§ 60. The Reverend Chancellor RAIKES, at a public meeting, convened to consider the subject of Reformatory Schools for Juvenile Delinquents, went direct to the root of that question, in the following words :

"If," said he, "it should ever be asked, as assuredly it would, how is it that the parents in England are found deficient in those moral and natural feelings which usually bind the parent to the child-that a country which possesses the Bible, and boasts of religious privileges, is still more backward than any other country of the world in the fulfilment of its duties? the only answer that could be given was, that there was one prevailing vice among the lower orders of England, which the legislature could and must meet, if it ever hoped to check these evils. Something must be done to stay the awful curse of drunkenness in this country. He appealed to his reverend brethren around whether destitute children were not invariably the children of drunkards? The vice of drunkenness had been encouraged and fostered by repeated Acts of Parliament, which had brought the evil to its present pitch. He was old enough to remember the introduction of the Beershop Act; and he had seen its effects spreading like a blight all over the country; villages, which formerly were like the creations of romance-so beautiful were they had become the scene of every evil. When he resided some years ago in the county of Sussex, there was not an outrage committed which had not its origin in a beershop."

The Licensed Victuallers endeavor to make the beerhouses the exclusive sources of disorder and crime; they did so, not long since, at Bradford, when the indignant Jerry-lords were summoned together, a few nights after, to protest against "the unfounded aspersions continually heaped upon their calling, by the pseudo-moralist, by some portion of the local presss, and by other parties interested in making beerhouses the scape-goat for the sins of the whole nation." We, at all events, will deal out. most even-handed justice to both the members of the 'Upper' and Lower' branches of the Traffic.

Mr R. BURDEN, Chairman of Quarter Sessions, at Durham, says:

"Offences of violence and robbery sometimes stated to have occurred in beerhouses; but as to their chief cause, drunkenness, public-houses are equally to blame. As a Magistrate, can state positively that their influence is very pernicious. It is well known that spirituous liquors are sold in beerhouses, though it is most difficult to convict, their localities being out of the way of the police. The keepers of bad character, and the scenes which occur in them of a bad description."

The Rev. GEORGE HANS HAMILTON, Chaplain of County Gaol, Durham, says :—*

"Finds that nearly all houses of ill fame are beerhouses, and that spirits are sold in them, though the proprietor has no licence for so doing. Are preferred by persons who are given to gambling, etc., because they are not so likely to be disturbed by the police. Is informed that keepers of beerhouses in towns are frequently receivers of stolen goods. Has ascertained, from entries made in each case, that of prisoners, 24 per cent are mischievously drunk' at the time of their offence; and that the love of drinking was

* Lords' Report on Beerhouses, 1850.

the cause of their falling into crime, to the amount of 81 PER CENT. Considers that half the crime of the county is committed between Saturday afternoon and Monday morning, and in these cases almost every offence is directly or indirectly connected with public-houses or beerhouses."

The Globe newspaper truly said, that "the injury done by the Beer Act to the peace and order of rural neighborhoods, not to mention domestic happiness, industry, and economy,-had been proved by witnesses from every class of society, to have exceeded the evils of any single act of internal administration passed within the memory of man.'

§ 61. In 1853, a select committee of the House of Commons was appointed to examine into the system under which Public Houses, etc., are regulated, with a view of reporting whether any alteration of the Law can be made for the better preservation of the public morals, the protection of the revenue, and for the proper accommodation of the Public; which sat for 41 days, examining witnesses and considering evidence, under the able Presidency of the Right Hon. C. P. VILLIERS (§ 29). Report and Evidence, now Books, of 1174 folio pages. the Select Committee on following

The published, form two ponderous Blue The chief points of the Report from Public-houses, July 1854, are the

1. The distinctions as to Licences lead to evasion of the law. 2. The distinctions between Beershops and Public-houses give rise to unhealthy competition, under which both parties are drawn to extreme expedients for the attraction of Custom. Mr STANTON, a Publican, says, "There is a great deal of gambling "carried on in Birmingham, although the Police do all they can "to put it down. If the Licensed Victuallers did not allow it, "the parties would go to a beerhouse."

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... It

3. Beer is seldom at the Public-house what it was at the Brewery. A late Partner in one of the Metropolitan breweries says:is quite notorious if you drink beer at the brewery, and at a Public-house a little way off, you find it a very different "commodity" (4538).

4. The drinks are adulterated, as well as diluted. Mr RIDLEY, who has under his management certain offices for the analysation of alcholic liquors, states that there are several recipes, such as "To a barrel of Porter [add] 12 gallons of liquor, "4lbs. of foots, 1lb. of salt; and sometimes to bring a head up "[and lay it down ?], a little vitriol, cocculus indicus, also a variety of things very minute" (4700). Mr J. W. McCULLOCH, analytic chemist, in 40 samples of Brewers' beer, found 10 gallons proof spirit to every 100 gallons, but at several of the licensed Victuallers supplied by those brewers, it did not reach 7; and out of 150 samples, there was not 1 within 20 per cent of the brewery Standard.

5. That Magistrates do not enforce the law, or very rarely. 6. "The Beershop system has proved a failure. It was esta

"blished under the belief that it would give the public their beer "cheap and pure; would dissociate beer-drinking from drunken "ness, and lead to the establishment, throughout the country, "of a class of houses of refreshment, altogether free from the "disorders supposed to attend exclusively on the sale of spirits." 7. The committee concur in the statement of the Lords' Report on the Sale of Beer Act, that "It was already sufficiently "notorious that drunkenness is the main cause of crime, disorder, "and distress in England; and it appears that the multiplication "of houses for the consumption of intoxicating liquors, which, "under the Beer Act, has risen from 88,930 to 123,306* has "been thus in itself an evil of the first magnitude, not only by "increasing the temptations to excess, which are thus presented at 66 every step, but by driving houses, even those under the direct "control of the Magistrates as well as others originally respec66 table, to practices for attracting custom, which are degrading "to their own character, and most injurious to morality and "order."

8. That throughout the country "the publicans are completely under the thumb of the Brewers." In Norwich, out of 566 licensed victuallers, only 18 are free to deal with whom they please (1845). At Lyme Regis, of 124, 100 are tied (1867). At Ipswich, of 125 licensed houses, 102 belong to brewers. At South Shields, says Mr JAMES MATHER, spirit merchant, 40 beerhouses and 123 licensed victuallers are all tied (9510).

9. "The trade of a Publican is looked upon as a peculiar pri"vilege (2923); but in proportion as the magistrates endeavor "to keep down the number of Public-houses, does the number "of beerhouses increase. The hope of obtaining a licence increases "beershops."

10. "It seems desirable that in future a higher rate of duty "shall be paid for a licence, and more stringent regulations "enforced, as to character and sureties.”

11. "Statistics of Intemperance defective. In the majority of "provincial towns, the number of the police force is so small, "that it is impossible they should take cognizance of any cases "of drunkenness not connected with riot or disorder; whilst amongst the beerhouses in rural districts, every house may "have its cluster of drunkards, who, for drunkenness at least, are never included in any return.

"The evidence before the Committee is sufficient to show that "the amount of drunkenness is very much greater than appears "upon the face of ANY official returns."

12. There are beside [the 131,413 licenced houses in England and Wales] many places where beer is sold without a license. "Some of them, under cover of the law, permitting beer at 1d. a quart to be sold without licence, sell also porter and ale."

This seems understated.

(6882.) "At the single town of FAZELEY, there are about 30 houses that sell porter, ale, and beer indiscriminately; they are private houses, known as 'Bush-houses,' from their having "a bush over the door, as a sign to their frequenters." (4838, 6840.) At OLDHAM, "there are from 400 to 500 such places, "known there as Hush-shops, where they brew their own beer, "and have each their own known customers." At Bolton, at Preston, and in Hampshire and London, similar practices are more or less prevalent. (3664, 3679.)*

13. "The temptation is strong to encourage intemperance, "and a vast number of the houses for the sale of intoxicating "drinks live upon drunkards and the sure progress of multitudes "to drunkenness."

14. "Your Committee do not feel it necessary to follow the "evidence upon the connexion of intoxicating drinks with "crime; it has, directly or indirectly, been the subject of "enquiry at different times, and has been reported upon by "numerous Committees of your Honorable House, who bear "unvarying testimony both to the general intemperance of "criminals, and the increase and diminution of crime in direct "ratio with the increased or diminished consumption of intoxi(6 cating drinks...The entire evidence tends to establish, that it "is essential that the sale of intoxicating drinks shall be under "strict supervision and control."

15. "The testimony is universal that the greatest amount of drinking takes place on SATURDAY NIGHT, and during the hours that the houses are allowed by law to be open on SUNDAY."

16. "It need not be matter of surprise that in view of the vast 66 mass of evils found in connexion with intemperance, it should "have been suggested altogether to prohibit the manufacture "and sale of intoxicating drinks. Laws to that effect are in "force in the States of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, "Vermont, and Michigan, in the United States; and your "Committee have had before them several zealous promoters of 66 an Association established to procure the enactment of similar "laws in England."

§ 62. Here, then, by the last evidence of Parliament and by the cumulative testimony of History, under varying conditions and circumstances of trial, the Traffic stands condemned as essentially mischievous and unchangeably dangerous. Regulation may repress, but cannot extinguish, its evil issues. It is a Traffic

for reasons explained-implacably hostile to the true interests of society, to moral culture, to industry, and independence. Britain has tried-and other nations have tried-restriction and regula

*If such facts could be attested as to Portland, in Maine, what a noise would be made of the failure of the Maine Law, by the Economists, Spectators, Leaders, and Weekly Despatches. How is it that the Publicans and their Press do not insist on the failure of the Licence System, and come out for an Open Trade in strongdrink? Do they really think Law so very inefficient, because it is not omnipotent?

H

tion. The experiment has failed; miserably failed. The Traffic, in spite of all, has outlawed law and defied control, and the Legislative restrictions of the past have never done more than modify-leaving the vast burden of pauperism and crime almost untouched, and acting as a dead-weight and drag upon the chariotwheels of Civilization. For half-a-century, with all the moral appliances of this wondrous mother-age, we have been but beating the air, wasting in conflict with a law-nurtured vice, that energy which, directed to positive conquests of Knowledge and Humanity, would have carried us onwards to an era of Peace and Power and Purity yet afar off. The true illation from these facts of History seems to be, that the Traffic which tramples upon law, and ministers to misrule, should itself be OUTLAWED and PROSCRIBED. Vices and crimes, and their certain causes, should be prohibited. If Legislation, then, as we have it on this matter, has pitiably failed, and is even now confessedly at a dead-lock, the principle must be wrong. It is suppression, not sanction, that we require; and it is, we believe, only in the light of the MAINE LAW that our people and parliament will discover the key by which to unlock that problem of pauperism, crime, and taxation, now pressing so heavily and increasingly upon them.