[Debate on drunkenness and alcohol licensing in Liverpool.].

Date:
[1876?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Debate on drunkenness and alcohol licensing in Liverpool.]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and self-denial of the Irish nation (hear, hear). If a change had come over the habits of the people, how had that change been effected ? It had been mainly brought about by the multiplication of beer shops and low taps, all of which have resulted from mischievous legislation. Within the past week he (Alderman M‘Swiney) was told by a member of that Council, a large employer, that there were four public houses in the immediate vicinity of his factory, to nearly all of which some of his workpeople resorted whenever they left his premises. The same state of things applies to other quarters of the city where temptations are thrown broadcast in the way of the working man. The object of the present movement was to diminish those temptations, and to remove the fruitful cause of most of the evils which appal the visitor to this city (hear, hear). It has been shown by the highest authorities that much of the misery, squalor, and wretchedness that we every day witness resulted from excessive indulgence in alcoholic drinks. Our object now was to devise some remedy for that state of things, and to do our part in calling upon the Legislature to afford facilities to the people themselves to declare against the unlimited sale of that which was destructive alike to life, to property, and to the public weal (applause.) Mr. Redmond.—I agree with Mr. Sullivan in theory as to the results which follow from excessive drinking; but I deny that Sir Wilfrid Lawson’s Bill will remedy those evils. I say there is no instance on reoord that can be adduced to show that it will improve the morals or drinking habits of the people. The principle embodied in section 4 of Sir W. Lawson’s Bill is permissive district prohibition of the liquor traffic. Does Mr. Redmond wish proofs of the efficacy of this principle to remedy the evils of intemperance ? If so, let him visit Bessbrook, a town within three miles of Newry. He will there find nearly 4,000 people living quite contented without a single liquor shop, and enjoying almost a total immunity from crime and pauperism—there being neither police barrack, work house, nor pawn office, in the town. Let Mr. Redmond visit Saltaire, a town within a few miles of Bradford in Yorkshire, where precisely similar results have followed the pro¬ hibition of the traffic. Let him communicate with Mr. J. K. Tener, J.P., Moree, Dungannon, who resides in the centre of a prohibitory district, where since the liquor traffic was put down, there has been no crime, the poor rates have fallen from an average of Is. 8d. to lOd. in the pound, and from which the police barrack has been removed. Let him study the statistics of Maine and of Mas- sachussets. It is very easy to “ deny ” anything. They talk a good deal about the people not having a voice in matters