A hundred years ago
Dr Cameron's Habitual Drunkards Bill passed its second reading on Wednesday, subject to an understanding that the compulsory clauses are to be taken out. Under the Bill, as it will stand, any habitual drunkard may apply to the manager of a Retreat for Inebriates for admission, and the manager, if he does not think the patient cured, may keep him for twelve months. The Bill as at present is applicable only to persons who can pay for their keep, but if the experiment succeeds, it is proposed to extend it, and support Inebriate Hospitals out of the rates. There seems to be no harm in the proposal, so long as the law is not compulsory, except this — it is not in the interest of the managers of such asylums to let paying patients out, and a man who has been cured in six months, may pass six more in what will be virtually prison. Provision should be introduced into the Bill that no application should be accepted unless the applicant at the time of making it was reasonably sober, otherwise men may sign away their liberty unconsciously.
Spectator, 6 July 1878
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