called upon to second the resolution of thanks to the President. From what I have seen and known before of Sir Walter Trevelyan's work in this great cause, I certainly know he is the right man in the right place. I know that his life will continue to be devoted to the noble work he so zealously and so wisely engages in.

The resolution was carried with loud applause.

The PRESIDENT: I thank you for the way in which you have received that resolution, and I shall be thereby encouraged to persist in the course I have pursued, and to do my utmost to promote so good, so great, and so glorious a cause. I move that the hearty thanks of the Convention be given to the presidents, vice-presidents, and hon. secretaries of the different Sections, the General Secretaries of the Convention, the officers of the various departments, together with those who have taken an active part in the proceedings of the Convention, the exertions of all of whom have contributed to our great success.

The Rev. Dr. BURNS seconded the resolution, which it was explained applied also to the authors of papers, and which was carried with acclamation.

Mr. EDWARD BACKHOUSE, Sunderland, President of the North of England Temperance League, moved a vote of thanks to the Executive of the United Kingdom Alliance for their untiring energy in doing all that was requisite to promote this splendid gathering. To their friend Mr. Barker (loud cheers)-they were deeply indebted-to no man more 80o-for his untiring zeal in this glorious cause.

Mr. F. A. JACQUES, President of the West of England Temperance League, seconded the motion. The labours of the United Kingdom Alliance were warmly appreciated by the association over whose committee he had the honour to preside that year.

The resolution having been carried with acclamation,

Mr. POPE, in the course of his reply, said I don't think I should have consented now to intrude myself if it had not been to add my testimony, as the Hon. Secretary of the Alliance, to that pronounced so justly by Mr. Backhouse on the invaluable and untiring services which are rendered to the movement by Mr. Thomas Barker. (Loud cheers.) It would be absolutely impossible for me to discharge the duties of the office I hold, and for the Executive of the Alliance to discharge their functions, if they had not in their Secretary an officer who is instant in season and out of season, who knows no pursuit in life, and has no desire to accomplish, except the one great object to which he has consecrated every energy of his being-the success of the Alliance. (Loud cheers.) If I could find words stronger than those I have used to express my own deep sense, and the sense of every one acquainted with him, of the worth and value of our Secretary, I would have employed them. think he knows no sleep. I never see him but he is working for the Alliance. By far the principal portion of the manual labour attending the preparation for this Convention has been discharged by Mr. Barker, in addition to his ordinary work. I feel you have only done justice to a gentleman who has not often the opportunity of being cheered by your voices in receiving his name and services with the "well done" you have

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accorded to him. On behalf of the Executive of the Alliance, I thank you most sincerely for the confidence you have bestowed on them in relation to this Convention. Gratification they must feel in having seen here, not only men associated officially with the Alliance-not merely an Alliance meeting-but gentlemen representing all the influential Temperance organisations. We have met face to face, and have shaken hands in cordial friendship with all Temperance Associations and individuals who really are doing the Temperance work. The lesson I gather is that, whatever may be the work which the Alliance does, however true it may be that it has assumed a particular department of that work, a great deal of the political labour, and some of the political obloquy that is poured against it, the Alliance is not an association that stands alone; it is not one unconnected by sympathy with the great Temperance body of the country. This Convention has indicated that we are all of one mind. The Alliance simply stands forward in its particular department as leading the way. Do not let us fall into any mistake about the Convention. Don't imagine the Alliance had more to do with it than it really had. It is not an Alliance Convention, but a Temperance and Prohibition Conference. Although it is true that, owing to the larger machinery of the Alliance and its complete organisation, the General Committee entrusted the arangements to the Committee of the Alliance of Manchester, they simply acted as officers, so to speak, of the general body constituting the Convention; and the success of this gathering, which I venture to think is unexampled in the history of the movement, is as much due to the cordial support of other Temperance Associations and advocates throughout the country as it is to the Executive of the Alliance. All they did was to make the arrangements and to make the public announcements; and the success depended on the British Temperance League, the North of England Temperance League, and others too numerous to mention, who have been associated with the Alliance in carrying out this great undertaking. The result of the whole ought to be a united action which, brought to bear on an unwilling Legislature, may compel them to pay attention to the just demands of the people. We are mistaken in supposing we have no one in the House of Commons who sympathises with us but the hon. member for Carlisle. With his name there ought to be associated those of others, especially that of Mr. Ayrton. It was the desire of the Alliance Executive that this Convention should be thrown open to the Temperance body generally, and they desired that the secretaries and officers of the Convention should be gentlemen who were not officially connected with the Alliance, so as to deprive the Convention of an organisational character, and to show that it was really, what I believe in has been, a testimony to the union of all bodies of Temperance Reformers having one great and glorious object in view. (Cheers.)

Mr. HARVEY, as Chairman of the Executive of the Alliance, since its establishment, said that Mr. Barker had given his whole heart and soul to the movement. Without his able assistance the Alliance would not have prospered as it had done. Other officers of the Alliance were well chosen, and discharged their duty nobly. He referred particularly to Mr. Raper. The Convention were greatly indebted also to a member of the Executive, the Rev. J. C. Street.

Mr. BARKER, who was repeatedly and loudly called for, briefly acknowledged the compliment paid to him.

Mr. J. H. RAPER also responded to the call.

The Rev. J. C. STREET, who was also called for by the audience, briefly thanked them for their cordial recognition of his services. Sanguine as he had been in regard to this Convention, it had more than realised all his expectations, and he believed it would prove a great landmark in the history of the Temperance and Alliance movement.

E. BACKHOUSE, Esq., said that before the rising of the Convention it was supposed the subscription on behalf of the distressed operatives of Lancashire would amount to £200. The committee had adopted the following resolution with the intention that it should accompany the remittance when that was made by Sir W. C. Trevelyan, on behalf of the Convention:

"That, in view of the present urgent and rapidly-increasing distress of the operatives of the cotton manufacturing districts, this Convention, whilst deeply deploring and sympathising therewith, earnestly invites their more fortunate brethren, in all parts of the country, to encourage, by their example, voluntary Abstinence from all intoxicating beverages, and those habits of economy and self-control which would greatly tend to mitigate the present distress. The Convention rejoice to know that, by the adoption of Total Abstinence, thousands have been enabled to provide for their families without appealing to public charity. The Convention would also call attention to the enormous sum of more than £1,500,000 weekly expended in the United Kingdom in the purchase of alcoholic beverages; an amount which, if applied to the formation of relief funds, would amply provide for the necessities of real distress during the coming winter. That, as a token of sympathy with their fellow-men in Lancashire and Cheshire at present suffering from the depression occasioned by the lamentable conflict in the United States, the friends of Temperance now assembled in London, as an International Temperance and Prohibition Convention, resolve to raise a contribution, to be forwarded through Sir Walter Trevelyan, on their behalf, to the Central Committee of the Relief Fund in Manchester."

It was suggested that the fund should be left open for a fortnight.* The resolution was adopted in spirit, subject to verbal amendment by the committee.

The Rev. G. W. M'CREE moved--

"That the Convention desires to record its sincere and solemn thank

The subscription ultimately reached the amount of £225, which was paid over to the Central Relief Committee in Manchester, accompanied with the resolution adopted by the Convention, and the following letter from Sir W. C. Trevelyan :

October 11th, 1862.

Dear Sir, I have much pleasure in transmitting to you, for the funds of the Central Relief Committee, in accordance with a resolution of the International Temperance and Prohibition Convention (a copy of which I enclose), which was unanimously agreed to at their meeting in London, on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Sept., the sum of £225, subscribed by the members of the Convention, as a token of their sympathy with the suffering operatives in the cotton manufacturing districts of England; and in doing so I cannot but express my earnest hope that the benefits felt, as I have no doubt they are by many families, in their unavoidable abstinence from the use of intoxicating drink, will

fulness to Almighty God for the cheering evidence of success which has attended its important deliberations and public assemblies, and does hereby give thanks unto God for that success."

The Rev. Canon JENKINS seconded the resolution.

The resolution was passed with silent approval.

Sir WALTER C. TREVELYAN then rose and said: You will, I am sure, agree with me that we may congratulate ourselves on having had a most successful meeting both here and more especially on the glorious public meeting of last night; on the large attendance of friends of the great cause, and the number and importance of the papers read, which, when published, we hope will have some effect in enlightening the public on the object, and vital importance, and desirability for the welfare of the community of the measure we advocate, and in dispelling much of the ignorance which unfortunately still prevails on the subject. The opposition we meet with, in our attempts to remove from our land the greatest curse which can befall any people, might make a person, ignorant of our objects, think that we were proposing some iniquitous scheme, when in truth we are endeavouring to diminish crime, and immorality, and wretchedness, and poverty, and ignorance, and disease, and madness, all of which the evidence of police magistrates, relieving officers and medical men, ministers of religion, and the majority of cases at assizes and sessions, show to be mainly caused by the use of intoxicating drink. We are trying to provide health for, and to prolong the life of our fellow countrymen, both of which, the evidence of medical men and the table of insurance offices show are to a large extent enjoyed by abstainers from these things in a much larger proportion than by even moderate drinkers. A committee of the House of Commons, reporting with regard to the sanitary condition of the people, states-" We find all the other classes have one-third more sickness than the water drinkers. We must admit we can discover no other cause than an excess of the drinking habits of the people." We are endeavouring to increase the happiness and prosperity of all classes, and to develop the industrial, commercial, and artistic skill of the nation, in a more remunerative and healthy way, which would undoubtedly result from the employment in beneficial and useful purposes of only a part of the enormous capital which at present is worse than wasted, going, as it principally does, not only to enrich the producers of these too fascinating, but truly dangerous and destructive poisons, but enriching them at a tremendous loss of the virtue, and health, and happiness, and of the property and lives of a very large proportion of the consumers of them. It has been ascertained that the health of most of those who take these things in what is generally considered as

have a lasting influence for good, and induce many, even when they have again the means of purchasing these fascinating but dangerous poisons (as medical men now very frequently and correctly designate them) to refrain from doing so, and thus permanently to benefit themselves, their families, and the community, by abstaining from that, the use of which entails on individuals, on families, and on the whole community, even to generations yet unborn, evils so numerous and so great, physical, moral, and social. I remain, dear sir, very faithfully yours,

To the President of the
Central Relief Committee, &c., &c.

W. C. TREVELYAN.

moderation and temperately, is inferior to that of those persons who never take them at all, unless when required medicinally; and this may be easily explained-for if a person who is in good health, and consequently does not require the medicine, should take habitually daily a moderate dose of digitalis, the effect of which is to lower the action of the heart, would not the result in time be that the continued abnormal and unnatural action must eventually induce ill health and disease, and shorten life? In like manner if a person in good health, and consequently not requiring it as medicine—if indeed it ever is of use as such-should take habitually, in moderate doses, an alcoholic stimulant in whatever form, the effect would eventually be that the abnormal, unnaturally-increased action produced by it would cause ill health and disease, and necessarily shorten life; and this observation has been shown to be the case, and it is also proved by the returns of those insurance offices which have separate classes for Abstainers and ordinary insurers. So much less frequent are the deaths among the former, that the bonus paid to the insured is considerably larger than that to those in the other class. The loss to this country and the misery caused by the failure of the usual supply of cotton are very great, and are bringing great suffering on a large part of our population, but yet that is almost as nothing when compared with the effects of the much larger loss of capital which is annually wasted on intoxicating drink-on that which produces a far larger amount of suffering, and is much more appalling in its results, than even pestilence and famine, supplying as it does victims for the gallows, and filling our dens of thieves and gaols, our brothels and penitentiaries, our union-houses and ragged schools, our hospitals and madhouses, and cemeteries, with its unhappy victims. The good time, however, is coming, we trust, when it will not be possible for any Government safely to resist the reasonable demands of an intelligent majority of the people. I have little fear that those demands will be made by the people when their judgment no longer runs the risk of being warped or distorted, or their passions of being roused or influenced by those seductive and dangerous poisons which have, partly through ignorance of their real nature by the consumer, too long usurped the place of safe and wholesome nutriment, and which we are endeavouring to sweep away from the face of the land which they have polluted and infected with their infernal miasma, and the use of which has, alas! been too much encouraged and fostered by an equally ignorant Government, which, while wishing to fill the exchequer, too often for the purpose of carrying on most iniquitous, unjust, and ruinous wars, appears to have forgotten the old and wholesome maxim-"Salus populi suprema lex." On the contrary they have ranked the health, physical, social, and moral, of the people as lowest in the scale in their legislation. There is, however, a decidedly wholesome change appearing, and I am in hopes that the good time is coming when neither the people will require nor the Legislature will enact any measure inconsistent with the dictates of eternal truth, and justice, and righteousness. (Loud cheers.)

The Rev. Canon JENKINS then read a psalm, and two minutes having been spent in private prayer, the formal sittings of the Convention terminated.