Nineteen centuries of drink in England : a history / by Richard Valpy French.

  • French, Richard Valpy.
Date:
[1890]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nineteen centuries of drink in England : a history / by Richard Valpy French. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    into an acquiescence by the flattering bait of immediate gain, which ere long they would be obliged to ]poAj back to paupers, in relief, with a heavy interest. Half a century before, the historian Smollett (v. 15) had remarked:— After all it must be owned that, the good and salutary effects of the prohibition were visible in every part of the kingdom, and no evil consequence ensued except a diminution of the revenue in this article [spirits], a consideration which ought at all times to be sacrificed to the health and morals of the people. And nearly half a century before Smollett, John Disney (magistrate and divine) had written :— I deny the assertion that the revenue of ye crown will really be impaired by prohibiting tipling & drunk8* .... 3 parts in 4 of the pore families in this kingdom have been reduced to want chiefly by haunting Taverns or Ale-houses. Especy labouring men, who very often consume there on the Lord’s day what they have gotten all the week before, & let then' families beg or steal for a subsistence the week foil8. . . . Now I suppose you will grant me that as the No. of poor & ruined families encreases in a nation, the Prince that governs must find a proportionable decay in his Revenue On the other side, all such laws duly executed as keep men by sobriety tempce & frugality in a thriving condition, do most effectually provide for the happiness of the people & for the riches of the Prince.1 But there are symptoms of a decline in this source of revenue. A leading London daily paper has lately thus adverted to this momentous menace:— Official statistics go far to confirm the triumphant claim of total abstainers that the consumption of strong drink is falling off at a rate not distasteful to the philanthropist, but suggesting grave reflection to a Chancellor of the Exchequer. The receipts from beer, wines, and spirits have been estimated in all recent budgets at Disney, View of Ancient Laivs against Immorality ami Pjonhanc- ness. Camb. 1729, M