The Timaru Herald. TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1879.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 1419, 8 April 1879, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1879.

There is a thoroughness about the Honorable William Fox, a resolute determination to reject all compromise, an honest, if Quixotic, readiness to tilt at big delinquents as well as little ones, which irresistibly inclines us to respect and admire his enthusiasm for the cause of temperance. He differs widely, indeed, m several important respects, from the type of teetotal spouter commonly pictured by the satirists of temperance enthusiasm. He is not a reformed drunkard, fevered with the specious zeal of a recent convert. H« is not a Chadband, living oilily on the proceeds of a gift of the gab. He is not a village busybody, seeking to extend his credit among the serious, by an assumption of unco' guidness. A gentleman by birth and education, a politician who has long since gained and laid aside, the proudest laurels that the political arena yields m the Colony, possessed of ample means, and scorning the sordid care of the money grubber, cultivated m his tastes, refined m his habits, and essentially genial m his disposition, he has nothing m the world to gain, but a great deal to lose, by his activity as a temperance reformer. That he is to some extent a monomaniac, must, we suppose, be admitted ; and it is there, probably, that his chief weakness lies. If he mingled with a wider circle of thinking men, and applied his talents and accomplishments to a more varied range of purposes, be might, we believe, exercise a more powerful influence than he does upon the public mind, and be more likely than he is, ultimately, to achieve the objects which are so near his heart. At the same time he would undoubtedly lose much m particular force, of what he might gain m general grasp. So long as he is strictly a monomaniac, he can afford to be logical ; but were he for a moment to step down from his hobby, he would be compelled to come to terms with a good deal of inconsistency. So long as he holds rigidly to all the points of his creed, it appears to us to be impossible to gainsay even his extremest utterances. Logically considered, indeed, the liquor traffic must be admitted to be from beginning to end, a crime on the part of all who engage m it, and a disgrace to a civilised age. The distiller who sits m Parliament to make laws for the happiness and welfare of his fellow countrymen, and who m his private capacity, is perhaps a great philanthropist, is yet as much an accessory to the horrors of a ginsteeped people, as the confederate is to the murder when he hands the knife to the assassin. The publican who sells the drug which the distiller supplies him with, is, m this analogy, but a second accessory nearer to the crime. All of them, manufacturei's, wholesale dealers, retailers, are, as Mr Fox put it on Sunday evening, partners m guilt and joint participators m the spoil. No one, not even the barman who passes his life m constant contact with drunkenness, denies the horrible suffering which it inflicts on the individual, or on the mass. The miserable deaths from exhaustion, delirium, not unfrequently starvation; the commonest form of lunacy ; the suicides ; the furious assaults on men, women, and children ; the desolate homes ; the dishonored families ; all arising directly from drunkenness, are admitted and deplored even by those through whose instrumentality they come to pass. Each of them, however, pleads that his particular share m the processhas been insignificant if not involuntary ; but stem logic points to each one of them, and says " Thou art the man." It is argued as against this damning view of the causes of drunkenness, traced through all their ramificaations, that society acquiesces m the liquor traffic and that drunkenness is but an untoward result of it, which, however undesirable, cannot be altogether avoided. After all it is mainly the fault of the victims themselves, who, if they kept sober, would not go mad or die. Precisely the. same plea, however, is made m palliation of the murder of travellers m Sicily. Society acquiesces m brigandage. Sovereigns and politicians, wealthy merchants, dignified officials, worthy citizens, even judges, and it is Baid, priests, all countenance it, and all profit by it m their respective spheres. The brigands themselves are highly respectable, according to the standard of respectability prevailing m those parts. They are veiy religious, and contribute liberally to local charities, and are immensely popular amongst all classes. Everybody regrets, of course, that they should murder people, and, indeed, such excess is considered exceedingly blameable. They are often arrested and tried for it, though scarcely ever convicted, or, if convicted, punished at all severely. Murder, m fact, is regarded by society as an untoward result of brigandage, which, however undesirable, cannot be altogether avoided. After all, it is mainly the fault of the victims themselves, who, if they paid their ransom and held their tongue, would never be hurt at all. In spite of all this, though, brigandage is condemned by civilised nations as a

relic of barbarism — a standing rtincvace ] to the Government which tolerates it, j and a stain upon the fair fame of the i Italian people. The victims of bri- i gandage m the whole of the Italian , kingdom, we suppose, do not number ; one-tenth of the victims of the liquor ; traffic m thiH small dependency of of the British Empire ! We have, so far, followed pretty closely, the mere logical reasoning upon I which root-and-branch temperance re- ■ formers like Mr Fox, demand the total | abolition of the liquor traffic. It is obi vious, however, that such reasoning is not practical, inasmuch as it loaves out of sight the irrefutable fact that the great bulk of the population habitually use intoxicating liquors without producing the deplorable results of excess, and that, therefore, trade m what must be deemed an article of legitimate consumption, is a commercial and political necessity. If the object of temperance reform were to suppress the evil results of the liquor traffic, rather than to suppress the liquor traffic itself, there would, we believe, be a better prospect of its object being gained than there is at present. We know that m a case like , this, where any compromise is admittedly illogical and indefensible on any ground of clear principle, it is extremely difficult to know where to begin and where to end. Looking at the matter, though, purely from the political point of view, and keeping before us mainly the object of diminishing the worst results of the liquor traffic as they affect society by producing crime, we think that it is possible to determine the degree at which restriction ought to be absolutely enforced. It is not so much the sale of liquor, as the sale of liquor to drunken men, that leads to such terrible results. When a man is under the influence of drink, if he takes no more, he begins immediately to get sober, and m a short space of time is m his right senses again. If on the other hand, he is supplied with more drink, he becomes a madman, every bad impulse of hia nature is abnormally developed, and he is i*endered for the time a dangerous and desperate creature. We look upon the act of deliberately supplying liquor to a drunken man as a heinous crime, for which no punishment would ; be too severe ; and we think that it is towards the detection and suppression of that particular crime, that restrictive liquor laws should be specially directed. At present, although it is well known that this crime is committed every day m numberless instances, it is almost impossible to obtain a conviction for it. The class of people from whom the witnesses are drawn, are either interested m concealment of the offence, or else are too depraved themselves to be worth credit on oath. We saw a case here, only a few days ago, where a man had clearly been made i drunk for the purpose of being robbed, and where liquor had been served to him m several public -houses after lie was helplessly drunk ; where, m fact, the chain of evidence was quite com- , plete when it first came to light. Yet, . when the breach of the licensing law ' came to be tried, it broke down en- ' tirely, through the perjury of one of the witnesses — unless he had per- ' jured himself before — and the ' worthless character of another. . Several other palpable cases, which , have broken down iv a similar < manner elsewhere, have come within our notice recently. The Magistrates and the police, indeed, almost despair of ever getting a conviction for this crime, so difficult is it to obtain the necessary sworn testimony. Constables and detectives cannot be prevailed on to spy upon the publicans, as they easily , might if the duty were not too repug- ; nant to them, and the numerous witnesses who see what goes on every day, are either not to be got hold of when wanted, or else refuse to swear to what ' they know. Even when a conviction, is obtained too, what does it lead to ? The publican is fined a few pounds and cautioned to be more careful m future ; and he is more careful — not to be found out. If he is a bad man, though, he probably sells more liquor to drunken men than ever, if only to recoup himself for the amount. of the fine. All these facts point m our mind to the necessity for three things, namely, greatly increased discrimination m the granting of licenses, good personal character being of the utmost importance m a licensee j special inspection of public-houses by trustworthy officers not known to the publicans ; and the addition of imprisonment with hard labor to fines, as the penalty of selling liquor to drunken men. If half a dozen publicans or barmen, were sent to gaol for six months, on the clear and methodical evidence of persons whom they had never seen before, and might never see again, this wicked and detestable practice of driving men mad for the sake of robbing them of their earnings would very quickly come to an end. We commend these suggestions to members of the Legislature and others, who take an interest m the subject of temperance or m the operation of the liquor laws upon society. + The case of the woman Brighting, who was convicted of vagrancy last week, should be a warning to all who are prone to be imposed upon by begging impostors. Her method of fleecing the public was a peculiar one. She went about with a subscription list, stating that she had become entitled to a large property m England, but needed the means of getting Home to claim it, and representing herself as a highly respectable person of the middle class, who had met with misfortunes and was without friends m the colony. She was well dressed, and might be called ladylike m her appearance, and her manners were sufficiently plausible to command a courteous hearing anywhere. Still, adept as she was m her art, it is a marvel to us that such an extremely improbable story as hers should have been believed by anybody. We should have supposed that the simplest minded person, with the least knowledge of the world, would have known that a lady of property can always find a professional guardian to manage her affairs for her. If there had been even a semblance of truth m her narrative, any lawyer m : the place -would have been only too • ready to become her most humble ■ servant, on the bare chance of assisting , her to realise her fortune — and sharing ; it with her. Unprotected females with i money, are the very kind of clients that

lawyers like best. One of these will pay butter, even when the property divisible between her and the lawyer is small, than twenty matter of fact male clients, who know the run of the ropes ; and there is no limit to the devoted gallantry with which a lawyer will fly to the rescue of a lady m distress, if there is the slightest prospect of her proving to be wealthy. Fancy a woman entitled to a large property m England or anywhere else, having to beg from door to door m a town containing ten lawyers. Incredible ! Yet Mary Ann Brighting found numbers of people goodnatured and weakminded enough to contribute liberally towards her fund, no doubt m the honest belief that they were performing an act of benevolence, and aiding her to regain her proper position m society. She turned out, of course, to be an old hand, with a string of aliases, and a shockingly bad character from various quarters ; and the speedy destination of the subscriptions which she had collected, was shown to be, as usual, the nearest publichouse. She waa proved to have drunk five glasses of brandy, apparently at one sitting, and was turned out of the hotel m a state of intoxication, her money, we suppose, being by that time all spent. Now, could there be a stronger illustration than this case affords, of the folly, not to say the culpability, of indiscriminate alms-giving? We have many times dwelt earnestly on this subject, m the hope of deterring everybody from encouraging idleness and crime by thoughtless charity ; and we believe we have been sorely blamed by sundry kindly-disposed and well-intentioned persons for our apparent harshness towards " the homeless poor." We would therefore ask all who have hitherto differed from us onthißmatter.toconsiderwellaU the facts and bearings of this particular case, and then to enquire whether all cases of mendicancy are not very like it m the important feature of the mendicant dishonestly preying upon the industrious section of the community. After having studied the subject very attentively for a considerable time, we are convinced that no really deserving person ever, under any circumstances." begs publicly for money m New Zealand.