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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 74

Origin of the Licensed Drink Traffic

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[unclear: Origin] of the Licensed Drink Traffic.

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[unclear: To] Were its origin as a National Institution thoroughly known, its purpose, aims, and historical [unclear: being], the patriots and Christians who now tolerate it would do so no longer. It was of [unclear: pric] birth, and the same cruel instincts and selfish interests of which it was engendered [unclear: to] operate to keep it in existence, though, of course, not so frankly avowed.

The "Domestic MSS." of Elizabeth's reign, vol. i., A.D., 1558, which can be seen in the [unclear: real] Record Office, reveals the terrible story. A nobleman (how frightful the perversion !) [unclear: being] to Cecil, Secretary of State, complains of the independence of the common people, [unclear: paints], farmers, and artizans, thus :—" The wealth of the meaner sort is the very summit [unclear: million], the occasion of their insolence, of the contempt of the nobility. It must be cured." much for the motive, now for the means ! " It must be cured . . by providing, as it

[unclear: Some] of Some Sewers or Channels to Draw or Suck from them their Money by Subtle and [unclear: ect] Means, to be handled insensibly."

And to this day this demonic machinery " sucks" from the " meaner sort" alone [unclear: 10],000 yearly (£440,000 in New Zealand) to sustain Law, Police, Army, Navy, and [unclear: itary] Pensioners!—which sum, of course, would otherwise have to come out of [unclear: perrty]," or be rendered needless by economy and reform. The nobility and squirearchy power to licence their servants to sell ale and wine through the country; these licenses [unclear: lavishly] dispensed, yielding an income to the licensers, and so the people became corrupted [unclear: their] morals and paralysed in their industry. Froude tells the frightful story, and Com[unclear: eer] Tyldsley reports to Cecil (vol. i., p. 462) "that the alehouses—the very stock and false thieves and vagabonds—were supported by the gentlemen for the worst of motives." [unclear: says]: " I have spoken to sharpen you against the Devil and all his Wicked Instruments" [unclear: pt] 3, l561),

This "wicked instrument "—the Licensed Traffic-has now developed into so huge a power [unclear: of] master Governments, overawe Magistrates, silence the Church, cow Political Parties, and [unclear: of] the Country; so strong, indeed, that no class whatever can cope with it, save the Whole [unclear: plane], and that only by their virtue and organised intelligence. In James' reign Government [unclear: and] to take the License Fees, and hence corruption and indifference followed. The genius [unclear: in] reigned supreme in London; as now the Brewers flourish on the poverty of the people.—[unclear: F.]R. Less.