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Family Pastime.

GARDENING FOR APRIL.

THIS is the most important month of the year for gardening. The seeds of perennial and biennial plants should now be sown. The ground should be well prepared, but not too rich; An open situation is best.

Annuals and spring flowers should still be sown.

Plant evergreens, chrysanthemums, and dahlias. Be particular in dividing the roots of the latter, to see that each part has at least one eye, Graft and propagate fruit and rose trees. Look over plants in pots for the purpose of clearing them of decayed leaves, and re-potting such as require more

room.

Sow cauliflowers, cabbages, onions, carrots, parsley, turnips, peas, beans, parsnips, celery, cucumbers, &c.

Plant potatoes, cabbages, onions, cauliflowers, &c., &c. Weeding is now of the greatest importance, and should on no account be neglected.

ENIGMAS, CHARADES, REBUSES, &c.

14-My first to all living creatures is dear,

My second yields comfort in many a sphere;
My whole is oft hailed with intensest delight,
When the storm and the tempest the bravest affright.
15-Where tender herbage flourished in the field,
My first prepared her offering to yield;
But when the maid had done her office well
Occurred my second on the ground she fell ;
No one was witness this, oh who could bear,
Yet was my whole a sweet wild flower there.
16-Mary, darling, let us rove

Where the flowers are twining,
Lightsome as in yonder grove,
My first, who's said with smiles of love
To dance, when Luna's shining.
No fairer flower than you I see
Within my second blowing;
No brighter form can ever be
Within my whole-and yet for me
Are you, sweet Mary, glowing!
17-I'm seen on your hands;

I'm seen on your feet;
I'm found in a door,

A table, and seat:

In some I've a head,

Which is beaten full well;
In others I've more-
My name can you tell?

18-As an insect, I'm hated

By woman and man,
Who chase me, and kill me
Whenever they can:
As a cunning machine,

I am gazed on with joy;
Stand me up, and I live;
Lay me down, and I die

ANSWERS TO ENIGMAS, &o.

No. 7-Farewell. 8-Sole. 9-Pit. 10-Nephalism. 11Newspaper. 12-Because it is on its guard. 13-The child fourteen and the father seventy.

ACTING CHARADE.

Co-NUN-DRUM.-1st scene-Co. may be represented by a partnership either of ladies or gentlemen, of course got up for some amusing speculation. 2nd scene-Nun, a reception of a young lady taking the veil amidst weeping friends. 3rd scene -Drum, a party of soldiers leaving town playing "The girl I left behind me," or some popular air, followed by their friends and sweethearts. 4th scene and last-A conundrum proposed for solution in a small tea party. These scenes can be varied or enlarged upon, according to the taste of the company.

Housewife's Corner.

FOOD IN SEASON.-Fish-Salmon, prawns, skate, tench, cod, trout, lobsters, crabs, cockles, &c. Meat-Beef, grass lamb, house lamb, veal, pork, mutton. Poultry and GameChickens, ducklings, fowls, green geese, leverets, pigeons, rabbits, turkey-poults, wood-pigeons. Vegetables-Asparagus, brocoli, lettuce, onions, parsley, peas, small salad, rhubarb, &c. Fruit-Apples, nuts, oranges.

CARVING.

Fish-Cods head and shoulders. The thick part of the back is best. It should be carved in unbroken slices, and accompanied by a bit of the sound. The tongue and palate are considered delicacies, and are obtained by passing the slice or spoon into the mouth. Joints-Quarter of lamb. Cut off the shoulder from the breast. Then separate the brisket, and serve from either parts as desired. We may here remark let the carver always have plenty of room.

RECEIPTS.

Rhubarb Pie.-Peel the rhubarb, then cut into small pieces, and put in a dish (without water); add plenty of sugar; cover in the ordinary way with paste, and bake for about half an hour in a quick oven.

To Preserve Rhubarb-Take one pound of the finest rhubarb peeled, and cut into pieces, three-quarters of a pound of white sugar, and the rind and juice of one lemon. The rind cut into narrow stripes. Put all into a preserving-pan. Simmer gently until the rhubarb is quite soft. Take it out with a silver spoon, and put into jars. Then boil the syrup, say, one hour, and pour it over the fruit. When cold tie it up in the usual way.

Rice Bread.-Take one pound and a half of rice, and boil it gently over a slow fire in three quarts of water about five hours, stirring it, and afterwards beating it up into a smooth paste. Mix this while warm into two gallons, or four pounds of flour, adding at the same time the usual quantity of yeast. Allow the dough to work a certain time near the fire, after which divide it into loaves, and it will be found, when baked, to produce twenty-eight or thirty pounds of excellent white bread.

To Clean Hair Brushes.-As hot water and soap very soon soften the hairs, and rubbing completes their destruction, use soda, dissolved in cold water, instead; soda having an affinity for grease, it cleans the brush with little friction. Do not set them near the fire, nor in the sun, to dry, but after shaking them well, set them on the point of the handle in a shady place.

To Take out Stains from Mahogany Furniture.-Stains and spots may be taken out of mahogany furniture by the use of a little aquafortis or oxalic acid and water, by rubbing the part with the liquid, by means of a cork, till the color is restored; observing afterwards to well wash the wood with water, and to dry and polish as usual.

Bugs.-Spirits of naptha rubbed with a small painter's brush into every part of a bedstead is a certain way of getting rid of bugs. The mattress and binding of the bed should be examined, and the same process attended to, as they generally harbour more in these parts than in the bedstead. Three pennyworth of naphtha it sufficient for one bed.

To Prevent Mice Taking Peas.-Previous to the peas being sown, they should be well saturated with a solution of bitter aloes; or they may be saturated with salad oil, and then rolled in some powdered resin previous to sowing, and the mice will not touch them.

Our Correspondents.

S.S.-We are not to be supposed as endorsing all the views put forward by writers in the Journal.

H.C.-Thanks for the sketch "Little Willie." The story is a very painful one, and we shall endeavour to make good use of it on a future occasion.

D.B. The paper shall have a prominent place in our next number.

"Tempt none to Drink."-The aim of the writer of the article is excellent. A little more practice will enable "S.A.L." to write with clearness and force.

"An Old Man's Story."-We have not space at present for this tale. We would like to see the entire MS. before deciding as to its publication or otherwise.

C.-The Alliance News is always on sale at the offices of the Irish Temperance League.

H.F.-Dr. Lees is a member of the United Church of England and Ireland. He is likely to visit Enniskillen. H.P.-Declined with thanks.

J.S.-Your ideas are good, but not well put together. Go on and prosper. We will be glad to hear from you soon again. JAMES.-Poetry declined with thanks.

R.C.-We will be glad to have further contributions, but aim to make them suitable to our Journal.

MARY.-We like our lady friends specially to contribute.

We are compelled to defer No. 2 of "Judge Crampton and the Rise of the Temperance Reformation."

VOL. I.]

Suppression of the Liquor Traffic.

By the Rev. JAMES MORGAN, D.D.

WHAT! Do you mean to say that you are going to interfere with the trade of the country? We are free men and have a right to employ our capital as we think proper, and as shall best reward our industry. Your proposal to dictate to us in what concerns our business is presumptuous, unjust, and intolerable; and we warn you to desist. Let us reason on the subject calmly and fairly, and see what is for your interest and ours, and that of the whole community; what is right in the sight of God and of unprejudiced and reasonable

men.

The very basis of the distinction between civilized life and savagism consists in a common agreement to adopt and submit to a code of wise and equitable laws: This is essential to the peace and well-being and prosperity of any community. But what does it imply? It takes for granted that every member of it submits to the judgment and authority of the whole, in all things comprehended in the laws by which they have agreed to be bound. This is indisputable. For the sake of all, each member of the community agrees to sacrifice something. That every man shall do whatsoever is right in his own eyes is inadmissible. Every man is subject to authority; and the glory of our own country is its reverence for the laws and obedience to them.

It is easy to illustrate this general statement by particular examples. A revenue is required for the maintenance of the Government of the land, and it is agreed to lay a taxation on food and clothing, and the other necessaries of life. No reasonable member of the community thinks of resisting such an impost. He may object to specific arrangements and seek to have them changed, but no one objects to the principle on which claims are made on the community. This is not all. The Government of the country often interposes and authoritatively forbids what it considers to be injurions to the interests of the community. It will not permit any of its subjects to defend themselves against acts of violence, by returning injury for injury according to their passion or pleasure. They must seek that counsel and protection of those who are appointed to administer the laws, and submit to their decision. This supreme authority is extended even to the exercise of speech, and we are held responsible for our words and may be punished for the use of them. The law of libel is universally known and justified. If we speak evil of others, we make ourselves liable to punishment,

[No. 4.

And no one argues that this is an unjust interference with the liberty of the subject. It is still more to the point, considering the purpose of these illustrations, to remark that certain practices of trade, which some would desire to pursue as they thought proper, are restrained or forbidden altogether. In all countries there are articles declared to be contraband. Some must not be carried on the open sea, except under stringent regulations. And others must not be sold in our shops except under the same. The apothecary is obliged to put a label on his poisons, and sell them to such persons and in such quantities only as the law prescribes. If he disposes of them not in accordance with law, but after his own pleasure, he is held accountable for the injurious effects that may follow, and is liable to be punished. When it was found that gambling-houses were a source of temptation and injury to the community, our legislators interfered and forbade their continuance. The prize-ring, though the desired amusement of many, is illegal, and the police are charged to bring up for trial those who may enter into it. Even the sale of intoxicating drinks, with which we are at present more immediately concerned, has always been more or less taken under the cognizance and restraint of the law. No one is permitted to sell them without special license to do so. The whole question, therefore, as it affects them, is one of degree merely and not of principle. The principle is settled that the Government may properly interfere with their sale, and the only question that remains is, to what extent this interference may be carried. May it justly forbid the sale altogether? Or shall it lay it under restrictions that will render it harmless? No one proposes to forbid the sale, but many believe the time has come when it should be placed under restrictions far more stringent than have ever been adopted in this country. It is a growing conviction that it is the duty of our legislators to consider what is for the interests of the community in this matter, and to determine and act accordingly. Alcohol may be required as other poisons are, for various purposes, and means, therefore, must be used to provide and obtain it. But while a wise and tolerant Government puts it within the reach of the community for all necessary purposes, it is equally a duty to withold it, and not allow it to come into the hands of those who seek and use it for purposes injurious to themselves and others. As the law now is, it is widely and constantly used for great hurt to the community. It is, therefore, the duty of the Legislature to interpose, and to do so authoritatively.

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In plain terms, the public houses of the land have become so many centres of demoralization and destruction, and a paternal Government ought not to tolerate them longer. The Upas tree that spreads its deleterious influence all around is cut down, and the open public house, that invites all passers-by to enter, ought to be closed. Alcohol is a poison, and ought to be treated as such. We ask only that as the dispenser of poisons is bound and watched, and punished according to law, so shall it be with the dispenser of Alcohol. Care is taken who shall sell laudanum and prussic acid, and all such dangerous medicine, and strict rules are laid down in accordance with which they must be disposed of-and this is what we ask for in the case of Alcohol. The necessary change is that it shall be placed under the charge of well-chosen and trusty servants of the Government, who shall have good understanding and steadfast principle to dispose of it only for its legitimate use, and no personal or pecuniary interest in the amount of its sale. Nothing will suffice to correct and destroy the disastrous use of Alcohol as it is now encouraged by our public houses, but the suppression of the liquor traffic. And we now proceed to adduce some specific reasons why this great change should at length be accomplished by the authority of law.

In the first place, intoxicating drinks are not required by the community for food. They do not make those who use them stronger. This is proved by the fact that those who have avoided or discontinued the use of them are the most vigorous aud strong and long-lived. It would be an interesting thing to gather and examine statistics on this question. We are willing to have the question tried by this test. We are confident the more fully facts can be ascertained, the stronger the argument would become for the entire disuse of intoxicating drinks. It is well known how careful is the enquiry now into the habits of all applicants to companies for life assurance. Whenever it can be told that the applicant is a total abstainer, his case is strengthened. Was it ever made an objection that he used no stimulants? Never! This is proof how the unbiased judgment decides the question. The same result is found in other departments of society. There are now temperance sailors and soldiers, and we are willing to place them in contrast to their companions who are not abstainers. Who has not heard of Havelock and his Highlanders in the Indian mutiny? In all ways and forms and places, abstinence from intoxicating drinks has been tried and proved to be the better way. Judges, lawyers, clergymen, merchants, mechanics, labourers, men of literature and science, all conditions and classes, have tested it by their experience and witness for its excellence. No plea, therefore, can be set up for the public house on the ground of necessity. The community do not need intoxicating drinks for food, and a paternal Government is not under any necessity to provide them.

Again, it is not enough to say they are not required, for while they are unnecessary for the purpose of food, they are most dangerous and injurious. Go through the community and where you find poverty and rags, and misery, in how many instances have all these arisen from the public house? In our large towns especially, where employment is abundant, this is the one and almost exclusive source of wretchedness. Go into the families of the land, and where you find the bad husband, the slattern wife, the disobedient son, the dishonoured daughter, the unfaithful servant, enquire into the cause, and you will discover that, in the majority of instances, they have been originated, or fostered, or matured, by the public house. Go and search the records of the Church, and when you read of the degradation of the minister or the expulsion of the member, trace the reason and you will track the unhappy one to the public house, in nine cases out of ten. The public house is at this moment the greatest calamity in the United Kingdom. It is the principal cause of vice

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and distress. All men know it is so, if they have only been at pains to enquire and are concerned for the good of the community, and candid enough to admit the truth. One thing is undoubted, that the trade has lost its respectability in the estimation of the public. The old adage is now understood in a new application,'publicans and sinners." It is assumed that those who would maintain a fair name will not engage in this traffic. A good man does not like to be seen entering a public house. Whence is this change in the public feeling? From the exposure that has been made of the fearful doings of these abodes of evil, there is a rising tide of indignation that will not long bear with them. The inscription now written upon them is what was of old on the prophet's roll-" weeping, lamentation, and woe.' The time is coming when the public voice will require the Government of the country to interpose as it has never yet done. Nothing will satisfy but the removal of these traps for the unwary. The Government must not allow these any more than other snares to be laid for the community. This will soon be the question for the hustings, and assuredly the sooner it is so the better.

Once more, so far as legislation has been tried on this question, it has been successful. The history of Forbes M'Kenzie's Act, as it is called from its author, is well known. It was passed to curtail the times for the sale of intoxicating drinks in Scotland. The whole of the Sabbath day was excluded, and the morning hours of every day, as well as those of the late evening. The results have proved to be most encouraging, and the discovery of the proof is curious. The publicans petitioned the Parliament for an enquiry into the working of the act, hoping to prove it had been a failure, or perhaps expecting that some confusion might arise that would lead to its abolition. Their request for inquiry was granted, but it has turned out to be with vengeance upon them. The results have been shown to be most satisfactory in the improved morality and prosperity of the country. Precisely as the sale of intoxicating drinks has been hindered, so has the country advanced in the elements of national goodness and greatness. The author of the wise act is dead, but his works remain to praise him, and for them many will rise up to call him blessed. A similar appeal might be made to some measures of the British Parliament in raising the price of Alcohol and increasing the difficulty of indulging in the use of it. For, all such steps, though coming short of what is necessary, are tending in the right direction. The benefits of restrictive legislation are proved to a demonstration. The friends of abstinence should, therefore, persevere to enlighten and agitate the public mind. They have ample encouragement from the past to do so for the future. And, assured that they pursue a a right object, they should never cease until the Govern ment of the country is constrained to close the public houses.

And this suggests another argument. Their removal would be a benefit to the revenue of the land as well as to the people. It is a wondrous delusion that has long and often been practised, when it has been taught and believed that the public houses were advantageous to the revenue. It is the very reverse. The late Judge Crampton proved, by all the sufficiency of figures, that the whole trade entailed a loss and not a gain on the Government. The expense arising out of intoxicating drinks is enormous in courts of law, officers to serve in them, prisons, poor-houses, lunatic asylums, police, and chaplains. We have seen it stated that two millions of paupers, drunkards, pickpockets, lunatics, and prisoners in the United Kingdom, required a staff of 4,000 gaolers, 500 chaplains, 40 judges, 80,000 lawyers and clerks, with 100,000 policemen to keep them in subjection! What is the expense of all these officers to the Government? This is no small reduction to the revenue. Besides, consider the amount of loss to the resources of the country and its revenue by the loss of time arising out

of the public houses. By all who frequent them it is not less than a day in the week, if not more. But above all, only think how the coffers of the revenue would be filled if the earnings of the people were expended on other articles of commerce than intoxicating drinks. If men earn a pound or two pounds in the week, they will expend them. If they do so on food and clothing for themselves and their families, they will pay a higher revenue than if they lavish them on strong drinks. To do right is always to do wisely and well. It is with the government of the country as with an individual. A drinker has the elements of ruin in his habits, and a Legislature that is sustained by the evil habits of the community is essentially unstable and insecure. It would be the highest interest of the Government to close the public houses.

Then, let me ask you to think of the poor publicans themselves. What a history is that of themselves and their families! A friend of temperance, who was well acquainted with a town in Ulster, wrote a history of its publicans for some quarter of a century or more. He told what had befallen every public house and its inhabitants, and such a detail has seldom been submitted to human eyes. It was a record of sins and sorrows so appalling as to fill the reader with alarm. There had been no escape from utter ruin. Fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters, had all gone down, in one awful shipwreck of character, into an abyss of destruction. Their history has unfurled a black flag over their dwelling place, and it is inscribed-"Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise."

Even the poor drunkard himself, let me add, entreats you to remove the temptation of the public house out of his way. It is a notable fact, that when, in a few places, a trial has been made to ascertain how far the inhabitants would join in a petition to Parliament to pass what is called a Permissive Bill, giving power to a borough, or town, or parish, to decide by a majority of two-thirds of the ratepayers whether the sale of intoxicating drinks would be permitted in itsuch a petition has uniformly been signed by the drunkards of the place. Poor creatures! they say they cannot resist the temptation of the public house, and they ask you to withdraw it from them. Will you not help this poor, fallen brother! He knows his own sad propensity; he has experienced its bitterness; he desires to be delivered from it; and his only hope is to have the tempter removed out of his path. Then hear and help him, and never cease till, by securing such a Permissive Bill, the people shall, by their own voice, gain the blessed issue-the suppression of the liquor traffic.

In conclusion, there is one thing that ought not to be forgotten in the dealing of the Government with the liquor traffic. There has been an indulgence of it amounting to partiality and encouragement. The law has granted liberties and facilities to it that have not been extended to other departments of trade. The public house is permitted to be open and to carry on its destructive business at times when other forms of labour are forbidden. During many hours of the Lord's day intoxicating drinks may be bought and sold, when dealers in food and clothing must suspend their daily work. Much is said against partial legislation and class privileges, but the keeper of the public house has been treated as if he were an exception in whose behalf the laws of the Sabbath may be suspended or violated. This is an outrage which no free and independent people should allow. Our legislators have no authority over the Lord's day. They can neither lengthen nor shorter its hours. It is God's gift to man, especially to the poor, and none have a right to interfere with it. The duty of a Government is to see that it is enjoyed by all without hindrance, and to protect them in its observance. If it is right to forbid the ordinary course of trade on the sacred day, it is doubly so to lay an arrest on that of the publican. Hitherto the exception in his favour

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has been most disastrous to the interests of the community. The tradesman has seen the public house open for his reception on the only day of his rest from toil, and he has gone into it, and there wasted his hardearned wages. The best gift of God to man has thus been perverted into a curse by the sinfulness of those for whose good it was designed. The Lord's day has been converted into Satan's revelry. Its return has been a terror to many a broken-hearted wife and illused children. Its leisure has given opportunity to the unnatural husband and father to indulge in strong drink until be has wasted what by right belonged to his family, and he is sent back to them to wreak his passions on his defenceless wife and children. Surely this is a state of things that ought to exist no longer. Let Sunday traffic in the liquor trade be suppressed everywhere as it is in Scotland. The same good results will follow here that have been found there. The benefits of one day's suppression will become an argument for that of another and another, until all the days in the week are included in the prohibition, and the community will have reason to rejoice in the entire suppression of the demoralising traffic.

Nor is this the only form of partial legislation on behalf of the dealer in strong drinks. Other traders are held responsible for what they sell to the community, and the effects that may follow. The merchant disposes of seed to the husbandman, that disappoints his expectation, and he appeals to the law of his country for satisfaction and restitution. Another has sold for food what has proved to be a poison, and he is summoned to account for the wrong. Every trader is held responsible to give for the money he receives, the money's worth. But from all such liability the publican is exempted. He receives his unfortunate customer with the blandest smiles; he indulges him in his calls until his money and reason are both gone; and then he flings him out of his house as an unclean thing; and although he has been rendered incapable of finding his way to his home, and falls senseless on his path, and perishes in his drunkenness, there is no redress. The publican who tempted him to his ruin is held to be blameless. If an accident occurs to the traveller by the railway, the company are made responsible for the loss to himself or his family, but the seller of intoxicating drinks is not so called to account. When is justice to be done to the poor inebriate? Surely it is the duty of a paternal government to protect him. Every publican should be held accountable for the effects of the drink he sells. In this respect he should be treated as other dealers are treated. And if he were, no other law would be needed to put an end to his traffic. It could not exist as an honorable and fair trade. It could not meet its liabilities for the injuries it is constantly inflicting. The publican would be as often before the magistrate as behind his counter. Only let justice be done, and by reason of its own weakness and wickedness we shall soon see our heart's desire THE SUPPRESSION OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.

(The right to re-publish this Paper is reserved.)

MILTON'S SAMSON AGONISTES. "Chorus: Desire of wine, and all delicious drinks, Which many a famous warrior overturns, Thou couldest repress-nor did the dancing ruby, Sparkling, outpour'd, the flavour, or the smell, Or taste that cheers the hearts of gods and men, Allure thee from the cool crystalline stream.

"Samson: Wherever fountain or fresh current flow'd Against the eastern ray, translucent, pure, With touch ethereal of Heaven's fiery rod,

I drank, from this clear milky juice allaying
Thirst, and refresh'd-nor envied them the grape,
Whose heads that turbulent liquor fills with fumes.
"Chorus: O madness, to think use of strongest wines
And strongest drinks our chief support of health,
When God, with these forbidden, made choice to rear
His mighty champion, strong above compare,
Whose drink was only from the liquid brook."

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Belfast Waste and Belfast Want.

BY HENRY M'CORMAC, M.D.

THE perception of moral and physical purity is of very slow and precarious growth. It is a thing of which, with due persistent culture, the soul of man is very capable. But without this we shall with difficulty witness it. It is not innate, but happily it may be acquired. When we look at the wild animals, we see them without a speck on their fur or hair. If we follow them to their holes or dens, we find these, even in the caves of the carnivora, mainly without taint or smell. It is the case with the very insects. Consider the ant and the honey-bee. It is more especially the case with the birds. When we look at them in all the glory of their speckless plumage, then turn to some poor, degraded, and neglected man or child, the contrast is often very painful.

It is Nature's peremptory command that there shall be no violation of the rule of purity. In this place I refer to bodily purity. For when purity is habitually violated, evil, in the form of deranged function, is sure to ensue. What, indeed, is plague, or cholera, or fever, but deranged function, in the first instance thus ensuing, and thus ever aggravated, slaying not only individuals, but thousands and tens of thousands. Nature never intended this. She intends that man should live and act in health and strength, in the full possession of every aptitude. Yes. "To human life there has been assigned a normal range of healthy action, and when it prematurely fails, when children perish in the cradle or adults in the glow of manhood, the exception in every case is to be investigated and explained."*

The condition of the drainage in Belfast is a very great evil. The description which Dr. Simon gives of the state of the sewerage in London, at page 22 of the work I have cited, applies, indeed, almost word for word to Belfast. The entire excrementation of our town is sooner or later mingled with the stream of the river, there to be rolled backward and forward among the population. At low water broad banks of spongy refuse for many hours dry their contaminated mud in the sun, exhaling fetor and poison. At high water this is retained or driven back within all low, level sewers and house-drains, soaking far and wide into the soil, leaving putrescent deposits for miles. Sewers, which should be benefactions and appliances for health, are thus rendered sources of evil, furnish chambers for an immense fecal evaporation. At every breeze which strikes against their open mouths, at every tide which encroaches on their inward space, their gases are breathed into the upper air-into houses, footpaths, and carriage-ways.

The Belfast thoroughfares are very imperfectly cleansed, and even when swept, the offensive accumulation is suffered to remain in festering heaps whole hours, if not days. The streets, indeed, should be paved instead of the wretched system of MacAdam, provided with stone or metal tramways. This would allow the town to be thoroughly swept, daily, by means of the horse-broom. As respects this late implement, the broom, or rather long row of brooms, are set diagonally, and thus allow the instrument to operate very cheaply and efficiently. As it now is, however, clouds of dust beset the town in Summer, seas of mud cover it in the Winter, in the one case soiling everything, in the other chilling and dirtying everything.

In our narrow streets, owing to the almost total want of house accommodation, not merely the sweepings, but the excretions of each household, are thrown into the thoroughfare. The two rivers that flow through the town, instead of being allowed to convey the clear pure element, are converted into mere runnels of filth

"Simon's Report en the Sanitary Condition of the City o London. Page 11.

and refuse. At the dock each ship is suffered to become a source of impurity. Fetid waste floats up and down for hours, or left stranded by seceding tides, taints the atmosphere around. Nor is this all, the living excretions of so many thousand human beings are drifted onwards, and settling along the banks on both shores, together with the weeds and minute animalcula floated in from the sea, form an offensive deposit, in some places perhaps three feet thick, extending for miles, on the one side towards Holywood, on the other in the direction of Whitehouse. Yet the time was, in the memory of persons now living, when people could, and did, ride or drive along a firm, white strand for miles in either direction after the receding of the tide. The stench from this deposit of mud and town filth, beneath the Summer's sun, after the daily retiring of the waters, is most offensive. Coupled with the horrible odour at the quays, it meets the nostrils of those who come in fresh from sea or drive along the shore, in the most annoying manner.

How offensive all this is to every sense, the moral sense and the physical sense alike, needs not here to be insisted upon. It is hateful to each individual resident, paves the way for the general lowering of vital tone, and the invasion of epidemic diseases at any time. It is a perfect disgrace to the town. It is a loss in every sense. The waste, discarded matters now thrown on the Belfast sea-strands, to the prejudice of every one, represents, at ten pounds sterling per head say ten thousand lowing kine, at five pounds a-head twenty thousand fat sheep at ten shillings each, a couple of hundred thousand pair of blankets at a hundred pounds each, a thousand well-built houses for the working-classes; and this, recollect, not for once only, but for every year lost, cast away, for ever. represents, if so applied, education and clothing, and sustenance for the outcast children that prowl about our streets, to become, perchance, thieves, robbers, and murderers hereafter. Any one may become a thief, a robber, or a murderer if only adequately neglected, and the sources of moral culture left adequately perverted. In place of hanging, scourging, and transporting these unfortunates, it is we ourselves, or some of us, who, perhaps, deserve these inflictions for so neglecting the infant man about us, and suffering him to grow up a thief, a drunkard, a beggar, or an outcast in after life.

It

The waste excretion is now estimated to be worth, if only collected and applied for agricultural purposes, one pound sterling per person. This, for Belfast, would yield one hundred thousand pounds per annum. So that it is just as if two thousand five hundred ounces of gold, or the equivalent, or let us say but half of this amount, were yearly cast into the sea, and what might be rendered a source of real comfort and well-being to many, is turned into misery and annoyance more or less for everyone, and certain ill-health and a most disgusting and abominable nuisance to very many.

Of course I shall be asked how is all this to be remedied. I am not without an answer. The houses of the well-to-do middle-classes must be a little modified, and the ill-constructed and most wretched houses of the poor reconstructed with a view to the alteration I have in view. The house-refuse, the excretions of man and brute, must be carefully collected, without offence to the senses, and rescued from the character of filth, which is merely a material that might be balm and health and comfort in the wrong place, and distributed for agricultural purposes, requiting our fields and pastures for what they render our town in food for man.

There are two ways of doing this. One is by having short drain-pipe, porcelain lined sewers, leading into brick-lined reservoirs, with arched roofs, in suitable localities. In these the house-soil might be deodorised, and disinfected. There are abundant chemical means, which I should be only too happy to point out at any time, but on which I need not further dilate here, for disinfecting and deodorising the waste and converting it