The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-03-13

Il may SEEM 20 these causes may be aecribed
the success OF the hundred new doctrines and
isms which have overrun the country within the
last thirty or forty years To their infuencew we
may rightly attribute the favor with which the
temperance movement has been received in
many of the States. They are sufficient. we
think. to account for every partisan that has
been gained to the cause. The success which
the most obvious impostures have obtained 10
this community is conclusive against the be-
lief that the progress of the temperance party
can, in any measure, be derived from the sound
of its principles or the intrinsic truth Of its
doctrine.
That progress has, we trnst, now reached its
climax. Four States-Maine, Massachusetts.
Rhode Island, and Vermont-have adopted the
Maine Liquor law on the other hand. these ad-
vantages are counterbalanced by simultaneous
checks. Illinois has tried the law, and repealed
it. 1t has been lost in the Legislatures of New
Hampshire. Wisconsin, and Michigan. Up to
the present moment, the attempts which have
| been made to introduce it into New York have
failed. 1t is rendered dead letter in Massa-
chusetts by the decisions of the courts against
the right of search, and the licenses to sell
liquor previously granted by the city corpora
tion of Boston.
1t is improbable that the temperance party
will ever be stronger than they are at the
present moment. As much talent as they
can expect to enrol in their ranks has for
several years lent its whole support to the
cause. Mems minds are unoccupied by any
popular subject of controversy, and, between
spiritual manifestations and temperance, not
unnaturally prefer the latter Trade has reached
such pitch of activity that few give much
thought to the minor matters of domestic COM
fort. The Maine law has the attraction of nov
elty-where it does not possess that charm it
has been or is about to be repealed. The only
States in which it has been successful are peo-
pied by the descendants of men who fined a
man for kissing his wife on Sunday, and placed
him in the pillory for not going to church.
On these, among other grounds. do we found
our belief that the decline of the temperance
movement is at hand. In some few States,
where the operation of the Maine law is not
known, and the old saw-omne ignatun pro
gnifco-applies political and other motives
may procure it brief period of triumph; but
we are much mistaken if twelve months trial be
not sufficient to convince any but the hardest
headed puritans of its absurdity. Teetotalism,
like the fashion of wearing armlets, the perse-
cution of witches, the rage for galvanic rings
| and mesmerized rods and the thousand other
evanescent manias which fit periodically
through the world is destined to die out; and
we shall be much surprised if the first unequivo-
cal symptoms of its demise do not take place
within very short period.
It's memory will remain as one of the most
remarkable delusions which has ever afflicted
humanity. 1t will hardly be believed hun.
dred years hence that enlightened men adopted
| so exaggerated an idea of the value of par
ticular principle that they resolved. en- masse,
to sacrifice their liberties for its practical real-
cation. People will refuse to admit that cit-
zens of the United States made legitimate
traffic crime and provided for Ire pr.nishnnont
judicial machinery whose model must be
sought in the accounts of the Star Chamber and
the Inquisition. With the severe penalties de
creed by the Maine Liquor law-the careful ex-
clusion Of cases under it from cognizance by
juries-the elaborate system of espionage it es-
tablishes-the brides it holds out to informers,
and the judicious rewards it offers to Judge,
clerk, and all other functionares concerned in
convictions before their eyes, posterity will be
inclined to form very low estimate of our no
lions Of personal and civil liberty; and when
they turn from the law itself to the principle on
which it rest.-when they find that it was at
tempted, in 1853, to prescribe trade which
afforded an honest livelihood to thousands, and
much reasonable enjoyment to the whole COM
munity, because p few Teprobates INDUCED in it
to excess. we fear that their opinion of our
common sense will not be more natterino
Mock AUCTIONEERs AND THE PoLICE-The
daily compromises made by the police with the
mock auctioneers are disgraceful to the city
authorities, and ought not, with due regard
to society, be tolerated. Every week we read
of strangers victimized by the Peter Funks,
and then applying for redress to police officer,
who undertakes the job. visits the auction shop,
talks boldly to the swindlers, threatening them
with lodging in the Tombs, and finally in
duces them to compromise the offence by re-
funding the money they frauduently obtained.
The duped countryman then in most instances,
gives reward to the policeman for his SER
vices, thereby only changing the amount and
H.