Temperance in England - Cumberland and Westmorland Newspaper Transcriptions

Temperance in England

That the higher classes have within the last half century attained a point of sobriety that may be almost termed unexceptionable, is too notorious to need proof. And if we look at the whole of society, we find that the improvement is steadily working downwards. We must expect improvements to work downwards, and to work slowly.

It seems often as if the period of a whole generation was devoted to some trifling advance; sometimes improvements are more rapid and more conspicuous; but still, as compared with the life of an individual,the time in which we can hope for any great change, must always be long. If we only ask ourselves, what are the causes of English drunkenness, independently of our varying climate, and the fascinating pleasure of stimulants, we may see how impossible it is that drunkenness should die out in a year or two, or be blotted out by any legal legerdemain.

The foul dwellings of the poor, the want of evening occupation, the neglect of education, the feebleness hitherto displayed by the Church of England in the face of all great difficulties, variations in the price of food, the unsociable manners of English ladies, which prevent the higher classes joining in the amusements of the poorer, the want of places of innocent recreation, these and a great number of other causes promote drunkenness, and they are of a kind that cannot be easily removed. Every day does something to remove them, but they are removed as sand is removed by an encroaching sea; if we watch day by day, we can trace no difference; if we survey the spot once in twenty years, we see the shape of the coast has altered.

Everyone can do something to diminish drunkenness, because every one can do something to make the poor happier and better. If any one desires to work in the most direct way, he cannot do better than attempt to improve the physical condition of the poor, and especially to give them wholesome and decent homes.

"There is something", says MR. CHADWICK, "in the air of the bad parts of London which seems to create the appetite for gin". While men are permitted to breathe this air all their lives, how can we expect the love of strong drunk to perish ? Any one, again, who helps education, attacks intoxication in its very stronghold, for, if ignorance is the sure companion of any vice, it is that of drunkenness. Libraries, museums, lectures, good newspapers, cheap periodicals have already done much to elevate the working class, and will do much more.

Then, if we teach a man to save money, to feel the pleasure of being the owner of a few pounds in the savings bank, we teach him control, we teach him to abhor the prodigal extravagance which ruins drunkards.

And there are bad practices on the part of their employers, which, without calling in the desperate remedy of legislation, we may seek by persuasion and reassuring, to do away with.

Wages ought not to be paid in public-houses; no one has a right to commit such an injury to his servant as to give him the large sum of money in the face of what is known to be a temptation to him. And shops should be closed early enough to leave unexhausted some of the energies of those who serve in them, otherwise, recourse will infallibly be had to stimulants, to quicken the languid circulation, and sustain the drooping frame.

In short, the indirect ways in which we may attack drunkenness are endless, and nothing can be more certain than that the exertions already made by prudent and benevolent men have had a most salutary effect.

The drunkenness of England is not what it was a quarter of a century ago. It is not so great in amount; it is not followed by scenes of such open violence and disorder; it is not watched with so much indifference by poor men and poor women.

Again, if the working man is to be withdrawn from the temptations of the public-house, he must have other sources of amusement supplied him. And the best of all amusements is to be found in gatherings in the open air, excursions to parks, woods, fields, where the soothing and sustaining influences of the green earth and blue sky may sink into his soul, and the companionship of those who are dear to him may knit the bonds of family affection.

In the two reports to which we have referred, witness after witness testifies to these three points;

That where means of recreation in the open air are provided, the working-classes flock there by thousands.

That while there, they behave with the greatest order and propriety; and

That wherever opportunities of enjoying such recreation are given on a scale, and with a frequency to enable us to judge of their general effects, the tastes, habits, and manners of the locality are visibly improved.

But as men, especially under an English sky, cannot be always looking at scenery and breathing country air, they must have some amusements suited to a town life and winter evenings. And how this is to be managed, the growing love of music may serve to indicate. Books and periodicals and libraries are excellent things, but they do not bring men and women and families together.

The first great requisite of all amusements that are to do good is, that they should be of a nature to make it natural for a man to share them with women of respectability. A species of recreation may , indeed, be almost pronounced good or not, according as it can be enjoyed by women without injury to their reputation or morals.

Music supplies exactly what is wanted. MR. HULLAH, who is one of the greatest benefactors of his country we have now to boast of, has shown how deeply and widely the love of music is seated in the heart of the English populace. We may hope that the time will soon come when large rooms made cheerful by the sound of really good music, and filled with happy family groups of different ranks, may be as common in English towns as on the continent.

Article, "Drunkenness not Curable by Legislation", in the Westminster Review.

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