The National Register.
London, England, 1815-12-31 00:00:00

TIM NATIONAL TIEMSTER'

SPINII'C S LIQUORS.

We have often adverted to the number of places for retailing
spirituous liquors in the metropolis, as " a giant evil." And
are happy to learn, that the means of remedying that evil
have been taken up by the Magistracy of Surrey as a county
question, and that a Committee of Magistrates was appointed
at the last Quarter Sessions, " to consider the great increase
in tile number of shops for the sale of gin and other spirituous
liquors, and to report their opinion of the consequences of
such increase, and the most efficient means of suppressing or
regulating the same." We will venture to say, now that our
national existence is secured from external attack, that a moil
important subject can hardly be submitted to the consideration
of a body of enlightened Magistrates ; and we trust they will
pursue it with the ardor and perseverance which it demands,
from them as Christians, and as men. We hope, too, that
they will not be allowed to stand alone in this enterprise.;
but that t!,:e neighbouring Magistrates will take it up with
equal zeal and with equal effect. In fact, lit, le comparatively
can be done in a matter of such magnitude, but by united
and simultaneous effort, by prompt and 'cordial co.aperation•
We do not say this to discourage the Surrey Magistrates, but to
incite those of the adjoining counties to follow their laudable
example- We have been favoured with a copy of the Report
of the Committee above.mentioned: of which we shall take
an early opportunity to lay some extracts before our readers.
Meanwhile, we hai e to observe, that it enters at considerable
length. and in a very satisfactory manner, into the historical
view of the subject, and traces the steps which at various
periods have been taken by the Legislatur2, Magistrates, and
other public bodies, for the prevention or cure of this perni-
cious evil. So early as the l'2th of Cu ARL ES 11. the Legislature
had endeavoured to promote the consumption-of home-made
in pi etereoee to forei.:n spirits, Unfortunately these attempts
were nut only successful in the attainment of their direct ob.,
ject ; but they created in the lower classes of people such at
habit of drinking spirits as produced evils'of alarming magni-
tude. Very mi.ch to their honour, the College of Physicians,
as conservators of the puidic health, first called the attention
of the Legislature to these evil consequences. In the year 17251
they represented to the House of Commons, the fatal effects
which they had observed to be produced by the freqneut use of
spirituous liquors, in rendering people of both sexes diseased,
unfit for business, a hurthen to themselves sod neighbours, and.
a charge upon the public. The Gland Juries of London, Micd=
dlesex, and the Tower hamlets, next took up this important
topic. They observed with the deepest coucern the strong
inclination of the inferior sorts of peor.le to these destructive
liquors, and how su. prisinely the infection had even then
spread, not only among the vicious and moral, bat even among.
whole families, in other respects reganae. The evil had grown
to a great-height before the Legislature, attempted to ore with
it. The first decided measure of that kind was the Statute of
the 9th GEORGE ii. commonly, called the• Gin Act ; the pre-
amble to which states, that the drinking of spirituous liquors
had become very common, especially
among people ~t the
lower ranks, tending greatly to the destruction of their health,
euderinei them until to usclul lAbouLand damochinii