A
SLICE
OF
BREAD and BUTTER,
CUT BY G. CRUIKSHANK.
BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF A SPEECH DELIVERED AT A PUBLIC MEETING, HELD FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE JEWS’ AND GENERAL LITERARY AND MECHANICS’ INSTITUTION.
LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM TWEEDIE,
337, STRAND.A SLICE OF BREAD AND BUTTER,
CUT BY G. CRU1KSHANK.
In a small country town (not a hundred miles from London) as some worthy gentlemen, magistrates and others, were proceeding to the Town Hall upon county business, they observed a poor little boy lying against the wall of the principal inn of the place (The Britannia). He had only a few pieces of rag hanging about his wasted body, and altogether looked very wretched and very dirty ; but the dirt did not conceal the painful expression and death-like paleness of his poor thin face ; but these worthy gentlemen were passing on, such objects and such sights of destitution being quite common in that town. Had he been begging or stealing, then the officers who accompanied these w'orthy gentlemen would of course have taken him into custody and have brought him before their worships at the Town Hall, to be dealt with according to law in the one case, perhaps, or sent to the Union—in the other case, of course sent to jail, or to trial. But as this poor boy was neither begging nor stealing, and did not obstruct the pathway, he was allowed to enjoy his liberty, and they, having, in fact, nothing to do with him, were passing on, when one of them—a medical man, and a kind-hearted man to boot (as all medical men are)—stopped the party, and told them that the poor boy seemed to be seriously ill : upon which they all gathered round the child, and, having aroused him, inquired very kindly, what was the matter with him—if he was’nt well. Upon which he stared wildly at the inquirers, and bursting into tears, replied in a faint voice, “ 1 want’s summutto eat !” “ Ah 1” said the doctor, feeling the boy’s pulse, “ the poor fellow is really sinking for want of food— he’s famishing, dying of hunger !”
Now the worthy magistrates and the other gentleman—some of whom w’ere clergymen and ministers and lawyers—were all kind-hearted and benevolent men as well as the doctor; and they all exclaimed, as with one voice, upon hearing what the doctor said, “ Oh dear me, how very shocking!—let him have some food instantly!” “Yes, yes!” cried one : “ Here, officer ! go into the ‘Britannia,’ and get him something to eat instantly.” “ I suppose,” said he, turning to the doctor,
“ a bit of plain bread and butter will be best for him in his present
A 2condition ?”	“ The very thing,” he replied; and as the officer was
about to run into the house to get a bit of bread and butter, another gentleman of the party cried out, “ Stop ! see that you bring broum bread.” “ Pooh ! pooh !” said another; “ it does not matter what sort of bread it is, but it must be toasted.”	“	White or brown, or plain
or toasted, it matters not much,” exclaimed a fourth, “ provided there is plenty of butter on it.” “ I object most decidedly to the butter,” observed a very sedate gentleman. “As to that,” shouted out another, “ I consider the butter as most essential; it is full of nourishment; and besides, the poor boy might be choked by cramming dry bread down his throat without butter : but then we must be careful that it be salt butter.” “No ! no !” cried another ; “ fresh butter if you please, and as much as you please; but no salt." “ You are all wrong, my friends !— quite wrong!” vociferated another of the party; “ depend upon it that dry toast is the best thing he can have.” “ Oh ! oh ! oh ! exclaimed all the other gentleman ; “ Who ever heard of such a thing as giving dry toast to a starving child ?”	“ Who ever indeed !” chimed in another ;
“ it is quite ridiculous to toast the bread at all; the poor child might die before it was ready! No ! no ! plain bread and butter is best for him : but mind, if I have to pay my part towards it, the bread must be new—yes, new bread.” “ New bread!” exclaimed some of the party— “why that’s worse than all; for if it does not stick in his throat, it will in his stomach, and perhaps kill him. New bread is indigestible and most unwholesome stuff.” “Well, well; let it be plain stale bread and butter, but only the crumb of the loaf, and I will pay my part willingly,” observed another. “ Crumb without crust!” said one of the former speakers: “ why the crust of the loaf contains ten times more nourishment than the crumb, and I, for one, will have nothing to do with it, nor pay a farthing towards it, unless he has a good lump of crust."
Now during this contention, or
“--------all	tliis splutter
About the toast and bread and butter,”
the poor boy seemed to be getting worse and worse, and at the same time all these worthy gentlemen becoming more and more excited ; some calling out for “ Fancy bread,” some for “French rolls,” others for “ German black bread,” and all refusing to pay any part towards the bread and butter, unless cut after their own fashion, when they were reminded by one of the party that there was not the least necessity to trouble themselves about paying for what the boy might have, as it could be charged to the county. To which they all replied, rather sharply, that, as to that, if they did not think it right to pay out oftheir own individual pockets, neither did they think it right that the public money should be used for purposes which they could not individually approve of. “ Gentlemen, gentlemen !” cried the doctor “ pray let the child have something. Is it not dreadful to let this poor boy perish before our eyes, when there are the means of relief within reach ? For mercy’s sake let him have something to keep him alive !” “Well,” replied one of the magistrates (who was chairman of the sessions), “ as you see he cannot have the bread and butter, you must prescribe something else for him.” “ Dear, dear me !” said the doctor, “ I am really shocked at such inconsistency. Will you let him have a little brandy, then V’ “ Oh yes !” they all cried out together, “ let him have some brandy—by all means give him some brandy!” Upon which Mr. Bull, the landlord of the “ Britannia,” a very simple, good-natured man, who had heard all the talk about the bread and butter without paying much attention to their discourse—it being a question, indeed, which he did not clearly comprehend—made his appearance at the door with brandy bottle in hand, a glass of which was administered to the boy, who took part of it at first in little sips, but swallowed the remainder in gulps, after which he seemed to revive and stare about him rather saucily; and the doctor, having placed him upon the steps of the public-house door and advised him to go home and get something to eat as soon as possible, followed after the other gentlemen, who had gone to the Town Hall, considering the boy quite safe in the good doctor’s hands.
Now it was well and kindly meant of the doctor to tell the boy to go home and to get something to eat as soon as possible ; but this poor boy, like thousands of other boys of that class, had no home to go to, nor money to buy any food, and such a state of things as this had not occurred to the doctor, who was rather an absent man. But it seemed indeed the fate of this poor boy that he should be the victim of neglect or mistake, in some way or other.
Ragged Jack—the only name the boy was known by—was seated on the door-step of the “ Britannia ” Inn, and, as he was in that position neither useful nor ornamental, the landlord cried out, “ Come, my man ! you had better go home, as the doctor told you, and get something to eatand helping him on his legs, said, “ There now ! run away home, that's a good boy.”
Ragged Jack then staggered away from the public-hoU3e door, from whence many a ragged Jack had staggered away before, and had not gone far before he came to a baker’s shop ; and as he still felt the pangs of hunger, notwithstanding the dose of brandy, and recollecting the doctor’s advice to get something to eat as soon as he could, and, havingno money to buy any bread, he thought it would be better to steal some than to starve ; so, emboldened by the brandy, he dashed into the shop, and, snatching up a penny roll, made off with it as well as he could, cramming the bread down his throat with such haste that he was nearly choked. But the baker had witnessed the theft, and was after poor Jack in an instant, whom he soon ran down and captured, and, taking the half-eaten roll from Jack’s hands, seizing him by the rags that covered his shoulders and, calling him a young rascal and a thief, literally dragged him to the Town Hall, where the magistrates were sitting, and having handed him into the custody of a policeman, and explaining the charge, that functionary at once took him before their worships, who, upon seeing the boy reel when he entered the dock, and lay hold of the rail to support himself, asked the policeman if he (that is the boy) had been drinking 1* who returned the answer usually given to this question:—That the prisoner had been drinking, but that he knew very well what he was about. As if any body could know very well what they were about when their brains were either muddled or inflamed by strong drink. The officer also added that it was the same boy his worship had seen by the side of the “Britannia.” The baker’s evidence against Ragged Jack was clear and conclusive : he had seen the boy take the roll and had caught him in the very act of eating it, and even exhibited the part that was undevoured !
It was a case for “ summary punishment,” and Jack was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment and carried off to “ the House of Correction” forthwith. The chaplain of that establishment, who was present, and who had been one of the party in the discussion about the bread and butter, seemed much pleased when he found that Jack was committed, and said, “ Ah ! I’ll take good care that whilst the poor boy is in prison he has plenty of good bread and butter.” And so he had; poor boy ; for, immediately upon his arrival at the prison, he had some proper wholesome food given to him : he was then placed in a nice warm bath, and after that dressed in good clean clothes, his hair trimmed and cleaned, and, by the orders of the medical officer, placed in the “ sick-ward,” with everything necessary for his bodily health and comfort, and waited upon and nursed by a nice, clean, good-natured, motherly woman. Of course, when sufficiently recovered, he was put to work ; but then it was not “ hard labour,” and he had the advantages, besides being clothed and fed, of being taught reading and writing and arithmetic by a schoolmaster, trained in habits of regularity and
• When any one is charged with an assault, or any act of violence or brutality, it is a curious fact that almost the first question which the magistrate asks is, “ Had the prisoner been drinking ;* but never, that wo ever hoard of, have they asked if the prisoner had been eating.cleanliness, and trained also in morals and religion, by the chaplain who was the first to tell him that there is a GOD, and to teach him, in one way at least, how to worship and adore that GOD. Yes, now that Jack was a CONVICTED THIEF he had plenty of good wholesome BREAD AND BUTTER !
But when the term of Jack’s imprisonment was over, this supply of bread and butter would have been stopped, and he would have* been dressed in his rags again and turned out to lead the same life of wretchedness as before, had it not been for the kindness of the worthy chaplain, who had taken care to provide some more bread and butter for him in another establishment—not a prison, but a “ Reformatory School.” In this institution Jack received the same training in cleanliness, morality and religion, as in the jail, and the same sort of schooling, with kind treatment, comfortable clothing, <fec.; and, added to all these, he was taught a trade, so that when he went out into the world he might be a decent and a useful member of society. In the reformatory, as well as in the jail, he had plenty of good bread and butter ; and (strange as it may appear) he had rendered himself eligible as a pupil to this institution, and received all these advantages, because he had been a CONVICTED THIEF !
But with all the advantages of education, moral and religious training, which had been bestowed upon Jack, there was one great drawback or disadvantage; which was, that no one who knew that he had been a convicted thief would hire him for a servant, or even employ him. The consequence was, that, as he now knew a trade, his kind reformatory friends gave him a basket of tools, and advised him to go into another part of the country to seek employment, which he did. But on the morning of his departure, as he was trudging along the street with a basket containing his work-tools, a change of linen, &c., he met a cousin of his—one Tom Rag, a boy as ragged and as wretched as he used to be himself—who was pleased to see his old play-fellow look so well, and inquired how he had managed to get such nice clothes, and what he had got in his basket. Upon which Jack told him all that had been so kindly done for him whilst in the prison and the reformatory. “ 0 !” said Tom Rag, “7 am taught morals, and to read and write and cast accounts, at the ‘ Ragged School / and on Sunday I go to the ‘ Ragged Church,’ where I am taught religion, and all that. But then I want to be clothed and fed, and have a comfortable place to live in, and to be taught a trade as you are: so do Jack tell me how I am to get all that ’ere.”
Cousin Jack, who had been taught, and, indeed, now knew, that thieving was a wicked thing to do, was sorely puzzled how to advisehis friend in this matter; for, having a great regard for Tommy, he wished to save him from the miserable state in which ho himself had
once been—skulking and wandering about the streets all day, picking up bits and scraps of food, even out of the gutters like the dogs, and at night sleeping in the corner, perhaps, of an open sheep-pen in the cattle-market,* or crouching from the drenching rain by the side of a doorway; and when he contrasted that state of his existence with the comfort he had felt and the attention he had received whilst in the jail and the reformatory, he knew not how to advise his poor cousin, knowing that poor Tom was, as he himself had been, almost perishing for want of a little good wholesome bread and butter, clean clothes, and a comfortable bed to lie in, which he well knew poor Tom would have if he could be sent to jail, as he had been. When he thought of all this he was sorely puzzled what to recommend; but at last ho said : “ Tom, you must not steal; so you had better go a begging, and perhaps you may be lucky enough to be sent to jail for that, and then you will have everything done for you as I have had, and come out better than me; for nobody will be able to say that you have been a thief. Yes; go and beg, Tom ! But if this don’t answer, why, then, I suppose you must go a thieving, as I did.”
It may be asked, Where were the parents of these poor boys all this time? Well, they could tell you at the “ Britannia ” public-house, only they don’t like to talk about such disagreeable matters there. Butthe fact is, Jack’s father used to use that house, and was once a decent sort of man, and was at one time a “moderate drinker;” but upon one occasion he got mad drunk, and in that state of drunken insanity went home and killed his wife, was sent to jail, and died there. Tom’s father was transported for committing some crime after he had “ been drinking” at the “Britannia;” and Tom’s mother took a little drop at first to comfort Tier, and then drank herself to death.
All persons, except Teetotallers, train up their children to take strong drink, with the mistaken notion that it does them good, and thus, unintentionally sometimes, lay the foundation of their children’s ruin and destruction. “ To train up a child in the way he should go” is a most wise and important piece of advice, and means of course that the child should be brought up to do that which is right, and this advice is followed and is carried out extensively in all civilized countries, it is true; but a large proportion of the common people (of this country at least) train up their children to go to the gin-shop and the beer-shop, either by taking them with them when they go to get their drink or their dram, when they invariably give them a taste, a glass, or a pot to drain ; or sending them to fetch the liquor, and then the children are sure to take a lick as they go along. Yes, these poor young creatures are trained up to the habit of drinking intoxicating liquor, and “ when they grow old they seldom depart from it.” And what are the consequences of this training 1 Why, a large amount of excessive drinking, and also a vast amount of drunkenness. And what is the effect of these ? Ignorance, poverty, pauperism, immorality, dirty habits, wretchedness and misery of every description, ruin, degradation, brutality, crime, blasphemy, bloodshed and murder! And what are the effects upon the offspring of a class of persons of such habits (habits, recollect, produced almost entirely by the use of intoxicating drink)—in what condition, then, morally and physically, are the children of such an impure portion of the population 1 In the first place, passing over the many, very many, infants who die for the want of proper and natural care; and taking those who do live through their dirty dismal infancy, and are able to “ run alone,"—why, entirely neglected by their drinking parents, these children are allowed to “ run wild,” and are consequently as “ ignorant as horses ” and as “ ragged as colts;” bred, born, and brought up in dirt, and trained in immoral habits, without even hearing the name of God, unless connected with some horrible and blasphemous oath. This wretched, neglected, starving, begging, thieving, juvenile part of the population, many of whom are orphans, are brought up to this horrible state of destitution—recollect, almost entirely, through the use of intoxicating liquors by their parents. But it must not be sup-posed that all the wretched and ragged children spring from the lowest condition of society. Families of various grades of comfort and respectability are brought down to the lowest level, disgraced, ruined and made wretched, entirely from the use of intoxicating liquor, and thus from various sources the supply of ragged children for the ragged schools, and juvenile offenders for the jails and the reformatories ; and thus as fast, or indeed at a greater rate, than secular teaching, with moral and religious training, can raise a portion of these poor creatures from their miserable and deplorable state of mind and body, and place them in a more healthy condition, fresh pupils are provided for these institutions, by the liquors prepared by the brewer and the distiller, and dispensed at the beer-shop and the gin-palace.
The Earl of Shaftesbury has lately condemned in strong terms— and very justly so—the trade carried on in opium by the East India Company and other merchants, which all those parties are aware is smuggled into China in violation of the laws of that country, and despite the efforts of its government to prevent this illicit trade. It is, indeed, disgraceful and dishonorable, either for the Honourable East India Company, or any man or set of men, holding high stations, as far as wealth and character go, to be making a profit out of a trade which produces wretchedness, disease, premature decay and death, amongst any people, however low they may be in the social scale. But, bad as this may be, and miserable as are the consequences arising from the use and indulgence of this poisonous and pernicious drug, yet the evils created from this source in China are not attended with such horrible results as those which come from the use of the poison—ALCOHOL— in our own country. Yet there are men here—gentlemen, who, in fact, form part of our aristocracy—men rolling in wealth and luxury, holding up their heads with the highest, and some of them forming part of our legislative body—respectable merchants and traders, deriving large incomes and making princely fortunes from the profits on the manufacture and sale of a liquor which, even in small quantities, is proved to be injurious to the human system ; but which, if indulged in, produces that temporary insanity called intoxication, and which causes nearly all our poverty and wretchedness, and is, in fact, the principal cause of the commission of every species of criminality and the blackest and foulest deeds that human beings can, with ignorant and maddened brains, possibly commit.
A great outcry has been made of late about the “ Ticket of leave ” men, and the very large number of our criminal population (!) ; and it is a serious consideration what is to be done with the convicts, and where they are to be sent to. Now every one will allow that it wouldbe a most excellent thing if we could reduce the number of our criminals ; but, however desirable this might be, the question is, How i3 such a change to be effected ? The Earl of Albemarle has stated, at a public meeting in Norfolk, upon the authority of the judges, that nine-tenths of the crimes committed in this country owe their origin to the use of intoxicating liquor. If that be the case, you have only to stop the use of intoxicating liquor, and, according to this showing, to stop the commission of crime—at any rate, a large proportion of it. Yes ; only shut up the beer-shops and the gin-shops, and you may then shut up your prisons. I say this with confidence, because it was found that in the State of Maine, when the “Maine Liquor Law” was in full operation, not only was the workhouse cleared of all those that could work, but the jail, in some of the counties, which used to be always over-crowded, was empty, and advertised To be Let ! and so it would be here, in this country, if we had such a law. Then, again, many excellent men have been trying to do away with the punishment of death for criminal offences. In this matter you have only to stop the use of intoxicating drinks and the gibbet would fall to the earth,—crumble with the drv rot for want of use. And why 1 because almost every deadly crime committed in this country is mixed up, more or less, with this accursed intoxicating drink.
One of the great social questions of the day is the necessity and importance of a general or national system of Education for the humble classes, upon such a comprehensive plan as shall give every child born in the United Kingdom a certain amount of book knowledge, and also of moral and religious training, as they are, or ought to be, entitled to as juvenile members of a civilised community—such training as may prepare them to fill useful and honest positions in life, or, perhaps, be the first step to those high stations so often filled by honest, hardworking, mercantile men, or ingenious mechanics. Now every thinking and right-minded person will agree that this object is a most desirable one, and that no innocent child should be so neglected as to be allowed to grow up in a state of savage ignorance ; and at the first blush nothing seems more easily to be accomplished, in a wealthy and intelligent country like our3, than to arrange such a general system as is here alluded to, and to provide the ways and means. Well ! all this would be simple and easily accomplished, but for one obstacle, namely—the differences in the religious opinions of a portion of the adult population. Yes, strange as it may appear—nay, monstrous as it is—nevertheless these religious differences have been, and are now, the only bar to the adoption of any wide and general system of secular education.
It is of course impossible to please all parties ; but few persons, Iimagine, could surely object to a national system of Education upon the following plan:—In the first place, an act of Parliament should be passed, compelling all those parents who can afford to pay for the schooling of their offspring to do so, and where they are not able to pay the whole, to contribute as much as their means will allow, and where the parents are destitute or depraved, then that the State shall take the position of the parents, and educate and train up all the neglected and helpless children. In the second place :—In the schools, let reading, writing and arithmatic be taught (with other branches of education, if possible, or required), and such moral training as will teach a child the difference between Right and Wrong—and here let the schoolmaster’s duty cease, and that of the minister of religion begin. And in the third place :	Let it be the duty of the clergymen, and
ministers of all denominations, to instruct all those children that belong to their particular church, chapel or sect, in those forms, ceremonies, doctrines and tenets, peculiar to the religious opinions of the parents ; and, where the parents profess or follow no religion, then that the clergy of the Established Church be allowed to bring up all such children in the religion of the State. Now, by this mode, it appears to me that if all the poor helpless children of the land were schooled in the common elements of reading, writing, &c., for five days in the week, and the clergy and ministers of all denominations were compelled to instruct these children one day in the six, in the religion of the class to which they belong (independent of the Sunday), that then all parties might be satisfied, and every objection done away with as to the great general system here proposed for secular instruction and moral and religious training.
I may here be told that there are schools and institutions where the young of both sexes are instructed in useful knowledge, morally trained, and taught some trade or calling, and where begging or stealing are not necessary qualifications for admission. I grant that there may be such places, but that does not alter the fact that neglected children, clothed in filthy rags, supply scholars to the “ Ragged School,” and young thieves the pupils to the “Reformatory.” A reformatory may be wanted in any country, under any circumstances, but why should we have Ragged Schools in rich England 1 A German newspaper, not very long since, had a paragraph headed “ A man starved to death in London! ” in rich England ! and the editor seemed thoroughly astonished that such a circumstance should occur in a country of such immense wealth, and there is certainly no real reason why such a shocking thing should occur in this country, where there is probably as much food destroyed and wasted every day in London as wouldfeed thousands of persons ; but although, as I have said, some sort of reformatory, even in the highest state of civilized society, may be required, why should we have such a thing as a Ragged School in rich England ?—in a country where the Almighty, in his beneficence, has given enough, and to spare, for every one !
I am not saying that Ragged Schools are not wanted now, in the present state of society,—no, no : there is unfortunately a strong necessity for them at the present time; and whenever there is an evil, of course there should be a remedy. I have had the honour of presiding at Ragged School meetings myself, and of advocating their support and extension, and would do so still whilst poor children remain miserable, ignorant, and neglected; and I have, upon these occasions, always shown what 1 consider a radical cure for such a state of destitution. 1 have also the honour of knowing and honouring some of the chief supporters of these institutions; and I do all I can in my humble way to assist such good men for such good purposes; indeed it is quite right that there should be these schools and reformatories—it is indeed one of the first duties of a civilised people to provide a refuge for the destitute; no doubt there should be some place provided for the reception of the erring and the repentant, where they may receive help and comfort, and where their good resolves may;be cherished and strengthened; no doubt but that it is quite right that there should be a place of shelter for those who may have offended against the laws of man, and a chance of leading, in future, an honest life. Nay, it is the duty of a civilised community to do all this; and, under the blessing of God, well and nobly do the people of this country perform this duty,— all honor to them for so doing,—all honor to the nobility of this land,— all honour to the wealthy, the middle and the humbler classes, all exemplary in their degree and station, from our good and gracious Queen down to the poor widow who gives her “ mite,”—all honor to those who so generously and bountifully bestow their means in so many excellent and needful charities; it is a good work, and it is well and nobly done! But excellent as all these remedies for our social evils may be—excellent as it is to provide hospitals for the reception of those who meet with accidents, it is, nevertheless, better to prevent accidents happening than to provide a cure for them ; so it is better, or indeed, it is the paramount duty of a civilised people to PREVENT the commission of evil, to PREVENT poor children from falling into that dreadful state of ragged wretchedness and criminality which unhappily prevails to such a fearful extent at present. It may here be said that almost every thing is being done that ingenuity, toil and benevolence, can suggest or accomplish :—true, a great deal is being done, but notall; for whilst even a small number of poor dear helpless children are left uncared for or unprovided for, so long is the work imperfect. And unhappily we find that there are, even in spite of all that is being done, still an immense number in this forlorn condition ; for, upon the authority of that noble and indefatigable worker in all good works, the Earl of Shaftesbury, we find that there are, at this time, about twenty-two thousand neglected, ragged children, wandering about like the wild Bedouins of the desert! At a late ragged school meeting, thanksgivings were offered up to the Almighty for the present prosperity of the ragged schools, and also for the great moral good effected by these institutions. In this thanksgiving I most heartily join, and rejoice at the amount of success ; but I put it to all those worthy persons who are engaged in this good work, and who thus express their feelings of gratitude, whether it would not be still better that they should be able to thank GOD that ragged schools were not required at all, and that there was very little need of reformatories. And if you were to do away with the use of strong drink there would be no need of them. And I would ask the supporters of the institution in question, to reflect upon the consequences of this ragged and reformatory training. Why, if it goes on continually, a large proportion of our population will be composed of persons of both sexes—British men and women—who, if moving in a respectable station, will have the ragged or reformatory stigma the blot upon them for life; and their children—who will be pretty sure to hear of it—will either feel the degradation, or have the reproach cast against them, that their parents were of the most beggarly and even suspicious origin ; and they may well ask, Was my father a thief, that he was brought up at a reformatory 1 and what was my mother, that she was educated at a ragged school 1 How should we like this ourselves 1
In conclusion, I ask if it does not appear to be a matter almost amounting to criminality, but surely entailing a fearful responsibility, upon all those who oppose a general system of teaching and training, and thus allowing innocent children to grow up in ignorance and crime, —to starve, in fact, for want of food, of which there is plenty,—because they, the grown-up people, cannot agree upon the mode of cutting a SLICE OF BREAD AND BUTTER.
Education ha3 done, and is doing, a very large amount of good ; but it will never entirely put a stop to the intemperate habits or drunkenness of a large mass of the population—a habit, which “ The Times ” has designated as “ the curse of the country.” In proof of this, witness the immense mass of common people who unfortunately suffer from the use of strong drink, and also the number of the most highly educated,intellectual, and well-trained persons—nay, even ministers of religion —who are constantly falling victims to these intoxicating drinks, which are blindly looked upon, generally, as a blessing, if taken in moderation. But let those good folks who say this, consider for a moment from whence comes the supply of drunkards. There are at least thirty or forty thousand drunkards, dying as drunkards every year in this country, whose places are filled up from the class of “ moderate drinkers.’’ This has always been the case, and must continue so, from the very nature of the material in use. Some very clever moderate drinkers assert that those people only get drunk who take too much. This is certainly a most wonderful discovery, and an incontrovertible fact; for they may defy the whole world to prove that any one ever got drunk by taking too little! But, even supposing that education would ultimately form a very moderate drinking population : before such a desirable state of things could be established, at the rate that education is now going on, millions of our fellow-creatures must suffer every sort of misery, and hundreds of thousands would be maimed and many thousands murdered !
Educate ! Educate ! Educate ! by all meaus : but there is something more required than reading, writing, and arithmetic ; indeed, the present age may be characterised as one of reading and writing rascality. The rascal Redpath could read and write, and, unfortunately, “ cast accountsthe rascal Robson was also an accountant, and could read and write ; Mr. J. W. “ Bubble ” Howell, unfortunately for me, could write and read and deliver lectures, the subject of one of which, was, ‘‘ Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath ?” ! What good he may have done on the sabbath I know not; but this I know—that he did a great deal of dishonest mischief on the week-days. Indeed, the rascality in the present day of men who can read and write, is truly alarming, from men holding something like a station in society, down to the hireling who robs his employer. However, these are no arguments against a general system of education, with moral and religious training; for if this did nothing else, it would decrease the amount of savage brutality which is now found to predominate amongst the ignorant and vulgar when under the influence of drink. The fact is, that the use of wine, beer, and spirits, is at the root, in some way or other, of most, if not all our social evils, and until the use of these intoxicating drinks is done away with, all reforms are but so much patchwork ; very pretty patchwork no doubt; nay, some of it very beautiful patchwork ; but still nothing but patchwork after all.
Finally, I would say by all means educate all the people in some way or other. But as prevention is better than cure, I call upon all thosewlio delight in good works to aid the Temperance cause, which is, in truth, the only radical cure for the evils complained of. I call upon them to assist us in our endeavour to stop the use of the body and soul-destroying strong drink, and thereby PREVENT Poverty, Misery and Crime.
Britannia's Ragged and Reformatory Pete.
LONDON : KRIIAHD HAKHETT, f’lUNTKR, UAKK LaNE