TEETOTALISM IN PARLIAMENT.

Evening Star, Issue 12843, 19 June 1906, Page 2

TEETOTALISM IN PARLIAMENT.

The London correspondent of the ‘Sydney Morning Herald ’ writes : I have before referred to the strong teetotal contingent in the House of Commons. A formal calculation on this point has now been made, and tho number of total abstainers is put down as 209. This is getting fairly on to onethird of the whole membership of the House. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman is claimed as a staunch temperance reformer. I believe the fact to be that the Prime .Minister, who had been a very moderate wine drinker at any time, did decide on total abstinence when the responsibility of leading the Liberal party fell upon bis shoulders, because he found that in this way be was able to get through more work with greater ease. Whether ho is still an abstainer I cannot say, but it is pretty certain that he is practically one. When one considers the nabita of the House of Commons even twenty or five and twenty years ago—and remembers the “ comfortable ” condition in which very many of the members used to come down to the House after dinner—the change is very striking. It is almost entirely duo to the altered ideas of the last generation of “grown-ups.” I have myself seen a letter from a distinguished man of the old school—l cannot bo sure at the moment who it was—but tho letter would be written within the memory of many living people—strongly recommending a -oung man to another statesman ae private secretory on the ground that he had distinguished himself brilliantly at college, bad travelled a good deal, could tell a good story, and was “a steady drinker.” Those were considered in high political quarters at that time the qualifications for a real associate —the kind of companion you liked to sit up with o’ nights. The new tvpo of our political young men is quite different. Their habits, however, are making a severe inroad on the finances of the Kitchen Committee, who used to recoup themselves for the cheapness of tho meals at the House of Commons by tho profits mode out of the wine.