From abstinence to education: the story of Quakers and the Temperance Movement
Temperance has come to signify a complete abstinence from alcoholic drinks, although in origin it implies moderation and restraint in all behaviour. In Britain, the term was first used by campaigners against alcoholic access in the early 19th century. However, beer remained a staple part of the British diet, and the early movement was very much a reaction against the problems caused by the spread of cheap spirits in the 18th century - in particular in the notorious gin-houses, which boasted that you could be “drunk for a penny, dead drunk for tuppence”.
The different effects of spirits and beer were satirised by William Hogarth (1697-1764) in his famous caricatures of Gin Lane and Beer Street. Hogarth portrayed the inhabitants of Beer Street as happy and healthy, nourished by native English ale, whereas those who live in Gin Lane are degraded by addiction to the “foreign” spirit of gin. These were drawn in support of the 1751 Gin Act - the first to demand sales should be licensed. At the London Yearly Meeting of the same year, Quakers urged moderation not total abstinence.
Section of The Worship of Bacchus by George
Cruikshank (Click on picture to enlarge) [Lib ref: F110]
A century later when George Cruikshank (1792-1878) - proclaimed the Hogarth of his day - painted his satire The Worship of Bacchus, or the drinking customs of society, all alcoholic drinks were seen as equally dangerous and addictive. Beer was no longer seen as a staple; alternative drinks such as tea - still an expensive delicacy in the 18th century - were becoming cheaper. Cruikshank’s original painting is now held by Tate Britain; the Library of the Society of Friends has one of the early prints from it. From the 1840s Cruikshank supported, lectured to, and supplied illustrations for the National Temperance Movement and the Total Abstinence Society. The best known of these illustrations are The Bottle, 8 plates (1847), with its sequel, The Drunkard's Children, 8 plates (1848).
When Joseph Livesey founded the first National Temperance Movement in Preston in 1832, he asked those present to sign a pledge of total abstinence. This was to set the pattern for the development of a mass movement throughout the 19th and earlier 20th century.
