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

I44 The Sppressioni of the Liquoior Traffic.
the neighborhood, by which domestic drinking and
femnale social tippling would be sustained. There is, in
short, no escape from the conclusion that, Mhe lraffc adt
alcoholic lisuors bcezif what it iinlrinsb-ca7y is, no anzoztit/ of
care i,, the vendor will izake it harmless; while, judging
of human nature by its average qualities, it is ridiculous
to expect that the sellers of intoxicating drink will
subordinate and sacrifice their own pecuniary profits to
the maintenance of sobriety in their districts. As a rule,
with few exceptions, they will sell to all customers, without any delicate or serious concern as to the present
habits of the buyers, or the probable effect of the
liquor sold at any given time upon the sobriety of the
drinkers and the general temperance of the vicinity. A
perception of this fact is revealed by the desire of all
social and moral reformers to attract men and women
from the public-house, although the licensing of them
proceeds on the supposition that no public-house is to be
a means of intemperance and demoralization. Experience is more powerful than any legal fiction; and the best
men of all classes have learnt that though Orpheus is
said to have tamed wild beasts by his melodious music,
there is no charm in legal regulations by which the drinking-house can be constituted a temple of temperance.
Police siterdzvisot is a lamen/able failure, and not unfrequently the policeman is himself the victim of the evil
against which he is principally supposed to guard his
neighbors. Police authorities confess that the most
active agents in demoralizing their men are the liquorshops, especially at nights, when their influence in the
promotion of general intemperance is the greatest. A
world of truth is condensed into the testimony of one
witness: "If the policemen inform, magistrates do not
convict. Every policeman we have had resident has frequented the public-house himself. The residence of a
police-officer in a moral parish has proved more hurtful