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statements before you), that there is something much more alarming and humiliating for our consideration.

Allow me then, first of all, to present you with some general statements from high authorities, as to the connexion between drink and crime; and then, with some other particulars, to shew you our position in relation to this matter. It will at once be granted, that we cannot have the testimony of higher authorities than of those who preside as judges at our various criminal courts; who have the fullest opportunities for sitting evidence, whose intelligence and learning enable them to draw the most logical deductions, and who have to discharge the sacred and onerous duty of awarding the punishments due to crime. Now what say these high authorities

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Judge Wightman stated in his address to the grand jury at Liverpool, in August, 1946, that he found, from a perusal of the depositions, that one unfailing cause of four-fifths of these crimes was, as it was in every other calender, the besetting sin of drunk

enness.

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“Judge Alderson, when addressing the grand jury in 1844, at the York assizes said: Another thing he would advert to was, that a great proportion of the crimes to be brought forward for their consideration arose from the vice of drunkenness alone; indeed, if they took away from the calendar all those cases with which drunkenness has any connexion, they would make the large calendar a very small one." And on another occasion the same judge declared, that drunkenness is the most fertile of all crime, and if it could be removed, the assizes of the country would be rendered mere nullities.'

"Judge Erskine declared at the Salisbury assizes in 1844, when sentencing a gentleman to six months' hard labour for a crime committed through strong drink, that ninety-nine cases out of every hundred were from the same cause. Judge Coleridge likewise stated at the Oxford assizes, that he never knew a case brought before him that was not directly or indirectly connected with intoxicating liquors. And Judge Patteson at the Norwich assizes said to the grand jury, 'If it were not for this drinking, you and I would have nothing to do.""

These opinions are fully borne out by the testimony of gaol governors and chaplains, individuals occupying posts that give them the fullest opportunity of judging correctly, and respecting whom it is perfectly idle and ridiculous to suppose, that they can be befooled or deceived by the mere statements of prisoners, apart from other evidence. Mr. Logan of Glasgow (whose character is unimpeachable), states, in his summary of information, obtained by visits to various prisons in Scotland and England, that

"At Greenock, the governor stated that out of 461 prisoners, 297 might be said to have committed their crimes under the influence of drink. At Kilmarnock, Captain Blane believed that he was under the mark, in stating that four-fifths of the crime there was caused by intoxicating liquors. In Dumfries, the governor was warranted in stating, that nineteen out of every twenty brought before him were so in consequence of drinking; and when con

versing with thirty prisoners out of the total number (forty-two), twenty-nine acknowledged that strong drink had been the cause of their imprisonment; and the sitting magistrate stated to the clerk of the police court that very morning, that, were it not for intemperance, the premises might be shut up for ever. At Ayr, the governor had no hesitation in saying, that thirty-nine cases out of forty were the fruits of intemperance, and added, if you think proper to visit the prisoners, you will find that my statement is pretty correct; well, we visited each cell, and conversed with every unfortunate inmate; and out of seventy-three prisoners there, no less than seventy acknowledged that had it not been for these accursed drinking customs, they never would have occupied the lonely cell of a prison. Similar statements were made to us when visiting the prisons of Paisley, Stirling, Hamilton, Dumbarton, Airdrie, and Kirkcudbright; and what is true of Scotland is to a very great extent the same in England and Ireland.

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These facts have all been fully corroborated by the testimony of the respective governors of Millbank Penitentiary and Newgate, London; Wakefield House of Correction; Manchester New Bailey; Newgate and the Female Prison, Dublin; and having visited these prisons, and conversed with criminals in each of them (with the exception of Millbank, where it is not allowed), we found that their statements respecting the cause of crime were quite in keeping with those referred to in Scotland.'

We know, moreover, by the daily reports, that a large proportion of the summary convictions by magistrates, are for petty crimes committed under the influence of drink, or for drunk and disorderly conduct alone. It is also a well attested fact, that where public houses most thickly abound, vice and immorality most extensively prevail. Mr Hill, in his Report on the Prisons in Scotland (quoted in Mr. Beggs' Essay on Juvenile Depravity,) states, that "in the poorest localities of Edinburgh, where 73 per cent of crime is committed, it may be safely affirmed that 60 per cent of the drinking houses are to be found." And it is a fact, patent to our own observation, that the same precisely may be said of London, and all our large cities.

Now if it be the case, as all these statements go to prove, (and they are not a tithe, and are but a fraction of the evidence,) that the chief cause of crime, either directly or indirectly, and its constant and never absent associate, is intemperance, that is, the habitual and excessive use of intoxicating drinks, and that, but for this depraving cause (according to the unbiassed testimony of the highest authorities,) four-fifths at least of public crimes would in all probability cease to be committed, and that, "if it could be removed, the assizes of the country would be rendered mere nultities," who will say that it is possible to magnify so gigantic an evil? An evil, too, which seems to affect the whole body social in some way, either insidiously, or openly manifest; for time would fail to tell of the houses made miserable-of the ignorance and degradation induced-of the once fair characters ruined-of the hopes blasted, and the hearts broken-of the minds deranged, and

the souls lost-through that habit of using intoxicating drinks, under the dominion of which so many are held slaves.

But let us take another step in this enquiry. We have seen that, at the lowest calculation, four-fifths of the crimes for which punishments are annually awarded, and on account of which a vast system of judicial, magisterial, police and prison machinery has to be sustained, at a cost to the country (I speak of England and Wales alone) of two millions sterling per annum (and of how much mischief, and misery, besides, no tongue can tell), is all clearly traceable to the influence of strong drink. Now let us see whether any considerable portion of criminals belong to the youthful class. By recent Parliamentary returns, it has been ascertained that upwards of 100,000 prisoners pass through the gaols of England and Wales every year; a number which gives one in every 154 of the population as a criminal prisoner; and of these, between 15 and 16,000 are under 17 years of age. That is to say, independently altogether of the thousands that escape detection, we have no fewer, than nearly 16,000 youths, of both sexes, under 17 years of age, annually under sentence of imprisonment or transportation! Taking into consideration along with this fact, that at the very least FOUR-FIFTHS of the crimes are fairly attributable to the influence of intoxicating drinks, it does not require the exercise of much imagination, or the history of particular cases, to understand in what way that terrible influence has been at work. We find moreover, by the Metropolitan Police Returns, that no small proportion of the summary convictions are for the crime of drunkenness itself, and that in 1847 for instance, of 62,000 taken into custody, 9,004 were such cases (3,697 of these being females,) and no less than 11,654 of the 62,000 were under twenty years of age! So alarming is the extent of juvenile delinquency, and so youthful are some of the criminals, that magistrates, judges and juries, are more puzzled in the discharge of their duties by this, than by any other circumstance. Mr. Beggs states, that at one of the Middlesex sessions, Mr. Serjeant Adams drew the attention of the grand jury to the fact, that there were no less than twenty-four of the offenders on his list whose ages did not exceed twelve years. We can scarcely, perhaps, conceive it possible that these children were drunkards; but the probability is, that had an enquiry been made similar to that instituted by a magistrate of Edinburgh, who obtained a return from the prison there, similar answers would have been obtained; for in that instance, nearly the whole of the prisoners attributed their fall to drink, or to drink and bad company; and one youth said, "Mother drinks-put me and brother out of the house were forced to steal"-while another (a mere child, thirteen years of age,) said, "Father and Mother both drink, and are sent to prison," and this was ascertained to be the truth.

Now, here for a moment let us pause and reflect. It is computed that throughout the country there are no fewer than about two millions of the children of the lower and working classes, for a longer or a shorter time, receiving instruction in Sabbath schools. And, with the awful fact before us that there are annually, amongst

convicted criminals, 16,000 young people under 17 years of age, does not the suspicion come darkly over our minds, that possibly, at least, some of these may once have been Sunday school children? And when we further reflect upon the circumstances under which many thousands of these children are brought up, upon the temptations with which, in their earliest life, they are continually surrounded; upon the fact, which we all know to be too true, that hundreds of their parents are degraded drunkards; upon the other fact, that if not drunkards, the parents of these children (with scarcely an exception) indulge in the use of intoxicating drinks, and teach them to believe they are necessary, while the children, unshielded, unsuspectingly believe-and then when we reflect upon the fearful power which drink exercises in producing criminals, by leading to bad company, (for the first introduction to the confidence of wicked companions is generally drink) to bad associations, (for the admission, even to the Sunday tea garden, and the dancing saloon, is often a ticket for drinks) and to bad influenes of all kinds; while its very effect upon the constitution is to demoralize and deprave. When we reflect upon these things, does not the dark suspicion become a conviction, that if our two millions of Sunday scholars escape the contamination that would lead them into the paths of vice and crime, and bring them at last to the gaol, it must be by a miracle? And what is the actual state of the case? for we are not without evidence as to the truth upon this point. On referring again to the table published by a magistrate of Edinburgh, I find that out of thirty-seven, sixteen had been in Sunday schools; nearly all of whom were led into crime by their own, or their parents' drinking. Some will think these sixteen had only been in Sunday schools a week, or a month or two, but such was not the fact. One had been six months, two twelve months, two had been two years, three three years, two four years, two five years, and one had been as long as six years, in a Sunday school. A table, showing the state of the Borough Gaol, Liverpool, in 1846, and very carefully drawn up, informs us that out of 3,630 prisoners of both sexes, 567, or 15 per cent. had been at Sunday schools one year, and 332, or 9 per cent. had been four years; and more recently, the friends of Sabbath schools have been indebted to the indefatigable exertions of a gentleman who deserves all honour for bringing to light a mass of facts in relation to this matter, which it is puerile either to deny or disregard. The gentleman to whom I refer, is thus alluded to as an authority in Mr. Beggs' Essay: "Mr. T. B. Smithies, of York, a zealous Sabbath school teacher, informs us, that he recently visited one of the prisons in York Castle in which were fourteen convicts, principally youths under fourteen years of age. On conversing with them, he found that thirteen of them had been Sunday scholars, and ten out of the thirteen acknowledged that drink had brought them there." Now, since that was written Mr. Smithies has entered upon a correspondence with nearly all the chaplains of prisons in England, as well as with the matrons of penitentiaries, and houses of refuge, and has succeeded in collecting a mass of facts of the most important

kind. A part, and a part only, of the information he has obtained, is published, and from that I glean the following statements, viz:

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In short, without going further with these details, Mr. Smithies' statistics show, that altogether, out of 9,940 prisoners in various prisons throughout the country respecting whom enquiries have been made, 6,261 had been Sunday scholars, and many of them had been so for considerable periods.

I beg most earnestly to crave the attention of our female friends to the following facts in connection with the penitentiaries—facts communicated in the handwriting of the various matrons :

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Would that our female teachers might take these things to heart, and bearing in mind what intoxicating drink is doing for their own sex-become pioneers in a holy crusade against the use of that as a beverage, which is the instrument of ruin to thousands of young women, who sink despised outcasts into an early grave! Within the last day or two, my attention has been called to a most important letter, written by Mr. Logan, (with whose exertions in behalf of prisoners in Scotland most are acquainted), and who is now labouring in Bradford. The letter is published in the British Banner, of 2nd October, and a part of it is to the following effect:

"I have been in the habit of visiting persons, and conversing with criminals, almost weekly for upwards of twelve years. My observations_extend to almost every large prison in the United Kingdom. For the last eight years I have been trying to ascertain what proportion of our prison population have been connected with Sunday schools. The investigation has been conducted in the most faithful and careful manner. When collecting information from prisoners, it has ever been a general rule with me to prevent them, as much as possible, from becoming acquainted with the main object of the visit. For the purpose of occupying as little space as possible, I shall just record a few facts which refer to different parts of the

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