On the Origin and Progress of Temperance

In 1814, the British lawyer Basil Montagu published a collection of writings on drink entitled Some Enquiries into the Effects of Fermented Liquors. Montagu’s goal was to demonstrate that alcohol was harmful in all forms and his collection drew on a wide range of sources from classical myth to contemporary medical discourse. Although it was not widely read, Some Enquiries illustrates the extent to which alcohol use had been identified as a social problem and health risk by the early nineteenth century. It also contains fictional and confessional narratives that foreshadow later temperance literature. This paper argues that many of the ideas and principles conventionally ascribed to organised temperance are clearly set out by Montagu, and that this has important implications for conventional histories of the temperance movement

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• Vinum Britannicum

  James Nicholls•The Social History of Alcohol…•2008

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