35'2 DRUNKENNESS. 



this statement with the opinion of Mr. Buckingham, which we take 

 the liberty of quoting ? 



" It was well remarked by one of the witnesses examined from the City, 

 that the ancients understood human nature better than we do now, when 

 they made their helots or slaves drunk, and exhibited them before their 

 children, so as to implant in the beholders, by this disgusting scene, an 

 unconquerable abhorrence of this worse than brutal degradation." 



So that it seems, after all, that example would operate as a warn- 

 ing instead of an incitement, and that if the ancients did really un- 

 derstand human nature better than we do now, the best method of 

 checking drunkenness in the long run would be to let the present 

 system take its course. The rising generation, if we are to believe 

 the report, need never be in want of exhibitions and disgusting 

 scenes of drunkenness. 



It must be remarked that the select committee are of opinion that 

 they have described Jainily the terrible effect of drunkenness as ex- 

 emplified in the labouring population of Great Britain ; we recom- 

 mend the reader, therefore, to bear in mind this fact when he peruses 

 the extracts we are about to lay before him. Here is a faint outline 

 of its consquences to individual character : 



" 4. That the consequences of the vice of intoxication among the 

 humbler classes, and the prevalence of intemperate habits, and pernicious 

 customs encouraging such habits, among the middle and higher ranks, are 

 so many, and so fearful to contemplate, that it is difficult as it is painful 

 to enumerate even the outlines of them, and to pursue them in all their 

 melancholy and fatal details would require a volume. 



" 5. That the following are only a few of the evils directly springing 

 from this baneful source. 



" 6. Destruction of health, disease in every form and shape, premature 

 decrepitude in the old, stunted growth, and general debility and decay in 

 the young ; loss of life by paroxysms, apoplexies, drownings, burnings, 

 and accidents of various kinds ; delirium tremens, one of the most awful 

 afflictions of humanity ; paralysis, idiotcy, madness, and violent death ; as 

 proved by numerous medical witnesses, who have made this the subject 

 of their long and careful investigation. 



" 7. Destruction of mental capacity and vigour ; and extinction of 

 aptitude for learning, as well as of disposition for practising, any useful 

 art or industrious occupation. 



" 8. Irritation of all the worst passions of the heart, hatred, anger, 

 revenge, with a brutalization of disposition, that breaks asunder and 

 destroys the most endearing bonds of nature and society. 



" 9. Extinction of all moral and religious principle; disregard of truth, 

 indifference to education, violation of chastity, insensibility to shame, and 

 indescribable degradation ; as proved by clergymen, magistrates, over- 

 seers, teachers, and others, examined by your committee on all these 

 points." 



Having thus glanced over this lightly-touched sketch of individual 

 drunkenness, it may be as well that we cast an eye upon this water- 

 colour painting intended to represent a few of its " Consequences to 

 National Welfare." 



"11. The destruction of an immense amount of wholesome and nutri- 

 tious grain, given by a bountiful Providence for the food of man, which is 



