Our horror of the wide-open Floodgates of crime in the perspective, cannot make us forget the partly-open gates of License which already inundate the land with an amount of pauperism, licentiousness, and crime that even now counteracts the efforts put forth by the earnest and the good for the improvement of the people, and who can be wise as well as good only by going to the root of the evil, and removing that which frustrates endeavor and saddens hope!

This brings us to some other remarkable proofs of the proposition that the facilities for drinking measure the drunkenness of a people; a proposition which the Publicans of Birmingham lately put on record at a public meeting of their body, as their matured opinion

"That it is clearly shown by Parliamentary returns, that vice "and drunkenness are in proportion to the number of public-houses, "and to the facilities for obtaining intoxicating drink."

The conscientious reader will ask, how then can any moral men keep such places as drink-shops, admitted by the Keepers thereof to be the certain nurseries of national profligacy, and the sure index of its extent? The answer is at hand, and opens out a deplorable view of the selfishness and iniquity of the system. Free-trade in drink was looming in the distance (the Maine-Law further behind); and, in their spasmodic alarm at the chance of early losing their present Monopoly of Mischief, they turn patriotic and moral, hunt up the damning facts which demonstrate the true character of the Trade by its issues, and force them before the Parliamentary Committee on Public Houses. We trust the truth elicited will yet flash conviction on the national mind.

§ 28. In the Parliamentary Committee (17th June, 1853), Mr HENRY DANSON, Beer-agent, and representative of 500 Liverpool Publicans, gives evidence on the point under discussion.*

"1599. I suppose it is the interest of every Publican to get as much custom as he can?-Certainly, in a respectable manner, as any other trades

man.

"4605. Are there any Magistrates upon the bench who want to encourage Temperance in the peculiar way that the Societies called Temperance Societies do ?-I do not know of any.-I think they are of the substantial class who overlook those foolish notions.

*In that Committee the chairman, the Right Honorable C. P. VILLIERS, Judge Advocate, did infinite honor to his name and his antecedent labors in the cause of humanity, combining the suavity and dignity of the true gentleman with the sagacity and acuteness of the Lawyer and the Judge. He was the only man on the Committee who showed a thorough master of the subject, and to his judicious questions the public are indebted for eliciting the most important evidence, and for keeping the true issues constantly in sight. The manner also in which he sifted facts out of pompous imbecility in the Berkeley Committee (where the Report is in flat contradiction to the evidence), is both instructive and amusing. All-through he quietly insists upon the principle that opinion was valuable only for its ground in fact; and thus he makes even Bluster refute itself. We could not avoid this passing tribute to the Chairman of the first Committee.

E

"4629. Are you aware at all of the comparative amount of drunkenness between Liverpool and Manchester?—I do not understand how you put the question.

"4630. What is the comparative character of the two towns for drunkenness of the porulation?-I have a statement here which I believe to be virtually correct. In Dublin there is one out of every 21 of the population. "4631. Chairman: Convicted of drunkenness ?-Yes; in Glasgow one in 22; in Edinburgh, one in 59; in Liverpool, one in 91 ; in London one in 106; Birmingham, one in 313; and Manchester one in 600.* In the first three places, Dublin, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, there is the free licensing system, where it is sold from Grocer's shops or any other place. Manchester is the largest population of the kingdom with the smallest number of [Spirit] licences, and consequently, the smallest number of drunken persons.

"4675. Chairman: Is the return which you have made, for the purpose of showing that the greater the facility for selling spirits, the more is the drunkenness?-YES."

§ 29. Mr Alderman WIRE, sheriff of London, gave most valuable evidence on this topic: and, we believe, was both frank and conscientious. A few passages must be reproduced :

"10053. Mr W. Brown: I do not mean to ask you an offensive question. Do you appear here as a volunteer witness to defend the principles you yourself entertain?-I told you before, and I set out by saying, that I come here as the Solicitor to the Licensed Victuallers' body. I also added, that nothing on earth would induce me to come before the Committee to state opinions I did not most conscientiously entertain; and I think I have had greater opportunities than most men for ascertaining both what is the feeling of the publicans, and what is the working of the system.

10190. If the trade were thrown open?-In the end public morals would be outraged. You will find that no publican, no assembly, no large number of Englishmen, have asked that the licence system should be destroyed, and the trade thrown open [instead]. If there is any thing that they desire more than another, it is that there may be greater restriction. I am anxious to add, that the Licensed Victuallers of London desire the assistance of the Police in clearing their houses.

"4964. Do you say that the disposition to drink spirits has rathar declined?-Very greatly.

"4965. And not owing to less opportunity of getting spirits, or from spirits being dear, but from an improvement in the moral habits of the people? Yes.

"4966. And if there was a greater temptation offered, their improved habits would induce them not to accede to it?-1 think the more temptation you put in the way, the larger would be the consumption."

Mr WIRE, as it seems to us, adopts a sound view of the facts. Hence we said, the facilities will measure the drunkenness, other things being the same. The Traffic has a corrupting ten

*All this must be taken with reservation. In Manchester, for example, the Police are instructed to bring up' only the disorderly drunkards; the rest are led home. Mr DANSON, again, omits all notice of 1,312 Beerhouses. The proportion of drunkenness to population in Liverpool is l'in 20-not one in 91: which 91, however, may be a misprint for 1 in 19, by transpos tion of figures. Liverpool is as bad as Glasgow. In Manchester, again, the foolish notions' of Temperance have greatly prevailed.

This is only true when qualified by what follows. Vast assemblies in Exeter Hall, Birmingham Town Hall, in Manchester Free Trade Hall, and other places, have asked for Prohibition or Proscription.

dency; but, on the other hand, knowledge and culture, and especially temperance knowledge specifically bearing on the point, have a counteracting influence, and where they do not triumph they may restrain. Alter the conditions of the problem-add more objective temptation, or produce less subjective culture and antagonistic conviction, which is certain to be the case in the second generation-and the issue varies.

"4968. Still they (the people) drink less spirits, do they not?*-The more the temptation is removed, the less will be consumed.

"4969. [But] you refer it to some cause acting on their habits?—I refer it to all the causes that have been operating on the habits of the people. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact, that the progress of education, the diffusion of knowlege, the opening of Mechanics' Institutions, of free Libraries and Lecture rooms, and a variety of other things, have, no doubt, tended. I think, if you place temptation in the way of the people, by granting licences indiscriminately, you will do a great deal to destroy those other and better influences which are prevailing amongst the people.

"4973. Will you explain what you meant by the increase being a temptation ?-I mean. if you licence more public-houses than what is called Publicnecessity' requires, you immediately open the temptation for the people to go there and arink.

"4987. Are not the public better judges of the want of Publicans than the Magistrates?—I should say it was not so.

"Why?-You know the publican has not only his own interest to look to, but he is compelled [by the theory of the law] to look to the interests of the public [as regards the fruits of the traffic]; and you will at once see that a person who is licensed as a publican, ought to have a district assigned to him, which will give him a legitimate trade, BECAUSE HE DEALS IN A DANGEROUS ARTICLE."

Thus will the truth turn up! The Alliance, however, draws another kind of inference, viz., that no person should be licensed as a publican, or have any district assigned to him, however small, because, to deal out a dangerous article at all, is a most illegitimate trade.

30. The fact of facility for drinking measuring popular

*It should be borne in mind that the outside, dram-shop facility. is only one form of temptation. Within the last twelve years Spirits have been banished from the Tables and Sideboards of tens of thousands of families. The proposition, therefore, accords with the facts, inversely stated. That is, some temptations being lessened, Drunkenness is lessened. It was from overlooking, for the occasion, the counteracting influences, that The Times, of Jan. 8, 1855, in its leader against the principles of The Alliance,' forged the following fallacy:

NATIONAL drunkenness is not caused by cheapness, or prevented by dearness. "FOR the soberest classes are undoubtedly those to whom the price of liquor is a "matter of indifference."

To which we reply, first, a nation's drunkenness cannot be disproved by the sobriety of a class: nor, therefore, anything as to the cause of that drunke: ness. A pure class may exist in an impure nation, as a Church amidst iniquity, but that only proves a cause of goodness in the class resisting evil; not that the nation is NOT corrupted by a special agency. Thus, physically, a class may be exempt from miasmatic poison, while the masses suffer. Second, no one contends that the simple element of accessibility must, by some metaphysical connection, cause all men and all classes equally to drink. What is affirmed is, that ceteris paribus, facilities for drinking will be found to promote drunkenness. Even the richest men regulate their purchases by price: but other considerations may of course limit.

drunkenness, is shown in another way, both negatively and positively. We refer to the greater drunkenness of Sunday, as compared with any ordinary day; and to the gratifying decrease of cases of drunkenness on the Sabbath and Monday mornings since the partial closing of Public-houses on Sunday in England, and the total closing of them for the sale of liquors in Scotland. Two or three testimonies must suffice as regards Scotland. The Rev. BERKELEY ADDISON, M.A., late of Edinburgh, in his tract on the subject, testifies "That drunkenness has been expelled from our crowded streets on Sabbath evenings, and a propriety of demeanor on the part of the public, and a calmness strangely contrasting with what was once customary, have succeeded."

The late Lord Provost of Edinburgh, DUNCAN MCLAREN, in his admirable letters to the Times, has shown that the act has reduced Sunday offences, in Edinburgh, 75 per cent; emptied the cells of the prison; postponed the necessity for a new gaol, thereby saving the city £12,000; and, in Scotland at large, reduced the consumption of spirits 957,830 gallons, or one-seventh of the whole!

The late Lord Provost of Glasgow has published the following returns relative to that city, showing the number of persons taken into custody from 3 A. M. of Sunday, till 10 A.M. of Monday, charged with being drunk and incapable, drunk and disorderly, and drunk and criminal otherwise.

The decrease in PUBLIC HOUSES during the year 1855-6, in DUNDEE, was 118; the corrresponding decrease in the whole number of cases brought before the Police Court, nearly 1,000; of cases of drunken disorder, 611.

It has been during the operation of the English Act for the last few years, contemporaneously with the moral suasion of the temperance reformers, that the comparative amount of drunkenness has been lessening. The following document (of the date of 1854) signed by Dr W. F. HOOK, vicar, the Rev. W. SINCLAIR, and fifty-five other clergymen, expresses an important truth, and is, at the same time, valuable testimony from reflecting

men:

To the Honorable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled:

The Petition of the undersigned, Clergy in the Rural Deanery of Leeds. HUMBLY SHEWEth,

That the opening of public-houses and beer-shops on any part of the Lord's Day, according to the present practice, allures great numbers of the working classes from the worship of Almighty God, producing ignorance of religion, and neglect of its duties.

That the Lord's Day being the day of leisure for the working classes, is that on which they are peculiarly exposed to temptations of this nature.

That the statistics of crime clearly prove that the general sale of intoxicating drinks on the Lord's day is a prolific source of crime and demoralization.

That the partial restrictions placed upon the opening of public-houses and beer-shops on the Lord's Day of late years, have been invariably followed by a striking diminution in the number of committals for offences of all kinds.*

Your petitioners, therefore, humbly pray your Honorable House to enact a law which shall close public-houses and beer-shops during the whole of the Lord's Day, except to lodgers and bona fide travellers.

And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc.

The evidence of both the recent Parliamentary Committees fully substantiates these positions, but it is hardly necessary that we should occupy space by illustrating a mere fragment of the 'Alliance' doctrine. It is enough that we insist on the fact, that, since legislation on religion, as such, is clearly beyond the true scope of earthly governments, the principle which leads to the total prohibition of the Liquor Traffic on the first day of the week, must, if consistently carried out, terminate in a Maine Law, which shall protect us from its consequences during the other six. Even as a question of degree of mischief, there is a five times stronger reason for a Prohibitory Law on the six working days, than for such a law applicable only to the Sabbath. First, because the debauchery and crime of the week traceable to the Traffic outweigh by five to one that of the single day,and second, because the week-day prohibition can alone give full efficiency to that of the Sabbath, by removing the material instrument and pecuniary motive of evasion and temptation, and refusing to the appetite of the drinker week-day facilities for feeding it.

§ 31. An elaborate proof of the principles of the 'Alliance' might be almost superseded by the report of the proceedings at any of the Brewsters' Sessions in our large towns; for, either by the Magistrates, the Publicans, or the Parishioners, the chief facts and propositions are brought out. Take, by way of sample, from the Leeds Mercury, of August 30, 1855, the account of the proceedings at the Brewster Sessions for that borough, held on the preceding day.

1st. Forty-three licences were suspended for violations of

In the Metropolitan districts the effect of the partial prohibition was immediately visible in the diminished number of persons taken into custody on Sunday; the Journal of the Statistical Society (vol. iv. p. 268), showing, that 981 persons less were apprehended on Sunday during five months in 1840, than in the corresponding five months previous to the passing of the Act. In Bristol the average of apprehensions for the three years before the Act (1818) ws-misdemeanore, 2,415; drunkenness, 584; but for three years since the Act-misdemea nors, 1,560; drunkenness, 374. At Leeds, the returns of those who have been in custody as drunken and disorderly characters, give an average per annum for three years prior to the Act, of 423; since, of 341. In Manchester, where the Act came. into operation in 1846, the average per annum for all offences committed, for three years before the Act, 10,828; since, 5,850. (See ? 56.)