“When these terrible inscriptions blazed out, in a still and awful red,' the rumsellers shifted the liquor into other hogsheads; but immediately the same writing became visible on the new vessels. In a rage, they sent it all back, to a man, and the deacon burnt the whole of it. It left a strong smell of brimstone behind.

"A certain Deacon Stone, who was a distiller, sold Bibles at his distillery, had had a relation drowned in a vat, and a son who had been very intemperate, thought the cap fitted him so well that he determined to wear it. He caused Mr. Cheever to be indicted for a false, scandalous, indecent, and malicious libel on John Stone; charging him with knowingly, wilfully, and designedly preparing, in league with evil spirits and demons, the means of pestilence and disease to the bodies, and condemnation and ruin to the souls, of his fellow beings. The trial came on, on the 24th of June, 1835, in the Court of Common Pleas, Essex county. The Hon. Solomon Strong (Judge) presided. The main object of the evidence, on the side of the commonwealth, was the establishment of the identity between Amos Giles and Deacon Stone, which was done by showing the incidents recorded above of the former; the loss of his relation in the vat; his having a drunken son; being a member of a Bible Society, and selling Bibles in his distillery-were applicable also to the latter. Another strong point, to establish the identity, was also insisted on: the writer represented the impression, which produced his dream, to have been made by a train of reflections consequent upon

seeing frequently in the public prints, when notice was given of any thing, 'Inquire at Amos Giles' distillery.' Such notices had frequently appeared in fact, the name John Stone being substituted for Amos Giles. In spite of able counsel, (the Hon. Rufus Choate and Hon. Peleg Sprague being both employed by Mr. Cheever,) he was convicted, fined $1000, and sentenced to an imprisonment of one month's duration. The defendent, when called up for sentence, made an able defence-but it did nothing to mitigate his punishment.

"A fatal blow, however, had been struck at the distilling business. The appearance of the dream had created a tremendous excitement: the trial had excited universal attention. Every word of evidence was drunk in by a crowd so great, that the court-house could scarcely contain them. The public voice, at first decidedly against Mr. Cheever, became as decidedly in his favor, as, day after day, facts were elicited in evidence to prove the diabolical nature of the rum-maker's traffic. The press caught up the echo, and spread it far and wide. Far from being considered an officious meddler in affairs with which he had no concern, Mr. Cheever began to be regarded as a martyr to truth. Far from injuring the cause of temperance, as many 'moderate drinkers' affected to think he would, it was soon found that he had affixed a stigma to the trade of distilling, which nothing could erase. When men thought of enriching themselves by speculating on the vices of their neighbors, Deacon Giles' burning hogsheads rose up before them like the ghost of

Banquo. Eight years after, in that very distillery, converted by a new cold-water proprietor into a sawmill, a temperance tea-party was given to a crowd so large, that the like had never been seen in the town of Salem. So mighty, so irresistible is truth; so certain is she to triumph at last over all the impediments which passion, prejudice, and interest combine to throw in her way."

EDWARD C. DELAVAN, ESQ., AND THE ALBANY

BREWERS.

"The next circumstance to which we alluded, as giving a powerful impulse to the cause of truth, was the trial of Edward C. Delavan, Esq. The Temperance Society, on the old plan, had made great progress all over the country; and in no place had its success been greater, than in the city of Albany.

"The drinking community of that city was more decided in its disapprobation of the use of ardent spirits, perhaps, from the fact that the immense quantity of beer, ale, and other malt liquors, left their appetites nothing to regret from its absence. The manufacturers of these pernicious poisons were, in some instances, active and efficient members of the temperance societies, for the discouragement of the manufacture and sale of ardent spirits. Mr. Delavan, at that time, and for some years previous, chairman of the New York State Temperance Committee, had been for a long time laboring to induce a general adoption of the 'total abstinence' pledge.

The substitution of malt liquors for ardent spirits, struck him then, as it does all now, as supremely and particularly ridiculous, on the part of men who really had the propagation of general sobriety at heart. Convinced that the evil could only be eradicated by striking at its root, he drew up and published, in the American Temperance Intelligencer, a statement calculated to disgust all who had ever been in the habit of drinking the malt liquors made in the city of Albany. This statement was widely circulated, and having at last found its way into one of the Albany dailies, excited the most lively indignation on the part of the brewers. Eight of them brought suit against him, laying their damages at three hundred thousand dollars, and he was held to bail in the enormous sum of forty thousand dollars. One only of these suits was ever tried, that of Taylor vs. Delavan, and that was decided in favor of the defendant; the rest were dismissed. Though the trial did not take place until five years afterviz. in 1840-yet the cause of action arising this year, it will be proper to state the nature of the allegations made by Mr. Delavan.

"He stated and proved in open court, to the satisfaction of a jury, afterwards, that the brewers were in the habit of drawing their water (in preference) from a pond into which were thrown dead dogs, dead hogs, dead cats, dead horses, and all the carrion which was afforded by the city of Albany. This pond communicated likewise with a creek, into which all the blood and offal of an immense slaughter-house were thrown, and which passed through

the sewer of a large asylum for orphan children. A graveyard on the side of a hill, the coffins of which were in many places sticking out of the ground, and which at certain seasons of the year emitted a most offensive smell, hung directly over the same creek ; and the rains which fell carried the soil, fat with the putrid relics of mortality, directly into it. The appearance of the pond was of a sickly green color during the summer months; and even after cold weather set in, its smell was so offensive, as to sicken those who were engaged in drawing the water. These very circumstances, probably, communicated some of its most agreeable qualities to the malt-liquor manufactured out of the water, since it is established, that the Thames water is no better than any other for the manufacture of the far-famed brown stout, above the point where the filth of the immense city is discharged into it.

"These facts, in a form not quite so extended as they afterwards assumed on the trial, Mr. Delavan communicated to the public. It caused the gorge of many an honest beer-drinker to rise, and made many a worthy citizen relinquish the flagon, for the plenishing of which such abominations had been practiced. They assisted materially in impelling the minds of temperate men, to adopt the total abstinence' pledge."

In February, 1836, the New York State Temperance Society adopted the pledge of total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks as a beverage.

A second national convention, numbering three