The Sun.
London, England, 1838-07-16 00:00:00

THE BEER ACT.

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TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON,
AND THE LORD BROUGHAM.
My LORDS,-Eight years have passed over since that
plague spot the Beer Act was placed upon our statute book,
and you have now with becoming manliness declared its total
failure. It were well for the country had the worst features
of that unfortunate Act been merely of a negative character,
and that its failure were its only fault. Alas 1 twice eight
years will not suffice to eradicate the moral pestilence which
it has spread through the land, or restore our industrious po-
pulation to that healthy moral tone once their characteristic.
The change in this respect has been so general and re-
markable (in country places) that it must have been observed
and ought to be regretted by all. That feeling of self-re-
spect, of honest, manly pride, to which even the poorest could
once lay claim, has given way to a species of brutality scarcely
equalled amongst the population of any civilised country on
the face of the globe ; family
broils—a thorough contempt
for domestic peace and happiness—dog-fighting and man-
fighting, setting, or poaching, constitute now the prevalent
habits of a large portion of our provincial population, amongst
whom there seems a growing distaste for all rational pur-
suits These observations are the result of close and exten-
sive experience, and to the Beer-shop I unhesitatingly attri-
bute the change. I shall be asked by some what these is in
malt and hops more than in gin or rum to produce such conse-
quences? The question is easy of solution. It is not simply
in the malt and hops, for these were sold in abundance before
the Beer Act was passed, that the evil lies. It is in the
total absence of responsibility upon the part of those who
keep Beer-houses, and in thousands of instances the depraved
habits brought to the occupation by those engaged in it.
The trade of beer-selling is carried on in the majority of
instances by people too poor for any other pursuit but that of
manual labour, and whose capital individually would not suf-
fice to stock a greengrocer's shop with vegetables for a day's
consumption. They are mere dispensers of the brewer's
stuff, and there is not one in every hundred who, if weighed
up, would have a penny to call his own ; they commence ge-
nerally upon trust, and carry on upon the brewer's sufferance.
These arc facts, however unpalatable, known to all in the
trade.

Beer-shops are now so thickly strewed through the country,
that they form the chief abode of the working man. The
mechanic, who at his bench could earn a comfortable livehood,
and whose homely meal was the sweet bread of toil, it allured
by the life of ease, which the Beer-shop-keeper seems to •en-
joy. He deserts his occupation, calculating upon his shrp.
mates for support. If they have not money to pay for their
beer now, "it will do another time." Between the shop and
home are Joe, and Bill, and Jack's beer-shops, they are old
shopmates, " we must stop," say the men, " and have a glass
here." They have many a glass at eaeb, and thus at the
week's end their families must be robbed to pay theßeer-seller,
or the Brewer go without his expected returns. This prac-
tice is particularly prevalent in all the manufacturing districts.
Habits are thus contracted, not easily to be laid aside, added
to which are a thousand other inducements resorted to by the
Beer-seller to induce attendance and prolong the stay.
The solemn question is now before the Legislature—is this
right, and shall it continue; or is it wrong, and shall it be put
an end to? And here, with reference to the views of Messrs.
Hume, Warburton, and Hawes, &c., who have always die-
played a laudable anxiety to resist every retrenchment of the
poor man's comfort, the people may well say " save us from
our •friends." They indeed ought to have been the first to
denounce the system—but in charity I must give them credit
for perfect ignorance of the practical operations of the Beer
Act, else I must conclude that to their idolatrous attachment
of a free trade principle they are willing to sacrifice the grand
end of all their aims—the happiness of the poor. Upon what
other intelligible principle is it that they advocate a system
which allures the poor man into most selfish and profligate
expenditure of the pitlance which he should ever consider more
his family's than his own. Will they, in their deliberate mo-
ments, advise the working man first to spend all his earnings,
end then run ue to his head and cars in debt, in order to drown
in worse than bestial forgetfulness every manly faculty and
feeling? If. nit, why ettemet, in defiance of putlic opinion
and universal reprobation, to prop up a system whose only ten-
dency that is? I sincerely hope that their advocacy in thin
instance has not its origin in the desperation. produced by the
failure of a cheri-,hed principle ; but their threat (in which they
are joi :ed by Spring lice) against the Licensed Victuallers,
provoked
by the failure of the Beer Act, is not merely un-
statesmanlike—it betrays the pettishness of a child, and a
pitiful, unmanly degree of resentment.
After the frequent exposures which from time to time have
been made of the baneful results of the Beer Act, ore would
be inclined to think that, a mind honestly disposed, would
confess its inability to furnish a defence. But a defence is
found—vested interests arc referred to, and humanity is invoked
to throw its protecting shield over the beer-shop. Have then
the thousands of families who have been consigned to beggary,
destitution, and the workhouse, to support those beer shops, no
claim to humanity. Is the child of the working man toe leek
its bt ofad bread?
l the
nourishment.mo th elrs,
theu youthful
fsuule
mindi g
to babe,
to waste for
v grow op, rude
as nature formed it, and not a penny to be left fur pe.peses of
education?
Does humanity dictate that all shou'd be se-a%
lowed up in that ruthless vortex, the Beer-shop. Oh, &se-
crate not
the name The humanity that would save the Beer-
san re
shop from destruction doss but belie the name.
My Lords, your declared convictions of the result of the
Beer Act has produced a general feeling of jay through the
country.
, Repeal that Act, and you will consummate your claim
to a nation's gratitude.

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A COUNTRY OBSERVER.
Manchoier, July 12, 1838.

It was Mr..Delille, the French Master of the City
of London School, who, attending as interpreter, had the honour of
translating to Marshal Sault the speech of the Du%e of Wellington a:
the banquet given to the Foreign Ambassadors at Guildhall on Fi iday last.
BIGAMY.—At the Devon county sessions last
woes, a man was indicted for bigamy, he having married a second wife,
the former being they living. It appeared that, in 1811, a woman of
the parish of Hemlock, who was cnciente, swore to the prisoner as being
the f .ther, and he was apprehended by the ;wish officers. He denied
and not being able to pay was held in custody. The ollicers
to marry the woman, in order to get rid of the burden from
h
which he at first refused to do ; but being threatceed with
atiu)r'deegeiecr parish,i:hi himria gvrti'
on of his liberty, Le chose what he thought might prove the
lead of the two evils, and gave his unwilling consent to wed the frail
one. A licence was immediately procured, and he was taken from cus.
tody to the church, where ti-c ceremony was gone through. On coming
o.it of church, however, they separated ; his wife went her way, and
he retired to his home. Ten yeats since tie married a second wife, with
whom he Imed in happiness and contentment. The former woman now
be a ne chargeable I') the
parish, and the accused not being willing or
in circumstances to maintain her, an indictment was piefared ageinst
him by the paris,i officers for bigamy, which was sustained wholly upon
the allegation that he knew his first wife was alive. The chairman, in
summing up the case, dwelt in strong terms of condemnation upon the
conduct of the parish officers, in the first instance, in forcing a marriage
under the circumstances,
come when " The abuses would no longer be tolerated. he jury
Lund the prisoner guilty; and the court sentenced hint to imprisoned
for ease hour. and expressed his hope that the time was now

We have received a file of a Coracoa papers from
o, 3d or March to the 19th of May. 'We find in them, among other
fie vs, tie fitcw:ng letter from Venezuela:—" Dr. Fraocia is dead, and
with
,tns death ends the most singular government that ever existed.
Hi, s ivish adherents, dreading the vengeance cf the inhabitants of As
ceu;ion, have lift the country, and fled to Monte Video. This singular
man retained his character to the day of his death. It is said that he
has left several unpublished manuscripts, one of which is Proof of the
character and the simplicity of the Spanish Americans, and the means
which a- governor must employ to make himself necessary to them.'
The Inscription which he affixed to his portrait is very original; it is as
follows:---` Despotism is increased either by having in a country very
numerous laws at variance with each other, or no law: at all. I hav,
chosen the latter course, because it is more adspted to the frairl;ne.ts of
my character, and to the bad memory of the people of Paragi"Yt' "'—
Dutch Paper. •