The Blackpool Herald. — 1885-03-06 (Blackpool, Lancashire, England)

STRAMIIR "FOSCOLINA."—The Admiralty Registrar has informed the committee of Lloyd's that an order has been made in the Admiralty Division of the High Coutt of Justice, pronouncing that the owners of the steamer Foscolina are answerable for damage in respeet of a collision between that vessel and the steamer Venetia, on June 14th last, to an amount not exceeding the sum of £8,606 17s. 81, and the Court has ordered that all parties interested ate ,to come in and enter their claims in respect of these damages on or before May 24th next. It will be remembered that this steamer visited Fleetwood last year, and the captain fell over the dock side, along with the mate of the Ibex, John Macdonald Gray, who was drowned,  He(  Ithose  sure J were present protes,t against being represented b these people. (Cheers.) Providing drin was not the best way of entertaining visitors. (Applause.) He might give em an instance of this in directit their attention to Raikes Hall Gardens  [Mr. Balmer here made very strong reference to what he had seen as the result of young people visiting the above garden., and remarked that if he had to go to prison for wlet he had said he would not regret having said it] Proceeding, the lecturer said there were splendid, virtuous and motile men and women who conducted lodging-houses who did not allow drink to enter their houses, and who kept daughters 'in virtue and sons in honour. All the large hotels had their bars and vaults, and these he regarded as recruiting stations for the vices of the streets. The magistrate to whom he referred talked about the small number of convictions during the year, but it was not the number of publicans who were convicted, but the number of those to whom drink was sold. Looking at the former, however, they had before them one case of attempted suicide and a cab escapade which was too indecent to be related there. Were they to submit to innocence being outraged as was the case on the occasion referred to, and were such monstrous actions to be allowed to pass unpunished. The speech of the chairman of the Licensed Victuallers' meeting having been analysed, Councillor Bickerstaffe came under review. He took an honour in being a member of the Executive Committee of the National :Defence League, and the higher his distinction was in this direction, the lower he sank in the estimation of the lecturer. Was the National Defence League formed to protect the rights of the people for the widows and orphats,', for downtrodden womanhood, or degraded manhood? No, it was let the purpose of maintaining the 'liquor - traffic for the purpose of j supporting those who flourished on the ruin of others. Mr. Bickerstaffe was thankful to the House of Lords for protecting the liberties of the people, and seeing justice done to a respectable body of traders. The publicans evidently realised the necessity of blowing their own trumpets, which on the face of it looked suspicimes. He maintained that if an angel from heaven were to retail drink that it would have just the same disastrous effects, :dada was against the traffic and not the men that he raised his voice. Publicans claimed their respectability because they were licensed by law, and he trusted the people of England would never rest satisfied until they had returned men to Parliament who would regulate it as it ought to be regulated. Mr. Bickerstaffe said they could not lessen these evils by act of Parliament, but he maintained that Parliament could give to people the right to say whether they would or would not have this traffic in their midst. (Applause.) This gentleman ad. vised them to be more temperate in their language. If he (the speaker) was rocking a cradle, he would do it gently, but if lie saw a house on fire he would adapt !himself to the requirements of the occasion. (Cheers.) He had no patience with soft kidglove style of speech. They, might represent him as violent in speech, but while he was in Blackpool be would speak as he felt he ought to speak: without fear or favour. (Applause.) Having given such advice, they would naturally expect Mr. Bickerstaffe to be careful. But they were told that if they wanted a nation of canting hypocrites they must get the Sunday Closing Bill passed, Mr. Bickerstaffe posing more as a righteous Pharisee than as the repentent publican. Reference was here made to the letter which Mr. Bickerstaffe read at the Licensed Victuallers' dinner, and to the one which stated that 'a party of visiters from Preston tried in vaig to get either a dinner or tea at the Wsllington. Mr. Balmer thought the editor of a contemporary might have allowed Mr. Bickerstaffe to explain the matter rather than make an apology for him, and he considered that if the paper showed less sympathy with the drink traffic it would be none the worse. (Applause.) He was a Liberal himself, but not political idolators and when he saw newspapers pandering to this evil he would not hesitate to speak out against it. It was satisfactory to know that Mr. Bickerstaffe read his letter at the meeting, and he would undertake to write another if it could be read ,at the great meeting which was to be held here next year. It was to be a great meeting— (laughter)—and they were told that £l.ooo would be brought to thetown, but he hoped it •would not be repeti)jon of "our cat and another." (Great laughter.) "The rev. gentlenian," they were told, "must have been intoxicated with envy, hatred, and malice, id all uncharitableness when he penned ungentlemanly, unchristian. and uncalled-for remarks." That referred to the letter which he had read to them. What a lot of things would make a man drunk. (Laughter.) They might be drunk with envy, drunk with hatred, drunk with malice, and drunk with uncharitableness. (Great laughter.) Then Mr. Bickerstaffe thanked the Lord that he did not belong to the flock of one of these teetotal dissenting ministers. They might be Fenians or dynamitards, it was said, but he (the speaker) undertook to say that, while he had no syrispathy with those who resorted to bloodshed and tyranny, yet, in their struggles for freedom, all those lawless criminals and vagabonds combined had not done a millionth part of the mischief which had been affected by the Licensed Victuallers. (Cheers.) Then Mr. Bickerstaffe told them that nearly every church in Blackpool had been born in the hotels. Personally, he was glad that he was not born in one, and if the church to which he belonged sprung from such a source he was glad he was not present at the birth. (Laughter) Mr..Bickerstaffe did not wish the Licensed Victuallers to be treated as wished to passedtreat them Talmo the lowest of the low or as slaves. Nobody wo eo mr d e t immel ets h palsacsesuc,ha Sometimes h singing " Rule Brittania, Brittania rules the waves, Britons nevtr shall be slaves." Perhare they had heard it. It was a splen.  A