promptly rebutted.

Sixty-three ministers of the highest respectability have testified, that where it prevailed, there vice and crime have diminished: the sabbath is better observed, the house of God more frequented, and more souls converted.

PARLIAMENTARY REPORT.

In the session of 1834-5, a committee of Parliament was appointed, on motion of James Silk Buckingham, Esq., to inquire into the extent, causes, and consequences of intemperance; and to ascertain whether any legislative measures could be taken to prevent the continuance and spread of such a dreadful evil. This able committee was in session more than twenty days, and obtained answers from different persons brought before them, to upwards of four thousand questions. A lengthy report, consisting of six hundred octavo pages, was the result of this investigation. It was represented that the cause had progressed rapidly that year in England. It had reached the two extreme classes-the very rich, and the very poor: whereas, before, it had been confined to the middle classes.

The information with which this report abounds, was drawn from coroners, overseers of the poor, parish officers, and the whole class of persons to whose hands the law has entrusted the prevention or punishment of crime, the security of prisoners, the care of paupers, and the preservation of the peace and order of society in general. They came

to the deliberate conclusion, that nine-tenths of the crime committed, with a like proportion of the poverty and misery which daily came under their observation, were to be traced to intemperance.

Mr. Buckingham stands next to Father Matthew, among the efficient friends of Temperance in the Old World.

As Mr. B. had been a great traveller, he was able from personal experience, and the strong light of contrast, to describe the effects of intoxicating drinks in a physical, as well as national point of view. In an address at Liverpool, he stated that in his travels both in the East and the West, in every kind of weather, wet and dry, hot and cold, he had never derived the slightest benefit from the use of ardent spirits. He had travelled through Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Arabia; had resided six years in India, and had passed backwards and forwards on two journeys by land to that country. In all he had travelled thirty thousand miles at least by land; had visited the cities of Cairo, Damascus, Aleppo, Ispahan, &c., and had seen upwards of three millions of people. Of course he had opportunities to witness the different habits of men; and he could say, that he had never known an instance in which any human being was benefited, physically or morally, by the habitual use of intoxicating drinks of any description. Nor had he known it in use among any people, to whom it was not detrimental, in exact proportion to the quantity used. The finest race of men he had ever seen, was a tribe residing on the Himalaya mountains, in India. They came down to Cal

cutta, as athletæ, to show their skill in wrestling, boxing, throwing the quoit, and other games of strength. They were pitted against the strongest grenadiers and sailors that could be found; and in general, one of them was more than a match for three of their European adversaries thus selected. These men had never tasted any thing stronger than milk or water, from their youth upwards. He had himself traveled from Diarbekir to Bagdad (eight hundred miles) on horseback, in ten days, when the thermometer was 100° at sunrise, and 105° in the evening-drinking nothing but water, without in

jury.

SCOTLAND.

In Scotland the cause is in a flourishing condition. It is estimated that there are upwards of 160,000 pledged teetotalers in Scotland. The consumption of spirits has here fallen from 6,620,826 gallons, which paid duty in the year 1836, to 5,922,958 gallons, in 1845. Besides the "Western Scottish Union," originated in 1838, and extensively circulating a monthly periodical, ("The Scottish Temperance Journal,") there is an active and useful association, entitled "The Scottish Temperance League," established early in 1845. The object of this association is to unite the whole temperance body of Scotland in one common league strengthen the cause by a concentration of means and efforts and to stimulate local societies to increased exertion. It has a monthly periodical of

to

large circulation, which has already accomplished incalculable good.

The report of the late General Assembly of the Scotch Free Church, on the state of religion, has most pointedly directed attention to intemperancecharging the ministers to simultaneously preach on the subject on the first sabbath in December; or failing in this, on the earliest convenient day there

after.

FRANCE.

FRANCE beautiful France! which has just burst into life as a republic-consuming her 700,000,000 of gallons of wine annually, and large quantities of other liquors needs a temperance reformation. Ten years ago, Count Molé, then Minister for Foreign Affairs, sent to the committee of the American Temperance Union for a complete account of the temper-. ance reform, that it might be introduced into France. It was promptly sent; but nothing was done. Louis Philippe preferred repairing palaces to men. The new provisional government say their object is to repair men; and perhaps this is just the time to pour in temperance tracts and publications, and give an impulse there to this great movement. Without temperance, she can never be a free and permanent republic.

SWEDEN AND NORWAY.

In Sweden and Norway, in 1846, there were four hundred and sixty temperance societies, embracing nearly one hundred and five thousand members.-A Temperance Convention was held in the city of Stockholm, some time since, which sat three days, and was attended by two hundred and thirty delegates from different parts of Sweden and Norway; two from Germany, and four from America. The king and queen regularly attended the whole of the proceedings, and evinced much interest in the cause. The late king, Bernadotte, was a pledged member. His son, the present king, Oscar II., is the same; as is also the Prince Royal.

In Norway, where the first temperance society was established in 1844, and where drunkenness was on the increase, the government has appointed four travelling missionaries, to advocate the principle and form temperance societies.

According to the governmental returns in 1842, in Sweden, the number of distilleries had been reduced from 160,000 to 120,000. A system of distillation in small quantities pervades the whole country, and rests on the perverted idea, prevalent in almost every farmer's arrangements, that the refuse of the still is indispensable for his dairy; and this view, more than almost any thing else, continues the use of brandy in many parts of that country. In order to counteract this opinion, a little tract has been prepared, demonstrating the utter falsity of the idea,