lo'S REPORT 1865. 



IV. The very important question, how far these statistics indicate the extent of 

 the actual intemperance of the metropolis, remains to he considered. In reduction 

 of the figures presented, it is to be noted that they represent cases, not distinct 

 persons, many of whom are apprehended more than twice in the year, and some 

 of them many times over. If the proportion of persons to cases is placed at 2 to 3, 

 that proportionate reduction must be made in calculating the numbers appre- 

 hended, and the proportion of those persons to the population. This rule need 

 only be applied, by way of exemplification, to the annual average for the last four 

 years, and it will give — 



P lTeL a T hendedfOT . drU ^| 5 > 597 •• Proportion to population .. 527 



Persons apprehended for drunk- j ^ A -r, .. , , ,,,„ 



enness and disorder f 6 ' 3<0 ■ ■ P ™P°rtion to population . . 4b3 



Pe i ! , a 8 °L S a aPPrehended f ° r b ° th H,967 .. Proportion to population .. 247 



If we turn to the facts, which evince a prevalence of metropolitan intemperance 

 far exceeding the proportions represented by the statistical data, we shall find them 

 to consist of the following : — 



1st. The fact tbat police apprehensions are limited to cases of aggravated intem- 

 perance coming under the view of the police. In 1834, when Col. Rowan, one of 

 the Police Commissioners, was under examination before Mr. Buckingham's select 

 committee of the House of Commons, he stated that, as to cases of intoxication 

 unconnected with disorder, he believed that only one in three came into the 

 custody of the police. The night-police are specially disposed to do as little as they 

 possibly can in the apprehension of drunkards, as they have to lose their next 

 day's rest, to give witness against the accused persons. The police pretend to 

 arrest drunk and incapable, and drunk and disorderly persons only, but (1) many 

 of even such cases they never see, and (2) not a few of tbose seen are let alone 

 from the trouble they would entail, or the wish to preserve individuals, otherwise 

 respectable, from exposure. 



2nd. There is the fact tbat all persons intoxicated, who can manage to get along 

 with or without the help of others, are systematically avoided by the police. 



3rd. There is the fact that, as compared with the population, the very young 

 and the aged are necessarily excluded from the calculation. This is at once equal 

 to raising the proportion of arrested persons to the population almost one half ; so 

 that instead of 1 in 247, we might read 1 in 125. 



4th. There is the fact that the intemperance practised in private is in a great 

 degree withdrawn from the cognizance of the police. 



All these considerations tend to prove that the actual arrests for aggravated 

 intemperance by no means represent the total of such public cases ; that they 

 absolutely exclude all private cases of that kind ; that they are independent of all 

 cases of simple intoxication, as such ; and that they have nothing to do with that 

 habit of tippling, the cause of much disease, poverty, and crime, but not necessarily 

 taking the developed form of positive intoxication. 



There are about 10,000 drinking shops in London, and it would be a very 

 moderate estimate that would assign to each on every Saturday night twenty per- 

 sons in different stages of intoxication ; and supposing that these were the same 

 persons every Saturday night (though often they are not the ssvme), they woidd 

 exhibit a total of 200,000 individuals, mostly of middle age, living in the metro- 

 polis alone, who periodically subject themselves to the vice of intoxication, a 

 number equal to 13 per cent, of the adult population, or 1 in every 8 persons. 

 How this result can be materially altered while the licensed temptations to drink- 

 ing remain as they are, the moralist and statesman may well despair of discovering. 

 Public-house associations are perpetually extending, and the evils are transmitted 

 from one generation to another. 



Some vigorous effort for the reduction of drinking shops is the only resource 

 left, since purely moral and reformatory agencies are counteracted more success- 

 fully than they counteract the opposite influences. 



No remedy yet proposed will be effectual unless it includes a suggestion thrown 



