Entitled: "King Alcohol and his Prime Minister" showing King Alcohol and skeleton standing on barrels of alcoholic beverages, moderate drinkers, drunkards and their graves. The temperance movement began in the early 19th century (around the 1820s). Before this, although there were diatribes published against drunkenness and excess, total abstinence from alcohol (teetotalism) was very rarely advocated or practiced. There was also a concentration on hard spirits rather than on abstinence from alcohol and on moral reform rather than legal measures against alcohol. During the Victorian period, the temperance movement became more radical, advocating the legal prohibition of all alcohol, rather than just calling for moderation. It was also perceived to be tied in with both religious renewal and progressive politics, particularly female suffrage. Engraving by John Warner Barber, circa 1820-80.