Taking of Elephants.

409 the stake, to which he is to be fastened. If he be refractory, they beat him with their trunks till he submits. It has been said that the eye of the elephant is full of intelligence; and, indeed, so it seemed to Captain Blisset, who said that he never saw grief and indignation so strongly expressed as by the animal that had been just caught; he groaned, tried to tear his legs from their fetters, buried his trunk in the earth, and threw dust in the air; not even the choicest food, the plantain tree, or the leaf of the young palm, could tempt him to eat, or make him forget his captivity, for several hours; and, as the overseer of the hunters mentioned, they sometimes starve themselves to death; though generally in a few days their fury is calmed, and they become reconciled.- Travels in South-eastern Asia.

Here is a figure of an elephant, properly tamed and trained, with his ornamental trappings, and a great man of the country riding on his back. The driver sits on the animal's neck, and, with one foot behind each. ear, guides him as he pleases.

EXETER TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.

(The following letter was sent to the Editor of the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette.)

SIR,

THE first and main object of Temperance Societies is to do away with the use of distilled spirits in all cases, except when administered as a medicine. The second is to discourage intemperance in the use of other intoxicating liquors. Temperance Societies owe their birth to America, where, before their introduction, spirit drinking prevailed amongst all classes to a most alarming extent. Of a population of twelve millions, it was calculated that forty thousand died annually from drinking!

The quantity of spirits at proof, which paid duty in this kingdom, for home consumption, in the year ending January, 1831, amounted to nearly twentyeight millions of gallons, which, when reduced in strength one-sixth, as required by law, would be sold by the retailer for nearly seventeen millions of money. Here, then, is a frightful source of disease, poverty, and crime. Physicians have long denounced, as highly pernicious, the habit of spirit drinking. Men of the greatest eminence and largest experience have declared, "That of all the evils of human life, no cause of disease has so wide a range, or so large a share, as the use of spirituous liquors." "That the art of distillation must be regarded as the greatest curse ever inflicted on human nature.' "That more than half of all chronical diseases, and of sudden deaths, are caused by them," and, by reference to the registers of several of the largest Lunatic Asylums in England and Ireland, it has been found that one half of the cases of insanity are owing to the use of ardent spirits. There are good grounds for thinking that, unlike fermented liquors, distilled spirits pass, unaltered by digestion, into the blood, and are applied with all

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their fiery qualities to the delicate organs of the body. Cases have been recorded of late years, in which the brains of persons examined after death from intoxication, have been found to exhale a strong odour of spirits, and in one case the fluid occupying the cavities of the brain was found so strongly impregnated as to take fire on the application of a candle. The above statements will serve to show the mass of disease to which the use of spirits gives rise. It needs not many words to prove that seventeen millions, and if allowance be made for the additions arising from smuggling, illicit distillation, and adulteration, more than twenty millions of money, expended annually, principally by the labouring classes, in the purchase of an utterly useless and highly pernicious article, must alone add greatly to the poverty and want of the common necessaries of life amongst these classes. But it is not the money expended in its purchase only that is to be considered, we must add the time that is wasted during and after the drunkard's orgies, the fines, the imprisonments, the expenses of illness brought on by intemperance, and we shall then easily admit the truth of Colquhoun's remark, that during the years 1796 and 1797, when the distilleries were stopped in consequence of a scarcity of grain, and gin was unattainable from its high price, notwithstanding the high price of bread and other necessaries of life, the poor seemed more comfortable, paid their rents more regularly, and were better fed, than at any former period for some years before. The best authorities calculate that threefourths of all the beggary in this country is attributable to drinking, and I believe I might confidently refer in corroboration of this statement, to almost any workhouse in the kingdom, our own of course not excepted. It is said, by those who have the best opportunities of judging, that four-fifths of all the crime in our country owe their origin to drunkenness. Ninety-five thousand offenders were committed to the prisons of England and Wales alone during the past year, and of these four

fifths owe their imprisonment to drunkenness. Look at the police reports in London, where thousands are annually brought up to be punished for offences committed during intoxication. Look at the smaller sphere of our own Guildhall, and see how many of the crimes and how much of the misery there exhibited, may be traced to drunkenness. Mr. Poynder states, as the result of the most minute inquiry, made in the prisons of the metropolis, that, by the confession of the culprits, most of the crimes committed by them through life, have been under the influence of intoxicating liquors, and that the murderer especially needs spirits to stifle conscience ere undertaking his desperate purpose.

I remain, Sir, your obedient Servant,

A MEMBER OF THE EXETER TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.

SELF-DECEPTION.

He who permits his most malignant passions to rage uncontrolled, is the most cruel of self-deceivers.Walter.

COCHIN CHINESE SOLDIER.

MANY a young man is tempted into the army by the love of a fine coat. Whatever may be a man's reason for becoming a soldier, we should hope, that, when he has pledged himself to serve his king and country in that capacity, he will feel it his duty and his delight to be faithful to his engagement. In truth, though a showy dress may have some attraction for a young man, we have good proof that a British soldier has something more in his thoughts than his outward appearance, for there are not a set of braver fellows in the world than those in our army. These remarks are, however, taking us from our design, which was to

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give our young readers a sight of a soldier of Cochin China, taken out of the little book from which we got the picture of the Eastern ship. If our own gay

soldiers, our guards, dragoons, and lancers, have given us a notion what a military man ought to look like, we shall not think that there is much of the look of a man of war in the Cochin Chinese soldier. In different countries, however, we must look for different manners and appearances, and we must not judge by outward form and show.