Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1859-08-31
Wine and Temperance

WING 80Q 4cuPcknhSS'
We propose To- comply with our promise,
given last week, 70 examine She testimony
and hear the experience Of travellers who
have visited the wine-growfng countries O.
the old world, to see II they viii SUSTAIN the
assertion that the best remedy against the
love of strong drinks, is the free use OF pure
or light wines; and that in those countries
where they are thus used, the people are
comparatively free from the brutalizing habit
of intoxication. DR.. Hooper in his recent
Address before the Alumni, remarks:
at is admitted that .be people of France are
in general temperate, though the use OF VINE Is
universal, and that it, is a rare thing to see .
drunken man in that country"
With all due respect for our venerable and
esteemed friend, we incline to the opinion he
has here made an " admission which is very
~forcibly contradicted by the observation and
experience of men who have travelled and So
tjourned in France for a considerable period
We regret that we have not access to the
works of many travellers whose writings will
sustain our position, but we think we have
enough testimony to convince our friend the
Doctor, of the erroneousness of his admis-
sion.
1t is no doubt true, that the Eight wines
of France are much less Injurious than the
strong wines brought to this country, as wei
as those manufacturedin Ohio and other part
of the United States, but it is also true tina
France is as incorporate as any portion 9
the civilized world. Where will you fin
: such a state of things as Mr.. j. Fennimor
: Cooper describes the condition of Paris I
e have been when he visited it? He tells |
$ that there were ten thousand females ARE
e ted in one year, in Paris, for intemperance
Ie And let it be borne in mind, that this intoz
'e cation was produced by the use of wine,
will appear from the following testimony
a Mr.. Delevan, says:
- I'm my interview with the King of the Frenc
IS he stated expressly that the drunkenness of FraI
nv was occasioned by ,oine /; that in one district
his empire, there was much intemperance in E
but he considered wine the great evil. Itook
DO liberty of asking him if I had understood hin
say that his opinion was, that wine occasion
nv most of the evils of intoxication in France,
to he replied with great emphasis, the drunkenr
w. of France is on wine : and that the only
principle of temperance was entire abstinence l
eSS all that can intoxicate.
"In an after interview with the Duke OF
leans, he assured me that he entirely coinci
it, in opinion with his father, and would cons
in it a great blessing to the cortd and to Fro
!" could other cultivation take the place of the
lch- SO far as its product was used in creating in
irit. eating drinks"
ind. And J. Fennimore Cooper, Esq, says
i, To "Icame to Europe under the impression
there was more drunkenness among US, than
Iea- other country, England, perhaps, excepte
sure A residence of six months in Paris, change
views entirely. You viii Judge of my SURF
VS. when first I sa1 q platoon of the royal g
II or literally a whole platoon, so Ear as numbers
iblic .ne proe drU M within nIain view Of the nal.
eter- their master. From this time, l became mol
- servant, and not n day passed that l did n
10" men and women in the same situation, II
rides open streets. Usually, when the fact was
toned to Americans, they expressed surpris
: OK claring they had never seen such a thing!
at were too much amused with other sights to 7
this, and then they had come abroad with
'h0 ent notions, and it is easier to float in the G.
luent of public opinion than to stem it In two or
g-ha5 1 nnnee ssem ! Of aaf their mistakes in the course
" do hour. These experiments too, were usually
igion ow n residence, where onsi is much less ant t
but it With drunken ess, than in the other quart
On one occasion, a party of four of us we
para with this object, and we passed thirteen dr.
the men, during the walk of an hour. Many Of
were SO far gone as to be totally unable to
he"s- L once saw, on the occasion of a festival,
move men literally wallowing in the gutter befo
t last, witnessed in a5y other counirv5s :
ublic.
IF the says
We have heard il affirmed that Fran
wine drinking. but still a temperate countr,
press latter is entirely false The common people
are burnt up with wine, and look exactly |
III cider brandy drinkers of Connecticut, an
al en- New England rum drinkers of Massachuset
ditors And not only in France, is the fire,
4" common use of wine' deleterious. an