PURITANISM AT BIRMINGHAM

WE have received several communications from Birmingham in reference to the supposed action the authorities there intend pursuing with respect to the game of billiards and pool being played in licensed houses. After the proceedings that took place in reference to the fine imposed on the hotel of which Birmingham may be justly proud, we must candidly confess that we should not be surprised at any line of action that may be pursued. The class of mind that cannot distinguish between a harmless game of cards between two gentlemen in a first-class hotel and the crime of gambling in a licensed victualler's establishment-a crime for the prevention of which an Act of Parliament has very properly been passed-will fail probably to understand the difference between a respectable billiard-room and a betting-house. Men with fixed ideas in their minds, for which they have no ground, are not to be argued with. What reason never put in, reason will never get out.

It has, however, been suggested that the real cause of the late extraordinary proceedings is teetotal fanaticism; if so, the case ceases to be one of local interest, and becomes one which we sincerely trust will be generally discussed.

There is no tyranny so great as the tyranny of fanaticism, and nothing surer than that such tyranny is certainly followed by a reaction of feeling which invariably carries men to exactly the other extreme. The greatest writer of the present century has with wonderful power pointed out the cause of the fearfully low tone of public morality at the time of the Restoration. If, says he, it be asked why that age encouraged immorality which no other age would have tolerated, we have no hesitation in answering that this great depravation of the national taste was the effect of the prevalence of Puritanism under the Commonwealth.

To punish public outrages on morals and religion is unquestionably within the competence of rulers. But when a government, not content with requiring decency, requires sanctity, it oversteps the bounds which mark its proper functions. And it may be laid down as a universal rule that a government which attempts more than it ought will perform less. Should the Birmingham authorities, by means of vexatious actions, stop billiards and pool, and close a number of public-houses, the simple result will be, that instead of men playing pool and drinking their beer in public, they will be forced not merely to drink but take their amusements in private. Secret drinking and private gambling are tenfold worse than public. Men who for amusement pass their evenings in playing pool, almost invariably go to bed as soon as the place where they play closes. Let such men be driven, for the want of something to do, to play cards in private houses were drink is got in in bottles, and we have no hesitation in saying that much has been done to make them drunken gamblers.

At one of the universities the undergraduates who played pool under the old rules of going on till twelve o'clock, generally went in their colleges and went to bed. The effect of closing many of the billiard-rooms at eleven has constantly resulted in a game of "vingt-et-un" being commenced on reaching home, which is often continued till the morning chapel-bell strikes a pang of remorse into the heart of one who, by its sound, is reminded of the old rectory house at home.

The people of this country will never be rendered sober and virtuous by Act of Parliament. It must be far better in all cases to have places of amusement allowed, and under restraint, than to drive persons to seek that occasional excitement which in the present hard-worked age is absolutely essential, where no authority or check is exercised of any kind whatever. We do not wish to infringe on delicate ground, but surely a wise government is that which will legislate for people as they are, and not as they ought to be; and yet we find in all our large towns vice rampant and in public. It is not a question between vice and virtue, but between vice under certain restraints, and vice without any restraint whatever-the Puritan party preferring the latter.

For a game of pool for sixpenny lives played in public rooms to be declared illegal would be a monstrous absurdity. It has been played so long in almost every hotel throughout the country that should any lawsuit arise with respect to it, undoubtedly universal custom could be pleaded on its behalf. Should any one unfortunate proprietor of a billiard-room be pounced upon, and an attempt made to stop the game, there will be no difficulty in raising a defence fund among the billiard proprietors and billiard-players of the country, so that the case could be properly tried by those whose minds are not so narrowed by prejudice that the case is virtually settled before one iota of evidence has been heard.