CHAPTER XX.
ITS POWER.
The crowning Curse—No form of sin or sorrow in which it does not play a part—The “Slippery Stone” of Life—Statistics—Matters not growing worse—The Army Returns—The System of Adulteration.
Whatever differences of opinion may arise as to the extent and evil operation of the other curses that, in common with all other cities, afflict the city of London, no sane man will contest the fact that drunkenness has wrought more mischief than all other social evils put together. There is not a form of human sin and sorrow in which it does not constantly play a part. It is the “slippery stone” that in countless instances has betrayed the foot careless or over-confident, and the downhill-path is trod never to be retraced. As Dr. Guthrie writes: “Believe me, it is impossible to exaggerate, impossible even truthfully to paint, the effect of this evil, either on those who are addicted to it or on those who suffer from it; crushed husbands, broken-hearted wives, and, most of all, those poor innocent children that are dying under cruelty and starvation, that shiver in their rags upon our streets, that walk unshod the winter snows, and, with their matted hair and hollow cheeks, and sunken eyes, glare out on us wild and savage-like from patched and filthy windows. Nor is the curse confined to the lowest stratum of society. Much improved as are the habits of the upper and middle classes, the vice may still be met in all classes of society. It has cost many a servant her place, and yet greater loss—ruined her virtue; it has broken the bread of many a tradesman; it has spoiled the coronet of its lustre, and sunk the highest rank into contempt.”
It is satisfactory, however, to discover that matters are not growing worse.
In the number of persons “summarily proceeded against” for divers offences, we find a steady decrease during the last three years in the numbers charged with “drunkenness” and being “drunk and disorderly,” the respective figures being 105,310, 104,368, and 100,357, showing a diminution in the three years of nearly 5,000 cases per annum. In the total number of inquests for 1867, viz. 24,648, there is a decrease of 278, as compared with the number in the preceding year. In the verdicts of murder there is a decrease of 17, and of manslaughter 44, or 19.7 per cent, following a decrease of 59, or 20.9 per cent, as compared with the number in 1865. Under “natural death,” as compared with the numbers for 1866, there is a decrease of 51, or 13.6 per cent, in the verdicts “from excessive drinking,” following a decrease of 12 in 1866, as compared with the number in 1865. The number of persons committed or bailed for trial for indictable offences during the year, as shown in the police-returns, was 19,416, and of these it may be calculated that about 14,562 (75 per cent being about the usual proportion) would be convicted. To this number is to be added (in order to show the total number of convictions during the year) 335,359 summary convictions before the magistrates (280,196 males and 55,163 females). A large proportion of these cases were, it is true, for offences of a trifling character. They include, however, 74,288 cases of “drunkenness” and being “drunk and disorderly” (59,071 males and 15,217 females), and 10,085 offences against the Licensed Victuallers’ and Beer Acts, viz. 6,506 by beershop-keepers (5,792 males and 714 females); 3,258 by licensed victuallers (2,944 males and 314 females); the remaining 321 (293 males and 28 females) consisting of other offences under the above Acts. The total number of convictions for offences against the Refreshment Houses’ Act was 3,032, viz. 2,871 males and 161 females.
This as regards civilians and those over whom the police have control. The army-returns, however, are not so favourable.
The last annual report of Lieutenant-Colonel Henderson, R.E., the Inspector-General of Military Prisons, reveals the startling fact that, “during four years the committals for drunkenness have steadily increased as follows: 1863, 882; 1864, 1,132; 1865, 1,801; 1866, 1,926.”
The Inspector-General observes that the explanation of this increase “is to be found in the fact that soldiers who formerly were summarily convicted and sentenced to short periods of imprisonment in regimental cells by their commanding officers for drunkenness are now tried by court-martial and sentenced to imprisonment in a military prison.” But precisely the same explanation was given, in the report for the preceding year, of the increase of the committals in 1865 over those in 1864. Therefore, however applicable this consideration might have been to a comparison with former periods when drunkenness was not dealt with by court-martial, it totally fails to account for the further increase which has occurred since the change was made.
It must not be supposed that the 1,926 cases in the year 1866 were cases of simple drunkenness, such as we see disposed of in the police-courts by a fine of five shillings. The offence was “habitual drunkenness,” of which there are several definitions in the military code; but much the largest portion of the committals are for having been drunk “for the fourth time within 365 days.” In order, therefore, to form a just idea of the prevalence of this vice in the army, we must add to the cases brought before a court-martial the far more numerous instances in which the offenders are discovered less than four times a year, and are punished by their commanding officers, or in which they are not discovered at all. Drunkenness is the vice of the army. The state of feeling which pervaded society two generations ago still survives in the army. That species of “good fellowship,” which is only another name for mutual indulgence in intoxicating drink, is still in the ascendant in the most popular of English professions, and from this vantage-ground it exercises an injurious influence over the moral condition of the entire community.
The following order, relative to the punishment of drunkenness in the army, as directed by the Horse Guards, has just been published: