seven tenths of our pauperism is caused by the drinking of spirituous liquors." He at the same time said that "the whole licensing system must be dealt with, if you wish to make a permanent impression upon pauperism."1 WASTE OF FOOD. Table showing the quantity of food that was destroyed to make the intoxicating liquors consumed in the United King doin in 1876: Malt in brewing.. Bushels. 59,298,869 Sugar used in brewing, 860,223 cwt., equal to..... 3,670,284 ish spirits, reckoning 8 bushels to make 19 gallons.. 12,610,647 eign spirits... 4,836,966 Land used in growing hops, 69,172 acres, reckoning 2,075,160 Produce destroyed to make 18,660,846 gallons of wine, 3,928,599 Produce destroyed in making British wine and cider. 2,000,000 Total.... 88,420,525 J. B. Lawes, Esq., the eminent agriculturalist, writing to the London "Times," estimates the consumption of wheat in the United Kingdom at 5 bushels per head per annum. This would give 181,990,803 bushels, being but slightly more than double the food wasted in the manufacture of intoxicating liquors. It has been ingeniously calculated, if, instead of being converted into intoxicating liquors, this grain was ground into flour, and baked into loaves, it would produce 1,300,000,000 four-pound loaves, or 195 loaves for each family in the United Kingdom. And if the flour were all used by one baker, and 1 "The Drink Problem," by David Lewis, T. P., ex-Magistrate of the City of Edinburgh. London: 1881. Pp. 67, 68. "Third Report of the House of Lords' Committee on Intemperance," Session, 1877. Appendix, p. 302. By William Hoyle, a cotton manufacturer. he baked 500 loves every half hour, it would take him upward of 400 years to get through the work." Mr. William Hoyle, in the "Alliance News," July 1, 1882, (London,) calls attention to the waste of food in connection with the liquor traffic in the United Kingdom. He says: Intoxicating liquors are manufactured out of grain or other agricultural products which, if not thus used, would be available as food. To manufacture the £134,000,000 worth of intoxicating liquors consumed during each of the past twelve years, 80,000,000 bushels of grain or its equivalent produce has been destroyed each year; and taking the bushel of barley at 53 lbs., it gives us 4,240,000,000 lbs. of food destroyed year by year, or a total for the twelve of 960,000,000 bushels, or 50,880,000,000 lbs. The generally accepted estimate of grain consumed as bread-food by the population of the United Kingdom is 5 bushels per head per annum; if this be so, then the food that has been destroyed to manufacture the intoxicating liquors which have been consumed in the United Kingdom during the past twelve years would have supplied the entire population with bread for four years and five months; or it would have given a fourpound loaf of bread to every family in the United Kingdom daily during the next six years. If the grain and produce which have thus been destroyed yearly were converted into flour and baked into loaves, they would make 1,200,000,000 four-pound loaves; and if these loaves had all to be baked in one bakery, and 500 were to be baked every hour 10 hours each day, they would take over 750 years before the loaves were all baked. WASTE OF WEALTH. Mr. William Hoyle, whose statistics were received unchallenged by the House of Lords' Committee on Intemperance, shows "the aggregate direct and indirect loss of wealth resulting from the drinking habits of the population of the United Kingdom during each decade from 1839 to 1879 inclusive." We take the liberty to supplement his calculations by adding 1880 and 1881, so as to bring the whole down to January 1, 1882. Mr. Hoyle's method is to calculate the indirect loss as one half as much more than the direct expenditure. Some others |