Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1858-06-03
G&mpxantt Mattm.
scoTLAND...PRoHIBITIoN


tits gratifying (says the Crusader) to see
how rapidly the public mind ofscotland is
becoming imbued'with Main Law sentiments.
Our European exchanges are filled with ac-
counts of great. meetings and great speeches
for Prohibition. The men Of Shetland talk
like the great and good men of this country
on the subject. That our readers may see
that we are not mistaken We will give them
an extract from a speech by the Rev. DR..
Wilson, a distinguished Divine, at a late
meeting in Edinburg. The Reverend gem
tleman presided.
"The Chairman stated thatthe only circum-
stance tending to diminish the pleasure be
felt in being present this evening was his
occupying the chair. He would certainly
have preferred a less responsible position
Still in. any capacity be was proud to stand
identified with the noble movement, for the
discussion of whose principles this platform
had been thrown open. He regarded our:
three great anti. liquor movements as possess
sed of three several degrees of excellence;
he looked upon moral suasion as being good;
restriction as being in some respects BETTER;
but prohibition as being best of all. Moral
suasion is good-very good, and farbei il
from him to throw out any insiuuation a.
gainst, or speak depreciatingly of the impor-
tant services it has rendered society. But is
it not perfectly evident to every unprejudic.
ed observer, that the task its patrons have
taken upon themselves, is a comparatively
f~ruitless one? Why, they are men shut up
in a moral Thermopyla, where, although,
like the heroic three hundred, they per-
form prodigies of valor, the ranks of the enc
my are being supplied as rapidly ashley are
thinning them. The restrictionists again,
though somewhat in advance, are plainly men
engaged in. the very intelligent operation of
damming up a reservoir fed, by myriads of
streams, which consequently as soon as it is
stopped up in one place breaks forth at an
other. So long as the liquors. kept in the
land it matters little what back doors, or even
front doors be- shut up,-it will find outlet
somewhere. Hence it was his deep c%onvic.;
ton that entire prohibition was the thing
needed to make an immediate and complete
sweep of the whole liquor traffic from John
O'Groat's to Lands end, and therefore he
most gladly took part in the present agi.
tation. He was quite aware that these meet
ipgs would be looked upon with jaundiced
eye-that not a few pens otherwise friendly
would be dipped in gall to characterize the
whole affair as the efervcscence of impolicy
and fanaticism. ID !
aBut let US not dread the libel. While
tits a matter of regret that sogood a cause as
that of Temperance Reform should be wound
ed in the house of its friends, yet a better
cause hasbeen similaly treated, despite which
it is at this hour mightier than ever. So will
it be with the cause we advocate. All such
agitation are invaluable as q means both Of
enlightening the public concerning the, ma
ture and excellence of measures proposed by
the Permissive Bill, and of eliciting an ex.
preston of public feeling in regard to those
measures. AndifM Maine Law men are charge:
able with impolioy and fanaticism-if, as a
certain gentleman has learuedly declared, in
agitating for total and immediate prohibition,
they are sgitating for total ind immediate
nonsense they have the satisfaction 0 know-
ing from the results of hundreds of meetings
held and being held all over the land, thatit
is the iin.poliiey and tamattctsm, the totatand
immediate nonsense which hundreds Of
thousands of the most intelligent of theirfel--
low.citizens and countrymen long to see
takiugthe place of the timid and inefficient
policy of half.measure men. When viewing
the unabated havoc the demon i%ntemperance
is still making on all hands, having any
patriotism at all, can We help itrising in high
wrath against the men who pertinaciously go
on p~ropounding measures that only partially
meet the evil, thatsalve only a few sores and
leave our country torn and bleeding still?
But wbyshould hespeak thus? The national
mind is being thoroughly aroused to see the
necessity for prohibition, and the national
voice will shortly be lifted up in an impera-
tive demand for it. Nothing short o this will
suffice. Behold, then, ifhe might be allow
ed the figure, the Leviathan you have got to
put afoat. Bend upon it your united ener-
gies, and let not the occurrence Of a few
casualties or the intervention ola little delay
discomfort you. Launched it must and shall
be and when it is, God send wind and tide
to bear it safely on J"