NBWTA Report 1903-047
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89 undertake their own purification, that the legislature should refuse to create for them the necessary machinery, or to entrust them with the necessary powers.” BS In 1880, the House of Commons 229 votes tO 203 passed the following resolution by :— 4 That inasmuch as the ancient and avowed object of ‘ licensing the sale of intoxicating liquors is to supply a supposed public want, without detriment to the public welfare, - this House is of opinion that a legal power of restraining the EL issue or renewal of licences should be placed in the hands of 4 the persons most deeply interested and affected, namely, the inhabitants themselves, who are entitled to protection from i" “the injurious consequences of the present system by some 5 efficient measure of local option.” ONE AND ALL SENSIBLE OF THE DANGER OF PRESENT SITUATION, AND UrGE EXTENSION OF POWER FOR THE SUPPRESION OF THE EvIL. (@ From one and all we have the same unanimous expression from these men of weight in their various capacities, that the “great industry is one that is an extreme danger to the people, and that far greater powers ought to be given than are now possessed, So as to control the growth of the traffic, and give the power to the people for whose benefit it is supposed to exist to protect themselves from its injurious conse- quences. This language seems vastly different from that used by the Prime Minister with regard to this most serious question. It is Huxley who says that “the great peculiarity of scientific training, the virtue of “which cannot be replaced by any other discipline whatever, is the “bringing of the mind directly into contact with fact, and prac- “tising the intellect in the completest forms of induction; that is to ‘“say, in drawing conclusions from particular facts made known by ‘(immediate observation of nature,” and I venture to say that the speech made by Mr. Balfour from first to last shows most clearly that this immediate observation from nature is entirely lacking, and that his premises are built upon abstract theories and not upon the realities of daily life, for if we want to understand what is the practical effect of the existing state of things with which the magistrates have for the first time attempted to grapple, we shall find it, not in the utterances of Temperance reformers nor in the speeches of Members of Parliament who seek to conciliate certain classes of reformers, but in the deliberate observation of the men who have to deal with crime professionally, and from one and all of our judges we get far the most startling condemna- tions of the evils of the drink traffic, and they are amongst our most valuable witnesses. THE JUDGES WHO The late Lord DEAL WITH CRIME ARE THE Best WITNESSES Justice Lush said :-— “‘T think it would astonish many persons if they knew how large a “ proportion of crime is traceable directly or indirectly to drink. JT am “afraid to name the proportion, but my own impression, derived from “constant experience in every county in England, is that more than one “half of the crimes brought before us may be ascribed to the influence “of drink ; sometimes the influence of drink upon the guilty person, “sometimes the influence of drink upon the victim. The condition of ‘“the victim tempts the criminal into “I think “more than I am right half, of all in saying the crime crime, that that so one that, half, comes between and before I sorts of crime, and if England could be made two, say us is traceable “directly or indirectly to drink.” The late Lord Chief Justice Coleridge said :— “Few people have opportunities of realizing as I have “effects produced by intemperance. Of course there are “stand quite aside from the influence of the public-house, “as perjury, forgery, false pretences and others, which “assistance of education ; but drunkenness is mainly the “commoner the might the terrible cases which crimes such require the cause of the sober, three- “fourths of her jails might be closed.” Lord Chief Justice Bovill has declared :— “T have no hesitation in stating that in the north of England, in ‘most of the large towns in the manufacturing and mining districts, “intemperance is directly or indirectly the cause of by far the largest “proportion of the crimes that have come under my observation.” Further, with regard to the evil with which the magistrates have attempted to grapple, we have to recollect that the competition pro- duced by the vast number of public-houses is one of the most serious aspects of the question, and were it not for the fact that drunkenness is practically universal it would be impossible for the number of public- houses that exist to make a living. It is true that the profits on the sale of drink are very much larger than the profits on the sale of food, but even admitting this, the number of shops for the sale of drink is so far in excess of the number of places required that publicans are almost forced to resort to illegal practices in order to maintain their custom. It is CLEARLY SHOWN A THE Excessive DEMAND. Supply CREATES I have heard it said in the very highest quarters that to reduce the number of public-houses would never mean to reduce the amount of drinking ; but I think that it can be clearly shown to anyone who makes a study of the habits of the people that the excessive supply creates a demand, that the temptation constantly thrown upon people |