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Leader (1850-1860), 25th December 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 1234, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      ness , whether occasioned by tax or by natural cost , diminishes consumption . The comparison of 1750 with the present time is ; however , incomplete , except the tax at each period be compared with the wages and profits out of which it was to be paid , and the comparative cost of articles still more indispensable than beer be also taken into account . But to say nothing of this , let us see whether other circumstances do not so account for the falling off in the consumption as to invalidate the Home Secretary ' s anticipation . The early part of the last century was perhaps the time , in the whole of our

      history , in which intemperance most prevailed amongst us . The local traditions of personal conduct at that time ,, which still linger in every district , agree exactly with the evidence afforded by contemporary literature and the conduct of public men , by no means excepting the clergy , in showing that the consumption o malt of five bushels per head , adduced by Mr . Walpole , was accompanied by an unscrupulous inebriety , which prevailed in almost every hall , farm-house , tradesman ' s home , petty ale-house , and , when practicable , every labourer ' s cottage in the kingdom . Loss than ten years

      before Mr . Walpole ' selected date , tin attempt was made to restrain the intemperance of the populace by means of an increase of duty on licences and spirits ; but the f urious passion for drink broke through all restraint , and sp irits were sold openly in the streets without , licence or duty . The attempt was abandoned in favour of a milder mode of attack . The proposed reduction of the malt-tax must have restored the consumption which Mr . Walpole desiderates , and with it the drunkenness of that period , or it could not have benefited the farmer through an increase of demand .

      But is there the same inclination now to an immoderate use of inebriating beverages ? We believei not : and if not , then the deftitee of the diminution of the tax on Ml-. Walpole ' s principles fails , however that measure may be defended oh other principles of worthier significance and wider application . It is worth while to glance briefly at the influences which , since the palmy or beery days of Mr . Walpole ' standard consumption , have tended to diminish the credit and prevalence of intoxication . Wesley and his companions began , about 1740 , that religious movement , which , joined by the re-animated religious , bodies that

      had slept ever since the stormy days of persecution , presented at least an improved standard of decorum to the acceptance of the country . In 1700 , began the reign of George III ., a monarch whoso personal proprieties tendud to countenance the coming reform . Watt , Arkwright , and Wedgwood began in 17 G 9 the manufacturing movement , which , expanding in a few years to unexpected dimensions , required and promoted an increase of intelligence , and a soundness of character altogether inconsistent with habitual intemperance . About 1780 , Itaikes . set tip his first Sunday-school ; some time afterwards , the movement for the abolition

      of slave trade was commenced , and the early years of the present century witnessed the establishment of the Bible Society , the Tract Society , and various missionary and educational societies . One effect of these institutions was to present to ' public apprehension and pursuit objects of mi order altogether incompatible with the gross . sensuality which had formerly prevailed . Nor ought we to forget that the vast advances wo wore then making in the extension and application of physical . science , and in the acquisition of territorial power and commercial connexions , opened paths for the worthy occupation of thsit longing for action find excitement

      which had formerly spent itself in almost ; universal orgies . We need not pursue the matter t 6 the indre varied and extended movement ' s of our own tiroes , relating to both morsil and material Interests , or to special efforts to discourage intemperance , to see that a change has been effected in the entire tuste and lx * ariri £ of society , which ih wholly at variance with MY . Wulpole ' s tacit but fundamental assumption , th : it we are again to consume five bushels of wait per bead per annum . For one hundred men who habitually went to bed drunk in 1750 , there are probably now not two .

      The use of those facts in the present argument is to suggest fh ; it a mode of taxation which thus rests on fanfe and habit , is cvur liable to influences which c : in neither be foreseen nor provided for . f t is true that a reduction of the duties on collet * and HUgnv wiih followed by a large increase iii the consumption of those articles ; and the general conclusion to which this fact seems to lend is applied to limit . But ; the result doon not follow . The tax operates differently in each chho , for it in only one amongst HOverul olrcunisfanceH ; and the adjuncts effectually balk the calculation . The malt-tux of fo-day docs not conform to the general course of the codce mid sugar thx ^ s , lior dticft it < w < Mi to that of the mnlt-tax of a . "litinrirftt yttarn' ago . The world lias changed , and the fecundity of the tax with it .

      If taxes , as we now impose them , are thus changeable , and if there be no rule of right by which to determine , on' the authority of justice and conscience , what is a tax that ought to content us , we can look for no termination of fiscal quarrels . A decaying tax must be replaced , and the \ vh 61 e empire is agitated with the attempt df every part to evade the n ^ v burden . To this turmoil , inevitable from the nature of the system , we have . only to add that arising from the occasional recurrence of attempts like the present , to remove the burden from one part of the people to another , to obtain a just idea of the essential empiricism and blundering instability of our whole congeries of imposts . Our present space does not permit us to extend these remarks , founded on Mr .

      Disraeli ' s variety of an English budget , to an examination of it in its essential and traditional form ; but we cannot repress our conviction that , instead of its medley of principles , its deplorable failures , and its everreturning consequences of injury and discontent , it is perfectly practicable to establish , gradually , a system at once just , scientific , permanent , adapted to all changes of circumstances , and of universal acceptance . Mr . Disraeli ' s budget , whatever its faults , has afforded the practical advantage of its being « i budget of transition . It has unsettled' everything , and settled nothing . No strength of office can re-compress the general feeling on the subject into its old space , or

      force it to its old quiescence ; and in spite of the notorious leaning of the elder Whigs to the worn-out traditional fiscal notions of their party , sounder and wider views will establish their influence , and modify , if not altogether change , our financial system . Party men have not yet , on this subject , received from the masses the impulse derived from a general appreciation ofjust and simple principles touching their own interests ; and although the defeated budget had not the merit of adapting great and necessary truths to practice , we doubt not it will do much towards realizing the vatici * nation of its author—viz ., " that direct taxation * the most important question of the ; day , must ^ sooner ; or later press itself on all . "

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      MR . KIR WAN'S 0 A S W . ( To , tit ?< Editor pftJko Itccttfer . ) Slit , —T ^ hqro seeinn a grci » t wny « ti ^ ca , Uon going on about , this , case . What may happen before this appear " in your journal , J know not ; but it is very generally reported * that Mr . K ' uwnn has been c 6 iideinh < ' < l on evidence which wan not iniide public . A horrible mode of in ' nrdtfl-, by meai ^ of- the reputed , hword ^ ne , has been whispered about ; and it lu « H even b <* m HttM Uuit , to avoid the publicity of so horrible and disgusting a < -uko , dfltailn which weio kno > vn were' not brought before the gonurnl public . ¦ . < ., The evidence , ua published , doenmot untisfy any man I have heard ispoak of it . Now it is thm » , *«> i" th °

      credit of justice , that such u report , prevalent as it w , should not / be whiskered , but , JmbHely nniHwercd . »• any injudicious sedresy ' hii ^ bei ' n ( i'ttehijit < # d , it ih linio it Hliould be dropped . ' It has done more harm than g 6 od . But purely in thin ngo , even iii Ireland , hucH W ( lu 1 ( t not , bo attempted . ' ' ' , . ' 1 hope you will foreo tnift' question to im Shhuo , mi " not let jiLstieo lie disgraced . ' ' ' ' r nnySir , yours , & ?>¦> ^ J ^ J }}™ H ~ - ' - ~

      Untitled Article

      [ IJT THIS U * PAIITMENT , AS AT-t OPIJUOlTH . IiqWBVai * BXTBKM ? -AKIC ALLOWED AN KXPttKHSlON , TUK KDITOlt fi KC JiSSAlULY holds Hiigjut U" itHMo ^ niniJi iroulitONK . J

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      I . — ' - " t—r ;—p—— ; ,. , ' •¦ .. There is no learned inun but will confess ho ha pi much ' in-ofiU-cIby - n * u ( i mt . foorit . ro verbid hia Kc'hftek ' a'w ak-fAien . : nrixi'nis . ju < l (( nie . ul . sharpened . i . < v Lhen , ; tbp nrpJil , ; il > Je Jor ) um l . o read , why-should iti rinl , ' , at , least , no tolerable for hia adversary to writ . e . —JVtm / iioir . '¦ ¦¦

      Untitled Article

      SABBATH OHBlUkVANCE IN SCOTLAND ^ ( To tho flcfitor of the leader . ) Sin , —With your kind indulgence , I beg to ail ' ov but one word ; more upon the Scottish Sabbath question . Your corrijKpondent " . f . " hau favoured with uoticp a communication of mine on this subject which , appeared in the Leader on the 20 th ul |; . Knowing the value , of your space , I hIiuH , in reply , limit my reiuarks to one or two jK ) inLs only . One important statement which I think necessary to notice refers to ( ila-sgow—that " three-fourths of those who have sunk to the degradation described are innnignuits from Ireland , who jiro innocent of all acquaintance with Protestant clergy , or Bibles , or Shorter Cateelumus , or Sabbath observance . " Now , sir , amongst , thjs clitss may we not fairly look ,, for , a , proporl . iouuM' lmniber iu 1 . 1 m crhninal lints y t' ( jtysgow , and other towns in . Scotland . What are the fyetsir The matron of the Females' House of Uefu ^ v Mlasjfow , fctaten , in a report which is now by me- — "That , in 1 H 18 , of the 120 hunatcH , . including 50 unfortuimto women , . 105 hud been connwUd m ^ tk Sabh « l'It . schools J " Mr . IiO im , of Bradford , in a letter to flje JfrUisb liauncr , states" 1 vimt C | , 1 , ( , HH j ) risoiieiH vvh <» won ) tried a ( . l . iio ( ll . iHmw AHHizoH , in Hcptcmbev , itiW . ^ ij ^ ri" of" theto could noithor read nor write ; of tho romaiiuui' 71 , not Iohu

      than 38 males and 24 females—total , 62—had been connected with Sabbath schools . A number of both sexes had been in attendance at Sunday scJiools for three , four five six , seven , nine , and even ten years . " ' ' But this is not all ; the same report provides me with , s ^ tistics , carefully drawn up , showing that teachers , in a . proportion perfectly astounding , fa ] j victims to habits of intemperance and vice . Again , " J . " states— " That Scotland , though

      admitted to be inferior ih point of sobriety compared to France , is not therefore inferior in morality as a whole . " Judge Patteson , I observe , says , with many other judges— " If it were not for this drinking , you ( the jury ) and I would have nothing to do . " Symonds in his work entitled , " Arts and Artisans / ' remarks that " England [ including Scotland and Ireland ] is the first on the black-list of crime of all the countries in Europe , and the seventh in the scale of intelli gence . "

      With such testimony as a rule to guide us in solving this question , we can only believe one of two things namely , that Scotch drunkenness is an exception in its moral and criminal results to drunkenness generall y , or that Scotland , with its admitted inferiority in point of sobriety , is , consequently , a less moral , at leas t m ore criminal , religious country than France . I leave it , sir , with your readers to judge which it is . Again , the system I condemn ( Bible cramming and spiritual tight-dacing )* "' J . " states , " has no connexion with either the Bible or the Shorter Catechism . " Now , what I laboured to prove was , that the said system has a close and intimate connexion with the fearful amount of crime and moral evil that

      afflicts society . This I am prepared to substantiate . As a case of spiritual despotism , its results are precisely analogous to those produced in every country Where spiritual despotism , is practi c ed . It is a vital paft of ft peeudq-tfeligious conyepiion ^ system , that puts human law . in , the . place of Diyuie law . As Hood wjttily has it—r- . ; , . " You say—Su ^ Andrew and hia love bf law ; And I- ^ -the Saviour " with his lslw oflove . "

      Did space jfermit , I could , I think , easily prove , as , indeed , George Combe has most satisfactorily done before me , that the intemperance a « d general physical and moral evil of , . the people of Scotland are intimately connected with a . wofully defective system of moral and religious teaching . Buddn , Brama , and Mahonnned have even set them an example in one respect ; they have banished intemperance and many Of its eoncomitant evils from their dominions . The whole spirit of tho

      Catechism is peculiarly Lutheran . Questions and answers on justification by foith . and , uiany other mystical doctrines are , carefully committed to memory . As if to perpetuate the system of priestcraft , the real practical truth is carefully submerged . Instead of imparting a knowledge of the Constitution and laws of nature , it does , In common with the whole system of religious teaching , most distinctly ignore and condemn them . You are : ,- .. ..

      " Bidtp . b flty . A Sunday walk , ' ; j And shun God ' s work as you should shun your own . " Whatsoever a man sows , so shall he reap . '' To this trite scriptural maxim Scotland fo ' rlnHiiio exception , iis has been abiiffdantly proved , fVom her grciit nioral and physical suffering , the result'of- neglect and violation of those !) natural laws which are m divine and binding an anything 1 possibly can bo , h \ t * od ' s . written word . . ... . ..... . . ... i v 'j ¦ " ' ' I Yours respectfully , A .

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      1234 THE LEADER , [ Saturday ,

      Untitled Article

      , * Wp rcMiwnlw a Hiiu . ilw ronort in connexion WU " Tawvli ' wwo '; but in thai , trial itt l' ^ - } Y ' 'A "" ft , " iftflH At cYidiiiLvbtfortlholoklrt tu'hftiJt f M ^ lMln-it .- - ^ - JLeador .

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 25, 1852, page 1234, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1966/page/14/