The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-02 00:00:00

GENERAL MEDICAL COUNCIL.

In answer to the letter of the Lord President of
tno Privy Council, the General Medical Council have
passed resolutions as a basis of their reply. One of
the Lord President's suggestions was that a joint
Board should be established for the examination
and registration of medical students, so as to
obviate whatever evils may be found to arise from the
competition which at present goes on among. the
nineteen licensing bodies throughout Great Britain
and Ireland. The Council is of opinion that such a
board should be formed to each of the three division.
of the kingdom ; and with this view the medical coN
porations and universities will be requested to constitute
a conjoint examining board, in their respective
parts of the kingdom. Powers will be sought from
the Legislature, and it now seems probable that the
various licensing bodies that have hitherto sent forth
their candidatss into the world of medicine, will all
he amalgamated into three separate boards, and con-
, duce to lite.: greater welfare ot_334aul4nd by r*
icitiibiuitect aoton,

•
, TUMMY.
~.._ •
_.
A committee of members of the liouse of Commons
met this morning for the purpose of considering
the subject of the working of the poor laws in
Scotland. Mr. E. IL Cranford was in the chair,
and amongst the members present were Mr.
Ewing, Mr. Lock, Mr. M`Lagan, Sir. R. Anstruther,
Mr. Anderson, Mr. Gordon, &c. Witnesses were at once
called in continuation of the evidence given last session.
The Rev G. Rigg, P.P. of Edinburgh, stated that the
number of Roman Catholics in the whole of Scotland was
about 350,000. In Edinburgh poor-house there were last
year 110 resident paupers and 70 children, and many
receiving outdoor relief. No one on the Board looked
after the Catholic poor, and there was no one to take
care that the Catholic children should be brought up in
the Catholic religion. The witness complained of the
practice of bringing up as Protestants the child-en of
Ibman Catholic parents, and represented that then ought
to be someone to watch over the interests of the Roman
Catholic poor at the parochial boards. The practice pre-
vailed of boarding out, in Protestant families, of
Roman Catholic children, in which cases they
were frequently proselytised. The rev. gentleman
suggested that all Catholic pauper children should
be placed under the direction of a Catholic committee,
who would take care that they were placed out in parishes
of their own.religion, and that none should be placed in
Protestant families or kept in Workhouses. Half a crown
a week was the present sum allowed for boarding out a
child. The orphanage system was far superior to the
bearding-house system.—Dr. Bates Tuke, of Fife and
Kinross, then gave evidence as to the treatment of lunatic
paupers, and the committee adjourned,

SALE OF INTOXICATING DRINKS ON
SUNDAYS.

" --•-) TUESDAY.
This afternoon a deputation from the Central Associa-

tion for Stopping the Sale of Intoxicating Drink on Sun-
days had an interview with the Right Hon. the Home
Secretary, at his official residence, Whitehall, when
they presented the following memorial on the subject:—
" That your Majesty's memorialists regard with the most
profound sorrow, the fearful amount of drunkenness which
prevails, especially among the working classes during the
latter part of Saturday night, and throughout the whole
of the Lord's day ; a very large proportion of the total
drunkenness of the kingdom takes place at those times. A
vast proportion of the neglect of public worship, Sabbath
breaking, crime, pauperism, and immorality, which all good
men so greatly lament, is directly traceable to this cause.
That this large amount of Sunday drunkenness is occa-
sioned by the circumstance that publicans and beersellers
are placed by. the law on a different footing from othor
trades, and are permitted to carry on their business during
the greater part of the Lord's Day. That your memo-
rialists in the interests of godliness, social order, and gene-
ral well-being, earnestly desire such a change in the laws
relating to this subject as may put a total stop to the
traffic in intoxicating drinks on Sunday.
The HOME SECRETARY (Mr. Bruce), in replying, said he
could assure them that he had listened with great interest
and sympathy to the- statements which had been made.
He accepted entirely the statements as having been made
in the most perfect good faith, that the working
classes would derive considerable benefit from
the change they proposed. He also doubted
not that in some places the feeling might
amount to unanimity. On the other hand
the last great discussion which took place in the Howie
of Commons on the subject, which he believed was two ca
three years since, Petitions were presented to Parliament
against it, one of which petitions, he believed, was signed by
2J,000 working peuplo. A member of the deputation—` Got
up by the publicans." He was sorry that influence should
be so strong, but there was the fact that the petition had
boon so largely signed. It would be his duty in a very
short time, and he wished it had already arrived, to lay
before Parliament a measure which he hoped would
have a very strong influence indeed in reducing
this great evil. Although it did not go quite so far ee
this deputation required, yet it would go as far as Parlia-
ment was likely to sanction. It was his business not tc
present the bill which in the abstract he might think tc
be best; but a measure which was most likely tc
meet with general approval, and be passed into law.
Oae gentleman who had spoken had quoted some remarks
which lie (Mr. Bruce) had made respecting the connection
between drunkenness and crime. He did not doubt there
was such a connection ; butit was as well notto exaggerate.
They must bear in mind this great fact, that the ten-
dency of crime during the last thirty years had Veen
greatly to diminish. In the last thirty years the popula-
tion had increased fully one-third, while crime of all sorts
had remained stationary. But whether crime had in-
creased or not was a minor question. Drunkenness did
exist., and wag an enormous evil. Measures ought
to be taken to repress it. It was a most diffi-
cult question to solve—the question how far it
wis possible to interfere with the individual
liberty of the poor, and he hoped to solve it in a rnannez
which would be considered satisfactory. If they would
b good enough to restrain their impatience for a few days
they would see the proposals which it would be his duty
to make. However much they might fall short
of their ideas he thoughl they would be inclined to agree
with him that if they could pass them a very great advance
would have been made in the direction they wished.
The members of the deputation returned to the West-
minster Palace Hotel. They passed the following reso.
:—" That this meeting of the members of the depu-
tasion to the Home Secretary in support of Mr. Ryland's
Sunday Closing Bill desires to express its approval
of the testimony of the right hon. gentlemen
du ring the interview of the necessity of increased
reitrictiona on the Sunday liquor traffic, but would also
avow its deep conviction treat no measure will bo fully
acceptable to the country that does not prohibit that
trailie ; and this meeting would earnestly call upon the
'social reformers of England and Wales to give their best
support to the bill of Mr. Rylands, in order to secure its
anactment during she present session of Parliament.

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