The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-02-06
Sir wilfrid Lawson on the Liquor Traffic

At the great country temperance demonstration
held in the grounds of Brayton-hall, the seat of
Sir Wilfrid lawson, NJ. P, there were nearly
5000 persons present, including representatives
from the various Lodges of Good Templars and
RechabItes in the county of Cumberland, and the
Good Templars from the Lodges of the South OF
Scotland. In the course of the afternoon adj
dresses were delivered upon the subject of temper
ance by several OF the local leaders.
Sir Wilfrid Lawson, who was received with
loud cheers, welcomed the large assemblage. He
said he believed a great many of them were Good
Templars. Now, Good Templars were very much
laughed at, and that was q very good sign.
(Laughter.) He never knew anybody in the
world who carried out any good work who was
not laughed at for his pains. 1t had been so
ever since the children who laughed at Elisha
were eaten up by the she bears in olden days in
England it was a custom if a man held unpopular
opinions to cut his head off and silence him In
that way. Uaughter.) That was not the Gus
tom now, and the only way to meet those persons
who proclaimed a new unpopular opinion was
first to misrepresens and then laugh at them.
Good Templars were very much laughed at be-
cause they walked about in the regalia. He him
self did not wear regalia. lie thought he could
fight against the evil of intemperance just as well
in a shooting jacket (laughter), but there were a
number Of people who found they could unite
together better If they dressed in some particular
uniform like an army. He could not quarrel
with them. They were only copying the clergy
meus WIZ nCEt uSulluR u 4llt-IOuR uRuI d8dlDel
evil and wickedness. During the last session one
OF the most important duties of Parliament had
been to decide what uniform those clergymen
should wear. (Cheers and laughter.) They
were fighting against universal taste. He had
read Of a Yankee lecturer who said Many
men, many minds, - upon which an old Yankee
called out, Z" Squire, you are wrong there if you
asked US on to the platform to have a drink,
every one Of us would come" (Laughter.) Now,
he had no doubt If he had to ask all now before
him on to the platform to have q drink, although
this was q Good Templars' demonstration, q good
many Of them would step up. Laughter.) That
showed how widespread was the taste with which
they were combating. 1t was forty years since
the battle of temperance was begun by the old
temperance societies, who were succeeded by the
teetotallers, and now they had the Good Templars,
and what pleased him most with that organiza-
ton was that it was a part OF their creed that
they would never succeed in their undertaking
until they had got rid of the liquor traffic itself.
(Cheers.) They were not there to discuss which
was the greater evil-moderate drinking or
drunkenness. It was the most extraordinary
proposition that he ever heard made that moder-
ate drinkers were worse than drunkards, because
there was no doubt if they could get rid of mod
crate drinking they would get rid Of drunkenness.
He had never heard of men being born drunk
ards he had heard of men being born fools. but
a drunkard was made by the circumstances which
surrounded him. (Cheers.) The great object of
this movement was to make this a sober nation,
and the real obstacle to doing that was that there
were over one hundred and forty thousand licensed
sellers to impede their progress. 1t must
not he supposed, however, that he was going to
throw stones at those men. They were carrying
on a trade which had been legalized by the House
of Commons and by those who had elected that
House Of Commons; therefore, the temperance
societies were just as much to blame for the con-
sequences unless they exerted themselves to alter
the law. There were temperance organizations
of all kinds working away voluntarily to make a