PRIVATE DRINKING. - The Constabulary reports and returns relating to the year 1874 contain a letter from the Chief Constable of Cumberland and Westmorland in which, after noticing the complaints made by the inhabitants of large villages, especially in the Lake districts, that 10 o'clock is found to be rather too early for shutting up the public houses, the writer goes on to say: "Numbers of men club together to buy liquor before the public houses are closed, and go to the house of one of the party and drink there to a late hour." "Women and children are generally present, and I believe that the evil example thus set has been attended with very bad consequences. In many cases of brutal kicking and other assaults committed by husbands on their wives, the defendants alleged that when they returned from work they found their wives drunk and their homes neglected, and that then passion, quarrelling, ,and violence followed. I believe that drinking to excess among women has greatly increased since men have fallen into the habit of taking liqour home when the public houses close, and sitting up till one or two a.m. carousing with their companions in the presence of women and children. This practice, which is spoken of as the "bottle system", may not be contrary to the letter of the law, but it is at variance with the spirit of LORD ABERDARE's Act, and is resorted to as a mere evasion of the law."