THEISISMOR, OF PETERBOROUGH ,'ON.M'IONAL TEMPERANCE; .

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1895, 22 January 1885, Page 2

THEISISMOR, OF PETERBOROUGH ,'ON.M'IONAL TEMPERANCE; .

' The Bishop of Peterborough, who pre-1 sided at the annual meeting of the' Church of England Temperance Society for the diocese of Peterborough at Leicester last up.the discussioiiof the question of national temperance, said that ■lie'was quite aware that in this matter of ■teiii|i£raniw,.hfiJiad.horne.for.agood many repufcation, per-' Jiaps soine ortli¥nV'iffigiit' , rather say not-a, doubtful reputation, in consequence of pertain utteranoes of his which - were said to: have become'famous, or,' as some' people liatljtreferred to ; put it, infamouß. (Laughter.}- He had feared : that he might, be somewhat of an unwelcome guest at a-temperance.-.meeting—a..kind .of Saul, among ffie prophets, '(Laughter.) Atone time he must; candidly tell them that he did feel considerable difficulty about at-j tending temperance meetings, and he was rather inclined to feel when he was invited to one, that they-would be rather glad to get rid of him. (Much Laughter.) He hadJiad to sit and listen to things that he did- not like, and other people, he had thought, would have tolisten also to things from him that they would not like, and he began to think .that he would be regarded as a dreadful 'example to be exhibited over the = • platform ■ of' a; .temper-' ; ance meeting.' (Laughter.) If they asked him why lie vflis there' he- would answer,' he was therebecau's'e lie could not help it, and that'll felt that h& must and ought'to be there. . (Cheers.)' .He .felt: that as Bishop of this diocese he could nob for. any personal reasons, whatever, stand, aloof from what.was a great cause, and a great public duty. (Cheers,) He was quite willing to take; his own share of the blame that lie had .not been more promin- - 'ent in the advocaoy Of the.cause of temper-. ance, but he hoped that they would take; him'as-Jie,wasi and believe that though lie was a new recruitto the cause of tem-

perance, therewas.no person who had a deeper sense of the evils of intemperance and no one who had a greater desire for tho suppression and repression of the vice than he had. (Cheers,) He felt that the great temptation of intemperance on the part of tho working man was his wearied monotonous life in his daily and weekly

toil. (Cheers.). It was a very easy thing for'one who had Mb leisure time,' a large house, and comforts all round about Him,with varied amusements, to say that he felt no temptation to drink, but if he would spend a whole week in any close room, doing one small bit of a great and mighty work, never changing it, and never exercising his mind but only his hands, when the afternoon of tho Saturday came he would be desperately inclined to go out and have a glass of gin. (Laughter.M.oheeii) He did not think until he had tried it:that the rich manhad any right to cry out against the intern-' perance of the working classes. They of the upper classes so-called should take to heart the temptations and difficulties and the sorrows of the working men's lives, He had with most hearty allegiance joined that society, and hewished to see it spreading in the diocese. Any help he could give as Bishop so long as it was conducted on those lines sojudiciously and plainly set before 'then) by Canon EJlison would -most gladly and most heartily given. It seemed to him that the function of the Bishop of tho dio-

cesewas above all others to unite and prevent division. (Cheers.) So long as.onesection of the society did not denounce the other, so long as they could agree thus to differ and thus to unite, most hearty and

glad should lie bo to give whatever sifljport lay in him to the work, Men differed very much indeed, for example, as to what extent or any extent at all they would allow of the existence of pulilichousea or any houses of refreshment for the people'in which fermented liquors were sold, He was not going—he was far too wise and too great a coward—to raise the question, but one thing he had to say about it was thatthesepubKchouses those places of refreshment, where those liquors were to be obtained, were in too many cases still the only places of resort or amusement for large portions of the people. Now if we interfere legislatively —and he was very far from saying or thinking legislation had reached its utmost limit in the matter—with what people rightly or wrongly considered to be their amusement, or their recreation, or their pleasure, and if we did that in the interests of society with the desire of ameliorating the people,, then we must take care that we carried the peoplo with us. They must be careful that they did not drive the people into some wretched alternative betwoen those places of amusement and none at all, People talked of closing licensed houses as if it were an easy thing to do. Let them picture to themselves an artisan, with liis wife and children, walking out on Sunday four or five miles in London, seeing all along the closed shops dull and. uninteresting, and only two places open —the one a' publiohouse where he could have.' a seat and welcome, the other a church where he could not always have a seat, and welcome. (Cheers). Some peoplo fancied that they would succeed in driving all these into a church by the mere and single act of closing the only rival of the church. Let them close publichouses if they thought it right and necessary, but let thein for pity's sake provide for those in whose face they shut the only plaee that they were accustomed to look upon as places of resort and amusement something else and something better. (Cheers), Let them give the peoplo healthy recreation, innocent, elevating amusements and open spaces in the great towns. By such means they would promote the great cause of temperance and check the great evil of intemperance.