Dr. Crumpe, of Dublin, speaks of intemperance as a vice "from which the most serious obstructions arise to their industry and employment."+ was presented from the Corporation of spend them. In a word, it has filled our Sheermen and Dyers, complaining of the streets with beggary, riot, and vice-has decay of silken and woollen manufactures, raised the prices, and spoiled the quality of and attributing it to the enlarged facilities our goods, and has made the fertility of our afforded for intemperance, by the daily in- island, instead of a blessing, a curse."'* creasing number of places for the sale of intoxicating liquors, in that part of the city where those manufactures were carried on, "whereby a ready opportunity was offered to the journeymen and servants concerned These illustrations might be greatly multherein, to make too free a use of spirits, by tiplied, but they are amply sufficient to which they were frequently rendered inca- exhibit the pernicious influence of intempable, for a great part of their time, from perance in obstructing commercial activity following their occupations, to the manifest and enterprise. The injuries inflicted by injury, not only of themselves and their intemperance on the industry and wealth of families, but of the public :” and expressing | nations, will, however be more distinctly their apprehension, "that if a speedy stop seen, when contrasted with the results of was not put to this growing evil, several very national sobriety, of which some pleasing valuable manufactures would be lost, and the instances are now adduced. greatest poverty and distress, with many Mr. Colquhoun relates, as an interesting other evils, introduced among those who and important fact, that during the period ought to be their riches and defence. * | when the distilleries were stopped in 1796 The woollen, linen, and silken manufacturers and 1797, although bread and every necessary stated the same practice to be "a great cause of life was considerably higher than during of the decay of trade, as the working people the preceding year, the poor in that quarter became idle and dissolute; and, as they did of the town, where the chief part resided, not work above half their time, and were under were apparently more comfortable, paid their the necessity of entering into unlawful combi-rents more regularly, and were better fed, nations to enhance the price of labour, which than at any period for some years before, prevented the petitioners from bringing their even although they had not the benefit of manufactures to market on proper terms." the extensive charities which were distributed The weavers of Dublin were alarmed at the in 1795. "This," he remarks, can only same evils, for, in a petition which they for- be accounted for by their being denied the warded to the Irish Parliament, they set forth indulgence of gin; which had become, in a the decay of trade, and attributed it to the great measure, accessible from its very increase of spirit-shops in those parts of the high price. It may fairly be concluded, city where the manufacturers resided, whereby that the money formerly spent in this imthe temptation was always before them, to prudent manner, had been applied in the free indulgence in the use of spirits. In purchase of provisions, and other necessaries, consequence of this they seldom worked on to the amount of some hundred thousand Monday, but entered into combinations to pounds." In addition to this change of make good their sloth and extravagance. circumstances it was observed that quarrels "That the spirit of industry, decency in and assaults were less frequent, and they dwelling and apparel, which formerly obtained amongst them, was almost eradicated, and Contrast this pleasing statement with the in place thereof, idleness, filth, and nastiness, condition of the people in 1732, and which in every circumstance of life, with an un- may, in some degree, illustrate their circum. bounded licentiousness of manners, which stances, at a period, when indulgence in had produced the most dangerous riots and strong drink was so general. "Throughout disorders, and it was feared would produce the Bills of Mortality, the poor housekeepers disorders more fatal to the peace and good have not one quarter of the household goods order of the metropolis.† they used to have; and small farmers, in the The Parliamentary investigation which neighbourhood of London, can scarce show followed, fully substantiated the truth of a clean suit of clothes to go to church."|| these petitions, and alleged that the "decay In Ireland, a temporary prohibition of of manufactures was principally to be attri- distillation, occasioned by a scarcity of corn, buted to the use of spirituous liquors." and consequent diminished consumption of A writer of experience, whose attention was spirituous liquors was attended with similar particularly directed to this subject, remarks beneficial results. Although the price of on the distillation of spirits as follows:- provisions was high, and consequently a "Of manufactures it has been the bane. certain amount of distress more or less preIt has disinclined and disabled the workman vailing in such years, "the population of to perform his work with either accuracy or dispatch; it has made him combine against his employer, to extort the means of dissipation, and it has made him more idle to * Irish Commons' Journal, vol. vii. p. 307. + Ibid. p. 308. resorted less often to the pawnbroker's shop. * An Essay on the Manufactures of Ireland, &c., &c., by Thomas Wallace, M.R.I.A. 1798. p. 106. + Essay on the best means of providing Employment for the People, by Samuel Crumpe, M.D., M.R.I.A., 1793, p. 186. t Colquhoun on the Police of the Metropolis. 1800. || Gentleman's Magazine vol. ii. p. 603. Ireland was enable to consume a greater | quantity of articles of luxury and comfort than in years of absolute plenty."* Dr. Henry, in allusion to the stoppage of distillation in 1758-9, remarks, "the salutary effects of which were seen, restoring new vigor to our languishing manufactures, and a visible reformation in the morals of the people."t Changes in the ownership of property continually occur through intemperance, by which a large amount of evil influence is entailed on our commercial and agricultural interests. This subject, perhaps, will be best illustrated by the following facts. "Another correspondent, from a town of about the same numberof inhabitants, says, 'I have consulted with some other individuals, and we find the subject rather difficult; but have counted thirty-seven cases in which farms have changed owners, in consequence of spirit drinking, since 1800.' "From an aged and respectable inhabitant of another town, the following has been received:-' As I promised, I have cast my eye over the parish to which I belong, containingapopulationof about thirteenhundred, and I find that, within thirty-five years past, at least thirty-five farms and tenements have gone out of the owners' hands, in consequence of the use of ardent spirits; and in a short time, five more may be safely added.' A farmer, in Connecticut, who, for thirty years had occupied the same farm on lease, complained that he had not been able to "In another town, containing less than store up any thing as the result of his ex-nine hundred inhabitants, and about one ertions during that period. A neighbouring hundred farms, and at present greatly disstore-keeper, who heard him make this tinguished for temperance and prosperity, statement, was candid enough to explain to it has been found that thirty farms, within him the reason. He accordingly informed the same period, have been lost in the same him, that during the thirty years he had been way; and, in some instances, the same farm on the farm he had expended in his store on has been twice lost.' ardent spirits, a sum which, added to its interest, would have made the farmer owner of the farm which he was then obliged to hire. On examination of the books of the storekeeper his assertion was found to be correct. The farm was worth five thousand dollars.‡ The following statements, relative to the number of estates which in different towns passed from the hands of their owners in consequence of intemperance, were collected by the corresponding secretary of the Massachusetts Temperance Society. Ardent spirits, we must premise, are almost exclusively the intoxicating liquors used in America by the mass of the people. "A correspondent from a town in the county of Berkshire, says, 'I cannot state the numbers of farms that have passed from their owners within the time you name. There have been several persons within my recollection, who have lost their estates wholly, or become so embarrassed as to be obliged to sell, principally from the too free use of spirits. Indeed, I think the embarrassment, and consequent loss of property, of which three-fifths of our farmers and mechanics complain in this country, can fairly be traced to this source.' "A highly respectable merchant in Vermont, stated that, after dealing in ardent "In a town in the interior, containing, at spirits fourteen years, and examining his the last census less than twelve hundred accounts, and the effect of this traffic on his inhabitants, twenty farms have been lost to customers, he found that out of six hundred the owners, since the year 1800, through and forty-three customers two hundred and intemperance; and the owners of twenty four had become drunkards and tipplers; more have been reduced, from the same a number had died suddenly; one perished cause, sold their farms, moved out of town, on his way home, on a cold winter's and come to poverty. This town is now evening; twenty farms and mechanics' esremarkable for temperance. An elderly in-tablishments (viz., manufactories) had been habitant remarked that, twenty years ago, sold, mortgaged, and deeded to sons; and three families in five were becoming poorer; the merchant's own loss in bad debts, on but now, said he, the town is highly prosperous, and if any family among us is becoming poorer, it is because there is a drunkard in it. 6 "A correspondent from another town, of about thirteen hundred inhabitants, says I have submitted your inquiries to two gentlemen, who have been conversant with the affairs of this town for forty or fifty years, and they have informed me that twenty-two farms have passed from the hands of the owners in consequence of the use of ardent spirits, within the last twenty years.' *Inquiry into the Influence of Ardent Spirits in Ireland, 1830. p. 102. + Earnest Address to the People of Ireland, &c., by W. Henry, D.D., F.R.S., 1761. p. 1. New York Farmer, 1830. the account of intemperance, was abont nine hundred and sixty dollars. Convinced that he was one among the number engaged in making drunkards, he had abandoned the traffic, and, for one year, had kept wine and brandy to sell as medicine only, but found he could do this no longer, as the drunkard would send a boy to say, I want it for medicine, and then get tipsy.' 66 During the last fifty years, there have been eighty estates squandered by intemperate owners, in the town of Northampton, Massachusetts; and one hundred and forty deaths resulting from drunkenness alone.”* *Twenty-third Report of the Massachusetts Temperance Society. Innumerable similar examples might be account of crime originating in intemperance adduced as having occurred in this country. in connexion with the licensing system, They are indeed so frequent in occurrence as would very far exceed and outbalance the to render further detail quite unnecessary. Chancellor's large receipts." These facts cannot fail to excite deep The Rev. Dr. Scoresby, vicar of Bradford, attention on the part of those who feel remarks, that "there would be such a gain interested in our national prosperity. In- of national wealth, by the disuse of spirits, dustry, commerce, and consequently, wealth, as to enable the country to afford many times have been seen to be, in a great measure, the amount of the present duties in another influenced by the consumption of intoxicating form. An apparent loss to the revenue, liquors. The removal, therefore, of this would eventually be an immense real gain.' fearful obstacle to national improvement, And again, "If we suppose the present becomes a matter of the highest importance, revenue from ardent spirits, derived from the and would secure to our country an amount consumption of the labouring classes, to be of benefit which it has seldom or never before five millions sterling, then, I conceive, that experienced. Among other probable benefits for this portion of gain to the treasury, other which would be derived from a measure of classes of the people are in reality taxed to this kind, would be a state of commercial the extent of fifteen or twenty millions."+ prosperity sufficient to find work for every J. Poynder, Esq., late under-sheriff of unemployed man in the kingdom. The des- Middlesex and London, remarks, "If any titute poor would acquire a taste for the considerable change could be induced in the conveniences of life, together with the means national habits in respect to drinking, a very of procuring them The immense sums now large saving would accrue in this department annually worse than wasted in the con- of the state, (the heavy expenses of the sumption of intoxicating liquors, would, in criminal judicature of the country,) and all probability, be expended in the purchase probably such a saving as would be found of useful articles, and thus a mighty impulse even more than adequate to the revenue imparted to trade. That the observations derived from distillation. It seems well now advanced are not visionary in their worthy of consideration whether the peculiar character, may be seen from the data which facilities for drinking which are provided have already been given, and from numerous throughout the country, do not, by furnishing instances of benefit which have attended to the poor and uninstructed temptations to recent reformations on a less enlarged scale. crime which are too strong to resist, occaAn eminent political economist has stated sion, at the same time, a charge to the that it is to the desire to rise in the world, country, in repressing and punishing that to improve our condition, and to obtain a crime, which is more than equal, even in a constantly increasing command over the pecuniary point of view, to any advantage conveniences and luxuries of life, that society which can ever be derived from such a has been indebted for improvement.* The polluted source." temperance reformation has the strongest Dr. Grey, in his "Essential Principles of tendency to promote this object, and to the Wealth of Nations Illustrated," remarks, ameliorate in other respects, the social and" fields of industry are better than houses of moral condition of the world. industry. What avail houses of industry, 6. Loss in other various ways, with cal- and orphan houses, and parish schools, to culations of the total national loss.-Wise mend the morals of the people of Dublin, and reflecting individuals have long doubted when in one street alone there are fifty-two the wisdom of government, in a pecuniary houses licensed to sell spirits? That a point of view, in extending its patronage to revenue derived from such a source should the manufacture of intoxicating liquors. With-be an object worthy of encouragement, it is in the last few years this subject has received impossible to believe." more peculiar consideration, the results of Mr. Carr, in his "Stranger in Ireland," which will now be laid before the reader observes, "a government might as well imin as brief a manner as possible. pose a tax on coffins, and then inoculate all Mr. Mark Moore, in his examination its subjects with the plague, to increase the before the Select Committee of the House revenue. of Commons, in reference to what he terms the "great delusion" of the Chancellors of view, which result from the manufacture and the Exchequer, which he supposes to arise use of intoxicating liquors, may be arranged from the revenue of £8,000,000 per annum, under the following heads :— derived from the tax on ardent spirits, re- 1. The whole sum expended by consumers marks, "There are two sides to this account; in the purchase of intoxicating liquors. and I am satisfied from the partial investi- 2. gation I have been able to make, if the necessary Parliamentary returns were made 3. out, it would be found that the frightful expenses to which the nation is put on Mc Culloch's Political Economy. The various losses, in a monetary point of The loss of time which the use of strong *Parl. Evid. p. 345. + Parl. Evid. on the Police of the Metropolis. 1817. 4. The property lost in consequence of drunkenness by casualties, both on land and on sea. 5. The cost of pauperism, and the criminal judicature of the land, from the same cause. The sum annually expended in Edinburgh, on the same destructive poisons, is said to be nearly £400,000; being nearly equal to the whole amount raised by all the Bible and Missionary Societies in Great Britain. The Rev. James Edwards, of Brighton, 6. The loss of health and of intellect, and the recently made the following calculation in consequent necessary expenditure. reference to the drinking system in that 7. The abbreviation of human life, and the place, upon what he terms a moderate loss of human labour which results there-scale :from. 110 public houses, including sixteen hotels. £ 8. d. Examples of the immense sums expended in the purchase of intoxicating liquors are Average rent of each, £150..16,500 0 0 abundant and instructive. A few only are Average amount of taxes, now adduced by way of illustration. £30 each Some of the items of the expenditure of the Lord Steward of the Royal Household, for 1840, are as follows:-Bread, £2,350; butter, bacon, cheese, and eggs, £5,153; milk and cream, £1,500; butchers' meat, £10,000; grocery, £5,000, &c., &c., &c., wine, £5,250; liquors, &c., £2,000; ale and beer, £3,000. Total annual expenditure, £69,765. Thus it will be seen that Goods for sale.... £194,040 there is expended in intoxicating liquors Profits on sale, .... 64,680 £10,250, or one-seventh of the whole expenditure of the Royal Household. It is calculated that £20,000 are spent every sabbath day at the various publichouses in and near the Metropolis, principally by the working classes. Deduct for eating. 86,240 172,480 170 beer shops. each ........ 170 families, 158. per week Losses and sundry expenses, In Bradford, Yorkshire, there are one hundred and fifty gin shops and public houses, about one hundred and seventy beer shops, and four breweries. It is calculated that there are £2,030 spent every week at these places. To this sum add, for loss of time, £487 108., and for various losses consequent upon drinking, £250, and the total will be £2,767 108. Deduct for the necessary ex- Goods for sale.... £37,230 penses of travellers, tradesmen, &c., and Profit .. it will leave a net weekly loss to the town of Bradford of £2,267 10s.; or £323 18s. 6d. per day; yearly £117,910; and in eight years and a half, upwards of one million pounds sterling. ........ 3,300 0 0 .22,880 0 0 8,800 0 0 64,680 0 0 4 -258.720 0 0 3400 0 0 680 0 0 6630 0 0 1700 0 0 12,410 O 12,410 49,640 172,480 £222,120 equal to £4271 108. per week. Persons engaged in the sale, 2086. The local taxes are £35,480 per annum, being less than one-sixth of the sum annually expended in liquor. In Leeds, during the year 1835, there were two hundred and ninety-seven inns, hotels, and taverns, in addition to two hundred and eighty-nine beer shops within the borough, making a total of five hundred and eighty-six houses licensed for the sale The visitors, who frequent the town, of of intoxicating liquors. A calculation was course add to the consumption. Yet, says made that the former averaged in their Mr. Edwards, with all this multitude of receipts at least £17 per week, and the licensed houses and beer shops at present latter £3, during the same period. This existing, the magistrates are pestered to expenditure amounts to £307,632 per annum. grant more licenses, and every sort of means A similar calculation makes the same annual is resorted to to obtain them. The high expenditure in Stockport £126,000. constable indeed had been obliged to furnish the situation of the existing establishments, which were thickly studded in all directions. A recent Report of the Bristol Temperance a plan of the town, showing, in every street, Society states that in that city and its immediate neighbourhood a sum exceeding £150,000 is annually spent in strong drink, by the labouring classes and those ranking immediately above them. In Glasgow, accurate calculations make the total annual expenditure in spirits no less than £450,000. The influence of intemperance, in the production of crime, will be shown in a succeeding portion of this section. It will be sufficient, in this place, to remark that the cost of three-fourths of crime is directly chargeable to intemperance. lb. TOTAL ANNUAL cost of malt Mr. S. Redgrave, in an article entitled | Hops, 1 lb. per bushel, at 1s. "Some data on the present state of Crime per in England and Wales," gives the following Interest upon capital, and wear calculations in reference to the cost of crime. and tear of private brewing The county-rate commissioners, in their utensils preliminary report state, that the average expense of a prosecution at the assizes is about £19; at the quarter sessions £7 108.; and at the municipal courts £5 8s. 6d. At these rates the expenses of prosecutions would be... £186,915 'In the Lords' Report on County Rates the expenses of prisons, for one year, are stated to amount to..... And the maintenance of prisoners To these sums must be added the annual charge for maintaining transports, at home and in Bermuda, about .... In New South Wales and Van ....... ...... 177,245 6,420,342 imperial gallons of ............ 311,179 1,050,230 42,857,243 6,750,000 1,500,000 20,528,889 imperial gallons of 75,000 sumer 17,250,000 Police, jails, prosecutions, &c., 2,000,000 130,000 The cost of pauperism, say at a 5,000,000 30,000,000 105,357,243 5,357,243 Total per annum £716,457 Loss of labor, taken by Mr. If to these sums, which are all taken from Parliamentary Papers, could be ascertained and added, the expenses of the judges, clerks of assize, and many other attendant charges, the amount would be Showing an annual sacrifice of 100,000,000 considerably increased; but if the costs inTo these items we might add numerous curred in the prevention of crime were included in the calculation, the amount would others, such as a large proportion of the be almost doubled. Some idea may be expenses incurred by lunatic asylums, informed on this point from the expense of the firmaries, and other hospitals for the sick, police establishments of the Metropolis and the maim. By far the most important alone, which are not less than £300,000 loss, however, will arise from so vast an per annum. Mr. Redgrave suggests that, amount of money not being devoted to usesupposing the total annual cost to the ful purposes, or employed in the purchase of country for the prevention, prosecution, and useful articles. punishment of crime, to be one million and It will be seen from the above table that a half, and the number of persons living by the violation of the laws to be fifty thousand, the sum of £51,107,243 is annually expended the good behaviour of every criminal might on fermented drinks, £17,250,000 only be purchased by a gratuity of £30 per being paid for ardent spirits. The amount annum, and the public be gainers by the of alcohol in fermented liquors exceeds very arrangement, of the whole amount of property much that in distilled spirits, as the following of which they are annually plundered, and of calculation will show. a feeling of security above all price.* |