The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-07 00:00:00

TEMPERANCE DEMONSTRATION.

Yesterday evening a meeting of the advocates of
temperance was held in Exeter Hall, Mr. CALSIIII.I. la the
chair. It was annoaaeed by handbills that several hard-
working run wouid attend. a leeted from the following
occupations—gas stokers, gluablowers, brick/ashen, com-
positors, braufanden, fellmongers, chameleon. gardeners,
; and that they would aurnstrats, from their own
experience, that entire sticinence from irrong drink is pray
finable in connexion with the most ulnas toil, and pro
motive of health, comfort, independence. and political, social,
and moral elevation. The large bail was nearly filled with
the working classes, male and female—lathers, mothers, and
thew children.

The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings, expreued
his satisfaction on seeing 69 .amorous an assembly. He ea-
plaint d the object to be a temperance demonstration, on the
basis of total abstinence. He hat tried the temperance
principle, under all circumstance., for the last 1.5 years, in
summer and in winter, as an operative and se an employer,
end he had
labour. He found that be could get through his work
better on a system of total abstinence than only partial
temperance, such as drinking beer. He sommentel on the
moral, social, and political advantages of total al:stings:ea to
the working daises, and drew a contrast between the home
of the workman who was • temperance man and that of the
arisen who spent hie earnings is a public-house. The ex-
ample Weeded the children, who *staidly grew up I. the
habits of their parents, whether they were good or evil.
Let them look at this MI • labour question. It
the working man bought useful irides of clothes
and deseirthe aseteeefla instead of I.edlai his
weer spas the 1. hise_ails" "F the _

eaZer this an employer of labour in lb. coma;
aka*, he costumed. He appealed to all labouring
▪ and labouring women to unite and co-operate io the
great work of rendering the people teetotallers. There was
to be sweat gathering at the temperance house in Hyde-
perk. He called It eo, because he had eserved with pleuure
that the counsissionen had decided that in supplying the
refreohmeata no intoxicating Noon would be allowed to be
served in the building. (Cheers.) And he saw, too, with
gratification, that out of respect to them, the teetotallers, it
had barn decided that the coatreetors for supplying the re-
' freehments should be bound to keep filtered water, not to
sell, but to give away to all who came to the Malmo! Palace
and asked Tar it. A greet number of teetotal walking men
would be coming to Landes, sad he thought that their Eno-
tropAitan brethren ought to exert themselves to give them a
good reception. (Haar, hear.) Every facility should be
given to those visitors in procuring lodgings for them. It
would not be in the power of many of these poor people to
pay :he high prime of hotels sad boarding lows, and it
something were not done he wee suivineed that nosy of
throe waking people corals' to London would be
obliged to3wa k the strew all night butanes they
mold sot pay the exorbitant prices demanded of them
for lodging. He hoped that those of the London teetotallers
who were hLuseholders would see what was to be dens in
the tau, and whether any of them had spare beds which
could be let : and he intended to propose the formation of
local committees to visit those householders, see what
accommodation they could afford, end to register them as
lodging• for teetotal visitors to the Great Exhibition; and by
enteriog into communication with teetotallers in the country

to make arrangenteata for giving them • ticket when they
came to town, which would procure them respectable
accommodation. (Hear.) This pion, he trusted, would be
productive of mach advantage to the teetotallers who were
coming to visit the metropolis. He trusted that their future
nitwit gs in the hell would be so well attended as on the
present occasion; and impressed upon them thst they must
give support to the cause lot only by their attendance
but by their pecuniary aid. He then oiled upon the first of
the working men who were to address the meeting.
Mr. GROVE, a coil whipper, said that temotali‘es bad
been • glorious thing to him end his family. He had been
a coal whipper for mazy year', and remembered the time
when they were called the " White Slaves of Wapping."
Then the system woe that the publicans employed all the
coal whippers, and the man who drank the most rum, or
gin, or beer, received the most work to do ; and then they
bad none of them any time to improve their minds. But.
thank God, it was not so now, l ir great improvement bad
taus place. Here he described the gloomy vault in which
ho received Ida first engagement ; it was in the houae of a
puhltcen, and men blackened with their work were eittirg
there and imoktnr their pipes, and made it look more like
a smuggler's case than anything else. He had been told
before he became • coalwhipper that he would earn 65.,91.,and
even sometimes 18e. • day. He had thought if he could earn so
much that he could afford to drink • little, but he soon found

that three parte of his earnings were to go to the publicans.
(Rear, hear.) The eights of the children growing
up in the ways of their father was the occasion of his be-
coming a total abetinance man. At host he was ridiculed
by big mates after taking the pledge; hat be ha made his
determination, and went on steadily. litre Mr. I:rove de-
serihsd the advantages in lietail which had licensed to him
and his family from his change of habit; how they had ob
tallied more clothes, and Poised themselves in raspectability
of station.

Mr. TANNER, • brickraaker, next spoke. He had
adopted the principle of total abstinence Leal, 11 years, and
eintinued it. But if he were to describe the details of Me

drinking canner Wore that, he should not be done till Satur-
day bight. lie had been once a drunkard, and had suffered
. ,

mien from it; he was in the most miserable position, eaten
working from 4 is the morning till Bat night, living upon
nothing bat the null loaves sod strong beer of the publi•
caw. His meals were a loaf and a little tea, and he was
obliged to sleep under a shed. But he now came before
them a comparatt.ely independent man. (Hear, hear.)
Before be took the pledge his home was miserable, his wife
and children were miserable, and all his clothe, put together
were not worth the day's pay of a soldier, 13id. To talk
about working men not befog able to do without thick was
nonsense. Ha was now a better man and a much stronger
man than he was is thou days when he drank; and before
he took the pledge of total abetineoce be was sometimes two
or three days without food. During the last three years he
had worked herd enough, but it was not work of the band,
but of the head.

Mr. L. ILLRFOaII, • ovipositor, nest addressed the
mewling. He said he had never been a drunkard, although
he had drunk • little , but he had found such manifest ad-
va•rysa is total abstinence, that he adviszd all to follow
the matins
Mr. WHBT, • skinner or fellmonger, followed, and his
speech was much of the same cheracter as those of the others.

'Mr. HALL (trout Nartk.sapton), a carrier, said ha could
not, Ilk* some of the speakers, say he had raver been a
drunkard, far he was ens for army years, and the habit was
to be traced to bishtsUy having sent hint when a child to
the public boa's for the 111111116111111 beer. He ►ad bean takes
hone drank bakes he was Hi years old, and this was attri-
butable to socking but the 'sample ef tea intssaperanse of
his pariah,. He conehtded by strongly advising parents not
to mad tisk. children to public houses for the bear for their
steals ; foe that was tit* original cause and foundation of his
own habits of intemperance.

A collection was here made to defray the expenses of
the muting, and at the class of it
JOHN PALMER, a coetennoopr, addressed the meet-
ing. He said that one of the most unpleasant fobs •
temperance man could have to do was to state, as a reclaimed
drunkard, the results of his experience. He had commenced
drinking when very young ; and had been taught by his
wean, in the first instance, that a small portion of home-
brewed ale was neosesery and good for him. As he grew
up he thought, line many other lads, that it wu honourable
to Aglit fee kis king and country, sad so he entered himself
on board amen of woe, and there ha was taught to believe
that he would never become strong, and never learn
to kill people without taking a portion of intoxicating
drinks. Up to 1818 he continued to drink in what was
called moderato qaantitiee. Up to 1822 be drank when on
shore in large quantities and when at sea in small quintal's,
and sometimes drank nothing at all. In 1822 he met with
an accident on board the ship sad was compelled to go into
the London Hospital. After his discharge from the ship he
thought he mast have a wi,e, and • pretty character to be
sure he was to take ears of a wife when he could not take
care of himself. (Laughter and cheering.) Up to 1840 he
continued in the drinking world. But let them mark the
difference. At one time he had shuddered at the idea of
being a drankerd, but he coofeseed that before he became a
teetotaller he had been an inveterate drunkard and had loot
good situations through drinking. He became • regular de-
graded and disgraced character in lisolutay wish, poiated at
with scorn by some and tend for by none. (Hear) Soma
people thought they could can droakenneas by punishing
the drunkard, but it was no such thing. Nis one had suf-
fered more than he had from the habit of drinking. He had
use had his skull fractured in • row by the staff of an officer,
sad ea smother omission be had been injured by a quart pot
throws at him in a quarrel. Ho had also been injured by
fighting with • man ranch heavier than himself. He bad, in
a word, suffered a martyrdom by joining la the drinkirg
pumices of this country. (Hear.) Ho signed the plc !se
lint for three menthe, and alter he had put his name in the
Dirk he said to the chairman that he wu determined to go
without intoxicating drinks for three maths, and U be
found that the abstinent" did him say harm, he would tome
sad tell the teetotallers that it had done to. Bat he did ate
wilds eves the throe months over' for he then began to
read, and to thick ; and to learn sad inwardly digmt the
satirist, and six wells attar be had put his name to the pledge
he beanie • teetotaller upon principle and had remained so
ever since. (Cheats) ) He felt tea years younger tkaa when
he
was a drinkiag man, and he now spoke in the presence
of hie wife sad three shildroo, who wen not for
• sad her. sat a regular teetotal wife. (Cheers.)
His old companions had told him he would die under the
teetotal system, but he had sot felt ea U ha was rig to
die, bat on the contrary wee itemise tad la better health ;
sad all he could say wda,that U he was to die, be should have
at lout this 'Natal, that he should di* sober. (Hear,
hear, gad otieriag.) He coaeluded by earnestly eilsortini
all present to regard the gin-chop light us the bei.coa which
warned the mariner of rocks and quicksends,and danger ; by
, etrengly advising them all, if they wanted to atop drunks°.
nem, to combine together in the resolution to buy nothing—
at article whatever—of the publinted—not even ginger beer,

or a bit of tobacco, or a eine/, or any thing elms that was IMO
innocent in its edema. (Chun.)
/dr. MURRILL (a gardeaer), Mr. Dtcesore (a glass-
blower), spoke next, and their speeches were something of
the some thereat r, being descriptive of the evils of drunken.
hem and the advantages of abstinence, denying the necessity
of strong drinks to working men of whatever Bleu they
were and however laborious their oerupatioue might be.
The last speech was from Mr. MOUTON, en iron moulder.
He said he was one of the oldest advocates of the abstinence
system, and the first of the iron moulders who declared for
the principle—(hear, hear)—which had now greatly pro.
greased In thin branch of working men, at.d he was givi to
say that not a fins nor a footing was now imposed in the trade.
(Hear.) lie bad been 13 ye.rs a teetotaller and it had not
killed him yet. Sung workingmen had scarcely clothes to their
hawks, and that bad been his own predicament before Inking
the pledge ; but now ha bad a little library, for which he
would not take 201. Let working men know their owe real
value, and assert it by their conduct. It was all staff
and nonsense for them to say that they could not get through
their work, however heavy—such as the manufacture
of great iron wheels--without their beer. He had
shown that he could do very well without it, and so had
a great many others. Where were their wives and children
to go when they fell sick or died, when they bad died: all
their means away, and had made no provision for them ?
(Hear, hear.) There were no almshouses built for them,
and this should be a lemon to working men to take care of
their earnings end save. Wont the "pale face was turned
to the wall" when were the widow sad children to go?
The CffelaMelt then announced the meetings that were
to be held ; and after a vats of thanks bad been passed to
and acknowledged by him, the meeting 'operated, at "brut •
neaftar rill 10.
am
?be prosemedlngs were perfectly idle' turd orderly dem
to