The bases of the temperance reform: an exposition and appeal./ With replies to numerous objections. By Rev. Dawson Burns.

T/he Liquor Traffic azd hzitemnperanzce. I41
be reclaimed, it never can recover. Obviously, therefore,
any commercial system which operates directly and largely in the production of this evil subjects itself to the
severest condemnation. DOES THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC DO
THIS OR NOT? To the afrmat/izJe answer there zs not a disseiztizg voice. All Parliamentary deliverances have asserted this in the strongest terms, and the Committee of
Convocation's Report asserts what general observation
and all available information has made clear: "It appears
an unquestionable fact that, in proportion as facilities in
any shape for procuring intoxicating liquors are countenanced and afforded, the vice of intemperance and its dismal effects are everywhere increased. That this would
be the case has been continually maintained by members
of the community desirous of the repression of intemperance, and extensively acquainted with its phases and its
workings. This conclusion the evidence before your
Committee amply confirms."* The licensed vendors have
repeatedly admitted the truth of this position, and profess to found upon it their opp9sition to all measures for
increasing competition and "opening the trade." That
the increase of intemperance is related to the increase of
drinking-shops is true; but it does not follow from this,
as some imagine, that intemperance depends on a given
number of liquor-shops, or that the degree of the evil can
be estimated by the proportion of public-houses to population. The unit is the commencement of the mischief;
for the keeper of one place has a direct interest in extending the sale of the articles by which the drink appetite is created and fostered, and he has no such direct or
immediate interest in preventing the promotion of intemperate habits. A few curious instances are on record of
conscientious drinksellers seeking to prevent drunkenness by refusing to sell more than a specified amount to a
* Committee's Report on Intemperance, p. 4, and Appendix C.