rising from these agencies and their benefits at which all the enemies of our faith may quail. I cannot but feel confident that our Bands of Hope in our Sabbath Schools will exert a powerful influence. But to return to our Convention of 1846. I was present at it, and felt, in common with all whom I consulted, that that Convention was an influential one. It was the desire of the leaders in this movement that advantage should be taken of this great gathering of the world's influence in London, this present year, to meet and take counsel together on the cause which is dear to us. We therefore endeavoured to arrange for a World's Convention, on the principle of perfect toleration-if I may use such an ugly word-for all classes of the advocates of Temperance, from those who go for closing publichouses on the Sabbath Day to those who are pledged to total abolition. We were not quite successful in those attempts, and therefore another Congress was held a month ago of true Temperance friends. We rejoice in the meeting of that Congress. We hail the promoters as brethren. We rejoice to meet with them on a common platform. We are glad to welcome here all our friends and brethren. I find, on looking over the the list of those who have given in their adhesions to this Convention, that over 700 persons have given in their names, and that 140 societies have united themselves in our common cause. Nine of the great leagues of England, Ireland, and Scotland have undertaken actively to promote the interests of our Convention. From America and the continent of Europe also we have received much encouragement, and, what is best of all, we are assured that we have the sympathy and prayers of the true-hearted friends of Temperance the world over. I have not time to go into all which has been done during the past sixteen years. The Scottish Temperance League has done a great and noble work; and has disseminated a large amount of Temperance literature to the extent of over 1,000 volumes weekly. When we see all that has been effected by the Temperance movement, physiologically, morally, socially, pecuniarily if I may use the term-and religiously, I cannot but feel that we have not laboured in vain during the past twenty-five years. In fact, during that time, we have changed the fashions of the community. It is not now fashionable to get drunk in the highest circles of the land, and it is not respectable amongst the lowest. We find that the quantity of alcoholic poison consumed is very much diminished; and that in the social circle wherever there is a sound living Teetotaler at table his influence is at once felt. One Teetotaler at the dinner table becomes a power felt among the those around him. How they shrink and do homage to him, even in the highest and most intelligent circles! Homage is often paid in the form of a confession that they are all invalids. There is scarcely a sound man among them. One says, "I tried Teetotalism for some time, but it would not do for me." Another says, "My doctor reccommends it to me medicinally." In fact, if their statement be taken as reliable, the quantity of medicine taken in the way of alcohol exceeds all the medicine otherwise taken. We have also so indoctrinated society that there is hardly a gathering of philanthropists met for the furtherance of any good cause who do not admit that the one great influence opposing their efforts is the deteriorating action of intoxicating liquors-of drunkenness, these men say; but it is

not drunkenness; it is an evil which arises at an earlier stage, it is that deterioration which arises when sensible men and women sit quietly by and see young men and young ladies sit and sip their one glass of wine daily until the mischief spreads and alcohol becomes a vital necessity. Such persons never seek to stop the origin or arrest the progress of the disease until the unhappy victims have become fatally subjected to it. Not till drunkenness has set in do those persons seek to arrest the mischief. But we wish to take it in the bud. With regard to the distress now prevalent in the North of England, we all sympathise with it; but we must feel that, if total abstinence had been more practised, the unhappy sufferers would have been better prepared to meet the visitation. However, on looking at the good order and patient endurance of untold hardship, it is not for me to estimate how much of these are due to the active operations of the Temperance agents. Who can tell the amount in the Savings' Banks, and even in the private chests, which is owing to the advance of Temperance truth? It is on this account that I ask you to exert your efforts to indoctrinate the country with the great truths inculcated by Teetotalists, and also to emancipate our members of Parliament from the degrading bondage to which they are subjected by the tyranny of the drink interest. Let us not rest until we have done what we can do in the extirpation of this curse of our native land. (Loud and continued cheering, during which Mr. Thorp resumed his seat.)

In the absence of CHARLES JUPE, Esq. (through sickness), President of the Educational and the Religious Section,

JAMES HAUGHTON, Esq., J.P., Dublin, President of the Band of Hope Section, was called upon and delivered the following address:The duty of saying a few introductory words to you on the interesting and important question we are now assembled to consider and discuss devolves upon me. As our time is limited, and should therefore be economised as much as possible, I shall at once proceed with my task, and not waste any of our precious moments in apologising for my want of ability to perform it as efficiently as it would be done if placed in abler hands. Your committee have placed me in this honourable position, and I shall endeavour to justify their choice by keeping close to the particular business of this section. I have been for many years fully convinced that the Temperance Reformation stands at the head of all human efforts for the improvemement of our race. If it be not an absolute waste of effort, it is, in my opinion, a great error in judgment, in seeking to improve the condition of mankind, either physically or morally, not to make this reform the basis of them all. To me it seems impossible to elevate man, and place him in that position of dignity and honour which I believe him fitted to occupy, in virtue of the noble powers he is gifted with by our Creator, until we remove out of his way those pernicious drinking customs which debase and destroy those reasoning faculties that raise him immeasurably above those other living creatures by which he is surrounded. To effect this object we should begin with the young. We must commence at the cradle, and impress on our children a knowledge of those principles which we wish to guide them in their passage through life. On all important subjects-save the one now under consideration-this is the course

pursued by fond and intelligent parents. But, in relation to these drinking customs, which unhappily too often prove the bane of all that men esteem as good and virtuous in human conduct, the reverse system is almost invariably pursued. The young are left almost entirely ignorant of the nature of the poison alcohol; of its injurious effects on the physical powers and the moral conduct they know nothing; it forms no part of their education at home or at school; both parents and teachers omit all instruction on a question only second to religious teaching in deep importance, as regards our present and future well-being. The fond mother no more omits to teach her little ones all she believes herself on the subject of religion than she does the giving it its daily bread. She considers the one quite as necessary as the other. The good father is equally solicitous, as his boy advances towards manhood; he not alone sustains his wife in her affectionate and pious duties, but he is careful to instruct his son, or have him instructed, on such questions as may enable him to succeed in his after pursuits in life; and yet, strange to say, upon this one point, which so frequently counteracts all their parental anxieties, and mars their hopes of future happiness, upon the nature of alcohol, and its effects on the human frame, they are both as thoughtless as the ostrich who buries her eggs in the sand, and feels no more anxiety about the fate of her offspring. They do worse, they teach them by example to court their ruin. The importance of imparting to our young people as correct a knowledge as science and experience afford us of the real properties and effects of alcohol on the human organisation, has long impressed my mind. In the year 1850 I addressed a letter to the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland on this point, which I then thought, and which increased experience makes me still think, of the first importance in the education of our youth. I entreated them to add a chapter on that subject to their elementary school-books. They did me the favour on that occasion to invite me to give them my views at greater length, which I did in the form of such a chapter as it seemed to me it would be wise and judicious for them to adopt. I wrote as follows:---

"Temperance is a subject of such vast importance to the present and future welfare of the people of Ireland, that it should not remain unnoticed in the elementary books of the National Education Society. Alcohol is that substance in wines, ardent spirits, cider, beer, ale, and porter, which produces intoxication. It is produced in its pure state by distillation, but it exists in all fermented liquors. It is acknowledged by physicians and chemists to be one of the most dangerous poisons; it is classified as such in all works on toxicology, or the science of poisons. Dr. Paris places it amongst those substances which destroy the functions of the nervous system by means of suffocation, from paralysis of the respiratory organs. Fodere and Orfila, distinguished French chemists, place alcohol in the same class with nux vomica, woorali, cocculus indicus, poisonous mushrooms, and other deleterious substances. Dr. Cheyne, a late eminent Dublin physician, gives it as his opinion that "should ten young men begin at twenty-one years of age to use daily but one glass of ardent spirits, and never increase the quantity, such are its poisonous qualities that nine of the ten will shorten life more than ten years." Dr. Trotter declares that "of all the evils of human life, no cause of disease has had so wide a range or so large a share as the use of spirituous liquors," and that "more than half of all sudden deaths are caused by them." Dr. Willan says that "the use of these liquors in large cities produces more disease than the combined influence of all other evils;" and Dr. Paris gives it as his conviction that "the art of distillation is the greatest curse ever inflicted on human nature." The testimony of Dr. Conquest is worthy the highest consideration, and with it we close this branch of our subject:

"It is my deliberate and conscientious conviction, founded on personal observation, that nine-tenths of the disease, insanity, poverty, wretchedness, and crime in existence, may be traced to the use of intoxicating drinks. No one but a medical man can conceive of the amount of personal and relative misery attendant on their employment as ordinary articles of beverage. I believe the majority of persons, however long and deeply they may have indulged in the pernicious habit, may at once abandon them with perfect impunity, although for a little while they may feel a degree of languor. It is my opinion that the mass of the people would be stronger and healthier, and capable of the endurance of a larger amount of physical and mental labour, by the total disuse of intoxicating drinks; and although here and there a rare case occurs in which a little wine or spirits may be beneficial, I am growingly convinced that such cases are few." In the "Scottish Temperance League Register" for 1849, we find the following statement of the quantity of intoxicating liquors consumed in the United Kingdom during the year 1847.

In addition to this immense annual money payment for strong drink, we must, in order to approximate to the actual outlay, add the losses directly resulting from the prevalence of drinking customs. These, at a moderate estimate, are as follows: Labour lost-1,500,000 paupers, who, if working, might each earn per annum, in addition to his present earnings, £18; amount, £27,000,000. Six millions of the population who lose on an average two weeks of each year in drinking, or in disease caused by drinking, 230,769 years, at £23, £5,307,687. The estimated annual cost of pauperism, crime, disease, and losses at sea is, £24,000,000. At least two-thirds of this amount is attributable to drinking-say £16,000,000. These direct money payments and estimated losses, taken together, amount to £122,476,310. We now proceed to consider the injury to morals arising from the use of these drinks. And here we would solemnly press on the youth of Ireland the necessity which exists, that they in the spring-time of life, when the spirits are buoyant, and when hope and youth gild the prospect-should listen to the voice of experience, and heed the counsel of friends who have trodden the path before them. These can tell them that many thorns lie hidden among the flowers; and that few of the evil customs that prevail plant so many thorns in the path, or produce so much sorrow to mankind, as the drinking customs of society. Ignorance of the nature and properties of alcohol is one great cause of our apparent indifference to health and happiness. Other causes are the power of habit and custom; the appetite for intoxicating drinks which is generated by using them; and, above all, the tendency to gratify this appetite in the absence of a taste for more refined and ennobling enjoyments. It may be observed that, where a taste for intellectual pleasures is cultivated, intemperate habits rarely prevail; whilst ignorance, and the love of low and debasing enjoyments, are generally accompanied by a tendency to indulge in the stimulus of intoxicating drinks. Successive generations of men have been educated in the false notion that these beverages are not only not injurious to man, but, under many circumstances, really useful to his maintenance in bodily and mental vigour. These erroneous notions of the value of alcoholic stimulants long prevailed; few were aware of their injurious qualities. It is a fatal peculiarity of these drinks that they create an increasing thirst for their use, and this appetite prevents those who use them from seeing the danger they are in. Whether we look to the higher or the humbler classes of society, we shall find that home, which ought to be the abode of peace, is often turned into a scene of strife and desolation by the use of strong drink. Farewell to all happiness when the once devoted father or mother becomes a drunkard. The tender father becomes a brutal tyrant; the once fond mother no longer looks with affection on her children. The ties of nature are rudely rent asunder, and no language can describe the demoralisation which ensues. The children are brought up under the most unhallowed influences; misery is their inheritance, and crime follows closely in the footsteps of parental neglect. You may be told that rational beings should aim at moderation in all things, that it is evidence of unmanly weakness to pledge ourself against the proper

use of any thing. This is excellent doctrine when applied to healthful and innocent articles of consumption, but does not apply to the dietetic use of alcohol. No animal but man will touch it. Experience proves that its use has an almost universal tendency to create its abuse. Man, in his savage state, is rendered furious by it; whole tribes of Indians have been swept away by its agency. In a civilised country, the poorer and more ignorant portions of the community fall victims, in thousands, to its desolating influence, and many of the rich are brought to disgrace and infamy. Feeling a warm interest in the welfare of our youth, we would warn them against this insidious enemy. It is upon the young that we chiefly rest our hopes of the redemption of our people from the pecuniary, physical, and moral evils which inevitably flow from intemperance."

The commissioners had the paper printed, and a copy was placed in each of their hands, but they ultimately declined acceding to my request, not, as I had reason to believe, because of any feeling that my suggestion was unwise or unnecessary, but from an idea that it might increase the difficulties they were surrounded with, in establishing their system of education throughout Ireland. At a later period, and having the same object in view, I addressed the following letter to the boards of our various colleges in Ireland; but my application to them was also unsuccessful.

TO THE PROVOST AND FELLOWS OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN; AND TO THE PRESIDENTS AND COUNCILS OF THE QUEEN'S COLLEGES IN IRELAND.

GENTLEMEN,

The gravity and deep importance of the subject I desire to bring under your notice is the only excuse I can offer for this singular and unusual intrusion on your time. Your position in the community has devolved on you the highest and noblest duties which society delegates to her most enlightened citizens. With you rests the. duty and the honour-in conjunction with the other schools of our country-of educating intellectually and virtuously the young men of Ireland, who are destined in after life to take an active part in the most important as well as the minor affairs of their country. Our liberty, our honour, our renown, depend for their permanence on the manly and virtuous training of the young men just launched into life, who are soon to take the places of those who are now labouring to extend the blessings of a growing civilisation and increasing prosperity among our people.

I doubt not that you feel deeply and seriously the weight of the responsibility which rests upon you in relation to this matter; and that you conscientiously perform the great duty which you have undertaken, of moulding and guiding in a right direction the mind and intellect of your pupils. This is my conviction; and it is because I entertain this opinion of your worth and your integrity, that I now venture to appeal to you upon a subject which, as it seems to me, comes within the circle of your high functions, but has never received at your hands that consideration which its importance demands.

I refer to the results of the drinking customs of society. These customs have long retarded the moral and intellectual growth of our youth, and offered the most serious obstacles to the spread of virtue and religion, and of true civilisation among us. With men of your intelligence and experience, I need not waste time in proving that the use of intoxicating drinks largely interferes with the extension of these blessings. My present object is to interest you, if possible, individually and collectively, in a warmer consideration of the question than you may have yet given to it; with a view to your engrafting upon your system of education, and making it a vital portion of it, a correct knowledge of the properties of alcohol, of its poisonous nature, and its injurious effects upon health.

To this I would urge you to add the much more important consideration of its enslaving influences over the mind and the body, whereby it imperceptibly acquires, by the force of habit and of appetite, a power over our will (in numberless instances) which no sensible person would ever concede willingly; and which none, in the outset of life, have any conception of.

This ignorance of the physical and moral evils resulting from the use of alcoholic liquors, accompanied by their almost universal use, and the erroneous impressions thereby given in early life that these poisons are good, and may be safely taken in moderate quantities, induces those who are afterwards insensibly drawn into intemperate and drunken habits to tamper with the destroyer in a way they perhaps