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

i6 Thize Driilkin, Systez ouzr Chiief Social Evil.
injudicious medical advice, and other private means.*
It may be laid down as axiomatic that this circulation of
alcoholic beverages, however brought about, is attended
with innumerable dangers and evils; and that upon all
who assist in this circulation, and more especially upon
persons of public and social influence, a great weight of
responsibility rests, which cannot be shaken off by any
avowal of good intentions or regrets for the miseries that
ensue. Ignorance cannot be pleaded of the tendency of
alcoholic liquors to entice, corrupt, and destroy; and no
one can be released from that share of accountability for
the aggregate effects, which is incurred by helping to circulate the drinks that operate thus injuriously on the
personal, domestic, and national state.t But both the
production and circulation of intoxicating liquids are
subservient to 3. THE CONSUMPTION OF THESE ARTICLES AS BEVERAGES.-They are produced to be drunk; they are circulated to be drunk; and that they are very generally and
copiously drunk is a matter of statistical demonstration.
They are drunk to such an extent that (looking to their
alcoholic quality) above two gallons of alcohol would be
the yearly portion of each person in the nation, did every
person drink and did all drink alike; but, as millions
drink little or nothing, the average consumption of alcohol for each drinker cannot be less than from three to
four gallons per annum. The question, then, presents
itself-whether this aggregate consumption be a good or
an evil? and what is the kind and degree of good or evil,
or both, resulting from the system of drinking?
If any good arises from strong drink, it must be derived
* Mr. Dunlop, in his "Philosophy of Drinking Usages," enumerates nearly 300 trade and other usages associated with drinking. Many of these
(especially the compulsory forms) are extinct; but the reform is yet incomplete.
t See Appendix E.