ABSTRACT
Gilbert argued that replacing pubs with clubs for working men would lead to reduced expenditure on drink. It would be difficult to draw anything like a correct comparison between the money spent by the working classes in the public-house, and that spent by the members of the West-end clubs. On the 5,000 public-houses and beer-shops closed a gain would arise to the community of £1,000,000 a year, – considerably in excess of the whole maintenance of the poor in the metropolis under the Poor Law, together with the district asylums, leaving a surplus beyond it possibly equal to the whole education of the metropolis under the Metropolitan School Board. In fact, the people have several times been led to suspect that the diminution of the liquor traffic, notwithstanding all they may say to the contrary, is not really earnestly desired by the Government. Few people imagine the amount of the police and county rates caused by drunkenness.
