Chapter XXXV: Appendix: The Movement for the Reformation of Manners

"No book could be more opportune. The sale of alcoholic liquor has been under statutory regulation by means of licences for 300 years; but the period which Mr. and Mrs. Webb have taken as their special study deserves the very careful examination they give to it, for within those 130 years we find periods of regulation and suppression, of laxness and neglect in regard to the control of the liquor traffic, equally instructive. There is during this period one brief six years wherein the magistrates, awaking to their responsibilities and compelled to a consciousness of the evil results of excessive gin-drinking, made a general effort to improve the condition of things through the one means in their power. To this remarkable episode the authors devote a valuable chapter. Strangely enough, it has hitherto not been noticed by historians, nor has it been mentioned in the voluminous literature of the temperance movement. Yet the effort of the magistrates during those six years was very far-sighted. It included--

"The deliberate and systematic adoption of such modern devices as early closing, Sunday closing, the refusal of new licences, the withdrawal of licences from badly conducted houses, the peremptory closing of a proportion of houses in a district over-supplied with licences, and, in some remarkable instances, even the establishment of a system of local option and local veto, both as regards the opening of new public-houses and the closing of those already in existence, all without the slightest idea of compensation.

"All this in the closing years of the eighteenth century! But what a contrast to this spasm of local statesmanship the earlier years of that drink-sodden century display! Then, and not really till then, were sown the seeds of drunkenness in England. Contrasted with that reign of orgy the action of the magistrates in 1787 seems all the brighter, and the disappearance of the fact from public memory the more remarkable. Mr. and Mrs. Webb bring their detailed story to an end with the Drink Bill of 1830, which led to another outbreak of the drinking habit."--_Guardian._

"A valuable contribution to the history of the liquor traffic."--_Political Science Quarterly._

"This little book, with its abundance of newly discovered facts, is highly opportune."--_Economic Review._

"The book is of great interest, contains evidence of laborious investigation, and provides an admirably clear history of a matter of immediate practical importance."--_Speaker._

LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.
LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA

WORKS BY SIDNEY AND BEATRICE WEBB

LONDON EDUCATION

BY SIDNEY WEBB

Small 8vo; viii and 219 pp. (1903).

=Price 2s. 6d. net.=

A Description of the Educational Organisation of London, with a Survey of some of its Administrative Problems--avoiding both politics and religion.

CONTENTS

CHAP.

I. THE EVOLUTION OF AN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

II. THE ORGANISATION OF THE UNIVERSITY.

III. THE ORGANISATION OF COMMERCIAL EDUCATION.

IV. THE ORGANISATION OF THE POLYTECHNICS.

V. THE ORGANISATION OF THE LIBRARY SERVICE.

VI. THE LION IN THE PATH.

"This small but important volume.... It is a noble ideal."--_Spectator._

"Patiently and laboriously he has surveyed our educational equipment ... and he presents a creditably clear and comprehensible picture of the whole field. It enables the administrator to see the various parts in their due proportion. It lays a much-needed emphasis on higher education; it suggests some administrative improvements, and forms an indispensable starting-point for the far-reaching schemes of co-ordination which it shows to be so sorely needed."--_Speaker._

"In dealing with elementary education, Mr. Webb is most practical; in dealing with the nascent London University he is most stimulating."--_Pilot._

"A debt of gratitude is due to Mr. Sidney Webb.... The book contains at once ideal and practical proposals for the attainment of this ideal."--_Daily News._

LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.
LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA

WORKS BY SIDNEY AND BEATRICE WEBB

THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN
GREAT BRITAIN

BY BEATRICE POTTER (Mrs. SIDNEY WEBB)

Crown 8vo; Second Edition (1893); Fifth Thousand; xii and 260 pp.,
with Coloured Map, Appendices, and Index.

=Price 2s. 6d.=

CONTENTS

CHAP.

I. THE CO-OPERATIVE IDEA.

II. THE SPIRIT OF ASSOCIATION.

III. THE STORE.

IV. FEDERATION.

V. ASSOCIATION OF PRODUCERS.

VI. A STATE WITHIN A STATE.

VII. THE IDEAL AND THE FACT.

VIII. CONCLUSION.