and private persons, been acquired at the same time. This striking change has also been accomplished, notwithstanding a great increase in the prosperity of the town, and a very much higher scale of wages, which, in general, results in increased intemperance.

The description given by an eye-witness of this city, which only twenty years ago was a sink of brutality and poverty, is as follows:

"The streets are entirely free from drunken persons, and the behaviour of the people is marked by the utmost propriety and decorum. The houses of the working people are well kept, and no external poverty is visible."*

Gothenburg has thus proved, by the comparatively great success of its system, that restriction in the sale of drink is the salvation of a town from intemperance, and, by its partial failure, that such restriction must apply to all drinking places alike.

Is it impossible to save England, which year by year appears sinking lower, from the effects of this curse? It is in vain to look for the remedy from education alone, or to suppose that such instruction as elementary schools afford the working classes (and which ceases at thirteen years of age) will effect this change. And, as a matter of fact, intemperance is quite as prevalent among skilled and educated artisans as among rustic labourers, while Sweden, as has been shown, was sunk in this vice at the very time when she excelled, as a nation, in education. Religious influence will no doubt do much, especially now that the Churches have roused themselves to the work, and ministers of all denominations have become missionaries of temperance, many totally abstaining themselves, that they may help the weak and give countenance to those noble men and women among the working classes who resist the influences around them, and who, amid taunt and often persecution, maintain the temperance cause by showing that total abstinence in no way necessarily deteriorates the man mentally, physically, or spiritually.

But the great hindrance to all religious influence is intemperance, and the public-house bars the door to the House of God. Other influences may be used to reduce the attractions of the tavern, such as securing in each locality a full supply of pure water, public parks, reading-rooms, facilities for higher education, innocent recreation, where strong drink is excluded, healthy dwellings, stricter police supervision, a better administration of the Poor-laws, making improvidence (especially when flowing from intemperance) a crime, and eliciting a healthier tone of public feeling in relation to intemperance; but all these together will

* Vide License Reform: the Gothenburg System. By Alexander Balfour. P. 17. London: Simpkin & Co.

have comparatively little influence while over 142,000* publicans and beer-sellers compete, by holding out every species of allurement, to attract the young and unwary to their bars and counters, and many of whom would be ruined but that they subsist on the ruin of their customers. Meantime the disease of intemperance is rapidly spreading; women have taken to it,† and drunken parents are not only daily poisoning the blood of their children, but, by their example, introducing them to the vice.

Surely it is time that every sober man should exert himself to abate this evil, since indifference, in such a case, can only be justified on the plea of Cain, "Am I my brother's keeper?" It is quite possible for the respectable to shut their eyes to ills about them, while the police keep the leading thoroughfares clear, and the daily list of crime and misery in the columns of the press is passed over unread, but not the less will the blood of our brothers and sisters cry to us from the ground, if, from apathy or selfishness, we make no effort to fence the gulf into which such multitudes. are ignorantly or madly rushing. A short time ago, a tale was published called "The Devil's Chain," which a portion of the press. condemned as sensational nonsense. The linking of the various incidents into one connected tale may, perhaps, be open to criticism; but every incident brought forward is constantly illustrated in real life by the newspaper reports. Every few weeks coroners' juries are engaged in investigating the suicides of wretched girls, ruined through drink. Reports of the Divorce Court are constantly recording the destruction of homes through one or other of the parties having fallen into habits of intemperance. There are few cases of murder or manslaughter but are proved, by the evidence, to arise from this cause; while every species of cruelty and misery, even to the maiming and wounding of helpless infants by the drunken fury of their own parents, besides numberless accidents, are daily recorded as arising from the same fearful cause. In the criminality of these horrors every member of the community must take his share, for the majority of them may be prevented. They are the legitimate outcome of many of our national customs, and of the legal permission given to unlimited beguilement of the weak; and no sophistry, or profession of ignorance, will relieve one individual from the heavy responsibility of these crimes till his utmost influence has been exerted in the cause of temperance.

It is strange that while the causes of infinitely lesser evils have been thought worthy of the investigation of Royal Commissions and Joint Committees of the Houses of Parliament, this, the gr urse to the country, has excited comparatively little in

,000 men were apprehended in Liverpool last year for drunken

43

vestigation. The motion made last session by the Archbishop of Canterbury for a parliamentary inquiry, is, however, a hopeful sign that this apathy is yielding, and all friends of temperance should endeavour to make the investigation as complete as possible, so that the extent and malignancy of the evil may be thoroughly brought to light.

That any fair and impartial report will greatly strengthen their hands is unquestionable, for it is indeed very doubtful whether the horrors which have been recently perpetrated in Bulgaria, and which have so excited the public mind, have produced an amount of suffering and misery equal to that which is each year endured by the weak and helpless, the women and the children, of our own country, as the terrible result of our national intemperance.

FRANCIS PEEK.

lation that will apply fairly to both; and at the same time it is evident that an essential difference exists between them, and that respectable inns and hotels, especially if the bars attached should be done away with, have nothing in common with gin-palaces and beer-shops. If this distinction could be made, the way would be prepared for the next most important reform, viz., the reduction of the hours during which drinking-houses should be kept open, and the closing of them on Sundays. It would also pave the way for the introduction of some system with respect to mere drinking places, similar to that which has proved so successful in Gothenburg, while the deficiencies which have prevented its complete success there, and which will be noted afterwards, might be avoided. A brief account of this plan will form a fitting illustration and proof of the truth of what has been advanced regarding the cause of intemperance, and the means necessary for its cure. Gothenburg, the second city in Sweden, and a seaport, containing at the present time about 60,000 inhabitants, had long been, before the present system was established, one of the most drunken cities in the world. In 1855 the apprehensions for drunkenness amounted to more than one in ten of the population, and the report of its condition was, "that probably in no community was brutish coarseness and deep poverty so common." In the year 1855 a change was made: the greater part of the spirit licenses were purchased by representatives of the municipality, who first reduced the number of bars, and placed the remainder in charge of persons who, it was intended, should derive no benefit from the sale of intoxicating drinks. At the same time the houses were inspected, made comfortable, and furnished so as to supply food and unintoxicating drinks, on the sale of which the person in charge derived considerable benefit.

It need hardly be pointed out that no cry of class legislation (the strongest weapon in the hands of our opponents) could be made to this system, nor any accusation of "paternal" legislation. For every one who desired it could obtain strong drink; but at the same time, all temptation to injure customers by inducing them to take too much, or by adulterating the liquor, would be taken away.

The profit on the sale of alcoholic liquors in Gothenburg belongs to the town, and has had a considerable effect in reducing the rates, while the apprehensions for drunkenness, under a far stricter enforcement of the law than previously, have fallen from one in ten to one in twenty-six of the population. This is undeniably a great improvement, and shows what might have been accomplished had the beer-shops, of which there were in 1873 no fewer than 400, and the licenses for the sale of strong drink in music saloons, as also the retail spirit licenses held by grocers

and private persons, been acquired at the same time. This striking change has also been accomplished, notwithstanding a great increase in the prosperity of the town, and a very much higher scale of wages, which, in general, results in increased intemperance.

The description given by an eye-witness of this city, which only twenty years ago was a sink of brutality and poverty, is as follows:

"The streets are entirely free from drunken persons, and the behaviour of the people is marked by the utmost propriety and decorum. The houses of the working people are well kept, and no external poverty is visible."*

Gothenburg has thus proved, by the comparatively great success of its system, that restriction in the sale of drink is the salvation of a town from intemperance, and, by its partial failure, that such restriction must apply to all drinking places alike.

Is it impossible to save England, which year by year appears sinking lower, from the effects of this curse? It is in vain to look for the remedy from education alone, or to suppose that such instruction as elementary schools afford the working classes (and which ceases at thirteen years of age) will effect this change. And, as a matter of fact, intemperance is quite as prevalent among skilled and educated artisans as among rustic labourers, while Sweden, as has been shown, was sunk in this vice at the very time when she excelled, as a nation, in education. Religious influence will no doubt do much, especially now that the Churches have roused themselves to the work, and ministers of all denominations have become missionaries of temperance, many totally abstaining themselves, that they may help the weak and give countenance to those noble men and women among the working classes who resist the influences around them, and who, amid taunt and often persecution, maintain the temperance cause by showing that total abstinence in no way necessarily deteriorates the man mentally, physically, or spiritually.

But the great hindrance to all religious influence is intemperance, and the public-house bars the door to the House of God. Other influences may be used to reduce the attractions of the tavern, such as securing in each locality a full supply of pure water, public parks, reading-rooms, facilities for higher education, innocent recreation, where strong drink is excluded, healthy dwellings, stricter police supervision, a better administration of the Poor-laws, making improvidence (especially when flowing from intemperance) a crime, and eliciting a healthier tone of public feeling in relation to intemperance; but all these together will

Vide License Reform: the Gothenburg System. By Alexander Balfour. P. 17. London: Simpkin & Co.