Note 102 — Chapter VII

Whatever may be the improvement of the middling and upper classes, nationally speaking the passion for strong liquor continues to bear sway in the British islands to a deplorable extent. Lord Ashley has stated in the House of Commons during the present session, 1843, that there is good authority for estimating our annual consumption of spirituous liquors at twenty-five millions sterling! Compare the gross amount of the revenues of the English Church, about four millions, and those of the poor Kirk of Scotland, the plundered Church of Ireland, and the “voluntary” efforts of the hundred and one sects of Dissenters, together with those of the Romish Church:—and what is the result? Probably, nearly three times as much is spent in these islands upon spirituous liquors as the whole cost of religious instruction of every kind amounts to!