Evidence to Parliamentary Committee from Rev. Thomas Spencer, a Church of England clergyman: "I was appealed to in the parish of which I was incumbent for 22 years, by the wife and children of a man who was coming home drunk very frequently and I went to speak to him and he said, 'I tell you, Sir, I never go to the public house for beer, I go for the news; I have no other way of getting it; I cannot afford to pay the five pence, but unfortunately I go on drinking till I have spent a shilling, and I might as well have bought the paper in the first instance; still, that is my reason, my only reason for going to the public house; I hear people read the paper and say what is going on in London, and it is the only place where I get the news.'"