these lamentable facts? Certainly so-facts with which, perhaps, the advocates of the temperance question are unacquainted."

In 1847, the revenues of Russia proper were stated at £24,794,735, of which the brandy monopoly netted £9,774,167. What a frightful tale these figures tell-nearly thirty-eight per cent. of the whole income of the government derived from brandy!

But the worst feature of the case is that drunkenness is largely compulsory. "In the central provinces, the farmer of the duty on spirits buys the assistance of the local authorities, and between them it is arranged that all business shall be carried on at the public-house, glass in hand. In the other provinces where the farmer of the duty has also an exclusive right of sale in his own district, he makes each commune take a certain quantity per head, or else he forces the peasants to pay a certain sum for permission to buy spirits elsewhere, threatening, in case of refusal, to accuse them of a breach of the revenue laws; and they know that, whether innocent or guilty, if once accused, they are sure to be condemned. The result is, in the words of Haxthausen, that "in the provinces of Central Russia, the peasants are seduced into drunkenness, while in the other provinces they are forced into it.” 1

The effects of such a practice, continued through a long series of years, has been demoralizing to a fearful degree upon successive generations, and fully accounts for the little progress of temperance in Russia.

"Gentleman's Magazine," 1854, pp. 481, 482.

THE

CHAPTER V.

IN THE BRITISH ISLES.

HE art of making beer is supposed to have been introduced into the British Isles by the Romans under Julius Cæsar. Prior to that time the usual drinks of the Britons were water, milk, and mead. The early manufacture of beer and mead was by families. Eumenius says that Britain produced grain in such abundance, that it was sufficient not only for bread, but also for the manufacture of a "drink which was comparable to wine."

says

The drinking habits of the Britons were greatly intensified by their Saxon invaders. Malmesbury, speaking of the Saxons, "that excessive drinking was one of the commonest vices of all classes of people, in which they spent whole days and nights, without intermission." With them, as with the Britons, ale and mead were the principal drinks, and wine was an occasional luxury. Three kinds of ale are mentioned in this period-clear ale, Welsh ale, and "a crumb full of lithes," or mild ale. Warm wine is also mentioned in the Saxon chronicles. Large quantities of honey were produced, from which metheglin was made. Vineyards were rare in the times of the Saxons, and they were chiefly attached to the monasteries. In a Saxon colloquy, a lad being asked what he drank, replied, "Ale, if I have it; or water, if I have it not." Being asked why he did not drink wine, he said, "I am not so rich that I can buy me wine; and wine is not the drink of children, or the weak-minded, but of the elders and the wise."

Thorpe has given the following account of the drinking customs of this period: "The Anglo-Saxon notions of hospitality were inimical to sobriety. It was the duty of the host to offer every guest, and, if possible, to induce him to drink

ion. The kings and nobles, on their journeys,

stopped to drink at every man's house, and indulged until they were incapable of taking care of themselves." This is proved by the laws which imposed a double penalty on those who injured them on these occasions, and by the number of royal assassinations, which took place where monarchs stopped to drink. Thorpe adds:

In a country where deadly feuds were numerous, where life was held very cheap, and drunkenness was universal, it was natural that the period of a man's intoxication should be one of danger; and there were national peculiarities which rendered it doubly dangerous among the Anglo-Saxons. To drink from the large stoups or cans then in use, it was necessary to lift them with both hands; and, in this posture, a man offered to his foe an excellent opportunity of stabbing him, which was too often made use of. As a protection against this custom, a system of pledging was introduced, relics of which remain in the familiar customs of the present day. A man when about to drink asked his neighbor to be his "pledge" or guardian. If he consented to do so, he rose, drew his sword, and guarded the drinking man, who afterward pledged or guarded his companion while he drank.

The convivial meetings of the Anglo-Saxons were of the most riotous description, and constantly ended in quarrel and bloodshed. To this their passion for practical joking largely contributed. Among the most common jokes was throwing a rat or a weasel into the stoup of liquor, as it was passed round to the company, or taking up the can and pouring the contents on the head of one of the guests, or dashing them in his face. If the last specimen of fun was attempted, it was creditable to the joker to hit the sufferer in the eyes, as that hurt and annoyed him more than a general ducking would have done. These jokes led to much fighting, and were all at last forbidden by severe enactments.

Ale was regarded as one of the necessaries of life. As early as 694, it became so important an article of luxury that an annual tax of twelve ambers of ale was paid to Ine, the Saxon king, by every subject who possessed twelve hides of land.

In the ninth century efforts were made to check the universal intoxication, and the honor of the initiative belonged to Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, and Egbert, archbishop of York. Their exertions were prompted by religious motives,

and were seconded by the kings, from a desire to prevent riot and bloodshed.

The habits of the laity were at the time sadly intemperate, and those of the clergy were not less so. The edicts of the archbishops tell the tale of clerical intemperance more effectually than any description of it could do, and are not open to any suspicion of exaggeration or ill-will. When they attempted to check it, they most properly commenced with the bishops. A bishop who was drunk to vomiting, while administering the holy Sacrament, was condemned to fast ninety days; and one who was so intoxicated as, pending the rite, to drop the sacred elements, was required to chant a hundred psalms as penance. All bishops who were constantly and deliberately drunk were deposed from their office. The laity were more mildly dealt with. If a man compelled another to become intoxicated, out of hospitality, he was to do penance for twenty days; if from malice, the same penance was enjoined as for manslaughter. One exception from the rules of intemperance was permitted, which is both curious and suggestive: "If any one," says Archbishop Theodore, “in joy and glory of our Saviour's natal day, or Easter, or in honor of any saint, become drunk to vomiting, and, in so doing, has taken no more than he was ordered by his elders, it matters nothing. If a bishop commanded him to be drunk, it is innocent, unless indeed the bishop were in the same state himself." 1

In legislating upon drunkenness it became necessary to mark the exact state of inebriety which was to constitute the legal offense. The archbishop therefore declared that a man was to be considered drunk, "when his mind is quite changed, his tongue stutters, his eyes are disturbed, he has vertigo in his head, with distension of stomach, followed by pain.”

But the mild edicts of Theodore were ineffectual in checking clerical intoxication. Archbishop Egbert repeated and amplified them through several centuries. Boniface, the venerable Bede, the Council of Clovershoe, etc., complained bitterly of the habitual drunkenness of the clergy.

2

The invasion and settlement of the country by the Danes, whose drunken habits we have described, contributed to the greater demoralization of Britain. In the middle of the tenth

S. Theodore Pœnit XXVI., de ebietate et vomital, S. 9. Pp. 48, 49.

century, intemperance had made such fearful ravages that King Edgar was induced to make an effort to check it. Acting upon the suggestion of the Archbishop of Canterbury, he forcibly abolished all the ale-houses, excepting one in every village or small town. For the special benefit of the clergy, it was enacted that pegs should be inserted in the sides of their drinking bowls, so that one half pint should be contained between them, and they were not allowed to drink beyond a peg at once. Some of these bowls or tankards still exist, made of oak or silver, holding about two quarts, and having seven or eight pegs, one above another, on the inside. In an ancient calendar of the eleventh century, are various figures painted to represent the different months, which still further show the drinking customs of that time.

In the time of Harold, we read of "pigment," "morat," and "cyder." Pigment was a sweet and odoriferous liquor imade of honey, wine, and spices of various kinds. Morat was made of honey diluted with juice of mulberries.

THE NORMANS.

A new national element was introduced by the invasion and occupancy of the country by the Normans. These were a more polished and temperate people, and looked with disgust upon "the rough drinking bouts" of the Danes, which they at first suppressed with extreme severity, because they were found to be sometimes held as a cloak for sedition, to plot rebellion.

The banquets of the Normans were remarkable for their splendor, but their feasting was moderate, and attended by no excess in drinking. Under their influence, intemperance for a season decreased in England; but, after a few reigns, the Saxons seem rather to have corrupted their Norman conquerors than to have benefited by their example.' In the latter part of the twelfth century, the people and clergy began to exhibit

14 Anglo-Saxon Home," by John Thorpe, p. 301.