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A Safe Path to Prohibition.

enter upon the task without first counting the cost. He remarks, that while prepared to defend his positions when assailed by argument, "scurrilous and personal abuse" will not be noticed.

As might have been expected, he was rather severely handled by the representatives of the organization thus placed on the defensive. He received, what every man who attacks a considerable party must expect, unfair treatment. Indeed, every possible attempt was made to detract from the value of his work and lessen his influence. The Temperance Spectator-an able magazine issued in the interests of the Alliance-which in April, 1860, had published a laudatory biographical sketch of Mr. Livesey (quoted from on page xxvii.), in its issue for October, 1862, speaks of him as "wakening up, after a quarter of a century's somnolency, varied only by starts and spasms, and assuming the onerous position of Adviser-general to the Temperance army," and states that he had "been raised to vitality and activity by the aid of the galvanic batteries of the two leagues." Mr. Livesey was also compared to Dr. Edgar and others who had not kept pace with the reform. These statements, and many similar ones, made about him at this time, were evidently intended to lead the people to suppose that he had been asleep on the Temperance question since 1837,† and that, being a Rip Van Winkle, his utterances were made without a knowledge of the then condition of things, and consequently were unworthy of regard.

Throughout the Staunch Teetotaler (1867–8) Mr. Livesey urged Temperance people not to put too much faith in legislative remedies, but to redouble their energies in teaching the people the doctrines of teetotalism. He seemed deeply impressed with the idea that, failing to get what they desired by the Permissive Bill or some other enactment, their interest in the general Temperance question would flag or die out altogether, and he sought to prepare them for the disappointment which he believed to be inevitable. His general views on Temperance legislation, and how best to get it, are expressed in the following quotation :

"If past experience be worth anything, it should teach us not to depend too much upon LEGISLATION. Neither magistrates as administrators, nor the legislature as the maker of our laws, have ever done much for Temperance. From the first we have been agitating for more restriction and prohibition, but with very unsatisfactory results. The sale of beer is free, wine is free, and the limit to selling applies only to spirits. I am a more thorough-going prohibitionist than many of my friends, but I am convinced that so long as the legislature is chosen by drinking constituences, it will support the drinking system; and therefore, before we can expect beneficial changes in the laws, we must have a great change among the men who make them; and as nothing will be done towards this change by the drinking party, it can only be brought about by teetotalizing the country far more than it is at present. The character of the House of Commons is formed by the constituencies, and it is quite obvious that they have not created a Parliament well disposed towards prohibition. Nobody knows better than I the advantage to the cause of

Temperance Spectator, vol. 4, 1862, p. 149.

+ Mr. William Hoyle, however, allows that Mr. Livesey's active services extended to 1847. According to the Alliance News, Sept. 6th, 1884, in proposing the resolution given on page 168 -after speaking in very high terms of Mr. Livesey's Anti-Corn-Law labours-he said: "During the first fifteen years of the Total Abstinence movement his labours and services to it were exceedingly important, and of the very highest value. It was impossible to measure the amount of influence for good which he then put forth." In reality, however, Mr. Livesey's interest in the movement never waned, and he worked on his own lines to the end of his days.

Controversy-The Heroic Policy-A Second Famphlet.

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sobriety, religion, and everything that is good, of closing the liquor shops, but the question is, How are we to do this? After much experience, my opinion is that if ever the liquor traffic is subdued, it will be by the spread of teetotalism in the country.'

Of course Mr. Livesey's outspoken utterances regarding efforts which he considered well meant, but misdirected, brought down upon him much censure from the warmest friends of the Alliance. Of the remonstrances addressed to him part were published, while the rest took the shape of private correspondence. Among those who thus addressed Mr. Livesey of course there would be one whose letters in the days of his vigour were as numerous as they were scathing,—the redoubtable and energetic secretary of the Alliance, Mr. T. H. Barker. Like other correspondents of Mr. Livesey, Mr. Barker always admitted the thorough disinterestedness and honesty of purpose of the Father of teetotalism, whose long, unceasing, and gratuitous labours in the promotion of 'True Temperance Teaching,' afforded him a high vantage-ground in controversy. The words with which Mr. Livesey concluded a rather caustic correspondence with Mr. Barker in 1870 are quite characteristic of the man: "It is time, not argument, I believe, that is to arbitrate betwixt us." And without doubt, time will arbitrate upon the matter. Indeed, it has already settled several points then in dispute, and the future will fully disclose the true value of Mr. Livesey's ideas regarding Temperance legislation, and the necessary preliminaries to it.

In 1872, the Alliance reached the zenith of its power, and resolved upon the heroic policy, now generally described as 'a vote for a vote, and nothing for nothing.' Its General Council, at the Twentieth Annual Meeting, resolved upon a bolder electoral policy; recommended its supporters, in case of a vacancy in the representation of any constituency, "to put in nomination a candidate favourable to the Permissive Bill; and pledged itself to supply candidates in cases where local friends failed to find suitable ones, so as to enable every elector to vote for the Permissive Bill, "until the question be decided." By this act, the Alliance virtually constituted itself a third party, and Mr. Livesey returned to the discussion of the subject. He issued another note of warning in the form of a a pamphlet entitled, "True Temperance Teaching," the opening paragraph of which is as follows:

"When Mr. Washington Wilks and others in 1862 were attempting to answer my pamphlet and to write me down, he used these words: 'He (Mr. Livesey) urges a threefold objection to the Permissive Bill; first, that it is impossible to be obtained; secondly, if obtained and attempted to be put in force the attempt would be a failure, and do more harm than good; and, thirdly, the agitation for the Bill is diverting the attention of Temperance reformers from other measures of an imperial character more likely to be carried, and of far more practical importance. Îf the first of these objections can be sustained, THERE IS AN END OF THE CONTROVERSY. The town that had neither gun nor gunpowder was excused, by the king in the story, from making any other apologies for not firing a salute. If a Permissive Bill be impossible of attainment, we may as well say no more about it.' Eleven more years of agitation, vast expenditure of money, and great exertions point only in one direction, and that is to a confirmation of all I then asserted. I have ever since considered the measure carefully, and do sincerely believe that it would be difficult to invent a scheme calculated to serve the temperance cause so little, and

The Staunch Teetotaler, 1867, p. 35.

"True Policy Vindicated." Manchester, U.K.A., 1870, p. 11.

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Motives-The Need of A B C Teaching Conceded.

yet irritate its enemies so much as the Permissive Bill. I believe it to be unwise and impracticable, and if it could be adopted 'would grievously disappoint its most sanguine friends.'"*

Mr. Livesey re-stated most of the positions taken in his earlier pamphlet, criticised the electoral and Parliamentary policy adopted by the Alliance, and strongly advised Temperance reformers to redouble their efforts in teaching the people the foundation truths of Teetotalism. He appealed to his disciples in the following words:

"It was not by such far-fetched, ill-adapted means [as those devised by the Alliance] that teetotalism made its way and accomplished so much at the first; then there was no dallying with the enemy, but a direct attack was made upon the drink wherever we found it explaining its pernicious effects upon the human system, and urging upon the hearts and consciences of every one the importance of personal and entire abstinence. It was by these honest, consistent, straightforward, and practical means that the good old cause of teetotalism spread throughout this country, into America, and throughout every part of the civilized world, scattering blessings at every step, leaving nothing but peace and goodwill in its train. In truth, it is the good old doctrine of total abstinence that has done all the good yet accomplished."+

Mr. Livesey, in raising a warning voice against a policy of action which he believed was prejudicial to the cause he had served so faithfully and so well, was actuated by a desire for its true advancement; and the motive which led him to issue his pamphlets in opposition to the Permissive Bill movement was precisely the same as that which induced him to publish his Malt Lecture. He had but one object-the extension of the Temperance movement. His leading contention, that it will be futile to expect the enforcement and respect of prohibitory laws in a community the great majority of whom believes in the goodness of the article prohibited, is one eminently deserving the consideration of the Temperance party, not only in Great Britain and her colonies, but also in the United States. Time, which Mr. Livesey invoked to arbitrate between himself and the Alliance party, had pronounced upon several points at issue before his death. He did not live, however, to see the greatest concession made to his views; but his body was scarcely buried before Mr. Raper (who represented the Alliance) declared, at the memorial meeting reported in the Appendix, that—

"Their controversy was with the brewers,' and he recommended all local committees of Temperance Societies to possess themselves of Mr. Livesey's Malt Liquor Lectures, and get them distributed from house to house. If they could get 6,000,000 of these distributed during the next twelve months, it would do more good than anything else could do." +

Excellent advice, which the Temperance world cannot do better than seriously lay to heart, and vigorously act upon. For without a doubt, not only in Great Britain and the United States, but throughout the civilized world, the brewers will remain the most formidable opponents to the Temperance movement until their customers are enlightened upon the nature and properties of their brewage; and Mr. Raper clearly sees that the best, if not the only, way to fight the brewers, is

"True Temperance Teaching, showing the Errors of the Alliance and the Permissive Bill." London, 1873, p. 2.

+ Ibid., p. 10.

Appendix, p. 151.

The Schoolmaster Needed Among Statesmen.

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by educating their customers.* And when that work has been done effectively and completely, the victory will be won.

It was due both to Mr. Livesey and to the great Temperance movement inaugurated by him, that his views upon such an important phase as the prohibitory agitation should be fairly stated; and they are commended to the free and friendly consideration of reformers of all shades of opinion who are interested in a solution of the liquor problem.'

DID MR. LIVESEY LOSE HEART OR FAITH?

It has been represented that Mr. Livesey, during the later years of his life, lost faith in the ultimate success of Temperance. A careful examination of his writings, however, does not support that conclusion. It is true that he gave up a hope he once entertained of securing the triumph of the Temperance reformation by the 'short cut' of a legislative enactment: and he ceased to hope for any aid from legislation until the ideas regarding the nature of drink, entertained by the people who make Parliament, were radically changed. His faith, however, in moral suasion—in the power of truth and in the possible redemption of the most abject victim of alcohol-was well-nigh sublime. Indeed, in this respect, he sets his disciples a worthy and noble example. He saw signs of progress, and in these he took encouragement. They were not, however, so discernible to him in the excitement of 'missions' and the display of 'demonstrations,' as in the gradual though sure recognition of the truths of teetotalism in scientific circles; since in his view a stable and abiding Temperance reformation could only result from the general adoption by the public of sound views regarding the nature and properties of alcoholic drinks. He had spent his life largely in instructing the masses upon the question, and when he found practically the same teachings propounded and enforced by Dr. Richardson and other scientists, it was to him a matter of supreme satisfaction; for he felt that as a teacher he had not lived in vain.

* That Mr. Raper accurately gauged the present situation was made evident by the reception accorded to Mr. Childers' Budget. The noise made by the believers in beer was so much louder than that made by the Temperance party that a proposal to add about d. a gallon to the beer tax was withdrawn. As the Echo of June 6th, 1885, said: "Notwithstanding the persistent propaganda of the teetotalers, beer is still the national drink of Englishmen." And we have since seen a Cabinet Minister, Lord Randolph Churchill, pronouncing beer to be as important an article of food as bread! Speaking at Wimborne, August 12th, 1885, Lord Churchill said: "We defeated the late Government in their attempt to place a heavy tax upon beer, and I hold that that great national drink is as much the food of the people as bread" (vide Standard, August 13th). Mr. Disraeli, when Chancellor of the Exchequer, in 1852, had expressed similar sentiments, which appear to have been resurrected' by Lord Randolph. Mr. Livesey has the following comment upon Mr. Disraeli's views: "It is true, Disraeli asserted that malt liquor was a prime necessity of life,' and 'one of the principal sources of health and strength.' When I read these statements, I could not but recall to my mind the observation once made by a great man, that the nation was governed by the ignorance of the nation.' These old notions being reproduced by such an authority shows how necessary it is to bend our attention to this special point, and on every occasion to fully expose all such baseless assumptions (Teetotal Progressionist, 1852, p. 189). And, unquestionably, teaching on malt liquor is still required.

CHAPTER XI.

PUBLICATIONS,-CLOSING YEARS.

A man may speak with his tongue, and only be heard around the corner; but he may speak with his pen, and be heard around the world.-J. L. BASFORD.

A man's books speak his mind and character.-THACKERAY.

True blessedness consisteth in a good life and a happy death.-SOLON.

The old familiar scenes are here,

The old familiar face is gone;

And all around is cold and drear

Without the light that face had shone.-WADE ROBINSON.

As the reader may find it convenient to have at hand a brief account of Mr. Livesey's writings arranged chronologically, the following bibliographical information is here supplied.

Passing over with the mere mention his numerous letters upon religious and social subjects, addressed to the Preston papers, and his placards upon a variety of topics, some of which are very striking and effective, we commence with his first pamphlet.

"A Friendly Address to the Poorer Classes on the important Points of Economy, Cleanliness, Industry, Honesty, Religion, etc.; with an Attempt to Correct some of the evils which produce so much misery among them. Preston: L. Clarke. London: Wightman and Cramp." Such is the title of the second edition of Mr. Livesey's pamphlet, which is dated 1826, and consisted of 24 fcap. 8vo pages. The first edition, he tells us, was issued in the previous year.* The first and second editions were published anonymously and signed "A Sincere Friend." A third edition, with a slightly altered title-page, on which the author's name appears, was published in 1836. Its contents, however, were then re-arranged, and in great part re-written, the Temperance teaching being much more pronounced. The price was twopence.—(Not in Brit. Mus. Library.)

"The Besetting Sin "-a pamphlet mentioned by Mr. Livesey on page 45 of the "Autobiography "-was devoted to the question of Drunkenness, and most probably published either in 1825 or 1826.—(Not in Brit. Mus. Library.)

"Remarks on the Rite of Confirmation, and the Use of Sponsors in Baptism; intended to prove that they are Unreasonable, Unscriptural, and Dangerous. By J. Livesey. Preston: I. Wilcockson. London: Simpkin & Marshall." Not dated, but probably issued about 1827. Contents and scope are indicated by title. Size fcap. 8vo, pp. 14. Price twopence.—(Not in Brit. Mus. Library.)

"Remarks on the Present State of Sunday Schools, with Hints for their Improvement. Also a recommendation of Youths' Schools, and of Dr. Chalmers'

"Autobiography," p. 45.