TEMPERANCE
487
TEMPERANCE
promoting social welfare and also at raising revenue
from the quasi-monopoly it creates. These two
purposes are not always in harmony, which explains
to some extent why State interference from the be-
ginning to this day has often failed of success. A
full history of liquor legislation and its results would
occupy volumes; here there is space only for a brief
BUmniary of the chief Acts affecting the Biitish Isles
as a whole.
It is significant that up to the Reformation there occurs no civil legislation against drunkenness, although it was prevalent enough in Catholic times. The crop of laws against intemperance began to spring up in the reign of Edward \1, but they can no more be attributed to the higher morality of the new religion than can that monarch's granmiar schools to his zeal for education, or Queen Elizabeth's work- houses to her compassion for the poor. All these phenomena point to the passing away of an influence hitherto found sufficient to promote social welfare by moral means. Laws concerning liquor were, indeed, enacted from early times, but their main object was to prevent fraud on the part of the sellers. Scotch legislation, for instance, was busy in the reign of David I (1124-53) regulating the brewing and selling of ale. In England, in 1200, prices were fixed by law for the different sorts of wine, and we find many subsequent enactments tending to encourage the wine trade with the English possessions in France. With the overthrow of the aincient Church and the destruction of her restraining influence, the spread of intemperance became very marked, as is attested by contemporary ^Titers, and the State began to interfere in the interests of public welfare. An English Act was passed in 1495, empowering justices of the peace to suppress at discretion "common ale- houses", as centres of disorder. The licensing system was introduced in 1.5.51, by an Act which made the consent of the justices necessary for the establish- ment of ale-houses. The Irish Parliament in 1556 prohibited the manufacture of aqua vita' except by certain specified classes. At the beginning of the seventeenth century laws were passed in England to prevent inns from becoming public-houses in the modern sense. In 16.34 the licen.'iing system was extended to Ireland. The close of this century brought a new element into the question. Hitherto only fermented liquors were commonly drunk in England, for, owing to high duties, the price of imported .spirits put them beyond the reach of the people, but in 1689 the Government of the Revolu- tion, out of hostility to France, prohibited the impor- tation of foreign spirits and removed the restrictions on home manufacture, with alarming results to public morality. In spite of the retail trade being put under the licensing system in 1700, by 1724 the passion for gin-drinking had spread "with the rapidity and vio- lence of an epidemic" (Lecky, "Engli.sh History", I, iii), and in vain was the famous "Gin Act" passed in 1736, making the licence practically prohibitive. Illicit distilling and smuggling spread enormously, and high licences had to be repealed in 1742. Al- though gradually the State resumed control, still "the fatal passion for drink was at once and irrevo- cably planted in the nation" (Lecky, op. cit.). From 1751 dates a .series of laws dealing more stringently with the conduct of the drink traflfic, and in 17.55 the licensing system was introduced into Scotland.
An attempt was made in 1.S2S, as the result of a Parliamentary inquiry into illicit spirit-dealing, to simplify and consolidate the various licensing laws for England and Scotland, and, in 1S33, for Ireland, and these acts furni the basis of the existing Law. But experimental lcgisl.it ion still continued. In order to cure the nation of spirit-drinking, to encourage a British industry, and to break up the growing .system of "tied houses", an Act was passed in 1830 giving
practically free trade in beer. A fortnight after the
Act was passed, Sydney Smith wrote: "The New
Beer Bill has begvm its operations. Everybody is
drunk. Those who are not singing are sprawling.
The Sovereign People is in a beastly state." The
Act failed miserably of its purpose. In less than
three months 24,000 licenses were taken out. The
mmiber of "tied houses" was not ultimately lessened
and the consumption of spirits steadily rose. In
1869 the beerhouses were again brought under the
licensing system. Another well-meant but un-
successful effort to alter popular taste was the estab-
lishment (1860-1) of "off" grocer.s' licences, by which
measure Gladstone hoped to wean the people from
beer-drinking in public-houses to the u.se of light
wines and sjiirits at home. Much intermediate and
sub.scquent legislation was concerned with the condi-
tions of holding licences, particularly with the hours
of closing. The "Forbes-Mackenzie" Act of 1853
closed the public-houses of Scotland on Sundays,
except to travellers, and the measure was extended
to Ireland (except five chief towns) in 1878, and to
Wales in 1881, with very noticeable results in the
decrease of drunkenness. In England the hours of
Sunday opening have been restricted to seven. In
1873 a licensing Act prohibited the sale of spirits to
children under sixteen, required the confirmation of
the County Bench for new licences, and deprived that
Bench of the power of granting licences in opposition
to local refusal. Other measures for the protection
of children were passed, culminating in the Act of
1909 which forbids children under fourteen access to
public bars. For the last forty years under the
influence of State regulations the number of licensed
houses has steadily decreased. Shadwcll shows that
the number of "on" licenses per 10,000 persons in
England and Wales was forty-nine in 1871, thirty-
one in 1901, twenty-six in 1909. In Scotland there
were 17,713 public-houses in 1829; in 1909 with
more than double the population there were 6845
only or 14.03 per 10,000. The decrease in numbers
has obtained in Ireland also, but a greater decrease
in population has counteracted the relative diminu-
tion. With a smaller population than Scotland
there are in Ireland more than three times as many
licensed houses— in 1909, 22,.591 in all. The Act of
1904 has tended to accelerate the decrease of licences
by admitting the principle of compensation and
giving licence holders for the first time a legal claim
to renewal unless forfeited by misconduct. In the
eyes of those who desire to suppress altogether traffic
in drink for private gain this is considered a step
backwards, a view which is strengthened by the
notable increase of "clubs" .since the passing of the
Act. Finally, one marked effect of the Finance Act
of 1910, so far as it concerns the Temperance Move-
ment, was to reduce the consumption of spirits by
ten millions of gallons; against this must be set an
increased consumption of fermented liquors and pre-
sumably of illicitly distilled spirits. In the history
of State activities for the promotion of temperance
must be included the action of the various education
departments in making temperance teaching an
integral part of the elementary code. A temperance
syllabus was made compulsory by the Irish Com-
missioners in 1906. The English department issued
its syllabus for England and Wales in 1909, and a
similar syllabus was drawn up for Scotland in 1910.
If future generations of the populace indulge in
drunkenness, it will not be through ignorance of its
evil effects on the human frame and the body politic.
This brief sketch of the history of legislation for
the control of the liquor traffic is enough to indicate
the nature of the problem. Th(^ State interferes to
secure such ob.servance of temperance a.s is necessary
for social well-being. But reasonable liberty to do
what in itself is not unlawful is also a part of social
