TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2023, 18 August 1880, Page 3

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

FEditbd by O. M. G.l THE DEMAND OF~THE PUBLICANS. The one great want of publicans throughout the colony is permission to sell drink on certain hours on Sunday. In one provincial district thoy would be satisfied if allowed to open one door for the sale of liquor to be drunk off the premises, whilst in another they desire the privilege to give customers admission by side doors, aDd to supply them with "refreshments " from 1 to 2 o'clock in the afternoon and from Bto 10 in the evening. In disousßing this matter one thing should be borne in mind, and that is this—that this desire for Sunday trading is not expressed by the public, but by the publicans themselves. If the public were sufferers by closing hotels on Sundays they would surely petition the Government to repeal an Act which was oppressive to them. But no ; the people are satisfied with the closing of public houses on Sundays, but the publicans are not. Why ? Because, first, it affects their pockets ; and, secondly, they wish tho shield of legality to protect their desecrating and accursed work. They assert that they " are foroed into breaking tho law, and while they do it quietly the police connive at it." This they consider is not quite the thing—not respectable—and if the law will only say what thoy are doing is right, that is all they want. Only that and nothing more ! What an exceedingly harmless request! Did it ever occur to these "highly respectable " members of the community—these men who can so very consistently ask God's blessing on their business—that a " footpad," a " brigand,"or a" burglar" might just as res sonably ask the same thing, viz., for the Government to legalise their work of iniquity ? Then, again, why are the publicans "forced into breaking the law?" Is there a solitary case on record of any of their customers breaking open the bar-door, and threatening the life of the publican because he would not sell on Sunday ? Another

thing that demands consideration is the hours during whioh the retail spirit merchants wish to be allowed to sell, first, they want to sell between the hours of one and two o'clock in the afternoon. Is one hour's drinking sufficient to dilute the matutinal sermon ? As a rule, morning sermons are shorter than those preached in the evening; hence the less amount of beer to wash them down. The excuse offered by the publican for wanting to open between one and two o'olook is that beer may be sold for the purposes of dinner. They do not for one moment attempt to show that the beer is required for the purpose of dilution. The combination of "Beer and the Bible," has to them no meaning. All that they would have the Government believe is, that the liquor that may be sold during the dinner hour, will only be used for the purpose already mentioned. But Mr Bung, it won't do! If people are so anxious for dinner beer why can they not buy it on Saturday night, the same as they do their beef and vegetables? If it is really " a good creature of God" it will not in a few hours become " flat, stale, and unprofitable 1" To make slaves of the poor publicans, and compel them to work on Sunday is a crying shame ; and the people who are guilty of suoh inconsiderate and disgraceful conduct, ought to be compelled to change places with the poor down-trodden and persecuted publicans. When a publican returns home from churoh—for are they not all very respectable, moral, and law abiding men?— why should he not eat his dinner in peace, like any other Christian, without having to get up between every mouthful to supply thirsty people with beer? This is altogether too bad of the public. Publicans want to be allowed to sell again at night, from eight to ten o'clock. There oan be no excuse for dinner-beer this time. The longer evening service requires a longer time for drinking to obliterate its effects. Have the publicans thrown off allegiance to the Church, and are they determined to be the willing slaves of Satan—to circumvent the preaching of the Gospel ? Do they wish to shut and bolt the doors of mercy and eternal life, throw wide open the gates of everlasting perdition, dry up the fountain of the atoning blood with the fire of the pit, pull down the cross, demonise the human race, and turn both hemispheres of earth from the equator to the poles into a universal carnival of drunken madness and satanio glee ? Let the Sabbath, with its divine obligations, happy associations, and its mercKul and ennobling services, stand aside. Throw open all the pauper manufactories in the world ; let their taps run day and night for every week day, and Sunday too ; and let the demoniac trumpeters of perdition proclaim with infernal blast the jubilee of doom! This is all the publicans want —they ask for nothing more. Give them this, and they will then obey the law ; but withhold it, and they will be rebels against the State—Her Majesty's writ will be too contemptible a thing for their respect. The law of God will be beneath their notice, Greed—insatiable greed—is their only law; Bacchuß their only God ; and the ruin of men their only sacrifice. The people are satisfied with Sunday closing ; why then should some of our legislators intimate their acquiescence in this iniquitous request of the publicans to alter the law ? They plead that it is " better to allow the publicans to sell on Sundays than to encourage sly grog-selling." Are they prepared to go a step further and accommodate the thief—make it lawful for him to take his neighbor's goods, and then there would be no more thieving ? If they are consistent they will do so. But the case is not quite so hopeless as all that; the colony has legislators of whom it may well be proud ; and although there are those among them who would not scruple to lay unhallowed hands on the Sabbath for the purpose of desecrating three of its hallowed hours for the profit of the publican, the ruin of men, and the dishonor of God, they are powerless for evil, for Vox populi, vox Dei —" The voice of the people is the voice of God."

Beeb Dbinkiitg. Albert Day, MD., superintendent of the Washingtonion Home of Boston, who has had more experience with inebriates than any other man in the world, says that out of 5000 inebriates who have corce under his care and treatment, three-fourths commenced their downward course with beer. In 1830 England passed "An Act to Permit the General Sale ot Beer and Cider," with the object to " wean the people from spirit drinking." Lord Brougham and the Duke of Wellington supported it, but changed their minds within a year.

Some people drink " Adam's ale," a drink distilled in the air and vapoured in the sunlight, They get it in abundance, drink it without fear of injury, and pay nothing for it. It is as free as the air they breathe, and from the same Giver. Other people drink the " brewer's ale," made in the stench of rotted grain and mixed with bitter hops, and pay five cents a glass to get it. It's only a matter of taste, health, happiness and economy. We prefer to belong to the former class. Dbink at Sea.—At the Board of Trade inquiry recently opened at Swansea, respecting the loss of the brigantine Baltic near that port, evidence was given, says an exchange, showing that the captain and all hands were drunk a few hours after leaving Swansea on the 12th ult., and that the vessel was allowed to drift ashore. The captain lay insensible in his cabin, and the crew had to be drawn on deck with ropes. Testimony op Opponents.—Under the head of "How it works in Maine," the "Whiskey Leader" says:—An intelligent gentleman of New York haß visited Maine, and claims to have gathered some knowledge aa to the workings of the liquor law of that State. He says so strictly is it enforoed that you cannot get a bottle of sherry or brandy at a drug store except on tho prescription of a physician, and then the quantity sold is limited to a pint in every instance. No wine is Bold to be drank at dinners in hotels. The Canada Tesipkbanob Acr. —This Act, which was declared by the Supreme Court of New Brunswick to be unconstitutional, has been sustained by the Supreme Court of the Dominion of Ottawa. The way is therefore clear for tho enforcement of the Act throughout Canada. Already the Act has been brought into operation in fifteen counties, and no doubt, now that all question as to the constitutional charaoter of the Act has been disposed of, it will be speedily put in force in many other places. If all the people of America who profess Christianity would take a bold stand against the liquor traffic, the whisky ring would be broken, intemperance would decrease, society would be purged, our land would be exalted, and the whole country regenerated.—" Life