The Law of General Benevolence. 155 foreseeing, should have averted them. The foregoing considerations may be briefly recombined, so as to form an argument for the suppression of the liquor traffic, on the grounds of General Benevolence, Social Selfinterest, Enlightened Patriotism, and Christian Civilization. GENERAL BENEVOLENCE demands that those who are tempted and ruined should, if possible, be rescued, and that others who will be tempted and ruined, if the drinking-shop remains, should be saved by its removal. To say that such can save themselves if they will is nothing to the point, if true, for humanity impels us to try and save many who might have escaped the danger they have incurred, whether the danger be physical or moral; but the plea can hardly be considered pertinent to the two great classes who are the victims of the liquor trafficfirst, because the class that has become so drink-smitten as to have lost by a diseased system the conditions of moral freedom; and, secondly, the other class of the inexperienced, who, acting on the presumption (sanctioned by law) that the drinking-shop is a safe place of resort, or it would not be licensed, commence their acquaintance with it in ignorance of the peril they encounter. No language is too strong in denunciation of the inequity which would throw upon these classes the whole of the responsibility of their own misery and degradation, and which would leave them to sink beyond redemption, heedless of their cry for a shielding and uplifting arm. But were it even conceded-though human nature and Christian charity repel the concession with horror-that these should be left to the darkest fate which can overtake mortal man, General Benevolence may be invoked on behalf of all who are compelled to suffer privation, hunger, cold, cruelty, and the most demoralizing associations, or who are given over to death through the intemperance of those nearly related to them. These, beyond question, cannot help the intemperance which curses them, nor can they deliver themselves from the miseries which overwhelm them. The question is, Shall they be sacrificed because the drink traffic must be sustained? SOCIAL SELF-INTEREST enters its protest against the continuance of a system which is at war with every true interest of the state. It is the interest of society that sobriety shall prevail; that there shall be little or no vice, crime, pauperism, lunacy, and avoidable disease; that there shall be domestic comfort and general education; that trade and commerce shall be encouraged by the demand for good food, clothing, furniture, and books by every family; that the rates and taxes and the demands on private charity should be reduced to the minimum consistent with the contingencies of life; and against the whole and every part of this enlightened interest the liquor traffic wages incessant war. All these objects, for the promotion of which society is supposed to use its collective wisdom and power, are largely frustrated wherever the sale of strong drink is licensedand yet the license is intended to guard society against the evils which are hatched beneath its wing! It may be affirmed with certainty that the moment society awakens to a just conception of what it loses by the traffic in alcoholic liquors, that traffic is doomed. May the awakening speedily come to pass! ENLIGHTENED PATRIOTISM cannot be blind to the truth that a nation, vitiated, weakened, and burdened by the liquor traffic, must have its vitality lessened, its glory obscured, and its prosperity imperilled. If there is one sign of the times more unerring than another, it is this— that the tendency of science, peace, and commercial intercourse, in bringing nations more closely together, is also exposing each to a severe competition, and will more and more test the capacity of all to retain that relative What is to be Done? 157 position which they occupied at the outset. This country, though territorially small, has enormous advantages in entering upon this world-round competition; it has population, capital, skill, mineral wealth, and a vast industrial plant; but it has also some striking drawbacks, first among which is the injury, loss, degradation, and emasculation produced yearly by the drinking system-one of whose chief corner stones is the licensed traffic in strong drink. CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION, which is but another name for the advancement of mankind in all that is good and wise and great, is profoundly concerned in the right settlement of this question. The results of the drinking. system in one place are a fair example of the results in every other place. As in all lands water, light, and air are the conditions and vehicles of life, so wherever intoxicating liquors are circulated, they carry on their work of temptation, and ruin, and death. The drinkingshop, licensed or unlicensed, is a common snare and a common curse, nor has the wit of the wisest devised a scheme for making it otherwise. The influences favoring a higher style of civilization are broad, deep, and powerful, and they are affecting the condition of the whole earth, from Britain to Japan," from Norfolk Island to Nova Zembla; but the "Drink Demon," as the late Mr. Davenport Hill has graphically said, "starts up everywhere," to confront and often to confound the reformer. What is to be done? The Christian evangelist and missionary meet with the same fiery obstruction. What is to be done? This adversary is not passive, waiting to be attacked; he is active, subtle, insidious, and unceasingly attacking every scheme of improvement and plan of reformation. WHAT IS TO BE DONE? How long will the friends of civilization and Christianity decline the challenge thus extended, and seek to parley with this treacherous and insatiable foe? The evil done by it yearly, daily, hourly, is not to be reckoned; the good undone by it is equally beyond computation; and to hope that Christian civilization will be able to effect what it might, and as quickly as it might, with this agency of evil in the field, is to fall into a stupendous and calamitous mistake. Could we personify this civilization appealing to her friends-the friends of invention, of intellect, of justice and religion-we should depict her standing in the midst. of all the wreck and ruin which strong drink has wrought from the beginning of time; and as she points to the veil which hides the future from all eyes but One, we should. behold her pleading that such wreck and ruin should not embarrass and impede her in her progress through the years to come. Civilization is a precious and splendid heritage, and it is the concern of any one who values it that it should be transmitted in a richer and nobler form to the succeeding ages. How this can be done is for each to ponder. How it will not be done is clear, if the love of alcoholic liquor and an organized system of its sale are carried on with the tide of time and with the increasing intercourse of nations. But let the English race-whether in the British Isles or in the "Greater Britain" outside, or in the commonwealths that have cast off the maternal rule-resolve to deal boldly and effectively with the great antagonist of Christian civilization, and this example would form a precedent which other races would be encouraged and proud to follow. Let it be laid down as a position not to be questioned that alcoholic liquor as a beverage is a poison to all civilization, and that common traffic in it is a curse of the greatest magnitude; let all the energies of civilization in the most civilized of nations be directed against its deadliest enemy; and the results of this action would soon manifest themselves in forms of the grandest and most enduring benefit. The Objection from "Liberty." OBJECTIONS. 159 1. The objection from free trade is now seldom put forth, and there are few persons who plainly contend that the sale of intoxicating liquors should be as free as the sale of corn. Perfect freedom of trade is impeded by taxation and by restrictions upon sale; and there is almost unanimity upon the points that intoxicating drink should be taxed more heavily than other articles, and that its sale should be limited by restrictions not applicable to other traffic. In the interests of trade as such, the fewest restrictions are best; but the confession that the liquor traffic ought to be restricted is a confession that is not a traffic to which the principle of freedom (from taxation or restriction) can be safely and legitimately applied. 2. The objection that "prohibition would be contrary to liberty" is grounded on the supposition either that the liberty to sell strong drink is a natural or civil right, or that the sale of strong drink is necessary to the exercise of some other liberty which is a personal or civil right. The first theory is contradicted by every license law, and particularly by the License Law of England, which denies the existence of any individual right (whether natural or civil) to trade in alcoholic liquors. The second theory is one which has received the sanction of Mr. John Stuart Mill. The gist of his plea is contained in this sentence, "The infringement complained of is not on the liberty of the seller, but on that of the buyer and consumer; since the State might just as well forbid him to drink wine, as purposely make it impossible to attain it." The liberty thus claimed is the liberty of purchase; yet Mr. Mill is content with asserting the claim, and does not advance a single reason in defence of the proposition that some one ought to be at liberty to sell strong drink because another person wants to use it. The only way of proving this would |