SYDENHAM LICENSING ELECTION.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7830, 7 April 1891, Page 3

SYDENHAM LICENSING ELECTION.

TO THB EDITOR OF THB PBBSS. Sir,—l hope that the owners of property in Sydenham will rally up to the poll on Friday next and vote for the moderate men. If they don't they must be prepared to face a very serious falling off both in the value of their properties and also In their incomes. If the prohibitionists carry this election they will most certainly shut all the hotels in the borough, and in that case there will be a general stampede of tenants and lodgers, and any quautity of houso property to let and sell. There are numbers ot people in Sydenham who are determined to live according to their own temperate rule, and decline to shape their lives according to the dictates of either Stout, or Fox, or Isitt, and who, if they cannot live their own lives with liberty to eat and drink and think what they like in Sydenham, will go and live where they may enjoy this privilege. Some people have had a taste of the prohibitionist quality during the last few weeks, and therefore know that their success means tyranny and persecution. People have seen how the burgess roll has ?:ot Into its present state* and also how he claims of many bona fide residents and property owners totally unconnected with the brewing or public-house interest have been postponed and shelved, and themselves disfranchised until after the election. People know* too, that the burgess list was never closed before, and that never, until the prohibitionists took the roll in hand, was there any rush of people to be put thereon, or any objection made or obstruction offered to any man's claim to become a burgess provided he held the legal qualification. People know also what an amount of ill-feeling and uncharitableness has been Introduced into the borough by these people which never existed before, and how themselves and their friends have been disturbed In their friendships and associations, and threatened in their businesses unless they pledged themselves to vote with .the coerciooists and support the prohibition movement. I say, therefore, that every man in Sydenham who has any regard for his own property or that of his neighbor, every man who wishes to live In freedom and enjoy his own life in reason and moderation, must roll up at tbe poll and blot the name of every prohibitionist from the voting papers. At present these people appeal for support on the plea that If they are entrusted with power they will use it to coerce us in the matter of drinking only, but they are only wolves In sheep's clothing. A man who will coerce society in one thing Will do so in everything, and if they succeed in getting their way and compelling us to live according to their rule in the matter of drinking, they will go on to compel us in the matter of what we shall eat, what we shall drink, or wear, or think, what amusements we shall indulge in, and so up and down the whole gamut of life. It was always thus, and will be as long as the world lasts, and that ds what the present Archbishop of York had in his mind the other day when he said that he would rather see England free than sober. No matter whether it is a creed or an ism, there comes a time in the history of every movement when its supporters grow weary of the slow and laborious work of persuasion; and put out all their strength to possess themselves of the keener out more destructive weapons of coercion. And so with theSydenham prohibitionists. They were getting weary of preaching and persuading, whenit suddenly dawned upon some of the least worthy among them, that given a little sleepiness on the part of their opponents, and a great deal .of trickery on their own parts, tbey mlgbt snatch a victory at the next licensing election, in which case they might rest from their labors for three years to come at least, and go for the opposition. This is the history, in a few words, of all the controlling forces in all the persecutions and reigns.of terror recorded In history. So long as any movement such as prohibiMonism continues subordinate, persuasive and in the service of man, it is • big with benefit, if ever it gets to be his master. it bursts and overwhelms him with evil. —Yours, &c* . Burgess. Sydenham, April, 189 L