is called; and to evince his satisfaction on seeing his hospitality accepted in the spirit in which it is offered. In this way do the laws of fashion and custom constrain people to drink, who otherwise would have no inclination, or who have acquired that inclination, from the frequent if not daily occasions which occur, for tendering and reciprocating through the customary channel, sentiments of hospitality and good will to their associates, friends, and strangers. Thus is the vice of intemperate drinking ingrafted on the virtue of hospitality; and so long as that virtue is cherished, and ardent liquors continue to be tendered as evidence of its existence, so long will the use of that article as a drink continue, and the vice of intemperance grow out of it. This unnatural blending of virtue and vice, together with the practice of using inebriating drink as a table beverage, are the radical sources of that intemperance, which is said to be "the crying and increasing sin of the nation." It is at the family table, the first rudiments of intemperance are taught; the first examples set, and the first essays at tippling attempted. The practice is continued by the frequent display of hospitality and politeness, through the medium of ardent drink. The acquired habit, shows itself on holy-days, at dining and other parties, and on all convivial occasions—is pursued at taverns, and at last, descends to, and terminates its career at grog-shops. Look at the catalogue of family misfortunes, and few will be found to have escaped the direful disease of intemperance; few which have not had their prosperity and happiness blighted by the extreme of that vice, in some one or more of their members." No doubt it is in the opulent that many of the vices of society originate. Their weaknesses and errors are palliated; their example imitated and their indulgences eagerly craved by the poor. While therefore, the general practice of using ardent spirit continues among them, our author reasons that the popular remedy of curtailing the number of grog-shops, though it would lessen the practice would not destroy the habit of intemperance. Should there remain a solitary place where liquor can be procured, the sin of intemperance will continue to be committed, and its associate vices and immorality entailed on society.

"What!" says he, "it may be asked by the reader, are we required to relinquish the use of wine and ardent spirits, in order to prevent their abuse by others? Shall we deny ourselves the reasonable enjoyment of them, because others become intemperate? Are we to be interdicted the moderate use of them, because others drink to excess and get drunk? As well say the querists, might it be expected that we should extract our tongues, because others back-bite their neighbours!

"In the first place, permit me to remark, that I have not uttered a word against the moderate or reasonable use of ardent liquors. But before we go farther, it may be proper to analyze the terms, moderation and intemperance, as they relate to the use of inebriating drink. There can be no objection to its reasonable, necessary, and moderate use. But I do contend, that the use of it by any person in a full state of health, is at all times unnecessary. The effect of strong drink, is to excite the animal spirits to a preternatural action.—When taken by a person in full health, it raises the animal spirits above the healthy standard. This is unnecessary—and inasmuch as it creates a deviation from a state of real health, it produces disease, and hence its use is immoderate, intemperate. The indirect debility which succeeds the exhausted stimulant, is another and a worse state of disorder, which goes to confirm the truth, that the first draught of ardent drink taken by those in full health, is unnecessary, unreasonable, and excessive. Nor is this all—this indirect debility prompts a repetition of the draught—and now the practice of drinking has commenced. The animal spirits having sunk as far below as they have been raised above the healthy standard, an increased quantity is required to raise them as high as before. Thus the habit of intemperance progresses. The spirits, now ebbing lower than before, demand increased support, the yielding to which demand, confirms the habit of intemperance. But it unfortunately happens, that the term moderate, when applied to intoxicating drink, by those who use it, is as unmeaning as the word enough in the mouth of a miser, when speaking of his money. Each drinks according to his taste and strength of habit, and calls it moderate. Thus every grade of drinking, from the single glass of the novice, to the full bottle of the initiated, is termed moderate. And every degree of excitement, from moderately merry to moderately drunk, is honoured with the same name. The real truth is, it is a poor apology for a bad practice; and a moderate degree of reflection would lead those not slaves to the habit, to view it in that light."

"I have the authority of distinguished physicians for remarking, that next to intemperate eating, intemperate drinking engenders more bodily diseases, than any other single cause. That more die of disorders occasioned by drinking, before they become drunkards, than live to extend their intemperance to that extreme. That the constant exercise of the labouring class, procrastinates, while the want of exercise tends to facilitate the fatal effects of intemperance in the other class of society—and hence it is, that the moderate drinking, as it is modestly termed, of the latter, destroys at least as many as the drunkenness of the former, and in that ratio is as injurious to the community. The reason these facts are not subjects of general observation, is, that when people who are not reputed drunkards, die of complaints brought on by drinking, their death is imputed to the disorder, while that escapes being attributed to its true cause—whereas, reputed drunkards stand little or no chance of dying by any other means; for be they drowned by accident or hanged for murder, their end is generally, and perhaps too often, correctly ascribed to intemperate drinking."

"It is really wonderful to witness how fertile is the love of ardent liquor, in excuses and pretences for its gratification. It is drank at one time, because the weather is warm—at another, because it is cold. It is drank with enemies "to reconcile them"—with friends, "because they don't meet every day"—on all festive, anniversary and other holydays, "because they only come once a year." And if at any or on all those times, the bounds of moderation are exceeded, it is allowed to be excusable, "because they are all extraordinary occasions!" Real or pretended disorders are also often plead as an apology for drinking ardent liquor; and instances are not rare where, though it may have been regularly prescribed for medical purposes, and may have cured the disorder, it has finally killed the patient. It is doubtless for this reason, that distinguished gentlemen of the faculty have admitted, that the internal use of ardent liquor, even in cases in which it is indicated as a medical remedy, is often productive of far more hurt than good.

"The most common pretence, however, is, that the water is bad, and requires a little spirits to qualify it; and hence it is infused with a poison of a more deleterious quality than any it naturally possessed. This qualifying of the water, has been the