15 AUGUST 1908, Page 18

DRUNKENNESS AND THE LAW.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SCROTATOIL"f SIR,—The letter of your correspondent, the Rev., G. V. Collison (Spectator, August 1st), suggests to one that the Dean of St. David's had his Aristotle in mind when giving double 'punishment in case of intoxication. In the Ethics (Book III., chap. 5) our author is at pains to demonstrate that the circumstances (e.g., intoxication) which betray one into wrong- doing cannot divert responsibility if oneself be the efficient cause of their presence. As illustration he quotes the Attic precedent embraced in the law of Pittakos : pEthiovo-t am/La ra ewtrip,La,—the very words of the Magistrate in question.—I am,