.^, ^M IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 t^ n^ I.I 1.25 va u itt ■- IIIM ■- IIIIIM ill 1-8 U IIIIII.6 v^ /^ ,%. ^/// A '^ > V .^ CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproduc^ions Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 1980 Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. n Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur □ Covers damaged/ Couverture endommagde □ Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaurde et/ou pellicul6e n Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque □ Coloured maps/ Cartes gdographiques en couleur □ Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) □ Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur D D D n Bound with other material/ Relid avec d'autres documents Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin/ La reliure serr6e peut causer de I'ombre ou da la distortion le long de la marge int6rieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajouties lors d ure festauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, loioque cela dtait possible, ces pages n'ont pas 6t6 film6es. Additional comments:/ Commentaires suppldmentaires: L'institut a microfiimd le meiileur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la methods normale de filmage sont indiqu6s ci-dessous. □ Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur Pages damaged/ Pages endommagdes □ Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restaurdes et/ou (.allicul^es r~7l Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages ddcolordes, tachet6es ou piqudes Pages detached/ Pages d6tach6es Showthrough/ Transparence Quality of prir Quality indgale de I'impression Includes supplementary materii Comprend du matdriel suppldmentaire Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponibie I I Pages detached/ Pyj Showthrough/ I I Quality of print varies/ I I Includes supplementary material/ I — I Only edition available/ D Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refiimed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., ont 6t6 film6es d nouveau de fa^on d obtenir la meilleure image possible. J 10X This item is filmed it the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est filmd au taux de reduction indiqu6 ci-dessouf 14X 18X 22X 1. 26X 30X J 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks to the generosity of: Nova Scotia Public Archives L'exemplaire film6 fut reproduit grfice d la g6n6rosit6 de: Nova Scotia Public Archives The images appearing here are the be tt quality possible considering the condition a.«cl legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la nettetd de l'exemplaire filmd, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the l&st page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All other original copies are filmed beginning on the first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression. Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier est imprim^e sont film6s en commenpant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la dernidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont filmds en commen^ant par la premidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol —^- (meaning "CON- TINUED "), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Un des symboles suilvants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbols — «» signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifio "FIN". Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduc'.ion ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds d des taux de reduction diff6rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est film6 d partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 THE -i v n H ■ MAINE LIQUOR LAW. A LECTURE Delivered in Hali&a, on ThtirsdaySvenSxig, 13th Jaa 1876, BT TBK REV. E, F. BUENS, D. D. First published in the columns of the "Alliance , Journal and Temperance Advocate." An edition of 5000 copies issued by order of the G. D. of N. S. HJO^IFAX, N. S. . PRINTB© BY WILLIAM MACNAB, PBINCE STRBKTr f876. .__^ ^Wfe Archives Of Nova Scotti ^f~^ HALIFAX, N.T %lt MUhtiu immdf AND TEMPERANCE ADVOCATE, OFFIGUL ORGAN OF THE GRAND DIVISION OF S. of t, GRAND LODGE L 0. of G. T., AND GRAND LODGE R T., is a weekly periodical of eipjlit pages — size of sheet 24 by 36 inches — on paper cf superior quality, aucl new type,— published in Hali- fax every Wednesday mornings in time to be sent to the C\. uutry by the morning's mail. The paper contains Origi Articles— Correspoiulence on Temperance and kindred intevesdng subjects — Reports of Tem- perance meetings, and outlines of Temperance Sermons and Addresses— Sketches of the labors of the Agents and Lecturers of the three Orders— Selectidtis of the best written articles on the various phases of the Temperance question — Temperance Serials — Original and selected Poetry — Answers and Acknowledgments to Correspondents — Short articles on Science, Agriculture, Com- merce, Trade, Manufactures, Our Laws, Education — Reviews of Books — Notes on the Fashions— General News Summary, and digest of the World's Teiegi-ams— Space will also be devoted to the young folks. TERMS: $1.50 per Tear. 75 cents for Siz months, (post paid.) ' All Communications, Returns, Reports and Tax, and Official ipformation will be published weekly. ♦#* Every Division should keep a complete set of the paper on file, and ion no account permit any number to be taken out of the Room. In addition, rather, the Division should take several copies for general distribution, or the members should form a good club. No one can expect to keep abreast of the Temperance movement without reading, each week, the reports and news in the Alliance Joubnal. , L •4 THE MAINE LIQUOR LiW. A LECTURE • 4 DELIVERED IN HAIJFAX, ON THURSDAY EVENING, 13th January. 1876. ^fc^<^if ri BY THE REV. R. P. BURNS, D. D., And published by the Grand Division of Nova Scotia.* '.M--.0, What is the Maine Law ? The most erroneous ideas are afloat respecting its pnnciples and provisions. Dur- ing the reigns of Edward HI. and Henry VIII. of ICngland Sumptuary I^aws were in force. They were designed to prevent luxury. They specified the kind and the cost of the clothing to be worn, of the furniture to be used, of the food to be eaten» There are not a few who look upon the Maine Law in a similar light. They think that it is intended to effect in regard to drinking what these were intended to effect in regard to diet and dress. Be it known, therefore, at the outset, that the Maine is no Sumptuary Law. It takes cognizance, not of the use, but simply and solely of the Manufacture and Sale of Intoxicating Liquor. It does not forcibly wrest the cup from a man's hands and peremptorily inter- dict his touching, tasting or handling at all. He may drink as uch as he likes, if he only gets it in a legiti- mate way. The Maine Law prohibits his making merchandise of it. It plies bim with the patriotic consideration, that * The Soi.a of Temperance at the Quarterly ineetin(ir, held In Newport, January, ;'167d, ordered tive thoiisan^l copies of the aoooinp-nying Leetareto b« pHblutud for general circulation.— J. Parsuhb, Grand Bcrit>e. 1 as a member of Society he is bound to look, not to his own things merely, but also to the things of others ; that he is bound to subserve rather than to subvert the inter- ests of the community to which he belongs — and that, con- sequently, he is not at liberty to give general circulation to an article which the most eminent Chemists and Physicians declare to be rank poison. What an excitement was raised throughout England some years ago, when by mistake a Chemist gave to a customer *' oxalic acid " instead of "epsom salts" ! The Press thunder^^d its anathemas. Public indignation was roused. Parliament interposed. Stringent regulations were passed. Everything was done that could be to prevent the recurrence of such a catastrophe. In that case only one individual suffered and that inadvertently. With beautiful consistency. Government authorizes hundreds to deal out to their heart's content, a commodity- which has wrought amongst the human family an amount of evil a thousand times more wasting and wide-spread than ever ** oxalic acid " did. The Maine Law gives this commodity its rightful position alongside of the other, inscribes on it a similar label, encloses it within similar phials, puts it under similar restraints. It dissolves its unnatural alliance with beef and bread and other whole- some articles of provision, and selects as its fitting com- panions, opium and laudanum and strychnine and night- shade. It proclaims in short Alcohol and Arsenic to be Siamese Twins. Its grand object is to rear a break-water against the fiery tide which strong drink is rolling in — with authori- tative voice to say, " Thus far shalt thou go and nc further." An indiscriminate traffic is therefore made contraband. That traffic is limited to medicinal and me- chanical purposes. Intoxicating liquor is regarded by this Law very much in the light of a Beast which no man can tame, an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. It must not be allowed to roam at large, but be caged, chained, muzzled. It must not be seen in the forest, far less in the market, tracking its path with blood, but, as within a menagerie like a curiosity, to be looked at, not handled. If it goes out at aUl wil to I cal del vul inj \\'< lei ai in| a >t to hia Jrs; that he inter- hat, con- •culation 'sts and England ave to a I The on was I'ations be to fn that rtently. horizes iioditj mount spread es this other, limiJar es its ^hole- com- "*ght- to be b the hori- I QC lado zne- uch •u\y to ust Ing ) a at :* all it must only be under the strictest surveillance and within a limited range. Every precaution has been taken to make the keepers faithful, the chains strong, and the cage secure. This law proceeds on the principle that promiscuous dealing in this article is immoral and dangerous, at variance with dornc'slic and social peace and prosperity ; injurious to the minds and morals of the community ; hazardous to life and property ; opposed to the benevo- lent genius of Christianity ; to the letter and spirit of the golden rule ; to the best feelings of our nature and the plainest dictates of sound policy. It therefore says to the rum cask, " Out of the way," and to the Rum-seller, what worthy Phineas the Quaker in '* Uncle Tom " says to Tom Loker the slave catcher, " Friend, thee ain't wanted here." Realizing the awk- wardness of regulating an irresiularity — of pensioning pauperism, disease and crime — of feeding a viper that will turn again and sting the very bosom whence its support is derived ; it proclaims it an outlaw, publishes a *' hue and cry'' against it, and thunders in the ears of all who would give harbourage to it. " Tiiou shalt not kill !" Agents of approved character and' standing, are employed in each locality to meet the special cases pro--' vided for in the law, to deal out to Apothecaries and Artists as they may require, keeping an accurate regis- ter of each sale. They receive a special License from the Local Council and give ample security that they will rigidly adhere to the terms of their appointment. ■^'■ Drink found on any premises not strictly private, if proved to be there for sale, may be at once seized and destroyed, and the owner for the first two oflfences, sub- jected to a fine, besides costs ; for the third, to imprison- * meet, and in addition to a fine. In the case of Brink ^ discovered in sheds or booths on occasion of such gather- ; ings as Fares or Races, there is no reserve or restriction. The precise purpose of its being there is not taken into i account. Let the quality of the article and the fact of ' its possession be duly attested. That is sufficient to ^ subject the possessor to its immediate loss and imprison- ment for 30 days. The druukard is summoned as a' G witness ap^ainst the party who hns deprived him of reason and cast him into the ditch. Ills wife or relatives may come upon him for tiie damages he has personally »\m- tained, or they, through his means, while he (the defen- dant) is not at liberty to claim costs in the event of the plaintiif failing, or to bring counter suit for any debt his victims may have incurred. ■^i FEATURES OK THE LAW. I. This Law commends itself by its thoroughness. It is not a half and half measure, a milk and water affair. It deals a blow at the very heart of the mischief, lays the axe to the root of this Upas Tree, beneath whose pesti- lential shadow every noble and generous impulse is stifled, every plant of Paradise blighted, every blossom of promise nipped, every principle of humanity and religion dies. Other expedients have been tried but they have been found wanting. OUR LICENSE LAW. We have our License Law, but in its most improved form what does it amount to ? It does more evil than good. In many respects it would be better to do away with it altogether. Without it, as the public mind came to be enlightened, and the public conscience to be aroused, drink might be practically outlawed, the drinker bo branded with infamy, and the maker and vender be regarded as an Ishmael or a Cain. With it, humanly speaking, it is impossible for such results to ensue. The License casts the broad shield of law around the dispen- sers of this poison ; elevates them to the status of Gov- ernment officials, furnishes a convenient pillow on which their conscience may repose, and blunts the edge of any appliances that may be brought to bear upon them. They will not judge that to be morally wrong^ which is pronounced to be legally right. ** What business have you to find fault with me for doing this, which, by your representatives you grant me permission to do ? Ilow call me to account for the consequences, when you sup- ply me with the cause ? Do you not to all intents and purposes lend your sanction to the ends by thus granting ih urf bi re| h( ^1 m w[ lei of HI hi A the moans ?" It would be difficult to refute this line of argument. The License Law gives an air of respecta- bility to the whole businefis. Let the Philanthropist go to the Tavern, and begin to remonstrate with the respected Gentleman who, at the head of a regiment of bottles, stands behind the Bar. Let the wretched wife come, whose heart through his means, has been broken, whose home rendered desolate, whose children clad in rags and steeped in wretchedness, let her plead with him with the importunate earnestness of one whose foot skirts the border of the grave, whose eye is on the Judgment Seat, not to deal out what Robert H'dl fitly called "double distilled damnation" to her hnsband, the man will meet all the remonstrances and appeals by pointing significantly to the fc^ign above his door, and by waving the License in your face. He has regularly paid for it. He has entered into a contract with the public authorities and is bound to fulfil it. And even supposing the principle on which our Licens- ing system is based to be consistent and correct, is it in point of fact successful ? Has it restrained or even reg- ulated the Traffic? Let Halifax answer. No! The Li- cense laws are as the withes of Samson. It is most diffi- cult to get individuals with moral principle and courage enough to brave the odium connected with giving infor- mation in the event of their being violated. And when the information is given it is most difficult to make good the charge and to secure a conviction. It is about as easy to '' convict a dog of stealing sheep by the testimony of the puppies that ate the carcases.'' And even suppos- ing you get individuals courageous enough to inform, and a Jury faithful enough to convict, the penalty is compara- tively so trivial that the culprit goes forth from the Court like the strong man of old and shakes himself the same as before. • II. This Law commends itself by its C7onsisfenci/. The system at present existing in our Province, is glaringly inconsistent. It pronounces a thing to be wrong and yet patronizes it. You will perceive that the granting of a License in this business proceeds not on the same grounds as in others. It is not intended so much to ..tttmuttnttmrn mtm flwell the coflors of tho State as to prevent tlie evil wliich an indiscriminate truflic would occasion. The pecuniary element of course conies in. Still, the principal reason why Licenses are made out is to regulate and restrain what is admitted to be a great and growing evil. Tho public Authorities confess the business to bo bad. They therefore taUc it under iheir fostering care. They cannot rid themselves of the conviction that it is disreputable. They must therefore by their patronage throw a halo of distinction about it — and entrust it to a select compaey — of good moral character. They whiten the sepulchre, whitewash spots the blackness of which it would bo im- possible too highly to colour. " Oh, Consistency, thou art a Jewel !" From all such inconsistency this Law is entirely free. Profession and Practice correspond. What is judged to be bad, is treated accordinojiy. IIL The Maine Law is impartial as well as thorough and consistent. To limit this tratflc to a certain class merely because they happen to have a greater number of Dollars and consequently the power of doing more mischief than others, is not fair. If it be right, then throw it open to all. If it be wrong, tvhy permit it to any ? It should be one of the very last charges brought against tho Maine Law that it is at variance with Civil liberty and equal rights. The reverse holds true. To this very charge, the present system lies open. The Maine Law makes no exceptions. It puts all on a par. It deals out equal justice. Its Motto in the truest sense is " Liberty — Equality — Fra- ternity." M..:. Arf^Jr^. IV. Another beauty of this Law is its simph'^ity. It is simple in its principles and provisions, and simple in the mode of its execution. There is no going about the bush. There are no tedious circumlocutions. The sum and substance of it, is, *'No Intoxicating drink made or sold here." A child can jinderstand that. And as to the way in which it is carried out, it is not less plain and easy. There are laws which remain a dead letter on the Statute Book from the expense and trouble attendant on their execution. It need not be so with this one. V. The best feature of this law is its Success. It is now oil CM til T in ell til III on longer nn experiment. It hsH been fairly tried. Tho Champions of drinking usages would fain make ub believe that it has not stood the test. Let stubborn facts tell. Tho law camo into force on the 2nd of June, 1851. Dur- ijig tho 9 months previous there were in Portland the chief City of Maine between 3 and 400 Rum-shops — in the Alms House 252 — in the Jail 27U — in the Watch House 431. It could not be expected that a law demand- ing such a radical change would make itself universally felt all at once. Existing interests behoved to be adjusted Time was required to admit of the multitude engaged in the traiBc getting rid of their entanglements and finally abandoning it. And yet, notwithstanding these difBcuI- ties, only nine mouths after the passage of the law, not a solitary Rum-shop was open ; instead of 252 in the Alms House, there were 146 ; instead of 279 in tho Jail, there were 135 ; instead of 431 iu the Watch House, there were 180. ''^^ ''C But it may be 8n,\d—that was a mere spasm and it has spent itself long ago. Tell us of the living present, not of the dead twenty-five years since. Is it not notorious that the Maine Law has proved a failure — that it is not kept — that Liquor can be got there by any who desire it, and that in point of fact, a large quantity is consumed. , ... r^... w^m. To this we reply, 1. That the breaches of the Law, however numerous, prove nothing against the principle of the Law. God's Law is perfect, yet is it broken times without number. Each commandment of the Decalogue is holy, just and good, delivered amid the most sublime accompaniments and enforced by the most solemn sanctions — yet do men daily break them in thought, word and deed. But was Sinai a failure? Has this Divine Code which has extort- ed admiration even from the most outspoken occupants of the scorner's chair turned out a huge blunder ? Be- cause men are chargeable with profanity, and idolatry, and Sabbath-breaking, and disobedience to parents, and countless violations of both Tables of the Law, should the lips of the Almighty have been sealed instead of giv- ing forth these immortal and immutable **Thou shalt nuta. «*ssrss Scoite iO 2. Still further, snpposinf^ the breaches of the Prohibi- tory Law which have been blazoned abroad to be well founded, is this the only human Law that has ever been broken? What mean our jails and gibbets 'Z What, the entire system of human jurisprudence — the administra- tion of law — the infliction of punishment. Are there no thieves, or murderers, or perjurers, or unclean persons? Is it ever heard of as an argument against the Laws which forbid stealing, or murder, or adultery, or perjury, that men break them. .. ^ .'i..: ;,; .. It simply shows how thoroughly depraved men are, that theii' evil passions will burst through all such legal restraints. But for their existence and opera- tion, they would be a great deal worse. And these repeated violations which make up Ihe World's big New- gate Calendar of Crime go but to show, not certainly the propriety of repealing or relaxing these Laws, but rather of increasing their stringency. And so, all the cases that can be flaunted before us of the breaking of the Maine Law, ^o but to show man's Drink-ward and Devil- ward tendency, and therefore, the need of his being hedg- ed round the more. ,.;.... -;. .. 3. The cases mentioned prove only the impeYfect ad- ministration of the Law, not any imperfection in the Law itself. The very difficulty experienced in obtaining Intoxica- ting Liquor — the mean subterfuges to which those are compelled to have recourse, who try at all hazards to obtain it, wherever the Law gets any thing like fair play, shows convincingly what a power it is. 4. Let it be remembered too who chiefly have gather- ed the instanced of failure, and from what quarters they have been got. Strangers and wayfaring men turning aside to tarry for a night — generally prejudiced agaitist the law and lynx-eyed to detect flaws in it — often men with drinking proclivities whose inforroation has been obtained from characterless loafers or worthless hangers on upon dens of infamy where, not this Law alone, but all laws, human and Divine, are contravened. These unfavourable reports too have been almost en- \ \ 11 Prohibi- he well ^'er been ^'lat, the fiinistra- here no ersons ? 3 Laws 'n are, such opera- these • New- rtainljr 8, but H the of the Devil- hodg- ct ad- 1 the >xica- ) are s to ther. they irry and ing oin »us tan 2n- tirely connected with Cities where it is confessedly most difficult to enforce the Law, and so many elements are constantly at work to thwart its enforcers. Many of these udverse reports cannot be relied on. ^| 5. On the other hand we have in our possession " a cloud of Witnesses'' summoned to testify recently, (some of them hostile to the principle of the Law), whose "uniform testimony is that the Prohibitory Liquor Law of Maine has produced a great and marvellous effect in reducing the quantity of Liquor sold and consumed in the State." , ,- ,- - . - ; These testimonies have come ft-ora the most authorita- tive and unimpeachable quarters such as — His Excellen- cy the Goveroor of the State, ex-Governors, Mayors of Cities, ex-Mayors, all the Senators, Representa- tives of tho State in Congress, the Judge of the Supreme Court of Maine, Judge of the Municipal Court (Portland), Judge of the Probate Court, Dr. Enoch Pond, the representative man of the Colleges and Seminaries, Aldermen and City Clerks of Portland and Bangor, the two leading Cities of the State, the Sheriff, the Clerk and Registrar of Cumberland County (which includes Portland,) Pastors of the leading Church- es of all denominations and many others. The general bearing of this testimony which the- most truth-loving statisticians have diligently collected and carefully collated is *' that there is not more than one- tenth the quantity sold and used in the State, of what there was before the Prohibitory Liquor Law came into force, that, as a general thing, where the trade in Liquor is carried on at all, it is with great secrecy and caution, a^ other unlawful practices are and that the benefits of this state of things are obvious and very great." Take one or two specimens of this evidence. ' *'" .*'="'" Writing from the Executive Department, A.ugusta, June 3, 1872, Sidney Perham, then Governor of Maine, says: — " I think it safe to say that it (the Liquor trade) is very much less than before the enactment of the Law, proba- bly not one-tenth as large. Li some places Liquor is sold secretly in violation of the Law, as many other of- fences arc committed against the statutes and tho peaco and good order of society, — but, in large Districts of the State, the Liquor traffic is nearly or quite unknown, where, formerly it was carried on like any other trade.'' E. Y. Blaine, late Speaker of the General Congress at "Washington, who is a Senator from Maine, writing recent- ly says, "I am very sure from personal knowledge and observation that the Sales are immeasurably less in Maine." Wra. P. Frye, M. C. of Maine, and ex-Attorney General of the State says, " that in the country parts the sale and use have almost entirely ceased," and that " a temperance sentiment has been created which is marvellous, and to which opposition is powerless." Hannibal Hamlin, who was Vice-President of the United States along with the Martyred President Abraham Lincoln, and who hails also from Maine says, " I concur in the statements made by Mr. Frye. In the great good produced by the Prohibi- tory Liquor Law of Maine no man can doubt, who has seen its result. It has been of immense value." The Mayor and 4 Ex-Mayors of Portland declare on the 2Sth May, 1872, "that the effects of the policy of Prohi- bition are manifest to the most casual observer." Two Congregational Members, 3 Baptist, 1 Episcopalian, 2 Methodist Episcopal, 2 Unitarian and 2 Universalist Min- isters — testify ; V*' In this City ^Portland) the quantity sold now, is but a small fraction of what we remember llie Sales to have been and we believe the results are the same or nearly so, throughout the State. If the trade exists at all here, it is carried on with secrecy and caution as other unlawful practices are. All our people must agree that the bene- fits of this state of things are obvious and very great.'' ■] The Hegistrar, City Clerk, City Treasurer and Judge of the Superior Court say, " We are of the decided opinion that the Liquor trade is not one-tenth of what it was, prior to the adoption of the Maine Law.'' At a Convention of Good Templars held at Cape Eliz- abeth last May a crowded, enthusiastic influential gath- ering, it was resolved, that the Chairman of this Conven- tion certify in name of the Convention to the friends of Temperance in Great Britain " that by the operation of the Maine Law, in this State, the traffic in intoxicating Public Archives State, where the liquor traffic yet lingers, it is only as other offences against the Law, do, and that the quan- tity of Liquor now sold in this State cannot be one-tenth as much as it was, formerly." . It is our firm conviction that the s^me Cause if put in operation in our Province, would produce the same ef- fects. All the considerations we have specified conspire to show that it is our duty and interest at least to make the attempt. I need hardly ask is there not a necessity for it ? The Poet Cowper's picture of England is not too black for Canada: .,xf,,j $ .t>h ^?; u fr^i^.; -;tij'i . tiHtJij»tiT#^?uJi<:» "Pass where we may, throufrh city or through town " * »'>'/-'•' '■•■ " Village or hamlet of this merry land " i" -J i^rlt -<:[ ;;( V, *' Though lean and beggar' d, at each twentieth pace" j^u-MticMi','?' '[, ..."Conducts tho unguarded nose to such a whifiE ruui l -_-^ (. Qf stale debauch, forth-issuing from tho styes " ». !^ , i " "That Law has Licensed as makes Temperance reel** W'J'* ';** rh'^ " Here sit, involved and lost in curling clouds" **i .a)ri;\!^. Ji " Of Indian fume, and guzzling deep, the boor," . « V > «■>! if.\^ " The lackey and the groom ; the craftsman there," " Takes a Lethrean leave of all his toils :" ■ " Smith, cobbler, joiner, he that plies the shears " " And, he that kneads the dough ; and all alike : " t<- " All learned and all drunk : 'tis there they learn" ' "«*) "The road that leads from competence and peace" "To indigence and rapine : till at last," " Society, grown weary of the load " " Shakes her encumber'd lap and casts them out. " m Objections to the Maine Law. It cannot be denied however, that diversity of opinion exists throughout the Dominion respecting this law. 1. It has been objected that this law is a foreign impor- tation— a '* Yankee notion." Serio-comic appeals have been indulged on the nobility of patriotism, — the majes- ty of British Institutions, and the meanness of borrowiflg from Brother Jonathan. f '^^va Scotia 14 Should we be ashamed to borrow from the land of Washington ? Them are many bad things we imitate without scruple, why be so scrupulous about the good ? • But the objection proceeds on an erroneous assump- tion. Over forty years ago the Maine Law in substance was sketched in England. Its leading features were pro- pounded to the British Parliament as far back as 1834, by an intelligent and in^uential Parliamentary Commit- tee. In his evidence before that Committee, Mr. Wakeley, M. P., for Fin^bury and coroner of Middlesex, (who prior to being appointed to the latter ofBce was a determined enemy of Total ALatinence) suggests a prohibitory law. "1 have lately (says he) seen so much of the evil effects of gin drinking that I am inclined to become a Teetotaler. Gin may be thought the best friend I have ; it causes me to hold Annually 1000 Inquests more than I should otherwise hold. But, besides these I have reason to be- lieve that from 10 to 15 thousand persons in this metro- polis, die annually from the effects of gin-drinking, upon whom no inquests are held. Since I have been Coroner I have seen so many murders by drowning, by hanging, by cutting the throat in consequence of drinking Ardent spirits, that lam astonished the Legislature does not inter- fere. I am confident that they will before long be obliged to interfere with respect to the sale of Liquors containing Alcohol. The gin-seller should be made as responsible as the chemist or druggist" 2. **But this law is Unconstitutional!''' Did I suppose for a moment that it trenched on a single principle of our noble Constitution I would be the very last to advocate it. Let the arm be withered that would sacrilegiously invade the Magna Charta of our liberties. It is notorious that it is much more difficult to carry out a measure of this kind in the neighbouring Republic, than with us. There are difficulties which wc know little about arising from their complex political sys- tem, the wheel within a wheel, the adjusting the respec- tive provinces of the individual States and the Federal Congress. But even there (where for this reason there might probably be some shadow of foundation for it^ is the plea of unconstitutionality considered valid ? I ap- peal to the hiojliost judicial authority. The Chief Justice says "If any State deems the retail and internal traffic in Ardent spirits injurious to its citizens and calculated to produce idleness, vice or debauchery, I see nothing in the Constitution of the U. S. to prevent it from regulat- ing or restraining the traflSc or from prohibiting it alto- gether if it thinks proper." ,.,;i, ;, . ' { , n ' ' ■ -i'"' TYRANNICAL LAW. ' 3. "Certainly this law is a most tyrannical one — it inter- feres with private property, it invades personal liberty, it is perfectly intolerable that I am not to be allowed to drink what I choose, and that policemen should enter my house to destroy my goods. This is a free country." Friend, what is all this tirade about ? No one wants to touch what you have honestly got. This law never dreams of forcing an entrance into your house and wrest- ing from you any article of furniture or food. Yon may drink as much as you have a mind to. You may injure yourself and beggar your family as much as you like, but you must'nt injure others. You have no right to aet the horse-leech to your neighbour — to seize on his person and property. Keep withiy your own private circle and the law will not harm you. It is a fine thing however to hear men speak of liberty being such a precious jewel to themselves, who are busy depriving others of it, making THEM the slaves of one of the basest of vices, riveting chains about them, the iron of which enters into their very soul. This is surely " using liberty for a cloak of maliciousness." One feels disposed to cry out with Madame Kohind the illustrious Girondist, when on her way to the Guillotine, •' Oh, Liberty ! what crimes have been perpetrated in thy name !" Liberty, like property, has its duties as well as its rights. It must not degenerate into licentiousness. France did not appreciate tliis distinction during her first revolution. You know the consequences. No man has a right to live entirely as he pleases, irrespective alto- gether of the ij(jteresta of his fellows. As members of So- ciety, we are imperatively required to consult for its welfare and to avoid whatsoever would prove injurious. ;■ • ■ '16 This principle lies at the very basis of the soc4M compact. " No one liveth to himself.'' You would oot approve of indecent pictures being exhibited and p^rossly immoral publications being circulated. You think it perfectly proper the law should interfere to prevent such a trade. You do not object to legislative interference in regard to Brothels and Lotteries and Gambling establishments. You think it right to pass a Bill forbidding Cemeteriei and Slaughter Houses, in the centre of densely populated districts. You would never dream of preventing the strong hand of the law from seizing on the dies of the counterfeiter, or the tainted meat of the Butcher, or the adulterated food of the Grocer. And yet none of these have produced half the amount of evil that Strong Drink has done. The alai*m bell is rung, a fire is pacing its way with rapid strides. If that building be not re- moved the entire block will ^c. Orders are given that it be blown up. Can the proprietor reasonably complain or demand compensation ? The pestilence is mowing down its victims. The public authorities issue a pro- clamation that all vegetables and fruits exposed for sale be destroyed ; that ships ride at quarantine, and that the most costly freight, if judged to be infected, be summarily thrown overboard. It is warm weather. Dogs running wild are seized and shot. In all these cases there is direct interference with private property, far more, indeed, than the Maine Law sanctions. Would you venture to say, it was wrong ? And yet, drinking has done far more damage than ever fire, or pestilence, or mad dogs have done. It has been shrewdly asked, ** who would listen to any man havering about freedom of trade, when the magistrate was taking means that honest men, who were no soldiers, should not sleep (if sleep they could) above a mine, or make their beds above a powder magazine, neither bomb nor lightning proof; nor be proof against such stupidity as that of the country lass who told her roaster, on his asking her when she returned from the cellar, what she had done with the candle, that she had left it below, and stuck it into the 'caskie with the neep seed,' which * caskie with the neep seed,' was nothing else than an open keg of gunpowder, suflBcient to 17 blov tliortj. all into eternity.'' Conifoituble doctrine aa- Buredly. There are other '' kegs' in our own city fully as dani^erous. Barnrs, Blackstone and Kent. Barnes puts tlie case very sensibly in another form : "It a man should set up a Bakery in thisCity in which by the infusion of a deleterious drug' into his bread, he would endanger the public health, society would not hesitate a moment in regarding this as a proper subject for legisla- tion, and would never dream of tolerating it or taxing it, or regulating it or licensing it. If, from the Bakeries of this City bread of such a character should go forth for a single morning, and there was a general concert and un- derstanding among the Bakers, to continue this practice as the regular line of their business — if there was not law enough in the community to put a stop to it, there would not be patience and forbearance eno Tgh to prevent a storm of public indignation that would in a day lay every such Bakery in ruins. There are no I: as many Bakeries in this city as there are houses for selling intoxicating liquors." Blackstone the great British law Commentator lays it ex- pressly down that "be a man ever so abandoned in his principles or vicious in his practice, provided he keep his wickedness to himself and does not offend against the rules of public decency, he is out of the reach of human laws. But if he makes his vices public, though they be such as seem principally to affect himself as drunkenness and the like, they then become, by the bad example they set, of pernicious effect to Society ; and therefore it is then the business of human laws to correct them." Chancellor Kent the learned expounder of American law established substantially the same principle. "The Government may by general regulations, interdict such uses of property, as would create nuisances, and become dangerous to the lives or health or peace, or comfort of the citizens. Unwholesome trades, operations offensive to the senses, the deposit of powder, the building with cotabustible material and the burial of the dead, may be interdiclel by law, in the midst of dense masses of popu- lation on the general and natural principle that every per- 18 son ought so to use his property as not to iiijiiro liis neiglibours, and that private interest must be niudo sub- servient to the general iiitercBt of the community."- • - LOSS TO KEVENUB. ■i,' ry,^:^.. a 4. " But some niggardly pursp-bearer starts up and tauntingly cries. "To what iurpose is this waste." What waste ? "Why. you cannot l)ut be aware that this is a re- munerative traffic. It puts a great deal every year into the public chest. If your views be carried out all this will be lost." Well, what if it should ? Why, friend, you look only to one side of the account. For oue dollar lost to the revenue, there will be at the lowest estimate twenty in hard cash, saved to the cou; y at large. And is this a foundation on which to rest our country's prosperity, a foundation of broken hearts and rifled homes, diseased bodies and lost souls ? Can any good come out of money secured at such expense? *' We have read of savage tribes who adorned the rude pahiue of tlieir KingH witlr strings and pyramids of skulls — the trophies of barbarous war: but, to our eyes, he proposes something more re- volting still, who would maintain the splendor of our Crown, out of the miseries of our people." j,, ., DEMETRIUS OBJECTION. , , . ..^4, . '■ '%: ^ -t ■ r 5. *' But if you have no respect to the interests of the Government, pray have respect to those worthy parties who are engaged in this traffic, and whose earthly all de- pends upon it." Every great public reform demands sacrifice of some kind. In order to its being achieved, some parties must suffer. We must not allow a morbid sympathy for the owners of distilleries and dram-shops, to close our ears to the sighing of the poor and the crying of the needy in their distress. The cancer is spreading. The patient's life is in danger. We must not be preven- ted by any sentimental whining from grasping the lancet/* probing to the quick, and boldly cutting it out. But w^l these parties really suffer ? For a time they may, — in the long run they will not. The really worthy will not stand idly by and cry '' Pity the sorrows of ." They will 19 apply themselves vi;A)rously to otl'c»r brandies of busi- ness, their consciences nnburdcned by the thought that they are receiving the wages of unrighteousness. Tliey will share in the benefit (-f that healthy impetus which trade will receive when the crufjhing incubus ot this traffic is removed. They will be the very individuals who in the end will thank us for placing them in a posi- tion where they can honorably wring their daily pittance from the sweat of their brow and not fron> the tears and blood of others. And as for the worthless amongst them — why, if they will not reform, the sooner we are quit of them the better. But even though this were not to bo the case, it would assuredly be preferable to repeat, that noble act of our illustrious fatherland, when twenty mil- lions stg. were laid on the altar of humanity for the liberation of the West India slaves. It would be prefer- able to grant a retiring pension to the whole regiment of Distillers and Dram Sellers, than that the present system should continue. Rather let them go about like gentle- men with their hands in their own pockets, than that they should plunge tbem so deeply into the pockets of the public. '' But you forget the drinh. Pity to have so much of one of God's good creatures lost. I cannot think of its being poured into the common sewer." Ono can hardly listen with gravity and patience to this objection, which is one of the most common. When a puncheon is pierced and the liquid fire is seen flow- ing out into the mud, these would-be economists lilt their hands with pious horror and shout *' waste.'' But when a living cask is seen rolling in the mud, filled with that same liquid fire, they cry, " drunken beast*" and "pass by on the other side." Although in the one case, only the drink is lost, in the other, the drinker and the drink together. Better far, surely for a man to throw Hum into the ditch than that it should throw him'. But in this matter the money consideration should be kept out of view. As Dr. Guthrie pathetically and beau- tifully pnts it : — " Wo wish to keep, and were it possible, to got back soraetUing far more precious than money. Give that Public Archives of Nova Scotia . HALIFAX,. N.S. 2U mother back her son, as he was on the day when he returned from his father's grave, and in all the affection of bis uncorrupted boy-hood, walked to the house of God with a widowed, weeping mother leaning on his arm. Give that grieved man back his brother, as innocent and happy as in those day» when the boys, twined in each other's arms, returned from school, bent over the same Bible, nlept in the same bod and never thought that the day would come when brother would blush for brother. Give this weeping wife who sits before us, wringing her hands in agony, the tears dropping through her jewelled fingers, and the lines €)f sorrow prematurely drawn on her beautiful brovv, give her back the man she loved, such as he was when her young heart was won, when they stood side by side on the nuptial day, and receiving her from > a fond fatjier's hands, promised his love to one whose heart he has broken, and whose once graceful form now bends in sorrow to the ground. Give me back, as a man, the friends of my youthful days, whose wrecks now lie thick on this wreck-strewn shore. Give me back, as a minister, the brethren whom I have seen dragged from the pulpitr they adorned and driven from the sweet manses where we have closed in the happy evening with praise and prayer, to stand, pale and haggard at a public bar. Give Die back as a Pastor, the lambs 1 have lost ; give me her, who in the days of unsullied innocence, waited on our ministry, and whose unbluahing forehead we now shrink to see, as sh3 prowls through the street for her prey. Give me back the life of this youth who died the diunkard's death and dreed his doom, and who now, while his mother, by the body, rooks on the chair in speechless agony, lies laid out in a chamber where we dare not speak of comfort, but are left to weep with those that weep, dumb, not opening the mouth. Relieve us , of the fears that lie heavy on our hearts for the character and the souls cl some who hold parley with the devil by this forbidden Tree, and are floating on the outer edge of that ^reat gulf stream which sweeps its victims onwards to most woeful ruin." Could this be done, wr« need not talk of money. 21 "CLOUD OP WITNESSES." . , ■:t ., ...T. -I Again crops out ihe commonest of objections. It has. pro- ved a failure. The thing has not succeeded where it has been tried. There's as much drinking in Maine and Vermont as ever. Is it really so? Let da prefer to the random rhapsodies of the interested and the ignorant, the Diatured judgments of the leaders of the people. Governor Washburn, of Mass., in his Inaugural of 1872, says : — " Let Prohibition be rigidly enforced and crime and pauperism will be removed 50 per cent, a great burden of taxation would be removed from all citizens, a new impetus would be given to every branch of legitimate industry, a heavy weight would be lifted from the hearts and hands of our labouring people, and a most important step taken toward their permanent elevation and im- provement." In Governor Dingley's Inaugural to the Legislature of Maine, on the 8th January, 1874. He says : — " This system has had a trial of only 22 years, yet, its success, in this brief period, has been, on the whole, so much greater than that of any other plan yet devised, that Prohibition may be said to be accepted by a large majority of the people of this State, as the proper policy towards drinking houses and tippling shops. It would be unwise for any one to claim that Prohibition has entirely suppressed, or can entirely suppress the dram shop. That is no more possible than for human enact- ments to entirely prevent theft, robbery, arson, or even murder. Indeed, any effective enactments against prac- tices which are exceptionally profitable, and at the same time, pander to men's appetites and passions, are peculiarly diflBcult of thorough enforcement, as has always been found the case with Statutes prohibiting gambling-saloons and houses of ill-fame, as well as drinkiug-houses and tippling- shops. The true test of the merits of such Legislation is not — whether it entirely u'p-roots such practices — but, whether, on the whole, it does not repress them as eftectually as any system that can be devised. In more than three fourths of the State, especially the rural portions, public sentiment has secured such an enforcement iiiiiiiliiiiil oftliORO laws, that there are now, in those DistrictR, few open bars, arid even .secret Hales are ho much reduced that Cfiscs ofdrukikenneHs in the rural towns arc comparatively tt rare. In his address to the Legislature at the beginning of January, 187i\ the same competent authority says: — — *' It is fiigniflcant that during the last 9 to 10 years of increasing efficiency in the enforcement of the laws against dram-nhopa, the number of convicts in the State Piison has fallen off more than one fourth." In his 1874 address, ho had said, " One good effect of the enforcement of law is seen in the fact that while in 1866 there v/ere 83 convicts committed to the St&te IVison, last 3eur there were 22." . The Hon. Woodbury Davis, for 10 years Judge of the Supreme Court, says : — " Previous to the passage of the Maine Law, nearly every tavern in Country and in City had its bar. At almost every village and *' corner " was a Grog-shop, and most places of that kind, more than one, where old and young spent their earnings in dissipa- tion. Men helplessly drunk in the streets and by the way-side, were a common sight ; and at elections, at military meetings and musters, and at public gatherings, there were scenes of debauchery and riot, enough to make one ashamed of his race. What has become of this mass of corruption and disgusting vice.'' It seemed so much like some horrid dream of the past, that we can hardly realize that it was real and visible, twenty years ago. The Maine Law has swept it away for ever." Mr. Young, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, at Wash- ington, supplies a list of the amount of duty paid per head by several of the States which gives a pretty cor- rect idea of the relative consumption of Liquors. Ac- cording to this authoritative document, the amount of duty per head, in Maine and Vermont where a Prohibi- tory Law exists, is 8 and 5 (jents respectively, while the amount per head in New York is $1.42 ; Indiana, $2.70 ; Kentucky, $3.89 and so on ; thus revealing in the most unmistakeable w ly, the immense reduction which Pro- hibition secures. 23 L. VA of The Hon. R. C. Pitman, Jntlgo of tho Supremo Court, illuetrating from a particular locality, sIiowh an increase of 68 per cent in the number of crimes and 140 per cent in cases of drunkenness under license laws as compared with Prohibition. NEW ZEALAND PREMIER. The lion. Wm. Fox, ex-Prime Minister of New Zea- land, in a speech recently delivered in London, Etip^land, re- fers thus to his personal investigations during a six weeks tour in Maine and Vermont. — " The effect of Prohibition on the general condition of the people is truly marvellous, a total absence, externally, at all events, of all those vices and crime, which you meet with amoufj^st drinking populations, which is very agreeable and very surprising." In Maine, under Prohibition, the convictions for crime, in a single year, numberf d 1 fjr every 18G9 souls, while in tho State of New York, leaving out the City, under the License system, the number of convictions was 1 in G20. The Citizens of New York and lirooklyn had passed, in 1865, what is known as the " Metropolitan Excise Law.'' It was a Sunday Prohibitory Liquor Law and lasted two years and seven months. After this law had been in operation 13 months, tiie arrests on the Sabbath num- bered 2,514. Tliose arrested on the Tuesday were 6,021, being 3,507 more, though previous to tho enactment of tho Law, they were about equal. " From January l8t, 18G7, to October 1st, 18G8, there were 5,2G3 Sunday arrests to 11,034 Tuesday arrests, showing an excess of 6,771 in favour of Prohibition." Generally speaking when the Liquor places are in full blast on the Sabbath (and how strange that they should be open on this sacred day, when other places of legitimate business are closed,) —there is, by reason of the people being idle, an excess of crime over the other days of the week. These figures are therefore the more remarkable, revealing the prolific parent of crime. Dur- ing all the time of the operation of this Law, the Sabbath was quiet and peaceable, free from disorderly scenes and Bacclianalian revels. Tlie testimony of Ministers, Ileligi- 24 ous Papers, and Public Meetings, in both cities, was hearty and enthusiastic over the good results of the Law. The Liquor dealers knew that Prohibition prohibited effect- ually, and that on the most profitable day of the week for them. They went to work at once to secure its repeal. Large sums of money were raised and sent all over the State to elect a Legislature which should wipe it out of existence. They raised $50»000 and went to Albany and were ready to give it if the Sunday Prohibitory Law could be repealed. Had the Law been a failure, they could have saved their money. Ilad more Liquor been sold under Prohibition than License, as is falsely claimed, they could better have paid their money to have kept the Law in force. This Law and the prompt and decided manner in which it was exercised in this stronghold of the Rum- power, are the strongest evidence that Prohibition can be enforced anywhere in the Cou'itry, wherever there is an honest effort among officials to put it in execution. MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT. ' •^V •^' •■* We subjoin some further evidence for which we are indebted to the excellent Report of the Dominion Con- ference, held in Montreal last Fall, .ti.: . ^^.\t. i The Boston Chief of Police reported : — ' ,u.r,f' For the last quarter of 18!>7, the year of enforced prohit:»ition : — ,' - Number of arrests 1,530 rJM' 'r' Lodgers 2,617 ^u* ^>'!; 4,147 . -. , , 'The last quarter of 1868, the year of license:— *'.* .. ' " • - ^ " J,,, y , ^,-, W* . •• Number of arrests 5,696 '1 Lodgers 7,617 ' >•-' * 13,213 ;. Total quarter of 1868 13,213 Wvit 1867 4,U7 .*...^ Massachusetts repealed her prohibitory law in Novem- ber, ISGT, and substituted license. Governor ClaflSn, in his Message to the Legtislature, January, 1869, said : — JIWiJil"M Jip-.p! ty he 25 "The increase of drunkenness and crime during the last six months, as compared with the same period of 1867, is very marked and decisive as to the operation of the law. The State prisons, jails, and houses of correction are being rapidly filled, and will soon require enlarged accommodation if the commitments continue to increase as they have since the present law went into force." The Chaplain of the States Prison, in his Annual KepoH for 1868, says: — " The prison never has been so full as at the present time. If the rapidly increasing tide of intemperance, so greatly swollen by the present wretched license law, is suffered to rush on unchwcked, there will be a fearful increase of crime, and the State must soon extend the limits of the prison, or erect another." ■ I ; I J i i -i:. c \ ; Connecticut enacted a prohibitory law io 1854 by a vote of 148 to 61 in the House, and 31 to I in the Senate, which went into operation in August. In 1855, in his annual message to the General Assembly, Governor Dutt'ju said : — ■) '*v<>'.\. .. ■!.•■ •■.,.•.:■, ., ;•;,•,.: ..i " There is scarcely an open grog-slioj) in the State, the jails are fast becoming teuantless, and a delightful air of security is every- "wiiere enjoyed." , : - Governor Miller, in 1856, said : — \t < " From mv own knowledge, and from information from all parts of the State, I have reason to believe that the law has been en- forced, and the daily traffic in liquors har been broken up and abandoned." The New Haven Advocate said : — ' ' " From all parts of the State the tidings continue to come to us of the excellent workings of the Connecticut liquor law. The diminution of intemperance, the reduction of crime and pauperism, the better observance of the Sabbath, are the themes of rejoicing from every quarter. Men who voted against the law, and who have been its bitter opponents,. are now its firm friends." ^ flev. W. G. Jones of Hartford, in 1854, said : — ' "Crime has diminished at least seventy-five per cent." _ > -g'j; • Rev. Mr. Bush of Norwick said : **The Jails and alms- houses are almost empty." ^rcin^'t'^ c-;"? ^r'Tx^fiVv, ^^ V . 26 Rev. David Hawley, City Missionary of Hartford, said: — •'That since the prohibitory law went into effect his mission school had increased more than one-third in number. The little children that used to run and hide from their fathers when they came home drunk are now well dressed and run out to meet them." Mr. Alfred Andrews of N^w Britain said : — ••This law is to us above all price or valuation. Vice, crime, rowdyism, and idleness are greatly diminished, while virtue^ morality, and religion are greatly promoted." Rev. R. H. Main of Meriden, Chaplain of the Reform School, testified that " crime had_^diminished seventy-five per cent." \ ■ ■ • ■ "" > » •' In New London County the prison was empty and the jailors out of business. , In New Haven the commitments to the City Prison for crimes arising from intemperance in July, 1854, under a license law, were 50, while in August under prohibi- tion, there were only 15. Rev. Dr. Bacon of New Haven, (the most prominent of New England Congregationalistsj after the law had been in operation one year, said : — " The operation of the Prohibitory Law for one year is a matter of observation to all the inhabitants. Its effect in promoting peace, order, quiet, and general prosperitjr, no man can deny. Never for tiventy years has our city been so quiet as under its action. It is no longer simply a (question of temperance but a governmental question — one of legislative foresight and morality." The Legislature of 1873 repealed the law, however, substituting license, and the oflScial records show that crime increased 50 per cent in one year under license. At a public hearing before the Legislative Committee in 1875, Rev. Mr. Walker of Hartford presented official returns showing that crime had increased four huifdred per cent in the city of Hartford since the prohibitory law was repealed. , •i! The report of the Secretary of State shows that there was a greater increase of crime in one year under license than in seven years under prohibition. The report says : — of rf'iii*.fW7" . The increase of crime throughout our Dominion, because of it, is something appalling. Take our leading cities. In Montreal the Recorder, Mr. Sexton, tells us that he consulted his chief Clerk and his two assistants especially on the subject ; all Barristers and of mature judgment. The first attributed to Intemperance, three-fourths of the crime. The second, seven-eighths. The third, nine-tenths. The Recorder's own opinion inclines to nine-tenths. The Statistics of our Commercial Metropolis, which are under the mark — make out some 33,000 commitments in 3 years, and of them some 21,000 owing to Strong Drink. The arrests in Ottawa, for 3 years, were 2,282, and of these 1843 owing to Strong Drink. ..,rr ».,,{..!,,., Of fifteen thousand arrests in Toronto, during the same time, eight thousand are put down to Intemperance., by Captain .Prince, late Chief of Police. - ,ij*?i^-^"»<*r' r •" The Chief of Police in St. John, N. B,, declares : — (J. R. Marshall,) — " Neariy all the crimes brought under njy notice, officially, are attributed either directly or in- directly to the use of Intoxicating Liquors as a beverage.'' "From the experience of a life time, of which eleven years, I have been Chief of Police, ' I am satisfied that nothing short of a Prohibitory Liquor Law, will check this monstrous evil with which we are surrounded.'" I have not yet seen the Statistics of Crime in our own good City, but I doubt not, they would tell the same sad story, . ^ EUIN WROUGHT, ' This monster is everywhere throughout the land. " He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages : in the secret places doth he murder the innocent : his eyes are privily set against the poor. He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den : he lieth in wait to catch the poor. He doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his net. He croucheth and humbleth himself that the poor may fall by his strong ones," — Ps. x. 8, 9, 10. Are there not around us those who are among his vic- tims ? My hearers, need we look beyon^ our own circles ? They start up before you shrivelled, blighted, haggard — the fire of genius extinguished, the light of happiness eclipsed, the bloom of health vanished. Who can calculate the havoc it* is making everywhere? Pile up the stiffened corpses that lie bleached on a hundred battle fields : Compute the mass of disease that festers in a hundred hospitals amid the rage of an appalling epidemic : Behold, huddled together beneath your mmd's eye, the hardened occupants of a hundred pri- sons, or the skeleton, woe-begone spectres that pace along the corridors or pine in the wards of a hundred asylums or poor-houses. Still your aritlimetic would fail : You would not see to the full what desolation it on the earth hath wrought. Here is a wife who shrinks from the murderous blow of a demon-husband. There, a husband bends in anguish over II dishonored wife. Here, a sister's cheek is wet, because a brother beloved is dead while be livetb. There a brother's fa< ho .,>:'»J, v{> >-' >'^ v.S^ :v^. In- ez' > if face is crimsoned because oflH^lr's shame. iN'ow, we be- hold the scene in the vineyard of Noah repeated. Children covering a fallen parent's nakedness — screening his besetting sin. Then we witness a sight perhaps the most doleful of any — gray hairs brought down with sorrow to the grave. A mother weeping for her children and refusing to be com- forted because they are not. A father watering vnih his tears the fresh-beaten sod that roofs the sepulchre of the pride of his heart and the expected prop of his home, and making this his plaintive elegy — " Oh ! my son ! would to God I had died for thee ! " This is no mere fancy sketch. It is stern reality. The very throat of our country is in the monster's grip. That remorseless hand threatens to throttle us. And is this a time for rose-water and sugar-plums ? Are we rude when we shout "Hands off!'' and put our- selves in the attitude of resistance? Are we to prophesy smooth things, and use the velvet lip and honeyed words when confronting a foe whose likeness the master hand of God has drawn when He says : " His throat is an open sepulchre : the poison of asps is under his lips : his mouth is full of cursing and bitterness : his feet ara swift to shed blood ; destruction and misery are in his ways." ADVANCE ALONG THE WHOLE LINE. .' Oh ! friends, if we are to hasten the day when " violence shall no more be heard in our land — wasting and destruction within our borders," we must cry aloud and spare not, and lift up our voices like a trumpet. Well may we say with Esther, " How can I bear to see the destruction that is coming on my kindred ! " And should we not feel the force of Mordicai's appeal as British Patriots and Christians? " If thou altogether hold thy peace, then shall enlargement and deliverance come from some other source, but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed, — and who knows but that we have come to the kingdom, even for such a time as this ? " May the Lord in his own time consign this guilty Haman to the doom he has marked out for so many. But, oh ! why should he be the one whom the King — whom the State — whom the Community — whom our Civic Eulers " de-- light to honour." The Jews of old were not in such danger ■-% from the liau|ii»<^'.^&|^ii St.^^iLuerus lis we are from this grim and gha8tl||||^i^^(||Hyn6 mowing down hk vic- tims and numbering np nissmin amongst us. And yet year after year, this is in effect our language : — " For 80 much gold we license thee ; 'J ''^■* . uw (So say our laws) a draught to sell "*"•'' '.p'J 7.^ . That bows the strong, enslaves the free, #**♦• ' i*^ And opens wide the gate of«hell : For public good requires that some, . V' i"r'y.-i Since many die, should live by runi.' * H,\ J^ul) ■»f " Ye civic f athera^hile the foes '^/ '■ ^ ^ ■ • rr* Of this destroy^, seize'their swoVds, ^^p^- P'^^ ^^ R«»-i And Heaven's own hand is in the blows'''""* *• ■ ^O^ni XWf They're dealing, will ye cut the cord ^^ " K^^f^l&irio-f That round the falling fiend they draw, •*•''' ■*^''^« %^ ^in'i : And o'er him hold your shield of law? ^-'^^ nr^Sf. •jiit iff " And will ye give to man a bill '■>iiu{i Divorcing him from Heaven's high sway ; \ ^'y„j. .. And wliile God says " Thou shalt not kill," ' ; ,^i Say ye " for gold, ye may-ye may ?» . . ^ ; ^ . ^ , .!.^j,,^,.^,_ Compare the body with the soul, « •rrM*' •» If '' Compare the bullet with the bowl ! . ''^ ^ ■ .1 1 ' < ' i ' " In which is felt the fiercest blast s', Of the destroying angel's braath ; '^ ' '• ^*^ Which binds the victim the more fast, , f?ont | .' Which kills him with the deadlier death ? v?'f(i on '' Will ye the felon fox restrain, ^.rfcii "IL'O ( ti? And yet take off the tiger's chain? f ":,i\ ri *' 0, holy God let light divine, ; , ' "^^^ '* tW- Break forth more broadly from above T^;' ''" ' Till we conform our laws to thine, *• IP The perfect laws of truth and love ; floT truth and love alone can save f! %h •Phe children frorn a hopeless grave.** Public Archives of Nova Scotia HALIFAX, N. S- / ■ riNhi