energy, and to feel the heart throbbing and the pulse beating of the great movement, and to realise the fact that they are, with many other noble spirits, working on for one grand object, and are not alone or forgotten. Committees, with little means and often with little influence, and no great experience in business matters, have a small craft with which to traverse a tempestuous sea, amongst rocks, and shoals, and pirate crafts innumerable, and it is not surprising that now and then one vessel becomes fast, and appears almost to sink; the greater wonder is that so many hold on their way, preserving their precious cargoes and safely carrying them on till landed on the shores of an eternal world. What, then, are these shoals-what the impediments to progress in our country societies? and how may they be best overcome? Want of cohesion is a great evil, a frequent hindrance to our work, for unity of purpose is an essential requisite to success. An army of willing workers, well drilled, and with well-considered plans, are necessary to accomplish the work; men are too proud frequently, of their own plans, and not (especially in gratuitous work) so easily led or changed as true wisdom would dictate. In every society or community men are sometimes called upon to bow to the opinions of the majority, and unless submission has been well learned, unless we feel the importance of the maxim, "Unity is strength," sufficiently to induce us willingly to bow to the opinions of our fellow-labourers, we lose much of our influence, for without harmony of feeling and true union in our ranks we shall be unfitted to stand in the day of battle. As want of money is frequently a great hindrance to action, it is wise to study how to effect the greatest possible good with the smallest outlay, and how to increase the income. First as to public advocacy. Many country societies can only occasionally afford the luxury of paid lecturers, not because lecturers' fees are too high, but because of other expenses; travelling expenses, sometimes very long distances by train, and coach hire for short distances, lecturers' fees, rent of room, and other incidentals, making an aggregate of costs frequently exceeding the apparent good resulting from such meetings. Now, it appears that one thing more than all others calculated to prevent unnecessary outlay is frequent correspondence between societies in order to combined action. If societies were in constant correspondence it would be easy to arrange for meetings to be held over any given extent of country at but small cost for travelling expenses to each society; and by arrangements being made to occupy a lecturer's time regularly for a given period, much time and trouble would be saved the speaker, and some cost probably to societies, whilst the effect of a certain tract of country being agitated at one and the same time would be more lasting and immeasurably greater than merely casual lectures in isolated villages. Local associations do much to meet this requirement, but there are many societies which could adopt this system that are beyond the reach of local associations. It would also be well to arrange working men's meetings for villages, entering on a plan the names of all willing and able to speak, one, two, or three speakers occupying the evening. By this means much good has been done, and the system might advantageously become more general. Many do not exert the private influence they might with a good result. The distribution of tracts is a means of usefulness too much neglected in many places. Every member of the society willing to co-operate should be placed to work, and, having his or her own district allotted, should look upon it as a field, which he or she is morally bound to cultivate, preparing the soil, removing the weeds, and putting in the good seed of Temperance truth, watering it with his prayers, and carefully tending the plants, asking and expecting the blessing of God on their labours, till there is no spot untilled, barren, or unproductive. Each one should feel himself responsible for the spread of the cause in his own field; and domestic visitation, the distribution of tracts, and friendly conversation and persuasion go hand in hand. By the means above described much good might be effected at a small cost, but regular systematic visiting would also tend to increase the funds, for many would be found ready to offer pecuniary aid; and every member having the honour of actively working in the cause would find his own heart kept in a warm state towards it, and would, of course, be anxious to show his love by the amount of his subscription. It is better to obtain subscribers by inducing men to become members than by persuading them to subscribe, allowing them to quiet conscience with the balmy thought that they are helping the work. Another means of increasing the income, and at the same time enlarging the influence of country societies is to charge a small sum for admission to front seats at all lectures. A charge is rather an inducement than otherwise for the higher classes to attend, whilst all regular subscribers might be presented with tickets to admit them to all meetings. Excursions, tea meetings, and musical entertainments in some cases may be useful to increase the funds and promote good feeling amongst the members; but it may be well to observe there is danger of relying too much on entertainments, &c., for the support of the movement; and amusements, except they be of an altogether educational or beneficent tendency, are likely to bring ridicule on our great work. And even any amusements too frequent may have a bad effect on the more thoughtful of our friends, for it ill becomes those who have a high and holy work to perform, a solemn duty to accomplish, to waste their time or energy on very light and trivial things, thus weakening their influence for good. But the want of funds-the cost of the struggle-is not the only rock upon which societies have split, and which it will be well carefully to avoid; there are internal causes of dissension to be guarded against and avoided. Many do not see so clearly as they had hoped the fruits of their labours; their bright anticipations are not all realised, and, seeing the greatness of the work, they become faint and languid. In the morning, at the early dawn, they laboured well; but, as the day advances, men are apt to shrink from its heat and burden, and apathetic indifference holds them in its grasp, and the management of the vessel (for we must again refer to this figure) is left to those who are younger and less experienced, but more zealous. It would be well, by regular work, to guard against the approach of apathy, and if it dares to cast its shadow o'er our pathway, to review the drunkards rescued, the wives made happy, homes made joyful by the Temperance movement; the children rescued from misery, clothed and educated, and the mighty influence of the good seed sown in the hearts of these children by its influence; and, further, to bear in mind that the fruit seen is but little compared with the unseen good effected—good which shall be seen and felt in after years; and surely this is enough to chase away all coldness, to induce us to thank God for the Temperance movement, and to esteem it an honour to be engaged in so good a work. Inconsistency is a great enemy; there are some who, fearing to appear churlish, sanction in some degree the drinking customs, and merely abstain from the intoxicating cup themselves, allow it to be left in their houses, presented to their friends, and harboured as a luxury provided for others. These forget their pledge to "discountenance the causes and practices of intemperance." And every true Temperance man must in the observance of this, the old pledge, not only have nothing to do with the unholy thing, but glory in showing his principles forth in their purity; and if at the market, in the fair, or at the festive board it causes some inconvenience to be singular, he ought to rejoice that he is thought worthy to bear the cross of a man of principle, that he may wear the sparkling and enduring crown of consistency. There are yet some anxious to introduce their own religious or political opinions into the society to which they belong, and it is to be feared some have been divided through these differences. It cannot be too carefully observed that our movement is altogether catholic; our platform should be large enough to contain men of every grade, of every position, and of every shade of opinion, religious and political; for, though our cause is frequently a stepping-stone to true piety, and often clears the way for pure religion, it is not religion itself, but a great moral lever to remove a great social and moral evil; and the only part of our movement that is political is neither Whig or Tory, Conservative or Radical, but moral and social-that is, I conceive, we have nothing to do with politics except as they affect the other work we have in hand--the prevention and cure of the curse of drink making, drink taking, drink buying and drink vending, and their accompanying evils. This leads to our last consideration. There are a few societies which have mistaken their vocation, and attempt, by moral suasion alone, to cure a national and legalised evil. The victories won by the Temperance Society are very frequently marred and obliterated, the drunkard returning again, as the sow that is washed to his wallowing in the mire, through the influence of legalised and law-protected temptations. Young children, the hope of our movement, are frequently seduced by the insidious temptations of the legal traps set at every corner to entice the unwary. The social drinking customs are the great highways to intemperance, and the "styes that law has licensed" are the dens where drunkards are manufactured, criminals trained, the great work of Temperance Societies counteracted, and the brightest hopes of their promoters blighted, blasted, and destroyed. The society which does not strive to protect its members, Standard of Utility applied to the Liquor-Traffic. 461 to remove the temptations from the path of its young and weaker branches, which does not seek to crush out of existence the great curse, to remove the disgraceful and unsightly blot on our national escutcheon-"a licensed trade in crime"-which does not seek to break the unholy and unnatural alliance between the Traffic and the State, and resolve that the deed of separation shall be written in no unmistakable characters, neglects half its work, and allows its energies and its influence to be wasted by the enemy it does not strive to destroy. Let, then, the policy of all societies be to work with a will and with zeal in the cause of truth, to cut the fangs of the monster which devours the world's finest sons, to weaken the power of the foe, and, soon as possible, to entirely destroy the iniquitous Traffic, resting assured that what is morally wrong should not be, must not be, and determining that it shall not be legally right. Then will the foe be conquered at all points, and, with uncompromising truth inscribed high on our banners, we shall ere long see our world freed from the bondage of the great destroyer. These remarks have been made in no desponding tone of disappointment or discontent; on the contrary, the Temperance Reformer has everything in which to rejoice-progress made with which few moral movements can compare, good done which none can surpass, and, in prospect, certain and lasting success, because truth is mighty, and must, by God's help, ultimately prevail. Let us, then, be up and doing, The Standard of Utility applied to the Liquor-Traffic. UTIL TILITY, in its most comprehensive sense, takes in all that concerns the material, intellectual, moral, and religious welfare of a person or a people. From such a standard no trade or profession ought to shrink; and bad, indeed, must be that occupation or pursuit which cannot show that it contributes in some manner or degree to the general weal. Placed beneath this standard, what figure is made by the Traffic in alcoholic liquors ? I. What material uses can be affirmed, with truth, of that public avocation? Does it contribute to the public health or wealth? It is a Traffic in intoxicating liquors, and the highest medical opinion is not dubiously coming to the decision that, if they do not always act poisonously on those who consume them as beverages, they are not needful in health, are very apt to be taken in poisonous quantities by hundreds of thousands, and do, in fact, create by their intemperate use (whether by drunkenness or tippling) a great amount of superfluous disease and death. To these results the Liquor-Traffic most directly contributes, not only as the chief medium of drink supply, but also as the most potent means of promoting the excessive consumption of strong liquors, and under circumstances the most favourable to injury of body and mind. Can it, then, be said that the public wealth is increased by the drink trade? No doubt many wholesale makers and dealers acquire large fortunes, and no doubt the money spent in their business re-circulates in the channels of trade and commerce; but so would the same sums if given to an equal number of persons without any equivalent; yet the persons so subsidised would not be supposed to contribute to the public wealth simply because they spent among the people what the people had just given to them. In one important particular the Liquor-Traffic directly destroys the national wealth. Food is wealth, and corn might be food; but a quantity large enough to support millions of the population is annually diverted into the distillery and brewery. Here there is a positive and prodigious destruction of good things, and a subversion of the law of material utility. The Brobdignags, who voted honours to those who made two blades of grass grow where only one had grown before, would not have given prizes to the destroyers of food for the production of intoxicating drinks. It may chance, however, that those who do not directly add to the material wealth of a country are indirectly doing so by promoting the industrial skill, diligence, and fidelity of the producers of wealth. Can this praise be claimed for the traders in strong drink? Are the working classes, or their employers, nerved for labour, and assisted in the right appropriation of the wages and capital possessed, by frequenting the public-house and beer-shop? Whether time, capital, wages, or labour are considered, are not all these means and factors of national wealth abridged by the indolent and wasteful habits and appetites first created and then fostered by the Liquor-Traffic? It produces no wealth-diffuses none-but cripples and destroys in an extraordinary measure the elements of material prosperity. Nor should it go unmentioned that by the sickness, poverty, and crime it brings into being, burdens heavy to be borne are imposed on society, which tend to reduce the sources available for increasing the permanent riches of the community. The only counter-pleas that can be offered are— 1st. That inns and hotels are necessary for the accommodation of the mercantile and travelling classes-a plea which is admitted without scruple, but which does not bind to the admission of any utility of the Liquor-Traffic. Homes from home may surely exist without the sale of strong drink, either on those premises or on other premises where no such accommodation is provided. 2nd. It is urged that the gratification from drinking is a real utility, though not measurable by any external standard. This, too, may be granted, but its relevancy denied. (1.) The gratification is sensuous, and in a social point of view is not to be put into comparison with the evils produced. (2.) It is an enjoyment never unattended with risk to |