The Life of George Cruikshank in Two Epochs, Vol. 2. (of 2)Jerrold, Blanchard
History
The Life of George Cruikshank in Two Epochs, Vol. 2. (of 2)
Jerrold, Blanchard
Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878
talk about doing away with the punishment of death after we have stopped
murders. I had the honour of speaking in the Mansion House when Mr.
Charles Pearson, the City solicitor, brought on the question about the
convicts; and I told the Lord Mayor then, that if we could do away
with intoxicating liquors altogether, we might wheel out that dreadful
instrument the gibbet into the Old Bailey, and make a bonfire of it. I
believe you will find, if you go into the question, that there is hardly
a murder committed in this country out of a hundred--I may say out of
a thousand--not ten out of ten thousand--but drink has something to
do with it. Remove the drink, and you will stop murder. But there is
a gentleman who ought to have been speaking instead of myself, and
therefore I will not detain you much longer; but I will say this, my
friends, and call your attention to it especially, that the teetotal
question has now been before the world for about thirty years, and
during that short time I challenge any one to point out any teetotaler
who has been committed for a brutal assault upon his wife, or for
garotting, or picking pockets, or house robbery, or murder. I challenge
the world to produce one single case wherein any real teetotaler has
been convicted of one of those crimes. Then, if this be so, what have we
to do but to spread this Temperance movement throughout the length and
breadth of the land? and then we should stop, if not all crimes, if not
all offences, still the great majority of them; and that is what we are
aiming at. And recollect this, my friends, that we are not a society
formed merely for the purpose of reclaiming the drunkard. It is a very
good thing to do so, and I am sorry to say that my time is so occupied
that I am almost in despair. I have six most dreadful cases in hand at
the present moment There is nobody to assist them. I could not go to the
brewer or distiller, and ask them to give me funds for the support of
these people whom they have rained; and why not? Because there is blood
upon the money. I would not have it. But I had to-day a letter imploring
me for help from the nephew of an old friend of my father. What am I
to do? I have a lady in the country at this moment, the wife of a
barrister, who is starving for want of help, and whose husband has been
ruined by drinking. My time is occupied, and my friends are gone, and
I am called upon for all I can afford. But, my friends, if you do away
with these drinks, you do away with these cases. But it is utterly
impossible to go into the evils arising out of these drinks in the time
I have to speak--they are so extensive; all I have to say is, ‘Go on and
prosper!’ and prosper we shall. I cannot sit down without saying that I
look upon this meeting to-night to be one of the grandest movements that
this cause has ever had. I say it from my heart, and think that those
gentlemen who have assisted in getting up this meeting deserve our best
thanks.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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