
were 489 drink cellars, which had all been well
conducted during the past year. (Laughter). But
they had something more to be proud of ,• they
were represented in Parliament by the Solicitor-
General, who had managed to secure the friend-
ship and approbation and the cordial support of the
489 well-conducted licensed victuallers (applause), and
who appeared before them in this good old-fashioned
town as at once their "guide, philosopher, and friend."
(Laughter and applause). The Solicitor-General said
that the greatest honour he had ever received was to
be invited to a licensed victuallers' dinner, but Sir
Wilfred could say with sincerity that he thought he
Was enjoying a far greater honour that night (applause)
because he appeared before them at the kind invitation
of many friends of temperance in Preston, and not as
the Parliamentary advocate of any trade eeeking to
make money out cf the people. But he did not find
fault with the licenses! victuallers. Probably Sir John
Holker was attending their anniversary to inaugurate
what had been referred to in oneof the licensed victuallers'
papers as a thing which the provincial trade league
Was vats prepared to adopt—a platform which
had for its object suppression of drunkenness and a
sort of Young Men's Christian Association of Li-
censed Victuallers. (Laughter.) It Was not stated
by the licensed victuallers what their new platform
was, but he had come before them that night to tell
them what his platform was. The law of the land, as
it now stood, said that the trade in those drinks which
deprived men of their senses and made them bad
citizens was a dangerous trade that must be prohibited,
but magistrates had the power of making exceptions
and of allowing this trade to be carried oa by those
people and in those places which they selected. This
law appeared to him to be one which had resulted in
a great deal of misery, crime, and wretchedness. He
did not blame the magistrates nor revile the pub-
licans, but he said that if they were carrying out
this law with the intention of benefiting the public,
and conferring bleseings on them by establishing those
drink shops, they had made a great mistake. He
queted some remarks made by Mr. Moody, the revival
preacher now its Manchester, from the Rev. Mr.
Arthur, the Bishop of Lichtield, and Archbishop
Manning, severely condemning drinking and drinking
shops. The people ought to have the power of saying
he the magistrates that they would put a veto upon 'Filch
places (applause) ; because he said (not in language as
knew as that he had quoted, but) that in his humble
opinion these places were injurious to people, who
should be allowed to get rid of them whenever they
liked. He was called an enthusiast and a lunatic—he
was called so by Her Majesty's Solicitor General. He
should venture to call that gentleman Her Majesty's
Solicitor very General (laughter), for he included all
of them in his sweep—he attacked not only a man
who, like Sir Wilfrid, happened to be on the other side
of politics, but styled his own friend's fanatics and
visionaries because they thought their fellow-coun-
trymen might be trusted to get rid of publichouses.
Ile remembered once saying in the Howe of Commons
that drunkenness was the greatest, the principal cause
of Our misery and crime. Mr. Bruce, who was then
Home Secretary, replied that he ought not to have
said so, but should have said that it was a great cause,
but Mr. Bruce never from that day to this had con-
descended to tell him what was a greater cause, and
he still maintained that drunkenness was the greatest
cause of the crime and misery under which we suffered.
(Applause,) The liquor traffic laws had for years
been carried out in as good a manner as they could
be. The system had been patched up by two Go-
vernments—the strongest Liberal Government and
the strongest Tory Government we had had of late
years. Yet, in spite of all this. misery, drunkenness,
crime, and brutality went on in their steady course;
indeed, they seemed to be increasing. And when he
said that working men ought to ask Parliament
to give them paler to stop all this misery he was
called a fanatic. His said to Sir John biker, "You are
a fanatic yourself; you are flying in the face of all ex-
perience ; you have tried this system for years and
years, and increasing drunkenness goes on. You are
the fanatic, you are the man of one idea, your one idea
being that the way to promote sobriety is to force
publichouses on the people." (Applause.) The plan
which the Permissive Bill party advocated had, they
knew, answered. They knew that where drinking-
place., had been abolished or not set up at all compara-
tive order and sobriety prevailed relatively to the
state of affairs which existed before. They had
heard of Saltaire, where Sir Titus Salt had pro-
hibited on a large scale publichnuses ; they had
heard of Beesbrook in Ireland, and they had heard
perhaps of Sedgehill in Durham. There was
much drunkenness at the latter place, but the col-
liers and pitmen, by a majority of six to one, de-
clared that they would rather not have publichouses
(applause), and the benevolent landlord did away with
them. But now what was the law? To-morrow
an enterprising publican might go and buy a bit
of land, set up a house as is gin palace or a beer
:hop, go to the next licensing Session, and having
obLsined a licence, though, perhaps, by a majority
of one Only, set up such a place to corrupt and de-
moralize ts:e district in the teeth of the whole popu-
lation. All 31e Wilfrid wanted was to give vine-gee
such as that the power of protecting themselves.
(Applause.) Allusion Wie.s then made to the description
recently given by Mr. Hepg•orth Dixon of a village in
the United States. The unaniremus testimony was that
the prosperity and happiness of that village arose from the
fact that the people had a prohibitory law against public-
houses and drinkshops in the place. 'The friends of the
Permissive Bill did not want that bill solely to shut
up publichouses in drunken neighbourhossda, but to
protect sober ones. Now, what were the objections
to the scheme? He read the speeches made at
publicans' dinners, and he found from them that
one objection to the Permissive Bill was that it would
kill Mr. Wheelhouse, the ME mber for Leeds. (Laughter,)
Talking about it at the Licensed Victuallers' dinner,
be said that if it were passed it would deprive him of
his legitimate drink, which he thought was neces-
sary to his existence, according to his views of
it. Well, Sir Wilfrid should be very sorry to kill
Mr. Wheelhouse. (Laughter.) Still, he was reminded
of the old story which many of them might have
heard in connexiun with Talleyrand. A man came to
him begging for some situation in the Government.
Talleyrand refused him; the man got rather nettled,
and on going away said, "Well, I must live. " "I do not
see the necessity," said Talleyrand. Sir Wilfrid had no
wish to injure Mr. Wheelhouse by depriving him of
the drink which was necessary for his sustenance and
existence any more than Mr. Wheelhouse had to injure
They were capital friends in the House of
Commons although they differed on this question.
But he would suggest to Mr. Wheelhouse that if he
felt himself dying and pining away he had nothing to
do but to change his lodgings, leaving the prohibited
district, and go tort lodging-house next to a beerhouse
or a gmshop, and he would be all right. (Laughter.)
He often heard it stated that the Permissive Bill went
in for all or nothing. They went for everything, and
the Permissive Bill was never given up. They were
delighted to take everything elm, and then go on and
ask for more. They were told that they were doing
damage to the came of moral suasion. Never was there
a greater mistake uttered. All they wanted was to
get fair play to moral suasion. The whole thing was
moral suasion from beginning to end. Nobody ever
heard of a publiean getting hold of a man and pouring
drink down his threat and taking money out of his
pocket. Only when he persuaded a man to drink did
he get his profit. Mr. Whcollniuse had stated that it
had been asked twenty times, why he did not try to
legislate for clubs in Pall Mall. Sir Will could not
fancy more strong ground to preach teetotalism than
a club, except in the House of Commons. (Laughter.)
If Mr. Wheelhouse could prove to him that what
Mr. Moody, the Bishop of Lichfield, and Arehbishop
Manning bad said about drinking houses applied also
to clubs, then he would go as heartily to put down
drfrik in Pall Mall—where, by the way, no profit was
made ju srupplying it—as eleewhere. The whole thing was
that under the present system they had men who made
their living and profit by all they could get through
selling drink. The other day, Mr. Leathern, in open-
ing a working risan's club, described it well when he
said that the pubehouse was an institution where it
was the landlord's interest to fill men's glasses and
empty their pockets. Sir Wilfrid then detailed the
history of the Permissive Bill movement in this
country. He said the bill was his own invention, and
that the United Kingdom Alliance People simply sup-
ported it as the best measure they SSW at present to
introduce a real, downright attack upon the liquor
traffic. He was confident of ultimate success. What
Mr. Gladstone had said in regard to another move-
ment he would say in respect to this, that the great
social forces were marshalled in their eupport, and as
certain as the rising of to-morrow's sun :hey would
yet win the battle.