The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1846-09-17
From the Am. Temperance Union,
Editorial Correspondence.
London, Aug. 8, 1916

London, Aug. 3, 1916.
The sailing of the steamer on the morrow,
only permits us to say that this, the week Of
the Worlds Temperance Convention, prom
ses to be one of great interest. At prcIim-
mary meeting held this morning, for the in
PRODUCTION of friends and delegates and for
consultation, there was much to encourage
and animate. America, with DR.. Beecher at
its head, is we'll represented, and will perform
her part 1t is much regretted that Mr.. Del
avan and Dr.. Edwards have not come over
Eight hundred pounds sterling have been
subscribed to defray the expenses, which in
dictates noble spirit. Several gentlemen
have in preparation able and important pa
pers to lay before the Convention, and a
large number Of places are engaged for public
meetings. The meeting at Coycnt Garden
Theatre, on Friday evening, will probably be
immense. But we viii not anticipate. De-
e:Ious Of seeing Paris, and looking with our
own ewes at her wine drinking custom, we
have spent few days there, among which
was the anniversary Of the three days Of the
Revolution, which placed Louis Philippe up
on the throne. We visited as early, and more
rapidly than we could have wished, its pala-
ces its gardens, its hospitals, its vast scientific
establishments each and all commanding our
admiration of the taste, refinement beauty,
order and industry Of the generation who
have reared them; though we have no wish
10 see the veal h of America drawn from the
hard abors of the people there, expended in
the erection of palaces, and the maintenance
OF the courts of princes. In the population Of
The city, we were deeply interested. The
French are happy people, well alfred, So
eial, cheerful, polite above all others; all they
seem to ask for (and that they have album
dantiy0 is permission to sit around their
groves, and gardens, and fountains, and en-
10y their delicious shade and sunshine
Drunkenness is not, as in Englan and Amer
lea, prevailing vice. And yet they drink
wine enormously When Frenchman sits
down to his breakfast, he calls for his bottle Of
wine; to his lunch a bottle Of wine; to his
dinner two and three Bottles Of wine. The
Cafes" Hotels" Commerce de Vines,
Commerce d'eau VIE" are in every part Of
Paris, and are full. In single year. the thir-
ty-four millions Of France consume 1851
429 gallons of wine but only IL million gal
Ions of spirits, 221 of cider, and "A Of beer,
while England consumes 800 million gallons
of beer; and the United States 40 million
gallons of domestic distilled spirits The re-
results must necessarily be entirely different,
especially as Gne WHITES vi L TtllCc COIlIdll puo
about fifteen per cent Of alcohol And yet it
is far from being the case, that France is free
from intcmperance, and that her use of the
grape is, as is often affirmed, highly common
liable. Every wne-drinkng country, from
the foundation of the world, has been cursed
with drunkenness. Babylon, and Greece, and
Rome, though strangers to distllation, were
drunken countries. 50 are Italy and France
now. One has only to listen to the gradual
ly increasing noise at the Table de Hote"
as the drinking goes on, to be satisfied that
alcohol is the same mischievous thing IN
France, as elsewhere. In the theatres and
licentious circles, wine is a prime agent of
evil. At the supper and gaming room, it stlrs
up the vilest passions, and causes many to
murder Constantly excited by wine, the
Parisans are ever ready for mob It's COM
plant that cab drivers and hackmen are
drunk. In the suburbs of Paris, where the
brandy shops prevail, there stalk forth the
bloated face, the b.eared eye, the staggering
gait; and were it not that they are at once
removed by the city police, men would be
seen thick, sleeping out their drunkenness
upon the pavement The power Of the alco-
holic principle upon the Parisans, is seen in
the fact, that they are mi5erablo without it )