3-078-282 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Father Mathew Centenary: Father Mathew addressing a temperance meeting in London, 1843, (1890). In 1843 the "Apostle of Temperance" came to England, and preached temperance in the towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire, in London and Norwich. He held various meetings in the Metropolis, and there are many now living who attended them. In Bermondsey and Westminster an organised opposition stopped his meetings, but in the Barbican, in the East-End, and in the north of London they were very successful. In the Barbican, the Earl of Arundel and Surrey took the pledge, as did Lord Stanhope at the meeting in the Commercial-road, the latter entering into the work with such ardour that Father Mathew embraced him on the spot and kissed him'. Banners read: 'Rechabites'; 'Temperance and Religion'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.