and intentions, and his firmness in other circumstances, in this trial they are too apt to fail him. Restraint must generally come from without, for all motives which arise from within, melt away before the glow of this detestable inclination.

We do not pretend that by influence of this kind, the intemperate can be thoroughly reformed, or that they can by such means become characters of pure and consistent virtue. In fact, we do not calculate that the most important effect of our exertions is to be upon those who are already the slaves of this inveterate propensity. The cure of such, there is too much. reason to fear, would be a hopeless attempt. But if their excesses can be checked, if the contagion of their example can be prevented, if the young can be inspired with a dread, an abhorrence of the vice, much, very much, will have been gained. It is indeed on the young, that all hopes of a radical reformation must depend. Our measures must be calculated to operate as preventives, and we cannot look for their full effect in our own generation; it will only be after another race has grown up to fill the places of their parents, with habits which have never needed to be reformed, that we can hope the change to be established upon a permanent foundation.

We are presented by the report with the result of some calculations and investigations, which have been made with regard to the state, means, and consequences of intemperance, in this vicinity, and particularly in this town. We should be glad, had we room, to extract their whole account; but must restrict ourselves to a few quotations, and an abstract of the remainder.

"In a year beginning the first Tuesday of July, 1808, there were granted in this county (Suffolk) 44 licenses to innholders, and 326 to retailers-total 370. In a year commencing the first Tuesday of July, 1817, 11 licenses were granted to confectioners, 362 to retailers, 120 to victuallers, and 43 to innholders, two of which were for Chelsea, amounting to 536 licenses of all descriptions."

It appears by some accurate calculations which follow the preceding extract, that the number of licenses granted in the year 1817, exceeded by 57, that to which they should have amounted, had they continued to bear the same proportion to the population of the town as in 1808; and that for the year 1817, "there was one place established which might furnish the means of intemperance to every twenty-one male inhabitants, sixteen years old and upward, in this metropolis." A fact is also stated with respect to the kind of licenses, which affords us at once a proof and a cause of the melancholy increase of intemperance among us; that in the year 1817 there were three

times as many authorized places of resort, where spiritous liquors might be bought, mixt, and drunk upon the spot, as in the year 1808!

Of the inevitable consequences of intemperance-poverty, disease and premature death, it may be thought useless to accumulate proofs. The statements of the Report, however, are so striking, and at the same time so well authenticated, that it is desirable the results should be as widely circulated as is possible.

"Two-thirds," we learn, "are brought into the Almshouse in consequence of intemperance; and it is the opinion of the present attending physician of that Institution, that this proportion falls short of the truth. Two-thirds, then, of the expense of the poor list in this town, viz. $25,000 annually, may fairly be charged to the account of the pernicious use of ardent spirits."* p. 9 and 10.

But this is not all. "A year of recent date was taken; and it was found, that of the adults, including those of the Almshouse, whose deaths were enrolled that year, one fifth part were well known as persons of intemperance, whose lives were undoubtedly terminated by its immediate effects, or by diseases occasioned or accelerated by it. One third of the deaths at the Almshouse, within the same period, were of individuals of this description. The characters of many of the foregoing adults were not ascertained, otherwise the proportion would probably have been increased. These fatal instances were not confined to the poor and laborious. They were found in the higher, as well as lower conditions of society, if not in an equal degree. Competence did not secure against this baneful habit. Riches and refinement had their share in the crime and misery. The calamity did not. end here. About one fourth of the unhappy victims were of that sex, to which we look for the greatest delicacy of sentiment, and the strictest propriety of conduct." p. 10.

From the various facts which are brought before the public in this Report, as well as from other means of judging, we cannot doubt that the vice of intemperance is still upon the increase in this town, although we are given ground to believe, that in the country in the vicinity, some check has been given to its progress. Part of this increase, directly among us, may, we think, justly be attributed to the great influx of foreigners of the lower orders, still more to the existing and increasing facility with which the means of indulgence are attained by even the poorest individuals. This facility proceeds principally

*We venture to add, in addition to the statements of the Report, the following, which has been drawn from the records of the public dispensary in this town, in only one district. Of 187 cases relieved by that Institution, 89 were females above the age of 16; of these, 15 were openly known to be addicted to the excessive use of ardent spirits; and of these, six were heads of families; the whole number of whom was 47. Of 44 males above 16, 23 were drunkards; and of 33 of these, heads of families, 18 were of the same description.

from the great number of places at which spiritous liquors may be procured in small quantities, and from the very low price at which they are sold. To the multiplication of such places of resort, there seems to be no end. Scarce an alley so obscure or so remote, but we meet with the public license, glittering in letters of gold, held out, an invitation and a welcome to these thresholds of infamy. It is in such places, that the final blow to sober habits, and consequently to all future respectability and happiness, is too often given. It is here that the drunkard is made. The beginner has no temptation to intoxication in the bosom of his family; and besides, the sense of shame alone, in him who is yet unhardened, would prevent him from the exposure of his infirmities to his wife and children, little, as he comes at last, to regard it. But in the dram-shop such motives cannot operate; they are at a distance, and he is not sensible of their influence. At the intervals or the conclusion of labour, a sense of weariness seems to ask for that relief, which liquor temporarily affords; company and association operate as an additional inducement, and the fatal step is taken. He meets perhaps with those somewhat more advanced than himself, somewhat more confirmed in their habits; and their example and conversation strengthen the temptation. There is something attractive to vulgar minds; nay, we blush to say it, to those who would consider it an insult to be classed among the vulgar, in the excitement, the hilarity, the jovial recklessness, which are the primary effects of the stimulus of ardent spirits. The young feel too often an ambition to partake in the same kind of enjoyment; they admire the gay and hearty laugh, the ready jest, and even the blasphemies or obscenity which scarcely sound harshly from such merry lips. All this they think cannot be very wrong, for no harm is meant; they imitate the example, and are lost. This evil might certainly be remedied in some measure, by the exercise of public authority. There can be no objection from any quarter, to an adaptation of the number of licenses to the real or supposed necessities or convenience of the com. munity. From no source can an application to authority so properly proceed, as from the General Society; and a measure of this kind is suggested by one of the auxiliary societies.

"We hope we shall not be thought presuming, when we further respectfully submit to the consideration of that Society (the Massachusetts Society) the propriety of an address from their body to the Courts of Sessions in the several counties, and selectmen of the several towns, calling their attention to the manifold evils of intemperance, and soliciting the aid of their influence, and the exertion of the powers with which they are entrusted, in checking these evils." p. 19,

Public authority also can interfere to increase the expense of habits of intoxication; and whenever circumstances have rendered this interference necessary to effect an augmentation. of revenue, the influence upon the habits of society has generally been favourable. It has been asserted, on good authority, that the number of drunkards and the deaths consequent on intemperance, have considerably diminished in London within sixty years; and this change has been attributed principally to the higher prices produced by the increase of duties upon ardent spirits. We are informed also, in this report, that the number of licenses in the counties embraced by their inquiries, was much lessened during those years, in which the prices of liquor were raised by the duties imposed on distilleries. There are surely none so fairly the subjects of taxation, as those who are wasting their substance and their health in this pernicious species of luxury; and yet strange as it appears, there have been no taxes so unpopular, none so unwillingly imposed, or so gladly repealed, as those upon ardent spirits.

But to ensure the co-operation of public authority, an influ ence must first be exerted upon public opinion. There are certain prejudices and customs existing, more or less, in all classes, whose constant tendency is to keep up the free indulgence in the use of spiritous liquors. Among these we allude. particularly to the universal, but most unfounded opinion, that they are necessary to support the strength of those occupied in bodily labour. It is important, that this mistaken notion should be done away. It would be easy, were this the place for such discussion, to offer sufficient evidence of the total fallacy of the common impression on this subject. But it is certainly very much in the power of the auxiliary societies to do away the common prejudices and common practice among the labouring poor, would they only unite and persevere in the resolution, not to allow the use of spirit among those whom they employ as labourers, and never to employ those who wilfully and obstinately persevere in habits of excess.

Many of the customs of civilized and social life, it must be obvious, are of a nature to encourage the yice it is our object to avoid. What these practices are, it is unnecessary to detail; some of them more prevalent in the interior than in our larger towns, are alluded to in the following extract. Speaking of the communication from the Dedham Auxiliary Society, the Report observes :

"Their report expatiates freely on the evils resulting from the perversion of the design of tavern licenses; on the custom too prevalent in that part of the country, of distributing liquors at public sales, and thereby

'bribing one to pay more for an article, than in his sober moments he would be willing to give, or inducing him to purchase what he does not want;' on the impropriety of exhibiting a variety of liquors to excite sensual desire, on those occasions when we bid a last adieu to the remains of a departed friend;' and on the practice of what is called treating, at the election of candidates for any public office, as calculated unduly to influence electors, and as incompatible with pure republicanism.' It concludes, by binding the importance of increasing the influence of precept by that of example. Abstain from all appearance of evil.'"

We are sensible that many are accustomed to think, that all formal attempts for the reformation of the morals of society are hopeless, and therefore useless. But we do not despair. By unremitted exertions, and the constant extension of societies, public opinions and habits will finally be affected. The subject must be frequently and obstinately pressed upon the attention, on every proper occasion, and in every proper way. Temporary want of success ought not to discourage. We must not believe our measures are ineffectual, because we cannot see their effects. The river deposits the alluvia of the mountains for centuries at its mouth, before it rises above the surface of the ocean; but it comes in time to be the seat of vegetation, and the residence of man. If another generation is to feel the effects of our endeavours, they are not therefore less valuable or meritorious. The less our purposes relate to ourselves, the more remote the objects to be benefited by their success, in the same proportion the virtue of our exertions is increased, and their reward will be enhanced.

ARTICLE III.

Reasons offered by Samuel Eddy, Esq. for his opinions, to the First Baptist Church in Providence, from which he was compelled to withdraw for heterodoxy. Second edition. Jones & Wheeler, 1818. Boston, sold by Wells & Lilly.

To those who consider the doctrine of a Trinity of persons in the Divine Nature as making a part of the system of Christian theology, it must have appeared, we think, a perplexing phenomenon, that it has ever been called in question. Reasoning from the acknowledged principles of the human constitution, we might say that it is just such a doctrine as would be likely to gain and secure a willing reception with the mass of men; just such a doctrine as, if they could not find, they would