SIS WILFRID LAWSON ON THE LIQUoR TRAFFIC.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1991, 23 December 1874, Page 2

SIS WILFRID LAWSON ON THE LIQUoR TRAFFIC.

The following is characterised by the " Times" as a pleasant speech :— A; great country temperance demonstration was held in the grounds of Bray ton Hall, the seat of Sir W. Lawaon, M.P.j on Wednesday afternoon. There were nearly 10,000 persons .present, including representatives from" the various Lodges of Good Templars and Rebhabitesin the county of Cumberland, and of Good Tern-.

plars-from the south of Scotland. In the course "of/the afternoon addresses were deli verdd^upun the subject of intemperance by siiyerfil of the local leaders. . S'r; Wilfrid Lawson, who was received with ; loud; cheers, welcomed the large assemblage. He said he believed a great many. -of iliem were Good Templars. Now, G-ind Templars were very much laughed at, and- that was a very good . sign. (Great laughter). He never knew anybody in the world who carried out any good work whx>;was not laughed at f orchis pains. It had' been so ever 'since' the who « laughed v at^Elisharwere, eaaten up by the she-bears ; in olden daysin Engknd it was a custom if a man held unpopular opinions to cut His head" off and silence him -in that way. ;(Laughter.) That was not the custom mow, and the only way to meet those persons who proclaimed a new unpopular jopihion was- to first to misrepresent and then laugh at them. Good Temjjlars were very much laughed' at -because ' walked about in their regalia. He him-' self did not wear regalia. He thought he could fight against the'evil' of iritemper- : ance just as .well in a Bhootihgxja&keti (laughter), but there were : a ! number Q)f ipeople who found they could unite' together .better if they dressed, in some particular uniform like an array. He could not quarrel .with them. ; . They were -only, copying ,the who were fighting .-a! life-lpng fight againstrftvil and wickedness.: • During ithe last session one of the moat important v jduties of Parliament had been to decide Iwhat uniform these clergymen r should; wear. (Cheers and laughter, ) They were' ; fighting against universal taste. He had Iread of a Yankee ; lecturer who said,": |"Many men, many minds," upon which iatf old; Yankee calfedv out, " Squire, ; you are wrong there ; ; if 'you asked* us oh the [platform to "have a drinki'everyone.'of J iis !r jwould come." ; (Laughter)' Now, c: hft' jhad no doubt if he had to ask all no w T before, him on^to %the : platform to have a drink, although this was a Good. Temiplars' demonstration, a good many of them ; j would step up. (Laughter.) That ib h owed how, [ Widespread was ; the taste j with which they were combatting. It was- ; 40 years ago since the battle of temperance ! was begun by the old temperance societies, ' who were succeeded .by the teetotallers, ; and now they; had the : Good Templars,, i and what ■ pleased him ; most , • with that, organisation was that it was a part of r | their creed 'that they would never^Buc- : ceed- ; in their undertaking until they had got rid of the liquor traffic itself .'.(Oheers.) \ They were not there to ■ discuss 1 r whioh ' was the greater evil— moderate drink;ing or drunkenness. :It was the ; most extraordinary proposition that jhe ever heard "made that moderate drinkers were worse than drunkards, be- . cause there was ha doubt ifthiiy coiildget rid of moderate drinking they; w'duld 1 get rid of drunkenness. He bad;never T heard . of men being born drunkards j he had of men being born fools/Ibut a drunkard^aS made by the circumstances which sur-i---rounded him. (Cheers.) The great object, ; of thi3 movement was to make this a sob ' Hoc nation, and the real.obsfcacle tbdbingt&a^ , was that there were i 140,000 licensed 5 i drink sellers to impede their progress. 'Ifc must not be supposed, however, thatnhe: was going to throw stones at thosW men, ■ They were carrying on a trade which had been legalised by the House of Commons* and by those who had elected that House of- Common's.; therefore,; the temperanoe ; societies' wereTTjuat as much tor.blamervfor the consequences unless they exerted , themselves to' alter> the law." Th'ertfwept temperance organisations of all kinds working . away 'voluntarily ' to make a , sober nation^ but .on the other..;.han : dX there w;as this great army of publicans sent forth by the Government, :e^^ one i of whom ; was paid- by result^ . and making a Hying by getting as much drink sold as he possibly could. - The Government got L 30 ,000,000; taken principally^ from the pockets of the working classes, which saved rich men from paying income-tax, which they would otherwise have to pay. That was a pretty state of things. Notwithstanding all the temperance organiaP tions, the publicans had L %eaten their heads off; r They might picnic, every day and pass, resolutions, play bands,, wave, banners, and airig temperance atraga, but unless they did something else-the-pnb-licans would laugh them to scorn, and the members of Parliament whom the publicans returned would mock them, o "TJib gaols were crowded, the workhouses overr - flowing, lunacy was on the increase, and,^ they read day by day^of the n>ost horrible crimesj and chis; state of thingai would never stop until the : people would, themselves understand the evil if a cure, and would work out that. cure. 4 S l^ many wonderful suggestions had been made for the cure -of drunkenness. First, working men's clubs were to settle the whole thing ; that had been tried over, and over again, and the publicans had beaten them gut of the fiejd. Then it had been suggested that education wo uld rn^ke a, " jhange, and at a meeting of clergymen at Carlisle |t had been proposed- tnat : people should: only drink at meal times, but his impression was that if that policy was adopted there would be a > great many meals in the day. (Laughter.) The ..people would carry bread rand cheese >in their pockets. (Much laughter.) He had not much - faith in pledges of that kind. At the same meeting it had been suggested that the publicans should riot be allowed in turn' out any drunken, man unless he had somebody else to take care .of him. That seemed to be a very good idea, and no one was so .fit as the clergyman to take care of him. It would be; a very edifying sight tof see a man turning out of a public-house with one afhrin that of a clergyman and the other in that of a policeman. Then a Town" Councillor in Edinburgh had proposed ; that they should not any longer license the tellers of . liquor, . but license thef 'people/ who consumed it. (Laughter.),. Really that Town Councillor was not^far ;jout. Under ; the present system, the poor publican did his best, but could not tell exactly, how -much was good for a man. He sometimes gave him an overdose; but if, instead of licensingithe publican, they were to license thef.consumer, the magistrates would have to summon before them .all who wanted to drink during "the^next- 12 months, and they would put them through the test to see iiow much they could hold- withoulj getting drunk, and. give them licenses accordingly. Such a plan would save the poor publican a great deal of anxiety, and he did. hope .the plan would, be adopted. (Laughtefj)) Faucy a man :going,about with a license hanging around his neck, showing how much he was 'licensed to , consume; : What a dignity it Voujd add to a man ! Fancy a half-barrel taaii going

about ; how popular he would be in Cumberland ! (Laughter.) Or fancy a threebottle man. He waa sure that a man oi that maxk would get into the beet Parliament without a contest, and when he got there he would be so highly respected that if they did not make him Prime Minister they would be sure to make^hima Bishop. (Much laughter.) But however childish all these schemes seemedjtwhen brought to the light of reason a^lcgm^ mon-sense, they could not alter" humaur nature, and the only way to stop drunkenness was to prevent the Government For remainder of News see ith page.