The Sun.
London, England, 1849-10-20 00:00:00

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coasts. Numerous v se•sAvf•re Est, km-tithe Lion
•
steamer, which reaklied the Thafnes_inlhoi middle of
the week, brought o,'lrx the-iciewittiwii,yfssels which
Lad been lost. The"Fipiilalsletiin-ilirp reports a
most fearful hurricane Visiting Cronstadt on the 6 It
and 7th inst., and a consequent serious damage to the
shipping.

ROGRESS OF' MANNERS.
(From Eliza Cook's Journal)
The progress of temperate habits among the bulk
of the working classes is now very decided. So
general had become the habit of drunkenness among the English people in 1606, that it was found neces-
sary to pass a law, constituting it a criminal offence
against society. Drunkenness, nevertheless, went on
steadily increasing in the face of this law, and about
the middle of last century the vice had grown to a
hideous magnitude. Some idea of the low state of
the national morality may be formed .from a fact
stated by Smollett, and repeated by the Bishop of
Salisbury during a debate in the House of Lords,
that on some of the publicans' Ogns in London it was
announced to thc public, " You nary here get drunk
for one penny, dead drunk fur twopence. and lace
clean straw for nothng.'". They accordingly" say a
Smollett, in his " History of England," " provided
cellars and places strewed with straw, to which
they conveyed those wretches who were over-
whelmed with intoxication. In these dismal ca•
verns they lay until they had recovered some use of
their faculties, and then they had recourse to the
same mischievous potion ; thus consuming their health,
and ruining their families, in hideous receptacles
of the most filthy vice, resounding with riot, execra-
tion, and blasphemy." Although at that time the
population of London was not one-third of what it it
now, there were computed to be no less than 20,000
houses and shops in which spirituous liquors were
sold, besides those in which fermented liquors only
were kept. Whereas at present, the total number of
public-houses, spirit-shops, beer-shops, and hotels in
Loudon, is stated not to exceed 7,000. If other evid-
ence were needed, we should find it in the moral and
orderly aspect of the London population of the work-
ing orders on all days of the week—in their improved
tastes and habits, which now lead them to frequent
reading-rooms and news-agents to buy their weekly
paper or family journal, in preference to wasting their
means on debasing self-indulgence. Much drunken-
ness there yet assuredly is; it is still the daily vice 'of
the degraded, the outcast, and the ignorant; we thick,
however, it must be admitted, that although formerly
the most conspicuous and prevailing vice among the
working classes, as it was among the middle and upper
classes, it is so no longer, but has given way in a
great measure before the progress of public morality
and intelligence.
The progress of temperance has been equally
decided amongst the Scotch people. One could
scarcely suppose that in the following description by
Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, he could have been
speaking of a people now considered so moral,
orderly, and intelligent. And yet here was the
moral condition of the Scotch at the early part of last
century. "At country weddings, markets, burials,
and other the like public occasions, both men and
women are to be seen perpetually drunk, cursing,
blaspheming, and fighting together." Thanks to
the Scotch parish schools, such fearful abominations
have been to an immense extent abated. Drunk-
enness was at the same time frightfully prevalent
among the Irish people; and to such an extent did
the rage for usquebaugh proceed in Ireland in the
I reign of Philip and Mary, that the people converted
so much of their grain into spirit as to cause great
famine and privation throughout the country
from time to time. Deplorable though the
condition of the mass of the Irish people
still is, they are no longer chargeable with the
national vice of drunkenness, Father Mathew having
succeeded in nearly bani,hing it from amongst the
poorer classes of the people.
But the steady decrease is best proved by the go-
vernment returns of the quantities of British and
foreign spirits entered for home consumption at dif-
ferent periods. Thus we find that while the con•
gumption of coffee has increased from 7,593,0011b5. in
1821, to 34,293,1901b5. in 1845, and the consumption
of tea has increased from 20,358,7021b5. in 1800, to
44,193,4331b5. in 1845, the consumption of spirits is
now, in the whole of the United Kingdom very little
more than it was in England alone in 1742 ! The
amount consumed in England in the year last named,
or about a hundred years ago, by a population only
one-third of that of England now, was about
20,000,000 gallons. The quantities consumed have
very much varied according to the tax on spirits--
the lower the tax, the greater the consumption. But
if we take the last few years, during which the duty
has been stationary, we find that the increase in the
consumption of British spirits has not at all kept pace
with the increase of the population, but the contrary.
Thus in 1831, the consumption of British spirits was
21,845,408 gallons, and in 1841, 20660847 gallons,
and in 1845, 23,122588 gallons, The consumption
of malt also is stationary, if not on the decline. The
(paucity of hops charged with duty in 1835 was
49,08 G 7091y3.; in 1 45, the quantity charged was
only 32,974 7501b5. The consul.ptioa of brandy,
rum, and other foreign spirits had also declined from
4,883,596 gallons in 1831, to 3 464,074 gallons in
1841, and 3,549,589 gallons in 1845. The qu tntity
of wine consumed remains also as nearly as possible
stationary.
These results are, we think, of a very satisfactory
character; and they prove a remarkable progress in
the manners and habits of the people. The marked
diminution of intemperance must be attributed in no
small degree to the efforts of the Teetotallers, of
whom there are estimated to be no fewer than
1,360,000 in England, Scotland, and Wales ; but it
is also to be attributed to the improvement in the
moral tone of society, and the advance of intelligence,
of which indeed the Temperance movement itself may
be regarded as one of the indications. There are nume-
rous other proofs of this. Our elections are not now
the scenes of debauchery that they formerly were.
The Eatanswill boroughs have now shrunk into a very
small number; and the finger of public reprobation
is generally pointed at them. Funerals are now con-
ducti d decorously. Workmen are gradually giving
up their system of " footings." Commercial tra-
vellers no longer think it necessary to coax an order
out of a customer by inviting him to a drinking
bout. The friendly societies and clubs of the labouring
classes are more and more discountenancing the
practice of meeting in public houses for the transac-
tion of their business; and before many years are
over, we look to still greater improvements in all
these respects.