ABSTRACT
This winter has brought before us a new class of distressed persons, in the wives and families, and aged parents, of men who have gone into the army. In almost every case that has come before me, the men have been induced to enlist when under the influence of drink. One man, a joiner by trade, who deserted a wife and three children, was so plainly in a state of despondency amounting to insanity—the consequence of hard drinking—when he enlisted and was sworn in, that, at the request of his wife, I wrote to Lord Hardinge a statement of the facts, in the hope of getting the man liberated. But it was decided that it would be a breach of routine to comply with such a petition. The man had recovered his senses, and as he was wanted to swell the ranks of our army, his wife and children were left to swell the ranks of our paupers. I have not known a single instance in which any portion of the bounty money was left to help the wife and family. It is almost invariably spent in drunken carousals. A labourer, living near the Mission-house, left his home on the Monday morning before the Christmas week, to go, as he said, to Birkenhead to work. Much to the surprise of his wife, for he was not an habitual drunkard, he came home every night intoxicated, and on the Friday morning, as he went out, he said he should return that night with his week’s wages. His wife never saw him again. She made anxious inquiries at the police offices and among the man’s acquaintances, but for a week or two heard nothing of him, till at last a recruiting sergeant called upon her and told her that her husband had enlisted, and that on the above Friday morning he had gone off to Walmer Barracks. She immediately wrote to him and received in reply a letter.
