Bridport, Beaminster, and Lyme Regis Telegram and Dorset, Somerset, and Devon Advertiser. — 1882-03-31 (Bridport, Dorset, England)

INTEMPERATE" TEMPERANCE." To the Editor.  Sir,—No one who has the welfare of his fellow men at heart min read in the public papers . the daily reared of canine directly or indirectle, attributable to the abuse of aloaholic drink, without wishing to do all in his power to redoes the so-celled "mations!" crime of drunkenness. It mutt therefore be with deep regret that such an one reads the intemperate speeches which are frequently made in the name of temperance at meetings such as those held lasV week in the Bournemouth Winter Garden. Those who value truth even more than teetotalism must ever find It iinpossible to ce-operate with men who bolster up • cause which requires no such fictitious Ind with slander and falsehood; and when men in the position of Canon Wilberforce descend to the use of such language as y attributed to him in the report of his speech at that meeting, it is no wonder if the small fry of teetotal stump-orators indulge in—if possible—still grosser epithets for those who do not agree with them in their condemnation of the moderate use of alcoholic !ignore. We cannot but remember that if the Decalogue contains no special oommendment against intemperance, it does contain the confilpsedment "Thou shalt not beer false witness against thy 'neighbour," and I fail to eee that such an accusation as Canon Wilberforce brings against the vendors ot alcoholic liquors is rendered any less a breach of title command by his somewhat hypocritical preface that "he had not one unkind word to say of them." He is reported to have said that the trade itself "ii devilish," and that men (meaning, I presume, brewers, distillers of spirits' and importers of wine) are sent to Parliament "who have built up colossal fortunes out of the misery and destitution of their brethren, and whose every guinea is spotted with the blood of widows and, orphans." He ie here apeareetly not speaking of those who conduct an illegitimate trade in liquor, either by its adulteration or by fixing it in excessive quantities upon customers, as may be dote by some publicans, but he sppliies, if I underitand him, this gross calumny to the whole trade. Canon Wilberforce thus places himself in the dilemma, that either he must, with numerous infidel teetotalers condemn alcoholic liquor in itself and pronounce its use to be sinful, which involves nothing short of blasphemy against Him who, in His own words "came eating and drinking," er if he admit that it is permissible to follow the divine example, he must be guilty of the grossest injustice in condemning those who are in that case engaged in legitimate trade, for to admit that the use of it is lawful, and yet to make the vendors responsible for its abuse is no whit leas preposterous than to charge with murder the chemist who told to Dr. Lamson the aconitine with which he committed the crime, for which that wretched man is sondemned to the gallows ; or to say that the money of chemists in general is stained with the blood of murdered men or miserable suicides, because the poisonous drugs they vend are thus abused; or again to make the gunsmiths responsible for the crimes of Irish assassins, It is a remarkable fact that as though with • view to the teetotal heresy of the present day, our Lord not may Himself used wine, but by • spacial miracle actually made it for the marriage feast when the supply ran short, thus for ever giving His sanction and approbation to the produoers of alcoholic liquors. I am not desirous of entering into a defence of the moderate use of alcoholic drinks, but will only observe that beyond question numbers of persons have injured their health (some fatally) by total abstinence, and that If it be a gin to injure the health by excess, it may at least be open to question whether it be not equally • do to do so by abstinence—a view which appears confirmed by the admonition of St. Paul to Timothy. I have confined myself to one quotation from Canon Wilberforce's speech, but before closing I will sire one more, as to which I will leave it to your readers to judge, whether it be not something more than • breach of good taste, to give expression to such an implication as is involved in it, before • mixed audience, and at • meeting convened for the promotion of temperance. He is reported to have said, "The first thing they " (the dere, I suppose) "had to do was to put themselves on the @ids of the people of England in all their trials and suffering; I and in all the oppression, the robbery and the wrong that was beeped upon them."—l am, sir, your obedient I tervent. H. IltAnccrrni Maxon.; ' The Lodge, Parketone. March filth,