29

SPEECH OF MR. BUCKINGHAM,

ON THE

EXTENT, CAUSES, AND EFFECTS OF

DRUNKENNESS,

Delivered in the House of Commons on Tuesday, June 3, 1834.

(FROM THE MIRROR OF PARLIAMENT.)

SIR,-In rising to call the attention of the House to the motion of which I have given notice, for a Select Committee to inquire into the extent, causes, and consequences of the great increase of habitual Drunkenness among the labouring classes of this kingdom, and to devise legislative measures to prevent its further spread, I am so fully sensible of the difficulty of the task, that nothing but a strong conviction of its public importance would have induced me to undertake it. In the expositions which it will be my painful duty to make, I can scarcely fail to encounter the hostility of those who profit largely by the demoralization, of which they are both the cause and the support. In suggesting the remedies which I shall venture to propose, I foresee the opposition of a large class of persons interested in maintaining the existing state of things in all its force; while, from those who have no pecuniary interests involved in the inquiry, but who contend-conscientiously, perhaps that all legislation on such a sub

ject is mischievous, and that the evil should be left to work its own cure, I shall have to endure the imputation of cant and puritanism, in affecting a higher regard for morality than others, of officious meddling, and oppressive interference with the rights of property, and the enjoyments of the labouring classes. For all this I am prepared; and yet, in the face of all this, I shall firmly persevere in my original intention. Not that I am indifferent either to the rights of property, or to the enjoyments of my fellow-men; and the humbler their class, the more sacredly should their rights and enjoyments be guarded from legislative suppression; but after years of mature deliberation-after some reading, much reflection, and still more practical experience, grounded on extensive personal observation of the present condition of society in England, Scotland, and Ireland, which, within the last five years, has brought me into close intercourse with many thousands of all ranks and classes, my conviction is as strong as it is sincere, that of all the single evils that afflict our common country, the increased and increasing prevalence of Drunkenness among the labouring classes, including men, women, and children, is the greatest ;-that it is not only an evil of the greatest magnitude in itself, but that it is the source of a long and melancholy catalogue of other evils springing directly from its impure fountain ;and as its daily operation is to sap the very foundations of social happiness and domestic enjoyment, my conviction is, that he who may be instrumental

in arresting its fatal progress, will be conferring an inestimable benefit on his country, and rendering a valuable service to mankind. (Hear, hear.)

Under this conviction, I propose, Sir, with the indulgence of the House, to direct its attention to some few of the causes which appear to me to have been most powerfully operative in extending the increase of Drunkenness, and to some few of the baneful effects which it produces, not merely on its immediate victims, but on the best interests of society at large. I shall then, I hope, be able to adduce sufficient reasons to show that legislative interference is imperatively demanded to check the evilthat it is justified by precedent and analogy—and that it will produce the end desired. After this, I will submit to the House the steps which appear to me most likely to operate as immediate checks, as well as others more appropriate to be considered as ulterior remedies for an evil which it is desirable first to arrest in its present progress; and then, if possible, to root it out and extirpate it entirely.

Of the fact of the increase of Drunkenness among the labouring classes of the country, I think there will be no doubt. But if there should, a reference to the reports of the police cases, published in any town of the United Kingdom, will be more than sufficient to remove such doubts; and if to this be added the evidence furnished by the records of our criminal courts of session or assize, and by the coroner's inquests, hospital returns, and other public documents, accessible to all, the most irresistible

proof will be produced, to show that Intemperance, like a mighty and destroying flood, is fast overwhelming the land. I content myself with two short extracts of evidence on this subject from very different quarters, which I have selected from a mass of others, because they are the shortest and the most recent, not written to serve any special purpose, and above all question as to their authenticity. The first is from the latest official Report of the Middlesex Lunatic Asylum, at Hanwell, as published in the Times of the present month, and is as follows:

"GIN DRINKING.-The seventy-six deaths which have occurred in the year, have been, with the exception of those who have died from advanced age, principally caused by the disease of the brain, of the lungs, and the complaints brought on by those deadly potions of ardent spirits, in which the lower classes seem more than ever to indulge. In a very great number of the recent cases, both amongst men and women, the insanity is caused entirely by spiritdrinking. This may, in some measure, be attributed to the young not being taught to consider the practice disgraceful, and to their being tempted, by the gorgeous splendour of the present gin-mansions, to begin a habit which they never would have commenced had they been obliged to steal, fearful of being observed, into the obscurity of the former dram-shops."

The second document to which I beg to draw the special attention of the House, is one of the most appalling, perhaps, that the history of Intemperance

has ever produced. It is a report of the number of men, women, and children, who entered, within a given time, into 14 of the principal gin-shops in London, and its suburbs; of which there are 2 in Whitechapel; 3 at Mile End; 1 in East Smithfield; 1 in the Borough; 1 in Old Street; 2 in Holborn; 1 in Bloomsbury; and 3 in Westminster. From these tabular statements I make only the following selections:

"At the principal gin-shop in Holborn, there entered on the Monday, 2,880 men, 1,855 women, and 289 children, making a total of 5,024 human beings. in one single day; and in the whole week 16,998 persons had visited this single house. At the principal gin-shop in Whitechapel, this had even been exceeded; for there had entered at this house on the Monday, no less than 3,146 men, 2,189 women, and 686 children, making a total of 6,021 in a single day; and in the course of the week, the numbers amounted to 17,403. The grand total for one week only, in the 14 houses selected, the names of which I have seen, and the localities of which I have myself inspected, amount to no less a number than 269,437, divided in the following proportions namely, 142,453 men, 108,593 women, and 18,391 children-the women and children united, nearly equalling the men; and often surpassing them in the grossness and depravity of their demeanour !"

Alas! Sir, is it England of which we are speaking, the land of the lovely and the brave-the seat of the sciences and the arts-the school of morality and religion; or are those attributes of excellence ascri