The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-05-17
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND
WEDNESDAY, MAY II, 1871
The Maine Law for England.

There being in England one place where |
stimulents are sold to every two hundred in
babtants Or less-one to 168, if we are not
mistaken-the subject of intemperance Is a.
tracing great attention in Parliament. NJ
Home Secretary has lately made sPeeo" ~
(which he dwells at length on the suoJec'' ''iiu
:. ;srrobo,Ja that something in the nature OF |
,,oh;,,;,;on wi, be tried in Great Britain.
J,s,ip Mccarthy, the celebrated English nov
-,,ist and miscellaneous writer, is collecting in
xor,oation on the subject for the benefit of his
,eople. and with this end in view has come 10
the home of the Maine lew.
If he is an accurate investigator the conclu-
sions he will reach from his researches will
probably be something like these:
Twenty years experience of prohibitory leg
islation in Maine has shown that restraints
imposed by law are, a most VARIABLE auxiliary
to moral effort in the impression of intemper-
ance. But such restraints cannot by any
means be relied upon for complete and per-
mauent cure of the great evil. The moral
agencies must be constantly and most actively
emnloved or the effects of the law will he
complished will be partial, uncertain and spas
modc. When there is healthful state of
public feeling on the subject, produced by
q iudcious agitation and by familiarity with
the arguments in favor of legal restraints, the
law then does a most benefcent work. Its eff
feets are then observable everywhere. In
most OF the rural districts liquor becomes q
stranger, and in the cities it is driven out Of
sight. We have in mind several country
towns where the power and the will to en-
force the law on the part Of few public spr-
tied men has for series of years saved the
community IRON the curse of drunkenness.
There are cities in Maine, like Lewiston
where for time the sale of liquor, though
not entirely suppressed, has been kept within
pretty narrow bounds.
If Mr.. Mccarthy reports on the present
condition of the temperance reform move
ment in New England the picture can hardly
be very pleasant one. Too much reliance
has been placed on legal prohibition, and the
education of the people on the subject
has been unwisely neglected. The result has
been most disastrous. In the first place, il
has become impossible to obtain any amend
ments giving increased stringency to existin!
laws. In the second place, if the politica
party which is favorable to prohibition eve
ventures to place candidates in nomination
who are known to be radical temperance me1
who really mean to push matters and to en-
force the law the result is quite uniforml!
such as to discourage repetition of such tao
tics. II is found instantly that there is al
alarming lack OF popular support. 1t is fount
that there is hardly majority of the peopl,
favorable TO the reform. Several startling pc
litical revolutions, like that in New Hamp
shire last spring, and like those in many o
our Maine towns and cities, have demonstrat
ed The fact that an attempt to intensity tn
present provisions OF the law would place il
extreme jeopardy the whole prohibitory code
Every vigorous attempt at the thorough en-
forcement of the law results unfalingly in
dangerous reaction, SO that in Lewiston itsel
the municipal government is now for the frs
time Since it became city in Conservative
and decidedly anti.prohibitory hands.
But Notwithstanding these discourage
ments we who have watched the operation O
the law in Maine know that it has savet
thousands fiom degradation and death, an,
we believe that with proper attention to tn
supplementary work to be done in the dc
main of moral effort it is yet destined TO &C
complish all that its most enthusiastic SUP
porters have dreamed, and we are proud I
count among our fellow-citizens man who's
name will be handed down to future genera
- tions as the author of the Maine Law.