I cannot recall one Church of England minister of influence.”  When Asquith brought in his bill for the restriction of the traffic in beer, he was confronted with petitions signed by members of the clergy, protesting against the act.  And what was the basis of their protest?  That beer is a food and not a poison?  Yes, of course; but also that there was property invested in brewing it.  Three hundred and thirty-two clergy of the diocese of Peterborough declared: 

We do strongly protest against the main provisions of the present bill as creating amongst our people a sense of grave injustice as amounting to a confiscation of private property, spelling ruin for thousands of quite innocent people, and provoking deep and widespread resentment, which must do harm to our cause and hinder our aims.

I have come upon references to another and even more plainspoken petition, signed by 1,280 clergymen; but war-time facilities for research have not enabled me to find the text.  In Prof.  Henry C. Vedder’s “Jesus Christ and the Social Question,” we read: 

It was authoritatively stated a short time ago that Mr. Asquith’s temperance bill was defeated in Parliament through the opposition of clergymen who had invested their savings in brewery stock, the profits of which might have been lessened by the bill.

Also the power of the clergy, combined with the brewer, was sufficient to put through Parliament a provision that no prohibition legislation should ever be passed without providing for compensation to the owners of the industry.  Today, all over America, appeals are being made to the people to eat less grain; the grain is being shipped to England, some of it to be made into beer; and a high Anglican prelate, his Grace the Archbishop of York, comes to America to urge us to increased sacrifices, and in his first newspaper interview takes occasion to declare that his church is not in favor of prohibition as a measure of war-time economy!

#Anglicanism and Alcohol#

This partnership of Bishops and Beer is painfully familiar to British radicals; they see it at work in every election—­the publican confusing the voters with spirits, while the parson confuses them with spirituality.  There are two powerful societies in England employing this deadly combination—­the “Anti-Socialist Union” and the “Liberty and Property Defense League.”  If you scan the lists of the organizers, directors and subsidizers of these satanic institutions, you find Tory politicians and landlords, prominent members of the higher clergy, and large-scale dealers in drunkenness.  I attended in London a meeting called by the “Liberty and Property Defense League,” to listen to a denunciation of Socialism by W.H.  Mallock, a master sophist of Roman Catholicism; upon the platform were a bishop and half a dozen members of the Anglican clergy, together with the secretary of the Federated Brewers’ Association, the Secretary of the Wine, Spirit, and Beer Trade Association, and three or four other alcoholic magnates.