Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1858-01-20
The English Clergy Prohibitions.


Some of the ablest clergymen Of the Old
World have committed themselves strong
ly in favor prohibitory oflaws. The Rev.
G. I. Fox, of Durham, recently delivered
powerful discourse on the subject. We
make the following extract:
There nsver VASE seeiielsasit Of sch.
studendous magnitude as the hqsor traffic.
In every village, in every town, in every
street there exists class Of men, the pests
of society, the source Of nearly all our suf-
ferings who are busted, day by day, in man
ufacturing drunkards, in destroying the
morals of the people, in seducing husbands
from their homes, in dealing out poison to
women and helpless children; class to
whose nefarious practices we trace up more
than three-fourths Of all the crime, the pow
erty and misery of our land IA class except
for which we might all but close our jails,
our penitentiaries, our lunatic asylums, our
poor-houses. And yet we extend the sacred
agis of law over this class of society, which
has done more to corrupt the morals and
destroy the happiness Of mankind to re-
duce the af1Ient to poverty, the poor to
rage and misery which has done more to
create disease and shorten life, than all the
wars of mankind ndhaye ever devastated this
fair world; than all the murderers and
thieves that ever perpetrated crime.
''Gather together in one great mass all
the misery ofthe human family, and castitin-
to the scale, against the accumulated sor-
rows of our own nation caused by the ira
ders in liquor, and it will kick the BEAM
"And yet we sit still and do nothing
Do nothing did | say? In the name of
common sense, would it were sol But we
pursue our infatuated course, hold brewster
sessions, granting new licenses lending the
sanction of law to the spreading evil and
then we have up before US the unhappy vic
tins Of our guilty laws, and punish those
whom we have first lent our sanction to
deprave. Such is the virtue, and such the
wisdom of our laws, as they now exist in
; reference to the liquor traffic High time
f they were swept away.
| "Can a greater absurdity be conceived
than this, as perpetrated by an intelligent
q people! The very men who know and ac
knowledge public-house to be the source
: of well nigh all the misery and crime 0
: onr Land, our magistrates "a body Of edu
. Gated men-meet together one day to Ii
\ cense the drunkard maker in the pursuit o
. his nefatious practices, and those same me-
f come together the next day to punish th
i crimes of their unhappy victims. An
! then we hear them complain of our crow
: ded gaols, and the increase of crime through
= out the land. But there is one thing w
! never hear of, their protests against tn
!. public house as the nursery of crime, no
y yet their petitions to parliament to suppres
+ the liquor traffic. Cannot our great UI
paid Magistrates Of the land connect thes
4 two things together-cause and effect 2
> And instead of wasting their time an
# the national resources in Furnishing crime
! in the VAIN attempts to cure the e0d effect
i direct their attention to the cause, an
= sweep away with the bosom of sound lee
- islation! This Is what we ask for, TIA
: is what the United Kingdom Alliance ain
- at, and this is what | conceive every carr
!. est Christian should use his utmost effor
r to accomplish"
a. When the ministers of the Gospel gene
= ally viii speak out fearlessly In this wa,
20 the day Of triumph will soon come. Unit
il they will lead the way, bat little progre
IL may be expected.