Year: 1878

| London Bridge, looking upon the wond,


erful ruins of a great city and those of an


immense empire.


If the money spent in strong drink by


the British people-or even the half oil
| it-were instead spent in the purchase


of more and better food, of more and


better clothing, in more com Portable hab-


itations, and in more and better educa-


ton, the condition of the working people


would be wonderfully improved in every


way, and the trade of the country would


be stimulated and prospered as never be-
| fore in its history. At present the enor-


nous sums spent in strong drink are alb


solutely lost and wasted, so far as any
| good comes from it to the nation or peo


pie; but in fact, the amount is far worse


than lost, because the only return for it


is poverty, pauperism, suffering, crime


insanity, and premature death.


But there are not wanting men and


women in England, and many of them
influential in many ways, who see the
intimate and inevitable relation of the
liquor traffic to the national degradation
and decadence, who are striving with all
their might to change the public opinion


in relation to it, and thus so change the
law of incense into one of promotion. 1t
is not little curious to observe the te-
nacity and obstinacy with which the
Government opposes every movement in
this direction, and how it promotes the
extension and permanency of that horrid
trade which lives only on the misery of
the people.


In this country the agitation against
the liquor traffic and the demand for its
legal prohibition have assumed very large
proportions. 1t is not too much to say
that with us this matter of prohibition
now occupies a front rank among the
great moral, social, religious, political
questions of the day. We understand
well that the perpetuity of our free re-
publican institutions is impossible except
with an intelligent, educated, and moral
people, and nowhere among US is it de-
MED or doubted that the liquor traffic,
more than all other causes of evil, tends
to render the people ignorant degraded,
brutal, and to unfit them absolutely to
bear their share of public burdens and to
discharge in any fit and proper manner
their share of public duties; that it pre-
pares them only to swell the ranks of the
dangerous classes of the community, who
hate law and order and strive to over
throw them.


Nearly twenty years ago, Lord Macau-
lay, in writing to an eminent American,
predicted the failure of an attempt to
found republic, and said, without hesi
tation or reservation, that our free insti-
tutions, depending upon the will of the
people and resting on universal suffrage,
must inevitably fail. His words are:


81 have long been convinced that insti-
tutions purely democratic must, sooner
or later, destroy liberty or civilizatson, or
both. In Europe. where the population
is dense, the effect of such institutions
would be almost instantaneous. You
may think your country enjoys an ex-
emption from these evils. | frankly own
to you that l am of very different opin-
ion. Your fate l believe to be certain,
though it is deferred by physical cause.
AS long as you have a boundless extent
of fertile and unoccupied land, your la
boring population will be far more at
ease than the laboring population Of the
Old World; and while this is the case
republican institutions may continue to
exist without causing any fatal calamity.
l seriously apprehend that you will, in
some season of adversely, do things which
will prevent prosperity from returning;
that you will act like people who should
in year of scarcity devour all the seed
corn, and thus make the next year one of
absolute famine There will be, fear,
spoliation. The spoliation will increase
distress. The distress will produce fresh
spoliation. There is nothing to stop you.
Your Constitution is all sail, and no bal
last and no anchor. When sooiety has
entered on this downward progress, eth
er civilization or liberty must perish
Either some Cesar or Napoleon will
seize the reins of government with a
strong hand, or your republic will be as
fearfully plundered and laid waste by
barbarians in the twentieth century as
the Roman Empire was in the fifth, with
this difference, that the Huns and Van
dals who managed the Roman Empire
came from without, while your Huns and
Vandals will have been engendered with
in your own country"


Again he says: THE supreme authori
ty in your country is entrusted to the
majority of citizens told by the head in
other words, to the poorest and most ig
norant part of society. The |
day will come when multitude of peo- !
pie with half breakfast and no hope of
more than half dinner will choose a
legislature. Is it possible to doubt what
sort of legislature will be chosen2 On |
one side is a statesman preaching pa
tienee, respect for rights of property, |
strict observance of public faith. On the
other is demagogue ranting about the |
tyranny OF capitalists anu uSur6TS, "
while thousands of honest folks are in !
want Which of the two candidates is !
likely to be preferred by those whose
children are crying for bread p


When these words came first to the |
knowledge of our people, they made no
impression upon us. They had their or
dice against republican institutions and |
in favor of monarchical government |
But we now understand more clearly |
than ever before that free democratic |
forms of government will be impossible |
except among an educated, intelligent
and virtuous people. We already see
signs in the political sky which seem to
indicate possible, if not a probable, fpl |
tillment of this prophesY of Lord Macau |
lay. Perocious, widespread riots, brutal
and bloody, taking forcible possession of |
vast industrial establishments only TO
destroy involving value of many mil |
lions Of dollars. These mobs arising
simultaneously in many distant parts OF
the country, composed almost exclusively
of foreigners, bred in the slums, CUTTERS,
and grogshops of Europe. With blood mr.
ed ard rladdened by grogshops on our
own soil.


We see men of influence and Of official
position sympathizing freely and openly
with these wild bands of robbers, ipaen
diaries, and mNrAerals, ana stigmatizing
as outlaws and villains all those who, un-
der and by authority of law, exerted
themselves to save large cities and whole
communities from rapine, pillage, Qqd
conAagration. vs. saa municipal author
tiles OF great and rich cities taking no
measures whatever to protect the prop
erty and lives of peaceable and quiet citi.
zens from outrage, and spoliation, and