on her passage from Australia, with a crew of sixteen or eighteen men and two or three passengers. Soon after leaving port she sprang a leak— so bad that it was necessary for crew and passengers to take turn at the pumps to keep it down at all. The winds were adverse to their putting into the Cape, and the captain was obliged to make the best of his way to this country-a voyage at that time of some ninety or one hundred days. He soon found that the men were losing strength, and could not keep up the requisite exertions at the pumps. When fatigued they had their glass of grog, but little appetite for food, and their flesh was failing them. He thought he would change the plan and stop the grog altogether. The experiment succeeded wonderfully. The men soon recovered their strength, and though they had to keep up pumping all the rest of the voyage, they were brought into port in as fine a condition as ever any set of men were brought in their lives. My venerated friend, Sir J. Richardson, the companion of Franklin in his first expedition, says, when even reduced to extremities, that spirits were injurious to them. It might give temporary warmth, but they felt the cold more severely afterwards. Such also is the experience of English and North American whalers, and of hundreds and thousands of our best navigators." * * Drunkenness in the Metropolis.-A Return of the Number of Persons taken into Custody by the Metropolitan Police (City of London not included) for the eighteen years from 1844 to 1861, compiled from Official Documents. By E. J. SOUTHWELL. * Of this 20,762 (see 1861 return), 5,588 could neither read or write; 13,682 could do so imperfectly; and 1,492 had received a superior education. About four-fifths of those taken up for drunkenness, and about half of the drunk and disorderly, were discharged without fine. Observations on the Drink-Traffic in the East of London. By ROBERT NICHOL. MY Y object in this short paper is to describe something of what is occurring in the East of London, by the river side, through the operation of the Liquor-Traffic. The two classes most visibly affected thereby are the women on the town and the seafaring men. The former swarm in hundreds; and when we see daily how completely these demoralising pursuits are connected with the facilities for getting strong drink, it seems to me very plain that nothing short of Prohibition will prevent a large amount of this awful depravity. It has been stated that none but Teetotalers want the Permissive Bill. If this were true, it would be so much to the credit of the Temperance Reformers, who are labouring for the immediate Prohibition of the drink that is cursing our land. But the truth is, there are many others that wish the drink and drinking houses were done away with. If our opponents will go into Shadwell early in the morning, and inquire about this from their poor unfortunate sisters, what answer will they get? I know what some of them said to me when they attended two midnight meetings held in the Sailors' Institute. In conversing with them, I found that most of them had been brought up in a Sabbath school. Seven were under twenty years of age, and two of them had been teachers in the Sabbath school; and the language of all was, "take away the drink and drinking houses, and we shall have to go home to our parents. I wish that there was no more drink made." These poor girls were sober at the time they gave utterance to these expressions. Scenes of horror succeed one another in this region of London with startling rapidity. One unfortunate hastens to the bridge, where she takes a leap into the river, and before the splash of the waters has died away screams in another quarter are heard. The knife of the assassin has been plunged into the bosom of another victim, followed by the report of a pistol. The policemen force their way into the room, where they see two human beings drenched in blood. The Sunday after the above occurrence, as the servants of God are preparing for the morning prayer-meeting, the cry is heard in the street, "Police! police!" and a man is seen, between two policemen, who had stabbed a poor girl, and left the knife in her body; and before the sound of these horrible crimes are out of our ears we see another poor unfortunate girl making her way to the river side Mad from life's history, These are facts that have all occurred within a fortnight of the writing of this paper. In the month of July there were seventeen attempts to Χ commit suicide from the London Dock Bridges. Mr. Selfe, the Thames Police Court magistrate, said these repeated attempts at suicide were quite shocking to humanity. Then, again, there are the sailors, who the moment they land find the landsharks and crimps waiting for them to take them to these drinking dens, where they are robbed of their money and clothes. In passing along Ratcliffe Highway, some time ago, I met three sailors, and induced them to go to the Sailors' Institute, Mercers-street, to take a cup of coffee, when one of them told me that they had arrived from Shields the day before, and that each seaman had received £2. 10s. for the run up. Two of them went into a public-house to have a glass of ale; they drank about half of it, and fell asleep, and when they awoke their jackets, watches, and money had disappeared. In coming from the London Docks down Ratcliffe Highway, a crowd of women was standing round a sailor. He had two stones in his hand, and was going to throw at the windows of a public-house. I asked him what he was doing that for. He said he had been away from home over five years, and that he had a widowed mother in the country. The last time he came to London he was robbed of his money and clothes by the crimps and boarding-house keepers; this time he made up his mind not to go to a boarding-house, so he slept at a coffee-house until he was paid off this morning. He received his wages, which was over £20. He went into that public-house to keep away from his shipmates, to save his money for his poor widowed mother. He called for a glass of rum. Two men came in, and before he had drank the rum he fell asleep, and when he awoke all his money was gone. He would have to go to sea again without seeing his poor mother. Many more cases have come under my notice, if time would permit. One more case. In passing along Ratcliffe Highway I met a sailor without a jacket on his back. I asked him from whence he came. He said he was paid off from a ship lying in the London Docks, after being away from home over three years. He had lost between thirty and forty pounds in two public-houses. destitute, and in the last stage of consumption. A letter for the Victoria Park Hospital was got for him, but they could do nothing for him. Through the kindness of W. Janson, Esq., he was sent to his home in Scotland. I received a letter soon after to say that he was dead. On facts like these I ground my plea for Prohibition; and if it is asked are all parishes to be treated alike, because two or three parishes in the East End of London are so bad? I answer that this great evil is not confined to two or three, but to hundreds of parishes; and I conclude by asking, Did Lord Palmerston mean two or three parishes when in the House of Commons, in 1853, he made the following remark :-" Profligacy, vice, and immorality, were not thundering at our gates like a besieging army, but they are undermining the very ground on which we stand." Country Temperance Societies: Their Impediments, and Hints for their Removal. By ROBERT FYSON, Soham. EVE VERY man who resolves to be useful in his day and generation, in removing the evils that surround him, who, as the result of study and research, has learned the path of duty and is determined to walk therein, guiding his steps by the light of truth-the pure, unchangeable, and beautiful rays of which at once lead and cheer him on his way— must expect to do battle with the numerous and powerful foes which most assuredly will meet him in his progress onward. The man who bases his conduct on the shifting sands of expediency, or submits to be led by a glimmering, uncertain, and varying light, instead of that of unalterable and eternal truth, may, indeed, not see so many foes, but will not feel such consciousness of integrity; he may not fight so many battles, but he will not gain so many victories, and the crown of triumph will not be so pure, unsullied, and beautiful; he may possibly find his way somewhat smoother, but he will neither accomplish so much work, nor will his work so well stand the trial in the day of temptation. Now, as the Temperance movement is capable of accomplishing an extraordinary amount of good, and has much evil to surmount, it is necessary that every society be a body of men ready to meet with and to overcome their foes, anxious to do their duty in their respective localities and in the world, able to enlighten those around them in regard to the pernicious character of intoxicating drinks-the destructive power they possess, and the unmitigated evils they produce-willing to exhibit in its true light the abominable Traffic in this blighting and withering seduction, and zealous to protect the young from the snares of the destroyer. It would be, indeed, strange were there not a wide field for labour, numerous enemies to subdue, and against whose attacks to maintain a careful and well-guarded defence; and it cannot be otherwise than beneficial occasionally to rally our forces, and examine our work, and take stock of the enemy, in order to know how most effectively to attack, and most speedily and certainly to conquer. But it is not of outward enemies, bold, open, and avowed foes, that we would in this short paper take especial note, but of the internal enemies, that are stumbling-blocks in our way, which conspire with the enemy to overthrow our work or to weaken our efforts; of these we would now speak, in order that we may, following the advice of the Apostle Paul, be able to "Warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, and be patient toward all men." All Temperance Societies, but more especially those in isolated situations, are called upon to do a great work, with many enemies surrounding them, often with very small means, and with only the reward of conscious integrity to cheer and encourage them. Working almost alone, it is only by such meetings as this Convention that their leaders are able to gather renewed |