TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 195 
In the Liverpool Borough Gaol during the year ending September 30, 1873, the 
committals were 12,420; of these, 5747 were males and (dreadful to contemplate) 
6673 were females, Of these 12,420 committals, 8322 were under the care of the 
Roman Catholic chaplain, the Rey. Father Nugent; and it is sad to think there 
were 4742 women under his care—in fact more females than males, as the males 
~ were only 3580, Under the Protestant chaplain there were 1931 females and 
2067 males. The author distinguished the sexes in this manner in order again to 
draw attention to the absolute necessity there is of imposing some check on the 
drinking of alcoholic liquors by females, if the comfort and happiness of the homes 
of our people ought to be maintained. Napoleon the First said the great want of 
France was “ good mothers,” If female drunkenness continues to increase as it 
does now, the great want of our nation algo will be “good mothers.” Of these 
committals, nine out of ten have been caused by indulgence in drink. 
The author spoke of the drunkenness in the county of Lancaster. From the 
Judicial Statistics he finds there has been a corresponding increase of drunkenness 
throughout the whole of England. The apprehensions for drunkenness in Eng- 
land and Wales, during the last eleven years, has been as follows :— 
MSGSie ye jek o86.55 9.904 alt a. Oe} TSGS she hainelne alte bla aoe 
1S babe earn IN »++y+ 100,067 TSOO catia vonledaiasulaes Moca 
| Lhe pear Bere 105,310 1 Key OE GA RIE »++. 131,870 
BISONS ashe sp aa 9 vere, 104,568 SrA LMR seteeeeee 142,248 
SGT ai vy ed par Te »+.. 100,857 PS hia acs re erie (an ole! 
As to the apprehensions for drunkenness in 1873, Mr. Cross, the Home Secre- 
tary, in his speech in the House of Commons on April 27, when moving for leave 
to bring in his Licensing Amendment Bill, said, “ When we look at the facts 
which I am about to place before the Committee, we must acknowledge that in 
. their broad outline they certainly do present a formidable state of things. I find 
that in 1873, in England alone, no less than 182,000 persons were proceeded against 
for drunkenness.” From this statement it appears that in 1873 there was an 
increase in the apprehensions for drunkenness of not less than 30,000, 
To what are we to attribute this increase of drunkenness ? 
Ist, the author thinks, to the higher wages received by the working people ; 
2nd, to the shorter hours of labour; and 
Srd, to the increase of facilities for the procuring of the drink. The sale of 
drink in grocers’ shops is, the author believes, the chief cause of the intemperance 
amongst women ; and an earnest effort ought to be made to remove this source of 
temptation out of their way, 
On the Privileges over Land, wrongly called Property. 
By Sir GroreE Campsert, D.C.L., K.C.S.L. 
The author said he had adopted this title for his paper in order to distinguish be- 
tween absolute property and those privileges which he would rather call limited 
property. What he meant to express was, that land was not an absolute property, 
but a limited property, a privilege conferred by the community for the benefit of 
the community, and subject, to a certain extent, to the convenience of the com- 
munity. For instance, he might do what he pleased with his handkerchief, and the 
law recognized his absolute property in it. But, as regarded land, his contention 
was that there was no absolute property of that kind; that the land, made not by 
man but by God, was rather the property of the nation, and that certain limited 
rivileges were conceded to individuals for the benefit of the nation, and must be 
eld subject to the will and convenience of the nation. 
It had been said that the man who first enclosed the common land was a robber ; 
but he did not think that view was justified, for it was necessary that the land 
should be in some degree enclosed in the first instance to protect it against the 
beasts of the forest. He might quote experience of his own among aboriginal races 
to show that this early property was in fact not continuous, and not injurious to a 
community, for such land was never held in permanency; but as soon as the 
