compare the present with former times, and seem scarcely to know that there is a greater proportion of drunkards now than there was fifty years ago, or that more ardent spirits are now consumed, than in the days of our fathers. Facts and documents on this subject, though to many they may seem trite, must be exhibited again and again, to produce a general conviction, and awaken a general sensibility. The mass of the people have never yet been roused: they sleep quietly, while the enemy is drawing his lines of circumvallation, and raising his ramparts. The heralds must cry aloud and spare not," and they must cry long, as well as loud, or the people will not apprehend the danger and be prepared to make vigorous efforts for their escape. "No one knows," says a correspondent in the National Philanthropist, "what a deep and dreadful hold intemperance has obtained, till he has examined for himself. I made something of an accurate estimate of the number of the habit ually intemperate in two towns in New-England, each containing about one thousand two hundred inhabitants. In one, the amount was thirty-five, and in the other, forty." These towns, he represents, as by no means distinguished for intemperance. Taking them as an example, with a large abatement, allowing only thirty drunkards to every one thousand two hundred inhabitants, he calculates that the number of drunkards in New-England is nothing short of thirty-seven thousand. We are confirmed in the opinion, that this estimate is not beyond the truth, by our own calculation. Out of a population of two thousand, in a place whose standard of morality is above the ordinary level of towns in NewEngland, we found it easy to select fifty habitual drunkards, leaving out of the account numbers who drink extravagantly, and some who be come occasionally intoxicated. This would bring us to the same results -one habitual drunkard to every forty persons. According to these calculations, there are, in the United States, not inuch short of three hundred thousand drunkards. These examples are taken from small towns, in the most moral and best instructed parts of the community. If we take into consideration the greater prevalence of intemperance in our large towns, and in those parts of the country which are less under the restraints of Christian institutions, the amount will be still more appalling. Three hundred thousand! a formidable army! not indeed to the foes of our country, but to all her best interests; an army who wage war against her wealth, her domestic peace, her social happiness, and her hopes of eternal felicity. The destruction of human life, by this vice, is immense. Mr. Palfrey states the annual number of deaths in the United States, which are produced directly by intemperance, to be ten thousand. So say the committee of the American Society for promoting Temperance. But by data which Mr. P. introduces, it appears that this estimate is much too small; that from the bills of mortality, in several places, the number of deaths produced directly by this cause cannot be less than thirteen thousand. From data, which, he says, seem to have been accurate as far as they went, he computes, that intemperance was the remote or proximate cause of the death of about three persons yearly, in a population of a thousand; and accordingly the number of deaths thus caused annually, in the United States, is thirty-six thousand. This computation is corroborated by two documents, preserved in a note. "In Portsmouth, twenty-one persons died by excess in drinking last year, (1826.) This place had, at the last census, a population of seven thousand, three hundred and twenty-seven. The Medical Association of the city of New-Haven, in a late publication, say, "on referring to the list of deaths in this town during the year 1826, we find, that of the ninety-four persons over twenty years of age, more than one third were, in our opinion, caused, or hastened, directly, or indirectly, by intemperance; and on referring further back, we find a similar proportion imputable to the same cause for the two years prece ding.' Assuming these documents as the basis of a calculation, it will lead to nearly the same result. Thirty-one deaths by intemperance in a population of eight thousand three hundred and twentyseven, which is that of New-Haven, is a small fraction less, than one to two hundred and seventy, and this proportion in ten millions, would be more than thirty-seven thousand. No disease, then, is so destructive to human life, in our country, as intemperance. No pestilence spreads so wide a desolation, or causes so deep a lamentation. Above thirtysix thousand in our country every year are guilty of voluntary sui cide! The expense of ardent spirits, to the country is enormous. thirty millions of dollars, Mr. P. observes, it is a sum greater than that levied for the support of the general government,in all its branches, in the proportion of five to two. According to his estimation, the State of Massachusetts pays annually six hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the maintainance of the joint interests of learning and religion, and one million five hundred thousand dollars, at the lowest computation, for ardent spirits. If we add to the above fifty millions of dollars, the charities bestowed upon the intemperate and their families, the waste, loss of labor, and the cost of the legal prosecutions, occasioned by intemperance, the amount would be swelled beyond our suspicions. Such is the price of our degradation and misery. Verily "the way of transgressors is hard." The above estimates, though not arithmetically accurate, have been cautiously kept within the truth. Such then is the prevalence of the vice which has caused alarm. And is there not reason? Thirty-six thousand lives are annually sacrificed to this Juggernaut, near three hundred thousand masses of living corruption are stalking among us, polluting the moral atmosphere, and scattering pestilence among those who are not yet contaminated; and for this we pay more than fifty millions of dollars. "It is a scourge, which has come up upon the breadth of the land," and has entered our pleasant places. If it be permitted to proceed but a little longer, resistance will be unavailing. According to the estimate of Mr. Palfrey's discourses, and several other respectable documents, the quantity consumed annually in the United States, is not less than forty-five millions of gallons, and the expense he calculates at thirty millions of dollars. The estimation of the committee of the American Society for the promotion of temperance, is forty millions of dollars, and the expense of the pauperism occasioned by the improper use of spirits, is twelve millions of dollars; Though we agree with him, that making an annual expense of more this sin, above most others, is dethan fifty millions of dollars. Con- ceitful, and that this is one great sidering this expense to be only cause of its prevalence; that the Dr. B., in his first discourse, has given a definition of intemperance, to which he seems to attach considerable importance, as he recommends it to be read frequently, in the family. foolish and the wise are alike beguiled by it; and that "it is not unfrequent, that men become irreclaimable in their habits without suspicion of danger," we doubt whether this definition will enable his readers, to detect the deceit, or will add any thing to the wisdom of past experience. It will fix the charge of intemperance on many who may justly plead not guilty; and will be regarded by most sober men, as an intrenchment upon the lawful enjoyments, with which, a kind Providence has blessed us. The first four particulars, in this definition, are, "The use of ardent spirits daily, as ministering to cheerfulness, or bodily vigor, ought to be regarded as intemperance.' "All such occasional exhilaration of the spirits, by intoxicating liquors, as produces levity and foolish jesting, and the loud laugh, is intemperance.' "A resort to ardent spirits, as a means of invigorating the intellect, or of pleasurable sensation, is also intemperance." "Let it be engraved on the heart of every man, that the daily use of ardent spirits, in any form or degree, is intemperance." To the second of these particulars there can be no objection; but the justness of the others may admit of some question. Had it been said, that the use of ardent spirits daily, as ministering to cheerfulness, or bodily vigor; or daily in any form or degree; or on any occasion as a means of invigorating the intellect, or of pleasurable sensation, is dangerous, is tampering with the tempter, we should have given our assent. But we should hesitate to fix the charge of crime, to stigmatize as intemperate, all who do thus use ardent spirits. We should hesitate to deny that many may have so used spirits, without guilt in the sight of God. It is certain that wine is used to produce cheerfulness, and pleasurable sensations, and vigor of body, if not of mind, and that the Scriptures sanction such a use. The psalmist, speaking of the bounty of God's providence, says "That he may bring forth food out of the earth; and wine that maketh glad the heart of man." Our Saviour ministered to the "cheerfulness and the pleasurable sensations" of a large company by a miraculous production of wine. Dr. B. himself would not suppose that he designedly ministered to their intemperance. Now if wine may be used to produce cheerfulness, and pleasurable sensations, and bodily vigor, may not ardent spirits occasionally be used for the same purposes? It may be replied that ardent spirits are more liable to produce intoxication. True; but wine may produce it, and exposure to temptation is not sin, is not intemperance. According to the notions contained in this definition, it is by far too long; it would be better said at once, that the use of ardent spirits in any form, or degree, or for any purpose, except as medicine is intemperance; for every purpose for which spirits are ever used, except this, is excluded by the terms of this definition. In the closing part of this defininition, Dr. B. says, "But we approach now a state of experience, in which it is supposed, generally, that there is some criminal intemperance. I mean, when the empire of reason is invaded, and weakness and folly bear rule; prompting to garrulity, or sullen silence; inspiring petulance, or anger, or insipid good humor, and silly conversation; pouring out oaths and curses, or opening the store-house of secrets, their own and others. And yet, by some, all these have been thought insufficient evidence to support the charge of drinking, and to justify a process of discipline before the church." The only objectionable thing here is, the intimation, or more than intimation, that the above named symptons are sufficient evidence to sustain a charge of intemperance before a church. There is no rational question, that a vast proportion of those in whom these symptoms appear, are guilty of drunkenness; but there is no less doubt, that folly, garrulity, &c. sometimes proceed from other causes than the excitement of ardent spirits. The evidence, therefore. is equivocal, and though it will excite strong suspicion, it will not, in many cases, be full proof to a candid mind. Human tribunals are often incompetent to discriminate nicely; they are,therefore, required to judge and condemn only on palpable and unequivocal evidence. Judge Rush, in remarking upon the legal definition of drunkenness, observes, "If it could be supposed, that the laws were otherwise, and that a degree of intoxication less than that which produces a species of mental absurdity and disorder, was comprehended in the act of the legislature, it might be the means of proscribing innocent mirth. The penalty of the law might be inflicted where nothing else could be discovered but the effusions of joy and festivity." Ecclessiastical tribunals are, usually, less competent judges of the nature of evidence, than civil courts. Perhaps it is impossible to draw the line of demarkation between temperance and intemperance so exactly, as to enable us to distinguish the smallest degrees of it in others. All excitement or exhilaration by ardent spirits, is not intemperance, but every one may conclude for himself that when the use of them diminishes judgment, or when they are used in large quanties, though the excitement do not rise so high, as to produce this effect, he is intemperate. The real cause of intemperance is well described by Mr. Palfrey. The fact is that spirituous liquors possess the remarkable, the mysterious property to practise on minds, otherwise most clear and wary, that deception of which our text calls the subject unwise. Administered to the human constitution, they so affect it, as to dispose it powerfully to an excessive indulgence in them. They invite the appetite urgently, when a relish for them has once been formed, to overstep the limits of a strict temperance, and when that step has been taken, they have given it a vigour, which is monhave depraved the appetite. They strous. They have created an unnatural craving, which growing continually as it is fed, hurries the victim en with a strength which is all but irresistible. I do not undertake to desThat cribe the physical process. of treatise. But I speak nothing but would be the subject of another kind most painfully familiar truth, when I say, that with more certainty than vaccination changes the constitution, so that the subject cannot suffer from that disorder against which it is a precaution, a certain degree of indulgence, towards which every degree of indulgence tends, so alters the constitution, temperate man. that the subject cannot agair. be a We know of nothing which so takes away the freedom of the will. A certain point passed, which no one is conscious of having approached, till it is passed, and to all human expectation, though not indeed to human effort, he must be given up as lost. It is all but certain, that he is soon to go down to his grave a dishonoured, undone man. Motives are no longer any thing to him. Dread of disease and want in their most revolting forms; shame; pity for his best friends; fear and hope of a hereafter,— to all that can touch a manly heart, and that once touched his, to all he is as insensible as a rock. pp. 54, 56. in his philosophical analysis, is subDr. Beecher's description of it, stantially the same, though clothed in a more scientific garb. Experience has decided, that any stimulus applied statedly to the stomach, which raises its muscular tone above the point at which it can be sus tained by food and sleep, produces, when it has passed away, debility-a relaxation of the over-worked organ, proportioned to its preternatural excitement. The life-giving power of the stomach, falls of course as much below the tone of cheerfulness and health, as it was injudiciously raised above it. If the experiment be repeated often, it produces an artificial tone of stomach, essential to cheerfulness and muscular vigour, entirely above the power of the regular sustenance of nature to sustain, and creates a vacuum, which nothing can fill, but the destructive power which made it-and when protracted use has made the difference great, between the natural and artificial tone, and habit has made it a second nature, the man is a drunkard, and in ninety-nine cases in a hundred, is irretrievably undone. Whether his tongue falter, or his feet fail him or not, he will die of intemperance. By whatever name his disease may be called, it will be one of the legion which lie in wait about the path of intemperance, and which abused heaven employs to execute wrath upon the guilty. pp. 13, 14. The appetite for ardent spirits is, except perhaps in a few unhappy cases of hereditary descent,entirely artificial. The child loathes spirits,until its disgust is overcome by artful mixture. Though we cannot account for it philosophically, yet it seems to be a fact established by observation, that artificial appetites have a much greater tendency to excess, and are more difficult of government, than those which are natural. The ultimate cause of this fact is not occult. A kind Providence would confine us to indulgences which are not injurious, and prevent us from wandering for sensual enjoyment out of those regions where he has furnished healthful supply. The fact that artificial appetites have this tendency, renders even the moderate use of ardent spirits dangerous. a The temptations which induce a habit of intemperance, are well exposed by each of our authors. VOL. I.-No. XI. 75 A vast proportion of the cases of confirmed intemperance may be traced, not so much to any innate depravedness, as to the crafty workings of the unreproved usages of society; and we, who continue to follow these usages, even while we laugh at them, are ourselves more or less chargeable with the evils we lament over, and are bound to exert our efforts for the alleviation of them.-Sprague. p. 5. It is truly astonishing to behold how completely the habit of unnecessary drinking pervades the various classes of our community. In one way or another it is their morning and evening devotion, their noonday and midnight sacrifice. From the highest grade to the lowest, from the drawingroom to the kitchen, from the gentleman to the labourer, down descends the universal custom. From those who sit long at the wine that has been rocked upon the ocean, and ripened beneath an Indian sky, down to those who solace themselves with the fiery liquor that has cursed no other shores than our own-down, till it reaches the miserable abode, where the father and mother will have rum, though the children cry for bread-down to the bottom, even to the prison-house, the forlorn inmate of which hails him his best friend, who is cunning enough to consoling, the all-corroding poison. convey to him, undiscovered, the all Young men must express the warmth of their mutual regard, by daily and nightly libations at some fashionable hotel-it is the custom. The more advanced take turns in flinging open their own doors to each other, and the purity of their esteem is testified by the number of bottles they can empty together-it is the custom. The husband deems it but civil to commemorate the accidental visit of his acquaintance by a glass of ancient spirit, and the wife holds it a duty to celebrate the flying call of her companion with a taste of the latest liqueur-for this, also, is the custom. The interesting gossipry of every little evening coterie must be enlivened with the customary cordial. Custom demands that idle quarrels, perhaps generated over a friendly cup, another friendly cup must drown. Foolish wagers are laid, to be adjusted in foolish drinking-the rich citizen stakes a dozen, the poor |