Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-08 00:00:00

ALCOHOL;

OR, THE
MINOR CURSE OF ENGLAND.

BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF A SEBIES OF ADDRESSES DELIVERED IA

CONNECTION WITS ST. MARY'S TOTAL ABSTINENCE SOCIETY,

HIBBDALE..

DEDICATED TO THE
REV. MR. TIT I'ERTON, PREEIDENT,

LIVERPOOL WORKING MAN.

" Woe unto htm that giveth hi 3 nolghtmr drink, that patest thy
bottle to him and makest him drunken."—ilabak. ii. 15,

[Continued from 7th September.]

An ingenious philanthrop'st has frilly considered this humilia ing
fact, and he says, putting the annul expenditure at .t'60,000,000 in
Great Britain—wherrio, if that philanthrophiz gentleman had con-
sidered the loss of time and sicimess, misdirected industry in couse•
quenca of th .t expenditure, he might, with great propriety, have put
the amount at £120,001,001, instead of putting it at .60,000,000—he
says if that en rmous amount, which h worse than wasted, was ap-
plied in purchasing articles of domestic utility, it would procure the
undermentioned articles of real domestic comfort annually :
Four Millions-of Coats,lat 40s each.. •....
Four „ of Trousers, at 21s per pair ..
F,nr „ WAstc..nits, at 103 each ... • • .......... 2,010,000
Fccir „ Hats, at 6s each
Four „ of Boots, at .0, per pair ....
Funs Stockngs, at Is til par pair ...... 300,000
Four „ Shirts, at 5 each ........ 1,000,000
Four „ Blankets, at 12, 61 each—. 2,500,1,00
Four „ of Gowns, at 123 61eacn
Four „ Bonnets, at 101 each ......... .....
Four „ Caps, at 2s 60 each. .
Twenty Chairs, at ss. each
Four „ Tables, at 20s. each.
Two „ Bookcases, at 40s each.. • 4,000,000
Twenty „ Books, at Is. each. • 1,000,000
Four „ Clocks, at 20s. 6d. each 4,500,00
Five „ of Bibles, at 2s. 6d. each
Leaving for Poor's Rates
In addition, it would pension 100,000 respectable men, who
brought up their families honourably, without parochial
aid, giving to each .£lOO a-; ear . 10,000,000

Total £60,000,00
In demonstra•lng that innemperanze and crime are connected, and
that one exists in the corresponding ratio of the other, I shall confine
myself principally to evidente approved by parliamentary com-
mittees.
A select committee, appointed by the House of Commons, to inquire
into the canoe of crime and drunkenness, reported to that house in
1834, that from 1821 to 1824 there was no annual increase in the con-
sumption of intoxicating drink, and no increase of crime daring the
same period; th it, from 1824 to 1823, there was an annu el Increase of
,3,2a1,695 gallons in the consumption of intoxicating drinks, with an
annual increase of 4,271 cases of crime; tha•, from 1828 to 1832'
there was a less anneal increase In the consumption of intoxicating
drink—viz., 1,748,938 gallons, and a corresponding decrease in crime
—viz , 3,255 cases. But further, the Dublin Police Reports for the
years 1838 and 1809, show that during the years when distillation
from sugar, grain, &c , was prohibited, in consequence of scarcity,
arunkeunese and crime decreased in a most extraordinary manner,
and in a corresponding ratio; that, in 1810, distillation being again
resumed, drunkenness increased to an alarming extent. History
records this startling fact. It is roma koble that the citizens of Dublin,
in the year 1810,
_seem to have abandoned the notion held in the
two preceding• years of bacon ng a remarkably sober, and honest
people; for drunkenness and crime, which had decreased amazin3ly
during the two years distillation was prohibited, suddenly turned
round in 1810, distillation being resumed, and drunkenness
and crime increased to an ala ng extent. Thus, we End precisely
the same results in 1808 and 1819 as followed t .e prohibition unfortu-
nately repe tied in 1751. Ag .in, during the last nalf year of 18 .2 and
the year 1813, distillation was again prohloitod, and with that prohi-
bition drunkenness decreased in a most eatra•xrdiuery manner, and
in a corresponding ratio. As a further illustration of this great fact,
there were 2,093 less cases of crime in 1813, the year distillation was
prohibited, than io lel 1, amen distillatio a was ni.o ?red ; and farther,
to show the extent crime is ildnenced b; intoxicating drink, the prison
returns for Ireland for 1854 fnmisa the following evidence :
In 18:54 the duty on spirits was 31 61 a gallon, consumption was
8 410,734 gallons; cases of crime 73,732. In the year 1355 the ditty
was increased to as 2d per gallon. the consumption was 6,228,856
gallons, and there were 51,431 cases of crime. Taus, with this
increase in duty there was a decrease in the consumption of intoxi-
cating drinks of about two millions of gallons, and a decrease of
about 20,000 cases of crime amino:ly, damonstrating, as Dr. Oliver
Goldsmith observed, that the miseries of the people are In proportion
to the facilities afforded them for obtaining intoxicating drinks.
Now, if these authenticated statistical facts bs not deemed suffi-
cient to prove the connection between drunkenness and crime, the
evidence of the jadgas, of oar laud, gaolers, chap airs of gaols, law
functionaries, noblemen, and gentleinen, will doubtless
.establish the
fact to a demonstration.
Judge Patterson addressed the grand jury of the Norwich assizes
in the following brief, bit es passive manner—'• If, gentlemen, it
were not for this drink, yen and I would not have anything to do."
Delon Aldereon declared to tlto jery, et Oho Yote aaaioco,
that a very great proportion of the crime to be broogh; forward for
their consiieration arose from tae te3 of drunkenne is. " Indeed,"
added his lordship, " if you take away from the cidend r all those cases
which are connected with drunkenness, you will make the large
calendar into a very small one ind _en."
Judge Erskine, when poising sentence:of imprisonment and hard
labour on a man who had, ueti the commission of the crime moved
in a resl,ezte3la speere in life, and sustained al irreproachable cha-
racter, and who committed the crime when under the LIM nee of
intoxicating drink, observed, that ninaszymine oat of every
hundred of the cases that come before him arose from the sauie
cause, viz., intoxicating drink.
Judge Coleridge, addressing the grand jury at Oxford assizes, said—
He never knew a case brought before him which was not directly or
indirectly connected with intoaicating drink.
Just ce Whiteman, at one of theLivoi pool assizes, said—' Almost all
the cests of violence to the persons ucearred either at public houses

or beerhouns."
The Venerable oir Matthew said •—`• Tke paces in the j aiicature,
siv.i eh I ha•e long held in this kingdom, have given mu the oppurtu
niiy to observe tha original cause of the comes, and enormities com-
mitted during the last twanty years, and by tha,, observation I have
fund that, if the bargl lass, rob'utriss, riuts, to :units, adulteries,
raps, and other enormities committed were thvided int) live parts,
four of them have been the product of excessive drinking." Judge
Marshall has recmtly given similar testimony.
Justices Telford and C:eswell, Baron. Platt, Lord Campbell, and
other Justices, give similar testimony. Dr. Samuel Warrcn, the Re •

corder of Hull, said, in 1854, that a public house a2peared to him to
be the half-way house to the Rolls or Norfolk Island.
M. D. ma, Esquire, the Recorder of Birmingham, said,—" The
enormous consumption of intoxicating drink which prevails in this
country is a source of crime not only more faille than any other,
bat than all others put togetuer."
The Lord Provost of Glasgow sail—" Closing pubic houses on
the Lord's day had lease .ed crime 75 par cent."
Mr. Wenner, Governor Of Navigate slid—" Ninety-nine out of
every hundred of the prisoners c :me. to goal through druu•.eneess."

„;,The Governor of Dumfries goal sail—"Ninoteeu oat of every twenty
found themselves in prison through drunkenness.”

The Governor of Ayro prisan declare I— Chat he hal " no hesitation.
in sayial that, thirty-aiue oat of every forty is prison committed
their crimes through intoxicating drinks."
The Rev. Mr. Bagshaw, chaplain to the Na,v Saila, Manchester ; the
Rev. Mr. Clay, chaplain to the Hume of Coneo:im, Pr:ston ; the
Rev, Mr. Carter, chaplain to the Liverpool Borough Goal—affirm
the testimony of the above.

The Earl of f!khafteibury says—" I do not heitate to say that
nine-tenths of the pauperism; nia3-tenths of tie difileultiet by which
the wJrking classes are bast; nine-tenths of the woee that press

upon them, are caused by tae pernicio is habit of drunkenness."
De. Gore said before a Parliamentary C masitteo—That of "120
condemned criminals 1 have attended on tha ,ciffoll, they all de-
clared that intoxtcating drinks had led to tie cointnibiOn of the