552 



TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. 



least equally certain, tin- population returns for j 



1831, we find that the number of public-houses and ; 

 gin-shops within the largest extent of the metro- 

 polis, did not exceed 3000, an amazing difference, 

 which allowing for the greater extent of these esta- 

 blishments in the present time, would hardly allow 

 us to imagine that the people are more addicted to 

 intemperance now than they were a hundred years 

 since. 



It appeared, from the investigations of a com- 

 mittee of the house of commons, that, in 1742, 

 19,000,000 gallons of spirits were made from malt, 

 and 800,000 gallons from foreign materials, in Eng- 

 land and Wales. It does not appear that any of 

 this quantity was exported. Now we find that the 

 British and Foreign spirits retained in this country 

 for home consumption, in 1833, amounted to no 

 more than 26,770,000 gallons; whereas, if to the 

 account for 1742, we add about 3,000,000 gallons 

 of foreign spirits, and consider that the population 

 has doubled since that period, not less than 

 46,000,000 gallons would be required if the people 

 were not more temperate in 1833 than in 1742. 

 The low price at which gin could be obtained at 

 the earlier period was, doubtless, a principal cause 

 of its extensive use. The prices of gin were thus 

 stated by lord Carteret : gallon, 2s. to 2s. 8d. ; 

 quart, 6<f. to 8d. ; and so down to a farthing's worth. 



The state of the population of London at the 

 present time, with regard to open drunkenness, is 

 by no means satisfactory, although, compared 

 with the numbers of the inhabitants, it cannot be 

 called very large. In 1831, there were taken up 

 in the metropolis, in a state of drunkenness, and 

 brought before the magistrates, 5420 males and 

 2146 females: in 1832, 4893 males and 2041 

 females ; and in 1833, 7535 males and 3858 females. 

 The number discharged, when sober, by the Super- 

 intendents of Police was, for the same years, as 

 follows : 1831, 14,328 males, 9,459 females ; in 



1832, 15,411 males and 10,291 females; in 1833, 

 10,733 males and 7,754 females. The total num- 

 bers taken up in a state of intoxication were, there- 

 fore, for 1831, 31,353; 1832, 32,636; and for 



1833, 29,880. This is a formidable statement, but 

 the amount is not so frightful when it is analysed. 

 It is 81 per day, which in a population of 1,776,500 

 souls, a twenty-fifth part of whom are soldiers, 

 sailors, and wayfarers, is one in about 22,000. It 

 might be supposed, from the great publicity of gin- 

 shops, that they are everywhere increasing. This 

 is not the case. By an Act of Parliament, passed a 

 few years since, security was given to the traders 

 in liquors to carry on their business without inter- 

 ruption, as long as they adhered to certain regula- 

 tions. They have been therefore enabled to attract 

 the passengers by displays of finery which did not 

 formerly exist. 



The evil of intemperance is too obvious and 

 dreadtul not to be the subject of much anxious ob- 

 servation ; but endeavours to restrain it had hitherto 

 taken no more effective shape than that of indi- 

 vidual influence applied to individual cases. The 

 idea of concentrating public sentiment upon it, in 

 some form, to produce more important results, 

 seems to have been first developed, if not conceived, 

 by some members of an ecclesiastical body, called 

 the General Association of Massachusetts Proper, 

 North America. At a meeting of this association, 

 in 1811, a committee was appointed to draught the 

 constitution of a society whose object should be 

 " To check the progress of intemperance, viewed 



by the association as an alarming iind growing evil." 

 Such a society was formed, consisting of about 120 

 members, in different parts of the state. It held 

 its first meeting in 1813. The first attempt of the 

 society was naturally to collect facts towards a pre- 

 cise exhibition of the nature and magnitude of the 

 existing evil, with the view of drawing public at- 

 tention to it, and of directing endeavours for its 

 removal. The reports presented, from year to 

 year, embraced statements and calculations which 

 were found to make out a case of the most appal- 

 ling nature, such as to amaze even those wluxe 

 solicitude on the subject had been greatest. In 

 the year 1810, the federal returns showed 25,499,382 

 gallons of spirits of different kinds to have been 

 distilled in the United States, which quantity, to 

 ascertain the consumption (no account, of course, 

 being made of what may have escaped the know- 

 ledge of the custom-house and the marshals), was 

 to be increased by 8,000,000 of gallons imported, 

 and diminished by 133,823 exported. The amount 

 thus ascertained, namely, 33,365,559 gallons, was 

 distributed among a population of 7,239,903 (white 

 and black), returned in the census of the same 

 year. This gives an average of more than four 

 gallons and a half for the year to every man, woman 

 and child in the United States. The society con- 

 tinued to collect and present, from year to year, 

 statistical statements of this kind ; and the curi- 

 osity and alarm excited by them led to similar ob- 

 servations in different quarters, the most consider- 

 able of which we shall presently mention. Some 

 further particulars of the deplorable state of things, 

 as successively brought to light, or made probable, 

 we will here set down, premising that, so far from 

 the earliest rough statements and calculations ap- 

 pearing, on further investigation, to have been ex- 

 aggerated, it was rather found that the authors of 

 these had shrunk with incredulity from the conclu- 

 sions which their reasonings seemed to authorize, 

 and the facts continually grow more alarming as 

 they were more exactly ascertained. In 1814, it 

 was suggested, in a circular of the Massachusetts 

 society, that not less than 6000 citizens of the 

 United States might die annually victims of intem- 

 perance. In 1830, from much more full data, the 

 number was estimated at above 37,000. Facts 

 were thought to justify the inference, in this latter 

 year, that 72,000,000 gallons of distilled spirits 

 were consumed in the country (not far from six 

 gallons, on an average, or a half a gill a day to each 

 individual), and that the number of confirmed 

 drunkards (apart from those in some stage of pro- 

 gress towards the fixed habit') fell not much short 

 of 400,000. From computations founded on facts 

 collected in particular districts, there appeared 

 reason to believe that intemperance was responsi- 

 ble for three quarters or four fifths of the crimes 

 committed in the country, for at least three quar- 

 ters of the pauperism existing, and for fully one 

 third of the mental derangement. According to a 

 calculation of less satisfactory character, but not 

 destitute of probability, the annual waste for dis- 

 tilled spirits, reckoning the cost to the consumer 

 (at two thirds of a dollar the gallon), the loss of 

 the labour of drunkards and prisoners, and the direct 

 cost of their crimes and pauperism, amounted to a 

 sum which, vested in an annuity for twenty years, 

 at six per cent., simple interest, would purchase all 

 the lands, houses and slaves in the United States. 

 The Massachusetts society persevered to invite the 

 public attention to the subject of intemperance in 



