Archbishop of Westminster on Temperance.

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 154, 25 June 1892, Page 4

Archbishop of Westminster on Temperance .

In the course of an interview with a correspondent, Dr Herbert Vaagb&n, who has just been appointed Archbishop of Westminster, said :— «' Of course, I am a strong advocate or temperance. We have had most successful crusades in my diocese carried on by the Total Abstinence .League and the A ssociation of Prayer. Bat' I am not now a total abstainer myself, though I was for three years. In .fact, my doctor insisted upon my taking -some stimulant, and 1, therefore, indulge in a teaspoonful of whisky before going to bed. I am sure there are workers : to whom stimulants in moderation are absolutely necessary/ and they also help the digestion. On the other hand, there are those. /who cannot resist: the craving for drinkr without taking the pledge. In our crusade members were not all total abstainers/ and here the Bishop points but pertain passages in the handbook of the crusaders,, especially one running as follows :—" As there unhappily exists in this country a heresy in; respect to the nature of spirituous liquors; and the Sajlord Diocesan Crusade is determined, above all things^ -to preserve inviolate* the true fwth, vrithout wluch i|» w impossible to' please. Gbfy it Kef c enters its protest against; eVenL.the suspicion, ol heretical teaching. Every member of, the crusade?, there/or^ dexjlares that M' ;hear{ily ; rejects %n# anathematises tHe detestable Jieresy of the Manicheos — condemned by the Church 15 centuries ago; not creatures of Uod, that they are intrinsically eyil, and that whoever uses them ig thereby guilty :. of sin. Noperson can be V member of the Salford Crusade who does not from his heart reject this." But don't you think that a good deal of the drunkenness arises, from adulterated beer ?" "I thought so once." replied the Bishop, * ( but inasmuch as the chief constable of the borough caused samples oi ale from fifty publichouses to be analysed and, found them all pure, I have chantc'edimy opinion."