Morning journal and courier., 1884-03-14

Mir. Sturgeon, the great English preacher, will attain his jubilee in June next, having
 been born at Kelvedon, Essex, on June 19, | 1884. He settled at Waterbeach, Cambridge
 shire, when only IT, and in London. over
 the church now meeting in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, at the early age of 19. His jubi-
 lee has already begun to excite considerable
 interest. It is an event in which most of the Non conformist churches are likely in some | way to take some part in commemorating. The silver wedding of his pastorate was celebrated @ year or two since by the collec l tion of Sc, 900, which was presented to MT. Sturgeon, and which he forthwith handed
 over for the benefit of institutions connected with his ministerial work. A second fund,
 in recognition of his jubilee. is now in con- temptation, though the exact object toward which it will be devoted is not yet announced. England, recently called attention to a defect
 in our civilization which is growing more and
 more apparent and dangerous. When asked what he thought of European society he said: One great drawback to it is the entire absence of the sense of brotherhood which the strain and competition of modern busi-
 ness has produced. In Japan the members
 of a family are all bound together by the closest ties. When I am in Tokio there is no man of my native village, no matter how poor, how mean or how destitute he may be-
 that would not have the utmost confidence in coming to me for assistance. Nor could I
 refuse it to him. Thus. in the Japanese cap
 itsl. with population of l, 800, GOO, there are
 only 800 or 900 persons who depend upon
 the State for their support-that is, who cor
 respond to your paupers.
 Hon. Thomas W. Pittman of New York is
 featuring in Maine on intemperance and he
 makes 8 startling showing. He says that
 there are 48, 900 criminals in the prisons of the United States; in county jails, 134 .O0O;
 in houses of refuge, 10000; floating criminal
 population, exclusive of dr unkenness and disorderly conduct, 400, 900; total, 592, 1000 criminals. From the latest returns of the police departments of New York and Brook lyn there is one arrest, including drunken ness and disorderly conduct, to every eight cen of the population. In New York there are 1O, ,0OO liquor saloons, which, allowing tventy-fiv feet front to each, would make an avenue 25 miles long; eighteen hundred inmates If the lunatic asylum on Wards Island, two thirds of whom are insane drunk ards; and fifteen hundred convicts in Sing Sing State prison, 1, 300 of whom became criminals through intemperance. Thirty per cent. of the prison population of Massa- ohusetts is between twenty and twenty-five years of age. In Pennsy lVania the convicts in the penitentiaries under sixteen years of age are IT per cent; 35 per cent. under twenty-one and 20 per cent. between twenty one and twenty-five years; 80 per cent. never learned any trade or occupation; S2 per cent. were against property and 32 per cent. were habitual drunkards. Crime and drunken ness are on the increase in manufacturing towns. Maine has 8 bad showing, there being in Portland last year 2,250 arrests 1.426 of which were for drunkenness and drunken brawls The lecturer ex- poses the private clubs of Portland, Bangor and other large to Ens in the State, and the easy manner in which liquor can be pro cured in Maine. both privately and publicly, and emphatically proclaims that prohibition does not prohibit unless indorsed and sus- tained by public sentiment of the majority, who must compel the public authorities to enforce the law. He advocates moral meth ods for the drunkard ard kindness and humanity for the reformation of criminals and the abolition of prison contract labor and cruel punishments.