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that the quantity of liquors brought to this city, this season, is tenfold greater than it was last year. The Calais Advertiser says: "We have seen more men reeling drunk through our streets the last three months, than we have seen before in the last three years!" § 150. Southward, we pass to MASSACHUSETTS, regretting that want of space compels us to abridge. The Hon. H. W. BISHOP, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, says :-"The violations of the law itself add to the criminal business. The operation of this new law has diminished the other class VERY MUCH. Crimes of personal violence have hitherto constituted two-thirds of all our criminal business. Several years will pass before the Courts are satisfied as to the bearing of this new law."

The Rev. Mr SEELEY, of Springfield, says: "Its beneficial effects are very remarkable. It evidently made a very great change in the moral state of the entire city. Its effects are very marked upon our young men. Our Lyceum lectures were never half so well attended."

Mr CHAPMAN, Counsellor at Law, says: "There is not the one hundredth part of the drinking in Springfield that there was before the temperance movement commenced. Even those who, in their own families, use their wine, give their influence in favor of the Maine Law. Assaults were almost always committed under the influence of drink, and already that class of crimes has nearly ceased. Legal and moral agencies should be combined. They are like the Soul and Body; and cannot act well separately." Mr MORTON, Police Justice, says "The law has not yet had a fair trial with us. It is a fact that the city is much more quiet than it used to be. The police books will give no correct information at present in regard to drunkenness, because persons now seen intoxicated are arrested, which was not the case before, and persons now sell in violation of the law. In this way the criminal business appears to have increased, but as the other class of offences which formerly constituted the chief business of the Police Court, has almost entirely disappeared, THIS NEW CLASS WILL SOON BE WORKED OUT. It is a certain fact, that nearly all the 45 cases brought before me during the past month, January, 1855, have been under the new law."

In January, 1856, an address of the Temperance State Convention announced that "the law has evidently driven the open liquor trade out of three-fourths of the State. There has been a decrease of 50 criminals in the State Prison."

In WORCESTER, the number of commitments for drunkenness, from June to September, was 64 less than in the same months in 1852; 106 less than the same in 1850.

The Marshall of SALEM reports of the law :- "There is a decided improvement in the moral condition of the poorer classes of the community, as the reduced number in the Alms-houses would indicate. There are fewer persons in the Salem Alms-houses now, than there have been for eight or ten years past.”

In various parts of the State, there have been held musters, cattle-shows, public-celebrations, at which the peace and order have surprized all spectators, and opened a new era in the history of such assemblages. The diminution of arrests for drunkenness was 77 per cent. If there has since been a relapse, it is from no defect in the law; it was enforced long enough to show its power. In the city of LOWELL, according to the Hon. Mr HUNTINGDON, the Mayor, for the two months ending September 22nd, 1851, there were committed to the watch-house 110 in a state of drunkenness; there were besides, reported as being seen drunk, not arrested, 390; total, 500. In the corresponding period of the next year, when the Law came in force, there were committed to the watch-house for drunkenness, 70; reported as seen drunk, but not arrested, 110; total, 180; diminution, 320. The amount of drunkenness for the month ending October 22nd, 1852, was 67 per cent. less than the corresponding months of the previous year.

Mr D. W. ALFORD, of Greenfield, says: "A year ago there were from 20 to 30 grog shops: I don't think there is one now. The law has been a blessing beyond anything we ever had. I was (before) afraid to send my own child, a boy of 10, into the streets unprotected, a year ago. Now, females are perfectly safe."

Dr J. W. STONE, one of the representatives for Boston, says: "From the best evidence I can gather, concerning the influence of unaided moral measures, the average effect of pledges is, that 50 per cent. adhere for a single year, 33 for five years, and 25 per cent permanently... I looked upon the Law, when first enacted in our sister State, with some suspicion. It is one of the peculiarities of this law, whatever theories drawing a different conclusion we might in advance apply to it, that, where it has been most efficiently executed, there the greatest results in the suppression of crime has been most satisfactorily achieved; and it has seized with such strong hold on the hearts of the people, that its popularity has in those places become invincible."

§ 151. Proceed we next to CONNECTICUT: First, of HARTFORD, Mr H. Y. PHELPS, says (February, 1855):-"The fighting and rioting before so common, have entirely disappeared. Open drinking is stopt." Rev. Dr CLARKE says:— "The general effects of the law are good. Very apparent in connexion with our City Mission." Chief-Justice WILLIAMS says:— "There are more prosecutions for drunkenness. [The fact is, ] under the old law, persons drunk were payed no notice to. The practice was growing very bad. Since the 1st of August, 1854, I have not seen more than one or two instances of intemperance in the streets. Several parties have formed clubs, and get their liquors from New York." Judge BULKELEY says:-"There is much less drunkenness, much less liquor sold now. It is not sold openly at all, but is driven into secret places. The number of misdemeanors is far less." Mr B. MANN, Counsellor-at-Law, says: "I have been Police Justice here for 20 years, and I know a very great difference

since the law went into effect. The parties brought before the Court will average 8 out of 10 Irish." Mr L. S. CowLES, says :-"I have seen ten men drunk before this law passed, for one seen since. It was only when a drunken man was making some assault, that he was taken-up formerly." Mr D. HAWLEY, City Missionary, says: "I have a Mission Sabbath School. Since the 1st August, it has increased one-third. I have seen in my rounds, wives, mothers, even young women, the worse for liquor -but all that has changed; and in my conversations with the poor, many of them say that the law must have come from Heaven-it is too good to have been framed by man." Mr J. W. BULL says:- 66 Property-holders take a deep interest in maintaining the law."

Of HARTFORD, containing 20,000 people, a resident has not seen a single intoxicated person during the year!

says, he

The Hartford Courant, of December 21st, 1854, has the

following:

66

July, 1853, Committals to Workhouse

ditto

"August, 1854,

ditto

"July, 1854,

16

20

8

August to December, Discharged from the House 23

"On September 9th, there was not a single male person in the Workhouse-which, except for two females, would have been tenantless. There has not been a parallel to this at any season, for eight years at least-how much longer we do not know; but we presume there never was. Is there a sane person who doubts for an instant what has caused this result?"

In MIDDLETOWN, Police expense was reduced by $1,200. For year ending October, 1854, cost of paupers, $2,218-for 1855, $1,644. Vagrancy lessened.

Rev. J. C. DICKERSON, of PLAINVILLE, says "No open sale. Expenses of town poor considerably diminished."

Mr FREEMAN, of HADDAM village, says :-"Paupers reduced from 10 to 4. Quite an improvement in the sale of necessary articles of life." Mr DAY, of EAST HADDAM, says :— "Drunkenness diminished decidedly. Persons in Almshouse, previously, 24; now 16. No person sent to jail since the law enacted," six months before.

Dr F. FARNSWORTH, of NORWICH, under date of January, 1856, says:- "The amount of disease in poor families, is not one tenth what it was; Casualties are largely diminished." The Norwich Examiner gives the following statistics :

Of the 220 cases, 73 were for drunkenness, and 4 for selling; of the 127 cases, 35 were for drunkennes, 2 for getting liquor

under false pretences, and 16 for selling: and these cases must obviously, under the continued operation of the law, grow

"Small by degrees, and beautifully less."

Number in gaol August 1st, 1855, 16. Four times as many sellers have been committed the past year as during the previous year; but only half as many drunkards.

The Home Journal, of July 7th, 1855, says:-"The Maine Liquor Law has ruined the gaol business completely. The gaol at WYNDHAM is to be let for a boarding-house.

Mayor BROOKS, of BRIDGPORT, gives emphatic testimony in favor of the law, in his report to the Common Council. He says that when Mayor, three years ago, he was called up three nights out of five, throughout the entire year, to disperse brawling and noisy mobs. "During the past year, I have not been called upon in a single instance, by the watch at night, to suppress or disperse any assemblage of riotous persons. All this change I attribute to the working of the new Liquor Law. It is a rare sight to see a person drunk in our streets."

Chambers Edinburgh Journal, January 20, 1855, cites as follows:

"On the 1st of August, 1851, the law came into operation in Connecticut, and was carried out in a very stringent manner. A great change was visible immediately after, in NEWHAVEN, the capital. The noisy gangs of rowdies disappeared, and their midnight brawls ceased; our streets were quiet night and day; and the most violent opponents of the law said :—'If such are the effects of the law, we will oppose it no longer. A few persons got intoxicated upon liquor from New York, and were promptly arrested, and fined $20 and costs, which they paid or went to gaol. As to the Prisons and Alms-Houses in the various parts of the State, they are getting empty. A large number of our most desperate villains, who formerly kept grogshops and gambling-houses, have emigrated, finding business so bad. Several who kept gambling saloons and disorderly houses, in defiance of law, declared that neither one nor the other can be supported without liquor, and have moved to New York, where they can continue their infamous business advantageously."

The Puritan Recorder, in the spring of 1856, contained a letter, from which we transcribe the following paragraph, showing how the law cherishes charitable feeling and forethought :

"Another characteristic has marked the past winter. There was less complaint than usual on the part of the poor. The attention was more awake on the subject; more had been contributed and done to secure the relief needed. The poor more economically husbanded their own resources. The operation of the Maine-Law had sensibly counteracted the sources of want. These beneficial effects have been perceived to be increasing ever since the law began to take effect. Another fact tells with emphasis. It is the marked diminution of fires. Since August 1, 1851, the loss of property from this cause has been fully one-half less."

The testimony of the Rev. LEONARD BACON, D.D., Newhaven, will also be read with interest :

"The operation of the law for one year is a matter of observation to the

inhabitants. Its effect in promoting peace, order, quiet, and general prosperity, no man can deny. Never for twenty years has our city been so quiet and peaceful as under its action. It is no longer simply a question of temperance, but a Governmental question-one of Legislative foresight and morality."

Rev. Dr KENNADY says :-"The law has produced the happiest result. A great improvement in Sabbath School attendance." His Excellency, Governor DUTTON, says :-"At the late State Agricultural Fair it was estimated that, on one day, from 20,000 to 30,000 persons of every condition of life were assembled, and not a solitary drunkard was seen-and not the slightest disturbance made. Criminal prosecutions are rapidly diminishing. The home of the peaceful citizen was never before so secure.'

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§ 152. RHODE ISLAND comes next: where, however, various obstacles have been placed in the way of the enactment. Mr BARSTOW, the Mayor of Providence, says :-"After the law had been in operation three months, I published statistics, showing that the law, in that short time, had made a reduction of nearly 60 per cent in our monthly committals, while the number of insane Paupers in Butler's Hospital, was reduced one-fifth."

1851 Committals to Watch House for drunkenness

1852

Decrease.

99

The Hon. W.' R. WATSON, Secretary of State, says:—

"Its effects, I cannot doubt, have been greatly to diminish crime, pauperism, misery, and that large and dark catalogue of moral, social, and physical evils which result from intemperance. The Sabbath is better observed the attendance at public worship increased-and individual comfort and public prosperity promoted. It has had to work its way through all the technicalities of the imported English Common Law, and all the delays, quibbles, and subtleties of those whose business it is to interpose between violated laws and merited punishment."

§ 153. In VERMONT the law has been still more successful. In July, 1853, Mr L. Underwood, States' Attorney of Chittenden County, wrote from Burlington :-"The law has put an end to drunkenness and crime almost entirely. Within this town, from December 1st, 1852, until March 8th, 1853, complaints were made to me, almost daily, for breaches of the peace; and, on investigation, I was satisfied that nine-tenths of the crimes committed during that time were caused by drunkenness. Since the 8th of March, two complaints only have been made for such offences, and only one was caused by drunkenness. The law is more popular now than when first enacted."

Mr M. L. CHURCH, says (February, 1855) :-"I am very much pleased with the law. You might stay here for a month, and you would not see a drunken man in the city."

"The Grand Jury," says Mr J. L. ADAMS, the County Clerk, "not composed of friends of the law, in their last report say :—