APPENDIX.

Statistics, with some additions, given in evidence before a Select Committee of the House of Commons on Public Houses.-By James Haughton, Esq.

[Read before the Dublin Statistical Society, on the 18th of December, 1854.]

GENTLEMEN,

The object of this society being the collection of facts, with a view of applying our knowledge to the purposes of life, in the doing away of error and prejudice, and implanting truth in their stead, it is obviously our duty, individually and collectively, to keep that object steadily and constantly in view, in

* This Society was founded in 1847, chiefly through the exertion of W. Neilson Hancock, L.L.D., for the discussion of questions in social and economic science. Its

order that the largest possible amount of advantage to our fellow men may be the result of our labours.

in

The subject of my present address is not popular among our educated classes; but it is, my humble judgment, one of the deepest importance; and I hope to lay before you, on the present occasion, such a body of evidence in favour of my views, as will convince your judgment that it is a subject well deserving the most serious attention; not alone of our members, but of the entire community; not alone of the political economist, but of the statesman also. No other question strikes my mind as of equal importance to the people of these lands; it is practical in its results, and its settlement is essential to our progress in wealth, virtue, and civilization.

The drinking customs of our people destroy

President is his Grace the Archbishop of Dublin; it numbers about two hundred members, and has published upwards of seventy papers on various subjects, chiefly in connexion with the condition and prospects of Ireland.

an amount of property so enormous, and turn into unproductive channels so large a portion of the earnings of all classes, as to render it a hopeless task to create a wise and proper distribution of the annually gathered up resources of the country, so long as these customs shall be allowed to fritter away, and render useless, those products of industry which would otherwise be made available as individual and national capital, in the production of added wealth, that would again, by calling into activity and abundantly remunerating the industry of our people, soon contribute to lessen, if not entirely do away, the vice and misery which are now so prevalent, and which entail heavy burthens on the industrious and prudent portions of society.

In June last I was summoned to London, to give evidence before the Parliamentary Committee on public houses.

I was informed that the Committee were desirous to obtain information as to the results of opening our Zoological Gardens to the pub

lic on Sundays, at the small charge of one penny; which privilege was granted by the Council in the year 1840, and which measure, in conjunction with our much respected brother member, Doctor Ball, I was instrumental in bringing under the notice of that scientific body.

I was also advised that I would be questioned as to my views respecting the public house system, and on the temperance reformation generally.

In order to show the good done by opening the Zoological Gardens at a low price of admission on Sundays, I handed in a table of the visitors for the last fourteen years, an extract from the last annual report of the society, and a letter from the Secretary of our Mechanics' Institution; as follows: