nutrition be regularly administered; let perfect quiet be enjoined while the prostration of strength and energy continued ;—this course, rigorously adopted and pursued, will restore nine out of ten in all cases, where organic disease of liver, brain, stomach, heart, or other organs essential to life, has not been produced.

To the question, how shall inmates be placed in institutions of this character, and how retained? the answer must obviously depend upon the nature of the institution. If it should be a private establishment for the wealthy and respectable classes of society, friends would of course become responsible to the keeper of the house for all the consequences of detention; that is, if the individual detained should seek redress for false imprisonment, the parent, guardian, or other friends, should be bound to save the institution harmless from legal liabilities. If the subject of the institution should be a minor, perhaps parents and guardians would have a right, by existing laws, to enforce his detention, till a cure should be effected.

"I know the subject is one presenting some difficulties, and before institutions can be placed on the right footing, some legislative enactments may be necessary to enable keepers of such houses to enforce all needful restraints. It may be necessary, however, tó satisfy the public of the utility of such institutions, before such laws could be procured."

Dr. W. feels satisfied that many wealthy families throughout the country, who are cursed with drunken inmates, would spare no expense in procuring the advantages of such an asylum. He thus relates the case of a father: "Indeed, since writing the above, a wealthy and highly respectable merchant and manufacturer came to me from a far distant village, with his only son, who voluntarily consented to place himself under my care, and follow my directions strictly, to be cured of the loathsome and destructive habit of intemperance, contracted while a clerk in his father's store, dealing out spirituous liquor to his customers, and partaking, as he suppo sed, innocently, of what others so freely purchased and partook. Do you think that I can describe to you the agony of that father, when he related to me the wretched circumstances of this only son, and only child! O, if you can cure him! he exclaimed, 'money is no consideration, and we shall all owe you an eternal debt of gratitude.'

Drunkards which are town poor, might be supported and reform. ed by towns at far less expense than they are now sustained in the alms house, with their families for a course of years.

"We will suppose a case: A mechanic of industrious habits has a large family, which he supports by his individual efforts. He becomes intemperate, neglects his business, and reduces his family from competence to want and suffering: Want and suffering bring disease and discouragements; and he and his wife, and his children, are transferred to the almshouse, to be supported at a heavy public expense. Instead of this course, let a town take care of such a man, and expend one hundred dollars to keep him under the means of cure for his intemperance one year, and one or two hundred dollars to keep his family from suffering in the meantime, if neces

.

sary; and if the means are successful, he will be restored, vigorous and sound, not only free from his habit, but free from any propensity to return to it. How much better will such an expenditure be, than to support such a family in an almshouse till one by one they are taken away by death, or bound the slaves of the wealthy, with the stigma drunken pauperism upon them! How different will be the prospects of these children under these different modes of management.”

Dr. W. contrasts intemperance with insanity, which has so much excited the sympathy of the community. In the United States, says Dr. W. the insane are one in a thousand, the intemperate eight or ten in a thousand. Of drunkards ten per cent. die annually. In Massachusetts, he estimates 4000 drunkards; 400 of whom die annually. If these four hundred could be brought into an asy. lum, nine tenths of them might be restored to health and tem. perance.

G.

Speech of the Rev. Dr. Humphrey, President of Amherst College,

at the Fourth Anniversary of the American Temperance Union, E, C. Delavan, Esq. in the Chair. Rev. Dr. Humphrey, President of Amherst College, offered the following resolution :

“Resolved, that the American Temperance Union contemplate with gratitude to the all-wise disposer of events the continued advance

of the cause of temperance among the nations, especially the extraordinary movements in Ireland, which promise to deliver that beautiful island from the most degrading bondage.

“I shall confine my remarks, said he, to the latter part of the resolution, which has respect to Ireland. Although I have endeav. oured, for twenty-eight years, to stand in my lot, whenever called upon to advocate the cause of temperance, I was never invited to offer my thoughts on this theme upon a more heart-stirring occa. sion than the present; and I should esteem it one of the happiest moments of my life, if I had the ability to do it justice. O, for the powers of a Curran or a Burke, for I am sure that the eloquence of the most gifted men of Ireland was never more worthily employed than it might be at the present time, in celebrating the moral revolution now in progress in that ill fated land.

“ What has Ireland been for six hundred years? It is one of the greenest and loveliest spots on the bosom of the ocean---the parent of great men; the mother of clear heads and eloquent tongues, and warm and valiant hearts—the nursery of genius and wit; the home of beauty, of chivalry, and of song; but meted out, misgoverned, trodden down by the iron heel of oppressionmanacled by the most abject ecclesiastical despotism, goaded on by madness and misrule to frequent insurrections-reduced to the

last stages of depletion by abominable profligacy-and scorched and consumed by intoxicating liquors. From the reign of the Henry's to the youthful Victoria, Ireland has bled at every pore, exhibiting the appearance of a vast potter's field, suffering by forms of despotism innumerable, and writhing under the fires of the distillery. How did our hearts sink and sicken within us, as we went from city to city, and from cabin to cabin, and, everywhere surrounded by squalid wretchedness, beheld the fiery deluge rolling on. We said in haste, 'Ireland is lost-she is crushed under the triple oppression of the Pope, of England, and of alcohol. The poison of alcohol is in all her veins. She has drunk till her vitals are on fire. How is it possible to live, while she consumes 23,000,000 gallons a year, at an expense of $40,000,000-while she has 40,000 spirit shops-while every fifth shop in Dublin is a dram shop; and nearly 2,500,000 of her inhabitants are without the means of subsistence?' Thus we mused and moralized-desponding and almost limiting the Holy One of Israel. But what glad voices and shouts of emancipation are these that come to our ears, bringing over tidings from Dublin, from Galway, from Cape Fear? There is a glorious insurrection in Ireland. It began in the south, and rolling on like an irresistible torrent, it has broken out all over the land. Even the capitol is in the hands of the revolutionists. Their forces are thousands upon thousands strong, and constantly increasing, and with badges more honourable than Napoleon, are traversing in procession, and blocking up the widest streets in Dublin. Her bands, like the Philistines' new ropes and green withes, are becoming like tow. The priests and the highest dignitaries of the church are in the revolt. Even the magistrates are favouring it, and the army is infected. The daily political press, and even the organ of the Irish government, cheers on the insurrection, while the Chancellor of the Exchequer turns pale over his budget in Parliament, as he announces a great falling off of the revenue.

"Was there ever such a revolution? such a purpose, so deep, so pervading, so determined, so onward? Was there ever such an electric shock? Let the shouts of green Erin, for once, drown the voice of our own politics; for the greatest tyrant that ever lacerated her skin, laid bare her sinews, and consumed her flesh, is routed, and in a fair way to be expelled from her coasts. Alcohol, the personification of all evils, physical, political, and moral, there maintained dominion over mountains and valleys, rivers and lakes, with iron hand, marble heart, and pestiferous breath. But how glorious, how rapid, the progress of emancipation? In a little while more, if this outbreak is not checked, all Ireland will be free. Let us attend to the first voice that was heard no longer than last November. (Here Dr. Humphrey read several extracts from Irish papers.)

66

This, Mr. President, is one of those great national movements which astonish mankind, and which cannot be accounted for, upon any of the common principles of politics, or morals. We are in the habit of speaking of our own temperance reform as one of the most remarkable, but it does not compare at all with that of injured and degraded, but now regenerated and emancipated Ireland.

With all her degradation she has done more for total abstinence in six months than we have done for years; and how? Chiefly by the efforts of one individual. The Rev. Theobold Mathew is the honoured instrument of this wonderful moral revolution. See him on the platform, on the steps of the court house, or on the broad green, with hundreds kneeling before him to receive the pledge, and thousands more waiting for an opportunity. And this is the pledge

"I promise while I belong to the tee-total abstinence society to abstain from all kinds of intoxicating drinks, unless used medically; and that I will discountenance by advice and example the causes of intemperance in others.'

“Here, then, Mr. President, is an humble individual, with a little bit of paper, of scarcely five lines, which a breath of wind might blow away, changing the aspects and habits of great cities, and exerting a greater influence over the whole community than all the combined civil and moral power of the British empire.— What man ever enlisted ten, fifteen, and twenty thousand recruits, in a day, for any cause? What power on earth could do it? Yet Father Mathew has done it; and what is to hinder him from going on from Galway to Dublin, and from Londonderry to Cork? But let us not ascribe that glory to any instrumentality, which belongs to Him who has the hearts of all men in his hands. It is not Father Mathew that has done it, but the spirit of God. The Lord of Hosts is with him in this thing. I do not believe there ever has been, or ever will be, such a mighty moral impression, which does not come from God. I know, sir, there are some who say that this popular outbreak is an enthusiasm excited by crafty men, for selfish purposes, and that it will soon spend itself, and then the waves of intemperance will return and sweep on as madly

But I cannot think so. This is not wont to be the case of any moral reformation. It has not been so with our own. From the commencement its course has been onward, and it will go forward to its consummation.

“ Mr. President, I ought to apologise for having detained the audience so long. I now close by saying, this Ireland, with all her mental resources, and interesting character–Ireland, once de livered—Ireland sober, with a full purse and abundant resourceshow long think you she will bow before any oppression ?"

as ever.

a

Speech of the Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, Chancellor of the

University of New York, on the same occasion. The Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, Chancellor of the University of New York, offered the following resolution :

“ Resolved, That our confidence is unimpaired in the leading measures which have been pursued for the promotion of temperance in our country, and we do urge upon all our friends an active, and untiring continuance of them; more especially would we im. press upon all, the importance of a firm and consistent example of total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors.

“You perceive, Mr. President, said he, that this resolution regards temperance as a practical subject, and in that view, it is my purpose to consider it. I desire to plead the cause of temperance as a practical theme, that addresses itself to the heart, conscience, and intellect of every man, woman, and child-that is deep, pervading, and universal, in all its influences and interests. There has never been such a scourge permitted to visit our race, as that of intoxicating liquors. There has never been such an absurdity as that we should consent, as a christian people, and that the whole civilized world should consent to bow their necks under this bloody Moloch—and that, after all the advantages with which a merciful Providence has favoured us, still fathers' hearts have bled; and mothers have wept over ruined children; this blood-stained monster has continued his ravages, unheeding alike the groans of his victims, the tears of the widow and the orphan, and the rebukes of the pulpit and the press. I said there was never a greater contradiction to human reason; but there is one greater-it is, that, after a kind Providence has opened a way of relief, by means of total abstinence, we should still have to strive and labour and debate the question, with the christian world, whether that remedy shall be adopted. All the opposition that perverted intellect can raise up has assaulted us, and is still meeting us at every corner.

“Sir, I said this was a practical subject. It appears to me that the measures which the American Temperance Union employ for the promotion of this cause, are such as commend themselves to reasonable and practical men; and this resolution urges their vigorous prosecution. And what is the character of these measures? They have been called ultra and what not. Some have said, Take care! you are going too fast. Others have pointed to the example of our blessed Saviour, and with irnpious perversion, endeavored to shield their wine drinking habits behind that. But what are our measures ? Fourteen years ago, we thought if we could reach ardent spirits, we should cure the evil; and a pledge was adopted with that view. But experience taught us that it did not reach the disease. We enlarged the remedy. We did not at first make war against mere names. Whatever it was that corrupted the taste, poisoned the body, and ruined the soul, against that we made war. Alcohol was the evil, and wherever that was found we applied the remedy. The objector comes, and claims that wine, beer, and cider, are not distilled spirits, and should therefore escape denunciation. We answer, whatever it is that produces intoxication, whether distilled or fermented, against that we raise the warning voice. And there was no need even of the formal change of the pledge—there was vigour enough in the original pledge, if properly understood, to cover the whole of the ground. It was intoxication that was filling up our grave-yards; and against this, was the original pledge aimed." This it was that we sought to remedy; and whatever the liquor was called, if it induced this dreadful consequence, we stopped not to cavil about the name. We associated the thing with its consequences. But, we were as..