English Judges on the Vice of Drinking

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 126, 3 April 1886, Page 2

English Judges on the Vice of Drinking

Chief Justice Coleridge: — "I can keep no terms with a vice that fills our gaols — that destroys the comfort of homes and the peace of these islands." Mr Justice Fry:— -"The calendar (at Stafford) like so many others which came before the Judges of assize, indicated most strongly the evil effects of drink in this country, and ought to make everyone ask himself the question — are we using our influence to the utmost to diminish this source of evil and misery ? It was difficult to say how happy a country we might have if there was more sobriety and providence among the lower class of people." Mr Justices Hawkins appealed to the members of the Grand Jury not only to repress as far as possible the crime of: drunkenness, but also to bring their influence to bear upon those who encouraged drunkenness. It was a very serious matter, and he could not express too strongly his opinion that both those who indulged in the baneful and pernicious vice and those who encouraged it should be put down with a strong hand. Mr Justice Deninan had often mentioned, and he did not know that he could do better than mention it again, a most remarkable instance of the connection between offences of violence and excessive drinking. On one occasion, in a northern country, he had to try a calender of sixty-three prisoners, out of which thirty-six were charged with offences of violence, from murder downwards, there being no less than six murderers for trial amongst these thirty-six. In every single case, not indirectly but directly, these offences were attributed to excessive drinking.