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July 21, 1855J THE LEADEi,. qqk
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GOVERNMEOT AND CIVIL SEE VICE OF INDIA. ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Coming Repeal Of The Beer Act. The House...
narativety slight and mild ou the subject of foe working , is forcible and conclusive oil the mon-existenee © f any original ease for the statute . To sum up their evidence very generally , it may be said to amount to this : The act does not work worse than might have been expected . It has probably had some effect in cheeking the amount of overt drunkenness on Sunday . The worst part of its operation is its oppressive restriction upon persons for whom it was not intended at ail .
It is a great restraint upon the sober with only comparative restraint upon the drunkard ; but tho sober immensely outnuiuber the drunken . It is chiefly operative where it was not wanted , and since it does not reach the wealthy class , whoso inn-keepers and clubmanagers can easily avoid the operation of the law , it has established a glaring case of class legislation , where the well-conducted of the humbler classes are put to gross inconvenience with no real benefit to anybody . Tho cases of actual drunkenness , says Sir
Richard Mayse , the Chief Commissioner of Police , in a population of 2 , 500 , 000 arc in the proportion of one to 32 , 000 ; so that you place the 32 , 000 under restraint in order to have some hold upon the one ! Let us for an instant imagine this case carried out upon some actual assemblage of men . We have an army somewhat above 32 , 000 in the Crimea :
one man misconducts himself ixt that force , and because one wan misconducts himself , General Simpson puts a very rigorous constraint upon the action of the whole army during every leisure hour ; prevents its enjoying amusements , and debars it from food during a great part of the day . Is it conceivable that the arcny would not mutiny , or that the War Office should retain General Simpson
at his post ? Yet that is precisely the condition into which Parliament at home has forced JSir Richard Mayne and all the Police Magistrates . There was a case against the one man , but in respect to him your remedy is doubtful ; there was no case against the 32 , 000 , in respect of whom alone the restraint is quite certain . From the evidence that has already been collected , indeed , the case against tho bill is completely established . It does not conduce to a better observance of the Sabbath , but it
positively prevents the progress which was already ma King towards a better observance of the seventh day . The people were becoming soberer , quieter in their enjoyments , more disposed to attendance o \ x divine worship ; and if anything could check that extremely desirable progress , it was a compulsory Act which would render Sabbath observance offensive . The remark
applies just as much to those who profess " a rational observance , " " a day of repose , " as to tho open reliyiouista . In iact , so far as tho compulsion ia concerned , the case of both is exactly the same . Both tell you that they only desire to be protected —tho one to have his rest uninterrupted , the Other to be free for attendance in the House
of God ; but both are free already . If the Epicurean , whoso philosophy we do not in tho filightest degree question , desires to rest , lie can do so and welcome ; if the Pietist feels AH instinct for attendance on divine worship , lot Mm go . AVIinfc ia it that hinders him ? It i « , ho Bays , that if ho close his shop , his Hext-door neighbour will open his , and hike
away customers ; and the Epicurean or Pietist ! Wisnea hia neighbour to be prevented coin-JJulBorilv as ho would be voluntarily . So this Epicurean donirea to have a favour not Sought by liia neighbour , while both of them < Wo to bear the expense . Tho Pietist wishes < tonuuce tho sacrifice winch ho considers due to hie Makor , but ho naka tho Legislature to guarantee him againat any Iowa through tho
sacrifice . His were the hands to lay the sascrifice oil the altar , but the public is to pay the sacred piper ! Such is the modern improvement on Ananias . The fact is that the sacrifice is worth mating on both accounts , and what is more , the public was rapidly strengthening itself in the resolve to render the sacrifice . A healthier taste was leading it to enjoy the repose ; but in order to develop that enjoyment certain accessories were needed . The man confined
to town feels the instincts of nature strong upon him , and seeks to expand his ideas as well as his lungs in a purer atmosphere ; but if he would live , he must feed even while he elevates himself . He wants the conveyance to the place of his recreation , the place to recreate in , the sustenance to keep him alive ; and it would be difficult to show that the attendance upon , the public in these recreations is less " necessary , " less beneficial than the attendance of the doctor on his
patient or the pastor on his flock . It is rather remarkable that drunkenness and Protestantism so habitually go together . The superficial moralist would say that it is because beer and the popular use of the Bible prevail in some countries . Is there , then , some necessary connexion between
biblical studies and brewing ? Is a taste for porter rising in Florence among the co-religionaries of the Madijli ? ~\ Ve doubt it . We deny that Lutherism is wedded to malt . There may , however , be , in the abuse of Protestantism , some tendency to foster the vice of Protestant countries ; there may be a common cause both for the religious abuse
and the social vice . The Protestant who refuses to admit the authority of the Pope , wishes to be pope over his neighbour ; and though he will not let the Pope dictate diet to liiiu on Fridays aud Saturdays , or Wednesdays and Fridays , he will be the pope dictating diet to his neighbour . He scorns to eat fish at the command of any pontiff , but he decrees water for everybody else . In Switzerland they have passed a law on the sale of liquor ; the United States originated the Maine Liquor Law , which Alderman Sir Robert Cahden is associated with others to
introduce into this country . JSow it so happens that it has not occurred to the Pope that he can increase his influence or promote love of Christianity by debarring people from all kinds of recreation , on the feasts of the Church ; and the Italian peasantry , after attending at diviue worship in the morning , can recreate itself in vineyards where wine flows like water , and cjo to bed at night as
sober as if the crystal liquid had been drunk instead of the ruby- Protestantism would do well to take n leaf out of the book of Catholicism . As to attendance at public worship there is , we assure our readers , no possibility of making the comparison , so universal , so spontaneous ia the attendance in ltalv . " We can only compare ; it for universality to the sobriety of the people .
Sir lituncitt Caude >* is the true specimen of the Protestant Pope . Ho is a member of the Maine Liquor Law Society , and lie endeavours to enforce that law upon the people , partly on the ground that if a man drink a pint " of alcohol it will make him drop down dead . Equally , we might any , there is iron iu the blood , but it * a man were to swallow the spike end of an area railing , he would never recover it . Are wo then to
diseonhouses af ter that hour respectable people . " " They are all to a considerable extent either robbers , thieves ,, prostitutes , or bad characters . " The gentlemen who turn out at Verey ' s , or Simpson ' s , the Reform , or the Carlton , now know what Sir Robebt thinks of them . "Is an honest man , " asks Mr . Beekei , et , " never thirsty after ten o ' clock P " " An honest man , " says Sir Robebt , " seeks his home and family before that hour . " " Bnt suppose he has no house , or home , or family ?" asks Mr . Berkeley . " Then I think he ought to have one . " So Sir Robert , if we to authorise him
were , would decree that no fermented drink should be sold , that no man should be in a tavern after ten o ' clock , that every man should be married and have a family , under a penalty of being classed as a robber , a thief , a prostitute , or bad character . This is the way to make Christians . Like most Popes , Sir Robert can grant a dispensation to himself ; he preaches , but does not practice , the Maine Liquor Law , and jocosely confesses , "I am no saint myself . " Xet he who is no saint by his own freewill would make everybody else a saint by Act of Parliament and Police . Do we not see the direct
consequence—that instead of multiplying saints , the Garden regime could only spoil any ready-grown saints to make them , slaves or rebels ? If parsons do their duty there will be plenty of attendance at divine worship , without any need for a parson-protecting police law ; and the public will continue to be sober and more rational every Sunday , if Government will only let them . The Sunday holiday is only turned to a scowl when the thirty thousand who enjoy and use it are treated like the one miserable fool who abuses it , and does not enjoy it .
linue tho use of area railings , because , if men did what they never do , they would be killed ? Sir Roinurr lias a magnificent \ va } r of applying tho law . In tho lirat place , all who do not obey his law are reprobates , lie would never open a public-house after ten o ' clock at night , because , he fsnys , " there are not ton in a hundred persons who enter pubfic-
July 21, 1855j The Leadei,. Qqk
July 21 , 1855 J THE LEADEi ,. qqk
Governmeot And Civil See Vice Of India. ...
GOVERNMEOT AND CIVIL SEE VICE OF INDIA . After an unusually lengthened and successful career in the East , Lord Daxhoitsie is about to deliver the governor-generalship of India into younger , it will not be said into abler , hands . The annexation of the Punjab aud Pegu , though the most brilliant illustrations of his viceroyalty , is by no means his lordship ' s best claim to the satisfaction of his fellow-countrymen , or to the gratitude of the people over whom he has so beneficently ruled . That Viscount Canning will tread in
the footsteps of his predecessor , aud approve himself worthy of the important trust by other than quasi-hereditary reasons , we will not for a moment doubt . But at the same time we may be permitted to express a feeling of regret that the preoccupation of the Russian war should have diverted the attention of the Ministry and Parliament from the improvements ' that might now have been fittingly iutrodueed into the government of Iudia . It is impossible to impress too forciblv , " or too frequently , upon the British public the necessity of reforming the entire system of administration that prevails
in that vast dependency . One chief source of weakness appears to arise from the division of our Indian possessions into three semi-independent presidencies , distinct in civil and military matters , united only m a political point of view . Prom this heterogeneous arrangement much mutual jealousy naturally ensues , and the introduction ot measures oflocal benefit is beset with ^ sura but impassable obstructions . In addition
.-, A ... rn :.... u :. ^ U-. mfiv DO 1 'Cto these minor difficulties it ™* Y » ; x £ membered that the Government of V \ ™ India , though nominally conduced V * " « Honourable Company , is actually eontied m the Board of Control . A P w 8 l 1 d ? + ? | l | t ^ board i . s , uo , l the supreme mandate that involved the country in tho Uisajtraufl war with Afghanistan j aud without tho nat
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 21, 1855, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21071855/page/11/
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