Mr. Delavan, in a work in which he has collected numerous temperance facts, states that the late Richard Cobden, member of Parliament, speaking on one occasion of the excessive labors of certain members of the House of Commons, mentioned that out of 658 members, two gentlemenColonel Thompson and Mr. Brotherton-endured the long sittings and heavy speeches of that distinguished body with greater ease than any other members, and they were both total abstainers. Mr. Cobden narrates that these two gentlemen, with himself, made a tour of agitation through Scotland, lasting several weeks, finally rendezvousing at a place agreed upon. On comparing notes they found they had adopted the same course of procedure, namely, abstinence from all intoxicating beverages, and had sustained the heavy fatigues of their daily labor with great success. On meeting at this place of rendezvous, certain bailies of Scotland-corresponding to the aldermen of England-who were drinking their whiskey toddy with great glee, and urging them to join, they refused, placing their refusal on the ground that they had so much work on hand, they were absolutely compelled to depend upon the pump. "Hey, mon,” said one of the bailies, "but you water-drinkers

will upset the world." Says Cobden, "I do think that water-drinkers will upset the moral world, and will turn it round with a much better face to us when they have done with it."

I cannot neglect to refer, also, to testimony of quite another kind. It is that of Colonel Dawes of the Bengal Artillery, who writes thus:

"My experience is, that nearly all the crime affecting our European troops in India has originated in the use of spiritous liquors. I consider abstinence from spirits a turningpoint in the life of many a soldier. The man becomes quite an altered character when he drops the pernicious stimulant; more cleanly in person, respectful to his superiors, and respectable in character, and, from the increased dependence that may generally be placed upon him, he becomes altogether a more valuable man, both in the field and in quarters. I have seen many a bad character converted by abstinence from spirits into a steady, able-bodied, hard-working, courageous soldier. On the other hand, I have remarked that the best men have at times become next to useless from indulgence in liquor. My conviction is, that the less liquor the European gets the better."

Again, he says:

"The soldier can do without liquor, as has been proved on many occasions. At Jellalhabad this fact was well illustrated. The 13th Light Infantry, beleaguered there, was not supplied with spirits during the siege, which lasted five months. The men were nevertheless remarkably healthy

during the whole period, notwithstanding incessant hard work, which was carried on with great alacrity and cheerful- . ness, the men being always well behaved and good tempered. After the garrison was relieved, liquor was again issued, and the difference in the conduct and appearance of the men was very marked."

More than one of our own generals, in the great struggle through which our country has just passed, has practically shown the same judgment, and prohibited alcoholic beverages to his men.

I might multiply these quotations indefinitely, to show that the use of liquors lessens the productive power of man. But why need I? Every manufacturer, every New England farmer, every day laborer, knows the truth of the statement.

Akin to this is the general fact that the use of liquors as beverages is destructive to material wealth. It has always surprised me, gentlemen, that this point has received so little attention at the hands of political economists. Have you ever reflected upon the effect of taking all the cereals of Middlesex County, converting them into whiskey, and permitting that whiskey to be drank by the people of the Commonwealth? If such beverages are not useful, but harmful, then you have the destruction, not only of the value of

the grains themselves, but of all the cost of their conversion into liquor, transportation, labor, rent, and everything pertaining thereto. It would seem very wasteful to us to take these liquors as soon as made and pour them into the street. Is it not far more wasteful to strain them, as a distinguished lecturer has said, through the human stomach, and spoil the strainer?

Gentlemen, the conversion of these grains into whiskey does more than destroy them; it raises. the price of all the grains that remain; the appropriation of so much real estate to this purpose increases the rent of all other real estate, increasing thereby the tax upon all other business; the destruction of labor by this conversion increases the price of other labor, thereby taxing all other enterprises on the one hand, while benefiting, so far, that particular laborer, on the other hand, if he does not use the whiskey.

But when you have noticed these results, you have scarcely touched the question of cost. Why, gentlemen, the cost of the liquor consumed as a beverage in our Commonwealth, though an enormous sum, is but a fraction of the entire expense to the State. What the beverages cost, it is difficult to say. It can only be vaguely estimated. The

Hon. Benjamin Evans, of the Governor's Council, noticing the fact stated by the honorable gentleman on the other side, Mr. Child, that in 1864 there were 5,574 places for the sale of liquor licensed in this Commonwealth under the revenue laws of the United States, and that probably as many more places sold without license, making a total of 11,148, estimates each place to sell twenty glasses a day, at ten cents a glass, and he has the enormous sum of $8,138,040. That is open to any modification that individuals may think proper to make. Twenty glasses a day, on an average, certainly does not seem a large estimate.

Turn to another feature of these expenses-the repair of the ravages resulting from the use of intoxicating liquors. Take the cost of the prisons, the houses of correction, and jails, of the almshouses, State and Municipal, and of the attendance upon and support of their inmates, with the interest involved in the construction of those buildings, and you have another large sum. I will not repeat all the particulars. Mr. Evans gives the following summary of his estimates, taken, with the exception of a single item, from the Report of the Board of State Charities, a public document of the Commonwealth: