The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1852-01-07

Now who does not know that the evils re-
sulting ftom selling Intoxicating liquors vast
~ exceed many, which are prohibited with
severe penalties by the laws above alluded
to. Is it such tremendous crime for per-
son. who is divested of half his moral agency
to break the public peace by offensive car
rage [say staggering against a neighbor,
on the side walk and dsgorging from mouth !
and nostrils little feld gas] that he may /
be punished by imprisonment a year, or
fine of $500 90, and so light an offence for a
man, for less clear profit Than groai, to give
the maddening potion, which has taken a
way half the reason of the cu'prt, that Sl0,-
90 shall be. an adequate punishment Pes
vsc;N,, as ii,e vendor OF ihe reasUn>dcihro-
ming liquid may escape unframed for bis
infraclions of our inadequate law loity mine
times out of fifty. How many chucblc, that
they can sell clandestinely with impnnily,
and some that m occasional fine is but
small deduction from tLeir net profits.
With what emotions will the historian Of
Vermont 90 years hence read, S50O00 fine
or one years Imprisonment, for maini g
horse, and $1,000 for taking away the rea>
aon Of man and making him maniac :"
" Imprisonment thirty days or fine of
$4,000 :or stepping into garden or or
charl in the night and pucking mn apple
or two, and 100 for putting the bottle to
his neighhor's mouth and making him drunk
en- !" 5000 90 fine for being inoculated
with the small pox without license or all
verlising lottery; or, for money. acting in
comedy, or exhibiting any wax figures, or
puppets, or any curious feats Of trained ans
imal, and : 10 90 fine for pampering an appe-
tito which is making man miserable and
his family wretehed." VINO considers the
laws unjust that render all, who bet on
elections: or win or lose by play or hazard
at cards or dice: or race horses for wager ::
or carry on the business OF buicbering with
out license or aduterate liquors liable to
fine of $500 90: and is a $1,000 fine propor-
tionate 10 the crime Of becoming an agent
/ in fastening man onward in The downhill
road to he drunk ird's grave ?" Legisla>
lures, in their efforts at reform, sometimes
take from criminals the means Of annoying
and debasins the community. Vermont has
law which requires every justice, sheriff.
high bailiiI, constable or grand juror" "to
seize and take into custody any forged false
or counterleitcd bank bill or noie, any stamp,
die, plate, block, press or other instrument
or implement made OF kept for the purpose
OF making forging, altering or counteiieit-
Ing any gold or silver coin, or any bank bill
or note Allowing man 10 keep intoxi-
eating liquor ior sale and forbidding him 10
use it i. like permitting him TO keep instru-
menrs for counterfeiting bank note, and for
bidding him to use them. If in the two ca
ses the probability is that but one crimiral
in fifty will be detected, they certain!y very
strongly resemble each other. And is it q
question. whether the crime is greater rl
flch from n mans pocket or his intellect
and whether the country has suffered more
from counlerfeiting than from the sale of in
toxirang liquors?
; Every intelligent reader well Knows, that
the Maine License Law is preemnently
, better calculated TO protect community
against the sales OF petty liquor sellers than
; our own and, as we have seen, that our law
does not meet the cxigency with penalties
which have hardly the semblance of those
which are annexed to many other crimes
and even mere misdemeanors, by which the
State is far less debased. Is it not certain
when VIC consider facts, that our law use;u
as it is, is wholly unequal 10 deliver Us from
the evil, which whelms so many in ruin
Why should it not be so framed as tc
bring the remedy, which 10 their everlasting
honor they have secured in Maine ? Who
considers town honored by having drunk
ards rceling n the streets, as is, alas the fact
in many of our villages and farming towns
or by having men 20 unpunished, who are
base enough to make drunkarls? Why then
shall not all men. who arc good and true,
rally FOR a Jaw in is essential features like
that of Maine ? Who that is an honest man
and a wholesome citizen would be injured
by such law d? Shall we frame laws cal
culated to promote heathful state of So
ciety, or to please those, who are governed
by a vicious appetite, or by desire 10 GET
riches and not by right? II is surely not
desirable, that law should be enacted, which
the next following Legislature will repeal,
and it is greatly to be feared, that such is
yet the influence Of factitious appetite and
an unlawful desie 10 pamper ii for gain,
that we may not be prepared TO sustain such
a law as we need How then does it become
all men, who fear God and love their coun>
iry-all, who prize state Of society, where
drunkards, 10 take this subject into serious
consideration and endeavor to secure such
n public sentiment, as viii sustain law pre-
cisely adapted to protect US from the Taxa
lon, the wretchedhess and the c'ime which
the vepders of Intoxicating drinks are clan
deslinely and criminally inaiciins on the
community. BY that noble act of Maine,
which has been echoed by the State Tenn
perdnce Societies of Massachusetts, and
Connecticut and by the National Conven-
ton which met At Saratoga in Aug. last, ard
by the action of several Western States, we
are encouraged to make vigorous effort to
secure the position and the unexampled re-