mere profession. If the Church of Christ will not wake up to the call of humanity, in an endeavour to abolish this disgrace and scandal of our country, then the world may well say "our profession is vain."

Oh! shame upon us that we allow such trifles to agitate and excite us, while great questions that affect the present and future happiness of millions is allowed to sleep. Have we not Christian bishops in the House of Lords? and have we not a right to expect that these right reverend fathers in God will be foremost in every good work? Surely here is a field for the development of their patriotism and religion. The Sabbath in England is in danger through the opening of public-houses on the Lord's Day.

"Oh! Christians to the rescue fly." Would that I could speak loud enough on this question to reach all classes and rouse all hearts. I plead for the youth of our land who are being ensnared, entrapped, and ruined by these houses on the Sabbath. I plead for wives, whose house comforts are destroyed, and whose hearts are well nigh broken, by the opening of these houses on the Sabbath. I plead for the publicans themselves, whose lives are made miserable, and whose souls are destroyed by the opening of these houses on the Sabbath. I plead for our benevolent and Christian societies, whose efforts are being counteracted and checked by opening these houses on the Sabbath. I plead for my country, whose prospects are blighted, whose national character is degraded, and whose influence for good is lessened by the opening of these houses on the Sabbath.

Friends of Temperance, of social order, of virtue, morality, and religion, let us all unite in one earnest, determined, and manly effort to rid this great country at once, and for ever, of this dire curse, at any rate for one day in the week, and that the Lord's Day.

APPENDIX.

DEPUTATION TO THE SUNDAY SCHOOL CONVENTION.

THE following account of the deputation to the Sunday School Convention is taken from the Alliance News, of Sept. 13th:

A deputation from the International Temperance and Prohibition Convention attended on Thursday, at the Jubilee Building of the Sunday School Union, to present an address to the Sunday School Convention, which had been sitting there during the week.

SAMUEL MORLEY, Esq., was presiding over the assembly and just prior to the introduction of the deputation the subject under discussion was how best to elevate, socially, morally, and religiously, the lower classes of society. The deputation consisted of the Baron de Lynden, Chamberlain of the King of Holland; the Hon. Judge Marshall, ex-Chief Justice of Nova Scotia; the Rev. Canon Jenkins, of Dowlais; the Rev. Charles Garrett, of Preston; Mr. Edward Whitwell, of Kendal; Mr. Joseph Thorp, of Halifax; and the Rev. Professor Kirk, of Edinburgh.

Canon JENKINS read the address, signed on behalf of the Convention by Sir W. C. Trevelyan. (See page 177.)

Mr. W. H. WATSON, senior secretary of the Union, moved that the memorial be received and entered upon the minutes of the Convention.

Mr. G. M. MURPHY, Surrey Chapel missionary, would have been glad to second the motion had it not been for certain words in the document which

The CHAIRMAN hoped that there would be no discussion of the subject by the assembly, and that the memorial would simply be received. (Hear, hear.)

The Rev. Mr. HARRIS seconded the motion, though he was not prepared to accept all the statements of the memorial.

The Rev. Professor KIRK, of Edinburgh, one of the deputation, said that himself and the other members of it entertained a lively sense of the difficulty of introducing this subject to the Convention, and they were very far from entertaining the slightest desire to throw a bone of contention

into the assembly. (Hear, hear.) But they were thoroughly satisfied of the perfect safeness of coming to such a body with suggestions like those contained in the memorial. They did not ask for any discussion upon it, but only that it might be received and duly considered by each member of the Convention. (Hear, hear.)

Mr. MURPHY wished not to be misunderstood. He was a Total Abstainer himself, thank God; but what he objected to in the memorial was the identification of the Prohibition with the Abstinence movement; they were essentially distinct, and should be kept so. The memorialists said " we Total Abstainers," which was not true in respect of all who advocated Prohibition.

The CHAIRMAN said the Convention was not called upon to give its sanction to the principles or statements set forth in the memorial, but only to accept the document for what it was worth, and to read and ponder it. (Hear, hear.) He had asked the assembly not to discuss the subject, and perhaps, therefore, he ought himself to refrain from saying a word, but he felt constrained to say that personally he most heartily responded to the sentiments of the memorial, because it was his deep conviction that those who desired to elevate the masses of the people must have something to say on this subject of Temperance. (Cheers.) It might not be Prohibition, or anything recommended by these gentlemen; but it must be something real, so that the people could see and feel that there was an anxious desire on the part of Christian Evangelists to destroy a habit which was doing more than all other habits put together to keep the people down. It was with himself a growing conviction that those who wanted to see the people wise in matters social, political, and, above all, religious, had been holding away from the Temperance movement too long. (Cheers.) Perhaps he ought to apologise to the meeting for speaking thus after requesting that there should be no debate. ("No, no.") He did not want, however, to discuss the subject, but only to offer an earnest and respectful testimony to the Sunday school teachers before him. It was so important, because this question lay right in the path of every social and religious reformer. (Hear, hear.) It was appalling to witness the degradation of multitudes of wives caused by this great evil. (Hear.) Multitudes of wives and children in every locality were rendered wretched by the drunken habits of their husbands and fathers. He knew of such cases in his own neighbourhood, and had endeavoured to use his personal influence to produce reformation. He did trust that the Sunday school teachers of England, and all who with them were engaged in promoting the best interests of the people, would most seriously consider the question. He asked the meeting to accept the memorial.

Mr. COLLINS protested against the memorial being printed with the minutes of the proceedings of the Convention, because the subject of it was foreign to the object of the Convention. ("Hear," and "No.") Let this memorial be received, and there would be no end to the memorials that might be presented.

The CHAIRMAN said that application had been made to the committee of the Union for permission to present the memorial to the Conference, and leave had been given; and it would be at the least discourteous not

to receive the memorial. (Hear, hear.) No doubt the matter itself was rather critical, because it was one regarding which there were deep convictions on both sides.

Mr. W. GOVER considered that the printing of the document should be left to the discretion of the committee, and should not be ordered by the Convention.

The CHAIRMAN presumed that all papers would be printed.

Mr. WATSON thought he could pledge the committee to the printing of the memorial if the motion was agreed to.

The CHAIRMAN having put the resolution to the assembly, it was unanimously adopted amidst loud cheers, and the deputation withdrew.

LETTERS.

To T. H. BARKER, Esq., Secretary to the United Kingdom Alliance.

MY DEAR SIR,

If I doubted the necessity of a popular movement, which should entirely take out of the hands of the Executive all legislation concerning the liquor laws, that doubt could not remain after observing the legislative career of Mr. Gladstone.

It is futile to hope for a more moral or a more religious Chancellor of the Exchequer. We know his personal virtues, yet his official tendencies overpower them. He has been warned, and he has his eyes open. He knows the history of the Beer Act, and the terrible results of beer in inciting to the sale of spirits, and in its own excesses, as developed in the report of Mr. Silk Buckingham's committee; yet his whole course has been to invite and extend the use of dangerous and needless drinks stronger than beer, and increase the dependence of the Queen's Treasury upon them.

The laws which restrict their sale proclaim the public duty of restraining the cupidity of this demoralising trade. The duty is avowed, but is shamefully ill-performed. In my sure belief it will always be ill-performed as long as the Queen's Exchequer has an interest in not restricting the sale of liquor. I look on it as a national disgrace that the Government enriches itself from such a source; and I call for a radical and immediate change, in precisely the reverse direction from that which has of late been pursued.

Though I am not a pledged Abstainer, I am willing to submit to the Permissive Bill at any amount of inconvenience to myself. If any one can suggest an equally efficient remedy, which shall at the same time be more convenient to the really temperate, I am not wedded to this one Bill. But I hear of no other measure which even pretends to stop the direful and disgraceful evil.

It would have given me pleasure, had circumstances allowed, concisely to avow at your approaching Convention my detestation of putting into the Treasury the price of the souls of men.

I regret that I cannot be with you. My hands are full. If I could lay my hands on two letters which I addressed to the Secretary of State for War during the Crimean war, and after it, when foreigners were being enlisted, I would send them to you. Those letters, and their answers, would tell at your great Convention. I offered in the first of these letters to raise and command a thousand Teetotalers, provided they should be tried by their own officers, and that discharge should be the only punishment for aggravated crime of a mere military character.

The Secretary of State replied that soldiers were already bound to be temperate. As if to laugh at him, the only foe that ever overcomes a British soldier broke out in a perfect deluge of intemperance at Sebastopol.

I showed in my letters that the nation was just as much entitled to have good servants as warehouse-keepers in Glasgow, who choose Teetotalers in preference to other servants.

My letters were really home to the point. But there is nothing in my position, as a Christian striving to bless his fellow men, and who perceives abstinence from