14 oct. 1904 - Cultural institutions proposed by Buckingham as way to prevent alcoholism

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"In the wake of the report of the 1834 Select Committee on Drunkenness, whose establishment [James Silk Buckingham] had prompted and... chaired, [he] brought three bills before parliament proposing that local committees be empowered to levy rates to establish walks, paths, playgrounds, halls, theatres, libraries, museums and art galleries so as 'to draw off innocent pleasurable recreation and instruction, all who can be weaned form habits of drinking' (Buckingham, cited in Turner 1934: 305). The bills were not successful, although the principles they enunciated were eventually adapted in the legislation through which, some two decades later, local authorities were enabled to establish municipal museums and libraries.

What matters... more, however, is the capacity... attributed to high culture to so transform the inner lives of the population as to alter their forms of life and behaviour. It is this that marks the distinction between earlier conceptions of government and the emerging notions of liberal government which Buckingham helped articulate."

Source: Tony Bennett. The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics (1995). Pg. 19-20.

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