DRUNKENNESS AND THE LAW.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." j Sin,—Referring to your article on " Dr•ukenness and the Law," a County Magistrate asks in your last issue : "If the breadwinner is imprisoned, how will the wife and children live ? " The plea is an old one, and is constantly pressed upon Magistrates in cases of drunkenness and wife-beating. When I was acting as a Resident Magistrate many years ago in the West of Ireland wife-beating was not uncommon in a certain town. The Magistrates sitting at Petty Sessions concurred with me that in all cases of assaults upon wives the punishment must be imprisonment without the option of a fine. The argument was pressed that the wives and families would suffer; but the decision was adhered to, with the result that assaults upon women ceased. Mistaken leniency in cases of confirmed drunkards perpetuates the misery of their families ; but the law in Scotland seems to have been framed for the protection of drunkards, while that of England and Ireland aims at the suppression of drunkenness.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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