[Debate on drunkenness and alcohol licensing in Liverpool.].

Date:
[1876?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Debate on drunkenness and alcohol licensing in Liverpool.]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    lodgers are excluded from any voice whatever under the Permissive Bill. It is the “squireens,” as Councillor Sullivan designated them, that are to rule in the matter (hear, hear). The people are altogether forgotten or overlooked in this bill. Although we have been lectured in unmeasured terms on the increase of drunkenness, the revenue returns show conclu¬ sively that the sale of spirits is decreasing in Ireland, for I find that the de¬ crease under this head in 1867, as compared with 1866, amounts to £144,160 (hear, hear). Alderman M‘Swiney has stated his abhorrence of beer houses, and his abhorrence of us as a body; but he can know but little of the trade when he places the two in one category, although he, when Lord Mayor, presided over a meeting in the Rotunda for the suppression of the Beer Houses. On last Tuesday week a proposal came up to the Town Council of Edinburgh, and a gentleman brought for¬ ward a motion similar to that of Mr. Sullivan. A report was brought uj) condemnatory of the Bill, and when it came before the whole council, that condemnation was confirmed by sixteen votes to six (hear, hear). I trust and hope, with the example of Scotland before us, the resolutions and petition will be scouted from the Plouse (hear, hear). It is very refreshing to find the President of the Licensed Grocers’ and Vintners’ Benevolent Association rejoicing over the diminished consumption of spirits in Ireland. Mr. Carey is never particular about figures, and we may here point out that he rather “ diminished ” the minority in favour of the Permissive Bill in the Edinburgh City Council, the number being ten instead of six. Sir John Gray. M.P.—My Lord Mayor, I confess that I feel great difficulty in dealing with this question ; and I believe that the Council also have a great difficulty in dealing with the question in its present aspect before the House (hear, hear). I am sure that there is not a member of the House that does not feel that one of the greatest evils which can afflict either an individual or a community is the excessive use of intoxicating drinks (hear, hear). More evils have fallen on the people of this and other countries from the importation and unlimited use of intoxicating drinks than has resulted from any other cause, not even excepting perhaps the conquest of the country. Go where you will throughout the civilized world, and you will find that wherever intoxicating drinks have been introduced, and the people have become habituated to their use, their physical power is decayed, their mental powers almost vanished, and that they are the victims of manifold evils. The difficulty I feel to-dky in dealing with the question is, that let us discuss it as we will, let us talk as we will, with the resolutions before the House in their present form, the public outside will regard the question as one of temperance or intemperance, and according as the members of the Council record their votes, they will hold that those votes were given on the one side as for the advance of temperance, and on the other for the advance of intemperance (hear, hear). Having carefully looked at Sir Wilfrid Lawson’s Bill, I am bound to say that