showed that Mr Dow was at the head of the poll-again Mayor of Portland.

The facts connected with the riot in Portland, have been but little understood in this country. It has been represented by the 'Honorable' Mr BERKELEY, that the Honorable NEAL Dow, the mayor, had himself become a violator of that law by pur chasing large quantities of liquor; and that the riot which occurred in consequence of this supposed discovery, was put down by him with a view to vindicate the same law. The facts are these -The Portland board of aldermen appointed the mayor and two aldermen as a sub-committee to take steps for the establishment (pursuant to law) of a 'City Agency' for the sale of alcohol for mechanical, medicinal, and chemical purposes only. The mayor took steps accordingly; and purchased a quantity of liquor, which he ordered to be deposited in the City Hall. His enemies immediately had it bruited about that NEAL Dow had become a liquor seller on a large scale, in violation of his own law; and they obtained a warrant against him "for having liquors unlawfully in his possession." The officer of the court which issued the warrant, at once seized the Liquors in the City Hall. The case was tried a few days afterwards, and resulted in the following judicial decision:

"From the whole evidence, the court finds that these liquors were ordered by a Committee chosen by the board of aldermen for that purpose-that they were ordered for the city-agency, and for lawful sale-that they were sent marked and invoiced to the city agency-that they were placed in the room which had been appropriated for the city agency, and found in the possession of the city agent, legally appointed previous to this complaint. From these facts the court decides, that they were not kept by the defendant with an intent to sell in violation of the law, and that he is not guilty of the charge made against him in the complaint. It is ordered, therefore, that he be discharged, and that the liquors seized by the officer be returned to the city agent, from whom they were taken."

Before the trial came on, however, a mob of persons assembled in front of the City Hall, and became very violent and riotous. They smashed the windows of the hall, burst open the door, threw stones and brickbats, and severely injured several of the police. To prevent them from breaking into the place, drinking the liquor, and probably committing the most terrible excesses, the mayor, after the Riot Act had been read, and blank cartridge fired in vain, ordered the military to fire with ball. Several of the rioters were wounded, one of them killed, and the riot effectually quelled. A coroner's inquest was held on the dead man, and the jury returned the following just verdict :

"JOHN ROBBINS came to his death by a gunshot wound, a musket, pistol or revolver-ball, shot through his body by some persons unknown to the inquest, acting under the authority and order of the mayor and aldermen of the city of Portland, in defence of the city property from the ravages of an excited mob unlawfully congregated for that purpose near the City Hall,

on Saturday evening, June 2, 1855, of which he, the said JOHN ROBBINS, was found to be one."*

The friends of the Law, however, were destined to meet with a reverse, which will simply have the effect of uniting them more closely in political action for the future, and of making the law a political test. At the State election in September, 1855, the vote for the Maine Law candidate for Governor, was not only larger than any Governor had ever before received, in the history of the State, but greater by thousands than any other single candidate. But a plurality of votes is requisite; and, by a vast expenditure of money, supplied from New York, by secret influences, and an unsleeping organization,-a combination of the Nebraska-Democracy, the Hunker-Whigs, and the Rummies, contrived to out-number the united Republican-Prohibition party, notwithstanding that their candidate had more votes than any other. This opposition, though having control of both branches of the Legislature and the Executive, after six months' procrastination, screwed its courage up to low-water mark,' and proposed a substitute for the world-famous law, but a substitute so stringent, that in Britain it would be deemed no better than its predecessor! Mr BARNES-a Whig Senator-introduced a Bill which actually involves the principle of the Maine-law: viz., "that no person shall keep a drinking-house or tippling-shop within the State, ," though in his accompanying report he alleges that a man may eat and drink what he likes, and that to interfere with his doing so, is to go beyond the true province of Government"! The present law provides that Liquor may be sold, but may not be drunk on the premises !

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Though the distilleries are now again at work,† and drunkenness and crime rapidly on the increase; though gaolers have returned to their abandoned occupations, and for a time a state of things must prevail which has not been witnessed in Maine for the last six years, the supporters of the law do not abate one jot of heart or hope. This reverse-and the workings of the modified system-will but furnish them with another lesson in political leadership, and with fresh weapons of warfare: their phalanx will return again to the conflict with a firmer tread, to realize a more complete and lasting victory. We warn our readers against any inference unfavorable to the Law, derived

*It seems, therefore, that Mr BERKELEY, not content with patronizing Home mobs and disturbers of public meetings, must, in the exuberance of that fellow feeling' which makes so wondrous kind,' also champion the cause of Foreign blackguardism; and gratuitously and recklessly reproduce calumnies as wicked as they are groundless. We could not, in justice to Mr Dow, so vilely aspersed in a foreign country, refrain from marking our own individual sense of the cowardly wrong, and perpetuating the infamy of the calumniator.

The State of Maine newspaper announces this fact, as an illustration of a thriving and reviving trade!-though the same veracious journal (and its copyists here) had industriously affirmed that under the Maine Law far more drink was consumed than ever before! How patriotic for the publicans to vote for its <repeal!

from this temporary political defeat. Political parties may succeed with their schemes; but there is something behind, which, sooner or later, will scatter their combinations to the wind. The sound-hearted people, when the emergency comes, will rise up and control the profligate politicians: the Demos will conquer the Ochlos. Hence, as the wisest of her statesmen have ever said, the immediate future of American politics can rarely be predicted. Not one, nor many, defeats can dishearten the authors of the Maine Law, since they never relied for success on political parties, but on the truth and necessity of the measures proposed, and on the sense and consciences of the country. Much less need British reformers be discouraged from a temporary defeat of Prohibitory-law under the peculiar circumstances of a foreign state circumstances which have little or no application to ourselves. To despair of a Maine Law because it has been for a time exiled from the place of its nativity, would be as absurd as to despair of Christianity because it has, for eighteen centuries, been banished from Judæa, where it was first proclaimed. Politics will change, but Truth remains; and as this cause is built on no quick-sands, washed by political tides, but on a rock that no storm has ever yet disturbed,―our hopes remain. the question of Prohibition could be voted on at this moment by the people of Maine, distinct from all political issues, no one doubts that the principle would be upheld by an overwhelming majority.

If

$139. Reference has been made to the political parties OPPOSED to the Maine Law, and it is important that the British public should know who they are, and what reliance is to be placed on the press-gang in their pay. This will be the key to the legal, legislative, and official hindrances put in the path of the law in the Empire State. First, then, of the great RUMparty, come the Traffickers, great and small; in the cities three-fourths of the retailers being low foreigners. Second, come the Rowdies, composed of 'fast' young men of the wealthier classes, of men at ‘a loose end,' and of swindlers and blackguards of various names and nations. Third, comes the Slave power, consisting of slave-traders, slave-holders, and their following', literary and legislative. Fourth, come the Professional Politicians, the opprobrium of the constitution, and large for a class, including the odds and ends of various parties, the immoral and unsuccessful debris of political action, with talk and talents to be disposed of by rule of dollars! The morality of some of these parties may be illustrated by a passing incident. The Times of August 5th, 1856, exposes the prevalence of slave trading in New York, and the fallacies of those who assert that the 'Traffic' in 'black diamonds' cannot be put down :—

"If one ship in four succeeds in effecting the run (from Africa to Cuba), the profits are so great that the return is a handsome one-even including

the cost of the ships, which are summarily consigned to destruction.... RUM figures largely in the traffic, as a medium of exchange.' [Thus of old; see $69.] So great is the desire among the negro population of Africa for rum and ornaments, that parents will sell their children, and husbands their wives, in order to obtain possession of them. It is much to be questioned, if the Traffic in slaves was ever organized in a more cruel or destructive fashion than it is at the present moment, and the centre of this abominable trade [as of the Ruin power] is at New York... It is said that it cannot be stopped. This is, in other words, to assert that precautions adopted at the port of departure are vain. This can scarcely be so. Why should not Portuguese merchants use the port of Liverpool as well as the port of New York for the despatch of slavers-but that the British authorities have succeeded in accomplishing that which the authorities at New York have failed to accomplish? We can ourselves scarcely suggest a remedy, other than that of bringing the pressure of our cruisers to bear upon Cuba with still greater force, but, until the Traffic is stopped in the markets, nothing will be effectually accomplished...The Altive was a schooner of 150 tons. Four hundred Negroes were stowed on board. Those in the hold had to lie down in 'spoon fashion.' During the passage, 100 of the Negroes died. We rejoice to add, that in this case, at least, the slaver was found guilty, and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment."

Need we draw the parallel? Is there not, in the Vessel of the Traffic, a terrible and fatal 'middle passage,' wherein one-fourth of all on board perish? Why should not such a Traffic be classed as piracy, and the instrument of carrying it on confiscated, and consigned to destruction? Why should not the market be shut up? If it sought concealment, why not bring our police to bear upon it with still greater force? If the executive did not succeed in America, why not here? They may not will it in New Yorkbut we may in Liverpool or Leeds. If one ship in four of the Traffic escape the alertness of the legal cruisers, shall the law therefore be repealed, and freedom and impunity declared to the other three? If prohibition cannot do everything, shall it do nothing? If a little offence arise where there is a clear law, are we to promote much offence by having no law? The reader will draw his inference.

§ 140. We return to the consequences in other States and Territories of the passing of the Prohibitory Law in 1851.

The passing of the Maine Law inspired an immense and even surprizing enthusiasm in other States, which struck terror into the Traffic. Synods and Conventions rapidly succeeded each other; and their utterances were of the clearest description. The Church saw and declared that the essential thing for its success was the removal of the impediment of the Traffic: the Citizen perceived that this measure was the measure of the time, needful to secure the fruits of every other. In Dr CHEEVER'S expressive language, "Every interest of evil would go down, every interest of good would come up." They looked and prayed for its advent as the Ancient Egyptian might watch and wait for the rising of the Nile, whose blessed waters should convert the parched earth into the fertile field. On the 21st January, 1852, in the Tremont Temple at Boston, the citizens assembled for the

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presentation of their petitions, to which 130,000 well-written signatures were attached, including 60,000 voters. The Hon. A. HUNTINGTON, of Salem, as chairman, said: "God speed the enterprise. It is a great cause, and can do more for the welfare of the people than anything else." It was borne on a double sleigh to the State House, over a rich banner, on which was inscribed "THE VOICE OF MASSACHUSETTS-130,000 PETITIONERS IN FAVOR OF THE MAINE TEMPERANCE LAW"-accompanied by the chairman, the venerable Dr BEECHER, and the Committee. Seven days later (28th January), a 'grand demonstration' was made at Albany, the legislative capital of NEW YORK, the Empire State.' The artillery company, and gorgeous sleighs filled with officers, guests, and ladies, the monster rolls of petitions, with 300,000 signatures, and half a mile of teetotalers and Sons of Temperance, with splendid regalia, badges, banners, and bands of music following, assembled in the front and neighborhood of the Delavan House, and after passing through the chief streets, entered by permission the Assembly Chamber, where, the meeting being called to order by the veteran Colonel CAMP, the claims of the law were enforced by Dr MARSH and others. The law asked for was, “a law to prevent Pauperism and Crime.” The Petitions were referred to Select Committees, which reported acceptable bills, and assigned reasons. The Report in the Senate said that a greater number of petitioners had united in the request than had ever before been presented in behalf of any measure. The Report in the Assembly, referring to the objection that 'The people are not prepared for it,' said: "Objections of this kind come with a bad odour from those who wish its nonenforcement." And indeed, we may add, it is to us a sorrowful moral mystery, how men in this country, public writers and professed teachers of the people, in referring to the rise and fall of the temperance contest in America, grasp with avidity, and circulate with glee, every report of a temporary reverse which the friends of temperance may, and sometimes must sustain; gloating, as it were, over the supposed failure of the latest instrumentality devised for abating the great source of moral wreck, domestic discord, and social disorganization! That the law should not be early passed in NEW YORK-the centre of Foreignism, and the stronghold of the Slave Trade and the Rum Trafficwas to be expected. No doubt, also, it will be one of the last places in which it will be executed, when passed. There, as here, the Slave Trade is declared Piracy, but somebody is not 'prepared' to give up the trade; it is so profitable! If this be true-we say-Then pity 'tis, 'tis true. But what is there for a MAN to rejoice about in such a fact?

From Maine the impulse spread to MINNESOTA; this territory arriving second at the goal. The law passed both Houses of the Legislature in March, with the proviso that it be submitted for approval to the people. The people at once gave it their impri