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

The Objectioiz fi-oi "Exaggeratioit" Answered. 27
bias in favor of total abstinence. WVhat say the Committee of the Lower House of Convocation in their Report
on Intemperance? " The results of intemperance, as portrayed in the evidence before your Committee, are of the
most appalling description. To this cause may be traced
many of the crimes and miseries which disturb the peace
of states and poison the happiness of families; while it
depraves the character, impairs the strength, shatters the
health and nerves, and brings thousands to an early
death. It is found to fill our prisons, our workhouses,
our lunatic asylums, and penitentiaries, and, more than
any other cause or complication of causes, to frustrate
the efforts and baffle the hopes of all who have at heart
the elevation and welfare of the people.... As to the
evils inflicted on society and the nation at large by intemperance, these, in their nature and amount, as attested in the evidence before your Committee, are not only
harrowing and humiliating to contemplate, but so many
and widespread as almost to defyvcomputation. It may
be truly said of our body politic'that the whole head is
sick and the whole heart faint.' "*
The latest Parliamentary Committee on the subject of
intemperance (to enquire into the best plan for the con
trol and management of habitual drunkards) state in
their Report (I872)- -"There is much evidence to show
that in large towns and populous districts the great evil
of drunkenness is on the increase. That drunkenness is
the prolific parent of crimie, disease, and poverty, has
received much additional confirmation. That it is in
evidence that there is a very large amount of drunkenness among all classes and both sexes, which never
becomes public or is dealt with by the authorities, but
which is probably even a more fertile source of misery,
* See " Report of Convocation," pp. 7-11, with corroborative evidence in
the Appendix to the Report.