by 'priming' the man for any deed. There is, however, far more even of palpable intoxication, than superficial flying travellers suspect. Mr J. FENIMORE COOPER, the distinguished American author, says in his Travels :—

"I came to Europe under the impression that there was more drunkenness among us than in any other country, England, perhaps, excepted. A residence of six months in Paris changes my views entirely: I have taken unbelievers with me into the streets, and have never failed to convince them of their mistake in the course of an hour....On one occasion a party of four went out with this object: we passed thirteen drunken men within a walk of an hour-many of them were so far gone as to be totally unable to walk. I once saw three men wallowing in the gutter before my window, a degree of beastly degradation I never witnessed in any other country....In passing between Paris and London, I have been more struck by drunkenness in the streets of the former than in those of the latter."

The distinguished statesman, Count DE MONTALEMBERT, said in his place in the National Assembly of 1850, in reference to the 360,000 Cabarets (yielding a revenue of £2,500,000) :"Where there is a Wine Shop, there are the elements of "disease, and the frightful source of all that is at enmity with "the interests of the workmen."

The Rev. G. M. MUSGRAVE, M.A., says of Normandy :—

"I was shocked to hear of so many young children being insane. The majority of cases among the adult aliênés arose out of general intemperance, debauchery, and an abandoned course of living. The free use of Brandy tended, in a fearful degree, to weaken the intellectual faculties, and took fatal effect frequently before the age of 25."†

Even the English amusement of wife-beating may be paralleled by the results of wine drinking in France. The following is translated from the Paris Dansant, ou les Filles D'Hérodiade, published at Paris in 1845:

"She knows too well what marriage is among the poor to desire it. She knows how the husband takes advantage of his wife's labor, and spends at the barriers what farthings she painfully gathers at the point of her needle. She knows how the mother of the family passes long days, besieged by naked children, who ask in vain for bread. She knows how the lord and master re-enters, his pockets empty, drunk, soiled with mud, and on the first remark or complaint proceeds to blows. She may have been a patient in the Hotel Dieu, and have seen that, in the department for injuries to females, almost all the beds were filled with wives who have been carried thither half-killed by their husbands.”—p. 82.

The celebrated writer on Prostitution, M. PARENT DUCHAT

*To what the Tavern system has led, the reader may see by perusing "A Sunday in Paris," by Mr Douglas, W. S., of Cupar Fife, published in one of the 'Stirling Tracts.' Or he may read "The Soldier of Fortune," written many years ago by a French Author, translated and published in Hodgson's Parlour Novelist, and also in the first series of The Alliance. This reminds us of similar testimony furnished in the works of the Flemish author, Hendrick Conscience, especially in his story entitled The Curse of the Village.

Ramble through Normandy ; p. 202. London, 1855.

ELET, observes that the evil is promoted largely by bad parental example and usage arising out of drunkenness.

It was SMOLLETT, we think, who observed in his Travels about a century ago, that all wine countries are poor,-palpably because they present facilities and temptations to drink,-and that the French peasantry were always more healthy when there was a scarcity of wine.

Mr E. C. DELAVAN, while on a foreign tour some years ago, did look for intemperance, and found it too, with all its attendant horrors; and he found its effects also,-crime, poverty, and disease. The DUKE OF ORLEANS, General-in-Chief of the Armies of France, told the same gentleman that the ration to each soldier was a bottle of wine a day-that the use of that bottle only stimulated the appetite for more, their small pay being usually squandered to purchase it; and that insubordination in the army could be traced to the wine; and most of the crime and poverty in the country, especially in the wine districts, to the same

cause.

M. VILLERME, in his treatise on the Working Classes, describes their Cabarets at Lille: "All drank the detestable corn-brandy or beer. I heard even children utter the vilest obscenities. I have never seen at once so much pollution, misery, and vice; and nowhere under an aspect more hideous and revolting.

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The Mayor of Paimpol, in his official Report, says :-"I affirm that the greater part of the paupers of this town owe their misery to the excess of drinks, particularly brandy; that almost all the disorders and crimes which have come before me have been committed by persons either drunk or given to intoxication."

The Hon. HORACE GREELY, in his Editorial Correspondence to the New York Tribune, June 30th, 1855, says :—

"Walking out in the environs of Paris a few days since to observe the French methods of agriculture, I was somewhat surprised, knowing my American friend and companion to be a moderate drinker of wine, by his casual remark, that he regarded the vine as the great scourge of France. From one who discards and rejects the inspiration of the 'generous juice,' such an observation would not have seemed remarkable; but from my intelligent friend, who has spent some years in Paris, and has conformed in his beverage to the habits of her people, I certainly did not expect it. "As to the temperance of wine-producing nations, and of this one in particular, a great deal has been boastingly said, which is not half consistent with the facts. It is true that the people of the warmer portions of the temperate zone are less addicted to intoxication than are those of severer climates; that there is less drunkenness in Sicily than in Scotland-in Lyons or Rome, than in Moscow or Edinburgh. It is likewise true that the milder stimulants, like wine or beer, do not intoxicate or madden so readily as do the fiery products of distillation. But that wine will intoxicate does intoxicate that there are confirmed drunkards in Paris, and through

*Not owing to climate, however. India, Persia, Arabia, etc., were once very drunken. To Arabia, Mohamet applied the Maine-Law. See the celebrated Oriental book, Antar.

out France-is also notorious and undeniable. You can hardly open a French newspaper that does not contain some account of a robbery perpetrated upon some person stupefied by over-drinking-a police case growing out of a quarrel over the wine-cup-or a culprit, when asked to say why the sentence of the law should not be pronounced on him, replying, 'I was drunk when this happened, and know nothing of the matter. That journeymen are commonly less fitted for and less inclined to work on Monday than on other days of the week, is as notorious here as it ever was in any Tum-drinking city. That the French character, male and female, would stand higher in the general estimation if Wine were unknown here, is very plain to all who look through uncolored glasses; and that the love of Wine often ripens here into a fierce thirst for more fiery potations, is as certain as that cider drinkers ever become rum drinkers in New England. In two or three thronged Parisian localities flashy grog-shops have recently been opened, under the general designation of American Buffet,' where mintjuleps, sherry-cobblers, and such like delectable compounds, are dispensed at a franc per tumbler; and I am assured that thousands of Frenchmen, no longer satisfied with the milder stimulants to which they have been accustomed from childhood, are here ripening into habits which their wine-drinking friends cannot regard without alarm. I need hardly add, that the distillation of brandy is an ancient and important pursuit in France, and that the beet crop of last year was extensively diverted from sugar-making to the production of spirits."

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§19. The truth we are enforcing was never more fitly expressed than by one of Britain's most classical authors. "In all the "towns and countries I have seen," said Dr OLIVER GOLDSMITH, "I never saw a city or village yet, whose miseries were not in pro"portion to the number of its public-houses." The more numerous and busy such houses are, the more destitute and degraded are the people but the more numerous and thriving other trades, as Bakers, Butchers, Drapers, Shoemakers, Furniture dealers, etc., the more prosperous and happy will be the community. What can more strikingly evince the bad peculiarity of the Liquor Traffic? Things may have changed in the Low Countries since Goldsmith's time, but the law still holds. He adds "In Rotterdam, you may go through eight or ten streets without finding a public-house; in Antwerp almost every second house seems an ale-house. In the one city, all wears the appearance of happiness and warm affluence; in the other, the young fellows walk about the streets in shabby finery; their fathers sit at the door, darning and knitting stockings, while their ports are filled with dunghills." We cut out the following testimony from the Missionary Record of the U. P. Church of Scotland, for December, 1854:

"BELGIUM.-What is the moral and social condition of the people? The answer to the question will depend, to a certain extent, on the part of the population referred to. BRUSSELS may be defined as a little Paris,very gay, very pleasure loving, and very wicked. The state of morals in ANTWERP was described to us as in many respects frightful.

"Judging of the peasantry from the little we saw of them, our opinion would be highly favorable. For tidiness, cleanliness, and an appearance of comfort, they would bear a very advantageous comparison with any portion of our own people. It is well known that, as a nation, the Belgians have been for centuries distinguished by habits of industry and enterprize; and

never, probably, was more favorable scope afforded for the development of these qualities than in the present fortunate political situation of the country. Nor did it ever present more abundant tokens of commercial life and material prosperity. The extensive coal and iron deposits of the West and South have given birth to much manufacturing industry,—to foundries, and other public works. The population in these quarters is, to a lamen table extent, degraded, brutal, and ignorant. In all parts of the country, but especially here, one cannot fail to be struck with the number of Estaminets-that is, drinking and smoking houses. Wine, beer, and spirits are consumed in great quantities by the working classes. It is said that the consumption of spirits is rapidly increasing. The Sabbath, and more especially the Monday, is given up by a vast number of the miners and other operatives to drinking and revelry.* Beastly intoxication, and the diseased craving for strong drink, are common. There is certainly little to offend the eye in the public streets. But on the best testimony, we were assured that there is a vast amount of intemperance, much carousing and gluttony, great sottishness, and mis-spending of time and money. In other respects, also, morals are dismally low. This is proved by the extraordinary number of illegitimate births."

§ 20. If we extend our enquiries into Germany, we shall find that the general consumption of Light wines, instead of preserving sobriety, has converted the Germans into a nation of Brandy drinkers. The following facts were stated at a Conference held at Bremen, September, 1852, by Dr WALD, of Konigsberg :+

That the Zollverein consumed 122 millions of dollars' worth of alcoholic liquor (£18,000,000). That Berlin had in 1845, as compared with 1745, 1,500 more Taverns, and one Church less! That out of 60 children under 6 years of age, in the Orphan Asylum, 40 had been accustomed to sip spirits, of whom 9 were infected with a depraved desire for them? That in the vale of Barmen, one of the most religious districts of Rhenish Prussia, there were above 400 Public-houses for the sale of Brannt-wein (Brandy); and out of a population of 80,000, not less than 13,000 dram-drinkers. That in the conscription of 1852, for a district of Western Prussia, out of 174 young men, only 4 were declared admissible by the inspecting Surgeons, the remaining 170 being physically incapacitated by dram-drinking! That from year to year the Prisons and Lunatic Asylums become more crowded, thousands becoming permanently mad through delirium tremens; and that drinking occasioned nine-tenths of the increasing divorces of the country. That in the North of Germany, the use of spirits has increased ninefold in 35 years, so that more than one-half of the whole corn and potatoes grown are converted into this 'bewitching

*The London Examiner, of May 24th, 1856, has the following intrepid generalization:-" Precisely in proportion to the austere observance of the Sabbath is found the prevalence of inebriety." The Scotch are referred to as the sole basis of the remark, and the reason assigned for their Sabbath drinking is-" They have nothing else to do." But there is the absence of this austerity in Manufacturing-Belgium, and in Sweden-yet not the absence of inebriety! In Paris, too, there is far more drinking on the gay Sabbath than on the graver work-day. All this proves simply, that when the workmen have nothing else to do, they are more exposed to fall into the traps of the Traffic.

+ See Report published by Hertz, Berlin, 1852.

poison.' At the conference where this paper was read, it was unanimously resolved, "That the congress recommends the central committee of Inner Missions to apply to the different governments for the improvement of the present laws that so far restrict the sale of spirituous liquors, and for their rigorous enforcement in the meanwhile."

LIPPICH, in his Grundzüge zur Dipsobiostatik, referring to the mortality in Laibach, computes that one in 120 of the entire population perished annually from excess, and that a fourth of all the adults might have been saved by abstemiousness.

Sir GEORGE LEFEVRE, the author of The Life of a Travelling Physician, says:

"Gellnhausen bears strong marks of antiquity about it. A more miserable collection of buildings, or a more squalid set of inhabitants, are not to be seen throughout Germany, than this town presents. Gaunt misery stares you in the face; the houses are out of repair; mud hovels; the old in tattered weeds; the children half-naked, and dirt and filth in abundance. The peach and the mulberry ripen on the walls, and the grape is most luxuriant; but these are poor substitutes for the staff of life. A wine country is generally a poor country,* as Dr GRANVILLE observes; but this truism is more applicable to Germany than the south of France, where the grape, in solid and liquid form, gives zest to the bread consumed with it."-iii. p. 264-4.

RUSSIA Seems to have adopted a most disastrous policy in reference to the sale of spirits, making them everywhere plentiful, under the absurd idea of promoting the power of the nation by increasing the revenue from that pernicious source. Sir George thus refers to the Fête des Morts, and other bacchanalian festivals :

"The peasant's life in this country hardly averages forty. He has originally but little stamina; this little is undermined by the use of spirits, generating dropsy and other diseases, which carry him off in what should be his prime.+ Without advocating Teetotalism, yet an approach to this principle in Russia, would render her the most powerful country in Europe. These holidays, therefore, inasmuch as they offer temptations to drunkenness, serve but to perpetuate the misery of the poorer classes. The savings of weeks are dissipated in a day; and not only is all domestic comfort put out of the pale of possibility, but the very Staff of Life, the bread, black as it is, often fails."-iii. p. 28-29.

§ 21. If we go to the south of Europe, Spain for example, we shall still find the same law manifesting itself. The Hon, R. DUNDAS MURRAY, in his Cities and Wilds of Andalusia, published in 1853, 3rd edition, says;—

"Sober and temperate himself, the Peasant rarely suffers the wine-cup to

LIEBIG says that poverty is the cause of drunkenness. This arises from his seeing so much poverty where wine and spirits are made and drank. He inverts the real connexion.

+He adds, "The common people possess great intellectual powers, and but "little is requisite to constitute them a manly, noble race." MICHELET calls them an unfortunate race, which has been almost morally annihilated, nay even phy-. "sically also, by excessive severity, the use of spirituous liquors, etc."-Liberty Bell 1856, p. 21.