CARDINAL MANNING ON INTEMPERANCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 261, 1 December 1876, Page 4

CARDINAL MANNING ON INTEMPERANCE.

[Manchester Evening News, August 22 ] -The question of intemperance was discussed last evening by Cardinal Manning, at Stockport, in a manner which cannot fail to command attention. This' eminent prelate has long been an advocate of total abstinence, and on every available occasion he has denounced drunkenness in a very emphatic manner. Foremost among the Romanists in England in endeavoring to effect social and ethical reform, the Cardinal boldly affirms his belief that no b,eaen*cens .change in the moral condition of the people can be accomplished until their drinking habits give place to sober customs, and the pleasures of public-houses are exchanged for those of a more refined and elevating order. There can be no doubt that the vice of intemperance ia a national bane, and that the efforts of philanthropists and statesmen are rendered nugatory by excessive indulgence in intoxicating liquors. The Cardinal adduced facts to show that intemperance is greatly on the increase, and remarked that every year fresh dangers arose out of the pernicious drinking habit. Not only the lower classes but members of the highest circleß are tainted with the vice. * c Young and refined women," said the Cardinal, " who, by the pestilent habits of society, went from amusement to amusement, and excitement to excitement, formed, unseen by their friende, and unconsciously to themselves, the most confirmed habits of intemperance." The clergy of tho Epmieh Church have special means of ascertaining the truth on thia point, and it cannot be doubted that there are grounds for the allegations brought agaioet.them. Women, too, it is stated, have bean largely demoralised since grocers were permitteJ to sell wines and spirits." It is somewhat startling to learn that the money absorbed in the production of intoxicating drinks exceeds all the capital that is invested in the woollen trade, in the iron trade, and probably in the mines of this country. "At tbe present time a capital of from a hundred and twenty to a hundred and forty millions is annually expended and turned over in the trade of producing intoxicating drinks." Tbe Cardinal aleo went on to Bay that Englishmen were tbe greatest commercial people in the world'; their commercial marine was greater than that of acy other natiou on tbe face of the globe, but all tbe commerce of England, and all the staple of her commercial wealth did not reach by a long distance the amount of capital invested in tbe trade of producing intoxicating drink, which at the present time was wrecking the prosperity of the country. The necessity of repressing this degrading and ruinous ba,bit has long been fully recognised, and various plans have been suggested of a more or less practicable kind. The Cardinal evidently thinks that the licensing system has failed to check drunkenness. The first enactment for the purpose of regulating the Bale of intoxicating drink and giving power to Justices of the Peace to grant or refuse a license wns framed in the reign of Edward the Sixth, but since that date iotemperance has increased to an extent wbioh constitutes it a national scandal and a reproach. The Cardinal further censures the Government for their participation in the spoils arising out of the custom, but as Parliament is really responsible for the law, it would be more just, perhaps, to say that the country itself, and not merely tbe " Government," should be regarded as " a sleeping partner " in the drink trade." la Leeds it appears that drunkenness has increased forty per cent, in three years, and whereas there were in 1829 only "fifty thousand places where intoxicating drinks could be sold," there are now not lees th jq one hundred and fifty thousand. Tbe population of the country, we are told by tbe Cardinal, has increased eighty per cent.,, and crime fifty-six per cent. The remedy for the ever<\ growing evil proposed by Cardinal Manning is analogous to the scheme which has been so long advocated by Sir Wilfred Lawson. Parliament, his Eminence thinks, should "undo what it has done; give to the ratepayers of every city, borough, or hamlet, tbe right, by two-thirds of a vote, to say whether or not they would have public houses amongst them." This is the principle of tbe Permissive BUI, and the friends of the measure have occasion to rejoice that tbe Cardinal has long entertained views identical with their own. It is fortunate that Ministers of religion are taking up this subjact, and are making praiseworthy efforts j to stamp out the vice.