country, and meetings of this kind draw crowded audiences. These institutions, no doubt, deserve fostering; but, in the same degree that the development of our material resources is gaining ascendancy upon active minds, our cause is sinking into neglect. A third impediment is to be found in the prevailing impression that the means we employed are altogether insufficient. Persuasion, the only weapon we use against our foe, is thought to be totally inadequate to the task. "All your exertions are of no use," is an objection we meet with in every quarter, and thus the confidence in our societies is undermined. Even the friends of our movement believe that, unless the governments and legislations enact laws for the limitation or prohibition of the traffic in liquors, all societies must labour in vain as regards any national end. Our friends forget that public opinion must first be won over to our views before the slightest hope of government interference can be entertained, and that this working upon public opinion is indeed the chief object of our societies. They should, therefore, redouble their activity. Certainly, as long as our ablest men withhold their sympathy from our societies, we must continue to labour with comparatively small success. Having thus candidly stated the deficiencies from which our cause suffers on the continent, I feel now the more free to record things of a more promising character. Notwithstanding manifold hindrances, I am warranted in saying that our labours have not been in vain; that highly important results are attained; nay, that we may safely claim the moral victory of our cause. We have conquered the once universal prejudice, that spirits are nutritious, useful, or necessary; and the conviction spreads more and more, that, as an habitual beverage, they are noxious, as well as needless. It is now almost generally admitted that nothing short of a total suppression of spirits, as a beverage for the people, will ever secure the sobriety of the people. More than this, the better part of the lower classes are now fully convinced that, by accepting our principles, they will be led to a happier and more contented life, and they are therefore longing for measures that would free them altogether from that scourge of nations. True, great quantities of liquors are still consumed, and regular drinkers (which had, at least in Hanover and Oldenburg, considerably diminished) are again on the increase, as a consequence of so many societies having stopped their labours. But even whilst taking the alcohol, the people curse it as an abomination, wishing it had never existed, and yearning for its total suppression and disappearance. How often is the cry of woe raised against the breweries and the inns! Feeling themselves too weak to resist temptation for a length of time, the poor people curse the existence of the Traffic, as a perpetual stumbling block on their way to a happy and useful life. Great and valuable success has lately been achieved. The necessity of a reconstruction of our political institutions on the basis of our principles is pretty generally admitted; I mean that this reformation is to be carried into effect by the initiative of the respective governments. They have, indeed, already made numerous provisions against the excesses of drunkards and innkeepers, but they are all based on a principle now totally abandoned. All these enactments aim at suppressing intemperance; but no one has yet been able to draw the line where temperance runs into intemperance. Alcohol once admitted to be needless and noxious, then those to whom the charge of the common weal is entrusted are bound to employ their power for its total suppression, especially since all other measures have proved failures. I therefore look upon the progress made in that particular point as one of the best auguries of final victory. We have knocked at the door of legislation, by numerous petitions to the Prussian Parliament, praying that they would have regard to the necessity of checking the Traffic in liquors. On our first attempt not a single speaker found it worth his while to advocate our petition. But in the following session, when petitions came in more numerously, they found so many and such powerful advocates, that a fierce contest ensued. I trust we shall not be under the necessity of having to petition so long as your noble Wilberforce had to do before he succeeded in carrying his anti-slavery resolution, an agitation which for more than thirty years was proclaimed to be altogether impracticable! Such is the power of inherited prejudice to hide the simplest truths under a thick veil of error or fanaticism. Succeeding ages will perhaps look back with astonishment upon a time when the Traffic in alcohol poison was sanctioned by law, and found so many advocates! In consequence of these petitions not less than two thousand licenses have been cancelled by the Prussian Government, while in Hanover it has long since been made a rule that licenses shall bear some definitive proportion to the number of the population. I may mention that in the greatest of German armies (Prussia) the grant of a certain quantity of liquor during field and camp days has been discontinued by special command, a portion of coffee being allowed instead. Previous to that the Government of Hanover had stopped the allowance of liquor in all penal and correctional institutions, a measure which has proved to be most satisfactory in improving the health of the convicts. The Evangelical Association (a free assembly of ministers and laymen of both churches, Protestant and reformed, who meet by rotation in the largest cities of the country) have constantly given their verdict against all games of hazard and the use of ardent spirits. At Bremen, in 1852, a resolution was adopted to the effect that it is the duty of every Christian to check the increasing custom of using ardent spirits.* Some of the provincial synods have pronounced against the use of ardent liquors, and raised their warning voice with true Christian earnestness, and also the Catholic Church in Germany. A considerable number of bishops put themselves at the head of the movement, and the lower clergy followed with readiness and devotion. The "Temperance fraternities" in the Catholic Church deserve, indeed, honourable mention. * Observe the following important data:-1. Maine-Liquor Law, January 2, 1851; 2 Temperance Fraternity (Mäsfigkeits-Brüdershaft), July 28, 1851; 3. United Kingdom Alliance, June 1, 1852; 4. The meeting at Bremen, autumn 1852. They were instituted at the suggestion of the Archbishop of Breslau, and sanctioned by a Papal decree, July 28, 1851.* Nearly in every one of the 770 congregations of the Bishopric of Breslau such associations were established. The order spread to Ermeland, a Bishopric in East Prussia; and of the 150,000 grown-up communicants, at least 100,000 are in the brotherhood. It is with the utmost joy that one peruses the reports of the civil authorities concerning the beneficial influence which this institution has produced. It found imitation in the Bishoprics of Gnesen and Posen, Culm, Münster, Paderborn, Hildesheim, Osnabrück, &c. So early as August 31, 1854, no less than ninety fraternities were registered by the Bishop of Breslau, who stands at the head of the whole order in Germany. The Bishop of Hildesheim gave a special charge to his clergy to use all means in their power for the introduction of the fraternity in their respective congregations. The missionary preachers were officially charged with delivering, on every occasion, two special sermons against the two most prevailing vices— gluttony and debauchery. But however excellent these fraternities might be, they could not induce all the drunkards to renounce their evil habits, or the publicans their noxious trade; nor could they, with all the powerful means at their disposal, prevent many from relapsing into their old customs. The satanic power of alcohol has, to a certain extent, baffled these most earnest and holy exertions, on the success of which every friend of Temperance once fully relied. And this is the important experience we have gained, that the nations will only be released from the scourge of alcohol when the governments shall do their duty and cancel all licenses. It is irrefragably proved that, by suffering gin-shops and inns, the governments foster places of temptation, where the best intentions must, in the long run, be drowned in a sea of moral degradation. Even the exertions of "Temperance fraternities" in the Catholic Church found their grave in the privileged public-houses; and the noblest prelates had to see an institution frustrated which they thought so firmly established, and deemed so promising of good. 1,200 German physicians have collectively pronounced against ardent spirits, and the Congrès de Bienfaisance, at their meeting in Frankfort, also raised their voice in favour of our movement. We should be ungrateful towards God were we to neglect to praise Him for the blessing which He has bestowed upon our work, notwithstanding our many shortcomings; after all we have not laboured in vain. And thus, from our beloved country, we offer the hand of fellowship to all, praying that they may continue faithfully in the great cause they have espoused; trusting in God, and the holiness of our purpose, till the victory shall be ours. To the members of these associations spiritual indulgences are granted; they are admitted into the fraternity at the altar, and placed under the patronage of the Virgin Mary. The anniversary is celebrated on Annunciation Day; there are, besides, quarterly assemblies on the four Mary festivals, when public prayers are offered up for the fidelity of the brotherhood. Thus the manifold means of the Catholic Church were wisely employed to foster so Christian a purpose, and to banish from the life of Catholics the curse of liquor. Temperance in Sweden. By DR. WIESELGREN, Archdeacon of Gothenburgh. HE efforts of the Swedish Temperance Society of Stockholm are still continued, although the reports are published somewhat irregularly. The society has certainly relaxed its efforts, yet the reason is to be found, not in a suffered defeat, but rather in the reaction which comes after a victory won. When this society first entered on its career it had a host of antagonists to contend with, in the shape of more than seventy thousand manufacturers of whiskey; at present these manufacturers are numbered only by hundreds. According to the reports or statements of the manufacturers of whiskey in the kingdom, during the first three months of this year-three months of the year being the only time allowed for distillation-there were only 202 still-houses in operation. The quantity of whiskey manufactured in the beginning of 1820 was officially estimated to be 22 millions of tankards; but in the beginning of 1850 at 50 millions, according to Colonel Hagelstam, as expressed in his proposition about the procuring of means for the construction of railways. Since then the taxes on whiskey have been raised from less than one "örc" (th of an English shilling) per tankard to 60 "öre" on the manufacturers, and from 25 to 50 "örc" on the sellers. When the Temperance Society was organised, about 1837, the public treasury received from £30,500 to £41,600 in taxes laid on 20 to 50 millions of tankards manufactured in the year. At present, when the distillation is calculated at 13 or 14 millions, the public treasury receives about £444,400 in taxes. The greatest quantity of whiskey formerly manufactured was consumed in the vicinity of the still-houses, and as a consequence, the health and strength of the working classes was destroyed, even from very childhood. At present still-houses are only found to any extent in a few provinces, and the manufactured article is transferred to the cities and towns, particularly the larger ones. The daily use of whiskey has ceased to a very great extent among the country people, and has become more and more concentrated upon the larger cities. To judge from present prospects, the youth growing up in the provinces will soon be as ignorant of the use of whiskey as they were a hundred years ago, when spirituous liquors were banished for a time from the customs of the people, through the influence exerted by Linnæus's rejection of them, and by means of a pamphlet written by an English physician (Dr. Stephen Hales*) on the corrupting influence of spirituous liquors, and circulated at the expense of the Government. Notwithstanding what I have said of the progress of the Temperance movement among us, we fear that the ruinous use of whiskey is at the present time increasing in some of our cities and towns. In the province of Gótheborg, where during later years very few have manufactured * Dr. Hales was both Abstainer and vegetarian. He was a member of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and the Latin tutor to George III.—Ed. spirits, and where among the country innkeepers, not one had sought permission to sell liquors, we find this year the keepers of taverns and grog-shops in the city of Gothenburg paying £6,111 for the right of selling spirituous drinks; from which circumstance it may be inferred that £28,800 is yearly taken from the pockets of the working classes in this place, for a drink the utility or necessity of which they doubt, or quite deny. That the working classes themselves see the ruinous consequences of whiskey, is evident from the fact that, when a suburb of Gothenburg for two years had prohibited the sale of whiskey on the Sabbath, and the third year invited the whole city to follow their example, out of a population of about 35,000 not less than 7,000 or 8,000 persons, the greatest part belonging to the working classes, signed a petition begging the authorities to comply with the wish of the suburb. The labouring classes, in several towns of the kingdom, are making efforts to free themselves from the system, seeing the benefits which have resulted from the disuse of strong drink among the country people. Most of the many hundreds of Temperance Societies which came into existence about twenty years ago, have probably ceased to exist; but, in all the places where they have exerted their influence, many families have banished strong liquors from their homes. The actual state of sobriety in Norway, in consequence of the careful researches of Mr. Eilert Sundt, theological candidate, of Christiania, may be statistically expressed (as regards married men and widows) thus:-Sober, 62.7 per cent.; uncertain, 33·5; drunkards, 3.8.* To follow up our work of reform, there is still required great moral courage in many places, on account of the Russian custom of taking brandy before dinner, which is still kept up even in families where things of less consequence, as, for instance, card playing-are abandoned for conscience sake! Still, we fondly hope, the spiritual revivals which are spreading more and more in our land will brand strong drink as one of the "unprofitable works of darkness," and perform that for which the Temperance cause can but prepare the way. We therefore look forward to the day when this Tartaric-Russian liquor, and all other injurious drinks, will, with God's help, be banished from the whole country of Sweden. IF The Temperance Movement in Holland. BARON VON LYNDEN. By the F any country in Europe, then certainly Holland, has claims to be amongst those who want a Temperance Reform. If the Dutch be a "well-to-do, industrious, and educated people," not the less are the Dutch a drinking people. The lady of our honourable president, when on a tour through Holland some months since, said to me, when I had the pleasure to meet her at the Hague, that she had not seen so many drunken people in Holland as she was wont to see in England. I was obliged to observe to her ladyship, that she had been very "lucky not to meet them * Vide "Meliora," vol. 4, p. 217. |