BISHOP BROMBY'S LECTURE ON INTEMPERANCE AND THE LEGISLATIVE REMEDIES.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3215, 2 June 1871, Page 3

BISHOP BROMBY'S LECTURE ON INTEMPERANCE AND THE LEGISLATIVE REMEDIES.

Chapter 111. The Licensing System— Such, are tho views of thoughtful men, which we cannot afford to despise, but now a very important question thrusts itself upon us. Why should not public opinion be directed to the improvement and enforcement of existing laws which regulate the sale of intoxicating drinks ? There is a loudly uttered cry, heard over England and her colonies, that the Executive cannot or will not enforce these laws. The truth is that they find so many obstacles in tho way that they give up all in despair. And yet what is the meaning of the word " license ?" It means the privilege granted by the State to a man who can be trusted with a dangerous commodity, for I need not remind you that tho word intoxication is derived from a Latin root, which means poison. If that privilege be abused, punishment is due, and punishment should follow ; such punishment as is due to a man who has helped a weak fellow creature not only to ruin himself, bufe to beggar his wife and children. If that weak man Bhould become a convict, a mania", or a suicide, through the abuse of such license, the license holder who soils is guilty by the law of God and of society ; and the magistrate who, forewarned, instead of punishing the wrong doer, renews tho license is a moral accomplice in the crime. lam not insensible, I repeat, to tho great difficulties that exist in the execution of these laws, one of whicli I will illustrate by an example. A conscientious magistrate commands tho policeman to bring to justice the seller that turns upon the township a violent citizen, duly prepared to smash his neighbors' windows, or his spouse'^ head. A case occurs. Policeman X steps in and prepares the salesman for a summons. Perhaps a little girl, on that occasion, has been trusted to serve customers, and this is her answer, " Please I did not know that he was going to be bo violent, he only took a nobbier of rum. He wassopleasant and Bmiling-like, who would have thought it ?" The fact is that there are a great many stages in drinking, and that forms the difficulty. First, there is the excited stage, then there is the elevated stage, then there iB the fresh stage, a corruption, I suppose, of refreshed, then there is the staggering stage, and the dangerous stage, and lastly tho fuddled or collapsed stage. Now the township in question has as many tap-rooms as there aye these natural stages in drunkenness. Unfortunately our friend, who first smashed windows and then heads, paid them all a visit in turn. Amongst the various dispensers of the intoxicating drug, it iB a puzzling matter for policeman or ruogistrate to fix the guilt upon the deserving party. Is there then no remedy for so aad a miscarriage of justice ? I know of only one, and thuft is, to shut up all suah supplies except one, or, perhaps, two, in the township. And there would be these additional advantages, that by lessening the number and bringing the supply down to a legitimate demand, make surveillance practicable, and you remove the temptation to tout for customers and to cheapen the liquor by adulterating it. These are the evils of excessive competition. Adulteration gives a twofold effect ; advantage to the hard-pressed publican : it increases profits both by cheapening the liquor and by increasing the horrible crave. The case, as one of political economy, stands thus. It is the policy of statesmen to increase the licenses, and it is the policy of license holders to increase the number of their customers, and the quantity consumed by each. Or the part of the State, the entire policy rests upon the miserable basis of drawing a revenue intended for the people's good, from oucouraging a vice which ends in the people's ruin, wasting their resources, and perpetuating pauperism. Suggested Amendments. — If, then, thelicensing system is to be retained at all, let it be amended by various reforms. First, by the reduction of drink-shops, the multiplication of which has been the cause of all thoße frightful evils that afllict the humbler classes. Secondly, I would incorporate an admirable provision, contained in the New York law, which punishes adulteration with three months' imprisonment. If beer must be drunk, let it be, in the language of our old statutes, such, beer as is " meet for man's body." Thirdly, let the State discourage " habitual drunkards," as it does "habitual criminals," and place them under police surveillance. It is too late to maintain that the duty of the State is not to protect its citizeHs against their own vices, but only the vices of others. If so, why then does the State discourage gambling by forbidding lotteries and gaming hells ? and why does it enact compulsory provisions in the School Act? Fourthly, let the seller of drink who supplies the " habitual drunkard" receive a notice of caution from tho magistrate, and upon a repetition of his offence, forfeit his license, and be made responsible for the injury which his customer may have inflicted under the influence of drink. Once more, the proprietors of dancing and music saloons should be debarred from the privilege of holding a license for the sale of intoxicating drink. Such provisions as these would go far to lessen tho evils of intemperance, and are independent of the still more radical question — which is the essential principle of the Permissive Bill— whether any given locality shall, with the consent of the great mass of the citizens, be allowed to say whether or not "to be drunk on the premises" shall be wiped away from every tap-room? The licensing law must be amended, and its restrictions increased, and its administration altered, or controlled, whether tho permissive enactmentbeinti'oduced or not. Permissive Hill — I do not pretend to be a prophet, but of one thing I nra confident, that unless Buch amendments arc adopted, tho Permissive Bill wi'l

become law before many years are past. And I will state the reasons which lead me to form this opinion. First, I sec in this age of ours a growing power residing in co-operation and a growing consciousness of strongth springing out of it. Individuality is weak as a rule, but combination iB a growing power in tho State, and when that combination is animated by a fixed idea, and that idea the general welfare, or the hatred of a common foe, the wave of moral enthusiasm will daily gather strength and finally become irresistible. Such a power I now see guided by earnest, unselfish, and able leaders, whose hearts are in their work. They are determined that the temptation to intemperance shall cease. A 9 a maxim of political economy, they maintain that the majority of the community has a right to define crime, and to repress it when defined, notwithstanding a minority. They believe that traffic in intoxicating drinks comes under the definition of crime, because it is injurious to society ; and on the same principles on which a majority forbids the salo of indecent books, or the existence of immoral entertainments, or the practice of bigamy, or of marrying a deceased wife's sister, even though no higher authority had spoken, so on the same principle of social expediency, as soon as a majority of a people are led to believe that traffic in liquor is a crime, i.e., a social wrong, it is its duty to prohibit it by legislative enactment. It is, then, because I witness a ( growing conscience that something must be done to arrest the natural decadence of Englishmen and a deepeuing conviction that unless some measure be adopted, which Parliament has not yet adopted, for restraining an alarming ovil which is paralysing industry, dwarfing the intellect, and spreading pauperism, disease, lunacy and crime throughout tho lands, the moral enthusiasm, of which I spoke, will gather to itself increasing power, year by year, until it will knock at tho gates of every House of Parliament in every British territory, and either convert or thrust aside our senators, who, however unconsciously, are conniving at a traffic, which, more than any other pregnant cause, tends to fill our streets with loafers, our unions with paupers, our asylums with lunatics, and our prisons with criminals. I kuow of no effort in this direction more satisfactory than that of the committee appointed by Convocation, the report of which is before me. It has been the work, not of one-sided enthusiasts, but of men who felt that a great duty was committed to them, and who detei mined to do it, and they did it most bravely and self-denyingly. The committee consisted of the prosecutor, three eminent Deans, including the lamented Dean of Canterbury, six Archdeacons, seven Canons, including tho Binco appointed Bishop of Manchester and two prebendaries ; men selected for their calm judgment and practical ability. The sources of their information covered tho twenty-two dioceses of tho province of Canterbury, or, in other words, thirty-two counties in England, and the whole of the principality of Wales. Their enquiries extended to the clergy, chaplains of prisons, judges and recorders, coroners, police magistrates, governors of workhouses, and chief constables. The "report" contains no fewer than 2283 extracts from thoir replies to enquiries, methodically arranged, and bear upon tho causes, directly and indirectly, of intemperance ; tho consequences, social and commercial, and the remedies, whether moral or legislative. On all sides there is a striking unanimity in condemning the licensing system as at present administered. There is no view of this great question left untouched in this exhaustive report. Adulteration of liquor, police corruption, the indirect relution of improved dwellings, coffee rooms, and penny readings, all aspects in turn arc examined. I will read one or two extracts. On page 62 we have a long letter from Chief Justice Sir W. Bovil. On the following page we have a similar letter from tho Lord Chief Baron Kelly, and then follows one from that very philanthropic man, Mr Commissioner Hill. There are endless testimonies to the wonderful effect following the closing of ale houses in various parishes, and endless opinions upon tho best means of remedying the existing evils. Simply as specimens I read the following, p. 198 •—- I heartily commend the results of this valuable enquiry to the members of our own legislature. Nor let them say that they have nothing to do with tho work of tho churcheß. It is the duty of every church to raise her voice to shape public opinion, and it is the duty of the lagislature and its interest, to remove tho obstacles which frustrates her work, and to stay the poison which paralyses her arm. If our legislature would only qualify itself for its duties in relation to this evil, let it examine the proofs here presented in this volume of the effects of intomperance upon tho individual, the family, the society, and the church. Let us study the close relations of intemperance to crime, pauperism, depression of trade, and physical disease. Drunkenness does not indeed bo glaringly flaunt itself with us in the public streets as elsewhere, but let us not be deceived in any spirit of self-righteousness. Here, as elsewhere, the sad vices, by which so many are depraved and rendered brutal, are traceable to the passion for intoxicating drink, which we fear the law, by its present regulations, so far from repressing, only tends to foster and encourage. In this colony, assuming that we expend the samo proportional amount upon ardent drinks as is expended at home, and allowing that one-half might be saved by improved legislative enactments, we should be saving at least five times the amount that would pay the interest of the loan required for our main line of railway. I now bring my remarks and arguments very briefly to a practical head. They were intended to introduce and to reccommend for your serious examination the following con-, elusions. His Lordship quoted from page 14 of the report on Convocation on Intemperance, suggesting legislative remedies, namely, 1. Kepeal of Beer Act of 1830, and the total suppression of beer-houses throughout the country. 2. Closing of public-houeeß on the Lord's Day. 3. Earlier closing of publichouses on week-day evenings, especially on Saturday. 4. Reduction in the number of the public-houses. 5. Placing licensing system under one authority. 6. Enforcement of penalties for druukennosss. 7. Act to prevent same person holding a music, dancing, or billiard license in conjunction with a license for sale of intoxicating drink. 8. Prohibiting use of public-houses as committee rooms at elections. 9. Distinct claßß of police for inspection and visitation of public houses for detection of adulterations. 10. Eopeal of duties on tea, coffee, chocolate, and sugar ; and 11. Popular restraint on issue of licenses. Ho then proceeded : And now my work is done. Yes, and, in spite of imperfections, done well, my friends, if I should succeed in drawing greater public attention— which is the purpose of my lecture — to the weak bulwarks which at present exist to repel the waves of this " gigantic evil." De tninimis non curat lex; but what other evil is to be compared with this ? We are shocked at the horrors of war. Every year in Great Britain four times bb many victims fall before this Moloch as those brave men who left their bones to blanch upon the plains of Waterloo. How horrible that sad carnage to our eyes, which we have read tho accounts of 16,000 inileß away during the last few months, and yet thoee scenes are not so horrible after all. Those gallant men did die at tho call of duty. The trust in Christ may havo been in their hearts, and the words of prayer upon their dying lips, but who may hope for those who die tho drunkard's death ? Ride on thou car of Juggernaut upon those devoted multitudes of our Asiatic brethren. A voice may yet be heard from them, " Father forgive them for they know not what they do." Blaze forth ye fires of Sutteeism, and heat again those stony arms of Moloch, through which tho children shall pass-™" tho first-born of the body for tho sin of tho soul." "Yo do it ignorantly and in unbelief." But in Great Britain 50,000 annually die, and no commensurato efforts avo made to stay tho plague. They die annually 60,000 strong, and

the hard law of statistics demands that tho talo shall not bo diminished. The ranks must be filled up. Shall it be— it may be— by a husband, a child, a friend of yours ? Who can tell ? Small-pox, scarlet fever, pestilence, and war, your victims are fewer, and the consequences are tempered by consolation. But this evil ia too common to shock us, though its ravages are a hundredfold more terrible. Ye legislators of the land and ministers of religion, the pure and undefiled religion of Jesus, look in at the drunkard's home. See that wife pale and pining in her grief. See those tattered, untaught, half-fed children. Look into that drunkard's heart. The brutal-' isation of his nature, that deadens to every tender emotion ! Look at his influence on his neighborhood. What deeds of darkness, what licentiousness, what injuries to his brother men ! Then look afc the drunkard's ioul. Talk not of gospel remedies. Rags keep ! him from the house of God, and hie habits have placed him beyond the reach of, and indisposed him for, the softening influences of Divine grace. He is a wreck in body and soul, and beyond the grave there is •' the second death." Ye ministers of the gospel and legislators of our land turn not a deaf ear to an rppeal that arises on every Bide — from forsaken households and desolated hearthe, from squalid children and babes worse than orphans, from crowded prisons and gloomy asylums. Ye do well when wretchedness knocks at your doors 5 do better still by warding off wretchedness at its source. Tasmania* is always jealous of her national honor, and it is her honest pride not to lag behind in civilised legislation. But here is an opportunity for setting an example to Great Britain and to the world of a bold grappling with a vice which wastes the wealth and saps the strength of a people ; destroys all self-respect and self-reliance j increases the taxation of the sober poor ; obstructs the work of education and the spread of Christianity, and makes the name of England a bye-word among the nations of the earth ; aye, to bring the saddest scandal on the Christian faith. For alas! drunkeness is far more common among the nations that profess it than the nations that are strangers to its power. In such a cause let U9 lay aside all the bitterness of party and all the jealousies of sects. Let us muster under tho banner not of any denomination, but the banner of the Brotherhood of Christ. Over the wounds of our common humanity, let Priest and Levite and Samaritan meet together with the oil and wine of Christian love, and vie with each other in curing their wounds and raising the suffering man nearer unto God. We stand on the platform of timo, between the two eternities, and we have a work to do in our generation. The time is short, the work is urgent. Eternity is described as Our noisy years seem moments in the being Of the eternal silence ; truths that wake To perish never 5 Which neither listlessness nor mad endeavour Nor man nor boy, Nor all that is at enmity with joy Can utterly abolish or destroy ! Hence in a season of calm weather Though inland far we be, Our souls have sight of that immortal sea ' Which brought us hither.