SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS IN ECONOMICAL AND STATISTICAL SECTION.

President:

WILLIAM HARVEY, Esq., J.P., Salford.

Vice-Presidents:

Sir JOHN S. FORBES, Bart., Fettercairn. | EDWARD VIVIAN, Esq., M.A., J.P., WILLIAM EUING, Esq., Glasgow.

HANDEL COSSHAM, Esq., Bristol.

Torquay.

Dr. J. LEE, J.P., Hartwell Park, Aylesbury.

Hon. Secretaries:

Rev. T. HUTTON, M.A., Rector, Stilton.

C. THOMPSON, Esq., Manchester.

HIS Section met in the Ante-room to the Large Hall, the President, WILLIAM HARVEY, Esq., J.P., in the chair.

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The papers to be read were:

"The Cost of Sixty Years' National Drinking, and some Remarks on Temperance Statistics."-By the Rev. D. BURNS, London.

"The Consumption of Intoxicating Liquors in England, Scotland, and Ireland, in the years 1859, 1860, and 1861."-By the Rev. D. BURNS, London.

"Temperance in its Social and Economic Aspects."-By Rev. THOMAS HUTTON, M.A., Rector of Stilton.

"The Pauperism of Drunkenness and its Cost."-By JOHN HALCRO, Sunderland. "Co-operation and Benefit Societies in Relation to the Temperance Movement."By JOHN NOBLE, jun., London.

"The Liquor-Traffic and Local Rates, with some Statistics of the Borough of Leeds."-By GEORGE WARD, Leeds.

"The Public-House System in Glasgow."-By JAMES L. SELKIRK.

"The Progress of Temperance amongst the Soldiers of Plymouth, &c."-By JOSEPH WREN, Plymouth.

"On Temperance Benefit Societies."-By J. H. COTTERELL, of Bath.

After the Rev. D. BURNS, the Rev. THOMAS HUTTON, and Mr. JOHN HALCRO had read their papers,

Mr. HAUGHTON said that when Father Mathew commenced his Temperance labours in Ireland, in 1839, there were 8,000,000 people, and the consumption of whiskey was 12,000,000 gallons. But in that year the consumption in England and Scotland was about three gallons per head of the population. In four years after Father Mathew began his Temperance reform, the consumption of whiskey in Ireland was reduced about one half, at which it continued for some five or six years. It then increased to probably 8,000,000 gallons. Since then the consumption during the last five or six years had decreased again, and with a population of probably 6,000,000, the consumption was something under 5,000,000 gallons. Notwithstanding the immense efforts in England to decrease the consumption of intoxicating drinks, the consumption had not decreased, but had probably increased. How did that happen? In Ireland the working classes were thoroughly in favour of the Temperance cause, and if the same intelligence were devoted to the removal of the drinking habits of Ireland as was devoted in England, Ireland would be rid of the evil of drunkenness. He thought the calculation of the annual cost of intoxicating drinks was too small. He thought it ought to be estimated at £173,000,000.

In the Economical and Statistical Section.

299

The Rev. J. C. STREET said that before an answer could be satisfactorily given to Mr. Haughton's inquiries, it would be necessary to know some further facts about Ireland. For instance, were there as many public-houses in Ireland in proportion to the population as in England? Could licenses be obtained with equal facility in both countries? He thought it would be found that the number of drinking houses was generally the measure of the drinking.

Mr. RAPER said the reason why the Temperance movement had greater difficulties to contend against in England than in Ireland was the great facility with which licenses could be obtained in England. In Ireland there were only 19,000 licensed liquor sellers, while in England there were 100,000. Mr. Gladstone no doubt intended that his French wine measure should be a move in favour of Temperance, but the contrary would be the result. He (Mr. Raper) believed that people, who before that measure was passed never took wine before dinner hour, now went into confectioners' shops and drank.

Mr. NICHOLLS stated that on visiting 900 poor families in Bethnal Green and Spitalfields, he found only two Teetotalers. All those who were not Teetotalers assured him that they would not have been in their present miserable condition if they had been Teetotalers. It was the duty of Temperance men to organise more Teetotal Societies than hitherto, for the reformation of such poor people as he had visited.

Mr. SAUNDERS said ministers of religion who had in their congregations persons who were connected with the Liquor-Traffic need not be expected to say much in denunciation of the drinking system. He found in the town to which he belonged (Plymouth) that in the Episcopalian and the other churches some of the leading men were either brewers or licensed vendors of intoxicating drinks. The ministers of all the denominations in Plymouth professed themselves to be in favour of the Temperance cause. If that was the fact, why did they not take active steps to promote it? It was a disgrace to this country that men engaged in the Liquor-Traffic held offices in the Church. (Hear, hear.)

Mr. ALLAN, of Huddersfield, said Mr. Haughton was mistaken in supposing that but little was being done in Ireland in support of the Temperance movement. In Ulster, energetic efforts were being made to put down strong drinks. He might state that Mrs. Cope, a wealthy lady, of Loughgall, being told that if she wished to make the people near her sober she must sign the pledge, did so. One of the members for Derry (Sir F. Heygate) took a great interest in the Temperance movement.

A gentleman said it was important that returns should be made of the members of churches who were brewers or vendors of strong drinks. There were instances in which ministers had abandoned their profession to become the proprietors of disreputable spirit-shops.

After some further discussion, the reading of papers was proceeded with.

In the subsequent discussion,

Mr. RIPLEY said the officers of the regiments at Plymouth were very favourable to the Temperance work being carried on amongst their men.

The Rev. Mr. HUTTON hoped that the papers which had been read would be published as far as possible in extenso. (Hear, hear.) He wished that the report of these proceedings should reach the hands of magistrates, mayors of towns, chairmen, and vice-chairmen of quarter sessions, and the most influential men in the higher and middle ranks. A great deal of the drunkenness of the country was owing to the culpable facility with which licenses were obtained from magistrates. The way in which the licensing laws were administered was a perfect farce. Magistrates granted licenses to public-houses which were well known to be dens of infamy. Teetotalers should institute rigid inquiries in their respective localities as to the working of beerhouses and taverns. Magistrates granted licenses in many instances without at all reflecting upon what they were doing. They actually granted as many licenses to villages now as in the days when the mail coach system was in vogue, and when there was some excuse for places of licensed victualling; and thus they occasioned a great deal of the drunken riots that occurred in villages on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings. That was the system which compelled the unfortunate ratepayers of this country to give pensions in workhouses to drunkards as rewards for their improvidence. The masses of this country were in favour of the Temperance cause, but it was necessary to reform the magistrates, the higher ranks, and the Government. (Hear.) The reformation of these classes must be achieved by the pulpit, the platform, and the press. The present Convention was a proof that the Temperance cause had made immense progress in England. (Hear, hear.)

Mr. NICHOLLS hoped that efforts would be made to bring the sailors of our country under the influence of the movement.

Mr. GEORGE TATHAM said the question of suppressing drinking houses did not rest

altogether with the magistrates. It was the duty of burgesses to take care to return Temperance men in the case of municipal elections. Unfortunately, he was the solitary Teetotaler in a town council composed of sixty-four members. His election was carried in spite of the opposing efforts of the publicans.

Mr. LEE, of Wakefield, said no justice need be expected in the case of complaint against the keepers of licensed drinking houses as long as the publican interest prevailed in the municipal corporations. It was the duty of Temperance men to take care that at least on watch committees there should be no one connected with the Liquor-Traffic. The Rev. Mr. M'KENZIE, of Douglas, Isle of Man, moved

"That the whole system of manufacture, sale, and use of intoxicating liquors involves a fearful perversion and waste of human food, absorbs and misdirects an incalculable amount of capital, industrial energy, and commercial enterprise, thereby limiting the national resources and entailing grievous burdens of taxation upon the community; and that it is, therefore, the duty of the political economist and financial reformer to use their best exertions to abolish a system so disastrous to the nation."

Mr. WILLIAM MART seconded the resolution.

The PRESIDENT said that, before putting it to the meeting, he could not refrain from expressing the pleasure which he felt at having attended the Conference. He had been a Total Abstainer fifty-two years, and he believed that no such important movement as the present had during that period been made for the furtherance of Temperance. (Hear, hear.) He became a Total Abstainer on principle, and because he saw the evils of intemperance, at a time when there was a great prejudice against the principle, and he and those who were of the same opinion were ridiculed, almost scouted from society. At that time hospitality was supposed to be evinced in giving the friend whom you invited to your house as much wine as would send him under the table. Those days, happily, were gone; and he hoped there would never be a return of them. He hoped that in a few years the friends of Temperance would accomplish their object. (Hear, hear.)

The resolution was agred to, and the Section rejoined the other two Sections for the purpose of concluding the business of the day.

THE RESUMED CONVENTION.

SOON after three o'clock the Sections re-assembled in the Large Hall. WILFRED LAWSON, M.P., took the chair.

Relief of Lancashire Distress.

Mr. THORP said that the Conference would do a graceful act by manifesting its sympathy with the operatives in Lancashire; and although many of them had subscribed already, they would no doubt be glad to give a further token of their admiration of the patience which had been displayed. He moved the following resolution, stating that slips would be given out that night and collected in the morning :

"That as a token of the sympathy of the friends of Temperance, now assembled in London, as an International Temperance and Prohibition Convention, with their fellow-men in Lancashire and Cheshire, at present suffering severe distress from the depression occasioned by the lamentable conflict in the United States, this Convention resolves to raise a contribution to be forwarded through Sir Walter Trevelyan on its behalf to the Central Committee of the Relief Fund in Manchester."

The Hon. and Rev. LELAND NOEL seconded the resolution.

Mr. J. SERGEANT said that £1,000 a day was spent in the publichouses of Manchester.

The resolution was agreed to.

It was announced that £100 for Lancashire had been subscribed in the room, and that the editor of the Alliance Weekly News and Mr T. H. Barker would receive subscriptions.

It was also announced that a collection for the distress in Lancashire would be made after the Exeter Hall meeting.

The proceedings of the various Sections were then reported by the Secretaries, and the following resolutions adopted by them were unanimously confirmed by the Convention :-

Resolution of Section IV.

"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."

Resolutions of Section V.

1. "That the recent experiments and discoveries of physiological science, confirming observation and experience in all climates, have clearly demonstrated that alcohol has no dietetic value, but that its use as a beverage, in any form or to any extent, is injurious both to the body and the mind of man."

2. "That the progress of medical science and experiment has exploded many theories on which the prescription of alcohol has been heretofore based, and has demonstrated, not only its non-dietetic character, but also its non-medicinal virtue, in a large range of disease; that the scientific, as distinguished from the empirical application of remedies, requires that their specific properties and reactions should be understood-conditions never yet fulfilled in regard to alcohol. This Convention therefore earnestly calls upon the members of the honourable profession of medicine, not only to respect their own reputation as a body, but to bear in mind their grave moral and social responsibilities in prescribing so quesThe Convention would tionable, so dangerous, and so abused an article.

also press upon the friends of Temperance the duty of insisting that alcohol, whenever prescribed under the plea of a supposed, or the justification of a real necessity, should be dispensed, like other drugs, not by the publican, but by the apothecary."

Resolution of Section VI.

"That the whole system of manufacture, sale, and use of intoxicating liquors involves a fearful perversion and waste of human food, absorbs and misdirects an incalculable amount of capital, industrial energy, and commercial enterprise, thereby limiting the national resources and entailing grievous burdens of taxation upon the community; and that it is, therefore, the duty of the political economist and financial reformer to use their best exertions to abolish a system so disastrous to the nation."

A vote of thanks to W. LAWSON, Esq., M.P., terminated the proceedings.