But in order fully to trace the influence of intemperance, in effecting the destruction of property, we must not merely look at the surfaces of things. We must enter the cottages, which crowd the courts and alleys, which are the usual residences of the poor. We must go to the shop of the pawn-broker, and ascertain the character of the individuals who frequent it. We must visit the prisons of insolvent debtors; and examine the history of those whose names appear on the lists of bankrupts and, if we do so, we shall find that intemperance is the fell destroyer of by far the greater part of the property which men are called to mourn the loss of. We shall find that when it is the vice of the poor, it deprives them of every earthly comfort; and that when it seizes upon the more favoured classes, it not only effectually prevents them from improving their condition, but, usually, involves them, first, in continual pecuniary difficulties, and at length in ruin and distress.

"Drunkenness," says Lord Hervey, "is the parent of idleness, for no man can apply himself to the business of his trade, either while he is drinking, or when he is drunk:"" and in this view of it, it is also the parent of poverty; for, says Solomon, "drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags."

Among mechanics, it is no uncommon thing for one half the week to be devoted to spending the produce of the labour of the other half, in the tap-room of the ale-house, or at the bar of the gin-shop; and such is the cruelty of intemperance, that often, two or three shillings, out of twenty, will be all that the infatuated drunkard will save, from going into the pocket of a stranger, to supply the wants of a wife, and three or four starving children.

Allusion has already been made to the influence of intoxicating liquors in deteriorating the human mind, and depraving the affections of the heart. Apart then, from the waste of his property, arising from the expensiveness of the liquors in which he is accustomed to indulge, it is not to be wondered at, if the substance of the drunkard is found to be continually subject to a dissipating process, arising from his general improvidence, his inability to engage, with success, in the various pursuits of life, and from his being despised and shunned, rather than countenanced and supported by his fellow men. In a society, the various orders of which are closely interwoven with each other, and whose interests are peculiarly complicated, it will sometimes happen that the prudent and honourable will suffer through the folly or wickedness of others. But if we seriously investigate the causes of failure among those engaged in commerce, and of absolute want among such as are denominated the working classes, we shall find that in the great majority of cases, intemperance has been the worm which has cankered the gourd of their prosperity, and caused it to wither and decay.

A circumstance related by Dr. Farre, in giving evidence before the parliamentary committee, already alluded to, may, in this place, not be improperly introduced. His object in relating it was to show the difficulty and danger connected with endeavouring to escape from the habit of intemperance, when it has thoroughly produced its disorganizing effects upon the human frame; but it is strikingly illustrative of the subject particularly under consideration.

"The son," he says, "of a high dignitary, whose

brother was a physician, I mention this circumstance to show that he had every advantage from education, previously, entered the army, and fell into habits of intemperance. He was on the eastern service; and on quitting the army the habit had become confirmed. He was a married man, and my first acquaintance with him was at a public institution, where he came in, among a hundred paupers, to receive medical aid. He was then in a state of disorganization from the effects of alcohol. There is something produced by education, an expression, perhaps rendered still more affecting by poverty and grief, which enables the eye of the physician to discover a mind which has been once enlightened, from the greatest number of individuals who are classed among the poor. I singled out this man, therefore, directly, and would not allow him to mingle with the poor, for, perhaps, the most grievous punishment that awaits a man, who has fallen from a state of competency to a state of poverty, is the wounded feeling which results from such a situation. I therefore visited him at his own house, and there found his family covered with rags. He had at this time reformed, but that reform was fatal. In a moment of reflection his former moral feeling returned, and he resolved by a vow, let the consequence be what it would, that he would not taste another drop of spirits. In this state of necessity he was compelled, spontaneously, to have recourse to opium, for no other power could alleviate his morbid feelings. The horrid cramping pain that resulted from the abstraction of the stimulus, had already taken place, and was proving fatal. The disorganization of the stomach was so far advanced it was impossible to save him."

Here is a picture of consummate wo!-An individual born and bred amidst the comforts and enjoyments of refinement and affluence; and who, after leaving the parental roof, associated for a time with the most gay, and high-minded of men, reduced, by intemperance, to the condition of a pauper, and doomed to close his existence, surrounded by a family, in the last stage of human wretchedness. "His former moral feeling," says the physician, "returned." What then must have been his emotions, when, in his last moments, he beheld the objects of his early love; and who, in all probability, had once shared his joyous pleasures, clothed in rags, and dependent for a mere existence on parochial bounty. Deeply distressing as are such occurrences, they are by no means unfrequent, for the history of intemperance is a history of human misery, in all its various and most aggravated forms!

SECTION VIII.

THE INJURIOUS INFLUENCE OF INTEMPERANCE ON ALL THE RELATIONSHIPS OF DOMESTIC LIFE.

WE have seen, with respect to the intemperate themselves, that the consequences of their inebriety are the most calamitous. But, alas! the drunkard does not stand alone; and as a member of society, there is not a relationship which he sustains, in which he is not to be regarded as a curse rather than a blessing.

Let us view him as sustaining the responsible situation of a parent. He is surrounded by immortal beings, for whose conduct, to a certain extent, he is accountable; and whose fate is so linked to his own, that he must be regarded as not only the author of their being, but as a proximate cause of their condition being miserable or otherwise. To provide for the temporal wants of his household, is one of his first duties; but in what manner is this duty too frequently discharged? Intemperance destroys the finest sensibilities of our nature. Not even the claims of childhood, in its most helpless condition, are re