THE HISTORY OF DRINK.*
'THERE is a line in an old song to the effect that,— " A man may drink, and not be drank," but Mr. Samuelson would scarcely admit the accuracy of that .saying. His History of Drink deals entirely with intoxicating liquor. He has nothing to say to cocoa or tea, and prefers talking of brandy to beer, and of arrack to either. If any title would com- pletely fit his book—which we doubt—it would be "Stray Notes on Drunkenness." We protest against this abuse of language. When an author will not take the pains to choose a good title, .one is, perhaps, justified in presuming that he has not taken the pains to make a goodbook ; but the intrinsic interest of the subject which we supposed Mr. Samuelson to have treated in the volume under our consideration led us to take up his book, in spite of its preposterous title, in anticipation of finding at least a good deal of interesting information. We confess we have been disappointed. It is not merely that the work is scrappy and inconsequent—the com- position is that of an indifferent sub-editor of a country news- paper—or that the style (when the author lays down the scissors, and takes up his pen), is, like the title, scarcely English; but the whole book is at once inflated and empty, with no apparent plan, leading to nothing, and generally unsatisfactory. With respect to the title, the use of the word " drink " to signify merely alcoholic beverage is itself, at the best, a somewhat vulgar collo- quialism ; but a—we beg the author's pardon—" The History of Drink, is a combination of inelegance and inaccuracy of which it is difficult at first sight even to understand the meaning. In order to do so, we turned to the preface, where the author, after laying down that "no apology would be necessary" for -the publication of "a good and comprehensive work on the his- tory of intoxicating drinks," goes on to apologise at some length for the History of Drink, from which we might, perhaps, be justi- fied in concluding that he has no such high opinion of his own work. He tells us that "he has endeavoured, in a general but very superficial way, to follow the course of human history, com- mencing with a reference to some traces in the prehistoric period, and then selecting tribes or nations whose habits present features of interest in the history of drink." He goes on to say "that * Ths History of Drink. By James Samuelson. London: Tellmer and Co. 1818. the attempt to follow the history of drink will, however, be pronounced extremely superficial, the author cannot doubt for a moment,"—a judgment of such obvious justice, that we cannot but regret that the author should not have endeavoured to make his book approach a little more nearly at least his own standard of criticism. In another part of the preface, which is a perfect model of what may be called turgid naivete, the author antici- pates but a limited amount of criticism to be "directed to the style and the historical value" of his book. In this fore- cast, we think, he is probably right. We, at all events, will not estimate its "historical value ;" and God forbid that we should attempt to criticise its style. The matter of the book itself, indeed, is sufficiently difficult to deal with in the limits of an ordinary review, for although it abundantly fulfils its author's pro- mise of superficiality, it deals with the "inventions and customs of both ancients and moderns in the use of inebriating liquors," and not only "surveys mankind [geographically] from China to Peru," but deals with the drinking habits of ancient Egypt, as well as of modern Birmingham, and extends chronologically from "prehistoric times" to the year of our Lord 1878, within the narrow compass of two hundred and fifty octavo pages. Nor is our author even content to "stick to his liquor," in his compre- hensive glance over all space and all time, but he has given us his opinion about such comparatively " dry " subjects as the Pfahlbauten or Swiss lake-dwellings of the stone period, Pro- fessor Max Muller and the Big Veda, the invasion of India by the Russians, colonial government, education, the literature of the Zoroastrian epoch, the Agricultural Labourers' Union, the date of the birth of Manu, one of Lord Beaconsfield's Guildhall speeches, and "the right of the Irish people to clamour for a larger share in the management of their own affairs." Mr. Samuelson may make his mind easy upon this last point ; "the right to clamour" is one of the very last things of which Irish- men are ever likely to be deprived.
The best chapter, perhaps, in the book, although it does not tell by any means all that we should like to know, is that about American drinking. In treating of the New World, the author, for once, seems to know something about his subject. Here he tells us something about the " Maine " liquor law, its incidence and its failure, though he will not admit that this failure is other than partial, in which we sincerely trust he may be right. One thing may, no doubt, be true, that "wherever the cause of tem- perance is strong enough to get the Maine Law passed, it is strong enough to force the liquor traffic to withdraw from public gaze.
In desperate cases,' the author says, it has to reduce itself to the exhibition of Greenland pigs and other curious animals, charging twenty-five cents for the sight of the pig, and throw- ing in a gin cocktail gratuitously.' " There is something very funny in the "cause of temperance" compelling a man who wants a glass of gin-and-water to 'qualify himself for this refreshment by paying a preliminary visit to a Greenland pig. But the greater part of American drinking of spirituous liquors is, according to our author, "performed by Irish, German, and English immigrants and settlers," a class which, we should imagine, composes a good proportion of the inhabitants of the United States. However, in spite of the potations of these thirsty aliens, drinking in America is, according to our author, by no means the formidable thing which some people have sup- posed. "The most repulsive thing about American drinking," he says, "is its slanginess, and this is what often deceives the casual visitor. Drinks containing in reality very little alcohol are baptised with names that savour of dissoluteness and de- bauchery. Gin-slings, cocktails, tangle-legs, eye-openers, morn- ing glories, are suggestive of drinking debauches over-night and tippling renewed at daybreak, whereas the truth is that the drinking habits of some States really resemble those of the more sober Continental countries." In spite of this opinion, we can- not doubt that intemperance has been one of the curses of the great American cities, and the great number and power of temperance societies, the influence of preventive legisla- tion, and the great moral force of a large and increasing number of total abstainers, have all been needed to counteract the attraction of bars and "cocktails." We are sorry, how- ever, to hear of the great number of American ships which sail every year from American ports without any spirits on board. The captain should surely have a few bottles for use in case of emergency. It is but the other day that two or three lives were lost for want of what is the most valu- able of all remedies for those who are dying from exposure or exhaustion after shipwreck. Towards the end of the American chapter Mr. Samuelson says, "And now we must say a few words, and they must be very few, concerning that new development of the drink question in America, inebriate asylums." Thereupon he proceeds to tell us nothing at all about this most interesting subject, about which it would really have been easy to collect at least a few facts, and after some common-place remarks about wine being administered at the Holy Communion, he closes the chapter. On a former occasion, after a number of not particularly pointed quotations from the laws of Mann with regard to drunkenness, our author began :— " We have thus reviewed, though very cursorily and super- ficially, the drinking habits and customs of the various peoples of India, from the earliest ages down to a recent period ; and before quitting this part of our subject, it will be useful to con- sider for a few moments the present condition of its inhabitants, who are allied to us, if not by the ties of kindred, at least by identity of rule." Nobody ever said Nothing with a greater wealth of introduction and conclusion than the author of the History of Drink.
We have spoken already of his naivete. Here is another in- stance :—" The price of wine [in Rome] appears to have been marvellously low. It is said to have varied from 6d. per gallon down to 3d. for ten gallons ; but of course, it is difficult to form a correct estimate in this respect without comparing its price with that of bread or some other article of regular consumption, and ascertaining what were the rates of remuneration in trades and handicrafts." Of course ! But why take the trouble to tell us that wine was only worth 3d. for ten gallons, without .giving us the slightest clue to the value of the penny ? It would be just as useful to express the value in lumps of chalk.
A history of spirituous liquors in England alone would, no doubt, be an interesting contribution to our literature. Arrack is said to have been first introduced into this country from Genoa in 1430, and distilleries were soon after established in England. Three hundred years later, in 1736, the consumption of spirits had risen to over 6,100,000 gallons, the population being estimated at 6,200,000, "or nearly a gallon per head of inhabitants Announcements were hung out before the gin-shops informing passers-by that they could get drunk for a penny and dead-drank for twopence, and that when they were in the desired state, clean straw would be gratuitously provided for them, in convenient cellars." The "Gin Act," charging spirituous liquors with a duty of 20s. per gallon, and pro- hibiting their sale by other than licensed persons, was passed in this year ; and though it was repealed seven years afterwards, as being too stringent, it was replaced by another Act of similar import, and may be said to have been the beginning of our licensing system, and of our enormously productive spirit taxes.
With regard to English drunkenness during the last fifty years, Mr. Samuelson is somewhat fuller, though he almost admits that the statistics he quotes are fallacious. The number of arrests for drunkenness in London decreased from about 19 per 1,000 in 1833, to about 7 per 1,000 in 1876; which would seem emin- ently satisfactory, were we not told the police arrest a much smaller proportion of drunken persons now than formerly. Turning to Liverpool, which we had always understood to be about the most drunken town in England, we find the number of arrests in 1837 to have been 275 per 1,000, and in 1877, 30'2 per 1,000, or about 16,000 people. But we are told not to regard this is a real increase, inasmuch as "a very much more stringent system of dealing with drunkards has been established in Liverpool" during the last twenty years. We only wish this "stringent system" had been attended with more apparently satisfactory results ; and we further wish that Mr. Samuelson had told us what they were. But he has a wonderful knack of withholding inform- ation. For example, in his chapter on Sweden, we expected a full account of the working of the "Gothenburg licensing system," more especially when we read that "the author visited the drinking-houses of various classes in 1877, and investi- gated the system carefully." And what does he tell us of his experiences ? Absolutely nothing at all. The Gothenburg system, after this hopeful introduction, is dismissed in half-a- dozen common-place sentences. Really, a man can scarcely "investigate carefully" any system without carrying away, at least, some impressions, even if no facts remain in his memory, and it would be only polite on the part of the author to give his readers the benefit of his voyage to Sweden.
We presume that Mr. Samuelson takes a certain interest in the subject on which he has thought fit to publish a book ; but
if he also possesses any information, he should not have been so chary of imparting it.
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