a policeman was nearly killed in trying to keep order." That the system tends to immorality, may be presumed from the fact that the laws which are in force amongst the Oddfellows, and other public-house societies, have a rule imposing fines for fighting, quarrelling, sleeping, swearing, betting, and singing immoral songs, or giving immoral toasts or sentiments. The paying of "friendly visits" by the members of one lodge to another lodge held at a public-house, is generally the occasion of a drunken bout, and on returning home the members frequently meet with serious accidents, which impoverish the funds, and are often locked up as drunk and incapable. 66 Management is another evil of the system. The secretary or treasurer of these clubs is generally the publican, the office bearers are his friends and customers, and the members who treat most generally gain the highest position. The publicans' interest is considered paramount. Any attempt at reform is met with the bitterest opposition from his advocates; and even to get rid of a drunken officer is a matter of the greatest difficulty. A paper signed by several members, and forwarded to Mr. Tidd Pratt, states that threepence out of every member's contribution of 1s. 6d. is spent for beer, when disgraceful uproar arises, and the business cannot properly be done." The publican considers the club a part of his property as much as the good-will and fixtures, and, like these, societies are bought and sold with the house, as may be constantly seen from advertisements in the papers. The secretary of a large society writes to Mr. Tidd Pratt, July, 1860" During thirty-two years the society has at various times been transferred with the fixtures and good-will of the house, with a brief notice, or no notice at all. We have had two bankrupt treasurers, our club-box taken in execution, and the house closed for a period of two months; but these are trifles, consonant with the usages of the trade, and must be borne with meekness and resignation." Can we be surprised that under such circumstances mismanagement is the result? The admittance of unhealthy lives is another crying evil. This results from the landlord having a direct interest in increasing the number of members. His interest and that of the members are diametrically opposed to each other. He wants good customers to his house, and his influence is generally sufficient to smuggle in good customers, although they may not be profitable members of the club. In fact, the publican and his best friends are the worst members the club can have, as may be seen by a comparison of THE MORTALITY OF INN AND BEER-SHOP KEEPERS COMPARED WITH OTHER TRADES. Thus, between the ages of 45 and 55, out of every 1,000 Farmers 12 died. The mortality between these ages, amongst the whole population of England, is at the rate of 18 in the 1,000, whilst amongst the publicans it is 28. The Edinburgh Review says::-"Waiters in hotels and taverns sap their health by surreptitious tippling." A medical friend says:-" "His experience of them is that with exceptions they are all rotten with perpetual imbibition." Again it says:-" Drink is the bane of many trades and occupations. The gigantic brewer's drayman, who seems built as a match for the Flemish team he drives, is but a giant with fect of clay; his jolly looks are a delusion and a snare-a scratch prostrates him, and any serious illness is pretty sure to carry him off." Again, "If we take another class of persons thrown continually in the way of tippling, we find the result is equally unfavourable. The pot-boy of the metropolis scarcely lives out half his days, and the publican is almost as great a sinner as his man in the way of intemperance." The publican and his man ought, therefore, to be charged a higher rate, and his tippling customer the same; or, more properly, they ought never to be admitted, and yet in most public-house clubs they are the first to join. An extravagant waste of money is an evil of serious magnitude. Dr. Edgar, in his evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commons (1834), mentions one club which in eleven years spent £72. 12s. out of the funds for strong drink. Another, which in the same period spent more than double that sum, or £150; and a third, consisting of about thirty or forty members, which in ten years took £60 from its funds for the same purpose. Mr. Tidd Pratt, in his report for 1859, says "The evils thus pointed out in 1825 still remain." It is at all times most difficult to arrive at a correct estimate of the amount spent in drink, but one or two examples will illustrate the system. There is a Foresters' court mentioned in the same report, where the member pays annuaily 15s. to the funds, and it costs him 8s. to do so, or upwards of 50 per cent., besides what is spent voluntarily to prevent being thought a shabby fellow, for where drink is introduced into the room, after business is over, drinking is continued until a late hour as a social enjoyment, and the member who leaves the house is considered mean, and, in fact, almost black-balled. In another club 258 gallons of ale were consumed in three years, which, with tobacco and pipes, cost the society £38. 5s. 4d.; for a room, not worth £10, as much as £70 was paid for in liquor tickets. The president of a club acknowledges that the accounts have been "cooked," and that £1 of the funds has been spent in liquor at each lodge night, and £35 at the annual feast. And besides this we have the waste of money, also a waste of time and strength, both of which are as valuable, if not more so, than money—a hindrance to the establishment of benefit societies upon sound principles. What is the remedy for this great evil? Undoubtedly the shortest and most effective method would be to close the public-houses, but whilst they remain we must meet their inducements with counter attractions. Good provident societies have been established upon thoroughly safe principles, and supported by men of high reputation, and branches are being formed in almost every town, and I hope village too. I refer to such institutions as the Victoria Benefit Society, King William Street, London Bridge, the rules of which forbid any meetings being held at a public-house. To these societies let us, friends of Temperance, give our support; where branches are not established let us strive to form them, and insist that any club we are in shall be removed from the public-house, or, cease our connection with it. Total Abstainers ought not to go to a house where their principles are derided and themselves held up to ridicule. Young men especially should be warned not to enter into the house where the demon drink holds up its head, and not to link themselves with a brotherhood that may lead to an issue far worse than death. SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS IN THE SOCIAL AND SANITARY SECTION. President: EDWARD BACKHOUSE, Esq., Sunderland. Vice-Presidents: Sir GEORGE BROOKS PECHELL, Bart. Rev. G. T. Fox, M.A., Durham. BENJAMIN WHITWORTH, Esq., J.P., Fleetwood. JOSEPH CLARKE, Esq., J.P., Southampton. | C. H. LOVELL, Esq., M.D., London. Hon. Secretaries: Rev. FRANCIS BISHOP, Chesterfield. JOHN DAVIE, Esq., Dunfermline. TIES Section metus t, Esq., in the chair. The following was the HIS Section met in the Large Hall, the President of the Section, -- programme of the papers to be read : "Social and Financial Aspects of Strong Drink, in connection with the Permissive Bill Movement."-A. THOMSON, Deputy-Lieutenant of Counties Aberdeen and Kincardine, F.R.S.S., F.A.S.S., &c. (Read by Mr. Bishop.) "Public-house Demoralisation, as Exhibited in the Statistics of the Borough of Sunderland."-EDWARD BACKHOUSE, Sunderland. "Sanitary Laws the True Basis of Temperance Work."-Mrs. W. FISON. "Gaslight Photographs of Drinking Houses in Manchester."-Rev. F. BISHOP, Chesterfield. "The Unholy Alliance."-Miss F. HILL, Bristol. "The Illicit Sale of Intoxicating Liquors in the Cider Districts."-T. B. CLARKE, of Street. "On the Duties of a Magistrate in regard to the Licensing System and the Permissive Bill."-Dr. J. MACKENZIE, J.P., Inverness. (Read by Mr. C. J. Darbishire, of Lancaster.) "On the National Treatment, Physical, Moral, and Political, of Dipsomaniacs."Sir JOHN S. FORBES, Bart., Fettercairn, N.B. "Total Abstinence in some of its Social Aspects."-By the Rev. R. DAWSON, B.A., Lancaster. "Public-house Clubs."-F. A. NEW, London. Benefit Clubs in Public-houses."-H. DIXON, M.R.C.S., Coronor for Oxon. After the reading of Mr. Clarke's paper, Mr. HARDING, secretary of the Society for the Protection of Women, bore his testimony to the fact of the connection of drinking with female immorality. Both must stand or fall together. Mr. J. E. NELSON urged that great pressure should be applied to the magistrates to compel them to administer the existing law. If they would do that, fifty notoriously immoral houses in Manchester would be closed. Mr. TATHAM said that the responsibility for the non-enforcement of the law in towns depended on those who elected town councillors from whom watch committees were selected. Mr. CAMPBELL, Leeds, stated some facts as to journeymen tailors in London being compelled to go to public-houses on Sunday mornings for work. Mr. JAMES TEARE called upon magistrates to resign their commissions rather than sign licenses. He must deal with men he could not deal with an impersonal Traffic. ROBERT BRISCO, Esq., J.P., Cumberland, said that the magistrates were perfectly powerless. They must grant licenses, if the public would sign memorials attesting the respectability of candidates who were notoriously not so. The magistrates were not witnesses, and must act as judges upon the evidence of others. After the reading of the other papers, the Rev. ALEXANDER DAVIDSON, of Barrhead, moved the following resolution: "That the frightful and abounding evils of the drinking system, including pauperism, vice, crime, disease, insanity, and premature death, demand that social and sanitary reformers take energetic steps for the promotion of the Total Abstinence movement, as affording the most efficient means of removing the principal cause of a vast proportion of that misery and disorder which they are seeking to remedy." He stated that the ministers of the Evangelical Union Church to which he belonged were all Total Abstainers. ROBERT HEYWOOD, Esq., J.P., read a correspondence relating to an attempt to influence him, on the part of another magistrate, in respect of the granting of a license, by threats of appeal, and a letter to the Home Secretary, complaining that a woman had been placed in danger through the difficulty experienced in obtaining brandy owing to the distance of the nearest public-house. Mr. RAPER elicited from the last speaker that a memorial against the granting of licenses was signed by 1,571 ladies, and presented by a deputation of eight. EDWARD WHITWELL, Esq., seconded the motion. Mr. FELTON, Birmingham, stated he had often heard landlords, their wives, and daughters say that a customer was "killing himself," which convicted them of murder. The resolution was agreed to. SECTION V. SCIENTIFIC AND Alcohol in Relation to the Nerves of Man. By PROFESSOR JOHN KIRK, Edinburgh. SOUND NOUND doctrine and thorough action stand and fall together. This will ever hold true in the Temperance agitation, as it does in every other. If we teach that in some degree alcohol is good for the health or life of man, in that same degree are we bound, not only to tolerate, but to commend and provide for its use. If we teach, or allow it to be taught, that this liquor is the best that can be taken into the human system in certain cases, then ought we to calculate on society's insisting that alcoholic drink shall be within easy reach. If we teach, or silently allow it to be taught, that in a great many instances alcoholics may be taken daily, not only with decided benefit to health, but as essential to the prolongation of life, we shall find ourselves surrounded in society, not with the conviction that the common sale of these liquors should be prohibited, but that, to the extent to which the article is required for the good of the community, the trade in it should be protected and encouraged equally with other trades that are conducted with decided benefit to men. If we contend, or silently allow it to be believed, that it is only the abuse of this liquor, by taking it when in perfect health and vigour, which is to be deplored (especially since so very few imagine that they enjoy perfect health in these days of many ailments, and so many more are worn and weary), we ought to count on nothing more, on the part of the great public, than their insisting that the whole thing, so far as possible, should be regulated and purged of abuse, while on no account should it be put down, whether by the voice of many or of few. But, on the other hand, if we can truly teach that in all circumstances alcohol introduced into the stomach of man is an evil, and necessarily inflicts an injury on both body and soul, then, in so far as our teaching takes effect, we lay a foundation on which such social action will sooner or later be taken as will remove the whole system of this lucrative and ruinous delusion. The mass of men are much more logical in practice |