Vermont daily transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1868-1870, 1868-08-12
Vermont Daily Transcript,
ST. AIIBANS, VT:
WEDNESDAY AUGUST IL, lS6S.
The Temperance cause.
Y AUGUST IL, 1865.

The Temperance cause.
A Bill was presented before the Eng
lish House of Commons during last ses-
sion, called the Sunday Liquor Bill, ana
referred to Select Committee who re-
ported against it, and ii failed OF passing.
The bill was. as its name partly ndi-
Gates, for the purpose of closing, on sun
day, places where liquor is kept for sale,
so far at least M to prevent such sale on
SUNDAYS. In their report, the Commit
tee allude to the steady Improvement in
the morals, habits, tastes, and manners
of the people, resulting from the advance
of education, the wider diffusion OF
knowledge. and The moral influences
brought to bear upon them. They OBJ
serve that the upper and middle classes
are far more temperate at the present
day than they were ut the carly part OF
the century, and as they believed that
as the working classes advance in self
imDrovcment. the vice of drunkenness
will gradually disappear without the ne
cessity for further legislation of coerc-
i've description. With these opinions
the Committee say they cannot support
the Bill, but would rather trust to the
further development ofmoral influences.
"The following passage of the Com
mittee's Report" says the London
Times, of July 26, evil have full
weight with reasonable minds:"
1t has been proved to your Committee
that very large number OF persons
make use of public houses on Sunday
against whom no complaint whatever Is
alleged, and to whom further restric-
lions to the extent contemplated by the
Bill would be productive of serious IN
convenience. And whilst this incon-
venience would occasion great discon-
tent among such persons, it by no means
follows that commensurate benent
would result with regard to the class
against whom such restrictions would
be especially directed. Those who drink
to excess form very small percentage
of the whole number of persons who
make use of public houses on Sunday,
and it Is probable that many of these
persons, if deprived of their present IA
cilities for obtaining liquor, would have
recourse to drinking in private houses,
and to various methods of evading the
law. For, however beneficial may be
the results OF restriction within certain
limits, its enforcement to such an extent
as to cause any violent interference with
the habits of the people, has tendency
to create discomfort which is sure tC
he followed by evasion, the law is
brought into disrepute, and effects are
not unfrequently produced the very re-
verse and opposite of those intended by
the Legislature.
There is something in all this to cause
thinking men in our own land, who arc
sincere in their desire of progress of the
cause of temperance, to ponder well the
means used in promoting their object
which is equally the object of all we'll
wshers of the human family. We may
assert it to be truth that every person
in our State is at heart in favor of item
perance" so-called, and none more sin
cerely so than those who seem to den!
this in practice by the abuse of liquor
We may also assert that Legislative
prohibition has failed to prevent Thu
abuse, so at variance with the well-bein9
of individuals, and the prosperity, hap
piness, and peace of families: and also
that means having no aid from or sup
port in coercion, have taken up many o
the cases which legislation fails to reach
and applied the proper remedy, inducing
unfortunate victims of Incorporate ap
petites to heed the cOunsels of friend
and the best promptings of their owl
hearts thus reinstating the soul in it
supremacy over the body. Every mora
victory, every individual victory, whicl
is good in itself, is of this kind, which
teaches or aids the man to govern him
self. Laws which aim to aid in thi
work may be made servicable or not
according to the wisdom of legislator
and rulers; but laws which aim to &C
conapHsh such work have invarlabl
failed whenever they have come to
test, and in the nature of things mus
continue to fail.