Temperance

Intemperance was one of many questions which we can now see were struggling into existence during the latter half of the i8th century, to become the subject matter of "social reform" in the i9th. Like the majority of them it was a question of bodily wel fare, of health. A breach had been made in the unthinking tradi tional belief in the virtue of alcoholic liquor by the experiences referred to ; and medical thought, as soon as it began to busy itself with health as distinguished from the treatment of disease, took the matter up. In 1804 Dr. Trotter, of Edinburgh, published a book on the subject, which was an expansion of his academic thesis written in 1788; Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia, a dis tinguished American physician and politician, who had studied in Edinburgh and London, wrote a striking paper on the same subject in the same year; and very soon after this the organized tem perance movement was set on foot in the United States.

Temperance Organization.

In 1808 a temperance society was founded at Saratoga in the State of New York, and in 1813 the Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance made its appearance. These seem to have been the earliest organizations, though the device of a pledge of abstinence had been introduced in 1800. The movement made rapid progress mainly under the influence of the Churches. In 1826 the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance was founded in Boston, and by 1833 there were 6,000 local societies in several States with more than a million members. The campaign was, for the most part, directed against the use of spirits only, and the proposal to include all alcoholic drinks in the pledge of abstinence, though adopted by a few societies, was rejected in 1833 by the American society, but accepted in 1836 and retained ever since.

In Europe the earliest organizations were formed in Ireland. A temperance club is said to have been started at Skibbereen in 1818, and others followed; but it was in 1829 that the organized move ment began to make effectual progress with the formation of the Ulster Temperance Society. By the end of that year there were 25 societies in Ireland and two or three in Scotland. In 183o the movement spread to Yorkshire and Lancashire, and supported a newspaper called the Temperance Societies' Record, according to which there were then 127 societies with 23,00o paying members and 6o,000 associated abstainers. In 1831 the British and Foreign Temperance Society was founded in London with the bishop of London (Blomfield) for president and Archbishop Sumner for one of the vice-presidents. This important society, of which Queen Victoria became patron on her accession in 1837, came to an end in 185o, when the whole cause was under an eclipse. The most remarkable episode in the temperance campaign at this period was the mission of the Rev. Theobald Mathew, of Cork, commonly known as Father Mathew, the greatest of all tem perance missionaries. He travelled through Ireland in the years 1838-42 and everywhere excited intense enthusiasm. People

flocked to hear him and took the pledge in crowds. In 1841 the number of abstainers in Ireland was estimated to be 4,647,000, which is more than the entire population to-day. In three years the consumption of spirits fell from 10,815,000 to 5,290,000 gal lons. This was not all due to Father Mathew, because great depression and distress prevailed at the same time, but he un questionably exercised an extraordinary influence. In 1843 lie went to England, where he had less, though still great, success, and in 185o to America. He died in 1856, by which time the cause had fallen into a depressed state in both countries. In the United States a flash of enthusiasm of a similar character, but on a smaller scale, known as the Washingtonian movement, had ap peared. In 1845 a law prohibiting the public sale of liquor was passed in New York State but repealed in 1847 ; in 1851 Maine adopted prohibition (see LIQUOR LAWS AND LIQUOR CONTROL).

Since that time the organized movement has embraced both elements, the voluntary and the compulsory, and has combined the inculcation of individual abstinence with the promotion of legislation for the reduction or suppression of the traffic. On the whole the latter has predominated, particularly in the United States, where organized agitation has for more than half a century made temperance a political question and has produced the various experiments in legislation of which an account is given under LIQUOR LAWS AND LIQUOR CONTROL. Besides combining the moral and the political elements the modern movement is char acterized by the following features : (I) international organization, (2) organized co-operation of women, (3) juvenile temperance, (4) teaching of temperance in schools and elsewhere, (5) scientific study of alcohol and inebriety.

(I) International organization appears to have been started by the Order of Good Templars, a society of abstainers formed, in 1851, at Utica, in New York State. It spread over the United States and Canada, and in 1868 was introduced into Great Britain. Some years later it was extended to Scandinavia, where it is very strong. Temperance societies had previously existed in Norway from 1836, and in Sweden from 1837; these seem to be the earliest examples on the continent of Europe. The Good Templars organ ization has spread to several other European countries, to Aus tralasia, India, South and West Africa and South America. There are several other international societies, and international con gresses have been held, the first in 1885 at Antwerp. A World's Prohibition Conference was held in London in 1909. It was attended by about 30o delegates from temperance societies in nearly all parts of the world, and resulted in the foundation of an International Prohibition Federation, which embraces every coun try in Europe with three or four minor exceptions, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, the British self-governing dominions, India, China, Japan, Palestine, Tunisia and Hawaii.