results were shown in the influence of the different kinds of drink on the duration of life; beer-drinkers averaging 21 years, spirit-drinkers 16, and those who drank both spirits and beer indiscriminately 16 years. These results, however, were not more curious than those connected with the different classes of persons. The average duration of life, after the commencement of intemperate habits among mechanics, working and labouring men, was 18 years; traders, dealers, and merchants, 17; professional men and gentlemen, 15; and females, 14 years only. But perhaps the most curious circumstance disclosed was the remarkable similarity between the proportion of crime in the sexes, to the proportion of deaths from assigned causes of intemperance. It was shown that the tendency to crime in the male sex is nearly five times greater than that of the female, or more strictly in the relation of 336 to 1581, while the ratio of deaths to the population from assigned intemperate causes at the age of 20 and upwards, are in the relation of 8011 to 36769-a most remarkable agreement, the difference being under 2 per cent. Mr. Neison concluded by giving an estimate of the number of drunkards in England and Wales, from which it appeared that the number of males was 53,583, and females 11,223, making a total of 64,806, which gives one drunkard to every 74 of the male population, one to every 434 of the female, and one in 145 of both sexes. NOTE. THE intimate connection between TEMPERANCE and PEACE, is most strikingly shown by the fact, that, with very few exceptions, the Members of the separate Societies instituted for the promotion of these great blessings, belong equally to both. War, indeed, could never exist, but for the intemperate and inflamed condition of the worst passions of our nature— cupidity, hatred, tyranny, and revenge. The lust of conquest, the exercise of power, and the avenging of injuries, are the three great sources of all wars: and how much these evil passions are strengthened by Intemperance, it requires but a slight acquaintance with the world to show. With the selfpossession and calmness of judgment which a perfectly temperate life ensures, there is little or no danger of that angry irritation which leads to personal aggression between individuals, or contests of fleets and armies between nations : and if the inflaming influence of wine and strong drinks were withdrawn, the minds of most men would be enabled to see so clearly the unchristian character, as well as the cruelty and impolicy of War, that every tongue would be employed in persuading nations and peoples to live in friendship and peace. Till this happy time shall arrive, however, it is the duty of all who feel strongly on the subject, to assist in dispelling the illusions by which War is still defended and maintained; and in the humble hope of contributing towards so noble an end, the following document is appended, in the form in which it was originally issued by the Society described. [Issued by the York Branch of the League of Universal Brotherhood.] WAR & BLOODSHED!—OR ARBITRATION & PEACE! SPEECH OF J. S. BUCKINGHAM, ESQ., (Late Member for Sheffield in the British Parliament.) AT THE PEACE CONVENTION HELD AT BRUSSELS, [The subject discussed in the following Discourse being one of acknowledged importance, and a strong desire being felt by the Friends of Peace that their views should be extensively circulated, for the purpose of being examined and commented on by all classes, it is hoped that the Editors of Public Journals in all Countries, and Philanthropists everywhere, will give their aid towards its widest possible diffusion.] AT the sitting of the Congress on the question of the iniquity, absurdity, and injustice of War, Mr. BUCKINGHAM ascended the tribune, and spoke as follows: I am so deeply impressed with the solemnity and importance of the occasion which brings us here to-day, and so desirous of discussing the subject before us in a manner becoming the vastness of the interests involved in its solution, that I hesitate where to begin; and this hesitation is increased by my anxiety to waste not a moment of our time, but to be as brief as is consistent with being intelligible. I propose, therefore, to cast a rapid glance over the H subject, under its three most prominent points of view the historical, the financial, and the moral; each of which will be found worthy of our consideration, for the proofs which they afford of the truth of the proposition to be submitted to your acceptance or rejection. And first, of the historical aspect and results of War. If we take a retrospective view of all the great empires and kingdoms of antiquity, from Egypt and Babylon down to Persia, Greece, and Rome, and ask what has become of all their wealth, power, and magnificence,-History answers us that they are no more, that they are swept with utter desolation, and that all are prostrate in the dust, with scarcely a hope of reanimation. The mighty cities of Thebes and Memphis, Nineveh and Babylon, Persepolis and Palmyra, once the glory of their respective regions, are now desolate and abandoned; and even Athens and Rome, notwithstanding the fragments of art which still give dignity to their ruins, are but the shadows of what they were: so that instead of giving, as heretofore, the lights of philosophy and science, or laws and edicts for the government of the rest of the world, they are now both so feeble as to be unable to stand alone without foreign aid. To what fatal cause is all this general wreck and destruction to be attributed? History answers, To the sack of armies-to the ambition or lust of conquest to the dreadful scourge of War. Citieswhich it required centuries to build up, to people, |