One of the Rules of the Bath Union Society for Parliamentary Reform (established in January 1817) is characteristic:
It is earnestly recommended to every Member not to spend his money at public houses, because half the said Money goes in taxes to feed the Maggots of Corruption
In the post war years (from 1816) both Hunt and Cobbett made much of the call for abstinence from all taxed articles and in particular of the virtues of water over spirits or beers
E P Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class
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