One hundred years ago
The Temperance movement appears to be making a real impression on the consumption of alcoholic drinks in England. In The Times of Tuesday, Mr Hoyle has shown that the consumption of beer, wine, and spirits during the year 1880 has diminished by nearly £6,000,000 from what it was in 1879, and of this nearly the whole has been saved in beer alone. On the other hand, the consumption of British spirits has rather increased, though the consumption of foreign spirits has diminished more than the former has increased. If these figures may be trusted, the improvement is rather in the greater temperance of non-spirit drinkers, than in the conversion of regular dram-drinkers. For the extinguishing of the latter class we must look chiefly to death, and the improved education which may prevent the places of existing drinkers from being supplied by new drinkers, as they drop out.
Spectator, 2 April 1881
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