The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1872-07-06 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

HABITUAL DRUNKARDS.  The Select Committee appointed to inquire into the best plan for the control and management of habitual drunkards have considered the matters to them referred, and have agreed to the following report— That there is entire concurrence of all the witnesses hi the aUsolute inadequacy of existing laws to check drunkenness, whether casual or constant : rendering it desirable that fresh legislation on the subject should take place, and I 7 at the laws should be made more simple, uniform, and stringent. ',This is the more requisite, as there Is much evidence to show that In large towns and populous districts the great evil of drunkenness is on the increase, attributed in some measure to the higher wages and shortened hours of labour. This does not appear to be equally true of agricultural districts and populationa ' •  " That small fines and short imprisonments are proved to be useless. as well by the testimony of competent witnesses as by the fact that the same individual is convicted over and over again, to even more than 100 times. -•-- • ••  " That drunkenness is the prolific parent of crime, disease, and p.Areity has received much additional confirmation. It is evidence that a large proportion of the criminals passing thr ugh our gaols attributed their fall to drink, one witness having stated the amount as equal to 75 per cent. in a particular gaol ; about 20 per cent, of the insanity recorded in Great Bi itain, and about 14 per cent. in the United Atates of America, are placed to the same cause; and nearly one-balf of the idiots in the latter country are stated to be the offspring of intemperate parents. "That occasional drunkenness may, and very frequently does, become confirmed and habitual, anti Boon passes into the condition of a disease uncontrollable by the individual, unless indeed some extraneous influence, either punitive or curative, is brought into play. "That self-control is suspended or annihilated ; moral obligations are disregarded ; the decencies of private and the duties of public life are alike set at naught ; and individuals obey only an overwhelming craving for stimulant, to which everything is sacrificed. " That this is confined to no class, condition, or sex, and hardly to any age. " That the moderate use of alcoholic liquors is unattended by any had effects, while there is much to prove that excess In ardent spirits is for more deleterious than similar excess in wine or beer. There are also strong reasons for believing that some considerable am ant of helpless drunkenness and frenzied intoxicati m is due to adulteration, or to the use of new spirits containing substances of the nature of ethers.  " That it in n evidence that there Is a very large amount of drunkenness among all classes and both sexes, which never becomes public, or is dealt with by the authorities, but which is probably even a more fertile source of misery, poverty and degradation than that which comes before the police courts for this no legal remedy exists, and without further legislation it must go on unchecked. Legislation in such cases was strongly advocated by all the witnesses before the committee.  That the absence of all power to cheek the downward course .4 a drunkard, and the urgent necessity of prm Wing It, has been dwelt upon by nearly every witness; and the legal control of an hkbitual inebriate, either in a reform& tory or in a private dwelling, is recommended, in the belief that many eases of death resulting from intoxication, including suicides and homicides, may thus be prevented. - • • • - ••  " That this power is obtained easily, at a moderate cost, and free from the danger of abuse and undue Infringement of personal liberty, hue ben stated In evidence, by quotations from American and Canadian statutes (question 2,020 i as well as by the witnesses from America. " That though the habit of frequent or prolonged intoxication leads ix the end to insanity, yet there is a difference between the paroxysm of intoxication and insanity proper, it, iliathict as to forbid the plea, in bar id punishment, that an offence SS conimitted while drunk) still placing inebriates in lunatic asylums (except for a very brief period—e.g., diving a paroxysm of delirium tame.) Is improper, and should not be allowrd. The presence of recovering inebriates in an ordinary hospital f v the insane is prejudicial to the other inmates In various import oit particulars, while this d'acipline anti diet needed for the (inane are unsuitable for the convalescing inebriate. That the question of pros iding more efficient laws againat initial i.O can lot drunkenness arises so naturally out of this inrioiry tbst suggestions to remedy the avowed inadequacy of the law are here offered.  i;etieiift  other  - .• That the fine of be. imposed by the 4th and 21st of James 1. was a m ch heavier line 4 the time it was enacted than it is now. and it might be expedient to raise it to a sum of not exceeding 4it. The fine should be recorded against the hellvtinal it. a Drunkarda. Register, and be made progrewlive and t!! the fine ,hould be added the costs often incurred by the police or the public in conveying the offender to the station. This sh u'd apply to casts of common street drunkenness ususliy clailed as ' drunk and incapable.' That, after three convictions within 12 months, the magistrates should be empowered to require the offender to find a surety or sureties for sobriety and good conduct for a fixed period, and in default of the mine, or in case the surety is forfeited by a fresh offence, then to sentence the offender to • considerable period of detention in an industrial reformatory for inebiates, as hereafter recommended. The system of sureties ha,. been applied with excellent results in Sheffield ; and though it appears practicable undar the common law, it would be well to repeal the old statutes and enact new. There is good reason for believing that such a measure ! would not only have much restrictive influence on the drunkard, but would bring the efforts of relatives and friends. and especially of the surety, into active exercise. That all fines and convictions should be registered and recorded in the Drunkards' Register, and the Court of Petty Sessions should have the power of estreating the recognizance* when forfeited, without being obliged to resort to  the present slow and expensive mode of recovery. " That when an offender has been called upon to find sureties, and has been unable to do so, or when by a fresh offence he hag forfeited them, or when he has been called upon a second time to find sureties, he should be deemed and registered u an 'habitual drunkard,' and as such may be