different parts of the state, for the purpose of suppressing intemperance. Another state has wisely forbidden justices of the peace to hold their courts in taverns. Among the able individuals, who have written to promote these important purposes, we are pleased to see one writing in the North American Review, who says, Nor do we think it easy to ascribe too much mischief to the growing evil of intoxication.' 'Go where you will you cannot escape the sight of this destroyer of domestic peace and public virtue.' 'It is boldly alleged as the excuse of crimes, and there is no transgression, for which the offender does not think that he has sufficiently apologized, when he says, that be was intoxicated.' The effectual remedy is a purer state of morals, generally diffused. A heavy tax,' says he, 'upon domestic as well as foreign spirits, is a remedy from which most is to be hoped; but unhappily it is too much opposed by considerations of private interest, and a love of popularity in rulers, to leave much expectation of its being speedily adopted.'" p. 13, 14.

One thing, at least, has been the effect of the attention which has been excited in the community to the present subject, they are less averse to adopt measures for the removal of the evil, and more convinced of the possibility of effecting something by strenuous and persevering exertion. There has been, it appears to us, a prevalent feeling that little is to be expected from human means towards the improvement of the state of morals or religion among mankind. This feeling is wearing away; we are no longer willing to sit down contented with doing nothing, because we believe nothing can be effected. We have become ready to try the experiment at least, satisfied to lose our endeavours in a good cause, if Providence does not see fit to bless them with success. The Report proceeds,

"Having considered, as far as our limits will permit, the laws and public opinion on this subject, and what has been done, is doing, and probably may and will be done on general principles, for the suppression of intemperance, one further inquiry only at present remains that is, What further laws may be advisedly enacted, as the public mind shall be prepared, from time to time, to receive them and favour their execution?

"We believe that laws may be prudently enacted, from time to time, and with a proper regard to our state of society, to the following purposes-and that such laws will be useful and effectual for circumscribing the evils of intemperance. 1. Laws which shall diminish very much the quantity of ardent spirits, that shall be obtainable at any rate; as laws prohibiting or essentially limiting the distillation of grain, &c. 2. Laws that shail greatly raise the price of such ardent spirits as shall be obtainable or for sale; as increasing the duties on those imported, on those distilled or produced at home, and on all licenses for selling them. 3. Laws which shall very much reduce the number of such licenses. 4. Laws confining licenses to

persons of unquestionably good moral character, and who shall give ample security for conforming to the laws. 5. Laws which shall punish, as the English and Colony laws did, drunkenness as an offence in itself against law, when proved in such manner as shall be prescribed. 6. Laws that shall expressly make it the duty of selectmen to appoint discreet and prudent men, whose business shall be to complain of breaches of the laws against intemperance, and such other vices as shall be specified, with reasonable compensations for their services. 7. Laws which shall expressly enjoin selectmen to meet at stated periods appointed in the laws, to have the informers before them when so assembled, and to make strict inquiries if licensed persons have in all things conformed to the laws. 8. Laws which shall expressly enjoin the Courts of Sessions to limit their licences to the number clearly necessary in each town, and carefully to examine the moral character of each person licensed, and his qualifications for his employment-or perhaps, which shall even go further, and prohibit the granting of more than a certain number of licenses to a fixed number of inhabitants. 9. Laws giving guardians such power over the persons, as well as estates of their intemperate wards, as shall be necessary effectually to prevent them from obtaining the means of intoxication.

"With regard to these suggestions it may be observed, that as we only state principles whereon to frame laws, so it may be observed, that these principles are not new, but that they have been the groundwork of statutes for the suppression of vice, practised upon in many countries, ancient and modern, especially by our ancestors, and at different times and in various places in this country. In numerous cases, statute laws have forbidden grain to be distilled into ardent spirits-in other words, the bread of the people to be converted into what is, too often, their poison and their moral destroyer. So in numerous cases, statute laws have been enacted, not only for raising revenue upon ardent spirits, but also to make them scarce, in order to aid the cause of good government, morality and religion; and to benefit labouring people especially, by keeping what is too often their ruin, in a good measure out of their reach. If any still believe ardent spirits, to be necessary for labouring men, or beneficial to them, let a fair comparison be made among our farmers in the same town, between those who have used little or none of them, and those who have used them freely, and it will be seen that the former have ever enjoyed more health and vigour of constitution, especially in old age, than the latter. To establish this difference we need not say more, as it has been so fully proved already by this and other societies, as well as by many medical and other writers." pp. 14—16.

Laws framed upon these principles would be admirably calculated for the purpose of reforming and restraining the intemperate; they would have all the effect which laws ever can have. In order to any beneficial and permanent influence, it appears

vitally important that the subject should be thoroughly attended to. If laws are made at all, they should be made upon a system; they should extend so as to embrace every case, and preclude every difficulty. They should form as distinct a department of public attention and legislation as the poor laws. Statutes should not be enacted, and then left to be executed by selectmen, justices, or constables, just as it may happen, without making it the duty of à particular individual. Such laws are never put in force-when any odium is attached to their tion-if the duty can be avoided by those on whom it falls. And that this is the case with regard to our laws as they exist at present, is sufficiently shown by the circumstance, that even such as they are, they in fact are not, and never can be executed, unless specific provision be made for that purpose.

execu

We have overseers of the poor-why may we not have overseers of the intemperate? We have sheriffs, constables, and judges, whose business it is to exercise a guardianship over the public morals, and to detect and punish all crimes which are committed. The thief, the robber, the pickpocket do not often escape with impunity, for there are those whose office and interest it is to bring them to justice; and, what is very important, public opinion supports them in the performance of this duty. Why then should we not have officers whose specific business it might be to bring to justice the drunkard-a criminal of another class, it is true, but still a criminal. If it is worth while to have any laws at all, it is worth while to have good ones, and to have them well executed. Let the question be first fairly deliberated and determined, whether legal authority can interfere with any probability of success. If we conclude that it cannot, let the subject be forever dropped; let our laws, such as they are, be stricken from the statute book; for an ill-executed or insufficient law is a disgrace to the community, and far worse than none. on the other hand, we believe that it can, let the enterprize be undertaken with spirit and zeal; it is certainly of sufficient importance to authorize an experiment of some magnitude, and at some expense. We do not know that there can be any serious objection to the scheme at which we have hinted,-the organization of a regular legal superintendance over the intemperate, carried out into detail in every part of the community. Let every man, who is known, or can be detected to be intemperate, come under the controul of a board established for this purpose; let him be deprived to a certain degree of his legal and personal rights; and let his property and the profits of his labour be under the direction of the board. Let this plan be so arranged as to exercise a constant guardianship over the community, keep a New Series-vol. II.

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If

strict watch over those who are in danger of falling into habits of intemperance, apply the remedy in the first instance, as soon as an individual becomes fairly the subject of it, and not wait with a mistaken lenity, till time has rendered him shameless and insensible to punishment. This duty should not be gratuitously performed; it ought to be made, if not the sole employment, at least a profitable one, to those who are engaged in it; the compensation ought to be sufficient to induce them to perform it faithfully. The servants of the public should always be paid, and well paid. It is ruinous to entrust the discharge of irksome, disagreeable, or unpopular offices to the public spirit of those who fill them. It is true we may find some men, who would do their duty perfectly, prompted by this motive alone; but such men are very few. And it is difficult to censure or to punish an individual for neglecting a business, for the faithful accomplishment of which he would at best get only empty thanks, and more probably would have to encounter hatred or insult.

This, it is obvious, is but a sketch of what such a system should be, if it be attempted at all; we have no hopes, except from a thorough plan, thoroughly executed. We are aware that strong opposition would exist to any thing of this nature; that it would excite the most determined resistance of probably a majority of the community; that there would be no prospect of carrying it immediately or soon into operation; that there would be serious doubts of its practicability, and that the good to be derived from it would be long in coming to light; so long, indeed, as perhaps to discourage many of those who might at first be sanguine in their expectations of success. Still we ought not to be deterred, by any such unfavourable circumstances, from ensuring to the subject a fair examination. Time may do much, we know how much it has already done, towards producing such a change in public opinion, as should tolerate a system like that which has been suggested.

Public opinion is, after all that can be said, the foundation on which we are to build our hopes of success; because if this do not support a design, it never can have a favourable issue. Temporary circumstances may induce a legislature to frame laws, which are not in consonance with the general spirit of the people; but no policy, no system, no institutions, which depend upon a legislature, can be permanently established or carried successfully into operation, if they contradict the inclinations, the prejudices, or the passions of a community at large. Now it is not politic to attempt measures of a novel nature, and carry them through by an influence which merely operates on the mind of the legislator, and does not carry conviction to his con

stituents. This would be to ensure defeat in the end, and defeat of the worst kind, for it would have all the appearance of failure; and those consequences would be attributed to the defects of the plan itself, which were in fact owing to the injudicious zeal of its friends. It is always in the power of the people to effect the repeal of any law, or system of laws, which are obnoxious to a fair majority of them; so that if any measures are taken, and any laws enacted, before the people are prepared to receive and support them, we may be sure that defeat will necessarily ensue.

It is necessary to exercise great caution on this very delicate point of legal interference with private vices; to make sure of the support of that part of the community, the want of whose support would be fatal, before attempting any such innovations in established customs, as shall shock violently the prejudices of the mass of society. We are apt sometimes to feel as if no terms were to be held with the vicious; that it was our duty to attack them, at once, in all our strength; that a slow, deliberate, cantious policy was unworthy of the zeal we ought to manifest in the cause of virtue. Bold and decided measures ought undoubtedly to be taken; yet these are perfectly consistent with a cautious and prudent manner of carrying them into effect. We ought to be sure of every step as we advance. A plan may be bold and daring in its conception, and yet be put in operation with slowness and deliberation.

INTELLIGENCE.

Letters of a Native Christian of Madras. We have seen two letters, written at different times by William Roberts,* a native Unitarian christian of Madras, which seem to us to afford a very interesting and encouraging example of the Force of truth, a few extracts from which we think will be acceptable to our readersIn the first (Dec. 25, 1816) he states,

That he is a native of the Carnatick, a descendant of Tamul or Malabar heathen parents, of very indigent circumstances, who taught him to read and write a little of his mother language. In. the disturbances of Hyder Ally, in 1780, both his father and mother died, which misfortune drove him to utmost want and distress. He was soon taken and sold as a slave, in which state he

*Addressed to "the London Unitariap Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and the practice of virtue by the distribution of books,"