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1864.]

THE PERMISSIVE BILL.

247

for an evil so justly complained of, and so generally admitted. But the only distinct counter-plan suggested was that of Mr. Bright, who, while approving the bill, stated what he thought would be a wiser way of dealing with the great social sore which it sought to heal.

'You can make no change,' he said, 'from where you are, unless you intrust to the municipal council, or some committee of the municipal council in the various boroughs, the power of determining the number of licenses for the sale of wine, spirits, or beer.

'If you were to intrust it to the council instead of the full vote of rate-payers, as proposed by the bill, I think you would avoid everything like a sudden and violent interference with property; you would also avoid the capricious action which might take place if two-thirds of the ratepayers were to judge this question; and you would give to the whole body of the rate-payers, through their representatives in the municipal councils, the determination of a question which every day is becoming more important with the great masses of the people of this country. I know no proposal which could be made from the point where we now stand to the point of the bill of my honourable friend, except the one I have suggested. Generally the municipal councils in this country perform their duties with admirable success, and there has been no bill passed in this country that has been more successful than the one which they have passed to reform the corporations. If they had this farther power, I think it would add to their influence and dignity; and in all probability the opinions of the people would be fairly carried out in reference to this question. But there is another question. Honourable gentlemen opposite may say that this could not be done in the rural districts, where there are no corporations, and therefore my suggestion could not apply. But I think if it were attempted in the towns, and it was found more advantageous and successful than the present system, something could be found before long to extend the new system to the agricultural districts as well; but if that should be found impracticable, it is no reason for debarring the towns from the benefit.

'I should not have brought such a question as this before the House; and I am not so sanguine of the result

of these changes as what I may call the temperance party in the House. I have not that faith in any act of the legislature. I believe in the effect of the instruction of the people, and of the improvement that is gradually taking place among them. I think that drunkenness is not on the increase, but rather is declining; and I hope, whether the law be altered or not, we shall find our working classes becoming more and more sober than in past times. But as I have on many occasions been before the public favouring the efforts of the advocates of temperance, I have felt bound to state the reasons why I cannot give my vote in favour of this bill, and to suggest what the House might do by way of giving to the people, through their municipal councils, control over this question. By doing this, you might promote temperance among the people, and at the same time avoid a great and manifest injustice to thousands of persons now engaged in the trade, whose property would be rendered uncertain, if not altogether destroyed, if the bill of the honourable gentlemen should receive the sanction of the house.'

The leaders of the Alliance were by no means disheartened by a defeat which they had fully foreseen, and which was less decided than they had expected it to be, and they carried forward their agitation with renewed vigour. Taking advantage of the annual meetings of the Social Science Congress, they there obtained a full discussion of the subject in all its bearings. A committee of the Convocation of the province of Canterbury, to which the question was submitted, made a report entirely in accordance with their views and opinions. They waited on candidates at contested elections, and gave their support, without reference to political sentiment, to those who promised to vote for the permissive bill, and in many instances succeeded in turning the elections in their favour. They raised a guarantee fund, first of 50,000l., and afterwards of nearly 100,000l. In a word, they diffused information, and prosecuted their agitation with a degree of vigour and success which has been only rivalled by the great anti-corn-law agitation, and with legislative and other results which, though falling far short of their aims, have exercised a great and beneficial effect on the habits of the people of this country, and have counteracted in no

1864.]

THE SHEFFIELD FLOOD.

249

small degree the individual, domestic, social, and national evils that drunkenness has produced.

During the night of Friday the 11th of March the town of Sheffield was visited by a terrific calamity. An enormous reservoir had recently been constructed at Bradfield, about eight miles from the town, to supply it with water. It was formed by the construction of an embankment across the valleys of Stunnington and Linley, hemming in a body of water which covered seventy acres, and varied from forty to eighty or a hundred feet in depth. The engineer by whom the dyke was constructed, as well as those employed under him, enjoyed a high reputation for skill and knowledge of their profession, and no doubt or suspicion seems to have arisen with regard to its sufficiency to sustain the enormous weight of water that pressed on it. The engineer, who had the care of the works, left the embankment apparently in good condition at six o'clock on the evening on which the accident happened. A violent gale was driving large waves against the embankment; but it showed no signs of giving way. Scarcely, however, had he quitted the works when a farm-labourer, crossing the dyke, observed a crack in it, which he mentioned to some navvies who were engaged in making repairs. They at once pursued, overtook, and brought back the engineer, who ordered the weir by which the water overflowed to be blown up with gunpowder to allow it to escape more rapidly. Unfortunately this part of the work was so solid as to defy all their efforts. The engineer and his men then returned to the crack, which they found greatly enlarged, and which they passed only just in time to escape being carried away. Down went the embankment, and off went two million tons of water in mad career through the valley, sweeping away bridges, factories, warehouses, workshops, houses, cottages with all their inhabitants, like so many children's toys. They were first violently tossed to the top of the mighty flood, and then sank beneath it. Though it rushed on with great rapidity, yet so circuitous was the channel that it was past midnight when it reached Sheffield. Shortly before twelve o'clock it burst upon the village of Malin Bridge, a little above Sheffield. A whole row of cottages was dashed down in a moment, and the inhabitants of the adjacent houses could distinguish the faces

and the voices of their neighbours as they were whirled away past them. A man named Watson was observed holding his wife clasped to his bosom, while she held her infant in her embrace. In vain did some of those who

were near make frantic efforts to lay hold of them and save them. They were driven on a wall, which gave way at the moment they approached it, and down they went amidst a mass of timbers that threatened every moment to dash them to atoms. They were then borne against another wall with so violent a shock as to compel the poor fellow to quit his hold of his wife and child. Left to himself, he managed to keep his head above water, and was at length carried to a window, through which he was dragged by the occupant of the house to whom it belonged. After the torrent had swept past, the corpses of his wife and of five sisters, all adults, were taken to the house of his widowed mother, living on the side of the hill below which his house had stood. The poor old woman laid them out and watched beside them. In another house situated close by the same place, nine out of ten of the inmates were killed, and the tenth saved himself by breaking through the plaster and slates and clambering on to the roof. There were many wonderful escapes, many acts of heroic devotedness, much presence of mind exhibited in the midst of this sudden calamity; but the loss of life was appalling. Up to Tuesday evening 187 bodies had been found, of which 99 were laid side by side in ghastly rows at the workhouse, on the Saturday following, still awaiting identification.

The English people have been generally, and perhaps not unjustly, regarded as a cold, calculating, phlegmatic, undemonstrative race. It has been said too, that, as a consequence of this temperament, their sympathies with the oppressed nationalities of the Continent, though unquestionably deep and sincere, have seldom been strongly manifested. But the visit of Garibaldi seemed to give the lie to the estimate that was usually formed of them, and to astonish even the most excitable of their continental neighbours. Never probably was a warmer reception given in England or any other country to the hero of a hundred fights than was awarded the liberator of Italy. From his first landing at Southampton, or rather before his landing,

1864.]

GARIBALDI'S VISIT TO ENGLAND.

251

he was assailed by the well-meant but often troublesome and intrusive homage of his admirers. But the enthusiasm swelled to the highest pitch, when, yielding to an almost resistless compulsion put on him, he so far did violence to his own modest nature as to make a public entry into London. For four mortal hours did the carriage of the Duke of Sutherland struggle on from Waterloo station to Stafford House, stemming the human sea that overflowed every street through which he had to pass, amidst crowds composed of all classes, from the highest to the lowest, all vying with each other in the attempt to exhibit their admiration for his character. He remained in London as the guest of the Duke of Sutherland, receiving the homage of the first nobility of the land, basking in the smiles of royalty, and followed wherever he went by shouts and acclamations. Pressing entreaties came from almost all the principal towns in England that he would honour each of them with a visit. He was perplexed by these invitations. He could not accept all, and could not select any without giving offence to the rest. The fatigue of receiving and answering addresses, and responding to the demonstrations that met him at every turn, soon began to tell on a constitution, enfeebled by many hardships as well as by a wound he had recently received. He found it necessary to make his escape as speedily as possible from an idolatry which was likely to prove seriously injurious. Therefore, after having remained about three weeks in England, the greater part of which time was passed in comparative seclusion, he was conveyed to his home in the island of Caprera in the yacht of the Duke of Sutherland, who accompanied him on his voyage.

way

Another event which occurred in this year stirred the public mind almost as deeply, though in a very different way. The body of a gentleman still breathing, but too frightfully wounded to be able to give any account of the in which he came there, was found in the middle of the North London Railway, near the Milford-Arms Tavern, about ten o'clock on the night of Saturday, July the 9th. The first and natural supposition was that he had either jumped or fallen from one of the carriages. But facts soon came to light which negatived this supposition. A carriage which had recently come from Fenchurch Street was

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