The Portland daily press., 1877-03-27
The Maine Law in Maine.


Some persons affect to doubt that there is
any necessary connection between the liquor
traffic and poverty, pauperism and crime;
while those whose opinions are not influenced
by appetite or interest, see direct and nevta-
BILE connection between them as of cause and
effect. Where the liquor traffic is reduced to
small proportions as in Maine and in Portland.
the criminal classes will still find means of
embrutng themselves, and this will continue
until the penalties of the law shall be such that
the vile man who continues to sell drink, will
not incur the risk for any profit that can be
made out of the trade.
The testimony of judges of criminal courts
everywhere is clear and emphatic as to the
cause of the larger part of the crime with which
they deal. 1 have before; me now Dublin
paper containing the charge of Mr.. Justice
Fitzgerald to the grand jury on the 9TH of Feb
ruary. He says: SIT has been the habit of
judges on the bench and of speakers on public
platforms to address the public as to the crying
and besettlng sin of intemperance-a crime
leading to nearly all other crimes; crime
which they might very we'll say led to nineteen
twentieths of the crimes in this country" At
the spring assizes for the county of Durham on
the 23d of February Lord Chief Justice Coler-
idge in his charge to the grand jury said {:
There are some things so true as to be trite
but because they are true persons are some
times apt to forget that they are true, and one
of these things is this: that crimes of violence,
which in large proportion fill the calendar
with which you have to deal, L think, without a
single exception, began in public houses eng
lish for grog shops) aud were due to drunken
ness. And again he says: 81 think it is
within the course of my duty to say that within
my short experience as a Judge, and having
lived some considerable time in the world
amongst other judges, and judges of much
larger experience than mine, am entirely of
the opinion that if we could make England
sober we might shut up nine-tertbs OF the
jails."
AT great meeting at Liverpool on the 9th
OF February, the Earl Of Litchfeld in the
chair, paper was read by Mr.. VIM. HoyIe,
the eminent statician. in which it was stated
that from 1857 to 1875 the population of the
United Kingdom had increased IS per cent. :
but in the same time there had been au increase
OF lunacy 67 per cent; assaults 36 per cent
breaches of the peace 1872 per cent, malicious
damage to property 56 per cent miscellaneous
!.
larceny by persons under 16 years of age 80 per
cent; drank aud disorderls 130 per cent And
IN the same time the amount of the LIQUOR
trade had increased from e6O,0OO,OOO to e143,-
100000.
Sir r. W. Gordon late Lord Mayor of Lon.
don, IN letter to the London Times says:
THE statistics of crime prove that nine.tenths
arise from drink, bringing poverty and disease
to many deserving families. Can there be any
doubt tn that the curse OF this county is drunken
ness? Then Is 1T not disgraceful that some de-
c'ded movement should not emenats from the
government?' The Times itself in commenting
says; "The great stain of social life in England
among the humber classes has been drunken
ness. lt is the bottle which is the cause of
tnree-hith5 OF the crime and poverty and mis-
cry perpetrated or endured by ths English
peasant and artisan. The judges of the land,
the men OF all others most conversant with the
pathology OF crime, take even larger propor-
tlon Lord Albermarle says not a crime comes
De1ore me which is not directly or indi rectly
caused by drinking. Aud Justice Patter son in
a charge to the grand jury of Norfolk said IF
1t were not for this drinking, you and I, GENTLE
men, would have nothing to do And Baron
Anderson follows: Drunkenness is the most
fruitful form OF crime; if it were removed, this
large caiandar would be very small one
And Judge Wrightman says: There is not one
per cent. OF those atrocious crimes of wife beat
ing, which are recorded In almost every police
report, that has not its origin in drunkenness ;"
AL thls is from that eminently conservative
and cautious print, the London Times.
Mr. Edward Baines, NJ. p, and proprietor OF
that influential paper, Leeds Mercury, saws
alcohol is a treacherous friend, subtle poi
soner, malignant enemy, a midnight assas-
sin: 1t is spendtbrift cheat, liar, thief
and seducer; it breaEs the hearts of wives
it withers, staryes, corrupts and kills children
1t divides families, ruins business, breaks up es-
tates, undermines virtue and destroys charac.
ter; it fills jails warehouses, hospitals, iunatic
asylums, and grave yards; it impudently dis
honors thrones, senates, armies, churches, the
JUDICIAL bench, the pulpit, aud every walk of
public and private life; it ruthlAssly mows
down the goodliest of our youth, ana does not
even spare the fairest of our women; it is the
foulest blot on our national character, and the
greatest robber of our national wealth; at home
and in the colonies it is at this moment the
scourge, the scandal and the curse of Eng
land"
AS Maine proposes resolutely to follow out
her policy of determination to the liquor traffic,
lis important to impress it upon the minds Of
all our people, that her acton is founded in the
highest wisdom, and is in the direction of the
dearest interests of the nation and of society.
NEAL Dow.