The Fallacies of Teetotalism. By Robert Ward. (Simpkin and Marshall.)
—We feel no call to defend the teetotallers, the doctrines of the United Kingdom Alliance, or the policy of the Maine Liquor Law. We have had occasion more than once to express an opinion not altogether favourable on one or other of these things. But we cannot accept Mr. Ward as the representative of our own views. In a moment of frenzy, for such it must have been, Mr. Bass declared that, in his opinion, people did not drink beer enough. Mr. Ward indulges in paradoxes more extra- ordinary. One of the eight propositions by which he hopes to con- found opponents is "that stimulants, whether alcoholic or otherwise, have acted an important part in the civilisation and intellectual develop- ment of mankind." That is all very well ; but when we come to a page with this heading, "Civilising Influence of Brandy," and find the author comparing the Swedes of to-day with the Swedes of the past, and attributing their advance to the increased quantity of brandy that they drink, we are somewhat staggered. So we find it argued that alcohol is an excellent thing, because rogues fall out in their cups. The advocate even goes so far as to use this argument, which we-shall quote :—
"Alcohol has often, in the hands of the Almighty, been the means of punishing or destroying the wicked. In the Book of the prophet Jere- miah it is written Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the Kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.' Babylon and Chaldtea were destroyed by the like means. In their heart I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake, saith the Lord.' The wicked still continue to be humiliated or destroyed by excessive indulgence in alcohol. Why should they be spared by the instrumentality of a Maine Law, contrary to the will of the Almighty, who has expressly provided that those who indulge intemper- ately shall be punished by the torments of drunkenness ? "
Mr. Newdegate once hinted that Mr. Whalley was a Jesuit. Is it pos- sible that Mr. Ward is an apostle of the Alliance ?
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