Queen Victoria and the Temperance Movement.

White Ribbon, Volume 6, Issue 70, 1 March 1901, Page 1

Queen Victoria and the Temperance Movement.

The most appropriate garland that we can bring, to reverently lay with the other emblems of a people’s love, is one woven with incidents connecting the departed Queen with the temperance movement. The Queen could not have lov;d her people well without having her heart stirred by the evils which made the lives of many of them a curse o be endured rather than a blessing to be enjoyed. Soon after the young Queen came to the throne she became the patron of the British and Foreign Temperance Society, whose m *mbers were pledged to abst tin from distilled spirits, and to discountenance the causes and practice of intemperance. Advanced reformers had already recognised the insufficiency of this remedy, and in the first Knglish book in advocacy of abstinence from all intoxicants, “ The Cuise of Britain,” by the Rev W. K. Baker, was published, and the Queen accepted a copy of this. In 1854 her Majesty received an address from the wives and daughters ot working men, pathetically pleading for her influence to he cast against their worst enemies—the gin palace and the public-hou e. Three years later she was addressed to this end by quite a different class of persons—a Ministerial

Conference, which adopted a declara. tion in favour of prohibition, signed eventually by 2,390 ministers of religion. Thus the evils of the liquor traffic were brought before the Head of the Nation by those who suffered, and those who saw and sympathised. Later there came a pictorial presentation of

these evils. George Cruikshank took his great picture, “ The .vo ship of Bacchus,’ to Windsor Castl *, and pointed its 1< ssons to the Queen. There are about 1,000 figures in the picture, arranged in various groups depicting the worship of the wine-god (and the beer-and-gin god) from the cradle to

the grave. The workhouse, the refuge, the madhouse, the prison, an 1 the gallows are shown side by side with the smoke.reeking brewery and distillery, and Bacchus stands in triumph, enthroned as the strongest monarch of all. In these ways the evils of drink were brought before the Royal mind. Then there came a suggestion as to remedies* The Convocation of Canterbury Report upon Intemperance was presented, and an elegantly-bound copy was received by the Queen. The chief remedy suggested was complete Local Option—giving to the people “ a legal power of restraining the issue or renewal of licenses.” “ Such a power,” the report continued, “ would, in effect, secure to the districts willing to exercise it the advantages now enjoyed by the numerous parishes in the province of Canterbury, where, owing to the influence of the landowner, no sale of intoxicating liquors is licensed.” Few, it may be believed, are cognisant of the fact, which has l>een elicited by this inquiry, but there are at this time within the p;ovince of Canterbury upwards of 1,000 parishes in which there is neither public-house nor beer-shop, and w here, in consequence of the absence of these inducements to crime and pauperism, according to the evidence before the committee, the intelligence, moralitv, and comfort of the people are such as the friends of temperance would haw; anticipated. Later there is evidence

that these things hail lingered in the mind ot the Queen. In 1875, Sir Thomas Biddulph, her secretary, wrote :—“ It is impossible for the Queen not to be grateful to those who endeavour to miti- i gate an evil of such magnitude as the widely spread intemperance which unfortunately prevails.' Later, in acknowledging th * receipt of a copy of the York Convocation Committee's Rep >rt upon Intemperance, Sir Thomas wrote: —“lt is her Majesty's earnest wish that ihese < fforts may bt* crown* d with success.” In the same year the Queen bjeam patron of the Church ot England Temperance Society. Soon after, the Queen's speech at the opening of Padiament congratulated the pe >ple upon a decrease in the annual drink bill, which was a recognition in high quarters of the fact that it is well for the country when liquor sellers are faring badly. In 1887 a jubilee memorial to the Queen i favour of the Sunday closing of public-houses was

signed by nearly 1,200,000 mothers and daughters of England. It may be claimed that the Queen became a prohibitionist for the majority of her subjects - those whose skins were dark. In 1805, addressing Khama and other Bechuana chiefs at Windsor Castle, she said: “I am glad to s e the chiefs, and to know that they love my rule. I confirm the settlement of their case which my Minister has made. I approve ot toe provision excluding strong drink from their country. ! feel strongly in this matter, and rni glad to see that the chiefs have determined to ke p so great a curse from the people.” Drink is a curse to the white people of the Empire as well as the black, and surely one of the best monuments to the memory of the Queen would be the State which l»eais her name freed from “ so gre.it a curse ” by the enlightened resolution of the people themselves. Better than monument of whitest mar le with inscription of puiest gold would be the name Victoria enshrined beneath the Southern Cross in a State free from “ so great a curse ” as the liquor traffic, and with righteousness as the crown of its g.eatness. “ The Alliance Record, ’ Victoria.