The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-30 00:00:00

Both the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, M.P., and
Mr. Weguelin, M.P., attended the anniversary din-
ner of the Wolverhampton Licensed Victuallers'
Society on Thursday last.,
Mr. VILLIERS, in his speech, confined himself
almost exclusively to a discussion of the question of
temperance and the traffic in liquor. The question,
he said, seems to have divided the supporters of the
good cause into two parties. One is seeking to pre-
vent intemperance by extending legislation, and
the other wishes to rely on the moral and other in-
fluences that are operating and have operated
hitherto with great effect, in expectation that those
means will be more enduring and more effective
than any sudden or extreme legislation, which, pro-
bably, would cause much difference of opinion and
a considerable reaction. I believe the class to whom
I first refirred; benevolent and excellent as they arc,
reqthe an act to be passed to stop the traffic in
liquor, and those who do not go with them refer to
what has already. been done and what is being acc
oomplished -by _tam' 'various= ta-Aanices- that are at
work, and trust to them for a remedy, rather
than wish for the adoption of an act in order
to make people sober and temperate by com-
pulsion. Well, it is impossible not to admit
that though there is a great outcry made
against intemperance and drinking there
.is less
of them than there used to .be., ,It !mist be
within the memory of many persons present that
there was a time when drunkenness and" intem-
perance were a sort of test of gentility.' (Hear.
hear.) During the greater part of the last and the
first quarter of the present century a man proved
himself to be somewhat nearer a gentleman if he
drunk a good deal, and even very often got drunk,
than by any other means. (Laughter.) Why, you
know, there is an old proverb or saying which is
not yet quite out of date, but which, fortunately,
has lost its application now, " Drunk as a lord."
(Laughter.) That is found in the old plays, and it
must be taken as indicative of the habits of the
higher classes at that time. But now what is the
case ? A total change had taken place. It has ceased
to be genteel to get drunk; it has, in fact, almost
become disgraceful. lam sorry to say that even
in my own recollection a different state of things
existed. When I first went to college I never heard
of an instructor of youth who had taken the pledge.
(A laugh.) But I heard of many who had taken two
bottles of wine at a time. (Renewed laughter.) The
same influence has operated in other quarters, and
a very great and general effort is now being made
to spread education and do everything that is pos-
sible to raise the moral character of the people ; and
I do expect that the same results will follow as have
been observable in the classes above them. There-
fore, though I have no business to say anything
about legislation here—indeed, I do not know that
there is anything intended to be said on this sub-
ject in Parliament this year or any other—yet
seeing the efforts made by an intelligent and active
section of society to stop the traffic in liquor, and
that as far as I am informed it would have a bad
effect, I think we had much better trust to those
other influences which are raising and improving
the community. I believe there are instances in
which the experiment has been tried to make
men sober suddenly. Such an experiment was
made in the middle of the last century, when an
act was passed imposing enormous penalties on any
person who sold spirits, and the first year after-
wards there were 12,000 or 13,000 persons impri-
soned under the excise laws. That shows that
when acts are passed unsupported by public opinion,
and when the people are not prepared for them,
they lead to evasion; and when you connect with
those acts something like injustice or unfairness
you will have a violent reaction. As long as the
wealthy classes have their cellars full and their
tables pretty well loaded with generous liquor, you
can hardly pass an act to stop the sale of it to the
humbler classes of society. I think that though
those gentlemen who are preaching temperance and
abstinence are aiding the cause of improvement,
they ought not to forget when they come to legis-
late for the lower classes those influences which
have produced a change of habit among the ranks
above them. (Cheers."