Now if we add to the amount consumed in 1821, viz. One-fifth for increase of population 44,271,325 We have, as the amount that would have been consumed in 1835, had the rate of consumption per head been the same as it was in 1821 53,125,590 Again, the quantity consumed in 1835, was DECREASE WAS NINETEEN PER CENT. Add one-fifth for increase of population, from 1835 to 1850 The amount which would have been consumed in 1850, allowing for increase of population, would be Whereas the amount actually consumed was only On calculating the articles separately, we find that the decrease was, on Rum, 45 per cent.; TO THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION, WAS IN ROUND NUMBERS, THEN, THE INCREASE IN THE CONSUMP PER CENT. MORE THAN FIFTY THE FIFTEEN YEARS SUBSEQUENT TO ITS COMMENCEMENT, THE ABOVE THE INCREASE OF POPULATION; WHILE IN In our former statement, a progressive increase was shown to have taken place in the consumption of tea, coffee, &c., AFTER the the year 1835; and as this has, by some persons, been regarded as the cause of the falling off in intoxicating drinks during that time, we would observe that, though to some extent such may have been the case, yet that it was not mainly owing to that cause is manifest from the fact that, BEFORE the temperance reformation, the increase in non-intoxicating drinks was much greater, while the use of intoxicating liquors at the same time continued to increase. In reference to the extraordinary increase in the consumption of both intoxicating and non-intoxicating beverages soon after the year 1825, we may observe that, it was most probably owing to the great impetus about that time given to the trade of the country generally, and more especially to that in the manufacturing districts, those great hives of our domestic industry. Coffee, which had previously, owing to its high price, been used chiefly by the wealthier classes, became very rapidly an almost universal beverage. This was soon afterwards the case with cocoa, an article now prepared in a much cheaper form than was then the case, and is sold at about an eighth part of the price. We have no desire to overstrain our case, or to draw from the above statements any conclusions which they will not fairly warrant. During the first fifteen years there doubtless existed various circumstances calculated to stimulate consumption in all the articles enumerated. During the second period there have been in many parts of the kingdom various agencies at work tending to improve the condition of the working classes, and to draw off their attention from low and degrading pursuits; but making every fair allowance for these circumstances, we are persuaded that, taking the whole country into account, the Beer-shop Act, by its extraordinary multiplication of the temptations to drink, has proved far more than a set-off for the effects of schools, mechanics' institutions, &c. That the great change to which we have adverted has been mainly brought about by the total abstinence movement, few persons acquainted with the facts of the case will, we believe, hesitate to admit. The amount of information communicated through the press alone (to say nothing of our numerous public advocates traversing the length and breadth of the land), greatly exceeds what those ignorant of our proceedings have any conception of. During the last three years, the number of pages of temperance literature issued by one society only (the Scottish Temperance League), amounts to upward of seventeen millions. There have been, within a few years, more than twenty millions of pages of Temperance Tracts sent from the Ipswich Depository. The efforts of the Temperance Society have been almost unparalleled, and to them chiefly we feel justified in referring the above named gratifying results. (From the Bristol Temperance Herald for February, 1851.) J. M. Burton and Co., Stereotypers and Printers, Ipswich. A WORD FOR MYSELF. BY SIXTEEN YEARS A TEETOTALER. BENJAMIN PARSONS. A NEW year is generally a time of reflection. How long have we lived? What have we been doing? What is the manner of our life and the state of our health? How long are we likely to live? Are we prepared for another world? These are questions which all thoughtful people ought to ask, especially when the various revolutions of time are reminding us that our days are hastening to a close. These thoughts have of late been rather forced upon the attention of the writer, by the fact of so many of his friends and neighbours having fallen around him just as 1850 closed and 1851 commenced; and, among other things, he was induced to review his own teetotal life, and some things occurred to his mind which he thought would not be unprofitable if sent to the press. About SIXTEEN YEARS ago I became a Teetotaler. As I have often said, previous to that period, the doctors had given it as their opinion that my nerves were so shattered, that nothing but giving up reading, thinking, and the ministry altogether, would afford any hope of recovery. My nervousness was such that I enjoyed nothing. I held tightly by both rails of the stairs lest I should fall from top to bottom; I expected every hour to drop down dead, and indeed suffered a living martyrdom. With a life, then, not worth six months' purchase, I commenced teetotaler, and "having obtained help of God," have continued until this day, and have enjoyed as large an amount of bodily and mental health as any person in the kingdom. I am quite willing to compare notes with any individual in the world as to my exemption from pain and ailments of any kind during the sixteen years of my teetotal history. I am also ready to examine with them my labours. I have studied for more hours every day on an average than I ought, and have to some extent put my health in jeopardy; I have worked hard with my hands, feet, and tongue, and have had, perhaps, more than a common share of the cares and anxieties of life; and yet I have never been ill, have required no medicine, and for the last six years and a-half have taken none at all. I may add that my spirits have been cheerful, and my labours and pursuits, which before were so perfectly irksome, have afforded me the highest pleasure. Now, this is a tolerable testimony from a man whom the doctors had consigned to mental inactivity and a life of disease. And I deem it necessary to make it here, because I am no believer in the earthly immortality of teetotalers. I do not think that we are entirely free from disease, or, at any rate, from the decay of nature to which all are doomed. I have, it is true, a firm conviction that total abstinence is the best medicine; that teetotalers are more likely to escape disease than other persons, and that they have a greater prospect of a good old age. But still the life of every one must end, and, with many of us, may end soon; and it is best to be ready, that we may not be taken by surprise. I have, during this period, seen a large number of my friends, neighbours, and acquaintances carried to the grave. Many of them appeared much stronger and far more likely to live than myself. Ministers, deacons, and tradesmen ; the young, the strong, the healthy; men and women beloved, pillars of their families, of the Church, of their country, and the world, have become low-spirited, nervous, dyspeptic, paralytic, deranged, insane, or have died suddenly of apoplexy. If chemistry and physiology be right, the drink of these valuable persons was chiefly to blame. They had not only a host of exciting cares, but they would take stimulants, and thus over-worked a nervous system which already was too much burdened with mental anxiety. The string was drawn too tight, the vibration was perpetual, the atmosphere was unpropitious, and at last the catgut snapped, and the music of the instrument was gone. Others again of an inflammatory temperament would, in spite of every admonition, drink the living fire, and thus added fuel to the flame, and sent themselves prematurely to the bar of their Judge, literally rending themselves from their families, the Church, and their country, before half their work was done. We have lately seen the account of the death of one of England's most hopeful and valued sons. A man of first-rate talent; a minister of commanding eloquence; a labourer in almost every good work; a pillar in the Church; and an individual of whom any age and nation might be justly proud. His chief, perhaps, almost his only defect was, that he stoutly opposed the Temperance Reformation. He treated it with scorn, and sometimes launched at it the shafts of his ridicule. We have heard him do this on the platform. We were once at a public meeting of ministers, when a proposition in favour of total abstinence was made. Most present accepted the resolution with deference, or in silence, except two individuals. One of them, who held up a tremulous hand against it, was so nervous that he could not read a resolution which he afterwards had to propose. Stimulants had shaken his whole frame, and yet he took these poisons as his daily medicine, and was indignant and wrathful that any one should dare to advise him to abandon these banes. The other was our friend; and when the memorial from the the Temperance people was introduced, he exclaimed: "Here are these Teetotalers bothering us again!" and held up his hand against them. As I sat next to him I heard these words with my own ears, and saw the deed with my own eyes: and must say that I felt deeply pained, not for myself or our cause, but for the esteemed individual who was thus opposing a principle which would have prolonged his own days and usefulness. I knew that from his great mental labours he was living too fast, and that to him stimulants were death; and then and there I predicted what must follow unless he joined our ranks: and my friend is now buried, before reaching his sixtieth year! Just when his intellect was mature, when his character gave him an influence that monarchs might envy, and his manly eloquence fitted him for the noblest enterprises, he became nervous, and after lingering awhile, left our sphere for the bar of GOD! It is usual to talk of imbecility, derangement, insanity, and madness, as mental diseases; but we are very sceptical on this point. The soul is a divine emanation—a spiritual essence, into which corporeal ailments can never enter. The fever is in the brain, and not in the soul. The inflammation of the mucous membrane of the stomach, so often brought on by stimulants, and leading to madness, |
