The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-10-13
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS.
An Instance Of the Rigid Enforce
ment of English Liquor Laws.
Church Official Fined for Purchasing
Wine on Sunday-The Church as an
Encourager of the Traffic.
Correspondence of the Indianapolis journal.

laws regulating the retail traffic in liquor,
this may appropriately begin with an in
stance of recent occurrence which shows how
scrupulously these laws are enforced. The
town of Derby is the scene and the parties
concerned are the landIady of the White
Swan and the sexton of St. Peters Church.
The pubIic-house and the church stand oppo-
site to each other. 1t is Sunday morning.
The service has begun, and at its close the
holy communion will be administered. The
sacred vessels are in their places, but there is
no wine in them. What can De done? A
happy thought strikes the man in charge.
He will slip across to the Swan and get a bot
tie, and, OF course, if it is not paid for until
Monday no harm will be done. Besides, it
is for good cause. The landlady looks at
the matter in the same light, and the trans
action is accomplished, the sexton hurrying
back to the church. In a few moments the
fluid, obtained serruptitiously from the
shelves of the convenient public, will be
cOnsecrated, and all will be well. But "the
best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft
aglee," and so in this case, for the sexton has
proceeded but a few steps when he finds
himself in the clutches of an officious po-
liceman, the final result being that both he
and the landlady are fned-the one for sell
ing liquor out of hours and the other for
buying it. The magistrates were very hard
hearted. 1t was nothing to them that the
wine was needed for the hottest of purposes,
nor did the plea of the offenders that they
had innocently done the same thing before,
prove of any avail. The bench saw an in
fraction of a statute, and the attending cir
cumstances aggravated rather than palliated
the case. The whole affair, they said, was
''undignifed and improper" Such is law
in England. "Straining at a gnat," does
some one observe? That may be so; but
there is no harm in doing this, as I nnder-
stand it, unless you have previously swal-
lowed a camel; and the fact is that in adj
ministering the laws relating to the retail
sale Of liquor English justices do not bolt
either little insects or big animals, but mete
out the stipulated penalties for every offense,
greater or less, without fear and without
partiality.
THE CHURCH AND THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.
This incident, bringing the established
church into such close and unpleasant
relations with the saloon business, re-
minds one forcibly of what, up
to quite recently has been the
normal attitude of that body toward this
traffic-one that is OF frendliness and abso-
lutte encouragement The Church of Eng
land, as whole, is the largest landowner in
the kingdom, and in this connection it has
been frequently charged that she is Also
taking the country through, the largest
owner of public houses. If Canon WILDER
force, q distinguished minister of this church,
may be believed, the Bishop of London
when he leaves his house in St. James's
square and rides to his palace at Fulham.
passes on his way more than one hundred
bar-rooms built on land belonging to the
church. The canon has also charged that
the Royal Oak' at Noting Hill is on the
land of the Bishop of London. and the
Hero of Waterloo in another part of the
city, on that of the Archbishop of Canter-
bury, the returns of the former being not
less than $3.50, 600 year, or more than the
maintenance of all the places of worship all
the schools and the police force of the dis
trict within the diameter of mile, while
the last named pays rental quite as large.
An investigation of these charges has proven
them to be slightly overdrawn, but the
fact is not denied that there
are large number of these places on church
property and that the church derives a con-
income from them. For the flu
ture, however. a policy of retrenchment is to
be pursued. The ''publics" within the con-
troll of the establishment are to be weeded out
those only being continued which are either
absolutely needed for the accommodation of
the surrounding neighborhood, or are held
under conditions that cannot legally be
broken. Such a course will do something to
ha lioinr
represents, from a stigma that has hitherto
sadly marred its reputation, and taken in
with the fact that in its ministry
there are now upwards of 5000 abstainers,
including not few bishops, the new depar-
ture is certainly one of the most hopeful
signs of the times. The other religious bodies
in this country are taking position on the
temperance question that will soon entitle
them to rank with the most advanced of their
brethren in America The Wesleyan Metho-
dists have about 900 abstaining clergymen,
the Congregationalists 800, the Baptists 600,
and the remainder, l am assured, in about
equal proportion, with teetotal sentiments
still extending aud new recruits coming i'll
every day.
ASPIRING TO THE LORD MAYoRsHIP.
From the troubles of publicans and sim
ners turn to those of the prospective Lord
Mayor of this great city of London. We are
nearing the time when a new incumbent
must step into this office. By an immemor-
ial custom the appointment falls upon the
senior alderman. This course is never depart
ed from, that is, hardly ever. In the natural
course of events the person selected would
be Mr.. s. E. Hadley. But some OF his at
dermanic brethren, with whom the election
rests see in this gentleman a certain def
cheney which IN their judgment amounts to
a disqualification. It is the same sad lack
that was urged seven years ago against the
head of ''the old ticket" Mr.. Hadley has
never been spliced and some think that a
Lord Mayor without a lady mayoress to
mend his socks and do the honors at the big
bIow-outs in Egyptian Hall, would be civic
altogether below par. But Mr..
Hadley, who appears to have strong aspira-
tons for the place, is not willing to be set
down upon at the pinnacle of his ambition
simply because he omitted little circum-