Year: 1863




suggested to King Edgar the ordinance prohibiting
the establishment of more than one alehouse In
each village. We do not read that even that med
ding and fanatcal prelate went far as to recon-
mend The total suppression of the trahc In liquor
in any place where two-thirds of the inhabitants,
in lit of penitenee, might pass such resolution.
The idea of thus interfering with liberty has been
reserved for te present century, and Is defended
on the purest democratic principles. In a memo
rial presente last Tuesday to the Home Secretary
by deputation of the United Kingdom Alliance
- the right OF the people to protect themselves
from the consequences Of the sale of intoxicating
liquors. is laid down as automatic truth. This
right is to be exercised, not by voluntary absti-
nence from strong drink, but by making others alb
stain from it. The licensing power is to be trans
ferred from the hands of the magistrates to those
of "the people, for whose cOnvenlences the licenses
are granted" In other words, majority of two
thirds in a meeting to be convened in each parish
is to have absolute veto the existence OF any
publichouse or beershop within its limits. 1t was
not until he was pressed by Sir u. Grey that one
of the members of this deputatiOn conceded that
the veto might be annual rather than final, and in
any case the - two-thrds" are to mean twO-thrds,
not Of the inhabitants, but of 81 those voting"
The state of blockade thus to be proclaimed Is
called 50 being exempted from the operation o. the
provisions for licensing the sale of intoxicating IL
quors, and the power of proclaiming 1t is claimed
Il
tyranny of the Executive. AS it is, 1" wealthy
landowners may insert restrictive clauses in leases
or stipulate the sale of land for building pur-
poses that publichouse shall be erected upon it,
and the memorialsts argue that what private
proprietor may lawfully do ino sectly may, forti
orr, be done directly without injustice by whole
neighborhoOd. They call upon the Government,
therefore, to " recognize the earnest desire of the
people, by introducing s. comprehensive mea-
sure" of which this sweeping provision shall be
the main feature


1t is certainly not because these doctrines are
new that we have given them this prominence.
For years past this well-meaning agitation has been
going on, and at every meeting of the Social Sci
ence Congress papers have been read advocating
the very legislation which would please the United
Kingdom Alliance. There has been attempt
in than one great town to make the "Permis-
slve Bill' party question, like the Maine Liquor
Law In the United States, and it has been openly
maintained that it will not do to wait till the
distant day when the passiyeness, interest, or ig
norance of great part of the nation collectively
shall be overcome" The sin of drunkenness must
be put down with a strong and arbitrary hand, and
a higher law" must override the scruples which
urists or statesmen mgh entertain on the subject
With men of this spirit practical difficulties
nothing and we fear Sir George Grey did but
waste his breath in showing that ''the effect would
be to drive people to obtain liquors in way which
would be more Objectionable than the present one"
that as the plan could not be carried out consist
ently 80 the creation of monopoly and the pro
duction of bad and dear beer' must follow from it,
and that - the question really is, what is practical
be!" Logic is lost upon people who believe that
their first assumption is supremely and eternal
ly true that it will support any conclusion. This
is exactly the position of these gentlemen, and
they make no secret of it. The speeches at Tenn
perance meetings and most of the Temperance pub
licatons are entirely devoted to the proof of the
truism that drunkenness is the greatest curse of
society. The apostles OF total abstinence demon
strate with superauous cogency, and illustrate with
an overwhelming parade of examples, the almost
selfevident proposition that drink causes more
idleness crime, disease, want, and misery than all
other vices put together. They quote from the
charges of criminal Judges, from the writings of
philanthrOpists, and from the confessions of re-
formed drunkards, to persuade that it % creates
seven-t tenths OF our pauperism, two-thirds of our
lunacV, and cne-haf Of our disease and premature
DEATH. Let grant all these startling assertions,
and admit, too, the still more incredible paradox
that it entails yearly loss of not less than
100 900 .000i sterling upon the inhabitants of the
United Kingdom what then! The natural in
ference would surely be, that all these evils
cept the last, result from the abuse of thing
which reason and experience show to have its leg
innate USE we should do all in our power to check
the former and develop habit of self-restraint
which will be satisfied with the latter. There is
no lack of disposition to promote both those OBJ
jects. The law does do something to put a stop to
drunkenness, and by placing large class of licen-
under magisterial control provides some securi-
ty for such houses being well conducted. If plan
were proposed to give greater stringency and con-
sistency to this power of regulation-as, for In
stance, by limiting the hours of traffic In liquor
still further, making the penalties for infringing
the conditions of licence more certain, or inst-
tuf hort hapr hOus-tha
Alliance might count on a favorable consideration
of it by every sensible man. But their pretensons
go far beyond this They claim sympathy for
their successful crusades against excessive drink
ing-in which. by the way, they have had the aid
of all the religious and moral agencies in the coun
try-and yet they tell us in the same breath that
they are poweress to combat it, unless they are
armed with legal authority to make it impossible.
They despair of getting labOring men to be mod
crate in their potatOns, and they want to confer
on q mixed majority of Teetotallers and contrite
% victims of intemperance" the right of cutting
off the temperate minority from access to glass of
beer.


OF course it never occurs to advanced Abolition
lists to consider what they doing when they in
duce their diciples to put themselves and others
into leading strings If every fermeDted liquor is
pernicious to body and soul, it is worth any risk
to debar people from tasting it. But if it be not,
as most of US believe, may not the very effort IN
volyed In making proper use OF II be valuable
piece of education! man who has taken the
pledge and keeps it may be superior to habitual
drunkard, but is he equal to the man who needs no
such protection against himself. Suppose the
same amount of persuasion and influence that
would be required to get vote OF this kind carried
and renewed for several years to be expended in
increasing the attractions of home and rational
amusement to the working man, and In fortifying
him against temptation-would the result be less
valuable? Moreover, in this case violence
would have been done to the rights of others, and
the strong would not have been ruthlessly sacrhc-
ed to the imaginary interests of the weak. The
best proof that the temperance party themselves
feel the force of this consideration is the common


that drnn Ia acarcelv be called