Unlicensed Prohibition.

Hastings Standard, Issue 94, 14 August 1896, Page 4

Unlicensed Prohibition.

(X.Z. Time?.) If ivt r any profession required a licence ami a -:rr z> i : Peculation Act, it is tin* profession of Prohibition. If Prohibition is not checked, and curbed and restrained within bounds, ii will infallibly establish a tyranny of intolerable character and measureless pretension. The outward and visible sign of that inward disgrace will be a system of p r-ecution of all holders of different opinions. The future of any country nnff r„un..i*.> enough to be thus afflicted will U rnr,arlab!e for the state of things which will make men regret the day- of the Puritan-, who punished honest words with the pillory, but tood ta-tt in dii into the common jjaol, visited honourable living with fines, and iteel uul that all persons who did not worship the fanatical profession of Puritanism were worthy of hell-tire. Men living in our time of imhi n r t w r> id nf that awful \i-utaf mi (fa niebtmare, fantastic, mcithol df .noniacal, impossible. I'i utl f 1 who v, ill fall under the dominion at which Prohibition aims will turn back to that patre of history as to a blissful record of the earthly paradise. They will find themselves uudi r a rule of Pn li! l >ition. prosecution and p> r-t-ciition «»r-f than anything ever devised by the worst brain of the worst fanatics.

The- present is a l'u irant«-»' for the future as well its frn rtmntr. And what do wo find in thf pn -n: We find a t>t% 1* of f inti'i>\< r-;., .1 habit of thought. mil i tanatici-m <n dt tnmciaiion, which include, in their triple fold of sounding brass, the sjerms of a diabolical tyranny most repu<_rn«'nt to the human c< n*eit*nce. and without a ran of pretence f right, beyond tht nit.iv will of strutting bti>y-bodi> T i'\t aone example out of many the h'.d. manner in which the whole liquor trade is talked of. Nobody of anv discernmmf ev-r d'-nies that 'n th.'t tradt there are kid nobody of the -diu'lit.' t prKea-ion- r bo regard* 4 a- more than on d- gv( removed from an idot ever thinks of denying that there are in the trade some' of the best and most estimable men and women to be-found in the world. It is a fu.t tluH in many othi-r occupations to which h i man nature is ilevoted there is niort breaking of the ten cominandniunts th,-n there is in the better and larg» r proportions of the liquor trade. The groc< r oiea-ion'h puts sand into bi> m hir : ! n brclitr does not alwa\i retrain fn i .etu ig cancerous meat iio into consumption ; the dairyman sets at defiance both science and fever perms ; the merchant not uafrequenth -i ' - a balancesheet which he knows to be false in order that he may sell a large parcel of shares at a profit ; the records of Law Courts teem with actions which are a body of blasting testimony to the greed, the revenge, the lu-r the selfish depravity and the dishrnt-'y of human nature gone to seed ii numt rous professions that are in them-t \•_ - honest. No one, not even the tir-t rabid Prohibitionist, even pretends that, therefore, all these professions and callings must be denounced; still less does anyone insist that everyone who enters any of them is bad to the core and has already entered the mouth of hell. Bnt this is exactly what the average Prohibitionist says and thinks of every distiller, brewer and publican in the world. With the average Prohibitionist the " accursed traffic " is kept up by men and women who deliberately fatten on the sins of their fellowcreatures'm this world, and are destined to expiate that selfish crime by undergoing eternal punishment in the next. Nothing is more awful to contemplate than the state of thought which brings people to such conclusions, impelling them to slay character, destroy reputations; trample on the best natures. It is ravaging savagery, and vicarious but vitriolic revenge ; a revenge which has all its usual wildness without a tithe cf its pretence to justice. It is the habitual attitude of average Prohibitionist mind. We require no effort of the imagination to enable us to realise the immediate consequences to the world of the ascendancy of this abominable spirit. It behoves a free people to prevent that ascendancy by all the means in their power. Take other examples. Does a witness testify in a Court of Justice in a ease in which Prohibition is interested ? He is invariably a perjurer of the worst kind. Is an authority quoted? He has been bribed to lie. or he is a fool of the first magnitude; and not onfreqnently he is both. Is a fact .or a series of facts inconvenient ? The fact is promptly denied, and tbe series unblushinglv questioned. Does a Judge or a Magistrate give a decision hostile to the raving demands of a tyrannical and bigoted Prohibition Committee? They at once become members of the great liquor ring and seekers of profit out of the " accursed traffic." Is there a law for " the guidance of all authorities in the matter of the liquor traffic ? So long as it suits, that law is from Heaven ; the moment it ceases to please it is from Hell, and honest people who have obeyed it are punished with ruinous litigation. In all this method of Prohibitionist controversy —there are of course others, for even Prohibition contains an admixture of honest-minded men—there is bigotry, intolerance, and blind fanaticism enough to prove beyond the possibility of doubt that Prohibition is like all the other daughters of force. Every system that has ever tried force on the conscience of man has failed. Prohibition, which would, if it could and wishes to be, be like them, would be persecution. Let us put it down as a loathsome thing.