Umi^fd^ library 
 
 A FULL REPORT OF 
 
 THE SPEECHES 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE 
 
 ANNUAL PUBLIC MEETING, 
 
 HELD IX THE 
 
 LARGE ROOM OF THE FREE TRADE HALL, 
 MANCHESTER, 
 
 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2(bt/i, 1870, 
 
 SIR CHARLES E. TREVELYAN, K.CB. 
 
 ( Ex- Governor of Madras J, in the Chair. 
 
 PRICE FO URPENCE 
 
 R. NEWTON, 7, DUKE STREET, WEST SMITHFIELD, E.G. 
 
Digitized by 
 
 the Internet Archive 
 
 
 
 in 2015 
 
 
 
 https://archive.org/details/fullreportofspeeOOtrev 
 
SPEECHES, &e. 
 
 The Chair:>ian — Ladies and Gentlemen : Before opening the 
 proceedings, I will mention that numerous letters have been re- 
 ceived expressing hearty concurrence with the objects of the Alliance, 
 and great regret at not being able to attend, but only tv\^o of those 
 letters have been selected as representative. They are from the 
 head of the Church of England and from the head of the Church of 
 R.ome in this country. First of all I will read the letter of the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, which is addressed to Archdeacon Sandford : — • 
 
 ''My Dear Archdea.con, — -I understand you are about to attend the 
 annual meeting of the United Kingdom Alliance, and I am anxious 
 to express to you my unabated interest in the great object which you 
 have in vieAV. I do not, indeed, feel that I can concur in all the 
 plans by which the Alliance seeks to promote temperance, and 
 better the condition of those who at present suffer so severely from 
 the evil with which the Alliance grapples ; but you have my hearty 
 good wishes in the main object which you seek." (Cheers.) 
 
 And then the letter from Archbishop Manning : — 
 
 "I am truly sorry that it is out of my power to be in Manchester 
 to-morrow to support you at the United Kingdom Alliance. Pray 
 assure the meeting that nothing but inevitable duties would have 
 hindered my being present, and that my desire to work onward to 
 our great and common end increases year by year." 
 
 Now, ladies and gentlemen, you will, perhaps, ask why, being 
 neither a member of the Alliance nor a total abstainer, I have felt it my 
 duty to accept the honour of taking the chair at this great meeting. 
 I have been actively engaged in public affairs for more than forty 
 years, and during this long period one observation has been con- 
 stantly forced upon me — whatever plan of moral or social improvement 
 might be proposed, this national vice of inebriety has always crossed 
 our path. To abstain from intoxicating liquors is a cardinal point 
 both of the Hindoo and Mahometan religion. Conceive, therefore, 
 the effect produced upon the spread of Christianity in the East, by 
 the disgraceful exhibition constantly seen in the bazaars of Calcutta, 
 Madras, and Bombay, of Christians rolling about in a state of 
 beastly intoxication. Even the young men educated in our colleges 
 imitate our evil example, to the scandal of their Hindoo parents, and 
 it has been reserved for the Hindoo reformer, Keshub Chunder Sen, to 
 bring- them back to a sense of the duty of temperance. The same 
 monster evil meets us in every attempt to improve the administration 
 of our army. The recruiting is conducted in public-houses ; a 
 portion of the soldier's pay is issued as "beer money;" and the 
 officers receive "the Prince Regent's allowance of wine," His 
 Royal Plighness having graciously expressed his desire "that no 
 officer should be so poor as not to be able to drink his pint of wine 
 a day." ihere are eight or nine public-houses in the imimediate 
 vicinity of the barracks of the household cavalry at Knightsbridge, 
 besides two music halls, the character of which I will not describe. 
 Can we wonder, then, that our army is doubly dyed with this 
 miserable taint, and that its fruits are reaped in vice, disease, 
 
4 
 
 absence from duty, desertion, and an unusually large deduction from 
 available strength under the heads of hospital treatment and punish- 
 ment ? All agree that no drunken men are to be seen among the 
 German troops in France. But how would it be if an English army 
 took the field under like circumstances ? The answer may be given 
 in the words of a recent report upon the Red River Expedition : 
 ''When we first arrived, Fort Garry was in a state of mud, and the 
 consequences next morning were very distressing. It was so long 
 since the men had tasted liquor, that all who could, troops or 
 voyageurs, went off to make up for lost time. Very little Vv^innepeg 
 liquor is sufficient to overturn the strongest hea,d and demoralise the 
 steadiest legs, so that in a short time the streets were filled with 
 recumbent figures. When a man fell, one side became a large cake 
 of mud ; when he picked himself up to fall on the other side, he was 
 sandwiched in Winnepeg earth, and the next morning was encased 
 in a thick hard coating from which he was with difficulty released. 
 Pickets were sent out all through the evening to bring the men in." 
 In the endeavours made to improve the condition of the lower orders 
 of our people in town and country, the same demon of intoxication 
 constantly rises and bars the way. The east end of London has 
 acquired an unhappy pre-eminence in pauperism, but there is no 
 part of England v/here the liquor traffic is in such a flourishing- state. 
 Within the square mile investigated by Mr. Hartley there are 165 
 public-houses, and the same number of beer-houses, taking, on a 
 very moderate estimate, at least ;^45o,ooo a year, while the school fee 
 of tv/opence on every child would have amounted only to ;z^io,053, or 
 less than 2^ per cent, on the drink account. It has become a lucra- 
 tive business in that part of London to establish public-houses and 
 beer-houses in favourable situations and to sell them again at a 
 profit. When this vicious habit has taken possession of a popula- 
 tion, charitable assistance only feeds the distemper. " The lady has 
 brought another shilling's-worth of charitable gin," indicates the 
 object to which such charity is usually applied. The practice of 
 issuing cider in aid of wages is the curse of my native district in the 
 West of England, because it gives a public sanction to its constant 
 use, and fixes a bad habit in the labouring population which is 
 certain to lead to further indulgence. I can endorse every word of an 
 appeal which has lately been made by a AVest Country clergyman to 
 your honoured president. ''May I not, then, entreat you to use 
 your powerful influence to stem a tide against which all the efforts 
 of a clergyman are useless ? We may preach and warn as we will ; 
 but what is the use when from seven years old the people are trained 
 to drink ? And that drink, extra drink, takes the place of wholesome 
 food to them ; and, if any harder work has to be done, more drink is 
 the one specific." It will now be understood why I stand here to 
 give such support as I am able to the United Kingdom Alliance. 
 I entirely agree v/ith the Bishop of Exeter, who presided on this 
 occasion last 3^ear, that "there is no other evil at present in this 
 country so deadly in its operation as the drunkenness that prevails 
 among us;" and "this one cause of unhappiness and crime is 
 equal in its bad effects to all the other causes put together." We 
 have, moreover, arrived at a crisis of the question which demands 
 that all minor differences of opinion should for the present be set 
 aside, and that we should unite in giving elfect to those main points 
 on which we are all agreed. I can remember the last traditions of 
 the drinking habits among the upper classes. Their most ordinary 
 after-dinner talk was about the wines before them, and those who 
 could drink their three bottles of wine in England, or their dozen of 
 
5 
 
 beer in India, were counted as heroes. Now the gentlemen of 
 England are, as a class, decidedly temperate, and if the rest of the 
 population were like them, this question would not have arisen. 
 This change has been brought about entirely by moral means. 
 Vulgar sensuality has given way before the increased prevalence of 
 intellectual pursuits and a higher standard of duty. But a still 
 greater change has commenced. The working men of England 
 have pronounced against our national vice, and have determined to 
 employ against it the increased political influence they have obtained 
 under the new franchise. There is more difficulty, however, in this 
 case. We have had nothing which deserves to be called a system 
 of national education, and, not having the same intellectual resources 
 as those who are in a higher social position, working men have a 
 natural distrust in their povv^er of self-restraint. Following the 
 teaching of divine wisdom, they pray, Lead us not into temptation, 
 but deliver us from evil." Returning home exhausted by his day's 
 work, a man may pass one or two public-houses, but it is hard that 
 the temptation shouldbe indennitel}^ renewed, v/ith all the attractions of 
 warm fires and brilliant lights. Then there is the class belov/ the 
 working men, composed of habitual idlers and vagrants, and persons 
 of all sorts who live by preying upon society ; and as these can only 
 be dealt with by police regulation, public-houses and beer-houses 
 ought to be brought within such limits as will allovv^ of effectual 
 control. This demand of the working tlasses has been endorsed by 
 the authorities specially charged with the care of religion and 
 morality. The Archbishop of York presides over a " National 
 Association for the Amendment of the Laws Relating to the Liquor 
 Traffic." A committee of convocation has investigated the subject 
 in great detail, and has made a report recommending, among other 
 things, that "a, legal power of restraining the issue or renewal of 
 licences should be placed in the hands of the persons most deeply 
 interested and affected." The Wesleyan Conference, which repre- 
 sents the free church of the people, has expressed its opinion that 
 the facilities afforded for the opening of public-houses and 
 beer-houses, and the temptations presented by them, especialty to 
 the young and the intemperate, render the effects of the present law 
 grossly demoralising, and constitute a legalised hindrance to the 
 efforts of Christian churches. The conference therefore declares its 
 judgment that a reform of the present licensing system is absolutely 
 necessary, and that in any measure which may be hereafter adopted 
 provision shall be made, in harmony with a recognised principle of 
 self-government, that the ratepayers, who bear the charges resulting 
 from the prevalence of intemperance and its consequent pauperism 
 and crime, shall also have the power to control the issue of licences 
 for the sale of^intoxicating drinks within their respective districts," 
 And the Reformed Presbyterian Synod of Ireland and other reli- 
 gious bodies have declared themselves to the same effect. Last, 
 not least, the Government has pledged itself " to bring in a measure 
 dealing with the whole of this subject at the very earliest period 
 next year;" and this pledge was accompanied by the important 
 announcement that, as public-houses and beer-houses had been 
 unduly multiplied, "some measure of restriction for the future must 
 be devised, and it would be of very great advantage if, in so 
 restricting them, we could give effect to the popular will, expressed 
 in a guarded and legitimate manner, and if, without injury to 
 existing interests, we could secure a gradual reduction in the 
 number of existing public-houses and beer-houses in places where, 
 by common consent, they are too numerous." Mr. "Bruce lately 
 
6 
 
 repeated this pledge in m}^ presence at Glasgow. He promised to 
 bring in a comprehensive measure within the first fortnight of the 
 session, and he added these emphatic words: — ''My belief is that 
 the people of England are deeply desirous to see this question w^ell 
 settled ; that there is hardly any question of domestic policy which 
 so interests them, I doubt whether, if we take the majority of our 
 countrymen, we will find that there is any question which so deeply 
 interests them as the best mode of dealing with the liquor traffic, 
 ihey feel that drunkenness is not only a disgTace to the classes who 
 unfortunately are betrayed into it, but that it is an injury to their 
 families, and that it is, beyond all other obstacles to civilisation, the 
 greatest. I am most anxious, therefore, to carry an effectual 
 measure to deal with this great question, and I am anxious that it 
 should have every chance of being passed." I heartily congratulate 
 you on the advanced position you have reached in the advocacy of 
 3^our cause. But new circumstances bring new duties with them. 
 Your principle has been accepted by the Government and by the 
 majority of your countrymen. There is, therefore, no longer any 
 necessity for popular agitation of the ordinary kind. The object 
 now should be to rally to your standard all who are fighting on 
 the same side under different banners, so that your association may 
 become, in a true sense, the " United Kingdom AUiance," and that 
 the great weight of the Alliance may strengthen the Government 
 measure by infusing into it as much as possible of the permissive 
 principle. All laws which are in adA'-ance of public opinion are soon 
 disregarded or changed. Your undertaking is essentially progressive, 
 and although you may look upon the Government measure only as a 
 step towards your plan, yet you will rejoice in that step being taken, 
 and in your having- succeeded in bringing your countrymen to think 
 that the power of restriction should be vested in any degree in 
 popular hands. Let us see where we stand. Two Acts were passed 
 on the principle of free trade in intoxicating drinks — the Duke of 
 Wellington's Beer Act of 1830, and Mr. Gladstone's Wine Act of 
 i860. In 1830 it Vv-as the generally received opinion that the multi- 
 plication of beer-houses would diminish the consumption of spirits, 
 but that Act turned out a miserable failure, and a further stimulus to 
 the taste for drinking has, I fear, been given by Mr. Gladstone's 
 Act. It is painful to see women and young people asking in the 
 pastry-cooks' shops for what is called sherry, but is really bad spirits 
 more or less diluted ; and the grocers' carts, by means of samples, 
 diffuse the taste throughout the rural districts. The principle of 
 these Acts has been completely reversed by Sir Selwin Ibbetsons's 
 Act of 1869, by which the entire responsibility of licensing houses 
 where intoxicating liquors may be drunk has been given back to the 
 magistrates, with power to grant or refuse as they see fit. This is 
 the permissive veto power, which contemplates any degree of restric- 
 tion that m.ay be required for the pubHc good, only, instead of being 
 vested in the people themselves, it is vested in the magistrates as 
 their trustees and representatives. The Public-house Closing Acts 
 of 1864 and 1865 were another practical acknowledgm.ent of the 
 same principle. Municipal councils,_ improvement commissioners, 
 and local boa-rds under the Public Health and Local Government 
 Acts, are authorised by these Acts to direct the closing of all places 
 for the sale of exciseable liquors within their respective jurisdictions, 
 between the hours of one and four in the morning, this is, indeed, 
 a small instalment, but it marks an important principle. The bill 
 introduced in 1867 by the members for Liverpool proposed to 
 empower the magistrates to refuse any fresh license or transfer of 
 
7 
 
 license in any case where three-fourths in number, and not less than 
 one hundred of the owners and occupiers of property within one 
 hundred yards of the premises signed a memorial objecting to the 
 license. This bill did not pass because it proposed to deal with a 
 general question by mere local measure, but it is important as having 
 been brought forward, not specially by teetotalers, but by those 
 interested in maintaining good order in the town, and because Mr. 
 Gladstone and Mr. Bruce have promised that the provisions of the 
 Liverpool Bill shall not be overlooked in framing any measure to be 
 brought forward with ministerial sanction. There seems to be no 
 difficulty about what may be called the question of primary jurisdic- 
 tion. It is admitted that, so long as licenses are granted, they 
 should be granted by the magistrates. Whatever exception may be 
 taken to individual magistrates, yet, as a class, they fairly represent 
 the opinion of the country. They are responsible for the repression 
 of crime and have the best means of knowing how it maybe checked ; 
 and they have shown, by the manner in which they have exercised 
 their powers under Sir Selwin Ibbetson's Act, that they are alive to 
 the need of restriction, for a large number of beer-houses have been 
 closed, and applications for licenses have been refused in still 
 greater proportion. It is also now admitted on all hands that the 
 ratepayers should exercise some influence over the grant of licenses, 
 because they best know what the wants of their respective districts 
 really are, and they have to bear the burden of the pauperism and 
 crime which are the certain consequences of an ill-regulated state of 
 the liquor traffic. But does it necessarily follow from this that the 
 ratepayers should assemble in person to exercise this function, either 
 in parish vestry or in any larger territorial division ? The answer to 
 this question appears to me to furnish the key to the whole subject. 
 The exercise of administrative powers b}^ the body of the people 
 belong-s to an elementary state of political progress. The ancient 
 republics were conducted on this principle ; *and, after a turbulent 
 existence characterised by violent changes and frequent oppression 
 of the minority by the majority, they took refuge in despotism. 
 Neither has the revival of the principle of late years, under the form 
 of the plebiscite, been a success. The representative principle is the 
 great political discovery of modern times. It is this which has 
 reconciled liberty with order, and rendered it possible for Govern- 
 ment to be conducted in a steady course of progressive improvement. 
 Having this cause greatly at heart, I should tremble if it were sub- 
 jected to an ordeal such as some of its friends propose for it. 
 Although the subject still partakes of the character of a speculative 
 general question, we see with what warmth it is debated between the 
 advocates of total prohibition on one side, and of free trade on the 
 other. Conceive, therefore, what the excitement would be if the 
 point to be decided was, whether the sale of strong drink should be 
 permitted or prohibited in a particular parish, union, or town ! 
 Then the question of property enters larg-ely into the controversy. 
 The possession of a license often doubles the value of a house ; and 
 the ratepa3'ers, vdth their strong local interests, would be pressed 
 by every possible motive to grant a license to this or the other 
 candidate. I should be sorry to see such an apple of discord thrown 
 even among town councils and boards of guardians, the members of 
 which are elected from a variety of considerations totally alien to 
 this question. Such a purely local system must be characterised by 
 striking inequalities, and its tendency would be to oscillate violently 
 between two extremes. A sound permanent system, which would 
 operate firmly and equally over the whole country, and would be 
 
8 
 
 susceptible of steady development, can only be arrived at by the 
 application of the electoral principle to considerable districts. As 
 guardians are elected by the ratepayers for the care of the poor, and 
 town councillors for the health and general well-being of the urban 
 populations, so, in my opinion, should commissioners be selected by 
 them to determine, in the last resort, that question upon which both 
 the others essentially depend. One or two commissioners might be 
 selected for each union, and the unions might be so grouped that 
 each representative board might be acquainted with the circum- 
 stances of its district and be amenable to local public opinion. As 
 the board would exercise a veto upon the licenses granted by the 
 magistrates, without having itself any initiative, it would be all 
 pov/erful for restriction, but could not, under any influence, grant a 
 license v/hen the magistrates had refused one. The opinions of the 
 ratepa3i^ers would be reflected in the representatives chosen by them, 
 but their action would not stop there. It would be their duty and 
 privilege to put the benches of magistrates and the licensing boards 
 in full possession of the circumstances of each neighbourhood and 
 of the feelings and wishes of the inhabitants, and they would 
 promote the cause of temperance and good order by supporting the 
 administration of the law by memorials and deputations at least as 
 m.uch as by their exercise of their electoral power. But, however 
 necessary legislation may be, we must not forget that Divine wisdom 
 has shov/n us a more excellent way. Neither the teetotal pledge nor 
 the permissive veto can supply the place of habitual self-restraint. 
 Until we learn to use the gifts of God as not abusing them, we are 
 the helpless creatures of circumstances rather than moral agents. 
 
 Be not like dumb driven cattle ; be a hero in the strife." In this 
 higher and final point of view, it is well that satisfactory provision 
 has been made for national education previously to the settlement of 
 the great question. The two measures will stand shoulder to 
 shoulder in the contest with evil. If I do not misinterpret my 
 countrymen, they by no means intend to confine themselves to 
 teaching the three J^'s in their new enterprise of comprehensive 
 national education. There will be moral training as well as intel- 
 lectual cultivation. Habits of prudence and manly self-respect will 
 be encouraged, and resources Avill be created the want of which, 
 more than an5^thing else, leads to habits of inebriety. The people's 
 park, the public library, the workmen's club, the mechanics' insti- 
 tute, the savings' bank and benefit society, the study of the political 
 and social problems which so deeply concern us, will all act as anti- 
 dotes to this national vice, provided only that the young are prepared 
 by an education extending to the whole man, with all his tastes and 
 capabilities, and not merely directed to the mechanical attainments 
 of reading, writing, and arithmetic. 
 
 Mr. Raper — Sir Charles, Ladies, and Gentlenien : I am requested 
 by the business committee of the council to announce to you, in brief 
 terms, what has been done during this annual council meeting to-day, 
 and I take the opportunity at once to thank you for kindly acceding 
 to our request to allow that full statem.ent which we have desired at 
 the hands of Sir Chas. Trevelyan to be placed before the public. You 
 are aware, ladies, and gentlemen, that ours is not a narrow platform in 
 an)^ sense of the term. We are in the habit of having chairmen Avho 
 begin as Sir Charles has done and end as Dr. Temple did. Dr. 
 Temple, speaking at the Permissive Bill meeting in Exeter over which 
 he presided, hoped that the bill would pass through the House of 
 Commons, and when it came to the Upper House he would vote for 
 it with all his heart. Sir Charles Trevelyan has done what he can- 
 
9 
 
 He has sent a son into Parliament, who voted for it last year. I 
 have now to state that at half-past eight this morning as many of the 
 general council as could be present met the executive at breakfast, 
 and at ten o'clock the council meeting commenced at which nearly 
 500 members were present, and the following resolutions were 
 passed : — ■ 
 
 That this council feels profoundly grateful to Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 
 Bart., the Right Hon. Lord Claud Hamilton, Sir Thomas Bazley, 
 Bart., and their four colleagues, who, in the recent session of Parlia- 
 ment, introduced the Permissive Prohibitorx^ Liquor Bill, and to the 
 whole of the 115 honourable members who voted or paired in support 
 of the bill on the motion for a second reading. The council recog- 
 nises in the fact, that the clear majority against the bill of 106 in 
 1869, was reduced to 31 in 1870, encouraging evidence that the agi- 
 tation promoted by the iVliiance is rapidly changing public opinion, 
 and regards it as justifying the anticipation that the principle of Sir 
 Wilfrid Lawson' s bill will shortly receive the sanction of the Legis- 
 lature." 
 
 Another important resolution was to this elfect : — 
 " That this council, anticipating that the Home Secretary will per- 
 form his promise, to introduce a comprehensive measure dealing with 
 the sale of intoxicating liquors, early in the next session of Parlia- 
 ment, calls most earnestly upon all the members and friends of the 
 Alliance, temperance associations, social, sanitar}'-, and moral re- 
 formers, friends of education, religion, and progress, to put forth 
 their utmost efforts to secure provisions in the bill, enabling the 
 people to remove the temptations of the liquor traffic from their re- 
 spective neighbourhoods." 
 Another was to this effect : — 
 
 " That this council rejoices that Sir Wilfrid Lawson has given notice 
 for the early introduction of his Permissive Prohibitor}^ Liquor Bill, and 
 pledges its earnest and strenuous co-operation with the executive to 
 carry forv/ard the agitation, so as to create and concentrate a still more 
 enlightened and resolute public opinion adverse to the liqour traffic ; 
 and by means of public meetings, conferences, deputations and 
 memorials to members of Parliament and candidates, by numerously 
 signed petitions to the Legislature, and by all other suitable methods 
 of organised electoral action, to bring an amount of pressure to bear 
 upon members of Parliament that will make it easy for them to do 
 right, and difficult to do wrong, upon this question of primary im- 
 portance and most urgent necessity." 
 
 The last one I wish to trouble you with is to the effect :— 
 
 " That this council gratefully accepts the numerous expressions of 
 sympathy and co-operation in its work, from various religious orga- 
 nisations, conferences, assemblies, and synods, and especially the 
 resolution of the last Wesleyan Conference, in response to a memo- 
 rial forwarded from the executive of the AlUance. The council also 
 heartily approves the arrangement of executive to publish a People's 
 Edition of the Report of the Committee of Convocation of the Pro- 
 vince of Canterbury on intemperance and its remedies, and calls 
 upon temperance societies and religious bodies to aid in giving that 
 most important document a national circulation, as an excellent 
 means of ensuring the early triumph of the movement." 
 
 These four resolutions, with other six made ten, and then an im- 
 portant one was passed, which I am bound to read to you. It is to 
 this effect : — 
 
 " That the members and friends of the Alliance be most earnestly 
 requested to intimate as early as possible the amount they will con- 
 
10 
 
 tribute for the year's operations ; and this council resolves to co- 
 operate with the executive in raising adequate financial resources to 
 carry forward the agitation with increased vigour and efficiency." 
 
 That resolution was passed by the members of the general council 
 then present, from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Imme- 
 diately that subscription list was opened the mover of the resolution 
 (Mr. Benj. Whitworth) stated that he had come to the conclusion that 
 it was his duty to increase his subscription from what it had been — 
 ;^6oo for five years- — up to ^800 for the next year. (Great applause.) 
 These amounts of above ^10, as you are aware (I am now speaking 
 to those v/ho have been subscribers and for the information of those 
 who are anxious to be), are called for quarterly, and Mr.- Whitworth 
 thought ;^8oo would be easier divided into four parts than anything 
 he could do. Under these circumstances the list was opened this 
 morning. Sir Walter Trevelyan and Sir "Wilfrid Lawson followed 
 the example of Mr. Whitworth, and these names stand at the head 
 of the list for £,Soo each for the next year. As you are aware, the 
 five years' guarantee fund effected five years ago terminated this 
 morning. Upwards of ;^5o,ooo have been subscribed during the 
 five years, and a large portion of that amount has been duly dis- 
 bursed. Some of the guarantees, however, did not commence until 
 a year or two had passed. They are still running on, and, including 
 two or three subscriptions which I am going to read to you, the 
 total amount subscribed to be placed in the hands of the executive 
 council, so far as to-day's proceedings are concerned, was ;/^6,ooo. 
 
 After the three ^800 we have — 
 
 Mr. Charles Jupe, of Mere £^^00 
 
 ,, Charles Pease, of Darlington 100 
 
 Arthur Pease ,, 100 
 
 ,, Gurney Pease ,, 100 
 
 ,, Edward Pease ,, 100 
 
 ,, Ewing, of Gloucester 100 
 
 ,, Plugh Mason, of Ashton 100 
 
 ,, Wm. Saunders, of London 100 
 
 ,, Robert Charleton, of Bristol 60 
 
 ,, Alderman Harvey, of Salford 50 
 
 Wm. Hargreaves, of Sheffield 50 
 
 ,, Abraham Sharman ,, 50 
 
 Wm, Ho3de, of Tottington 50 
 
 I do not wish to detain you longer ; therefore I will not g-o below 
 ;2^50, although I believe there are some much more handsome sub- 
 scriptions, proportionately , lower down the long list which I hold in 
 my hand. The whole will be published in the United Kingdom 
 Alliance organ next week — not this — and I mention that fact in order 
 that 5^ou who have not had an opportunity of saying for how much 
 you are going to enter in this grand speculation, may have an oppor- 
 tunity of being entered in the list then. With that information of the 
 day's work, you are now in a condition to go on to the resolutions of 
 the evening. 
 
 Mr. Hugh Birley, M.P. — Sir Charles Trevetyan, Ladies and 
 Gentlem.en : The national evil which we have assembled to con- 
 sider, and to which we desire to apply a sound and efficient 
 remedy, is one of no doubtful or imaginary character. Its existence 
 is apparent in all our streets, and the avowed conviction on the 
 minds of all thinking men of whatever opinions in other re- 
 spects is this — ' ' something must be done. ' ' It must be done speedily 
 — it must be done effectively. (Cheers.) The Home Secretary, as 
 you have heard, has promised that within the first few weeks after the 
 
II 
 
 assembling of the new Parliament he will introduce a bill of a com- 
 prehensive character, to carry out, as far as may be, public opinion 
 upon this subject. I only trust that it will be sufficiently well con- 
 sidered and sufficiently comprehensive to carry out the views of those 
 who have thoughi most deeply upon it. (Applause.) Now, ladies 
 and gentlemen, I am sorr}^ to say that this evil is still a growing evil. 
 There is, at any rate, too much reason to think so. I have, for 
 instance, the testimony of Mr. Ashworth, at the Salford Hundred 
 Quarter Sessions on Monday last, that there has been a very great 
 increase of late 5^ears in the prisoners in the county gaol, and that 
 this increase is far more than commensurate with the increase of the 
 population, and that it has been caused mainly by intemperance ; 
 and, to aggravate, if possible, this sad state of things, it is also 
 added that there has been a very large proportionate increase of 
 female intemperance. Noav, ask yourselves what is to be the con- 
 dition of a nation if any large proportion of the population — and 
 especially the women — should be sunk in habits of gross intoxica- 
 tion ? It is necessary, above all things, that we should encourage 
 public opinion among all classes to stam.p the intemperate man as a 
 degraded man. I am told that at the Borough Court it is very com- 
 mon for prisoners on their trials for cases of light assault, for in- 
 stance, to palliate their guilt by stating that they were very drunk at 
 the time, and they will actupJly appeal to the witnesses to say 
 whether they were not veiy drunk indeed, as if that would constitute 
 a sufficient excuse. This is a state of feeling that we should endea- 
 vour to eradicate ; for say what you v>'ill, and argue as you may, 
 whatever laws may be passed by the legislature of this country — ■ 
 whatever arguments may be enforced from this platform, and how- 
 ever much the}' may be applauded by a vast and an enthusiastic and 
 resolute audience, such as that which I see before me, and which has 
 from 3'ear to year with thorough and determined resolution supported 
 the Alliance movement — I say, in spite of all this authority and all 
 this support, unless you can foster a public opinion among those 
 classes of society peculiarly exposed to habits of intemperance, you 
 will not succeed to the utmost of 3^our desire. It is thought b3^many 
 that a sound system of education will eradicate the vice of intem- 
 perance. I hope much from education, but I have had sufficient 
 experience to enable me to a.ssert that however far 3^ou may cany a 
 system of education it will not of itself be sufficient to stamp out this 
 vice. (Cheers.) And what a lamentable vice it is, ladies and gentle- 
 men ! I will leave it to the ministers of religion to tell 3^ou how the3' are 
 thwarted in their efforts to carr3^ the minds of the 3^oung, or to carr}'- 
 the minds of the old, to another world and their highest hopes, but I 
 will ask 3'ou to look to the famil3^ itself. In times like these it is scarcely 
 possible to make a speech without referring to that terrible war which 
 is devastating some of the fairest provinces of Europe. You have been 
 told just now b3^ our chairman that the German soldiers have not 
 shown those habits of intoxication which, he fears, would have been 
 manifested b3^ English soldiers under similar circumstances ; but it 
 is not to this that I would now refer. You have read- — and I have no 
 doubt you have read feelino-13^ — how often it has happened in France 
 that a small body of German cavalry soldiers — the Uhlans, as they 
 are termed — have come to some small open town or village, made 
 a small requisition, and have been follovxed by a larger band, 
 which has taken more and more of the provisions, of the furniture, 
 and of the clothing of the people ; how this has been followed by 
 increasing forces, until at last the poor people have been robbed not 
 onl3^ of their daily bread, but of their seed-corn, of their implements, 
 
12 
 
 of their tools, of their clothes, and of almost everything which con- 
 stituted their life. And it seems to m.e that we have an enemy such 
 as this in the midst of us in intem.perance. Appealing to the family — ■ 
 coming first by slow steps — coming cautiously, until it ends in intoxi- 
 cation. At first it may be that a small sum is abstracted from the 
 earnings of the family — earnings which were intended to minister to 
 the comfort and to the convenience of the whole household. How 
 gradually the habit increases, until more and more of the weekly 
 wages is thrown into the hands of the drink-seller, or is snatched, I 
 should sa}^, by this demon enem)/-, until at last nearly the whole of it 
 is so absorbed, and the wife and the children are left almost desti- 
 tute of clothing and daily bread. Such, I believe, is no exaggerated 
 picture of the evil which is going on in the midst of us, and you are 
 now asked, and the legislature is asked, and all the thinking people of 
 this countr}^ are desired to arouse themselves, to remove, if possible, 
 some of the tem.ptations which are the great cause of this horrible 
 mischief. I firmly believe that our working people are peculiarly 
 exposed to these temptations. After having performed a hard day's 
 labour in crowded shops and crowded toM^ns, it is a great trial to 
 their self-denial to abstain from stimulants which they know to be 
 pernicious and destructive both to soul and body ; and many of those 
 people who are addicted to these habits earnestly pray us, if possible, 
 to remove this temptation from them. The licensing lavv^s themselves 
 admit that this is a subject which ought not to be treated like the 
 supply of bread or groceries or butchers' meat, and surely there is 
 great reason in stating — as has been urged already — that the rate- 
 pa3^ers are themselves the people v/ho have the greatest interest in 
 this subject, and a full right, therefore, to have a voice — and a very 
 important voice — in this question. (Great applause.) I will not 
 longer detain you, for there are many speakers to follow me. Many 
 of them are men who have worked from the first hour in the day, 
 whilst I am coming in, as it were, at the eleventh hour. I will 
 simply, therefore, read to you the resolution which I have to propose. 
 It is— 
 
 " That in view of the fact that the drinking habits and drunkenness 
 of the nation constitute a vast impediment to all enterprises for the 
 moral, intellectual, and social amelioration of the people, whether by 
 the reduction of pauperism and crimxC or the promotion of education 
 and an improved sanitary condition of the community, this meeting 
 calls upon philanthropists, social reformers, and legislators to aid 
 the efforts which are being made to apply an effectual remedy to 
 this great national evil." (Cheers.) 
 
 Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Bart., M.P. — Mr. Chairman, you have just 
 alluded to others than yourself who have been engaged in the m.ove- 
 ment which calls us together to-night — longer than you have been. I 
 want, in beginning my speech, to quote to you the words of one who 
 has been engaged in this movement from its very com.mencement. 
 Seventeen years ago a banquet was held in Northumberland in 
 honour of Sir George Grey, v/ho was not long since one of Her 
 Majesty's Secretaries of State. That banquet was attended by Sir 
 Walter Trevelyan. In a speech v/hich he made he alluded to this 
 town and to the United Kingdom Alliance in the following words 
 
 I am happy to announce that in that important town of Manchester, 
 where originated the celebrated and mighty league which ended 
 with the abolition of the corn laws, there is now organising another 
 mighty league which will, I trust, be as victorious as its predecessor, 
 and succeed in removing from our dear fatherland a much greater 
 curse." Those words, as far as I know, are the first v>'hich were ever 
 
13 
 
 uttered in favour of the prohibition of the liquor traffic in any large or 
 significant political assemblage, I say that those were at that time of 
 day, courag'eous words. (Hear, hear.) Sir Walter Trevelyan deserves 
 our thanks for not heeding the nicknames, the cries of ''fanantic," 
 and "fool" which were sure to be raised against him, and for 
 standing up in am assembly of his fellovv'-countiym.en for v/hat he 
 knew to be right, although it might be unpopub,r. (Hear.) It is very 
 easy for us to come here and speak novv' ; but things were different in 
 those da3'S ; and if the words were courageous, I think I may con- 
 gratulate Sir Walter to-night on their being prophetic ; for when he 
 looks back on the events of the last few years, when he reads in the 
 press wTiat is going" on in public affairs with regard to our question, 
 and when he looks around this mighty assembly, as enthusiastic and 
 as determined to win as ever it w^as on any fonner occasion — (hear) 
 — he must feel tha,t the realisation of the prophec}'' which he ventured 
 to utter on that occasion cannot be delayed for very many years longer. 
 But that sentence of Sir Walter's shows that we have been fighting 
 this battle already for 17 5'ears. There is something there to shame us. 
 We ought to be asham.ed that our great and good object has not been 
 earlier acconiplished. But there is som_ething also to encourage us, for 
 during those 17 years in which we have agitated this question, and 
 in v.'hich during the latter part of it we have brought the question 
 before Parliament, although we have suffered many a repulse we 
 have never yet suffered a defeat. (Hear.) You have heard to-night 
 that the only measure which absolutely embodies the principles 
 advocated by the United Kingdom Alliance, the principle of the 
 prohibition of the liquor traffic, has been steadily making its w^ay in 
 the House of Commons. The first time such a measure was 
 brought in it was defeated by a majorit}' of seven to one ; on the 
 next occasion by a miajority of two to one ; and on the last occasion by 
 a bare majority of 31, in a house of upvs'ards of 200 members. Those 
 divisions speak for themselves. Nov/, is it at all surprising that we 
 should never cease in the struggle which we have undertaken, when 
 we see what is going on around us ? I v/as glad to hear our good 
 friend, Mr. Birley, mention the statement which was made last 
 Monda}^ at the Salford Hundred Quarter Sessions. There Mr. 
 Hibbert and Mr. EdmAmd Ashworth both stated the melancholy fact 
 that the committals for drunkenness were greatly on the increase, so 
 much so that the committals to prison (and you knov/ that most com- 
 mittals to prison are connected with drunkenness) had doubled within 
 the last ten years. That being the case, is it at all wonderful that 
 Mr. Bruce should have used the words vvhich he did, and say that 
 there was no question, in his opinion, which so much interested 
 the people of this country as the best mode of dealing with the 
 liquor traffic ? At any rate, Mr. Bruce' s words were perfectly right 
 as regards this part of the countr}^ as is shovai by this meeting 
 which I am now addressing. (Hear, hear.) Last year, when I ad- 
 dressed an audience similar to this at our annual meeting, we were all 
 in expectation that Mr. Bruce, who considers this question so important, 
 would do something to deal with it ; but I find m3"self in the same 
 position to-night in which I found m3^self twelve months ago — waiting 
 for Mr. Bruce. (Laughter.) And what was the reason why Mr. Bruce 
 could not deal with this question this year ? Why, he and his 
 colleagues were so busily and laudably engaged in making provision 
 for the education of the children of drunken parents that they had 
 not timic to stop the drunkenness of those parents. (Hear.) I hope 
 'Mr. Bruce will improve — (laughter) — because he has at present, as 
 a public writer has said, " rather an awkward trick of taking things 
 
into his consideration and keeping them there." (Laughter.) But 
 the time is coming when Mr. Bruce and his colleages must deal 
 with this question. (Hear.) They can only manage to jog along 
 from year to year by the most vehement protestations that they are 
 getting a bill ready, and will bring it in at the earliest opportunity 
 next session. And I really begin to think — though it is rash, 
 perhaps — that they will at last keep their promise. I judge so from 
 the great alarm which I see is spreading throughout liquordom with 
 regard to this matter. The liquor sellers are getting alarm.ed. I 
 judge of that because they use strong language. The Wine and Beer 
 Association of Manchester and Salford held a very interesting and 
 instructive meeting here about two months ago, when the vice- 
 president shov/ed his alarm by the strength of his language. He 
 said that all their subscriptions would be necessar}^ now they had 
 such eternal hypocritical humbugs to contend with in the shape of 
 the teetotalers ; with such men as Rylands of Warrington, Bazley, 
 Bright, and Birley, and other humbugs at their back. (Laughter.) 
 He desired the press to tell the teetotalers (a most awful piece of 
 news) that the wine trade, the beer trade, the licensed victuallers, 
 and the brewers were now united together, and resolved to act as 
 one man." That is a very extraordinary thing; because I study 
 the publican literature, and I have always observed that the beer- 
 sellers v/ere looked down upon as a very inferior race of mortals. 
 But now the beersellers have to go and get the magistrates' license, 
 and that at once elevates them to the same moral platform as the vic- 
 tuallers, and these excellent men are " all now united together " ''as 
 one man." But what can Mr. Bruce and his colleagues do ? What 
 new principle are they going to introduce into the licensing system 
 which shall make it a blessing instead of a curse ? That is the 
 problem vv^hich they have to solve, and which if they do not solve 
 they will be entitled to have it said of them that their legislation is a 
 failure. We hea.r now and then that there is to be some sort of 
 elected board ; that perhaps the town councillors are to be elected 
 to take part in licensing. Well, but that principle is already 
 virtually in action in Scotland ; there is a class of officials whom 
 they call, I believe, "bailies," and the}^ are virtuahy elected 
 by the ratepayers. Do you find that Scotland is satisfied with 
 her licensing- system ? On the contrary, strong petitions come 
 up to the House of Commons from Scotland for the Permissive 
 Bill; nay, so earnest are they, that I saw that at one large 
 meeting lately they passed a resolution that they ought at once to go 
 for a Permissive Bill for Scotland itself, and try to win the race from 
 England. If they do win the race, I bid them God speed. (Cheers.) 
 Then we are told that barristers are to save the nation — not re- 
 vising barristers, but barristers of some sort or other, are to go 
 round and license public-houses. Perhaps many of you do not know 
 that in many parts of Ireland they have these barristers to whom 
 the licensing powers are granted. From Ireland comes up a cry for 
 . the Permissive Bill even more strongly than from, any other part of 
 the kingdom, and if left to Ireland the Permissive Bill would have 
 been carried by a large majority. Well, others say we shall get 
 on all right by shutting these places on Sunday, Good Friday, Christ- 
 mas-day, &c. A bill was passed for Scotland a few years ago, 
 providing carefully for these matters, and making most cautious ar- 
 rangements for the times and seasons when these establishrnents 
 were to carry on their business ; and yet, as I tell you Scotland is far 
 from satisfied, and groans under the hquor traffic as much as any 
 part of the kingdom. We cannot, of course, return to free trade. 
 
15 
 
 Sir Charles Trevelyan knocked that on the head in his speech. He 
 told you that the Beer Bill had been a curse ; and Mr. Gladstone's 
 wine measure, if not a curse, had done no good, and was not likely 
 to be imitated. There is nothing new left in this licensing system 
 which has not been tried at some time or other, somewhere or other, 
 and which has not universally failed to give public satisfaction. I 
 remember John Bright — (cheers) — said in one of his speeches on 
 reform, we have tried a class, let us try the people." What I say 
 to-night is, " v^^e have tried a class; we have tried magistrates, 
 councillors, and barristers, they have all failed ; let us try the people 
 themselves." (Hear, hear.) If our statesmen have failed 
 after centuries of tinkering at this legislation to make it satis- 
 factory to the countr}^ let us put in the hands of the people 
 of the localities interested a weapon which they may use for 
 their own self defence and protection. (Hear.) If you are 
 determined that the magistrates or any other body shall retain 
 in their hands this weapon of offence, all I can say is, give 
 the people also a chance and give them a weapon of defence. 
 Such a bill is the Permissive Bill ; and I hereby give notice that we 
 intend, as soon as ever practicable to re-introduce that bill into 
 the House of Commons. (Hear.) Mr. Bruce may do what he likes, 
 and I am not quite sure, Mr. Chairman, that you thoroughly or in- 
 timately knew the Permissive Bill from something you said when you 
 were speaking, but I want to explain that the Permissive Bill has 
 nothing to do with licensing. It does not propose to give the people 
 the power to stop individual licenses here and there — invidiously to 
 pick out a house and say, we will have this house and we won't 
 have that ;" but it gives them the power of saying, ''we object to you 
 magistrates licensing any place whatever in this district." Now, 
 what is the licensing retained for ? Surety it must be granted for 
 the public good. If a license for the sale of drink is granted for the 
 good of private persons, then it is an outrage on a free people ; if on 
 the other hand you admit that it is granted for the public good, then 
 refusing the public a voice in the matter of deciding whether licenses 
 shall be granted or not, is an outrage on an intelligent people. (Hear.) 
 The people have never had a chance of rising in the social scale so 
 long as this frightful incubus of the liquor traihc has been saddled 
 upon them. And for whom is it kept up ? I always admit, in de- 
 fending the Permissive Bill, that if it were carried into operation, it 
 would very likely cause inconvenience, annoyance, and perhaps suffer- 
 ing to some persons who are in the habit of consuming intoxicating 
 drinks, not in excess, but after a manner they believe to be necessary 
 for their health and comfort. I know that many people consider that 
 life, libert}^, and the pursuit of happiness consist in drinking — mode- 
 rately, of course. Those persons would suffer inconvenience. But 
 surely in a matter of this sort the majority should be considered ; and 
 I often think in arguing this question, that we forget what a large 
 majority there is really on our side and interested in our legislation. 
 I will not take merety the male population, but look at all the women 
 and children in their wretched and miserable homes. Would not 
 the women be unanimously for this measure, which would relieve 
 them of their burdens ? and because I feel that this measure is to do 
 good, to bring blessings to them, to succour them, and to raise all 
 the desolate and oppressed, therefore it has my ever-increasing and 
 warmest support. It seems hard that simply for the sake of avery small 
 minority v/ho would be injured by our legislation, and for the sake 
 of those who are making fortunes by the sale of this drink, such 
 heavy burdens should be laid upon the backs of the people of this 
 
i6 
 
 country. Well, we are determined, sooner or later — not by the Permis- 
 sive Bill — to remove the burden ; the Permissive Bill would do nothing 
 by itself — but we are determ.ined to obtain such a measure as the 
 Perm.issive Bill — which would enable people, if the}^ be so minded, 
 to remove from among them this burden and this curse ; and I think, 
 sir, to obtain this Act is worth a little suffering and labour. I will 
 advise you in pressing it on to disregard altogether the ridicule of the 
 ignorant and the revilings of the interested, and also the warnings 
 of the timid. Ihey will never do you any harm ; the}-' never did me 
 any harm. 
 
 Dare to be right — dra-e to be true — 
 
 Each has a Vvork which no other can do ; 
 
 Do it so bravely, so v/isely, so well, 
 
 That angels in heaven the story shall tell ; 
 
 Stand for your honour, your conscience, your faith, 
 
 Stand to your colours till victory or death ! 
 
 Mr. Jacob Bright, M.P. — Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentle- 
 men : If any of you had happened to stand at the door of the House 
 of Commions after 5^our intrepid leader took his last division upon this 
 question you would have looked upon a scene of some excitement. 
 I suspect you would have been led to think that a great Parliamentary 
 success had been achieved. There is always a stead}^ light in the 
 countenance of Sir Wilfrid Lawson (cheers) as there is in the face of 
 every human being w^ho pursues high objects by pure means, but on 
 this occasion he was more radiant than usual. Then there was pre- 
 sent your able and indefatigable representative, Mr. Raper. He 
 always carries about with him, as you know, an atmosphere of hope 
 and a promise of success ; but he, too, on the occasion to which I refer, 
 was even more buoyant than he appears to-night. Well, was there 
 any cause for this niutual congratulation on the part of your leaders ? 
 I believe there was an adequate cause. Putting the number of votes 
 which Sir Wilfrid Lawson obtained to the " pairs," the increase of 
 members found supporting your object wa.s very considerable; and 
 looking, as has already been said, to the comparatively small number 
 of memibers who thought it vrorth while to come down to the House 
 to vote against him, it certainly does look as if — by some miode or 
 other- — the feelings of the constituencies of the empire were under- 
 g^oing a change upon this question. Very soon after the vote — I 
 forget whether it was on the same day or the da.y following — I hap- 
 pened to be in conversation with a member of the House of Comnions 
 who is one of the m^ost distinguished brewers in the world. He said — 
 referring to your party — "I know they will succeed." (Great ap- 
 plause.) Pie repeated the expression. Pie said, "I do not 
 disguise the fact from m5-self, they will succeed." And then 
 he v/ent on and conversed very intelligently upon the subject, 
 but not in a sense which accords with your views. iwelve 
 months ago, when I stood upon your platform, I was not sanguine 
 that a licensing measure v;ould be imm.ediately brought into Parlia- 
 ment-. I remember sa3'ing, " Next session, or next but one, we shall 
 have such a measure ;" but to-night I have a right to say, that w^e 
 shall have it in the next session of Parliament. But then, what will 
 be its character ? Well, you know as well as I do that its character 
 depends more upon the operation of this association during the next 
 six months, than upon any other single cause that could be named. 
 (Cheers.) Whatever that bill may be when- it enters the Hpuse of 
 Commons, it will be more or less adapted to the object which you 
 have in view, according to the influence which, in the m.eantime, you 
 can bring to bear upon the constituencies of the three kingdoms. 
 
I? 
 
 Now, I think you have a right to ask Government to legislate on this 
 matter in some degree consistently with its legislation upon other 
 questions during the last two years, It has legislated boldly and 
 comprehensively upon the subjects that it has undertaken. Let it do 
 the same upon this question. If it does not, I agree with Sir V\alfrid 
 Lawson that the effort v;ill be a failure, and that the time will 
 be lost. Let m^e for a moment illustrate what I mean. Parlia- 
 ment dealt with the Irish Church. AVell, how did it deal with 
 it ? It did not deal with it in the interests of bishops and arch- 
 bishops and sinecurists. Parliament dealt with the Irish Church 
 according to the views of those who are in favour of free churches. 
 (Cheers.) Take the question of the Irish Land. Parliament did not 
 enter into that question in order to please the Irish landlords — although 
 I do not doubt that it Vv'ili be of great use to them — but Parliament 
 entered into that question in order to secure the tenant. Take the 
 Education Bill, That bill was not passed in the interest of ignorance. 
 It was passed in the interest of those who wish to have an instructed 
 people, cind whatever may be its shortcomings, never forget that it 
 is an enormous step in the right direction which can never be undone. 
 It provides a school-seat for ever}' boy and girl in the countr}', and it 
 gives to communities of this kingdom the power to constrain the 
 children to occupy those seats. Therefore, if you have an uninstructed 
 people in the future, it will be the fault of the people themselves. 
 You say, let us have a bill in regard to the licensing- S5^stem. Then 
 let us have a bill upon this question which shall also make the 
 people masters of their own destiny. (Great applause.) If they 
 (the Government and Parliament) take up this great question, 
 they take it up because the friends of order, of morality, and of 
 public virtue ask for a change ; and I say it will be inconsistent with 
 the legislation of the past two years unless the Government of 
 this country bring in and push forward a bill vv-hich shall receive the 
 sanction of that large class which makes a bill imperatively necessary. 
 Sir Charles Trevelyan recalled to our minds the beautiful words of 
 our Common Prayer — "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us 
 from evil." What a multitude of places of worship there are in this 
 country ; they differ in faith, in creed, and in observances. They 
 differ in a marvellous degree, but I believe that beautiful prayer is 
 common to the whole. (Cheers.) But I confess when I see how 
 temptation to do evil covers the land, and how slow, as a, people, we 
 are either to reduce those temptations, or to establish counter 
 temptations of a better and hig-her kind, I sometimes wonder 
 whether that pra5^er is lifted up on high in an intelligent spirit, or 
 whether it is only the utterance of so many barren words. (Great 
 applause.) I shall not detain you longer. (Cries of " Go on, go on.") 
 But though I, with one of my colleagues in the representation of 
 Manchester, Mr. Birley, have not been a worker in your special cause, 
 although I have had some interest in the great general temperance 
 question, I believe I am as anxious as an)^ ma.n in this room that 
 the time should speedily come when such a measure should be 
 obtained of Parliament, as shall be an adequate compensa.tion for 
 the labours of gentlemen who are now around me upon this platform. 
 I know something of the burdens and anxieties of public life. I am 
 quite sure that Sir Wilfrid Lawson, and all his followers here, have 
 had their full share of those burdens. Let us hope they may soon 
 meet with their rev\^ard. Another movement, unworthy of the 
 support of intelligent men, has succeeded whilst you ha.ve been 
 condemmed to wait. The Admiralty and the War Ofhce, aided by 
 the least reflective portion of the medical profession, got up a 
 
i8 
 
 conspiracy— (cries of shame ")— and obtained from Parliament, 
 and from successive Governments, legislation more arbitrary, more 
 odiously unjust than any we have ever known in this country. 
 (Great applause.) If Parliament will listen to those men, who, in 
 the secret pursuit of a pecuHar object trample in the dust the most 
 sacred feelings of the womanhood of England— say if Pariiament 
 will listen to those men, with their dark purposes— (cheers) — shall it 
 much longer turn a deaf ear to you, who, in the broad light of day, 
 get milhons of the best portion of your fellow subjects to sanction 
 your cause. (Tremendous cheering.) 
 
 The Ven. Archdeacon Sandford, B.D.— Mr. Chairman, my 
 countrymen, and my country-women : I little thought a year ago. 
 when my life was despaired of, that I should have the happiness of 
 witnessing another of these glorious celebrations which I have ever 
 contemplated with delight— from which I have always been wont to 
 carry away lessons of instruction and motives for my inspiration. 
 I can truly say, my friends, that although for a long year I have been 
 laid aside from active efforts in behalf of this glorious association, I 
 have never wavered or faltered for a moment — even in the languor 
 of sickness — from my devotion to its interests, and that all I have 
 learned since — and throughout my long past life— has tended to 
 fortify and intensify my conviction that if you would meet the 
 tremendous evil which oppresses the community, and relieve our 
 W'Orking-classes from the curse and slavery of intemperance, you 
 must carry the principle of that Permissive Bill which has been in- 
 troduced by Sir AVilfrid Lawson and his patriotic colleagues, and of 
 which, I am sure you will feel with me, he is the foremo':t, the 
 chivalrous, and the eloquent exponent. Ladies and gentlemen, it 
 is not for me to congratulate you to-night upon the signal success 
 which has recently attended the efforts of your friends, both in and 
 out of Parliament, and which are evidenced by the adhesion of new 
 and influential supporters, by the decrease and disappearance of 
 opposition, by the altered and even patronising tone of some of our 
 liberal journals, by, above all, the quickened vigilance of our 
 licensing authorities, and the activity with which our opponents 
 are mustering their forces, and setting their houses in order. I am 
 quite aware, ladiet> and gentlemen, that m.y only claim to your 
 attention in this meeting to-night is the fact that I have been 
 instrumental on behalf of the people and the Church in collecting an 
 array — important and imposing — of evidence upon this most mo- 
 mentous subject, and when I tell you that these testimonies amount 
 to seven ponderous quarto volumes, you will not wonder that my 
 labour in collecting, collating, and studying these documents should 
 have brought me to the borders of the grave. I am very thankful 
 to m}^ numerous correspondents for the assistance they have 
 rendered me in this inquiry, though I have often felt that they them- 
 selves sometimes mistook and confounded causes and effects, and,- 
 that the intemperance, for which their remedies were proposed, was 
 itself the very reason why the remedies were futile. For instance, the 
 reason why education — -which, vv'ith some men is a universal panacea 
 for all conceivable ills — has failed in its influence upon the v/orking 
 classes of the nation is, that intemperance itself is the cause why 
 education has not been adopted. Again, the reason why sani- 
 tary improvements, and why domestic comfort are not patronised 
 by the working classes in many instances, and why the happiness 
 of home is so often blighted, is that the resources which ought to be 
 devoted to increasing the comforts of the family are expended by 
 the vvorkman on drink. The reason, lastly, why different schemes for 
 
19 
 
 the recreation and instruction of the people have proved abortive is, 
 that the gin palace and the public-house and the beer-shop appear to 
 possess more potent attractions than the places in -which instruction 
 and recreation are offered to the poor. And tlierefore I have been 
 forced to the conclusion,, which has been come to also by the Com- 
 mittee of Convocation, that if ^-ou would remove the results of the 
 temptation from the people, if you would disenthral them from the 
 slavery b}' which so man}' of them are oppressed, you must remove 
 the temptations themselves out of the way, you must put an end to 
 the intoxicating- drinks which make men drunk, Xow I wish that 
 this simple truth should be the purport and the amount of my few 
 words to-night. I want 5'ou Christian gentlemen and Christian 
 ladies to din this truth in the ears of the members of the legislature, 
 and in the ears of the members of the administration. Our friend, 
 Mr. Bruce, the Home Secretary, is an amiable and a benevolent 
 man, but he wants to have this fact forced home to his conscience, 
 and generally to be galvanised upon this question. Our Prime 
 jMinister, jMr. Gladstone, is an accomplished statesman, and 
 distinguished by many public and private virtues, but he wants to 
 be m.ade b}' the people themselves to feel that the nation is deter- 
 mined that the liquor traffic should be brought to an end, that 
 intemperance, which is the opprobrium and the disgrace of our 
 people, should be put an end to b}' removing the stimulants to 
 intoxication. Well then, I ask 5-ou, my friends, ever5-one of you, as 
 has been put to 3'ou by other speakers to -da}', what is your part in 
 this glorious undertaking ? And I may sa}-, as an old man, with an 
 honourable pride, that if each of yoti young men will bear }"our 
 part as I have done, you will see that glorious consummation 
 attained. Be it for us, my beloved friends, by an earnest, a 
 persistent, a consentient, and a simultaneous endeavour, to remove 
 this great curse from the land that gave us birth — let us teach the 
 legislature and the countr}'. that if the}' (its members) would possess 
 the confidence of the British people ; if they would retain the 
 suffrages w"hich have placed them in Parliament, if, above all, they 
 would have the love and the blessing of the people, they must do 
 this great thing in Parliam.ent. For me, this glorious meeting, and 
 this glorious platform, are presages of what I believe awaits us above. 
 I am dehghted on these occasions to be surrounded and supported 
 by men of piety and power, of differing political creeds, and of 
 various religious denominations. I trust that our co-operation, and 
 our mutual charity in this work of God, is a pledge of our common 
 .brotherhood in Christ Jesus. (Cheers.) Yes ; presages of our 
 reunion in a better world where all our differences shall cease, 
 and all our lines of demarcation melt away in the light and. the life 
 of our common and our everlasting home. (Very great and long- 
 continued applause.) 
 
 Councihor A. M. Sullia'AX (Dublin), Mr. Chairman, Ladies, 
 and Gentlem.en : I think I cannot plead that I am unaccustomed to 
 stand on a public platform. I confess tha.t I am moved and almost 
 unmanned upon the present occasion — my first visit to Ixlanchester — • 
 as I suiwe}- this vast assemblage of earnest men, and recall the 
 traditions of Britain's political histor}', that marks Manchester as the 
 focus of public opinion in England. (Cheers.) I have been asked 
 to move this resolution ; — 
 
 "That this meeting recognises with deep interest the manifold signs of rapid 
 and solid progress of the agitation promoted by the United Kingdom Alliance 
 -during the past year, especially in tlie fact that the majority in the House of 
 Common.- against the Pennissive Bill was retluced from 106 in May, 1S69, to 
 
20 
 
 31 in July, 1870 ; and tenders its best thanks to Sir AVilfrid Lawson, Bart,, the 
 Right Hon. Lord Claud Hamilton, Sir Thomas Bazley, Bart., Mr. McCarthy 
 Downing, and their colleagues who introduced the bill, and also to the whole 
 of the 115 honourable members who voted or paired in its support during the 
 recent session of Parliament." (Cheers.) 
 
 I am glad that the Committee have done me the signal honour of 
 allowing me to com_e across from Ireland to perform an act of 
 national gratitude and to tender in the nam.e of my countrymen our 
 grateful acknowldgements to that intrepid and heroic pioneer of 
 this work — Sir Wilfrid Lawson. I am not an old man, but I have 
 lived long enough to have seen the struggles, the griefs, the troubles, 
 the embarrassments, and the sacrifices that the pioneers of good 
 works and great questions have to face. (Hear, hear.) I have seen 
 questions in their infancy — as ours has been — derided by their 
 enemiies, 5'et one day led to the enthronement of victory amidst the 
 applause of thousands, who perhaps at the moment of triumph forgot 
 the men that had fallen and the hearts that had been broken in 
 achieving that victory. (Cheers.) But I hope, honest Englishmen, 
 5^ou will allov/ me to claim as a national tribute for my countrs^men 
 that, whatever their faults or their failings may be, they are never 
 ungrateful to a friend. (Cheers.) I saw, in a hall almost as large 
 as this, all Ireland representatively assembled to express that feeling 
 of tlia.nks and gratitude to one great representative Englishmian, 
 whose name is imperishably associated v/ith Manchester — and upon 
 that occasion we gave to him a foretaste of the ovation that Sir Wilfrid 
 Lawson will 3^et receive in the green Isla.nd of the West. Like Cato 
 the Censor, v/ho began and ended his speeches v,-ith one short 
 sentence, I refuse to speak upon this subject anywhere v/ithout 
 almost beginning and ending with the words, " The people must be 
 heard from upon this question." And what is this question ? Emi- 
 nently one of franchise ; emiinently one of emancipation — political 
 franchise — mioral emancipation. People of England, in your might 
 you have made great strides toward the citadel of public liberty, 
 and one by one you have stormed and carried by agitation — proceed- 
 ing from this consecrated spot — great victories for popular liberty by 
 the public vvill. (Cheers.) But this one — more glorious than all the 
 rest — the complement, and the crown of all your past labours, has 
 yet to be v/on ; for I deny — repeating myself for the hundredth time 
 — that any Reform Bill or any franchise conferred upon the people 
 can be of true value as long as the legislature withholds from them 
 this grand enfranchisement, which will entrust to the people that 
 which is determined in their name and professedly on their behalf — ■ 
 but as a matter of fact, against their will — by a bench of magistrates. 
 I heard your respected and honoured chairman this evening — taking 
 his first m.anful plunge into this element of discussion — make a noble 
 speech for a near hght ; and as ours is a broad platform, we gene- 
 rously welcome here all new births of ideas upon this question. He 
 w^as greatly captivated with the idea of an elected board determining 
 this question, inasmuch as that principle, I believe, already existed in 
 our constitution. Now, the nearest approach to any such proposal 
 is to be found in the vrorking of our Towns Improvement Act, under 
 which the Boards a.re called upon to put into operation many enact- 
 ments of an exceedingly strigent and, as it might be called, of " an 
 oppressive kind." But I beg leave respectfully to remind the 
 chairman that before a Towns Improvement Board can be elected to 
 put these enactments into force in any locality the legislature has 
 decreed that there must be, primarily, a previous consultive 
 vote of the people. That is our case. Let me here parenthetically 
 
21 
 
 say that, although a speaker preceding me has been generous 
 enough to mention that if we in Ireland could have settled this 
 question b\' our vote in the London Parliament the other day, we 
 gave a majorit}^ for the question that would have settled it ; never- 
 theless it is a pride to me to stand in this hall, in this vast city, and 
 remember that its men have sent into Parliament three representatives 
 sound upon this great question. Mr. Birley it was who spoke of the 
 valuable effects of public opinion in correcting the drinking habits of 
 society. Now, Mr. Chairman, I assert that if the Permissive Bill 
 were carried to-morrov/ — if it vvere to become law to-morrow — even 
 conceding something that is utterly improbable — that it were not 
 put into force by the vote of the people in ten parishes in England, I 
 maintain tha,t the indirect eifects of the discussion which it would 
 provoke would be to accomplish the next best thing to total prohibi- 
 tion throughout the land. For how is public opinion made and 
 formed ? By discussions on the public platform, discussions in the 
 workshop, discussions in the home, where the questions which truly 
 and vitally affect the people receive their most earnest thought and 
 their truest solution. Sir, suppose the people were called upon, 
 district by district, to debate this question — each working man 
 feeling that he had a. franchise to go and vote upon this question — • 
 in how many homes in England would nightly be seen an argumenta- 
 tion upon this subject ? Would not public opinion be thereby 
 manufactured to an extent that would of itself render the present 
 pitch of degrading drunkenness impossible. I believe that in the 
 passing of this measure we have the true way of forming and 
 correcting public opinion upon this question. Nor is ours a mere 
 moral or philanthropical question. Some of the great organs of 
 public, opinion in England may to-morrow begin to treat us to some 
 of those platitudes with which we are so familiar — oft refuted yet 
 ever repeated. We may be told that vre propose to establish a 
 tyrann}^ — there have been tyrannies in the world. The t3'ranny of a 
 majority is deplorable, but the tyranny of a majorit}^ is revolutionary 
 for the people of this kingdom. If the majority of those who pay 
 the taxes complain that any public traffic lays burdens on their 
 shoulders — I challenge the history of the British Constitution — I 
 challenge the legislative records of the civilised world — to show me 
 a v/arranty for making the m.ajorit}'- pa}^ for the gratification of the 
 minority. I offer to all those reasoners a simple proposition. If 
 they can show Sir Wilfrid Lawson any measure whereby the miinority, 
 desiring this gratification, can pursue it Vvithout leading directl}^ to 
 increased taxation, the disturbance of the public peace, coriuption of 
 the public morals, and increase of the x^ublic burdens, they are per- 
 fectly free, from a political point of view, to pursue their gratification 
 to its end. And now, sir, before I retire, I would say that we enter- 
 tain great hopes to-night, but let us not be carried away by enthu- 
 siasm to forget that the enemy is calling out his landwehr and 
 his landsturm. The power opposed to us is desperate, and one of 
 the reasons why I support with all warmth this vote of thanks to Sir 
 Wilfrid Lawson and his colleagues is this — that a man who holds a 
 representative position exhibits much moral courage and patriotism 
 when, for the general weal, he sets himself up against a class inte- 
 rest ; for the members of that class having pocket, tap, and till to 
 defend, will leave their places of business and consider that they 
 are still pursuing each his personal profit in hunting that man from 
 public life if they can, while it may be that the general public, for 
 whose weal he has braved ostracism, are lulled into fancied security, 
 and stand quietly by at the Municipal or Parliamentary hustings. 
 
22 
 
 Victory is sure to come ; if not this year, we shall have it, never- 
 theless. We must not be dishea.rtened by any check while vve go 
 forward full of hope. I ask you not to under-rate the circumstances 
 around you. Society, in our generation, has grown up with all its 
 social and hospitable customs thickly interwoven with drinking 
 habits. All this cannot be reformed in a day, but if v/e go on as we 
 have gone on, generations to come will find matters worse than they 
 are now. I appeal to the legislature and to you to do something 
 at least that will offer a prospect that the generation coming after 
 us may see a different state of things, and that we, if we have been 
 born slaves, ma}^, if we must perish before the day of emancipation 
 arrives, at least die hopefully and proudly, believing that liberty has 
 been assured for our children. (Cheers.) 
 
 The Rev. G. W. Olver (Wesleyan Training College, Westmin- 
 ster.) — Mr. Chairman, the only explanation which I can give of my 
 presence here to-night is that I have some sort of connection with 
 that name (John Wesley) so extensively, so justly, revered, and not 
 least to be honoured, as the name of one who — born before his time 
 —saw with a penetrating glance, where lay one of the greatest evils 
 ■ — if not the greatest of all — with which the Christianity of this 
 country has ever had to contend ; and if I, this evening, in speaking 
 of the liquor traffic, were to give utterance to burning thoughts in 
 burning" words, I could not well use language more strong and, 
 I am bound to say, language more true, than the words which were 
 uttered more than one hundred years ago by John Wesley. (Cheers.) 
 And yet, sir, I do not stand here to-night to reproduce his words 
 so much as to give utterance as well as I can — under the intense 
 excitement of this meeting — to my ovv-n thoughts. I do not wish 
 to attempt to discuss the details of any measure which has been 
 brought in, or which may be brought in, professing or attempting 
 to deal with this gigantic curse. And yet, sir, there are words 
 which have dropped from honoured lips this evening which really 
 have challenged me to the very depths of my soul — " Existing in- 
 terests !" What are they ? Reference has been made to the battle 
 fields of France ; and the history of the Second Empire will hold its 
 own place in the history of all ages. From 1852 to 1870, — the 
 slaughter of the Boulevard and the battle fields of Woerth and 
 Sedan, and those that yet may follow. How many have fallen — slain ? 
 I speak not now of the w^ounded- — how many from beginning to 
 encl ? AVill you call them one hundred thousand, dead and gone ? 
 And is that the history of the eighteen years ? Then look around 3^ou. 
 Eighteen years have passed away, and here in Britain nine hundred 
 thousand men have fallen under the terrible curse of drink. And 
 how have they fallen ? In other times and other lands men have 
 stood, and fought, and died for wife and children — for hearth and 
 home ; but these, the fi.re of their hearths has been extinguished and 
 their homes have perished with them.. On other battle fields men 
 have stood and fought, and bled, and died for their country. But 
 what of these ? Their country's wealth, their country's skilled labour, 
 their country's virtue, tlieir country's social health, has perished 
 with them. In other fi.glits, aye, and by the stake — for many a creed, 
 and many a faith, for truth, and God — have our fellow-men gone 
 down into the grave. But what of these ? Their truth and their 
 God have been ignored ; helpless and hopeless they have gone down 
 to the dark eternity. So have they fallen, and for whom ? " Existing 
 interests!" Sir, I stand here to impeach the liquor traffic of this 
 -country as a violation of the fundamental principle of the British 
 Constitution. (Cheers.) The honorary secretary of this Alhance 
 
23 
 
 will bear me out, if many a point of law, and interpretation 
 of law, in the High Court of Chancery is not settled once 
 and for ever, when a Vice-Chancellor or Lord Chancellor rules 
 that such an interpretation is contrary to sound morals, and 
 that no legal decision is ever allowed which is manifestly contrary 
 to sound miorals. (Hear, hear, and cheers) This liquor traffic is 
 manifestly contrar}'- to sound morals, I impeach it as an iniquitous 
 injustice, an endowed traffic. An endowed traffic ! Are not the 
 gains of the working man, aye, and of the educated man, too — 
 (cheers) — taken from his pocket or his horny hand, and put into the 
 pockets of the traffickers ? And who have to find that money in 
 order to provide the food, the clothing, the shelter, and the education, 
 which that money should have found ? B)^ imperial legislation the 
 money is taken from the ratepayers' pockets and put into the pockets 
 of the traffickers. I say it. Sir, deny it v.iio will, the liquor traffic of 
 this country is a traffic endowed by the imperial legislature. And 
 how are we to m.eet this gigantic evil ? By education ? The 
 Education Act, sir, will do much, and I will not refrain from saying 
 vv'herever there are a score of English hearers to listen to my voice, 
 that this country owes a debt to Mr. Forster that it never will be 
 able to repay. But when we are asked to think that the Education 
 Act will lift "the people of England, then, Sir, I ask the solemn and 
 earnest consideration of exery thoughtful man, whether it is not 
 rather the fact that instead of the Education Act destroying the 
 intemperance, if you do not grapple with the intem.perance, the 
 Education Act will be a dead letter. I speak. Sir, as one who has 
 much to do with Day Schools and Day School Education, and I 
 know that what I say, all who have laboured in them feel, and 
 will respond to, that the great difficulty in dealing with the education 
 of the people has been the intemperance of the people. (Hear, 
 hear.) Does any man doubt it? ("No, no.") No, because if he 
 does there is a very simple test — go and find the teetotalers. 
 (Cheers.) Are their' s the children who wander about the streets 
 without education? ("No, no.") Are their's the children who, 
 when they have attended for a fev; days or wrecks, are withdravm ; 
 and the repl}' that has to be made continually is that "the parents 
 cannot afford the fee, the father has taken to drink." There is a 
 man there, the companion of my boyhood, Charles Garratt — (loud 
 and long-continued applause) — thank you. He told us the other 
 night of two little boys that were seen and heard talking together at 
 the school, — I won't answer for their christian names, it does not 
 matter. The one, calling the other by his name, said, " Halloo, you 
 come to school?" "Yes, I have come to school." "Got an 
 education aid ticket." You know what that means. And he told 
 us how the little fellow drew himself up as tall as a duke, and as 
 proud as a prince, with his neatly mended, though they had been 
 tattered, garments, and he said, " No, father has signed teetotal." 
 Education destro)'- intemperance ! Sir, those words pierced my soul 
 like an iron. "What, are not our Da)" School children educated ? 
 Are not our Sunday School children educated ? Are not our Church 
 officers educated ? Are not our tradesmen, generall}'-, educated ? 
 Are not our medical men — (cheers) — our lawyers, and our barristers? 
 Are not our JMembers of Parliament ? Are not our aristocracy ? 
 And, Sir, I do not put them last, because intellectually they are 
 highest, but because they ought to be in the fore-front of the good, 
 are not the Ministers of our Churches educated ? And, Sir, are there 
 no Day Scholars ? Are there no Sabbath Scholars ? Are there no 
 men of letters ? Are there no men of high position in the Churches 
 
24 
 
 dragged down to that terrible abyss ? Oh, Sir, drink is the one 
 terrible blight that blasts every effort, and by all that is true and 
 noble, by all that is eternally holy, I implore— not the working men — 
 the working men did not build this hall— employers and employed, 
 working men and masters, men of every class, citizens of Man- 
 chester, one and all— I emplore you, as a Christian Minister, if 
 you have any regard for the welfare of your country, speed this 
 movement. Stand to it with all the firm resolve, with all the latent 
 energy which you can bring forth, and never give it up. (Great 
 applause.) And 
 
 " The day will soon appear 
 
 When the might with the right, and the truth shall be ; 
 And come what there may to stand in the way, 
 That day the world shall see. " 
 
 (Renewed applause.) I rejoice. Sir, to know that I can stand here 
 to-night, and I can say in the name of one of the largest assem- 
 blies of Christian Ministers that gather in this land — not in the 
 name of a Church which is specially the representative of the free 
 Churches of England — if you will allow me. Sir, to disclaim the 
 compliment, but as one of the free Churches of England ; I am here 
 to say that which was said by them in their last assembly, and that 
 is " that in any measure which may hereafter be adopted, provision 
 must be made that the ratepayers who bear the charges resulting 
 from the prevalence of intemperance and its consequent pauperism 
 and crime, shall also have power to control the issue of licenses for 
 the sale of intoxicating drinks within their respective districts." 
 (Cheers.) And I make bold to say, whatever may be the machinery 
 which may be employed in order to give effect to the control of the 
 ratepayers, I and those who work with me, will not be content with 
 any measure which will not give to the people of this country the 
 power to control the expenditure of their own money, and to ease 
 themselves, as far as may be, from the terrible burdens which now 
 oppress them. (Applause.) Well nov/, Sir, it seems almost 
 ungrateful of me to have said all this, and to have said not one 
 word with reference to the resolution which I have been called upon 
 to second. But the fact of the case is just this. I have been giving 
 you the thoughts which have been rushing through my mind and 
 heart as I sat there, and if I have travelled rather to the third 
 resolution than to the second, I know you will forgive me when I 
 tell you that until the chairman spoke of the name of John Wesley 
 I had not the slightest idea but that I was to be called upon, 
 according to the notice in my hand, to move the third resolution. 
 Nevertheless, Sir, if Sir Wilfrid Lawson will allow me to say it, I 
 can assure him that he has earned, and that he has secured the 
 warmest and the most intense thanks of hundreds amongst the 
 Methodist Ministry and of thousands and scores of thousands 
 among^st the intelligent members of the Methodist Church. I beg to 
 second the resolution. (Cheers.) 
 
 Mr. J. S. Wrigpit (Birmingham) — I am not sent here to tell you 
 anything new upon this question— Birmingham would not presume so 
 to teach Manchester— but simply to join with you in an expression 
 of gratitude at the success which has been already achieved, and of 
 thanks to those by whose instrumentality it has been so far success- 
 ful. I can say, though, that Birmingham is glowing upon this ques- 
 tion. We feel that, as on many occasions we have worked side by 
 side with you, so we shall be able to work side by side with you 
 on this great question. We cannot boast that we have three 
 
25 
 
 Members of Parliament that are hearty upon it. One of them — 
 unhappily away at the moment — is as much 3'our member as our 
 own, but the two others who formerly went into the Lobby against 
 this measure have this year abstained from voting against it, and ^ 
 we have very good reason to hope that before long they will take the 
 other step and vote in favour it. Happil}^ for me I have not to enter 
 into any argument — I have to maintain no controvers}^, or even to 
 defend any proposition. I have simply to support a resolution, re- 
 cording facts and expressing thanks, and a right cheerful resolution 
 it is. It shows us that the hours of darkness are passing awa}" — 
 that we shall soon revel in the light of da}-. We have won victories 
 — not paper victories — not sham victories that majr be reduced to 
 the smallest proportion in the end, or be no victories at all — but a 
 real victor is in the field. We have taken some of the outworks — 
 m.any of the forts ; yea, we have even made breaches in the ram.- 
 parts themselves. It is true, not wide enough to enable us to take 
 the citadel ; but that is before us, and it will be taken in the end. 
 Exercise patience and faith, and we shall yet triumph and succeed 
 in storming the very heart of the enemy's citadel itself. The best 
 thing to encourage our hope is that man}- of its defenders are begin- 
 ning to feel that, after all, they vrill be obliged to capitulate. But 
 do not let us exaggera.te our victories. It maybe that Y\e have done 
 much, but there is more to be done in the future. It is a great ques- 
 tion — admitted to be so by both parties : those for and those against 
 — and we must admit the fact that the great majority of the House 
 of Commons are yet against us. But we should not be dovv'n- 
 hearted because of that. AVe should not be disheartened because 
 the House of Commons is not with us to-day. What is the House 
 of Commons but the representative of the people of England, and 
 vrhen the people of England are thoroughhun earnest throughout the 
 length and breadth of this land, I make bold to say that the House 
 of Commons Avill not be a single session behind them. We cannot 
 complain of the House of Commons that we make ourselves, and I 
 believe that, though not completely so, we can in the main say now, 
 it is " the people's House ;" and therefore vdien we vrant them to 
 pass our measures we must see that we send men there who are like- 
 minded with us, and prepared to go the lengths that v\"e wish them. 
 We must not in this matter be too impatient of immediate success. 
 It may be that the present generation, or a good part of it, may pass 
 away. The House of Commons is not an idle body. It passes a 
 hundred or more Acts of Parliament every year. It has passed 
 during the past generation many Acts that have been for the 
 amelioration of the condition of the people, but its greatest Act has 
 yet to be passed, and we believe it is one that will give a power to 
 the people to do more to renovate themselves than anything that has 
 been passed b}' the House of Commons during the present genera- 
 tion. We have, therefore, ever}'thing to encourage us. The great 
 cause in our hands is founded upon truth, and if we are only faithful 
 to ourselves, it Vvill in the end be sure to triumph. There is at Rome 
 one of the most beautiful and impressive works of art, which rivets 
 the attention of all those who look upon it. It is the group of the 
 Laocoon. There are three men there of the noblest form, whose 
 limbs are entwined by the folds of a deadly serpent, and as we look 
 at it we almost feel that the bones are being crushed, and we can 
 imagine that the poison is racing through the veins from the fangs 
 of that hideous monster. Is not that a fair, though horrible emblem 
 of the effects of this monster — drink — upon the people of England ? 
 Have not millions ? — do I exaggerate when I say millions ?" You 
 
26 
 
 heard just now that 900,000 — nearly a million — had gone down to 
 the grave from the effects of this traffic within the last eighteen 
 years. I do not exaggerate, then, when I say that "millions" of 
 England's sons have perished: stalwart men, men bearing God's 
 image, whose limbs have been crushed, whose blood has been 
 poisoned, yea whose very life has been burst out of them by this 
 deadly monster. (Cheers.) It is not for me to attempt to convince 
 you of this. Are there some who doubt it ? If they do we would 
 call upon all the police offices to witness to the truth of what we say. 
 We would appeal to all the gaols, workhouses, and lunatic asylums ; 
 to poor wretched, half-clad, down-trodden women that abound in 
 our courts ; to our shoeless, wretched, half-starved children, with- 
 out education, save that they have been educated in the devil's 
 school. We would point to every corner almost of this our land 
 where crime, where sin, where poverty, and where misery is found to 
 exist as a consequence of it. I think we have hardened ourselves to 
 do battle with this great evil. The Act that is to consummate our 
 work — which is the Permissive Bill — must be wielded by the true- 
 hearted people themselves. Oh that they maybe faithful ; oh that they 
 may be earnest ; oh that they may be persevering enough to conquer 
 this, the great enemy to the well-being and happiness of our country. 
 I know 5^ou will join with nie in giving thanks to our noble, self- 
 denying henchmen, who through evil and through good report have 
 fought our battles upon this question. We, I hope, no more than 
 the inhabitants of the Green Isle, are ungrateful to them ; and 
 I am sure you Vv^ill accord to them a very hearty vote of thanks when 
 this proposition is submitted to you. In conclusion, I would say to 
 you : work as true men — as men of Manchester can work ; commence 
 anew and carry on the work as men of England can do, and we are 
 satisfied that in the end the foe shall be slain, the captives shall be 
 released (cheers) ; and little children shall clap their hands, and 
 sorrowing women shall sing for joy, and old men shall not fear a 
 pauper's grave : and the youth, and the sinew, and the strength of our 
 country shall in a renovated manner go forward in the paths of 
 liberty, temperance, and righteousness. (Great applause.) 
 
 Mr. Hugh Mason, J. P., Ashton — Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and 
 Gentlemen : I beg leave to move : — • 
 
 "That this meeting, anticipating that the Government will fulfil their 
 repeated promises to introduce a general measure dealing with the sale of 
 intoxicating liquors, desires to express the opinion that no bill will be satis- 
 factory or meet the necessities of the country unless it includes provisions to 
 prevent the establishment or continuance of the liquor traffic in any parish or 
 district against the will of its inhabitants. The meeting pledges its earnest 
 support to all legitimate efforts to induce the Government and Parliament to 
 deal with this important question in a righteous and patriotic spirit worthy of 
 an enlightened Christian nation," 
 
 — Mr. Chairman, I am a member of the United Kingdom Alliance. 
 (Cheers.) I am also a teetotaler. (Applause.) First I became a 
 member of the Alliance, and then, by a natural sort of training, I 
 became a teetotaler. In that double capacity, I beg to say that I 
 think I am a better man, mentally and physically, than I was before ; 
 and if any of you doubt that statement, if you will only try it for a 
 short time, I think you will agree with it. I have also been, for the 
 past 13 years, a diligent and anxious attender at Brewster Sessions 
 as a magistrate, and as one of that body I declare to-night — with 
 greater emphasis than I ever used the words before — that so far as my 
 own experience goes, I do not think a more incompetent body could be 
 entrusted with the regulation of the Hquor traffic. (Great applause.) 
 
27 
 
 On Monday last I was at the Assize Courts in Salford along with 
 perhaps 70 other magistrates, and I heard, what is now becoming a 
 very general thing, homilies upon the deplorable state of the people 
 as regards this drinking question. But I maintain that the magis- 
 tracy of the country are an irresponsible body, and therefore a 
 dangerous body to the liberties and well-being of the great body of 
 the people. They are not only an irresponsible body, but they are 
 selected without any particular qualification in the eyes of the people 
 who make them. One great political party comes into power for 
 two or three years, has its " innings," and by a stroke of the pen it 
 makes- 150 magistrates in Lancashire. They are bowled out and 
 the other side comes in, and it has to " square up " to make some- 
 thing like a decent balance ; and that process is continually re- 
 peated. It is not only an irresponsible and a dangerous bod}', but 
 it is also a selfish and interested body on this question of the drink 
 traffic. My own observation enables me to say, so far as it goes, 
 that I believe in my conscience at least 25 per cent, of the magis- 
 tracy of the country are proprietors of public-houses (hear, hear) : 
 and that as regards those who are active magistrates of the country 
 — being a very much smaller body than the general number — the 
 proportion is very considerably enhanced. At Salford Sessions the 
 other day, one of the oldest magistrates of this countr}- — -whose 
 name has been mentioned tc-night — Mr. Edmund Ashworth, but 
 who is not one of us by any means upon this question, though like a 
 great many men he is, I believe, in a kind of training upon it — 
 when we were discussing a motion as to whether Hey wood should 
 be constituted a petty sessional division of the county, instead of 
 the people going- over to Bury or Rochdale, a few miles awa}^ for 
 the administration of business, he voted against that proposition,, 
 and one of his principal arguments was this — that if it were to be con- 
 stituted a petty sesbional division it would, of course, be a licensing 
 division, and the nuisance and annoyance and pestering to local 
 magistrates before the Brewster Sessions was such, that he advised 
 them to let the people go to Rochdale or Bur}^, where the magistrates 
 did not know them so well as those at home. We have heard it 
 said to-night, upon this platform, that Parliament has boldl}^ and 
 comprehensively legislated upon great public questions during the 
 last session of Parliament, and I agree with the statement ; but v>hy 
 has Parliament boldly and successfully legislated ? It is because 
 the people have made up their minds that Parliament shall so 
 legislate, and so soon as we vv'ho make these members of Parlia- 
 ment have made up our minds that this question shall be legislated 
 upon, not another session of Parliament will pass over before it shall 
 be legislated upon to the satisfaction of the people at large. That 
 being the case, what are we to do ? I, as a member of this United 
 Kingdom Alliance, cannot bring any fresh arguments to bear upon 
 this subject, but I can bring myself. (Cheers.) And inasmuch as 
 this kingdom is nov\' made into one gigantic democracy, when ever}' 
 man almost has a vote,Jt rests with that democracy to see that the 
 great principles of the United Kingdom Alliance shall be embodied 
 in an Act of Parliament. There is not a man in this room who 
 believes that Acts of Parliament will make men virtuous — that is 
 one of the platitudes which the enemy casts in our teeth — but we 
 complain that Parliament will not let the people make themselves 
 virtuous, but that it nurses and protects and licenses snares and 
 pitfalls in the land ; and the people, not Parliament, who determine 
 to think on this subject for the people, only ask that they may have 
 the power to make themselves virtuous and protect themselves from 
 
28 
 
 falling into those snares and pitfalls. Those are my sentiments, my 
 friends, and I call upon you to relegate this great question, as the 
 other great questions were relegated, to the polling booth. When 
 you do that, Lancashire will not be as it is, sending a large majority 
 against Sir Wilfrid Lawson, but will be like the city of Manchester, 
 to its infinite honour, sending all its members to follow into the 
 Lobby the great champion of the United Kingdom Alliance. 
 (Great applause.) 
 
 Mr. GURNEY Pease, J. P. — Ladies and Gentlemen : It is not for 
 me, at this late hour of the evening, to occupy your time with many 
 words. You have heard a great deal said, and a great deal well 
 said. I can plainly see that you men of Lancashire need no in- 
 struction upon this great question— that you only want to press for- 
 ward as 3^our forefathers did of yore in the great battle of liberty ; 
 for my mind has gone back, as Mr. Sullivan's did, to your ante- 
 cedents, and I believe and plainly see that you will not belie them, 
 but that there will rise up in Manchester worthy sons of worthy sires 
 to carry on this great battle of popular liberty. Is it not a two-fold 
 battle of liberty ? — political liberty, because we do not see why the 
 interests of the few should be paramount to the interests of the 
 many ; of moral freedom, because we see that all around us our 
 countrymen are enchained in the slavery of this national vice. It is 
 to liberate them, that is our great motive in agitating this question. 
 We say that those who pay the taxes have a right to say whether 
 there shall be a need for paying those taxes or not ; and we say — 
 and I am thoroughly united with the mover of this resolution — that 
 the magistrates are a most incompetent body to regulate this traffic. 
 (Cheers.) I will give you an instance. I know a case where a new 
 license was proposed for a village. It was opposed by all the in- 
 fluential mem.bers of the community in that place, and not only by 
 the influential members of the community, but by a large majority 
 of the adult population, who signed a petition against that license 
 being granted. And what did the magistrates do ? They gave the 
 license in spite of the wishes of the inhabitants. According to the 
 resolution which I hold in my hand, that is one of the things that 
 we wish to prevent. And what was the reason given for that ? One 
 of the magistrates told me that because they had not sufficient 
 opportunities of getting liquor in that village (although there w^ere 
 two public-houses without the new one) x^eople came three miles, into 
 the neighbourhood of his residence, to drink. I suggested to him 
 that there was an easy mode of getting rid of the nuisance, and 
 that was by shutting up the public-house. I v/ant, then, that you 
 men of Manchester should go forward in the great work you have 
 undertaken — that you should fight one more battle for liberty ; 
 that you should drive one more usurper from his throne — a tyrant 
 worse than any who went before — a tyrant who has got his posi- 
 tion by weakening and demoralising his subjects, and who has 
 loaded them with taxes of all descriptions, too onerous and too 
 oppressive to be borne any longer. We speak in the resolution of 
 legislation ''worthy of an enlightened Christian nation." I 
 ask you whether our actions so far have been worthy of an en- 
 lightened Christian nation. W^e have been told by Lord Shaftes- 
 bury that there is an amount of demoralisation in society 
 in this country which is fraught with danger to it ; and I 
 ask you from whence that demoralisation arises ? If, then, we are 
 worthy of our country — if we meet this question in a true and 
 patriotic spirit, we must rise eu niasse — as one man — to drive the 
 invader from our shores, and then we shall wisely restore peace and 
 
29 
 
 virtue and prosperity amongst us. I would, as a young man, for a 
 .moment address myself to the 3^oungmen now before me. (Cheers.) 
 I fear that they are not as earnest as those that have gone before 
 them. I think we have too much amongst us the idea that life is 
 to be taken easy, and that time is to be spent over the novel or in 
 -the recreation room, entirely forgetting that life is real and life is 
 earnest. I want our young m^en to go forward in this cause : not 
 only to advocate prohibition, not only to look upon the question in a 
 political light, but I v/ant them to go in for " moral suasion" also, 
 and do their best to raise the poor hapless victims of this liquor traffic 
 from amidst the mire and the slum.s into which they have descended. 
 Is there not a great work to do here. Wha.t think 3''ou of last year, 
 £>f one in ever}^ ninety of the population in our large towns being 
 arrested for being drunk, and not only for being drunk, but drunk 
 and disorderl3\ And I ask you how m.any more there were who did 
 not interfere with the policeman on the way home, but spent their 
 savage barbarity upon the wife and children. (Hear, hear.) I want, 
 then, that we should remember these things, and act worthy of 
 an enlightened Christian nation, and do what we can to rescue 
 these poor victims. I believe if we do that we shall be doing a 
 a truly Christian act. We shall in so doing be true followers of 
 Him who walked this life always doing good. (Cheers.) I would 
 have you not look too much to human agency, but, doing all that 
 within us lies, look upvv^ard for a blessing from Him who must smile 
 upon our endeavours. I believe if we go forv,^ard in this spirit, 
 earnestly, constantly, and persistently, we shall at last gain our 
 object, which is the total suppression of the liquor traffic. (Ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 Mr. S. Pope, Q.C— Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : What- 
 ever our enthusiasm, and however great your patience, it is abso- 
 lutely impossible to keep up this meeting any longer. (Cries of 
 *'Yes, yes," " Go on," "Go on," and applause.) There certainly 
 never has been an annual meeting of the Alliance within my recol- 
 lection (and, as you know, I have always attended them) when it 
 was less necessary for me to make a speech. ("Go on," and 
 cheers.) When I came into the hall to-night I did as has long been 
 my practice — I asked Mr. Raper what I was to do. Everybody con- 
 sults Mr. Raper. If you were occasionally to visit the Lobby of the 
 House of Commons when any question bearing upon this liquor traffic 
 — and sometimes others — is under discussion, you would find some 
 of the members running out of the House, taking Mr. Raper aside 
 to a little side table, writing a memorandum from his dictation, and 
 then running back into the House, there to shoot off the powder 
 with which he has supplied them. I can assure you that Mr. Raper 
 takes a great deal larger share in Parliamentary debates than most of you would 
 be aware of, unless you were to watch his proceedings in the Lobby. They 
 call liini "the stormy petrel." Whenever he appears there they know there is 
 some discussion coming up in which some of them will be called to account by 
 their constituents by-and-bye, unless they happen to be upon Raper's side of 
 the question. So T consulted Mr. Raper, and he told me it did not much 
 matter whether I said anything or not, and that he would supply me with my 
 brief as the proceedings went on, and he has supplied me with my brief. He 
 did so almost as soon as the meeting commenced, and on looking at the in- 
 structions — which of course I al^^'ays do under such circumstances — I found the 
 brief to consist of the same sort of instructions that I have received before. It 
 was somewhat in these words, "Counsel is requested to watch the case on 
 behalf of the Alliance." (Great applause.) I suppose that the truth of it 
 really was, that inasmuch as some of our friends were speaking for the hrst 
 time upon our platform, he was not quite sure that somebody should not be 
 
30 
 
 behind to put the thing straight if they happened to go a little bit wrong,- 
 Well now, it so happens, I think, that we have come — at this time of the 
 meeting, at all events — to a pretty unanimous conclusion that all has been going 
 on very right, and that therefore it is not in the least necessary that I should 
 take any part beyond the moving of a simple resolution. ("Go on," and 
 cheers. ) I cannot help saying this, however, that it is wonderful to see how' 
 rapid progress is when once the first step is taken in the discussion of this 
 matter. Although the speech which was made by the chairman was not upon 
 all fours v/ith Sir Wilfrid Lawson's Permissive Bill, although it contained some 
 suggestions which I own seem to me to be deserving of very careful and intelli- 
 gent consideration — suggestions which some of you may not appear to approve 
 of — yet I have no doubt whatever that the difference between us is simply a 
 question of machinery and not of principle, and when that is the case we may 
 expect, either upon one side or the other, an approximation to be gained — and 
 we have a most valuable aid — and a most valuable and important gain, when we 
 agree to unite in bringing our influence to bear upon Government in that 
 direction ; and I am l;ound to say that knowing and remembering, as I do, the 
 attitude which our friend Mr. Mason not long ago conscientiously took towards 
 us, his speech has been to me a wonderful speech. AVhen you remember that 
 Mr. Mason is — as far as South Lancashire is concerned — probably the repre- 
 sentative man of that school of politics with v/hich our hardest and heaviest 
 discussions have long been held — a man most diiiicult of access, and most un- 
 likely to come over to our platform — v/hen you heard him to-night, not only 
 express himself in terms of cordiality, but of vigour and determination, which 
 made one feel that it would be a very happy thing if we had him in the House 
 of Commons to back Sir Wilfrid Lawson, and when you recollect how the 
 bishop designate of Exeter this time last year halted a little in his speech, and 
 I took the liberty of pointing out hov^^ little the difference was between us 
 then, that within six months he, as Bishop of Exeter, found himself in that 
 state that he could stand and declare him.self ready, in his place in the 
 House of Lords, to vote for the bill of Sir Wilfrid Lav/son, I do 
 not think we need despair that the resolution which I shall ask you to 
 adopt will be productive of some succcess. It is "That copies of the 
 resolutions adopted be forv/arded by the chairman to the Prime Minister, 
 the Home Secretary, and to the other Members of the Cabinet." I do not 
 think it will do Mr. Bruce any harm. Sir \¥iirrid Lawson says, he has an 
 awkward trick of considering things for a considerable length of time ; but he 
 is like all other Ministers. He is accessible to pressure from v/ithout, and 
 if you apply just the judicious amount of pressure Avhich is necessary to 
 squeeze out again the matter which he has taken into his consideration, I 
 have no doubt that we shall find that his digestion has been satisfactorily 
 performed. Now, you must really — (loud cries of "go on, j^o on,") — no, 
 I won't make any speech further, but I will just say this, 1 will call the 
 attention of the chairman to an article in the Times of to-day, which I am 
 quite sure will interest him as an old Indian officer of the Government. It is an 
 article "from our own correspondent" in Calcutta, purporting to give an 
 account of an examination of the students, held in some one or other of the 
 Colleges in India, the object of the correspondent being to show the child-like 
 simplicity and directness of mind of the Hindoo undergoing a course of 
 Eno-lish instruction. It does seem to me that we ma.y very often derive a 
 great deal of instruction from child-like simplicity. Everybody who has 
 ever examined a witness knows what a dreadful witness a child is if he i 
 opposed to you, because he is sure to tell the truth, and you cannot bother a 
 child ; his mind is so simple, so direct, that whatever the impression upon it 
 is, he speaks out and nothing can shake him. Vv^ell, now the truth is that if 
 we pohticians would be a httle more child-like, v\'e should get at our remedies 
 with a deal more simplicity. The truth is we bother ourselves with all sorts 
 of considerations. That is the difficulty of the chairman. (Laughter and 
 cheers. ) 1 really mean it. I could trace almost the course through which the 
 chairman's mind had passed before it arrived at some of the propositions which 
 he placed before us. There was " this difficulty " and " that difficulty " 
 which to him as a politician and a statesman, seemed serious ones. To you, 
 you know they are nothing. Put the same questions to you, and you would 
 
31 
 
 make short work of them, and probably be right. But to a politician and states- 
 man there is "this little difficulty " to be balanced against "the other little diffi- 
 culty," and the whole thing seems to be so full of complications that you have to 
 provide machinery for "this little bit" and " that little bit," and so the whole 
 simplicity of the thing is lost. And now let me commend to you the way of 
 dealing with this question that the Hindoo mind seems to have adopted in the 
 course of enquiry in this college. This seems to have been the examination, as 
 far as I can make it out. Dr. Mitchell, the principal in one of the colleges there, 
 was examining the students and these ai-e some of the questions. A great variety 
 are given upon various subjects, but I V\-ill just read two or three, which will 
 show you how a child-like mind goes direct to the point. This question is put 
 to the students : — "Now, what do you think the young men of Bengal incline 
 to, as a rule, after they leave college ? I ask because there is a common belief 
 that they often fall into drinking habits and are lost to society ? A student 
 (shaking his head grav ely) : It is a sad truth, sir. — ^Yell, what is the cause of 
 it? Another young man : It comes from the vrest. — Then, is the balance one 
 of good or evil for English education ? A number of voices : Good ! — Beyond 
 question ? Yes ; English education has set in motion truths, and is forcing 
 social changes that cannot again be lost, and that will make India what it 
 never was before.- — What do you mean by saying that intoxication comes from 
 the west ; the Englishmen you come in contact with are not drinkers ? No ; 
 we have two examples, one good and the other band, and unfortunately some 
 among us think the bad better worth imitating than the good. '"' — Nov/, mark 
 what follows : " Do you think the Government could do anything? It could 
 prevent the opening of drinking places. (Great applause.) — Would that be 
 good? Several: Yes. And one : Yes; if it could be done without infringing 
 liberty." — AYell, now, you see that there is no balancing of considerations, 
 except one, which is provided for. They do not trouble themselves about 
 "this consideration" or "the other consideration." They go straight to the 
 point ; that is exactly what we do. I do not care for myself, I do not think 
 you care for yourselves, very much, by what machinery the thing is accom- 
 plished. All we desire and say is: " Give us the power to deal with this 
 traffic to the extent of prohibiting it altogether if we choose," and you may 
 depend upon it, if that power is given to us, we shall make short work of it 
 without troubling ourselves with many difficulties. (Great applause.) ' 
 
 The resolution having been seconded by Mr. T. Clegg, and carried, and 
 the chair taken by Islr. Benjamin WI^IT^^■ORTH, 
 
 Mr. Peter Spence said : The resolution which I have to move will require 
 no words of mine to commend it to your approbation. It is — 
 
 " That the hearty thanks of this meeting be given to our worthy chairman." 
 Sir Charles Trevelyan has long been known as one of England's most honoured 
 public servants. He is known as one of the benefactors of India, and I am 
 sure we will agree that he will be still more honoured by joining us in our 
 great movement, and be still more a benefactor to his fellow-men by enabling 
 us to carry the great question before us to a successful issue. I think the fact 
 that Sir Charles Trevelyan has come here to be chairman of this meeting 
 shows veiy decidedly his sympathy with us, while he has some scruples about 
 the mode by which to gain the great obj<=ct we have in view. I shall not 
 detain you longer at this stage of the meeting, but propose "that the thanks of 
 this meeting be given to Sir Charles Trevelyan." 
 
 Rev. S. A. Steinthal— Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I have 
 very great pleasure in seconding the resolution vrhich has been put before us. 
 I feel indeed that Sir Charles Trevelyan has not newly began the course of 
 aiding us in this great work. All those who have been careful readers of the 
 United Kingdon Alliance publications have already welcomed contributions 
 from his pen, which have aided us in the great work upon Avhich ^^ e are 
 engaged, and we feel sure that the step Sir Charles Trevelyan has taken this 
 evening will help on our movement by bringing him nearer and closer to those 
 great principles ^^•hich we all have at heart. He bears a name dear to all 
 temperance refomiers, and the moie that name is connected with us the more 
 do we rejoice. I have gi'eat pleasure in seconding the vote of thanks. 
 (Cheers.) 
 
 Sir Charles Trevelyan— Ladies and Gentlemen : You have d^ — -^e 
 
7464 
 
 32 
 
 honour which I do not desei've, for in coming here I did it simply from a 
 feeling of duty. I am proud of my fathers in this great v.'ork. The first 
 temperance advocate Avith whom I became intimate was Father Mathew, I 
 was very much united with him in the rehef of the Irish famine, and it was 
 impossible not to be attracted by the charms of his character, or not to be 
 prepossessed in favour of any cause which he supported. Then I have 
 had the advantage of endless discussions with your honoured chairman, 
 whose fearlessness, whose self-sacrifice, and whose enlightened public spirit 
 you all know. I have several reasons for thinking that success is not 
 far distant. My first reason is that yovu- Alliance is very ably con- 
 ducted. I have seldom seen such efficient servants as your secretary 
 and your Parliamentary manager. (Cheers.) And another reason is that 
 you have shown by your conduct to-day that you are animated by a truly liberal 
 and catholic spirit. That has been n-ianifestid by the tenour of the resolutions 
 of the council and of this great meeting ; and I, for my part, shall always feel 
 deeply grateful for the kindness with which you listened to arguments which 
 perhaps you are not always accustomed to hear. But I have been rather mis- 
 understood. Some ladies and gentlemen here fancy that I have a special 
 liking for the magistrates. Now, if I had a liking for them 1 certainly should 
 not propose that they should have the giving of the licenses. You cannot touch 
 pitch without being defiled, and I should be very sorry to see any real, warm 
 friends of this cause entrusted with the duty of giving the licenses. I wish also 
 to be understood that I have not proposed an Electoral Licensing Board. 
 What I have urged is that there should be an effective veto. How that veto 
 is to be provided is a matter of detail. Very possibly .Sir Wilfrid Lawson's 
 specific is better than mine. Since I have been here I have been reminded of 
 one circumstance which certainly vv^eighs greatly with me, We Cornish men 
 have for our motto, " One and all," which in English is "a long pull, a sti-ong 
 pull, and a pull altogether." Now, of seven members for Cornwall vvdio voted 
 at all on your question, five voted in favour of it and only tv/o against it, and 
 I cannot help being prepossessed in its favour by that circumstance. There are 
 great moral forces at work which will doubtless carry your cause at the top ot 
 the wave. At the present time there is a great party at v^ork in this country 
 who are determined to put down pauperism, the main cause of which is drink. 
 There is another great party who are determined that the people shall be edu- 
 cated and ignorance dispelled, and the greatest enemy to education is drink. 
 On the Continent of Europe there is a great earthquake in active operation 
 which has a lesson for us. We inhabit two small islands bounded by the sea, 
 and although we cannot be a large nation, we can make up in moral force that 
 which is lacking in physical greatness. It is true we cannot become numeri- 
 cally strong in population like the United States of America, but we may 
 become intelligent citizens and a cultivated nation. We may not be able to 
 vie with France or Germany in military power, but v/e may promote moral 
 greatness, which will make us nationally safe, and prepare the way of righteous- 
 ness and peace throughout the world. (Great applause.) 
 
 Robert Newton, Printer, 7, Duke Street, West Smithfield, E.C.