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

I 6o Tlze Siuppressionz of the Liquor Traffc.
be to prove that whatever a person wants the law must
allow to be sold; but Mr. Mill admits that sale is a social
act, and, therefore, if subject to social regulation, why not,
if necessary for the social good, also subject to prohibition?
How can it happen that, at one and the same time, society has the right to restrict or forbid the sale of something
which a member of society has a right to claim shall be
sold? Such " rights" are conflicting, and cannot both be
sustained; but the social fabric rests upon the principle
that the individual has not a right to demand that anything shall be done which society judges to be prejudicial
to the common good. If he reply, "What I wish is something for my pleasure or my good-something that I
should not abuse" (say, the wine of which Mr. Mill
writes), the answer is one and the same: "Supposing your
use would be harmless to you (a point which is quietly
assumed by Mr. Mill, in regard to the use of wine), what
you require to be done in order to that use would not in
our judgment be harmless, and therefore cannot be
be allowed." And this answer is either conclusive, or
there is no conclusive answer to be given to any person
who wishes, for the sake of his own convenience or
advantage, to have liberty to do, or to cause to be done,
something which is prejudicial to the common good. As
to the sale of intoxicating liquor, it is plain that if society
has a right to stop the sale for public ends, no citizen can
have a right to buyz'.e. to claim that the sale shall exist
-for his private ends; and to identify his claims with
liberty is to degrade it into every epicure's drudge, instead of reverencing it as the protector of social rights.
The form of this objection, which draws a parallel between
personal liberty of conscience and worship, and the liberty of using and buying strong drink, is also too whimsical to need reply. Liberty of conscience is beyond the
reach of law, and liberty of worship cannot be compared
with the liberty of using, buying, or selling strong drink