Prohibitory Legislation. 79 The highway robberies have been, in every instance, the consequence of drunkenness. After a debauch in an ale or beer-house, it too often happens that some of the " company are found in the high road or in the streets, the perpetrators, or the victims, of a robbery originating in the sudden and wicked impulses engendered by intoxication. In other but less numerous cases, drunken men are set upon by ruffians, who systematically look out for such prey, and effect their object by the aid of a "picking-up woman," or by the shorter process of the " * garotte." 66 In the last two years,' he writes it has been my melancholy duty to converse with 1,126 male prisoners rendered such by drink; and he appends a table showing that upwards of twothirds of the heaviest offences during one of these years had proceeded from the same source. 'Are these figures to be passed over as dry and repulsive statistics? Surely not. When murders, manslaughters, stabbings, shooting, rapes, burglaries, "and such like," to the number of 250 in one year, and in one county, are traceable directly to acts of drunkenness, or more indirectly, but no less certainly, to habits of drunkenness, Christian feeling must indeed be dormant if it is not moved to deep sorrow for the crimes, and roused into determination to abate the cause of them. Within a few hours of writing the above, the criminal history of Liverpool recorded that a police-officer was called into a house in that town, where he found a girl of eight years old lying dead, and a boy of four years old in a dying state, both naked, their bones protruding through their skin, and their bodies covered with filth; a third child "cowering in a corner, more like a dog than a human being." And who were the perpetrators of this tragedy? Drunkard parents! who thus exemplify the horrible consequences of this national vice almost at the very time when the legislature repeals a law which would have set some bounds to the practice of it.' In the passage here quoted, Mr. Clay alludes to the rescinding of the Act which restricted the sale of liquor on Sunday. He cites the narrative of a prisoner belonging to a respectable rank in society, who forcibly describes the drinking in which young men of his class-that of shop-assistants-habitually indulge on Sunday, and which had brought him and his companions to gaol.§ Even to persons comparatively well educated, the temptation afforded by drink to abuse the day of rest is often too strong to be resisted; while of the Sunday debaucheries practised by a still lower class the reports afford superabundant proof. Those who have reflected upon the consequences which must ensue from billeting militiamen upon public-houses will not be surprised to hear that the extraordinary amount of militia recom mittals is solely attributable to drunkenness; as, indeed, are almost all the recommittals. It is certainly astounding that while the recommittals of males within the year for civil offences are under 7 per cent., those of the militia, chiefly, though not solely, for military offences, exceed 52 per cent.' We cite this passage from Mr. Clay's concluding report. Its pages are crowded with * Report for 1855, p. 7. † Ibid., p. 56. || Ibid., 1858, p. 22. Ibid., 1855, p. 57. cumulative cumulative evidence of those dire results of drink, which, for upwards of thirty years, he had unceasingly urged upon public attention.* We had intended quoting many passages from this and other reports (in addition to those already given), in which Mr. Clay powerfully advocates prohibitory legislation; but want of space limits us to the following extract : The chief cause which leads to the commission of criminal offences the chaplain still believes to be the ale-houses and the beer-shops. They are answerable, directly or indirectly, for nearly three-fourths of the imputed felonies tried within the last year.-Report for 1832.' Eighteen cases of murder and manslaughter, in one year, arising solely in the propensity to, and facilities for, the abuse of intoxicating liquors! Were any new cause of crime, prevalent as the one I speak of, suddenly to appear among us, the energies of the whole community would be forthwith directed to its suppression; but we have become familiar with the features of this old destroyer; and, as if crime and ruin were not broadly written upon them, continue insensible to their real hideousness.-Report for 1838.' † 'What can be done,' exclaims an author whose experience of the vices and virtues of working men forcibly corroborates the opinions of Mr. Clay, to rid Britain of this besetting sin of her working classes? Will no great soul give to this subject serious thought and persevering effort? Is there no wise man" who will stretch forth his hand to "save a city," or a nation, by his wisdom in suggesting, and his energy in carrying through, a moral or legislative cure for this corroding disease? Will the day never come when we shall be able to give our working brothers their holiday, their one little green isle here and there upon a sea of toil, without its ending by numbers of them drinking themselves into ferocity or idiotcy?' The wise men' are not wanting, and their energy and wisdom' are already stirring to save the nation from the curse of drunkenness. They desire to give the people a Maine law as the only legislative protection which has been found efficient against drink; but until the nation is ready for that vast reform it would be futile to introduce it. A tentative measure, therefore, has been proposed, which shall enable a majority-not less than two-thirds- of the ratepayers of any district to prohibit the traffic in intoxicating liquors in their locality. This measure, known as the Permissive Bill, has been in agitation many months: it ranks among its supporters some of the most enlightened men of our country; and a resolution, urging its adoption by her Majesty's government, was carried by acclamation at the great meeting held in Exeter Hall on the 16th of last February.§ On that occasion Professor F. W. Newman declared that it is the rich, and not the poor, who desire to retain the liquor traffic. We fear there is too much truth in the assertion. The higher classes are restrained by education and public opinion from those *In the first of my reports, of which I possess a copy-that for 1825-it was declared that "the overwhelming curse which debases and ruins the lower class resides in the ale-houses." -Report for 1858, p. 34. + Report for 1852, p. 14. English Hearts and English Hands,' pp. 214, 215. London. 1858. S'Alliance Weekly News,' Feb. 26, 1959. excesses excesses into which the ignorant are tempted by drink; and though sums of disgraceful amount are squandered by them upon intoxicating liquors, still these bear no comparison with the proportion of their income wasted by the lower classes upon the same indulgence. Thus the rich are spared the bitter penalties which drink inflicts. upon the poor; and, forgetful of the Christ-like admonition of St. Paul, It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak,' there are many we fear among us who, because we can indulge it without self-risk, would not forego our individual gratification to save our brethren from the misery into which, unprotected by the education we have neglected to give, drink will inevitably plunge them. We now conclude our memoir of Mr. Clay. During the long period of his ministration at Preston he was associated with almost every good work set on foot in that town, party feeling or sectarianism never marring his benevolence. In the visitations of distress to which manufacturing districts are subject he was always among the most active friends of the unemployed. He formed the Preston Charitable Society, which sought to detect and punish imposture and to succour the deserving poor; and the Soup Kitchen owed much to his assistance. The Mechanics Institute, as well as the Philosophical and Fine Arts Institutions, also were indebted to him for support. It was his practice to perform himself the inportant duties of a Patronage Society in maintaining a correspondence with discharged prisoners, and aiding them with his sympathy and advice;† and he strove to lessen the difficulties which impede their efforts to obtain work by the establishment, in conjunction with a few benevolent friends, of a local association for the employment of liberated convicts. * Apart from the valuable documents published by him as chaplain to the gaol, Mr. Clay drew up, in 1844, an able report upon the sanitary condition of Preston, of which Mr. Edwin Chadwick, Dr. Lyon Playfair, and others, expressed the highest opinion.§ Mr. Chadwick also bore testimony to the important service he rendered by displaying, in an able pamphlet, the murderous influence of burial-clubs. || We have already spoken of the attack of brain fever, the consequence of overwork and anxiety, which soon after his marriage nearly deprived Mr. Clay of life. A similar affliction, resulting from the same causes, befell him in 1845; and after this illness he never entirely regained his health. His duties at the gaol were *Preston Guardian.' Inspector of Prisons' Report, Northern District, 1848. + 6 Preston Guardian.' § Testimonials. Burial-Clubs and Infanticide in England.' A Letter to W. Brown, Esq., M.P., by the Rev. J. Clay, B.D. Preston. Vol. 2.-No. 5. now too heavy a tax upon his strength; but the efforts made by friends to obtain some preferment of not much less value than the chaplaincy (for he could not afford to forego a modest emolument) failed, and he was compelled to struggle on at his post until the completion of his thirty-sixth year of service should entitle him to a full retiring pension. This, at the cost of health, broken beyond the possibility of recovery, he accomplished. But the hand of death was already upon him when he resigned little more than a year ago. He removed to Quorndon in Derbyshire for the benefit of its fine air; and thence, late in the autumn of last year, to Leamington. Very shortly after making this change he became seriously ill, and only three days later-on Sunday, the 21st November-he died. On the following Friday he was buried at Churchtown, near Garstang, in the same grave in which his wife had been laid five months before. 'Had his country rendered to Mr. Clay but a tithe of the good which he conferred on his country, he might still have been alive, assisting by his counsel, if unable still to engage in active labour; but his spirit and liberality were beyond his physical strength and narrow income. He was allowed and compelled to work beyond his power. No church living, to which he would have done so much honour, was presented to him; and till it was too late, no assistance was afforded him in the discharge of his prison duties, or the means offered to him of retiring on a pension sufficient for his necessities, and the consequence is that Mr. Clay has sunk into the grave before his natural time. 'May his own county and the country at large, as far as still lies in their power, discharge to Mr. Clay's children the debt of gratitude which they left unpaid to the philanthropist himself!'* Our sketch of Mr. Clay's life and labours is very imperfect, and our notice of his writings conveys a far from adequate impression of their value. To be rightly appreciated they must be studied again and again. It was his intention, had life and health been spared, to have given to the world the collected results of his experience in prison discipline, and he had already amassed the material for his work. Yet although he himself was not permitted thus to crown his lifelong labours, his design will be carried into execution. The son, who has undertaken this pious duty, has wisely chosen biography as the appropriate vehicle for transmitting the precious legacy which, in the noble example of his life, no less than in those facts and suggestions teaching us the most effective treatment of criminals, and surest prevention of crime, John Clay has bequeathed to mankind. Alliance Weekly News,' Dec. 11, 1858. We quote from a memoir of Mr. Clay, contributed by Mr. Frederic Hill, late Inspector of Prisons, whose official duties (before he resigned that office) brought the state of Preston Gaol periodically under his notice, and whose support in promoting its reform was warmly appreciated by Mr. Clay. ART. Liberty and Mr. John Stuart Mill. 83 ART. V.-On Liberty. By John Stuart Mill. London: J. W. Parker and Son. 1859. ANYTHING from the pen of Mr. Mill must command attention and respect. The clear and concise style, the careful and logical accuracy of thought, and, above all, the calm self-respect and tolerance which distinguish his writings, have gained for him the highest position among our political philosophers. The work which stands at the head of our present article will be welcomed as breaking a silence which Mr. Mill has for some time maintained. In a tender and delicate dedication he discloses enough of the emotion of the past to win from the reader, not only the admiration due to intellectual power, but the kindly sympathy accorded to sorrow and bereavement sustained with a manly and touching dignity. The purpose of this little volume is to discuss the principles which should limit the interference of the state with individual independence-a discussion as important as any relating to political inquiries, and which involves a determination of conditions as 'indispensable to the good conduct of human affairs as a protection against political despotism.' Perhaps it would better convey the scope of the essay were we to describe it as an assertion of the right of individual independence;' for the principle laid down and contended for throughout is, 'that the sole end for which mankind. are warranted individually or collectively in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number is self-protection.' To this, and, indeed, to every collateral principle laid down by Mr. Mill in this treatise, we cordially and fully assent; but it is somewhat strange to find ourselves compelled to differ from his application of the principle in almost every case selected by him for illustration. We are not surprised at this, although we ask ourselves whether we may not be mistaken. It is not always the philosopher who, in his closet, works out by laborious thought some great social truth, who can be accepted as an authority upon the special facts which bring any given social phenomenon within the principle he enunciates. In his little volume of 200 pages Mr. Mill devotes 170 to the consideration of Liberty of Thought and Discussion,' Individuality as one of the Elements of Well-being,' and The Limits of the Authority of Society over the Individual,' and generally carries with him our most cordial acquiescence. But the remaining 30 pages of Applications' provoke our strongest dissent. Mr. Mill is deficient in the special knowledge which alone could enable him to pronounce upon some of the questions he deals with in this department. 6 It is one thing to succeed in establishing a standard to which each act of legislation must conform; it is another to be possessed |