1885)

moustache (for civilians) only came in after military rules on the subject had been relaxed by the Crimean War. Soon afterwards the abundant locks which had been worn throughout the reign began to be cropped close in military fashion. In 1840 no white was worn round the neck other than a fold of white waistcoat, which showed above the coat collar and below the stock, but by 1855 white collars and bows had come in. French tall silk hats were made lighter and cheaper than the English beavers, and

AN IMPARTIAL STATEMENT IN BLACK AND WHITE, BY G., DU MAURIER, 1881. (Reproduced by special permission of the Proprietors of "Punch.")

natural beaver was no longer used when new methods of waterproofing had been discovered. Ankle-jacks or jack-boots reaching to the ankle were characteristic of the same period. Already in 1825 Charles Macintosh had applied some important discoveries to the waterproofing of clothes (p. 514), and Hancock was able to induce the Guards to use his drab cambric waterproof capes on the way to field exercise. This colour began to take with the public generally, and all travellers by 1830 had macintoshes for coach travelling.

BATESON.

WRITING in 1825, Sir Walter Scott says, "Drinking is not now MARY the vice of the times," and again, to his son, he says, "The Social habit of drinking wine, so much practised when I was a young

Life.

Drink.

Beerhouse
Act, 1830.

Publichouses.

[1865-1885

man, occasioned many of my cruel stomach complaints. You had better drink a bottle of wine on any particular occasion than sit and soak and sipple at an English pint every day." "Sots are excluded from the best company.' Habitual or violent drunkenness was already a social offence, but occasional total lapses and regular haziness after dinner were still weaknesses in men which all must tolerate.

Gin-drinking among the lower classes had again reached alarming proportions in 1830. The numbers entering fourteen of the largest gin-shops in London were counted, and in one week the number of men was 142,453, of women 108,593, of children 18,391. Throughout the war, malt, hops and beer had been heavily taxed, and the consumption had not increased in proportion to the consumption of spirits, or even of tea and coffee. It was hoped that if the sale of beer were encouraged the sale of spirits might still further diminish, and in this belief the taxes on beer, hops, and malt were reduced, and cheap beer licences were sold at two guineas each. In the first year 31,000 of the new licences were taken out for "Tom and Jerry shops.” Already in 1834 it was seen that some revision of the system was needed, and new licences, more costly for the sale of beer to be consumed on than off the premises, were issued. Nevertheless the number of "swankey shops," or "ons," continued to increase, and the "offs" to diminish. In ten years. the quantity of malt paying duty increased by ten million bushels. A slight diminution in the consumption of spirits followed, but was not long maintained.

The statistics of the number of publicans' spirit licences in England and Wales show a continuous diminution in proportion to population. In 1889 the total of intoxicating liquor licences was 181,297. The licences in 1830-9 amounted to 6:30 to every 1,000 of population; in 1860-9, to 5:57. After Selwin-Ibbetson's Act there was a drop from 124,173 in 1869 to 116,759 in 1871, or in beer-house licences from 48,967 to 42,607. In 1885 the proportion was at about 454 per 1,000.

The statistics of consumption show an increase over the years 1831-85 as compared with 1761-1821 in the consumption of British spirits per head, with a diminution in malt; but this increase is more apparent than real, for the statistics are estimated on duty-paid spirits, and in the earlier period the

Committee of 1834.

Drunkenness.

[1865

quantity of spirits which escaped duty cannot be ascertained. Smuggling and illicit distillation, whenever duties were high, deprived the Government of a large part of the dues that should have been paid for home consumption. During the war and till 1823, duty was charged at 11s. 8d. for English spirits, for Scotch and Irish 5s. 6d. a gallon; then the duty fell, on English to 7s. 6d., on Scotch to 3s. 4d., on Irish to 2s. 4d. Between 1823 and 1839 the consumption of duty-paid English and Irish more than doubled, and Scotch trebled; yet this increase doubtless does not point to an actual doubling of consumption. The increase was maintained after the tax on spirits was made uniform at 10s. a gallon in 1860. It would appear, then, that in the present century increase of duty within certain limits has not prevented increased consumption, and no longer leads, as once it did, to smuggling and illicit distillation.

In 1834 a Select Committee of the House of Commons sat to consider means to prevent drunkenness, and came to the conclusion that the vice had declined in the upper classes but increased in the lower. The committee were prepared to enforce drastic measures, such as Sunday closing, the opening of retail-shops to the view of passers-by, the reduction of duties on tea, coffee, and sugar, the abolition of the issues of spirits to the Army and Navy, with a view to the ultimate prohibition of all foreign importation and of home distillation. These proposals were out of harmony with the public opinion of the time, and only the mildest of the suggestions have since been put in force. The evidence collected by the Lords' Select Committee on intemperance, 1877-8, led them to report that recent legislation had not diminished drunkenness, that it had not increased in rural districts, but had increased in towns, especially during the five or six years of prosperity which followed 1868. They held that there was a vast increase of female intemperance, and summed up that there was no evidence to prove that the country was in a worse condition than it was thirty years ago. This verdict was certainly not unduly optimistic.

The statistics of drunkenness, which, of course, bear no necessary relation to the consumption of spirits per head of population, are not easily ascertained, for the tables of apprehensions and convictions at police courts are often affected by

1885]

changes of magisterial practice. On the whole, the tendency has been to make drunkenness more distinctly a petty criminal offence; drunkards are no longer, as before 1833, "taken care of" by the police, and dismissed, when sober, without being entered on the charge-sheet. But it seems that 1865, looking back on 1835, saw an improvement; this included the period when the taxes on all British spirits were made uniform, and the tax on tea was reduced by one-half; 1885, looking back on 1860, saw neither improvement nor the reverse. But as there was greater police vigilance and an increased readiness to convict, it is possible to escape the conclusion that there was as much drunkenness as ever.

The Cobden Treaty of 1860 to encourage the lighter French Wines. vintages had a marked effect on the consumption of light wines in the United Kingdom. In 1801-3 only 274,000 gallons of French wines were drunk, with over 7,000,000 gallons of other wines. In 1880, of over 17,000,000 gallons imported, the French contribution was nearly 7,000,000. From 1858-60 the average annual consumption of all foreign wines was about 6,600,000 gallons; from 1882-4 over 14,000,000 gallons. According to Porter's statistics, the consumption of British spirits per head was, 1721–91, an average of 62 gallon; 1791-1871, ‘46 gallon, or a diminution of 25 per cent., but foreign and colonial spirits showed an increase. Malt showed a decrease from 376 bushels to 2.11 bushels, a fall of 43 per cent.; whereas the amount of wine imported per head of population increased by about 200 per cent., 1860-85.

The earliest temperance societies were American, and date Temfrom the end of the eighteenth century. In England temperance perance. societies of the modern type date from 1829, when Professor John Edgar at Belfast, G. W. Carr at New Ross, and John Dunlop at Glasgow, acting independently, started societies with members pledged to abstain from intoxicating liquor. A year later H. Forbes started one at Bradford; in 1832 Joseph Livesey, of Preston, and six others pledged themselves to total abstinence, and one of their friends created a word when he declared in a speech that "nothing but te-te-total would do." In 1834 the Commission on drunkenness proposed that temperance societies should be encouraged and established throughout the country. This recommendation, however, was little likely