uglier one by citing the quantity of spirits consumed in the United Kingdom in 1873. The consumption of home spirits was nearly 29,000,000 gallons, foreign spirits 10,000,000, and wine 18,000,000; making a total of 57,000,000 gallons, in addition to 1,076,000,000 gallons of beer, and 180,500,000 gallons of British wines and cider. Was, then, the increase of crime, especially in the manufacturing districts, where wages had been high and trade prosperous, really any matter of wonder? Mr Caine quoted the statistics of the Salford county gaol for the five years ending September 1873, and showed that, in spite of all efforts for improvement-social, educational, and religious-the committals for drunkenness in five years had increased 60 per cent. In Manchester, during the year ending March 31, 1873, there were 9150 apprehensions for drunkenness. That this large number was 903 less than the number of arrests in 1872, was doubtless owing to the operation of the Licensing Act in that year, and the consequent earlier closing of public-houses-there being fewer arrests at night, and 467 fewer arrests on Sundays; but the monthly reports of the Chief Constable showed that this number was again increasing. The committals for all offences had also very largely increased, whilst committals of females in five years had increased 60 per

cent.

Could there be any greater reproach to Christianity than the increasing habits of drunkenness of Englishwomen? Of 12,420 committals to the Liverpool gaol during the year ending September 1873, 7673 were females. Not in the county of Lancashire only, but throughout all England, judicial statistics showed that drunkenness had greatly increased. The apprehensions for drunkenness in England and Wales in 1872 were

151,000, while in 1873, as stated by Mr Cross in introducing his Licensing Amendment Bill, they were 182,000. This increasing drunkenness Mr Caine attributed to the higher wages of the working classes, the shorter hours of labour, and the increased facilities for obtaining intoxicating drinks; while to the sale of drink by grocers he attributed the increased tendency to drunkenness among women.

Church of England Temperance Chronicle.

POVERTY, CHARITY, AND DRUNKENNESS. "THE poor ye have always with you," and a very "nominal" Christian must he be, who ignores the duty of relieving their wants according to his means and opportunities. Some circumstances, however, have been brought under my notice, which have led me almost to grudge the money given by benevolent people to charitable institutions. It would be well, if statistics could be procured to show how much of the money so kindly given during life, or bequeathed by will, goes to repair the damage done by the selling and drinking of alcohol; and how much more could be done to relieve the real poor and sick if all drunkenness ceased from the land. If we cast our eyes over the long list of institutions for the amelioration of the condition of the poor in this country, we shall scarcely find one which, either directly or indirectly, does not expend a large portion of its revenues in dealing with the sad catalogue of pains and sorrows caused by excessive drinking. I sometimes say to a relative of mine, an honorary surgeon to a large hospital, that were it not for drunkenness, he would have very little practice within its walls. Broken-limbed workmen,

kicked and black-eyed women, diseased and narcotised children, would no longer occupy bed after bed in the vast and too well-filled wards; and house-surgeons need not to rise from their slumbers to admit and minister to the victims of serious and often fatal midnight "rows."

These wretched drunkards know they can be cared for in hospitals, and kept in poor-houses, when they are no longer able to work, and I fear this may partly account for their utter carelessness for the future. Not for a moment would I wish that these miserable folks should not be succoured in their extremity; but it is hard on those, who give away their money for real charity, to find so much of it used to remedy the effects of that all-pervading drunkenness, which makes England a proverb among the nations, and which a strong and professedly Christian government ought to be able to deal with in a summary manner. The reason why it is not done may be this: some of the people who make and sell intoxicating drinks become rich, are carried by their wealth into Parliament, and dominate the government. I remember it was said of one candidate, during the last election, that he had made more drunkards than any other man in the large town from which he came. A valued friend of mine told me recently, that she would gladly give her life, if intoxicating drinks could be banished to the shelves of the apothecaries' shops. She has spent, for years, several hours each day in trying to do good among the working people, and she has now come to the unhappy conclusion that every effort, though accompanied with tears and prayers, is almost "labour in vain" and "spending strength for nought." If any one could win over a drunkard, this good woman could, with her bright countenance and sympathetic soul; but she says the tempta

tions are too great, and unless they are removed, the people, men and women, will go from bad to worse. Sad, however, as these things are, what would be the result, if all remedial agencies were taken away-if the clergy, Scripture-readers, city-missionaries, Temperance-societies, clothing-clubs, mothers' meetings, and all the great charities before-named, were, for a time, to cease their active exertions? Well, the consequences of "drink," in all their hideous deformity, would take their legitimate course, and then, perhaps, our legislators would be compelled to be less tender of the feelings and pockets of those, who encourage all this mischief.

Church Temperance Chronicle.

A CHAPTER OF FACTS IN REFERENCE TO INTEMPERANCE.

THE capital engaged in the liquor traffic in this kingdom is estimated to be not less than £117,000,000 sterling. The capital engaged in the cotton industry is but £85,000,000, and that in the iron trade £25,000,000 ; so that the capital in the liquor trade is more than the capital in cotton and iron put together. And this vast capital is not laid out in vain, for in 1872 the money directly spent upon intoxicating liquors in the United Kingdom was £131,601,490. Hundreds of thousands of Englishmen are seeking and gaining subsistence or wealth by a trade which (as the Edinburgh Review observer), “in its legitimate exercise, provides but a luxury, and in its illegitimate, the most insidious of all social temptations " It is obvious, that only a limited quantity of intoxicating drink can be consumed in the country without the most

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deadly effect on the morals, the health, and the happiness of the people. But, on the other hand, it is clear from the enormous capital engaged in this business, that the pecuniary interest of multitudes would lead them to extend that consumption as much as possible. The great extent and power of the liquor trade is a fact of immense meaning. It is a fact which is influencing the condition of the English people to an untold extent. It may, indeed, be said that brewers, distillers, and publicans are only supplying a demand,-a demand much increased by the present high wages. But, on the other hand, the multiplied supply invites and tempts the demand.

The fearful mortality occasioned by intemperance is not the only evil-it costs the country (United Kingdom), directly and indirectly, £250,000,000. It deluges the land with pauperism, crime, insanity, social and domestic misery; whilst it further blocks the way of educational, religious, moral, and political progress.

We are told that 20 per cent. of the lunatics in our asylums have been drunkards; and that about half of the idiots born in England are the children of drunken parents. The amount of misery therefore inflicted on the children and families of drunkards is incalculable. The drunkard's wife and children suffer far more ills than death itself can inflict; and it is impossible to describe the shame and misery of the husband of a drunken wife and mother.

Place in a row all the public-houses and beer-shops in London, and assuming each to have a frontage of twentyone feet, they would form a line thirty-five miles in length.

The late Charles Buxton wrote, "The struggle of the school, the library, and the church against the beer-house and the gin-palace is but one development of the war be tween heaven and hell."