New-York daily tribune., 1859-06-04
MEMORIAL as TO THE SUNDAY LIQUOR
TRAFFIC.

To the Beard Of CoaDissioners Of The Metropolitan Police
GrsrLrMrY: Section of the Metropolitan Police
act provides that 1T shall be the duty of the Board
of Police hereby constituted at all times of the day
&" and night . to preserve the public peace; TO
"prevent crime and arrest offenders; to protect the
rights of persons and property; to guard the public
"health to see that all laws relating to the OBJ
" servance of Sunday, and regarding gambling
&" aad intempersnce are properly enforced and
"to obey and enforce ell ordinances of Common
"Coancils," &c
Your memorialsts appeal to the accompanying eI-
tracts from the Presentments of four several Grand
Juries-made under the sanctions Of oath by citi
zens of the highest respectabty-and to the records
of your own Department for proof that the Sunday
liquor business dsturbs " the public peace causes
"crime;" invades the rights Of persons and prop
erty;" wastes the public health" de6es the laws
relating to the observance of sunday shelters and
encourages gambling, and creates "intemperance:
and all this, and open contempt OF the laws OF
the State and OF the ordinances OF the Common Coun
Gil which your Board pledged Ito obey and en-
force"
The burdens of taxation for Courts, Police, Prisons
and Aims House purposes have come 10 be so onerous
as to compel the attention of taxpayers to their causes
and your memoriass find tha, the principal parasite
on the industry and wealth of the city exists IN the
ECO unlicensed dram.shops, more than 1900 Of which
pursue their otherwise Illegal business on the Christian
Sabbath. Now, were the evil merely negative as In
the Withholding from the Treasury of half million of
dollars year due for licenses; III the failure TO col
lect the fines imposed by law-amounting, at the low
est computation, 10 million dollars-ior the misde
mesnors committed each Sunday Of the year-it might
be endured. But when this traffic throws a large
majority of the pauper srmy-some 4OOco stroRg-On
the support of capital and industry lsee extract from
Preseniment, Feb, 1881 itseh contributing to multi
ply but amest nothing to support its recruits when
crowds criminal courts monopohzes the business
Of our Grand Jures, and throngs prisons with its
thousands of pupils graduates IN wee and crime;
and when il enervates labor, impOyerishes and demof
aizes families epgenders juvenile rowdyism and gen.
era lswlessness weakens the moral restraints ana IN
vades the sanctities Of the Lord Day and counter
acts the benign influence of philanthropy and religion
your memoiaIsts cannot reiraln irom INVOKING a. IN
their own behalf and in behalf Of their fellowetzens
they do respectfully but earnestly demand, PRoTEo-
TioN And RELIEF.
The statistic. of your Board demonstrate a connec-
ton so intimate between Sunday tipping and crime,
as on that ground alone to require the attention and
action Of your Department. II appears that while the
arrests for the Tuesdays of eighteen months preceding
December T. 1853, amounted 10 but 1,slo the CORE
spending Sundays were s7l3-an absolute excess Of
1852 above the ordinary average Of week days:
increase of drunkenness and cnme Sundays OF
freRty.fre per cel over the usual enormous proper
ton of wick kedness traceabe al days 10 drandrnk
ing.
Annual Report in which you give the arrests three
successive Sundays, while the law was observed,
amounting 10 "a, compared with those of the same
number OF Sundays, when the hqucr-deaers learned
",hey could violste the law with impunity, which
amounted TO 5O3 TO show eonclusvely the effects Of
CLOSING the hquor-shops in lessenng the amount Of
"crime and Of breaches of the peace. Thus, on the
evidence Of this official paper the partial and tempo
rary execution Of the laws restraining the Sunday
Liquor Traffic prevented one-haf of the crime and
"of breaches Of the peace otherwise to have been
looked for, and actually committed when legal re.
straints were removed. What then might be hoped
from the complete and permanent suppression OF that
traffic And with such demonstration OF the connec-
ton Of cause and effect would not your Department
be warranted under the common law as wei as cy the
provisions of your organic Act which makes il your
d dsfy 10 PREVENT crIEe and arres: offenders, in
employing tle whole force under your control N cup