We desire that you may be guided by the wisdom which is from above in your deliberations on this momentous subject, and cherishing for you the warmest esteem on account of your labours of love, we commend you to the blessing of Almighty God, to whom be all power and praise, world without end.

After some conversation on the wording of the address, the following resolution was unanimously adopted, on the motion of the Rev. W. Harris, seconded by E. B. Dawson, Esq. :

:

"That the address to the Sunday School Union, drawn up by a sub-committee of this Convention, be cordially adopted and signed by the president on its behalf, and that the following gentlemen be requested to form a deputation to convey the same:-Baron de Lynden, Judge Marshall, Joseph Thorpe, Esq., Rev. Canon Jenkins, Professor Kirk, E. Whitwell, Esq., and Rev. Charles Garrett."

Mr. E. B. DAWSON, LL.B., having announced the arrangements for the day, the Convention adjourned into the respective rooms in which the sections were to meet.

SECTION IV.

SOCIAL AND SANITARY.

Public-House Demoralisation, as exhibited in the Statistics of the Borough of Sunderland. By EDWARD BACKHOUSE.

IT

T appears by the last Blue Book containing the official returns of the criminal statistics for 1861, that there are in England and Wales 23,916 houses of bad character, and that of these there are houses the resort of thieves and prostitutes as under :

If we take the average of the daily frequenters of each of these 4,679 disorderly houses at only 25 persons, we have 116,975 individuals.

In Sunderland, 88 houses of bad character are thus reported; and of these there are houses the resort of prostitutes and thieves

Taking, therefore, 25 persons as the average visiting each of these disorderly drinking houses daily, it gives 650 individuals.

This, however, conveys but a faint idea of the condition of the borough. The following statement will enable the Convention to judge as to whether the above slight calculations are not greatly under the mark :

The population of Sunderland at the last census was 78,699 persons; while the number of spirit licenses is 301, or one to every 261 persons. In addition to the above, there are also 190 beer-shops and wine-shops, which brings the number of houses where intoxicating drink is sold to 491, or one drinking house to every 160 persons.

On the 26th February, 1859, twenty public-houses taken seriatim in the High-street, Sunderland, the whole within a distance of 230 yards, were watched for one hour on a Saturday (which is also market day),

from half-past seven to half-past eight p.m., and the number of individuals who entered them respectively, being counted by friends of the Temperance movement, were returned as follows:

The above twenty public-houses and dram-shops are in the centre of the old town, and in close proximity to the river and docks. After the above statement of what business twenty public-houses can do on a market day in one hour, it may easily be conjectured that 491 houses for the sale of drink must have caused proportionate demoralisation. So deeply has this been felt, that for the last thirteen years repeated representations and memorials have been addressed to the bench of magistrates, who have, in consequence, reduced the number of the worst conducted public-houses by the withdrawal of nearly thirty licenses. The bench has also usually declined to grant new licenses. Still, however, the nuisance remained; for, notwithstanding the police returns showing that many of them were egregiously misconducted, and were the resort of prostitutes and thieves, most of these scandalous public-houses were re-licensed from year to year to the deep regret of the inhabitants.

For several years past a License Reform Association has sought to obtain information respecting the real condition of the borough, and two years ago the writer of this paper, who is chairman of the executive committee, undertook the disagreeable duty, accompanied by a policeman, of personally inspecting these dens of iniquity between the hours of ten p.m. and one a.m.; the first occasion being on a Saturday, and the second on a Wednesday night, with the following results:

This house is said to take £50 across the counter on a Saturday night. £70 in pence taken by another on a Saturday.

On the Saturday night there were found in ten disorderly public-houses seventy-six prostitutes, being an average of seven and a half in each house, besides many men; for, from one of the above, there were about 100 young men turned out at midnight.

In six other public-houses, having dancing-rooms, there were about 128 girls, averaging twenty-one to each house, who were evidently on the highroad to ruin; all of these houses were filled with men and girls dancing to the bagpipes or violin; many of the girls were only from twelve to fifteen years of age.

In another public-house five or six men were intoxicated, some laid under the table, and others with their heads upon it, and yet were continued to be supplied with drink.

In another public-house of the most infamous character several lads of fourteen and fifteen years of age were gambling, while the landlord himself was very drunk. Upstairs it was fitted all round with sofas for immoral purposes. This was also the case with another public-house, and also with an eating-house, to which persons resort after the closing of the public-houses at midnight.

On the Monday night following several of the above were re-visited. In one public-house a girl of fourteen years of age was found locked in a room with a youth of seventeen or eighteen. Her case was a melancholy one. She had been enticed from the house of her father, a respectable shipwright, and ruined. Her father had lost sight of her for several weeks, until he saw her at the door of this public-house with other fallen women. He went home, took to his bed, and in three weeks was dead.

Several of the infamous public-houses before referred to were re-visited, and forty-eight fallen women were found inside, or passing out at the door, giving an average of near seven per house.

Four of the dancing-rooms, having spirit licenses, were re-visited, and in them were found fifteen, fourteen, ten, and twenty girls respectively; three of whom were only eleven or twelve years of age.

Five other public-houses were visited for the first time, in each of which were two, three, and four prostitutes.

Such were some of the evils represented to the Sunderland bench by the License Reform Committee, in August, 1861; nevertheless, all the spirit licenses were renewed, except four of the above.

In anticipation of the Brewster Sessions of August, 1862, two members of the committee (J. Halcro and myself) made a cursory inspection of the condition of the borough at midnight, on the second of last month.

At the doors of most of the above well known public-houses of bad character were numerous prostitutes and men, with uproarious music and dancing inside. At twelve p.m., twenty-four fallen women and forty-two men were turned out of one infamous dram-shop, very many of both classes more or less intoxicated. In the Low-street of Sunderland, public-house prostitutes solicited the passers by in the most impudent manner, while the High-street swarmed with them-ascertained to be more than 300 in number in the borough numbers of them were partially intoxicated. In one place a drunken quarrel had occurred between a husband and wife (both intoxicated), when, setting her cotton gown in a blaze, the demented

woman attempted to set fire to the house, but was too drunk to do it effectually.

But what exceedingly impressed those who undertook this unpleasant duty was the evidence that drink had deprived so many men of their senses, that they were ready to fall an easy prey to the "unfortunate girls" who solicited them. These poor girls, brought to shame by unscrupulous men, demand our sincere commiseration; but it excites our indignation as we trace this stream of pollution to its source, to see spirit licenses entrusted to men and women of shameful character; and, not only so, but to see them abound in such fearful numbers, especially in the old part of the town, as to offer a frightful amount of temptation to old and young, and to effect a wholesale demoralisation of our citizens.

For what was the appearance of the High-street of Sunderland on the night of the 2nd of last August? It was this. As midnight approached the streets had become gradually silent. There were no gas-lamps, except here and there the huge lights which flared above drink-shop doors. Respectable citizens had mostly retired to rest, when the clock struck twelve; and instantly there was "a roar and a rush," the spiritshops vomited forth their thousands, and the town presented the appearance of a fair. Taking only ten persons as the average turned out of each of the 301 public-houses, it gives us 3,010 persons; and if but three in ten were partially intoxicated, it will give 900 persons the worse for drink!

On the occasion referred to some rolled in the street, others fought or shouted drunken songs, or were assisted home by their comrades, nearly as unsteady from the effects of drink as themselves, or walked with cautious step lest their equilibrium should be disturbed, or were entrapped by the unfortunate girls before referred to.

Such was the High-street, Sunderland, on that night, and such it has probably been each succeeding Saturday night for years past. Notwithstanding this immense amount of drunkenness on Saturday night, Sunday also intervening, only about a dozen persons were charged before the bench on the Monday following, clearly proving how faint is the idea the police statistics give of the evils of the terrible system. We may wind up our catalogue of grievances by stating that gambling with dice or dominoes for money is, or was recently, almost universal in the publichouses of Sunderland.

Sunderland, there is reason to believe, is not worse than its neighbours, and the evils here set forth, we doubt not, will be found in greater or less intensity in all the large towns of the kingdom; evils which must of necessity continue to demoralise the community as long as the present temptations are offered to the public.

We hope, however, better things for the future of our town. A large public meeting was held on the 5th ultimo, at which many of the above statistics were given, which resulted in the adoption of a memorial to the bench, praying for a thorough reform in the public-house licenses, to which about 12,050 ratepayers and other inhabitants attached their signatures, as did ten or eleven licensed victuallers. So overwhelming was this expression of public opinion, that it was received with the greatest deference by the