The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-03 00:00:00

should like to refer to him. Would he oblige
them, one at a time, with an interview for A few
hours ? or would he allow them jn.,t, to state their
views :on paper, and then '„,3 so' good ai to write
down his objectio;is, if arlx,
schemes ? to their very valiiablo
Cone of them, a double-class man front
Oxt,-,rd. who Cannot speak any tongue but his own,
and can scarcely i,.e said to speak that, has a pro-
ject for a universal language, which the English
have only to agree upon ani they must force it on
the rest of the world. Another has a plan for per-
petual motion ; the power is to be always working
and never exhausting itself, and the more you work
it the more work there is still in it. He has also a
bank on the same principle, that you may draw
upon for ever without any danger of stoppage, and
no capital all the time. This gentleman is a
Scotchman. An Irish friend entertains a sober
conviction that England owes somewhere about
five hundred millions to Ireland ; he can give the
exact figures. Another has devoted all his life to
discover the author of Junius, and has discovered
beyonda doubt that,—we forget just now which of
them, is the man. Then there is our very excel-
lent friend who's so strong on the currency ; and
the other who's so much to say about the National
Debt. When could Lord Stanley give them a
hearing ? They are all of them very clever, very
good tempered, and will Lear almost anything
being said to them or about them. It is just pos-
sible—we will not say more—that Lord Stanley
might disabuse some of these gentlemen of their
opinions, in which case he would confer a great
benefit on society. At all events, this appears to
be the sort of game that he likes, and we should
have no objection to lend him a shooting.
The gentleman who has already found in Lord
Stanley so patient a reader and so obliging a cor-
respondent is Mr. Samuel Pope, Honorary Secre-
tary of the United Kingdom Alliance for the Sup-
pression of the Liquor Traffic. For our part, we
believe the Maine Liquor Law, as it is called, to
he as purely American and as impossible to be
transplanted to this soil as slavery, or tar-and-
feathering, or the general use of cowhides, bowie
knives, and revolvers. It simply won't do here.
As it is an utter impossibility there is no use
wasting words upon it. In the discussion of im-
possibilities there cannot be fair play between a
man of common sense and a man destitute of it, for
when a thing's clean impossible it may be defended
for ever, there being only one answer—viz., that
it is impossible. So Lord Stanley's first step was
a false one, for, believing the Maine Liquor Law to
be impossible in this country, he began to argue
against it on the supposition of its being not only
possible, but actually adopted. The Greek proverb
asked, " What if the sky should fall ?" and an-
swered, " We should catch plenty of larks." What
kind of bird or beast we should catch if Parliament
ever passed a law forbidding the sale of beer, spirits,
wine, and every form of intoxicating drink, we do
not know ; nor is there any occasion to go even so
far as the Greek proverb does in our speculation on
the subject. We all of us drink—those, at least,
who can—something or other, either fermented
liquor, or tea and coffee, which are as bad, if not
worse. The drinkers, especially the drinkers of strong
drinks, will always so outnumber, and outwit, and
outface, and outdo those who do not drink, and the
beer-drinkers will always so dominate over the tea-
drinkers that such a law will never pass. That
is a fact anterior to all argument.. The other day
Mr. Berkeley received from his constituents at
Bristol a box of church oak, set with brilliants and
worth a thousand guineas, for the zeal and ability
he had displayed against a bill for the further clos-
ing of public-houses on Sunday. That's a fair
specimen of a British constituency. Drinking lies
at the basis of the British constitution, which, like
some of our cathedrals and several capital cities of
Europe, may be said to float. The elector drinks
at the expense of the candidate, and the r.,cruit at
her Majesty's expense, as the preliminary of the
solemn engagement that follows. It's the common
talk of Teetotallers that we make every occasion of
life a pretence for drinking. Lord Stanley says
that we spend from fifty to seventy millions a-year
in strong drink. With these unbounded means, this
uncontrollable appetite, and this immense capacity,
we shall continue to drink, and no measure to pre-
vent us will ever get further than the very thres-
hold of the Legislature. No doubt, many of us drink
too much, and still more of us, who can afford it,
eat too much, though Mr. Pope says nothing about
it. The doctors say that more constitutions are
injured by much eating than by much drinking,
and we believe it. Tea and coffee, too, play their
part, though a very insidious one, in undermining
constitutions. These are questions of more or
less, and everybody must settle them for himself.
But at our present rate of progress, of deteriora-
tion, it will be at least ten thousand years before
we are ripe for a compulsory enactment on the sub-
ject. We must first have been voluntary Teeto-
tallers for as many ages as have intervened since
we painted our skins and drank tho blood of our
enemies. •

Lord Stanley goes into the question with all the
simplicity of a dupe on the Ist April. Re con-
siders, successively, the prudence of the proposed
measure, its look to the country at large, the open-
ing it would give to smuggling, the dearth of
amusement it would create, its effect ou the re-
venue, its interference with a habit of self-com-
mand, the difficulty of drawing up the interpreta-
tion clause so as to include all intoxicating sub-
stances and those only, the evasions that would
follow, and, meanwhile, the odium brought on ,
societies for voluntary temperance. On all these
points Mr. Pope is delighted to join issue, and
we are bound to say that, though his argu-
ments occasionally remind one of the third cup
of tea, he has, in one or two instances,
the best of the noble Lord. The noble Lord,
however, returns to the charge, and Mr. Pope
replies ; and there is no reason why they should
not go on till they have got to the bottom of the
teacaddy. Indeed there is a maudlin tone about
Mr. Pope's concluding remarks which seems to
show that he, at least, had exhausted his stimulant.
But only think of a correspondence extending to
four of our columns between a, nobleman and a
gentleman gravely discussing the pros and cons of
a measure rendering it criminal to sell a glass of
ale ! Supposing that either of the correspondents
really has his wits about him, and has also his
heart in the question, there is an obvious way of
dealing with it. We suggest it with the utmost
diffidence, because it is practicable, and we know
how disgusting such suggestions always are. When
our neighbour in the country invites us to join him
in indicting half the roads iu the county, we ask
him why he allows ruts axle-deep in the road before
his own lodge gates. The temperance people are
quite welcome to drink as little as they please them-
selves, and as uuintoxicating; but they can only
convert the world and convince Parliaments by the
force of example. When they can exhibit alert.° com-
munity in health and strength of body ardmind,
" wealthy, witty, and wise," they will be sure to
have admirers and followers. This is but a dreary
world, and the greater part of mankind are still in
quest of better cheer than it has yet afforded them.
They look about in vain for warm hearts, strong
hands, kind looks, sympathy, sincerity, and all
that constitutes friendship. Anybody can under-
stand how it was that the first Christians found
such favour with that blighted, desolate, heathen
world, when people could say, "How these Chris-
tians love one another l" Tho temperance people
have only to set an example of the virtues which
they say are the result of their principle, and they
will gain ground every day. To be candid with
them, we don't think they over will get oven a
moiety of the population ou their side. In great
towns, at least, fighting for our lives against bad
air, and noise, and worries of all sorts ; compelled
to work at unreasonable hours, enjoying but in-
different sleep, and having to get up our spirits
for great occasions, we doubt if any but the
strongest constitutions can go through it all with-
out the use of stimulants; and very sure are we that
strong tea and coffee, though they may suit some
people, are not the most harmless of them. But,
besides example, let the temperance people set
their wits to work and employ their resources to
provide means of recreation, opportunities of fresh
air, regular and frequent occasions for innocent
gathering, and all that they expect eventually to
supply the place of the gin palace and our "drinking
customs." It won't do to come before a jovial,
drinking community lie ours, with a new com-
mandment,
is no age for prohibitions.' "Thou • "
thiaol:s n, o
mt drinka
ho e
tw wine."
man better. Ile 1 . his
was a teetotaller but was no
understood
mere negative doctrine- Its provided plenty of
compeusation for that 0110 d •
oenial. Sense, ambition,
fancy, and even re.
positive hhadtheir
gratifications.ratigratifications..
What are the pos
attractions of the temperance
cause? They have yet to be shown.
1T,111........

EXTENSIVE FRAllDS.—Yesterday bills were issued in
Birmingham, offering a reward fur the apprehension of
a man named Win. Fowler, who bad absconded, having
defrauded an Odd Fellows' lodge of between 6001. and
7001. He had been secretary for five years, and, besides
embezzling nearly 2001. of the inoney paid by members,
he hail defrauded thu lodge of 500/. in a rather ingenus
manner. Tho lodge having some money to
the
he pro
posed that they should lend biro 500/. on the mortgage of
7 houses he possessed; and, having shown the trustees
and their surveyor the property, ths mortgage was exe•
cuted and the money handed over. Upon his absconding
the trustees proceeded to take possession under the mort-
gage deed. They found, however, that the property was
already iu the possession of a person who had executed
a mortgage prior to theirs; and en reference to their deed
they discovered that their mortgage bad been executed,
not in respect to the houses pointed out to them by their
abut of a piece of leasehold land on the oppo-
bs' ofieeteeernestliadirYed: iltbh: a siftariere whichth,Lioncausedin
n:
et
h a
.. brickexsicnifelemeoin h
had
been
Manclibster Unity,