194, oo REPORT—1874, 
earth, makes a saddening remark :—“ But civilization,” he says, has two aspects, 
and, side by side with the development of a wonderful scientific invention, we 
must place the fact that in 1872 the quantity of spirits consumed in the United 
Kingdom was 26,872,183 gallons, being 2,708,539 gallons more than in 1871.” 
So said this writer in ‘Chambers’s Journal,’ in March 1873. Now we have 
the shanie of confessing that, during the year 1873, there has been a very large 
increase in the consumption of intoxicating drinks in the United Kingdom, We 
used last year— 
Home spirits........ ethan de soldi pha ci . 28,908,501 gallons, 
Foreign spirits Sopessccsecssse sess nerve LUeeEy TOO ae 
Wine eoeevee peewee reer tee ere eee eeeneeee 18,027,104 ” 
57,159,311 
In addition to this we used 1,076,844,942 gallons of beer, and about 18,500,000 gal- 
lons of British wines, cider, &c, When we consider the enormous quantity of 
intoxicating drink which has been consumed, we need not wonder at the increase 
of crime, especially in our manufacturing districts, where wages have heen so high 
and trade so prosperous. 
The statistics of the county gaol, Manchester, in which the author was chaplain 
during the years 1868 and 1869, are truly startling. This prison receives all the 
criminals in the hundred of Salford, except those from the city of Manchester, for 
whose accommodation a special gaol is provided. 
For the year ending September 29, 1869, the committals for drunkenness to the 
county gaol were 2003, viz. 1324 males and 679 females. 
For the year ending September 29, 1870, there were 2322—males 1518 and 
females 804, 
IS71 wc. eeeeeeee 2832—males 1603, females 729 
bert plattiaett a wma ite-girieite: f= able aiid Lo Re 884 
Theyihe pekbetymeg een ies | akin Pi 53> PPM aa 
We learn from these figures that in four years the committals for drunkenness 
have increased 60 per cent. 
In Manchester, during the twelve months ending the 31st of March last, 9150 
persons were apprehended by the police and brought before the justices for being 
drunk and drunk and disorderly in the streets. Large as this number is, it is less 
by 903 than the number arrested in 1872. The diminution in 1873 was doubtless 
owing to the operation of the Licensing Act and the earlier closing of drink-houses, 
as comparatively few were arrested during the night, and there was a decrease of 
467 in the number arrested on Sundays. But it appears from the monthly reports 
of the chief constable that the number arrested br drunkenness is now again 
increasing. 
But the committals for drunkenness to our prisons do not show the full extent of 
the evils which follow in the train of drunkenness. Very many of those committed 
to gaol are drunkards, though convicted of other offences of which they would never 
have been guilty if it were not for their drunkenness, The committals to the county 
gaol, Manchester, for all offences were, in 1869, 6532—males 4900, females 1652. 
In 1873 the total committals for all offences were 7210—males 5051, females 2159, 
Here is a lamentable state of things! The committals of females have increased in 
four years from 1632 to 2159. Female drunkenness is increasing to a frightful 
extent (60 per cent. in four years), and their drinking leads to the commission of 
other crimes. We are told by Plutarch, in his comparison of the lives of Numa 
and Lycurgus, that in the early ages of Rome women were strictly prohibited from 
tasting intoxicating wine; and other ancient writers tell us that they were punished 
with death for their crime, just as if they had committed adultery, ‘“ because the 
drinking of intoxicating liquor was regarded as the beginning of adultery.” When 
will English legislators be as wise as Romulus and Numa so far as to prevent 
females from using these poisonous drinks? A drunken woman was a very rare 
sight in ancient Rome, but in one prison in England the author saw in two years 
about 3000 drunken women. He Imows no greater reproach to Christianity than 
this most horrible fact. 
