The Sun.
London, England, 1828-07-29 00:00:00

LO W PRICE OF GIN A CAUSE.

In addition to extended population (the leading
assignable cause) are to be added—
The extremely price at which spirituous
liquors are (since the repeal of duties) sold, a general
want of employment, and neglect of children.
The lamentable effects of the first are too apparent
to require much detail of evidence or lengthened ar-
gument to support ; the truth of the hypothesis will
be upheld by a reference to the evidence of a re-
markably intelligent officer, whose duty requires a
constant and accurate observation of what passes in
the streets, by which also may be impressed upon
the House the magnitude of the evil occasioned by
that erroneous though well-intentioned financial
measure.

What effect has the reduced price of gin had in your
district ?-4 think there is a great deal more drunkenness;
I think it was one of the worst things ever done in the
world ; if they had raised it a penny instead of falling it, it
would have been a very good thing.
,6 What is the price it is retailed at ?—You may bave
very good gin at two-pence halfpenny a quartern, ten-pence
a pint; but what they call famous, is three-pence, that is
a shilling a pint, that is what is called blue ruin.

4, Do you find there is a great deal of drunkenness among
people who are not thieves ?—Mset certain; the first days
in the week you will always find somebody drunk, because
there are very few tailors and shoemakers that will work
on the first days in the week."

Although it has been assumed that want of em-
ployment has occasioned much criminal conduct, yet
yeur Committee do not find that such is the case in
the metropolis; that there may be very many per-
sons, having been attracted by the variety of
s'lich are now carrying on, and tempted by
works
who,urs of high wages to quit their ordinary resi-
dences, have been disappointed in their expectation
of finding immediate occupation, and are, with others
(the dupes of folly or the victims of extravagance)
reduced to extreme distress, is more than probable;
but when upon referring to the following evidence,

" Do you mean that the wages received by those people
for one day or two days h the week, are sufficient to trap-

I port them for the remainder of the week ?—There are
many trades who do not go to work till Friday morning;
in some of those trades, two or three days is all they work,
because they have piece-work.
" What trades are those ?---Shoemakers and tailors in
particular.
" From } our ,!xperivtice, do yon think there is more
decency than there used to be among the Imwer classes ?—I
do; I think since the Day Police has been formed there
has been a wonderful alteration."
Your Committee find that it is not uncommon for
those engaged in some trades altogether to abstain
from work till the Friday morning ; and that in
others, two or three days in the week are all that
they devote to industrious labour, the high rate of
wages enabling them to earn in one, two, or three
days, sufficient to maintain them the whole of the
week; they conceive that there cannot be such a
superabundance of labourers as to warrant the ap-
prehension that want of employment can, in London
and the vicinity, be ranked as one of the causes to
which au increase of crime oan justly be attributed.
NEGLECT OF CHILDREN, A CAUSE.-.GAMB-