Literary cadet and Rhode-Island statesman. [volume] (Providence, R.I.) 1827-1829, 1827-04-28


bours, and can without any particular qualms
of conscience or the stomach, take his morn
ing antifogmatic," and his eleven O'Clock
j" phslgmcutter," with as much grace as any
of the r. 4, that have Aourished since the first
establishment of Il newspaper And it is fiom
such individuals that we always hear the first
outcry about the sinfilness ofthe age; and their
conduct if inquired into, will be found TO be
quite as spotted as those who attend to their
own business and suffer Others 10 manage
theirs. This union between the Press and
the Surplice has not been formed without its
objects; and while the Press hunts for popu-
larity by traducing the reputation Of the town,
and holding up our young men as the most
deprave and dissolutc of the age, the Surplice
hunts for our cash, and signing and whining,
very modcstly asks us to give him the con-
tents of our pockets Whether the Press will
gain popularity by this course of conduct,
or whether the surplice will sponge to the
full amount of its voracious appetite, is Il
problem which time, and the common sense of
the public will solve.
For many of the gentlemen, who have as
sociatcd to get up society for the Suppression
Of Incmperance, we entertain the most pro-
found respect and regard, and are satisfied
from what we know Of them, that they are
actuated by the best and purest Of motives /;
and we would be the last to say aught that
would offend their feelings. But that their
efforts will be productive Of any good, we do
not believe; and we venture TO predict, that in
the end, they will find that they have not sue
ceedcd, and that they have been imposed up
on by those who are ever upon the alert to
sponge the people. If the founder Of this in
stitution is actuated by feelings of pure be-
nevoencc, why does he not labour in the
cause in which he is professedly ged, with
out laying the public under contribution and
if he is the man Of piety and philanthropy he
Of the country and for his reward, trust to
the liberality Of the people, and the goodness
of that God who suffers not his disciples to
starve in fighting "thc good fight of faith"
1t was not long since, that man who is at
piois as any the wandering suppressors,"
actuatcd by that holy and philonthropic zeal,
which animates the spiritual gentleman lie
Gently among us, very humanely got up news
paper to put down the evil of intemperance
In doing this he disclaimcd entertaining any
sinister mo.ives:--he was actnatcd by philan-
thropy. Signing this delightful ditty, he put
his paper upon the world, and forced it upon
the hundreds, who overcome by the sophistry
of the Diddlcr, took it for the sake of the
cause in which it was professedly engaged.
But the result, the bottom linoo of the af-
fair, TO use mercantile expression, showed a
different design, for the paper, dull and stupid
as it was, was charged at higher rate than
any other publication in the country; and thus,
whilst the proprietor chaunted the strains of
benevolencc, religion and virtue, lie gulled the
people.
The gentleman who has set the town into
the uproar of laughter, and elected the ridicule
ofthe refle citing, as well as the gay and thought
less, avows that nothing can be done without
money, and unless the "siller'' is handed to
him literally, intcmperance cannot be sup
pressed. He must have cash he says, and
that cash is to be absorbed in employing men
to preach against the vice Of Intempcrance
TO this VIC object, and have to say, that in our
opinion, we have clergymcn enough to oficiate
in this way, men who are not unmindful Of the
trusts committed to them, and who are as ca
pable of reforming the world and pointing out
the enormities and consequences ofvice, as any
Of the vagrants who come among us. Let our
own pastors preach against intemperance, and
they do, when they think it necessary, and our
words for it, they will do as much good as the
reverend gentleman who holds spirituous liquors
in utter adherence, saving and excepting those
times, when their tempting odours salute his
palate. 1t is not necessary to establish a
fund to employ race Of pulpit orators to de-
claim against any particular vice; they should
go the whole in their ministrations, and we
might, as well employ men to preach up the
propriety of mending leather aprons, as to en-
ploy them to preach intemperancc.
NOVELTY IN ARCHITECTURE. Passing