Drink

Dedication

This book is Dedicated, wifh sincere respect, to the oldest and best friends of true temperance, tJte Clergy who by precept and example uphold the moral law, whereby alone we may become masters of ourselves and be temperate in all things.

Preface

This book deals mainly with the drink question in the United Kingdom, but numerous illustrative facts are drawn from other countries. It is written from the standpoint of an observer and student who has no interest in the liquor traffic, no connection with any temperance organisation, no foregone conclusion to prove and no favourite panacea to advocate. It rather endeavours to remove the subject from these associations, which are apt to distort the vision, and to see things more as they are than as interest or fancy would have them be.

The chapters to which I would draw particular attention are those on l Drink in the Past/ ' The Decline of Drunkenness,' ' The Forces of Temperance/ ' The Forces of Intemperance/ and ' The Principles of Liquor Legislation.' They embody a connected argument bearing on the last point. A portion of the matter contained in the first three chapters mentioned has been published before in the form of separate essays. They attracted some viii DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION

attention at the time, and communications reached me from various quarters. I promised republication in a complete form, and the present time, when liquor legislation is in the wind, seems opportune. The rest of the book consists of subsidiary essays.

I am encouraged to hope that it may meet with acceptance from persons interested in the subject by the more than kind reception given to a paper, containing an outline of the main argument, which I read at the St. Albans Diocesan Conference in 1900. To my great astonishment it met with unanimous approval. On the other hand I am well aware that some will dissent very heartily from much that they will find in this book. The subject is, unfortunately, controversial in the highest degree, and it is impossible to avoid contentious matter. I beg those who differ from me to believe that I respect their motives and am animated by no hostility. I beg them also to note all that is said on particular points in different passages, for observations made in one connection are frequently qualified by further remarks made in another.

All statistics and official quotations are taken direct from the official sources, and second-hand information is avoided as far as possible.

The reader will find a good deal of repetition, for which I ought, perhaps, to apologise ; but it is a choice of evils. "When the same facts are approached from

PREFACE IX

different directions the only alternative to repetition is to omit something and run the risk of being misunderstood — a real risk, as I have often found to my cost. There is, however, one deliberate repetition, for which I offer no apology. It is insistence on the principle of self -responsibility, if I may coin a word. A social philosophy is current to-day which proclaims collective, but denies individual, responsibility; which would make every one responsible for every one else, but not for himself; or, taking another form, would relieve some individuals of all responsibility for their own conduct and would call others to account not only for themselves but for the rest. These confused ideas, which profane the names of Science and of Social Eeform, are the product of a civilisation suffering from senile dementia. Whether we are our brothers' keepers or not, we must first be our own, if there is to be any responsibility at all. To deny it is to deny free will, which may be well enough as a philosophical speculation, but is fatal in real life. If, for instance, the consumer of liquor is the helpless victim of hereditary tendencies, irresistible cravings, environment, temptation, laws, and systems, the seller is no less at the mercy of the same forces and equally irresponsible. He suffers from an irresistible craving (to make money) and cannot withstand the temptation (of seeing so many thirsty people about him). And

X DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION

so with all of us; you cannot pick and choose in responsibility. By the same reasoning we are all the products of ancestry and environment, all the puppets of circumstance. And the State, being but a collection of such puppets, is a fortiori helpless and irresponsible. From this impasse there is no logical escape if we once tamper with the principle of individual responsibility. The whole social fabric is built upon it; dislodge the foundation and it all topples down. Temperance reformers certainly do not desire that; but the fallacy that leads to it takes many disguises and creeps in unrecognised ; it is subtle and pervasive. How it pervades and colours the liquor question will, I hope, be made clear in the following pages ; for I believe we are still sane enough to throw off the delusions of dementia, when we see them, and to resume a healthy habit of thought.

Chapter I

Author's study of the liquor traffic — Knowledge of its actualities important — Want of such knowledge among reformers — Lord Salisbury's wisdom — Opposition to schemes of reform — People who use the public-house not consulted — The ' solution ' fallacy — Evils of drink — Alternative evils — Diminution of drunkenness accompanied by increase of betting — Moral law the only 'solution' — Total abstinence necessary for inebriates — Good for others but not for all

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1-13

Chapter II

Excessive indulgence prevalent from the earliest times — The Ancient Britons — The Saxons — Drinking healths — Temperance movement a.d. 570— King Edgar, Dunstan, and s drinking to pegs ' — The Danes and Normans — English beer in 1130 — Early closing in the thirteenth century — Complaints of excessive number of taverns in 1330 — Power given to justices to suppress them in 1495 — Licensing introduced in 1551 — Camden on the increase of drunkenness — Bacon and other writers in the Elizabethan age — The liquor traffic at the beginning of the seventeenth century — Repressive Acts in 1603, 1607, and xii DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION

1610 — Burton on drinking in 1621 — The clergy implicated — Drunkenness among the Puritan troops — Female drunkenness in 1657 — Adulteration — Consumption of beer in 1688 — Home manufacture of spirits — Defoe on the English working man — Gin Act of 1736 — Increased consumption of spirits — Shocking state of things — Number of bars and consumption per head in London — Gin Act repealed — Fielding on gin — Moderate legislation in 1751 more successful — Beer v. spirits — Drunkenness among the upper classes — The public-house in the eighteenth century — Medical attack on intemperance — London in 1824 — Beer-house Act of 1830 — Select Committee of 1834 — Remarkable evidence — Female and juvenile drunkenness — Sunday mornings — Drinking a condition of employment for working men — Conclusions of Committee .... 14-42

Chapter III

New era since 1830-40 — Important changes — Organic improvement — Select Committee of 1854 — Evidence of improved conduct of liquor traffic — Abuses still existing — Increase of intemperance 1867-76 — House of Lords Committee of 1876 — Evidence of improvement — Reduction of public-houses — Drunkenness more confined to lowest grades of society — Royal Commission of 1896-99 — Evidence of improvement from all parts of England — Scotland — Ireland — Statistics of drunkenness — London 1834-92 — Liverpool 1866-95— Glasgow 1857 96— England and Wales 1857-98— Ireland 1885-95— Reduction of licenses 1831-91— Consumption of alcohol 1831-99 . 43-74

Chapter IV

Alleged increase — Distinction between upper and lower classes — Increase among former— Its causes — Feminine emancipation — Narcotic drugs — Lower

CONTENTS xiii

PAGH

classes — Alleged diminution — Sir John Bridge — Alleged increase — Dr. Norman Kerr — Death-rates from intemperance — Critically examined — Police statistics 1874-98 — Remarkable diminution — Less than among men — The reasons — Women more often habitual inebriates — Statistics in Liverpool and Dundee — Conclusion 75-89

Chapter V

Temperance Societies and Liquor Laws — Origin of temperance organisation 1826 — Belfast and Glasgow 1829 — Yorkshire and Lancashire 1830 — London — British and Foreign Temperance Society 1831 — Queen Victoria — Teetotalism 1832 — Dissensions — Father Mathew 1838-42 — His wonderful success — Comes to England 1843 — Decline of the temperance movement — Also in United States — The Maine law — The United Kingdom Alliance — Revival of movement 1860 — Political element — Benefit Societies — Good Templars — Church of England Temperance Society — 'Danesbury House' — Membership of Societies — Juvenile abstainers — Failure of teetotalism — Liquor laws — Activity of Legislature — Act of 1834 — Metropolitan Police Act 1839 — Beer-house Amendment Act 1840 — Gaming Act 1845 — Acts 1854-55, Sunday closing in Scotland — Act of 1860, Grocers' Licenses — Acts 1861-64 — Wine and Beer-house Act 1869 — Licensing Acts 1872 and 1874 — Their beneficial effects — Sunday closing in Ireland 1878— In Wales 1881— Acts 1882-1901— Other influences — Public opinion — Indirect effects of Societies — Example of upper classes — The Court — The future 90-114

Chapter VI

Physiological effect of alcohol — People drink because they like it — Its exhilarating effect — Most desired in circumstances of depression — Hence influence of climate — Drunken countries in North of Europe — xiv DRINK, TEMPERANCE, AND LEGISLATION

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Sobriety of the South — Consumption per head no measure of sobriety — Diffused and concentrated drinking — Distribution of drunkenness in the United Kingdom — Greater in North and West than in South and East — Scotland — Spirit drinking and climate — Sweden — Influence of race — Hungarians — Celts — Abstemious nations decadent — Heredity and the Darwinian theory — Influence of occupation — Seaports, mining, manufacturing, and agricultural districts compared— The most and the least alcoholic classes — Other conditions of life — The real attraction of the public-house — Conviviality — . Facilities — Need of restriction — Number of public-houses and drunkenness — Deficiency of regular facilities — Clubs — Hours of closing — Arrangement of premises — Food and non-intoxicants — State of wages — Price of liquor — Children and the public-house^ — Public opinion — The temptation theory and irresponsibility 115-157

Chapter VII

The right to legislate — Proposed drastic measures — Need of guiding principles — Material for forming them — Ignored by Peel Commission — Functions of the law — Order and justice — Limits of the law in dealing with moral evils — Criminal law — Successful legislation — Police Act 1839 — Other closing Acts — Sunday closing — Acts of 1869, 1872, and 1874 — Evidence of their success — Unsuccessful legislation — Gin Act 1736 — Beer-house Act 1830 — Act of 1860 — The Gothenburg system — Other Scandinavian legislation — Good effects of restriction — Compulsory virtue in the United States — Its effects — Local option — Limited application — Distinction between spheres of law and moral agencies — Tendency to confound them 158-176

CONTENTS xr

Chapter VIII Page

The aim of the law — The disorderly person — Requires more severe treatment — Suggestions — The disorderly place — Grocers' licenses — Clubs — Public-houses — Local option — ' Trust the people ' — Would leave the disorderly traffic untouched — Disinterested management — Its limits — Existing legal machinery — Its success and failure — Its defects — The police — Weak points — Watch Committees — Efficient supervision of liquor traffic — Liverpool model system — Its success — Railway refreshment bars — The magistrates — Their leniency — Suggestions— The licensing bench — Its functions judicial not paternal — Opposition excited by temperance zeal — A popularly elected element — Reasons against — Ireland — Licensing courts should be made more judicial — e Superfluous ' public-houses — Tied houses — Attack the wrong-doer — Disorderly hours — Earlier closing — Sunday closing in England — Conclusion , 177-199

Chapter IX

The customers — The publican — His difficulties — Attitude to customers — Visit of observation to the East-end of London — The exterior — Its influence overrated — The interior — Its arrangement — Privacy and women — The liquor — Adulteration — In eighteenth century — In the present day — Current fallacies — Proportion of intoxicated persons to drinkers — A dramatic incident — Drunkards — The deliberate drunkard — A working man on the public-house — The publican and drunkenness — e Pushing the sale ' — Sale of non-intoxicants — Difficulty of preventing drunkenness — Women and children in the public-house — Responsibility of parents — Betting in public-houses — Conclusion . . . 200-223

Chapter X Page

Lord Greys trust scheme— The first model public-house— The Rev. Osbert Mordaunt— History of the -Boars Head at Hampton Lucy— Mr. Mordaunt's experience— Difficulty in obtaining good beer- Tricks of the trade— Financial results— Good effects in the village— The house described— The village ale-house— How it differs from the urban house— Reasons why less well conducted— The liquor— Bad stuff sent from the brewery— Advantages of the model system— Mr. Mordaunt's advice — -frobable effects of the trust system . . 224-238

Chapter XI Gothenbukg And The Scandinavian System

Attractions of the system— Two ways of studying it— Gothenburg— The town described— The liquor traffic— The Gothenburg system— The Bolag— The model spirit-house— Scene inside— The liquor- Swedish capacity for drinking— Further details of management— The 'off' traffic— Beer-houses and beer— Effects of the system— On consumption— On drunkenness— The drunkenness of Gothenburg —Compared with England and Scotland— Increase due to beer— Female drunkenness— General effect on the working classes— Benefit of exchanging spirits for beer—' Clubbing '— Methylated spirits- Probable effect of system in England— Gothenburg compared with Cardiff— The police— Greater license permitted in Sweden— Detailed reforms considered —Elimination of personal profit— Early closing the most important reform— Difficulties of applying it in England— Other towns in Sweden and Norway

239-270

CONTENTS xvii

Chapter XII Page

Retreats and reformatories — Amount of accommodation — Inebriates classified — The experience of retreats — Small number of patients — Legal conditions—Majority of patients enter for short terms — Their dislike of restraint — Procuring liquor — Demoralising atmosphere — A patient quoted — Results — Reformatories — Compulsory restraint — Moral aspect of inebriety overlooked — c Irresistible craving ' — Dr. Johnson — De Quincey — Abstinence not a moral cure — Warning against discouragement — Difficulty of dealing compulsorily with non-criminal cases — Compared with lunatics — Beginners would not be affected — Nor the bulk of working-class drunkards — Women — Conclusion . . 271-294

Bibliography 295-296

I

Chapter I

An explanation of my interest in the drink question seems due to the reader, and desirable in order to make clear the point of view maintained in what follows; but it is not essential, and this chapter maybe skipped. It contains my credentials, so to speak, and cannot avoid being uncomfortably egotistic.

Some years ago I was much engaged in the investigation of strikes and other labour questions. In order to get at the minds of the rank and file of the men — which is indispensable to a real understanding of such matters, though generally neglected — I sought them where they most congregate and most readily enter into conversation, namely, in the public-house. I was thus led to spend a great deal of time in public-houses frequented by working men, conversing with them and joining in their proceedings on a friendly footing, which included the consumption of vast quantities of c four ale.' I soon became interested in what went on apart from the immediate question in hand, and fell into the habit of observing the manners and customs of the place and of the people frequenting it. Many things struck my attention which were quite at variance with statements I had often seen, and still see, made in public by persons interested in the liquor question but possessing only a second-hand knowledge of its actualities. I pursued the subject further and made a regular study of it, not only in all parts of this country but abroad; and I have since kept it up. It has, in fact, been my practice for several years past to observe the habits of the people and the conduct of the liquor traffic on the spot, wherever I go, at home or abroad. Every part of London and every class of house is familiar to me, from the fashionable restaurant to the sailors' dancing saloons (now abolished) in what used to be Ratcliff Highway, the foreign clubs about Soho and the so-called 1 opium dens ' frequented by Chinese firemen in Limehouse Causeway. I have made similar observations in most of the large centres of population in these islands, in mining villages and purely agricultural districts; I have explored the lowest drinkshops in Paris by day and by night, alone and with the police, and have carried on my researches in nearly every country in Europe and in Canada. In short I may fairly say that my acquaintance with the pothouse and its ways is ' extensive and peculiar.'

These observations have been supplemented, as will be seen from subsequent chapters, by other studies. I have laboured over statistical returns, reports of official inquiries, historical and other literature; and I happen — by chance, not design — to have had experience of dipsomania, far more close and intimate, though less extensive, than that of the keeper of an inebriate home. I also heard all the evidence given before the Peel Commission — it fills nine closely printed Blue-books of the largest size — and wrote an abstract of it. Few phases of the subject, therefore, are unfamiliar to me, but I attach the greatest importance to a knowledge of the actual living thing. It seems to me the indispensable foundation for a clear comprehension of the problem as a whole, for without such knowledge it is difficult to interpret and appraise other evidence, which always varies widely and is often apparently contradictory. For instance, there is the all-important question of the execution of the law. As we all know, laws on the statute-book are one thing, laws in operation another; and whatever measures may be passed for the control or suppression of the liquor traffic, their efficacy depends on the action of the police. To understand that, we ought to know what goes on and the conditions under which the police have to act. Then there is the question of improvement or the contrary in the conduct of the liquor traffic and the effect of legislation or other influences upon it. One can hardly judge whether things are getting better or worse without knowing them as they are.

Again, there is the fundamental question of the mutual relations between the people and the liquor trade, their attitude towards it and its attitude towards them; their habits and behaviour with regard to drink, how far they are l driven ' or ' drawn ' to it or seek it proprio motu. These things can only be learnt by observation inside the public-house. Theoretical considerations may be very fallacious, and second-hand information often needs checking. In addition to such general questions we are confronted with a string of minor details — child messengers, the arrangement of premises, compartments, side-doors, the sale of non-intoxicants, the serving of drunken persons, the preservation of order, tied v. free houses, disinterested management, and so forth. A real insight into these and the like questions cannot well be acquired without studying them from the inside. At least such study cannot fail to be highly instructive, and the wider the field of observation the greater the instruction derived from it.

I cannot help thinking it a great pity that those who take the keenest interest in the subject and are most eager to deal with it by legislation should possess so very little of this inside knowledge. What they do know — it is that, of course, which makes them eager — is the evil of intemperance, the effects of which are visible in the streets, the home, and the police-court; but to be familiar with effects is not a sufficient equipment for grappling with causes. It provides the motive, not the knowledge. Contemplation of the devastation caused by a flood and an earnest desire to remedy it do not qualifyany one to undertake the task. The emotional spectator, without knowledge, thinks it quite simple. i The river must be stopped,' he says decisively, and cannot understand that any one should oppose such an obvious solution except from sheer love of floods. Singularly enough the engineer does not see it in the same light.

Lord Salisbury was severely taken to task for saying not long ago in the House of Lords that the matter of liquor reform required great consideration because it was a case of the cellared classes legislating for the uncellared. Some critics were astonished and others indignant at the ' flippancy ' of putting off this important question with a truism which applies to our whole body of liquor laws, as if it were a new thing. Lord Salisbury's critics failed to see the point of his remark because — as not infrequently happens — they had not an equal grasp of the subject. He really went to the heart of it. So many blunders have been committed in the past just because one class has always legislated for another without sufficiently knowing the conditions; and it is for the same reason that there is so much division and controversy now and so much danger of blundering again.

The opposition offered to many schemes of liquor legislation is always ascribed by their promoters to the machinations of the trade. No doubt there is opposition on the part of liquor sellers, who, like other people, resent interference with their business, and they are a powerful body. But the suggestion is that by some obscure influence they induce others, who have not the same direct interest, to join in fighting their battles. A recent pronouncement of this kind may be quoted as typical. At a meeting held in Lambeth Palace to advocate Sunday closing, the nobleman who moved the resolution said that

1 in fighting this question they had to contend with the opposition of the trade, which was strong in wealth, in active co-operation and organisation, and, above all, in a subtle influence which permeated every street and every city and almost every lane of every village and hamlet. '

i

If his lordship had that inside knowledge of the liquor traffic to which I refer, he would understand the c subtle influence ? and the opposition better. I venture to think — indeed I know — that a great part of the opposition is not due to any machinations of the trade, but to ignorance of the forces with which they have to deal commonly displayed by temperance reformers. They want to stop the river without studying its origin and course, and the many who know it well perceive that the naive plan is impracticable. How many temperance reformers have ever set foot inside a public-house? I often think, when I read the account of enthusiastic meetings and the speeches delivered at them, what an instructive change it would be if the audience and the speakers would adjourn to the public-house and acquire a little practical knowledge on the subject. For while they 1 Standard, February 14, 1902.

are enjoying themselves at the meeting with intoxicating words about the wishes of the people, the people are enjoying themselves at the public-house with intoxicating liquor, and are about as much disposed to abandon that privilege as the reformers would be to support a measure for the suppression of meetings.

It was not even thought necessary to consult them when an exhaustive inquiry was recently held into the operation of the liquor laws. Everybody else was consulted. Hundreds of witnesses representing every other interest, including the trade, were called and encouraged to state their views and fancies, often at intolerable length; but the people, who are the vital factor in determining the ultimate result, whose desires, needs, and habits form the real test by which every measure stands or falls in practice, and by which, therefore, it should be judged — they were ignored. Two or three presented themselves, and received the scant attention which they deserved for thrusting forward their opinions on a matter which seems to be the business of everybody except those who are most concerned. There is something ludicrous in the lists of witnesses and their occupations, apart from the magistrates, police, and others who had a real connection with the question, and gave valuable evidence. It is as though one were to hold an inquiry into coal-mines, and were to call up the butcher, the baker, the candlestickmaker, and solemnly elicit their views, while leaving out the miner. But it was typical of the manner in which the subject is usually approached. Trulylocal option is more reasonable: nominally, at least, it sets out to give those who use the public-house a say in the matter.

One disadvantage of living in an atmosphere of words untempered by reality is that we become the slaves of phrases. All questions of social legislation abound in them, and there is one master-phrase which applies to them all — the ' solution of the problem.' We see so many problems, as it were, set up in a row, and each is supposed to have a solution somewhere, like so many poisons and their antidotes. The game is to find the solution. l A solution must be found,' say the newspapers oracularly, and we all cry our nostrums in the marketplace. Eventually the political parties begin to fight over one of them, and then its fortune is made. The game is played more often with temperance than with anything else. The number of solutions is so great, and each has such splendid testimonials, that the bewildered public does not know which to choose. By a solution is meant some system or scheme which shall be a short cut to virtue, and shall accomplish by a wave of the legislative wand that which all the efforts of all the saints and sages have failed to achieve in a score of centuries. If it does not profess to do quite so much as that, it promises at least a great reformation, and therein lies its attractiveness.

The belief in a solution of the drink problem in this sense is a delusion, and its domination is misehievous, because it turns away the eyes of people from the straight and narrow way, and fixes them on an alluring vision, which they cannot reach. No one can study the actualities at first hand without discovering that alcoholic indulgence is far too deeply rooted in human nature to be dug out by any summary process. The most despotic power could not do it, for its decrees would not be executed. The sooner we get rid of the solution fetish and its specious promises, the more clearly shall we see the way before us, and the more firmly tread it. To that end I would say — pay less attention to words and more to actual life.

Another lesson derived from observation may be mentioned here. The reader will perhaps notice in this volume an omission unusual in a book on drink, and needing some explanation. Nothing, or very little, is said about the evils of drink. They have been so often and so fully detailed that I thought it unnecessary to repeat them, but as a frequenter of public-houses I feel bound to say something on the subject. I think the individual harm done by drink — the absolute degradation and ruin, the misery and cruelty resulting — cannot possibly be over-stated. But the collective harm seems to me often exaggerated. People speak as if they believe that the abolition of drink would virtually put an end to poverty, vice, and crime, and that all the money saved from the public-house would be sheer gain and spent on useful things. Singular delusion. Is there no poverty, vice, and crime in abstemious countries ? Ten times more than in our own drunken one. And with us ' nine-tenths of the crimes are crimes against property, and would not be affected by drunkenness' (Judicial Statistics, 1901). Even crimes of violence do not correspond with the amount of drink and drunkenness. The consumption of drink in the United Kingdom in 1899 was about 8 per cent, higher than the average for 1894-8, and the police drunkenness in England and Wales was 15 per cent, higher; but the crimes of violence— namely, common assaults, aggravated assaults, assaults on constables, felonious and malicious wounding — decreased 1.62 per cent. (Introduction to Judicial Statistics, 1901). I do not seek to extenuate intemperance. Far from it. I have an intense abhorrence of it, and regard a drunken person with an unchristian disgust and contempt of which I am sometimes ashamed. But I see that there are other things, less tangible and visible, but not less degrading. Intemperance is not a moral disease, only a symptom. The disease, the real malady that manifests itself in this and many other forms, is that moral weakness which prefers immediate gratification to ultimate good. And the symptoms are largely interchangeable, though several may co-exist together. Drink and gambling, for instance, are to a great extent complementary; as one wanes the other waxes. The sober nations in the south of Europe are fierce and incorrigible gamblers ; and in our own country, as the habit of intoxication has dropped into disfavour lower and lower in the social scale, its place has been taken by betting, which has become increasingly prevalent among the working classes. 1