of ale and whisky would again be re-established throughout the land as firmly as ever.

When a gentleman asks a labourer, farmer, servant, or mechanic, to join an Abstinence Society, he, in his ignorance, believes that he merely requires this individual to give up liquor; but he, in fact, asks him to go in the face of usages which are in general much more difficult to break through than any desire of strong drink would be. He, therefore, asks a great deal more from the working man than the mere disuse of liquor; for the new Temperance member must not only refrain from his usual beverage, but in the course of a week, has, perhaps, to reverse twenty rules and customs of drinking, as imperative as the maxims of a Turkish seraglio; while the said gentleman, by still sustaining his own series of wine courtesies, maintains the very system which the working man finds so much difficulty in combating.

The general want of acquaintance with this subject, among the upper ranks, is extremely remarkable; and those intelligent men in the industrious classes who know their own usages, are little aware of their prevalence in other professions, and have never been led to generalize upon the subject, and take an extensive view of the bearings and pressure of these customs upon society. I have not met one individual yet to whom the subject, in its general bearings at least, has not till lately been entirely new; a most extraordinary circumstance, considering that we have been all born and bred in the midst of these practices.

In the course of investigations upon this topic, I once fell into conversation with a judicious employer, who stated that he had been a prosperous man in his affairs, that he had little to annoy him during the course of a long business life, with the exception of one perpetual vexation-the addiction of his workmen to intemperance, which often prevented important orders from being duly executed, and injured materials and work continually. Conceiving that I had now a good opportunity of gaining information, I requested to know on what particular occasions his men were apt to go astray; he coldly replied, that, although he had reason to believe that they had some rules of their own regarding their drinking bouts, yet he knew nothing of them and had never inquired.

In general, I have found employers extremely ignorant on this topic, except those who had once been in the operative

ranks themselves.

I was more successful in another case. A highly respect

able gentleman, proprietor of an extensive manufactory, stated, that he had read the first edition of this work, published some time ago, and was convinced of the general truth of its positions, being able to confirm them by a case that happened to himself. He and some other proprietors in the same line of business, determined that they would put an end to the intemperance of their workmen by the strong hand. They entered into engagements with each other to turn off every man that came to the works the worse for liquor. He kept scrupulously to the bond, and cashiered without mercy: but the more coercion of this kind was used, the more inebriation seemed to grow and increase, as if by magic. On probing the matter, he found that the spell consisted merely in one of the drinking usages of the trade. Every new workman that came was bound to pay one guinea of entry or footing, which was added to by the other workmen, and spent in strong drink. The sobriety-forcing process had acted nearly in the following manner :-Two drunken men were turned off one week, and two fresh men were admitted, each bringing a drinking guinea along with him; this began a debauch which ended in four men coming drunk to their work next day; they were immediately turned off; four fresh men, and four fresh guineas were introduced, and in consequence a still greater number of offenders had to be dismissed next week. Intemperance went on progressively, and in an augmenting ratio, till the good sense of the employer put a stop to this erroneous method of proceeding, which, by itself, could effect no salutary change in the circumstances, as long as the usage remained in force.

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'My liquor," affirmed "there is not a "You don't say

At other times I have found masters extremely unwilling to acknowledge specifically the intemperance of their artisans, as if this were à reflection on their own character. men, really, seldom or never get the worse for an employer, when spoken to on the subject; more sober set of workmen in the district." so," observed a bystander; "is not Thomas Such-a-one, and James Such-a-one, in your service; and were they not in the police-office for a drunken riot all night before last?"

It is also very troublesome sometimes to get at a usage, from the difficulty of defining it, so as to make people understand precisely what is meant. It has on numerous occasions taken the writer nearly an hour's work to explain this to one individual; and he may just add, that the strict definition of the term "drinking usage," as it has been before given, will be found a matter of more consequence in anti

usage operations than is obvious at first sight. Thus, customs or habits of drinking for diet, bodily refreshment or indulgence, are not strictly usages, at least as we (for want of more appropriate language) have defined the phrase; but we restrict the term to artificial, conventional use of liquor, on some occasion which nature has not pointed out, but which conjunction man has chosen to constitute, so to speak, on his own authority.

To recur to the ignorance of the upper ranks on the frequency and potency of drinking usages on the classes beneath them. It happened that a gentleman was travelling lately from the lowlands of Scotland to Inverness by the steam-boat. At a particular station, they met the opposite steam-packet coming from the north. It chanced that a sailor-lad on board of the one boat thus fell in with his brother, also a seafaring man, who was bound for the Clyde, intending immediately to sail on a foreign voyage. They had not seen each other for seven years, and it might be other seven before they should again encounter. The two captains, interested in the case, permitted them a few minutes' delay, that they might converse apart on family concerns. They instantly adjourned to the public-house, and ordered a gill of spirits. The gentleman in question was quite surprised and at a loss, on seeing this ceremony; but was informed by a fellow-passenger, more knowing in the etiquettes of the working-classes, that if the brothers had not acted thus, they would have been supposed scarcely to understand how to demean themselves aright, or how to treat one another with ordinary decorum.

A lady residing in a large city in Scotland, removed for the summer months to a smaller town on the sea side, and occupied a lodging whose offices did not admit of her carriage being accommodated, which was, therefore, kept at the yard of the principal inn. Her coachman one day having been intoxicated, nearly overset the carriage, at considerable risk to his mistress: this was a subject of much anxiety to her friends; the man was a faithful servant, of generally sober habits, had a family, and it was desirable, on many accounts, that, notwithstanding the untoward occurrence, he should be retained. An office-bearer of a Temperance Society, whose operations included certain proceedings on the anti-usage view, was consulted. He requested to know the usage on which John had got drunk; after explanation of what was meant by this expression, the matter was inquired into, and it was found that the lady having in the course of the summer purchased a new carriage, the usage necessary on such occa

sion was a treat of whisky by the postilion of the said carriage, to the ostlers and grooms of the inn at which it was lodged; in the dispensation of which John had somewhat yielded to temptation. The Temperance official, pretending to take the coachman's part, stated that it was nearly impossible to help a similar occurrence, or to prevent a servant from fulfilling the usages of his class: as well might he go at once to Coventry with all those in his own circle. "But what have servants to do with such usages," was the reply; "especially if they be those that may put the master's life in danger?" The Temperance member waived the answer, and changing the subject, asked if it was still the fashion of the town of for ladies to drink wine in the forenoon in compliment, whether they really required it or not? "Of course they did." "Was it not a foolish, if not dangerous custom?" "Yes, it was really absurd." "Would Mrs. be inclined to give it up in her house?" “The thing was impossible. Every one did it. She would be singular, and would give offence." "So would John," returned the Temperance member, "if we were to prevent him from tasting at those times and seasons when the rules of his class enforce it."

One other instance of the ignorance of gentlemen of the force of usage on the lower classes, and we have done. It appears that, in a district on the west coast of Scotland, a man, otherwise respectable, had become somewhat intoxicated, and falling between his vessel and the quay, into deep water, would have been drowned but for the vigorous exertions of a stranger, who, at considerable personal risk, saved his life. Half drunk and half drowned, the man knew little of what had passed, till he was informed next day. He then dressed himself, and went out for the purpose of expressing his thanks to the individual who had been the means of preserving him; to whom accordingly he repeated his grateful acknowledgments, and concluded the whole with requesting him to come over the way to a respectable public-house, and taste a little.

This anecdote was, on purpose, told to several gentlemen successively, and then to several men in the industrious walks of life. The gentlemen all agreed, that nothing but the most inveterate habits of brutal inebriation could have induced this individual to rush again to the dangerous potations that the day before had nearly proved his ruin. The circumstance of inviting another to take away the one-half of his whisky, they could not exactly explain. The story did not at all make the same impression on the mechanics, to whom it was also

related. They admitted that the man might have been given to liquor, but that the facts of the case did not authorize such a verdict as the gentlemen would have given. As to his inviting his new friend to taste at a public-house, the universal observation was, "What could the man do? It was the only way in which he could properly acknowledge his obligation, or express civility and gratitude, in conformity to the manners of that class of people to which he belonged.'

We have stated that all drinking usages are debts of honour; the regulations, therefore, of Temperance Societies that do not reach the point of honour, will not perfectly meet and cover the whole case of this country. The arguments on the evils of inebriation may be most cogent, and it may be demonstrated that alcohol is by no means a defence against cold, heat, wet, or fatigue, but the reverse; all this, and a hundred times more than this, may be enforced; yea, it may be absolutely and positively and unfeignedly admitted by the auditors; yet the point of honour not having been satisfactorily adjusted, a usage intervening next day, will neutralize the most weighty reasons that may have been heartily acceded to the night before, at a Temperance meeting. Let us attend for a moment to an analogous case. Perhaps there are few situations, in which more solemn or satisfying argument can be used, than with a friend who has become implicated in some honourable mesh and noose of fashionable life, which may draw into a duel. It can with truth be represented to him that wounds, blood, and decrepitude for life, may be in the sequel. It can be unanswerably demanded, what is to become of his amiable wife and beloved children, who are dependent on his professional exertions for nurture and maintenance? Or, if his own sad case do not move him, will not the mournful state of his adversary prevail upon a generous mind—a man with ten young boys and girls, and an estate, perhaps, critically involved; a man, whose premature death may all around strike terror, and entail disaster? And if these mere earthly claims penetrate the very heart, what shall be thought of the vindictive frown of Heaven? In short, in few cases can argument of more genuine weight and temper be brought to bear than in this; and no man is, in fact, more assured of its truth than the party himself to whom it may be directed. But it does not reach his case-the point of honour is unredressed; he goes forth with all his convictions weighing on his soul, receives the fire of his antagonist, and dies. In like

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