of the former, while weakened by its vast extension, was also undermined at home by intemperate habits, despoiling its people of their characteristic valor and hardihood. Such is the case with Britain. The immense possessions she has acquired, and the cost of maintaining them, press down her energies like the night-mare. With either hand she grasps a Pole, and stretches herself from West to East to maintain her territorial possessions, while her vitals are festering in corruption, and her moral constitution is being corroded by the ulcers of intemperance. ness. POLITY v. DRINKING CUSTOMS. ing weakness. Extent of nion. That the British Empire is fast approaching its crisis, the signs of the times sufficiently indicate. Almost each successive year, for a long period, has been adding to the extent of Her increasits dominion, at the same time that it has added to its weakThe Romans dictated to, and "whipt the world," as far as it was known to the ancients; but their dominions fell far short of the extent of territory which, at the present day, is subject to British rule. The sun never sets upon the Empire of Britain, but, in every period of revolving time, nonshines upon one part or other-a fact whereof no other nation can, or ever could, boast. As with the ancient "Mistress of the world," so with Britain;-while incurring political responsibility by seizing at authority in every clime, she has neglected the cultivation of her strength at home. Morality, which is as oil to the spring of political power, she has not only failed to cultivate, but actually abandoned. The Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, and Romans did the same, and fell; and can Britain do so and stand? Assuredly not. For in proportion as a people become loose in morals, they must sink in the scale of nations. Enervation and effeminacy have ever followed intemperance, and their appearance is an unerring indication of a state's decline. The entire population of the British Isles numbers but about twenty-eight millions, and these have to maintain an empire, conquered and wrested from others, twice the size of the continent of Europe! An analysis of the moral and social state of these masters of so large a portion of the world, would be curious and humiliating, yet instructive: humiliating, inasmuch as it would expose the moral littleness of our boasted greatness;—and instructive, since it would show the physical feebleness of Britain. First, then, there are four Population of Analysis of the popula tion: POLITY V. DRINKING CUSTOMS. Rascals, 400,000 1 in 70. Drunkards, 500,000 1 in 50. Prisoners, 100,000 1 in 280. Lunatics, 40,000 1 in 700. hundred thousand different kinds of Rascals, living at large, whose lives are devoted to lawlessness and villainy. The proportion of these characters to the population is one in seventy. There are five hundred thousand Drunkards-the proportion being one in fifty. Besides these, one hundred thousand persons are constantly in Prison; being one in two hundred and eighty. Forty thousand Britons are inmates of Lunatic Asylums; being one in seven hundred. Two million people in Great Britain have at one time been either inmates of work-houses or in the receipt of parish relief; but estimat1,000,000 ing one million as the regular average for the United Kingdom, the proportion is one to twenty-eight. Pauperism, Insanity, and Crime combined, occasion a necessity for about four thousand relieving officers, governors, and governesses of insane, pauper, and criminal asylums-five hundred chaplains and physicians-about forty judges-eighty thousand and Watch- lawyers and lawyers' clerks-fifty thousand policemen, and the same number of private watchmen ;-total 184,540; being one to fifty-one of the population. Paupers, 1 in 28. Parish Officers, &c., Judges, Lawyers and Clerks, Policemen men, 184,540 1 in 51. Sum total, 2,624,5401 in 10; From this analysis it will appear, that of the twenty-eight millions of inhabitants in Britain, 2,624,540 are either Villains, Drunkards, Prisoners, Paupers, Lunatics, or persons which these bring into employment; the proportion to the Adults, 1 in 5. entire population being One in Ten!-or to the adults, One in Five! Such is the moral and social condition of the British Nation!-Such are the people who sway the most extensive sceptre of dominion which the world has ever known! This state of Britain appears three times worse The coming than its condition at the commencement of the present in of the Goths inevitable. century, and if it go on increasing, it must inevitably bring on premature decay and dissolution-and her fate will furnish another example for those concerned in the Polity of nations. CHAPTER VIII. THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND PRESENT STATE OF THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT; WITH THE RESULTING BENEFITS. CONTENTS. SECTION i. History of the Temperance Movement. Urgent necessity for it; Temperance Societies of the middle ages; Formation of the first modern Temperance Society in America; Introduction of the principle into Ireland and Great Britain; Failure of the "Moderation” principle to suppress Drunkenness; Establishment of the first Total Abstinence Society; Activity of the Preston Society; Wonderful success of Father Mathew; Present state of the Temperance Cause; Extent of the Movement. SECTION ii. Moral Advantages of Teetotalism; Self-respect excited and cultivated; Intellectual Inquiry and Education Promoted; Moral elevation of the reclaimed drunkard; An awful opinion of the "Moderationists" proved fallacious; Extraordinary case of individual reform; How the drinking of moral people encourages the drunkard. SECTION iii. Civil Advantages of Teetotalism. Barbarous Drunken Districts Civilized; Social Improvement; Increased comforts of the population; Decrease of Crime; Peace and Temperance. SECTION iv. Religious Advantages of Teetotalism. Vast accessions to the Church; Restoration of Fallen Members; Abandonment of Infidel Principles. SECTION V. Physical Advantages of Teetotalism. Increase in general Health; Paucity of Sickness and Deaths among Teetotalers compared with other bodies; Longevity of Teetotalers; Increased capability for Exertion, for enduring extremes of Heat and Cold, for withstanding Contagion and Recovering from sickness and physical hurts. SECTION vi. Mental Advantages of Teetotalism. Connection between Mind and Matter; Study facilitated; Absence of Insanity among Teetotal Tribes; Abstinence in Mothers during gestation and suckling highly beneficial to the offspring. SECTION Vii. Commercial advantages of Teetotalism. Increased demand for English Manufactures in Ireland; Increased Wages of Laborers; Increased demand for Agricultural produce; The Farmer's objections to Total Abstinence examined. SECTION Viii. Political Advantages of Teetotalism. National Reputation; Purity of Elections; Politics every man's business; Teetotalism and a voting qualification; The Revenue Laws; A preferable mode of raising revenue. SECTION ix. Replies to Twenty Objections arising from Ignorance, Appetite, Prejudice, Pride, Fashion, and Sloth. SECTION X. A Mirror of the Past, Present, and Future State of Society under the Drinking System; An appeal to all. SECTION I. A CONCISE HISTORY OF THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT. "When the Enemy shall come in like a Flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a Standard against him."-Isaiah lix, 19. THE TEMP. MOVEMENT. Of all questions of temporal reform, the Temperance HISTORY OF Movement is, without doubt, more the "offspring of necessity" than other. There are many who at present do their utmost to hinder its progress, but if such people would ment a resul inquire into, and reflect upon, what must have been the con any The Temperance Move of necessity. HISTORY OF MOVEMENT. dition of society at this day had not its salutary influence been spread abroad, we imagine they would blush with shame at the despicable character of their own conduct. But for the intervention of this great social and moral movement, we should have been doomed to live through a generation as vile, as sensual, and as disgusting, as that which distinguished the period of 1740. The state of drunkenness proximating that of 1740. That drunkenness would again have prevailed to an equal in 1832 ap- pitch, save for the agency of the temperance cause, there is every reason to conclude from the appalling increase in the consumption of intoxicating liquors from 1800 to 1832, as shown in preceding tables—an increase of one hundred per cent. beyond that of the population! But it may be asked :— If teetotalism is the result of such pressing necessity, how did it happen that in the last century it was not adopted for the cure of drunkenness? Certainly the time was then fully ripe for the development of such a measure, but the spirit Why teeto- of the times was not congenial. Though vice and misery were adopted in the abundant enough, men had not then learned to sympathize with their fellows so generally as was necessary for the development of a system involving, as it at first seemed, such an immense exercise of self-denial. talism was not last century. perance So middle ages. of [In]tempe Temperance Societies, however, are not a recent moral invention, as is generally supposed. In the year 1517 an German Tem-institution was set on foot in Germany for the special cultivacieties in the tion of temperate habits among the higher classes, called the "Order of Temperance," and extensively supported by the nobility, clergy, and gentry. But the founders of this Order seem to have had singularly loose and liberal views of temperance-exceeding that of most "moderation" men of the "The Order present day. Only seven goblets were allowed to be drunk at a meal, "except" in cases where this measure was insufficient to quench thirst! On Christmas day, in the year 1600, however, another temperance society was established, by the Landgrave of Hesse, somewhat better calculated to enforce An improved sobriety, its fundamental rule being, "That every member of the society pledges himself never to become intoxicated." Besides these two societies, numerous honorable, military, and religious orders, during the iron-dress-ages, prescribed moderation in drinking to their members.* rance. pledge. NOTE. * The following pledge was found on the blank leaf of an old bible. The writer was a Bachelor of Divinity and preacher of the gospel : HISTORY OF THE TEMP. MOVEMENT. State of drunkenness in America in 1800. Immense of spirits. The present temperance institution, however, is a movement of entirely modern times. The condition of society in the United States of America, about 1800, had become deeply affected by intemperance, arising in part from the cheapness of ardent spirits, as in some districts to attract a degree of public attention, with a view to its mitigation. Though the population in 1810 was but little more than seven millions, the annual consumption of spirits was 33,365,559 consumption gallons, with somewhere about 15,000,000 gallons of wines and malt liquors! Such a consumption may be appreciated by considering that the highest ever attained in Ireland, with the same population, was only about one-third of the above quantity; or, taking the illicit distillation into account, not more than the half-yet Ireland was deluged with whisky. Numerous benevolent and pious individuals (among the earliest of whom was Dr. Rush) looked upon the increase of Intemperance. drunkenness and its attendant evils with alarm and regret, and even predicted the final overthrow of all morality and order, unless its progress were stayed. In the town and neighborhood of Moreau, county of Saratoga, New York, circumstances were assuming such a frightful aspect, that Dr. B. J. Clarke, a medical gentleman, in conversation with a minister of the gospel, exclaimed, "We shall all become a community of drunkards, unless something be done to arrest the progress of intemperance." Every family had its spirit-keg as regularly supplied as its larder, and the visit of a friend or neighbor, or any trivial event, was made the occasion of home-tippling. With the object of "Frome this daye forwarde to the ende of my life, I will never pledge anye health, nor drink a carowse in a glasse, cupp, bowle, or other drinking instrument whatsoever, whosoever it be, or ffrome whomsoever it come. Not my owne most gracious kinge, nor anye the greatest monark or tyrant on earth. Nor my dearest ffriende, nor all the goulde in the worlde, shall ever enforce or allure me; not an Angell ffrom heaven (who I knowe will not attempt it) should perswade me, not Satan with all his old suttelties, nor all the powers of hell itself shal ever betray me. By this very sinne (for a sinne it is, and not a little one), I doe plainly finde that I have more offended and more dishonord my greate and glorious Maker and most merciful Savior, than by all other sinnes that I am subject unto; and for this very sinne, I know it is that God hath often been strange unto me. And for that cause, and noe other respect, have I thus vowed; and I hartily beg my good father in heaven of his greate goodness and infinite mercie, In Jesus Christ, to assist me in the same, and to be favorable unto me ffor what is past. Amen. "R. BOLTON. A Remedy sought for An ancient pledge of teetotalism. "Broughton, April 10, 1637." |