An argument for the legislative prohibition of the liquor traffic / by Frederic Richard Lees.

  • Lees, Frederic Richard, 1815-1897.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An argument for the legislative prohibition of the liquor traffic / by Frederic Richard Lees. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    drinking not a fixed quantity. and is iust as good (or bad) against sanitary law, and laws against theft or gambling, as against the necessity or policy of prohibition Competent witnesses, after all, doubt whether intemperance amongst £ the People ’ whatever it may be affirmed to be in ‘ select circles, is materially diminished. Mr D. W. Harvey, Commissioner of Police says: ‘I think there is very little declension {during the last c twenty years) in the numbers who are the worse for liquor; but c a considerable decrease in those who are actually drunk. Right ‘down drunkenness, in its unconscious sense, is not so common.* Unconscious—that is, we presume, dead drunkenness—is not so common, for the Publicans are shy of permitting it, out of motives of policy. But what then ? This sort of drunkenness is the most innocent of all, socially and domestically regarded: while, on the other hand, the first state is the most dangerous of all. + He goes on; “ We have no decrease in the number of persons who are brought to our stations, to be taken care of for an hour or two—to recover ‘themselves.’ Now comes a question. From which of the three stages of drunkenness—drunk, very drunk, or Dead Drunk—does the°most crime proceed^ On the next page we find the Commis- sioner referring to irregular characters (who, nevertheless, are not certainly sober as a class), in the following polite terms:—‘ Hardly ‘ any persons conduct themselves better than gentlemen who trade on 1 the capital of others; they are very discreet and reflective.’ Of course they are; for very drunk men would be very bad thieves. So, again, very drunk prostitutes would be very bad seducers of youth: but yet no fact is more certain than this, for they declare it themselves, that “they could not carry on without drink.’’ Yes ! it is the Traffic that is the fountain and ‘ refresher ’ of this most dreadful vice—a vice so utterly horrible as to rival even the deformed parent from which it springs! Referring to thirty-three licensed houses in the City of London which encourage prostitutes, exclusive of eighteen others ‘ badly conducted,’ a total of fifty-one out of 626, the Commissioner says:—‘ The number of prostitutes brought to ‘ the police station for disorder is very greatly on the decline !’ Does that prove that tmdisorderly prostitution is on the decline ? Again, as to the dangerous classes connected with this drinking system— ‘ When the publicans are compelled to close their houses on Saturday ‘ night, many of their customers, well known to the police, resort to ‘ the Coffee-houses, and are there received.’ In plain English, they are primed at the Public-house up to the point of crime, and go to the sober-house to concoct the plan. The Times asks if it is worth while for the Public to legislate on this evil; the Commissioner * \st Report on Public-houses (p. 543). We do not know the difference between actual and not actual drunkenness. All drunkenness is drunkenness, whether half- seas over, or right across to Calais. + MrCoBRiE,the Police Magistrate, in his evidence before the Berkeley-Committee, in reply to question 284, “ Do outrages in consequence of drunkenness appear to be committed late in the evening,answers—“ No ; 1 think they are committed earlier. To question 286, he responds“ The drunkenness which induces fighting and crimes of violence is earlier in the evening.