The Board of Managers of the State Temperance Society beg leave to lay before the Convention the following representations, viz:

We approach the Convention assembled to revise the Constitution of the Commonwealth, with feelings of profound regard. It is not, by any means, our purpose to dwell on the important duties which come before the Convention. In the patriotism and wisdom of the men who have been elected by the people of this state, we have the utmost confidence, and in common with our fellow citizens, we look to you for a Constitution, that shall be adapted to serve the great ends of government; to advance the public prosperity, and to defend and secure the ends of justice, and the observance of order and the laws. While we would be far from any wish to attempt to dictate to the Convention in regard to any feature in the new Constitution which is to be proposed to the Commonwealth, yet as citizens of the state, and as the managers of a society that contemplates the promotion of public virtue and happiness, we beg leave to lay before your honourable body one subject, which we feel must deeply enter into and effect all the great interests which the Convention has in view. We cannot for a moment doubt that the Convention will look with favourable regard on all that shall tend to promote the public virtue and happiness; on all that shall secure the prevalence of good order, and sober, and virtuous industry; on all that shall tend to secure the speedy and equitable administration of justice; on all that shall tend to prevent pauperism and crime; on all that shall diminish taxation; and on all that shall promote a disposition, and furnish abilities among the citizens of this Commonwealth, to extend the blessings of education. Nor can we doubt that it will meet the desires, and enter into the wishes of the Convention, though it may not make a part of the statuatory provisions of the constitution, to direct their labours so as best to promote domestic virtue, tranquility, and order; and so as to cultivate the refined and tender sympathies of kindred, and the virtues of the fire-side, and so as to be connected with the prevalence of pure religion. Nor do we doubt that the cause of the fatherless and the widow, the poor and the oppressed, the ignorant and the tempted, will command the regard of the Convention in their efforts to form a constitution that shall secure the rights and

advance the prosperity of generations to come. Believing as we do, that the cause in which we are embarked, is one that is vitally connected with all these great interests, and that, probably more than any thing else, it enters with vital and controlling power into them all, we have ventured to ask of the Convention the privilege of laying before them this our memorial.

The subject to which we beg leave to ask your attention is that of the laws of this state respecting the licensing of houses for the retail of ardent spirits; and we desire respectfully to suggest some reasons to your honourable body which have led our minds to the conviction, that it would be desirable that a provision should be introduced into the new constitution which would prohibit hereafter such licenses throughout the Commonwealth.

The existing laws in this state on the subject, are in the following words.

"No person shall be licensed by any court of Quarter Sessions, or Mayor's court, within this commonwealth to keep an inn or tavern, unless recommended by at least twelve reputable citizens of the ward, borough, or township in which the said inn is proposed to be kept, who shall certify that the person so recommended, is of good repute for honesty and temperance, and is well provided with house room, and conveniences for the lodging and accommodation of strangers and travellers.

"It shall be the duty of the said courts, and it is hereby enjoined upon them, to license no more inns or taverns within their respective jurisdictions than shall in their opinion be necessary to accommodate the public, and entertain strangers and travellers.”*

Of the form and structure of the law, on the supposition that laws of this description are proper, we do not know that there is any reason to complain. Similar statutes, so far as we know, occur in all, or in nearly all the States of the Union. We do not complain that the statute is not carefully guarded in its phraseology; we do not complain that the framers of the law were not anxious to secure it from abuse; nor do we complain that it does not make ample provisions, so far as can perhaps be made, to secure the end which the framers of the law had in view. The statute evidently contemplates a restriction on the amount of ardent spirits which should be consumed in the State; and looks with a careful eye to the comfort and convenience of the Traveller.

To these statutes on the subject of the sale of ardent spirits, the following was added in the license of the Legislature in permitting the Oyster Cellars in the city of Philadelphia also to retail ardent spirits.

“ From and immediately after the passage of this act, it shall and may be lawful for the Mayor's Court of the City of Philadelphia, and the Court of Quarter Sessions of Philadelphia County, to license persons who are keepers of Oyster Cellars, within the said City or Coun

* Purdon's Digest of the laws of Pennsylvania, 576.

ty, to sell spirituous and other liquors by less measure than a quart, &c. provided that they actually sell oysters, roasted, fried, stewed or in the shell, in the Cellars of which they are the keepers." Pamphlet Laws of 1831-2, page 73. (Law passed 15th of February, 1832.)

In the session of 1833-4 a law was passed prohibiting the sale of ardent spirits in Theatres in Philadelphia, in the following words: "The Courts aforesaid, (the Mayor's Court and Quarter Sessions,) shall not have power to grant licenses to owners or managers of any theatre or circus, to sell within the same any vinous or spirituous liquors as aforesaid, nor shall any house be licensed as a tavern which has a passage communication with a theatre." Pamphlet Laws of 1833-4, p. 119. (Law passed 11th day of March, 1834.)

These statutes, we believe, comprise the whole of the existing laws in the State, on the subject of the retail of ardent spirits.

An important change, we believe, has taken place in the public mind in regard to this subject; and we appear before you to ask simply that the laws in the State may be made to correspond with what we judge to be the present state of public opinion. It is evident on the first perusal of these statutes that there is much that is peculiar in them; and much that seems to be a departure from the proper business of Legislation. We shall endeavor to show, what is indeed apparent now, and admitted on all hands, that the use of ardent spirits is the fruitful cause of nearly all the crime and pauperism in the land; and that it has been pronounced by the highest medical authority to be poisonous to the human frame. It will then be asked at once, why did the framers of the law thus authorize its sale? Why is the sanction of the State given to this trafic? Why did legislation say that this article, which is now deemed poisonous and destructive to the best interests of men, might be sold, and why is the broad shield of the authority of the commonwealth thrown over a business which has been connected in its result so directly with poverty, and want, and crime? It will aid us to understand the subject which we wish to present, to state the reasons which have influenced those who have framed the existing laws to grant a license to this traffic.

We do not blame; we cast no reflection on the framers of the laws in this State, or in any other States of the Union, on this subject.We believe that they were influenced by the purest motives, and by a real desire to promote the public prosperity and morals, and to prevent the evils which experience, in our view, has only shewn to result from the legislation on the subject. The following were probably the main reasons which, in other times, led to the statutes which now exist on the subject in this, and in the other states of the Union.

1. The use of ardent spirits was judged, and was universally believed to be needful for the comfort of the traveller. It was in common use throughout the land; and was believed to be necessary to give vigor to the laboring man; to give refreshment when he was fatigued; to rouse his spirits when despondent, and to prevent the evils of exposure to cold and heat, to peril, and to storms.

It was

also esteemed to be an appropriate evidence of hospitality, and was thus connected with its sacred rites; and was almost universally regarded as an appropriate pledge of friendship. It was in use on the farm, and in the shop of the mechanic; it was employed by professional men in their various callings; it was used in the greetings of hospitality and friendship; and was copiously used in fatigue, and exposure, and sickness. There were few houses in the land where it was not deemed an essential article in the domestic arrangements; and there were few, very few who were not either habitual drinkers, or who did not partake of it on festive occasions, or in times of unusual exposure and fatigue. While this was the prevalent belief, the laws on the subject were enacted. It was deemed a matter of course that in houses designed for the traveller weary and exhausted, and exposed often to storms and cold and heat, that he should be furnished with all that his own house would be presumed to afford in such times; and hence the laws authorizing the retail of ardent spirits were in accordance with the universally cherished opinions and habits of the community.

2. A second idea which we suppose to have contributed to the enactment of the laws admitting the licensing of houses for the retail of ardent spirits was the conviction that the indiscriminate and promiscuous permission to all to engage in it would not be safe. Though the use of ardent spirits was regarded as necessary, and to a certain extont and within certain limits safe and proper, yet it could not be unknown that it was attended with danger. Even before the recent investigations on the subject, and before the evils had been accurately guaged, it was known to be the fruitful source of crime, and pauperism, and sorrows. To allow all to sell was, therefore, in the view of the legislators of the land deemed unwise. It was judged necessary to restrict the sale within comparatively narrow limits; and to entrust it to hands, where it was believed the sale might be safely deposited. Instead, therefore, of leaving this as the other occupations of life were left to the choice and voluntary preference of man; instead of allowing the business, like agriculture and the mechanic arts, to regulate itself without the protection or prohibition of the law, it was deemed wise that it should be entrusted only to those in whom the commonwealth had reason to confide. It was therefore required that in every instance of application for permission to retail ardent spirit, the person so applying should be "recommended by at least twelve respectable citizens of the ward, borough, or township in which the said Inn is proposed to be kept, who shall certify that the person so recommended is of good repute for honesty and temperance," &c. By this provision it was adjudged that there would be the best possible security that the traffic should not pass into improper hands to be abused. It may be remarked here by the way, what we shall endea. vor to shew more at length, that the very idea here implied in the law supposes that the traffic was not in itself safe; and that unusual caution was necessary in order to prevent the well known and obvious evils which would spring from the indiscriminate permission to engage