TEMPERANCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIX, Issue 174, 23 July 1884, Page 4

TEMPER AN CE.

CA.vstralasia n. )

Temperance applies exclusively to to the self-government a :.d restraint that originates from the miad, to regulate our conduct in those things which we may and can do. There is no " temperance " in the swallowing of poisons any more than in the committal of crime. Imagine a Thug limited by a benevolent to four murders a year, a pickpockets or swindler to four thefts or cheats a month, or an opium-eater to receive a daily dose never to be ex .ceeded, &c. In all such case temperance has no place, no real existence. We recognise not temperance in high treason; the first carb'ne or potronel discharged by the insurgents at tho field of Naseby both compromised the soldier and made the dethronement and Bubf©q[uent death of the monarch but a question of time. The die was cast | One side fought for power, the other for life. " Touch not, taste nor,, handle not," should be the word. It is not uutil after extirpation of all poisonous adulterations and deleterious elements in our habitual beverages, by the combiued energies and practical science of the legislator and of the chemist, that the exhortations of the priest, the persuasions of the kalizoic, or the arguments of the moralist to practise temperance in things lawful, to flee from our wish, though convinced of our power to gratify it unblamed and unhurt, can begin to have any tocus standi. So long as, from ■whatever causes, the poison of amyl or fusel oil is believed to lurk in our beer, a wise philosopher will shun implacably the insiduous draught. The same is true of wines and of spirits. Temperance in poisons that sap tho mental powers no less than palsy, the nervous system is not virtue, but folly. When, hereafter, by eome wise legislation, adulteration shall have become a thing of the past, and the elimination of the amyl advanced to scientific certainty and juridical precision — when detection shall have become inevitable and punishment unsparing — then may temperance be enforced with all the solemnities of religion, and its advnntages set forth adorned with all the eloquence of aesthetic taste, of awakened self-respect, with the agreeable consciousness of moral purity, also of the dignity and power of a pellucid intellect. To destroy adulteration is the immediate and specific function and duty of the state. Can a travellor snatching hasty meal, trust his mere - unaided palate to detect the drugged draught ? Can the labourer, during his brief interval from toil in street or road, discern the drug in his pint of beer ? Indeed, the stupor and giddiness caused by adulteration is, I verily believe, some times imputed to excess. I remember once seeing an aged labouring man staggering quietly aloug one of our principal streets. I approached him to observe, and came to the conclusion that he was poisoned by taking too suddenly a drugged draught into an empty stomach. A fine, tall robust preacher of total abstinence also approached, and, holding up at arm's length the poor fuddled old victim, commenced, in a clear, strong, chest, voice, and with the uncraning fluency "of a platformist, a prelection upon the eviis of drunkenness. A few small boys soon formed a semicircle, and my vigorous orator was in his glory, the meek old man in the land of Nod. I (ludicrously) perorated my theory, as above set forth, and urged od him the vital importance of paternal legislation on this one head, pleading that he was wasting his eloquence on a deaf ear and a stupefied brain. T© my surprise and delight, the zealot accepted all I said, saying that it was quiet a novel idea, that such adulterators should morally rank with prisoners of wells, and cancidly admitting the probability that the old man (whose appearance bore the semblance of honest labour) had not committed culpable excess, he left me and proceeded on his way to edify the public from the platform of the town-hall with one of his (no doubt) meritorious discourses, inviting me to be a listener, which I declined with thanke. Ever afterwards, whenever we casually met, he saluted me with gu&hing cordiality. As I went home that evening the comicality of the scene flashed upon me — the perorator unexpectedly perorated, and penetrated by a new idea. He, however, was attracted by the pro&pect of paternal legislation, affording him a lasting platform. True temperance, I repeat, is the governing of ourselves in the enjoyment of the lawful, the salutary, and the pure.

The proverbial freedom from drunkenness attributed t& " wine countries " is aimply because pure wine, like pure water, satisfies, containing, as it does, no deleterious provocation to an artificial thirst. Can it bo true that cakes of tobacco are often at the bottom of casks of rum, when a digger, bent on enjoying his cheque, has to be ' Jam bed down ?" I ask the question wir.h guarded prudence and charitable doubt. If so, I call upon the Legislature (more especially at the present happy prospect of the fusion of parties and the dissolvingof®ldprejudices)fco consider very seriously the grave importance of this matter. The recenfc deeds of violence, sud denly perpetrated in hours of delirium, are they not often traceable to thu quality, not less, but rather more, than to the quantity of drink previously imbibed ? And the exposure for sale of meats unfit for human consumption should be visited with prompt punishment. An unwholesome meal causes uneasiness. Belief is eagerly snatched at by the uninformed and untaught, tnd the wretched victim awakens next morning in the lock-up of the police court to learn, with amazement and horror, ihsit ho has to answer for a crime which his memory rejects, and at which his soul shudders. Wholesome meat, sound beer, aud pure, light, cheap wines will do more fur public morality and domestic peace than can even the preacher, the moralist, or the magistrate. I am unprepared with any decided opinion on what is called "local option," thoitg 1 would have the question gravely and all-sidedly deliberated. I fail to eee my way. Why, provided always that the wines or beers sold are pure and sound, and the vendors under strict police surveillance, I see not why A C and F are to be the despotic, offhand judges, perhaps sel (-willed., of

the wants of B, D, and E. Let them object or oppose in tho character of adTocate3, but not swamp the enquiring Bench. I would discourage all private stills or low shanties, and while enforcing on the licensed hotel the providing both of bedrooms, stabling, &c, I would augment the license fee. I would increase the power to cancel a license, besides such penalties as may be enacted, but allow appeals to the higher courts, should the facts need further verification.

It cannot be denied that every legislative interference of this kind will be found in the end more favorable to the rich than to the poor. To aim at tho enforcement of total abstinence were impracticable, even if desirable. The prohibitive price is quickly surmounted by the rich, as the ribbon insultingly stretched to protect royally from the intrusions of the French Revolutionary sans culloiles was dashed aside with derision from the savage mob. The respectable hotel keeper seeks prosperity from the rich, whose comfort is indirectly promoted by every wise legislative regulation. I doubt if it be safe to rely on the self-restraint of the laboring classes after working hours. Let them have cheap wine-shops, in which Nature soon cries " enough." But I have known instances of persons of education and talent, drinking from thirty to forty glasses of colonial beer between breakfast and dinner, and I read in this day's journal the naive boast of an attendant at a local option meeting, that he " could drink sixteen" Surely this cannot be natural ; and no less surely must the brain and nervous system be, ultimately, ruined by the accumulated poison. Let the Legislature look to the quality of our beverages, and leave the quantity to Nature, to fortune, and to ourselves.

The failure of any process whereby the detection and elimination of amyl can be effectually insured may be more a misfortune than a fault. For I have heard bo many varities of cause assigned for the deleterious effects of colonial beer that I am willing (0 admit that as yet no preventive has been found, however honestly and willingly sought. I therefore frankly disavow any intention to cast blame on any class or any individuals. The im portance of the subject can hardly be overrated. Of its close connection with the many saddening cases of violence, brutality, and almost mania, I am firmly pereuaded. The moral character of a nation is certainly formed, to a great extent, by its diet. So thought Moses and Mahomet. The Jewish lawgiver seems to have shared the belief of many, that the swallowing of any portion of the blood of an animal ("which is the life thereof") endangered the pollution or perversion of the mind aud character. Accordingly, every drop of blood must be cleansed from the animal before its cooking. The inside is searched, and a speck or traca of hydatids is sufficient to condemn the meat, also any adhesion of the lung to the pleura or other disease thereof. It were well, were it but practicable, did we adopt this wise custom, together with the judicious dietary table, and thus smooth the path to temperance by wholesome aud nutritious meats. Novel diseases are rising and spreading amongst us, which our doctors are embarrassed in trying to classify ; these diseases clearly suppo-ing an impure state of the blood, and the horrible deeds of violence and murder must surely spring from some raging virus indwelling. " Tis in ourselves that we are thus or Ihus." The wretched Morgan, deservedly executed, was incited by only "five or six drinks to unmanly lust and murder unprovoked, both of his crimes and their cause being contrary to nature ; for an equal portion of pure, Bound wine or beer would never have so transformed him.

We have several " societies " now being formed, well meaning and conductive to the harmless pleasure called " mutual admiration " — Kalizoic, Shakspeare, Buonarotti, &c., why not an Aiistological Society, for the promotion of wise and healthful living — it might form a branch of the Kalizoic ? Nature affords many articles of diet that we slight. lam convinced thafc we all eat too much meat, and that more attention should be given to the finny treasures of the deep.

History is not WIIOII7 silent. Gluttony enter largely into the growth of vice and cruelty, in Borgia, Henry VIII., Charles IX. of France, Louis XIV, and Frederick of Prussia The " bile-suffused eye and cheek of Napoleon "have been noticed by Shelley, Mortifying as is the confession to our pridf, we must admit that intemperance, indigestion, and inattention to nature and her laws are the cradles of much of our vice and misery, and the poisonous perverters of many sweet and noble qualities. In short, temperance, handmaiden of every virtue, is easy when nought is before us save food and • Irink pure, sound, and wholesome, and therefore satisfying.