"molasses," &c.; any thing, in short, but the real name of their contents; and thus they often go forth on their errands of death, with poison inside, and a lie on the surface. Every thing is made to utter falsehood in connection with this system. "Here is your good health, sir". "And yours, sir,” mutually exclaim the genteel consumers of alcoholic drinks, as they bow to each other, glass in hand, across the dinner table, or before the tavern bar. They both utter falsehood, and in nine cases out of ten, they do it knowingly. If they would utter the language of truth, in such cases, they would exclaim, as they lift the poison to their lips - “Here, my dear sir, is disease to us both the clouding of our intellects, the depravation of our morals, the alienation of our social affections, weeping to our wives, and poverty to our children and to ourselves, perhaps, delirium tremens and an untimely grave." Truth, however, would not answer their purpose. It would not add to the self-complacency with which they minister to a depraved animal appetite, and take another step toward a drunkard's grave and a drunkard's hell.

The impunity with which the infernal system is continued in those parts of New England where it is proscribed by law, is mainly purchased by the falsehood of its miserable victims, uttered in our courts of justice, and under the awful responsibilities incurred by an oath by invoking a righteous God to witness to the truth of the testimony they are about to give. What is truly astounding, but almost universally true, is, that all parties who join in the support of this system, and who happen to be present at the courts where such wholesale perjury is committed, do grin and chuckle at such exhibitions of depravity, which well might make good men and angels weep. As with that great prop of the system, secrecy, so with falsehood deprive the curse we are combating of the support of either, and it would vanish from the earth. The conditions of its present and future existence are fixed and immutable. It must wear a garment of secrecy, and breathe an atmosphere of lies, or die.

THE POLITICAL PROP.

A large proportion of the lovers of strong drink love it so ardently that they will, to secure a supply of it, sacrifice all their political preferences. Is Mr. Tippler a whig? He will desert his party, and be found voting with its political opponents, if his party, being in power, shall attempt to suppress the rum traffic. Is he a democrat? Rum is dearer to him

He may,

than democracy; and should his party conceive it to be a part of their mission to banish rum from the territory over which they exercise political sway, he will break away from party attachments, and vote for any individual, party, or power that promises most certainly to secure the sale of rum. indeed, profess to deprecate the carrying of temperance into politics; he will, nevertheless, employ his own vote, and, as far as practicable, the votes of others, to sustain his idol, and to crush every effort to annihilate an influence which is filling our poor-houses and prisons with inmates, the grave with untimely victims, and the hearts of thousands with unutterable anguish. The supporters of the rum traffic will, we repeat, almost universally sacrifice their political preferences for its maintenance; and, as few of our temperance brethren will give their temperance the first place in their affections, the traffic either gets a legal sanction, or the law is rendered inoperative by the neglect or connivance of executive officers.

THE LAST RESORT.

Where all the instrumentalities we have described fail to secure the end they aim at -impunity to sell and use intoxicating drinks to the extent of their wishes the last shot in their locker is thrown with very considerable effect. They conclude that if Messrs. A, B, and C can be silenced or startled by some signal manifestation of rum vengeance, it will not only restrain them from further efforts, but will fill the less bold and active of the temperance men with alarm, and stop further proceedings on their part. Immediately thereupon,

some dastardly assault is made, under cover of darkness, on the property of some of the most active reformers.

A fence is torn down-doors are defiled with filth-stacks or barns are burned-horses or cattle are mutilated -trees in the yard or orchard are girdled or sawed down; or, as in the recent case in Providence, R. I., powder is employed to blow up their buildings. Thus the rum fraternity seek to establish a reign of terror, which shall deter all, in their vicinity, who are engaged in efforts to put a stop to their iniquitous proceedings, from the further prosecution of their laudable designs.

Such, if we are not deceived, are the instrumentalities now relied upon by those who seek to fasten upon society, at least so long as they shall exist here, the most fruitful source of misery, crime, and death that is permitted to exist among men.

MEANS FOR REMOVING THE CURSE OF

INTEMPERANCE.

A DISCOURSE DELIVERED AT BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT, IN JANUARY, 1849.

REPORTED FROM MEMORY, BY THE AUTHOR.

MR. PRESIDENT, AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:—

FOR a number of evenings, I have labored to convey to the minds of those who have honored me with their attention, such views of the giant evil of our land, intemperance, as have been fixed in my own mind by much reflection, and a careful investigation of the subject, during a period of many years. If I have established in your minds the conviction of my own in relation to the nature and magnitude of the terrible Scourge we are seeking to remove, and of our individual dangers and responsibilities connected therewith, you have already come to the conclusion that something ought to be done for its removal. But what shall be done? What can

we do that may afford us a reasonable ground for hope that we shall ever be rid of the guilt and miseries of intemperance? It shall be the object of this discourse to answer these questions.

I know very well that when these questions come up for consideration, there are multitudes of faithless souls who at once begin to cry out, " You can't prevent it.” will, and all you can, and men will sell rum, and

"Do what you

drink it, and

be drunkards. ' So long as that notion finds a place in the opinions of a very large portion of our citizens, we certainly shall not remove the scourge, because we shall never agree to put forth the necessary efforts with that degree of energy and perseverance which are indispensable to success. But, sir, there is no can't about it. The causes and sources of the mischief are known, and they are all within the reach of human influence, and may be removed by the determined will and strong hands of freemen, or the belief in man's capability for self-government is unfounded, and our institutions built on that doctrine are but a house on the sand, or, to use a modern and very expressive phrase, "a magnificent humbug."

This is not "the pestilence that walketh in darkness,” but "the destruction that wasteth at noonday." The contagion of yellow fever, plague, and cholera are mingled with the atmosphere, and invisible. We receive it before we are aware, and unless we fly our country, we may not escape its influences. What is the nature of the atmospheric changes which produce these terrible diseases, we know not. They are too subtile for our chemistry. We cannot detect the mischievous agent by any known tests. But, sir, we can see a distillery ; and if we were blind, and could not, we might detect its presence by another sense, the organ of which is a near neighbor to the eyes. We understand the process by which the fruits of the earth are converted into its bane and curse, alcohol. There is no mystery about a rum bottle, a wine flask, or a beer barrel which we may not fathom. So well, indeed, are the causes of drunkenness understood, that, when one sees in the street an intoxicated man, the mind involuntary runs back to the dram-shop, tavern, or liquor store where he obtained the poison which has unmanned him, and, without waiting for the decision of judge or jury, we pass instant condemnation on the vile business which thus degrades and injures our fellow-men, and on the individual who makes himself a voluntary agent of so much mischief and misery. I repeat it, so far as that curse of curses, intemperance, is concerned, the relation