Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-07-29

make penal offence punishable with fine of
forty shillings or one months imprisonment,
the fine TO be increased on each subsequent con-
viction, and after the third the offence is to be
adiudged habitual and the drunkard to be
liable TO Imprisonment in a reformatory for a
period not exceeding twelve months, with loss
of all civil rights. as if he were a lunatic, and
TO be atterward under police suspicion, like
thief or reputed thief OF reformatories it is re-
commended to establish two classes to one or
the other of which, according TO circumstances,
hsbitual drunkards may be sentenced; private
asylums, conducted by individuals at their own
cost and risk, but subject to the inspection and
supervision of public officers, for those who can
pay their expenses, and public establishments
for all others.
This proposed system of temperance legiSla-
ton goes farther than any laws We have in this
country of a similar nature. Practically at
least, whatever the theory may be, drunkenness,
unattended with disturbance or public ex-
posure is not here regarded as q crime. a man
may be known to drink to outrageous excess,
casually or habtually, in the privacy of his own
or his friends house, or even in his chambers at
hotel, without any risk of legal penalties, pro
vided he does nothing to make himself public
nuisance. The committees proposition seems
to recognize moral as well as legal distinction
between a casual act and habituai drunkenness.
In our law the only distinction made is that the
latter receives heavier penalty. But
according 10 the parliamentary committees the
DRY, person who has not formed the habit of
intoxication is capable of restraining his appe-
tite, and may reasonably be required to do it
under penalty of fiue or imprisonment. When,
however, the habit has become confirmed, the
task OF breaking away from it is assumed to
require an effort greater than can can fairly be
expected of his infirm will and shattered nerves;
he is therefore regarded in this particular as of
unsound mind; the control of his person and
| estate is to be taken from him, and he is to be
placed under restraint surrounded by such
physical and moral influences as may be thought
adapted to restore his bodily health and give
him increased power to resist temptation.
As to the propriety of furnishing casual
J drunkenness, unaccompaed by publicity or
disturbance, and the establishment of two
classes OF reformatories, there may be room for
dissent from the committees conclusions, but
with respect to the proposed system of coercive
commitment to reformatories, the report seems
to speak wisely. Private asylums we have now
for voluntary patients only; they have been
useful, undoubtedly, and should be continued
in connection with the public reformatories, if
those should be established; but the latter
should be the only places TO which persons le-
gally ascertained to be proper subjects for them
could be sent by compulsory process. The state
| should not entruSt to any but its own response
BILE officers the duty of executing the DEGREES of
! its courts. If a person by reason of excessive
indulgence of his appetite for strong drink so far
loses his sef-control as to be no longer account
able for his deeds, it seems reasonable that the
state should take charge of him, as it does Of
lunatics and, for his own welfare and that OF
society, give him the best available treatment,
so that he may if possible be restored to health.
If he is morally accountable for the evil exam
pie waste of property, and injury TO those de-
pendent upon him, then the state may rightlully
assume the duty of restraining his criminal ap-
petite by fear of punishment, by wholesome re-
straint and such sanitary eXpedients as can be
effectually applied to such cases.