90 THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IN IRELAND. therefore, she resolved to have a confidential interview with her father, and see what must be done to save her husband from a drunkard's infamy and sorrow. Mrs. Oswald now unfolded the whole to her father, related the scene at the Lakes, and said she felt her lot was bound up with one whose habits were of the most dangerous kind. He listened to her with profound astonishment, and said he feared from what she had stated it was a lost case. She then reminded him of the new society and the pledge, and the success attending it. "Why," said he, "would you have the minister do a thing that would fix a stigma on him all his days? What! abstain altogether from what everybody uses, and what your own father sells! What! take his place among degraded weak bodies, who have no principle, no religion, and no status in society? No; that society may do for poor vulgar folks, but we should all be scandalised at the Burgher minister of Dalbreathe having to ensure his own sober behaviour by a pledge or an oath, or whatever you may call it. No; I'll never agree to that; but I will tell you, if he goes on this way, you had better leave him, and come home again, and bring your babe with you. 'How," said she, "can I leave him? and if I did, would he not at once be driven from his kirk? Surely he had better join any society than that should occur. However, he is my own husband, and I must bide with him and share his fate." (To be continued.) 66 The Temperance Movement in Ireland : IMPORTANCE OF UNION. SELECTIONS FROM A PAPER BY JAMES HAUGHTON, ESQ., J.P., READ AT "IRISH TEMPERANCE LEAGUE CONFERENCE," HELD IN BELFAST, ON 6TH APRIL, 1863. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,-The Committee of the Irish Temperance League have requested me to write a Paper for this Conference, on "The Temperance Movement in Ireland, and the Importance of Union." I hastily complied with their request, feeling it to be a high honour and great privilege to be called on to take any part in the proceedings of such a Conference, held in Belfast, and called together under the auspices of an Association which has the credit of collecting in one great bond of union many of the weak and scattered Temperance Societies of Ireland, thus giving cohesion and strength to bodies that have been hitherto kept far apart and too much isolated, thereby losing that strength and power for effecting the good purposes in view, which unity of action imparts to large bodies of men-this union, as I understand, not being intended, in the smallest degree, to interfere with the local management of the societies that become thus affiliated, but leaving to them all full liberty to regu late and manage their own affairs in such manner as may seem to themselves best and most suitable to the circumstances of each local Association. With such a body as this, it should be a pleasure to every Temperance Society in Ireland to enter into close and cordial affiliation. I therefore heartily wish success to the "Irish Temperance League," in its efforts to unite all the local societies in our country by the cords of sympathy in one great friendly association, which will, I trust, act powerfully on public opinion, and, in due time, call forth the voice of this nation in a loud and general demand for the overthrow of the traffic in intoxicating liquors, which sad and demoralizing trade lies at the root of most of these evils that oppress and degrade our people. The drink traffic is the grand fountain of misery-it stands foremost among those promoters of human wretchedness which Man has any power to control, and to remove out of the way. There is inherent in our nature a tendency to go astray, which temperance re formers make no pretension to be able to counteract ; but the accursed traffic which we war with is the nursing mother of our evil propensities; it gives them intensity, and adds fearfully to their violence. Our efforts are given to arrest this malign influence, and, in so doing, place ourselves and others in a better position for reception of those higher principles of human action which would really dignify man, and bring him a little nearer, even upon earth, to that great Being in whose image he is made. We are merely pioneers, who are levelling the road for the army of reformers who will follow us, and who will sow good seed in the ground we have ploughed and made fit for them, and without whose previous labours all their work would be useless. If the soil be not previously prepared for the husbandman, his seed can produce no golden harvest. We drink, and we are poor and wretched. We drink, and the arm of plenty is weakened, so that our full energies cannot be put forth. We drink, and jails are filled and churches are shorn of half their usefulness. We drink, and homes are wretched, and wives and children are in squalid misery. We drink, and raging madmen fill our lunatic asylums. We drink, and we forget the days when Father Mathew created such a religious enthusiasm against our relentless enemy, Alcohol, that the whole world looked at Ireland with admiration because of the manly courage with which her people put away from them that craving appetite which had long been the ruin of their country. At the period of our history in the Temperance reform, to which I have just referred, the consumption of whisky in Ireland was reduced, in three or four years, by more than one-half--that is to say, from about twelve millions to about five gallons a-year; or, from one and a-half gallon to three-fourths of a gallon per head of her population. We became a sober people, and one of the good results which followed was, that our prisons were nearly emptied. Soon after the death of the good Father Mathew this enthusiasm in favour of teetotalism, which he had created, died away. This declension may, I think, be in some measure attributed to the fact that he had done little towards a real and permanent organization of our people. He was the main spring that kept the wheel in rotation; and when he was taken away no force strong enough to keep the machinery he had set in motion remained, and the consequence was, it became feeble in its action, but it has never ceased working altogether, a few true hearted men yet sustain its vitality. Father Spratt, in Dublin, has done much during the last 23 years to keep the Total Abstinence cause alive in that city; and several minor societies have always been in being, and have kept the fire on the altar of teetotalism burning-sometimes with a brighter, sometimes with a duller flame. During the past year it has shone with a steadier light, and has kindled better hopes in the hearts of the friends of this sacred cause. Our humble Hall in Cuffe Lane, under the Presidency of Father Spratt, assembles its five or six hundred willing hearers weekly, every Sunday evening. The society under the Presidency of Mr. Hunt, meets in the Merchants' Hall on Monday evenings, and is now in a flourishing condition. We have also a Ladies' Temperance Association in Dublin, and they occa sionally collect a good audience in the Metropolitan Hall. Several Temperance societies, connected with various religious bodies, also exist in the capital. "The Dublin Branch of the United Kingdom Alliance for Suppression of the Liquor Traffic" is deserving of special mention. It is silently, but I hope surely, doing good service in our cause, by diffusing information on that particular phase in our movement of which it is a representation in Ireland. In Cork, which was once the great scene of the labours of the "Apostle of Temperance," but in which city his death seemed, for a season, to deprive our cause of nearly all its vitality (which collapse was felt ROUGH WATERS. to become even colder on the lamented decease of Richard Dowden Richard, who was one of the most intelligent and earnest supporters of Father Mathew), I have learned with pleasure that a revival of Teetotalism has recently become manifest. May good and true men be found in that ancient and beautiful city proudly to sustain that standard under which its people once fought so nobly against the degrading and demoralising liquor traffic, which has yet so much power and influence in this fair land of ours, whose inhabitants might be, but for its benumbing influences, happy and prosperous, through the means of those blessings of Providence so bountifully offered for our acceptance. Throughout our four Provinces-especially in Ulster -fresh evidences of an earnest determination to grapple manfully with the cruel traffic-the great foe of our temporal and eternal happiness-have been, during the past year, manifested; but time and space prohibit my making any further allusions to these gratifying evidences of new life in our sacred cause. I must, in conclusion, say a few words on the necessity, and also the great importance of union among teetotalers. Isolated efforts will not accomplish the mighty work before the Temperance Reformer. The drinking mania which pervades our social system, from the Palace of the Sovereign, through all the gradations of society, down to the cottages of her lowliest subjects, has it deep foundations in an unnatural appetite, which, when once created, has an unvarying tendency to crave a continually increasing indulgence to minister to this appetite, which grows upon what it feeds, and is indeed insatiable in its demands. By a law of our being-for which, I believe, science has not yet discovered any satisfactory reason-our nervous system becomes so affected by the use of alcoholic stimulants, they acquire such an ascendancy over us as hurries away to destruction great numbers of the human race, who are in the condition of children and maniacs, unable to use their reasoning powers so as to guide their actions aright. Hence the necessity of union among all who would save themselves and others from the dread calamity of intemperance, and raise up those who have fallen into this miry pit, and who are sure to perish if no friendly hand be held out to them. The fashion of using the drinks which lead to these sad results must be undermined; and the idea that their use, even in moderation, is not injurious, either morally or physically, must be proved to be a most mistaken idea, before these miserable delusions can be made to pass away. The light of truth must be made to shine in upon the darkness which clouds the mind of very many, even of our otherwise intelligent men and women among the educated classes of society. This great work needs union among all parties for its accomplishment. Is the evil we contend against so great and so injurious to the best interests of man as to demand and require this union for its overthrow? That is the question for our solemn consideration. May the Almighty bless all your proceedings, and may they deeply impress upon the hearts of our countrymen a sense of the unspeakable importance of the great cause we advocate that much good may be the result of our labours. May our country, from the good seed we are now scattering broadcast, reap a golden harvest, and hand down to future generations an ever strengthening determination to banish from our beautiful Island, for ever, that foe which has, for many past generations, marred and destroyed the happiness of her people. The march of humanity is like that of any other army. It has its stout and hardy pioneers, who go before and make the rough places smooth; its vanguard, who do the first fighting; its main body of steady marchers, in no hurry, yet constituting the real line of battle in every great action. Rough Waters; CHAPTER IX. A FRIEND IN NEED. 91 CRIMINALS have slept soundly the night before their execution, and many a despairing wretch is strengthened by a refreshing slumber to begin life again. The sleep into which Adelaide Singleton fell had no feverish starts, and when she awoke at six o'clock the next morning, she felt like one whose strength had been renewed. She dreamed, too. A huge mastiff was pursuing her; with difficulty she was trying to escape through brushwood which impeded her at every step; she called for aid and shrieked until her throat was parched; the mastiff, with open paws, was about to spring upon her, when a blow from an unseen hand hurled him to the ground. She knelt down, prayed, and rose up not only strengthened but comforted. It was now an hour before breakfast, and she began to pack up. Next to prayer, nothing lightens sorrow like employment. As she was putting her music and books in a corner of her trunk by themselves, she took up a beautifully bound copy of Tennyson's Poems, given her some years ago, in happier days, by a friend who lived near them. She read the few lines written on the fly-leaf. She had done so a thousand times. "Presented to ADELAIDE SINGLETON, By her faithful Friend, FRANCIS JAMES BURCHER, When going to Australia. May 15th." It was a great trial to part with this memento of friendship and love; but what was she to do? She had but five stamps in her purse, and even the third-class ticket would cost six-and-tenpence. She had read of pawnoffices, and heard some poor people whom she and her mother often relieved speak of them, but she shuddered at the thought of going into one. She remarked one at the village, or rather Master Tommy pointed it out to her, asking what was the three balls for. She first corrected his ungrammatical mode of expression, and then began to explain something about the Lombardy coat of arms; but Master Tommy, with a knowing shake of his head, informed her that James, the man of all work, told him it meant two to one if you ever get what you pawn. On second thoughts, she determined to see Mr. Hunter, though she well knew he had long ceased to govern. He had been once a very poor curate, and thought the quickest way to steal a march on poverty was to marry Miss Eliza Emerilda Wriggle, an attorney's daughter, who was said to be very rich. Poor Hunter paid for his imprudence like many others who meanly barter love, happiness, and independence for a stipulated sum. Whenever he offered any opinion which in any way opposed his wife's notion of things, she generally met it with the elegant rejoinder of, "Oh, bother, I know a sheep's head from a hand-saw." At nine o'clock Anne brought up her breakfast on a small tray. "The missis says the car will be ready at eleven o'clock to bring you to the train at Layton," and she looked round at the walls of the room as if she half suspected the few prints had been put into Miss Singleton's trunk. "Like mistress-like maid," for Mrs. Hunter said at breakfast, or rather in the interval between the meal and family devotion, that she hoped "she would only take what belonged to her." "Anne, will you take this note to Mr. Hunter?" "Misses told me to bring no more letters; and, besides, she wouldn't let him read it, without reading it herself first." "Ask him to speak to me for a few minutes ?" "If I can get Misses out of the way, I will; but, if not, I cant, or wont. An hour passed by; it was now ten o'clock, and she 92 ROUGH WATERS.-JUDGE CRAMPTON. waited to see Mr. Hunter with all the impatience of a criminal expecting a reprieve. At half-past ten she saw a small basket carriage and dun pony, driven by a lady, coming up the avenue. She got a glimpse of her side face between an opening of the shrubs. She could not tell why, but that glimpse was like a sunbeam to her soul, and a presentiment of relief came to her mind. What enigmas we are! By what laws can we account for those feelings of dislike or love which come upon us quick as lightning? You meet a face in a crowd, and you carry the image for ever in your heart! Our friendships wont end here, and those kindred spirits that take our hearts by storm shall meet again. Blessed thought! we Mrs. Letstieg and her husband came to Layton about a year ago, and purchased a beautiful property. Seeing the spiritual darkness which prevailed among the people, Mr. and Mrs. Letstieg, both children of God, began those labours of love which we have seen blessed in many places. They had no children of their own, and having ample means and loving hearts they soon won the affections of all around them. Even Mrs. Hunter said, "Mrs. Letstieg is like an angel.' So she was; her face was as beautiful as a poet's dream-her form was like those statues sculptured by Grecian hands from fairest models. Her laugh! Such music! Adelaide Singleton heard it, and it cheered her. Thank God, you careworn and weary, for sending such people across your path. Sunbeams they are, thawing the icicles of disappointment and sorrow, and leading us onwards to light beyond. Stepping out of the carriage with fairy motion, she glided into the hall, and laughed as she saw Master Tommy sitting like a Hindoo at devotion before a sugar-bowl, the contents of which were fast disappearing. 66 "Mrs. Hunter, have you any message to London. I am going up by the eleven o'clock train. I should have sent over a few days ago, but I had several matters to settle, and deferred it until I came in person." "It is very kind of you, Mrs. Letstieg (Mrs. Hunter spoke differently to her husband, visitors, governess, and domestics), but as Edward (her husband) must go up to see about a governess in a few days, I wont trouble you this time. Can I take any of your meetings for you while you are away?" "Has your governess left you?-this was a part of my business this morning to make an apology for not having called on her before this." "She has turned out very badly," was the reply of Mrs. Hunter, and she told all that had occurred. Mrs. Letstieg waited very patiently to the end, and heard the comments without any interruption. "Mrs. Hunte., you should have given her an opportunity of explaining. May I see her?" "Oh, my dear, yes, but don't let her impose upon you." She went up, gave a low knock at the door; it was opened by as sorrow-stricken a face as she had ever seen. "Miss Singleton, pardon what may seem an intrusion. I came to apologise for not having called before; I am sorry to see you in trouble. As she said this a tear of sympathy was forcing itself into the corner of her eye. Miss Singleton saw it, and it drew her own tears afresh. She told her all-all she knew about her brother, her mother's poverty, her own poverty in not having a penny to bring her home. "Poor, dear troubled sister, God has sent me to you. I am no stranger to sorrow," and she placed her hand on her feverish forehead and removed it to wipe away the tears. "You must come with me to the train. I am going to London, and you can travel with my husband and myself." As she moved towards the table she saw the writing in Tennyson's poems. "Mr. Burcher! and you are the Adelaide he often spoke about." It would have taken a skilful physiog nomist to tell what that face expressed, and what that heart felt as the lips uttered the words. In ten minutes they were leaving the vicarage behind; but not the shouts of Master Tommy, for he bellowed like a young bull, more to annoy his mamma than through any regret he felt at the departure of his governess. Mrs. Letstieg was very silent during the drive. She appeared like one whose feelings had been deeply moved. They were just in time for the train, but had to delay until the down train-which was expected every moment-arrived. As it darted by, like an arrow sent from a giant's hand, Adelaide saw a gentleman wave a handkerchief. It attracted her attention; and quicker than I can write the words, she exclaimed, "Oh! my brother-there he is." A gentleman, with an eye like a hawk, was on the platform near her, and heard the words. He turned on his heel, and went into the Telegraph Office; and going to the station-master asked, "When does the next train go to Plymouth?" "Ten minutes, Sir." "All right. First-class return ticket, please." He was a London detective, but had been at Layton for the last twenty-four hours, and knew every incident in the life of Miss Singleton within that time. (TO BE CONTINUED.) Judge Crampton AND THE RISE OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION. ONLY once in a century a man like Judge Crampton dies; and the good take care that his memory shall not die. His name is immortal, connected with the origin, in the old world, of the Temperance Society. So early as March, 1830, we find him addressing, with great eloquence and power, large public meetings in the Friends' Meeting-house, Dublin, in company with Dr. Harvey, George Carr, and others, and reading the following documents : "We, the undersigned, hereby declare, that, in our opinion, nothing would tend so much to the improvement of the health of the community as an entire disuse of ardent spirits, which we consider to be the most productive cause of the diseases and consequent poverty and wretchedness of the working classes in Dublin." This was signed by Dr. Crampton, the Judge's brother, the venerable Dr. Cheyne, Physician-General, Sir Henry Marsh, Dr. Jackson, and other physicians. The second was similar, and was signed by twentyfour eminent Surgeons, with the Surgeon-General at their head; the cousin and namesake of the judge, Philip Cecil Crampton. The third was signed by the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, Frederick Shaw, the Recorder, and Major Sirr, and is as follows: "We, the undersigned, hereby declare that, in our opinion, an entire disuse of ardent spirits would greatly tend to the moral improvement of the community; and that an indulgence in them is the most fruitful cause of crime in Dublin." Cautiously as the honorable judge and his associates worked, they were in full operation as THE HIBERNIAN TEMPERANCE SOCIETY in 1830, and in June of that year they published models for the formation of auxiliaries, from which the following is an extract : "We, the undersigned, being impressed with a deep sense of the magnitude of the evils, both moral and religious, which result from the use of ardent spirits, and feeling it an imperious duty, by all honest means within our power, to attempt a reformation of the public sentiment and habits on this important subject, and believing that drunkenness-that desolating vice to which the use DEATH OF JAMES WM. RUMSEY, A.B., T.C.D. of ardent spirits naturally leads-can be subdued only by a combined system of instruction and action, operating permanently on the public mind, resolve to form an association," &c. In illustration of the great caution with which the learned Judge and his friends proceeded in their work of reform, the following letter, addressed by him to Dr. Edgar, on April 29th, 1830, respecting his speech in Dublin at the establishment of the Hibernian Temperance Society, furnishes very interesting illustration :"MY DEAR SIR-The report of your excellent speech on the 7th of April last has been before our committee. There is one point with regard to which we beg your further consideration. The Dublin Society has studiously set before itself one single object, namely, the abolition of the use of ardent spirits as an aliment; and has, therefore, guarded itself anxiously against the notion that wine is also proscribed by their principles. Some have doubted whether the Hibernian Temperance Society has gone far enough, but whatever be the weight of that doubt their election has been made, and it would be unvise now to make a change. Our committee think that the early part of your speech, as reported, attacks wine as well as ardent spirits, and fears to put forward as one of its publications a document which appears, in its preent shape, to militate against the fundamental principle. Would it be giving you too much trouble, or would you deem it impertinent in us, if we ask you to reconsider and modify the first part of your speech. I am, dear Sir, with esteem and respect, your very faithful servant, "Dr. Edgar." "P. C. CRAMPTON." # * The preceding letter is evidently in the style of one who felt that he had a right to the high honour which bad been conferred upon him; and as President of the Hibernian Society he was its chief ornament and bulwark at its first great meeting in the Rotundo, its great festival in the same place, and in Exeter Hall, with Dr. Edgar and others, at the establishment of the British and Foreign Temperance Society. Of the powerful support which he received in that eminent position from the wise and good, let the following letter to him from Bishop Daly be a specimen :"MY DEAR JUDGE-It is impossible that I can be at your temperance meeting; but this I can say that I wish you good luck in the name of the Lord. I can pray to the Lord for you, that you may be able to do something to stop the greatest evil in Ireland-the greatest adversary to religion and morality in our country. I have been now 23 years minister of this parish, and I can say I never, during that time, knew any flagrant evil in my parish that whisky was not in company and the chief actor. I have scarcely known a servant lose a situation that whisky was not the cause; I scarcely know a degraded family but where whisky has been among them. I can therefore say that I hate whisky with a perfect hatred. I would as soon keep company with a robber, a murderer, or adulterer, as with whisky. I would as soon introduce a young friend to these vilest sinners as introdace him to familiarity with this common pest. I am fully convinced upon the soundness of your principle of total abstinence from ardent spirits; and if any person should say that it is not a Christian act to abstain from any of God's creatures, which are all good, if used with thanksgiving, I would reply in the words of Paul-'It is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, or any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.' As a minister of the Gospel, I thank you and pray for you. If you keep the people out of the public house on Saturday night, it is more likely I shall have them under the sound of the Gospel on Sunday. We pray for whisky that it may be totally banished from the country; and wishing for you and your companions good success, I remain, dear Judge, yours very faithfully, "ROBERT DALY." (TO BE CONTINUED.) The man who is not troubled with scruples of conscience, however otherwise gifted or accomplished, is certainly neither a safe nor a desirable associate, and will, indeed, generally prove dangerous in proportion to his culture and endowments. DEATH OF JAS. WM. RUMSEY, A.B., T.C.D. IT is with feelings of the most poignant sorrow that we record the death, in the full bloom of manhood, of one of our most gifted and valued contributorsJames Wm. Rumsey, Esq., A.B. The all-devouring Tomb now contains the mortal remains of a graphic writer, an earnest speaker, and an unflagging supporter of every movement calculated to promote the well-being of man and the glory of God. As a temperance reformer Mr. Rumsey's zeal knew no diminution. Whether in the committee-room, in private society, or on the public platform, he was unwavering in his attachment to right principles, and many were the sacrifices he made in order to further the glorious cause of national sobriety. The plan propounded by the United Kingdom Alliance had no more hearty supporter than Mr. Rumsey, and some months ago, while addressing a meeting in Belfast, he expressed his warm approval of the Permissive Bill, as the best mode yet proposed for the suppression of the unholy traffic. Mr. Rumsey's burning zeal for the propagation of Temperance principles led last year to the publication of Agatha, a monthly magazine, which, from want of adequate support, had only a short-lived existence. His facile pen, however, up to nearly the close of his valued life, enriched the pages of several periodicals. To the League Journal his death will be a loss of no common description, as, on the conclusion of "Rough Waters," he had engaged to write a Temperance tale, which, we doubt not, would have been a great success. During the present month Mr. Rumsey was to have been ordained a clergyman of the United Church of England and Ireland; a curacy in Derbyshire was to be the scene, at least for some time, of his future labours; and, in a letter to us, shortly before his death, he expressed himself buoyantly as to his future career as a Christian minister; but, alas, "How frail at best is dying man! How vain are all his hopes and fears l' In the month of April Mr. Rumsey paid a visit to London and Paris, and had only been a few days at home in Dublin, when fell Disease, in the form of scarlatina, laid upon him its remorseless hand. He at once requested that we should be informed of his illness, which we fondly hoped would be of short duration. We loved him for his amiability of manner, his generosity of heart, and his brilliancy of intellect; and we prayed that he might long be spared to the church and the world. Our hopes are, however, disappointed. All that medical skill could do was unavailing; and, on May 21, at the early age of twenty-four, the silver cord being loosed, and the golden bowl broken, and the wheel broken at the cistern," his happy spirit returned to God who gave it, and two days afterwards, all that was mortal of our friend was laid in a vault in Mount Jerome Cemetery, near Dublin. As far as this shifting scene of toil and trial is concerned, with our talented and deeply regretted friend 93 94 ROOM FOR THE DRUNKARD.-SELECTIONS FOR THE YOUNG. 320,000 signatures. Doubtless these numbers will be greatly increased. There will, under any circumstances, be a goodly number left for the second reading, but we counsel presentations immediately. There are good reasons for this advice, which politicians would appreciate." At an important meeting recently held in St. George's Hall, Liverpool, T. B, Horsfall, Esq., M.P., who occupied the chair, made a powerful speech in Mr. favour of closing public-houses on Sundays. Horsfall said he expected to see some Irish member move that the Bill be made applicable to Ireland. A resolution in favour of Sunday closing was then moved by the Rev. W. M. Falloon, which was supported by the Rev. William Taylor. Dr. Verner White then delivered an eloquent address. It seems that in order to test how the people of Liverpool felt in reference to the subject, a canvass was instituted, and, out of 67,000 householders, 44,159 were in favour of total closing on Sundays. Only 3,330 were against Sunday closing, and 6,417 were for closing, except for two hours. 6,330 were neutral-"Don't care how it is." The classes who stood highest in favour of closing on the whole of Sunday (omitting the Scripture-readers) were labourers, mariners, and shopkeepers, while those who stood lowest were professionals, persons of no business, and merchants. Out of 36,013 labourers and artisans, only 4,052 were in favour of opening for two hours, 2,121 were for keeping open altogether on Sundays, whilst 30,920 were for closing on the whole of Sunday. A resolution of sincere satisfaction and thankfulness at the result of the canvass was adopted, and a deputation appointed to place the results before the Chief Secretary. In an excellent article, in favour of Mr. Somes' Bill, the Belfast News-Letter remarks: "It has very often been flippantly said that we car.not make people moral by Act of Parliament. We admit the fact, and yet Acts of Parliament are passed for the purpose of suppressing crime, which is the practical outcome of immorality. But there is one thing which can be done by Act of Parliament. Temptation can be removed out of the paths of the multitude. The traps which are baited for the destruction of youth, and health, and decency can be closed, at least on Sundays, by Act of Parliament, and there is no sound reason why they should not be closed Boom for the Drunkard. BY MISS H. C. HANSCOM. ROOM for the drunkard, room! Far from the haunts of men : Where he may fill his lonely tomb, Is in no prophet's ken; The plague-spot on his cheek Warns loud his steps to shun; Room for the trembling-weak—Leave him to die alone! Yes, leave him to his fate, His bottle by his side; With tattered clothes and rimless hat, His babes, those buds so fraught In poverty and shame; Then let him pine alone; But stay-is he not man? If heart be round him thrown,The errors of life's turbid stream, And for the past atone? Who knows what visions rude The past too well retrieve, Room for the drunkard, room! Thy trusting heart within; Stay his swift progress to the tomb, Lead him from paths of sin; His tattered garb remove Give water for his thirst; So shall he, 'neath thy guiding love, Make purity his trust. Pure as in life's young day, He won his loving bride Selections for the Young. PLANT EARLY. BY GEORGE ROY. TEN years ago I was one of a number of neighbours who each feued a piece of garden ground. We all laid off our little plots with great care and taste, each planting many beautiful shrubs and flowers. One of our number planted a great many little fruit-trees, and advised me to do the same, telling me that, if I did so, I would soon have an abundant crop of apples, pears, and plums. I laughed at the idea; and pointing to my friend's very little trees, told him that it would be a very long time before he could furnish apples for a hallowe'en party. I planted no fruit-trees, and had forgotten all about my friend's counsel, until one day in last autumn I had occasion to visit my friend who planted the little trees. He presented me with some delicious fruits; I inquired where he had procured them; "I grew them," said my friend, and led me into his garden, where I beheld a sight that I little expected to see; the trees, so small ten years ago, had now all become goodly trees, and were heavily laden with apples, pears, and plums of the choicest kinds. I now saw how foolish I had been in not taking my friend's advice, and planting fruit-trees. Now, my young friends, I would have you learn a lesson from my folly, and be warned to plant the seeds of all good in your young minds in the morning of life. The boy or girl who gives strict attention to lessons is like him who planted the fruit-trees; while he or she who neglects the opportunity of learning is as foolish as I was in not planting, for all useful knowledge is ever grow |