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their interest to be sober, industrious, and wellinformed, leaving them, prepared with the elements of knowledge at least, to work out this problem for themselves, and to enjoy its demonstration in their own improved condition and augmented happiness produced by the national tuition wisely and well applied. From such a state of renovated health in the now diseased portion of society, what wealth might we not anticipate? The Exchequer, instead of being fed on the one hand, as it now is, by a revenue of four or five millions, from the consumption of intoxicating drinks, and drained on the other of fifteen or twenty millions for our poorrates, and hospitals, and jails, and hulks, and armies, and police, would be receiving from the consumption of more wholesome and nutritious articles, and from the profits of productive industry, now utterly lost and cast away, a revenue of fifteen or twenty millions on the one hand, and on the other be drained of four or five millions only, for the maintenance of an army of schoolmasters; an ordnance department of books and materials of instruction to assist the conquests of knowledge over ignorance. These, Sir, are but a portion of the advantages which anticipation shadows forth in the future, if we have but the courage and the virtue to reclaim our unhappy countrymen from the two debasing influences which now weigh them down-ignorance and demoralization. And if we believe that the Supreme Being, whose blessing we invoke on every occasion of our assembling in this House, to pursue

the solemn duty of legislative improvement, does really hear our prayers, and regard our actions with pleasure or disapprobation, let us be assured that the most acceptable, because the most effective manner in which we can evince our gratitude to Him for the blessings of health, instruction, and happiness which we enjoy, is to extend those blessings to the greatest number of our fellow-beings, and spread the sunshine of comfort, in which we ourselves are permitted to bask, over those who are now buried in the chilly gloom and deadly darkness of ignorance and intemperance combined.

Believing, therefore, that Parliamentary investigation and legislative measures founded thereon may greatly accelerate the accomplishment of this desirable end, I beg leave, Sir, to move, in the words of the original resolution,

"That a Select Committee be appointed, to inquire into the extent, causes, and consequences of the prevailing vice of Intoxication among the labouring classes of the United Kingdom, in order to ascertain whether any legislative measures can be devised to prevent the further spread of so great a national evil."

The motion was opposed by Lord Althorp, on the part of the Government, and several others; but, on a division, after Mr. Buckingham's reply to the various objections that were urged, it was carried against the Government, by 64 against 47;

the unexpected majority being received with loud cheers; and the following Committee, in which almost every part of Great Britain and Ireland was represented, was appointed :

James Silk Buckingham, Sheffield, Chairman

Lord Althorp, Chancellor of Exche.

Sir Robert Peel, Bart., Tamworth
Alexander Baring, Hampshire
Colonel Williams, Ashton

Sir George Sinclair, Bart., Caithness
Emerson Tennant, Belfast
Philip Howard, Carlisle

Sir G. Strickland, Bart., Yorkshire
Joseph Brotherton, Salford

Sir R. Bateson, Bart., Londonderry
J. P. Plumptre, Kent
Henry Halford, Leicestershire
Admiral Fleming, Greenwich
Daniel Gaskell, Wakefield

Sir E. Knatchbull, Bart., Kent
W. F. Finn, Kilkenny

J. H. Lloyd, Stockport
Benjamin Hawes, Lambeth
Mr. Alderman Wood, London

Mr. Serjeant Lefroy, Dublin

J. Ewing, Glasgow

Lord Sandon, Liverpool

Mark Philips, Manchester
Sir Charles Burrell, Bart., Sussex
Andrew Johnston, Cupar, Scotland
John Fenton, Rochdale
Hall Dare, Essex
Ivatt Briscoe, Surrey
Joseph Pease, Durham

Thomas Marsland, Stockport
Edward C. Lister, Bradford
Edward Baines, Leeds

E. Cayley, Yorkshire

Frederick Shaw, Dublin University
B. L. Lester, Poole

Sir J. Maxwell, Bart., Lanarkshire
Sir Andrew Agnew, Bart., Wigton

The List of Witnesses is given in the next page, and will be found to embrace men of various ranks, professions, and localities, so that their experience was gathered over an extensive range of countries and occupations; and on the Evidence elicited from them, after many days' patient examination, extending from the 9th of June to the 28th of July, both inclusive, the following Report was agreed to by the Committee, and printed among the Records, by a vote of the House of Commons.

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FIFTY WITNESSES EXAMINED.

Arnold, Lieutenant, Royal Navy, serving in many Climates
Bagshaw, Rev. C. F., Chaplain of Salford Gaol, Lancaster
Braidley, Benjamin, Borough reeve of Manchester

Brenton, Pelham, Capt. R.Ñ., Founder of the Refuge for Juveniles
Brooke, David, Cloth-Dresser, Leeds

Broughton, Robert E., Police Magistrate of London

Campbell, Alexander, Sheriff-Substitute of Renfrewshire

Capper, Samuel, Secretary of the Temperance Society, London

Carr, George Whitmore, Founder of the Temperance Society in Ireland Chadwick, Edwin, Secretary to the Poor-Law Commissioners

Chambers, Robert Joseph. Police Magistrate of London

Cheyne, John, Doctor of Medicine, late Physician-General in Ireland
Collins, William. Founder of Temperance Societies in Scotland
Davis, Thomas Hart, Captain in the Army

Dods, Robert Greig, Doctor of Medicine, in England and India
Dunlop, John, Author of a Work on the Drinking Usages of England
Ellis, Abraham, Working-Weaver, of Spitalfields

Ellis, M.D., Resident Physician at the Middlesex Lunatic Asylum
Edgar, Rev. John, D.D., Founder of the Temperance Society in Belfast
Este, Michael Lambton, Surgeon to the First Regiment of Life Guards
Farre, John R., M.D., Practising Physician, Charterhouse Square
Fearon, H.B., Keeper of one of the largest Gin-Shops in London
Finch, John, Proprietor and Manager of large Iron-Works, at Liverpool
Fox, George Townshend, Magistrate of the County of Durham
Gordon, M.D., Physician to the London Hospital

Gell, John Henry, Coroner for Westminster

Hartley, Thomas, Hon. Secretary to the Temperance Society of London Hinton, John, Eating-House Keeper, London

Herepath, Samuel, Working-Hatter, London

Livesey, Joseph, Founder of the Total Abstinence Society at Preston Lister, Ellis Cunliffe, M.P. for Bradford, extensive Manufacturer

Moore, Mark, Missionary of the London Temperance Society

Murray, William, Iron and Coal Master, Glasgow

Ousby, Rev. Robert, Curate of Kirton Lindsey, Lincoln

Poynder, John, one of the Directors of the Middlesex Hospital

Place, Francis, one of the leading Electors of Westminster

Purnell, Charles, Dock-Master and Director of Shipping at Liverpool Roberts, Thomas, Mahogany Broker, London

Roberts, Owen Owen, Surgeon, Carnarvon, North Wales

Rowan, Charles, Colonel, and Head of the Metropolitan Police
Ruell, Rev. David, Chaplain of the New Prison, Clerkenwell
Simpson, John, Insurance Broker and General Agent, London
Scoresby, Rev. William, one of the Navigators of the Arctic Seas
Stanhope, the Hon. Leicester, Colonel in the Army serving in India
Saunders, Charles, Working-Coal-Whipper in the River Thames
Turner, James, Operative, Dresser of Cotton Yarn, Manchester
Twells, John, Esq., Highbury, Magistrate of Middlesex
White, Robert Guest, Army Accoutrement Maker, Dublin
White, W. A. Armstrong, Police Magistrate of London
Wilson, George, Grocer, Overseer of the Poor, Westminster

81

PARLIAMENTARY REPORT.

THE SELECT COMMITTEE appointed to inquire into the EXTENT, CAUSES, and CONSEQUENCES of the prevailing vice of INTOXICATION among the LABOURING CLASSES of the United Kingdom, in order to ascertain whether any Legislative Measures can be devised to prevent the further spread of so great a National Evil, and to whom the several Petitions presented to the House were referred, and who were empowered to report the MINUTES of EVIDENCE taken before them from time to time :-HAVE, pursuant to the Order of the House, proceeded to examine a great number and variety of witnesses from different parts of the United Kingdom, and in various ranks and professions of life, and have agreed to the following REPORT:

I. Extent of the Evil.

1. That it appears to your Committee, from the evidence taken before them, that the vice of intoxication has been for some years past on the decline in the higher and middle ranks of society; but has increased within the same period among the labouring classes, and exists at present to a very great extent in the population of England, Scotland, and

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