One hundred objections to a Maine law : being a sequel to the 'argument' of the United Kingdom Alliance for the Legislative Prohibition of the Liquor Traffic / by Dr Frederic Richard Lees.

  • Frederic Richard Lees
Date:
1857
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: One hundred objections to a Maine law : being a sequel to the 'argument' of the United Kingdom Alliance for the Legislative Prohibition of the Liquor Traffic / by Dr Frederic Richard Lees. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 8. Because Religious Instruction alone goes to the root of the Evil. How was it, then, that Noah, Lot, and “ the Priests and the Prophets, erred through strong drink?” Had they no religion, or no religious instruction ? How is it still? The Church, so far from reforming the world, is corrupted by the common curse. Witness the shocking revela- tion, the other day, at an inquest in Cumberland, where it is proved that a Clergyman, in a state of drunkenness, lies down on a sofa, while his wife, in a similar condition, sits down on a stool by his side, and, by her drunken and depressed condition, is actually suffo- cated—the husband being too drunk to note, or, too helpless to avert the catastrophe ! Or take an illustration as to the people, from the Reports of the Commissioners of Education in Wales (1846). Mr Lingen says :—- “ Poetical and enthusiastic warmth of religious feeling, careful attendance upon religious services, zealous interest in religious knowlege, [just as in Scotland,] the comparative absence of crime, are found side by side with the most unreasoning prejudices and impulses, and with a wide-spread disregard of temperance whenever there are the means or excess, of chastity, of veracity, and of fair dealing. ” Such is human nature, and such are the facts in relation to it. The wise religionist will take it as he finds it, and act accordingly. Since he can only raise an individual here and there above his circum- stances, he will strive to save the multitude from the influence of that debasing environment which tends to sink them below their nature—to remove those surroundings which foster evil and degra- dation by wholesale. Such is the Traffic! A Report on the State of Popular Education in Great Britain to the Lord President of Council on Education, by the Oldest School Inspector in England (London ; December, 1856), has the following demonstration :— “ Of all the most obviously influencing causes of crime, Public- houses are evidently the most potent; often undoing all the good work of the Teacher and the Pastor. Taldng the six counties having fewest of these pestiferous places, though they have on an average one of them to every 235 persons, we find a criminal annually among 762 inhabitants; while in those six counties having a public- house for 109 ‘ thirsty souls,’ there is a criminal among 691 inhabi- tants. Where they do most drinking, we find one-fourth more paupers, onc-fourtli less property, only about one-half the amount of deposits in Savings’ Banks, and yet there are one-fifth more SCHOOLS, AND ONE-THIRD MORE WORSHIPERS, to population, than where the people have fewest drinking-shops.” With such massive and multitudinous facts before him, the thoughtful reader will begin to comprehend the meaning of that Divine prayer—Lead us not into temptation : to see how essential it is to harmonize the objective and subjective conditions of social life, if we would not stereotype the curse of Disappointment, and eternize the reign of “ Circumstance, that unspiritual God and wiiscreator, “ Whose touch turns Hope to dust.”