The Temperance Reformation

Abstract

When the temperance reformation came to England in the late 1820s it did not come directly to London, but was first established, almost prophetically, in the north, where the cause was to find much of its sustenance and vigour throughout the nineteenth century. It did not take long, however, for it to spread throughout the country and to find support among many individuals who were committed to other reforming causes. These early champions of the temperance cause saw it as only one part of a larger movement to reform the manners and culture of English society. ‘Every day’s experience tends more to confirm me in my opinion that the temperance cause lies at the foundation of all social and political reform’, said Richard Cobden, the anti-Corn Law leader. Two other well-known reformers, Lord Shaftesbury and Earl Stanhope, were also active in the early temperance cause.