Mr. Campbell, sheriff-substitute of Renfrewshire." In the most ordinary class of crimes that come under my cognizance, my impression is, that there is scarcely more than one in a hundred that does not begin and end with dram-drinking."

From a table of the total number of convictions for crimes, and the quantity of spirits consumed in the years 1801 and 1831, it appears that the increase of crime has been EXACTLY in the ratio of the increased consumption of spirits; and that in (of course) each instance, the increase is FOUR TIMES GREATER THAN THE INCREASE IN POPULATION WOULD ACCOUNT FOR!!!"

Capt. Brenton, R. N. (who commanded nine ships during the war.) Punishment was almost invariably occasioned by drunkenness in every ship I commanded."

Col. Stanhope testifies, that crime is produced in the army "nine times out of ten" by drunkenness.

Capt. Davies Ft. Regt.-" I cannot recollect a single instance, (having been twenty years in the service,) of a man having been brought before me, on a court martial, whose crime did not originate in drunkenness!"

Loss of Public Wealth. Mr. Dunlop, a justice of the Peace residing near Greenock.-" The calculation has been made that there were expended in spirituous liquors in the town of Glasgow, £451,000 in a year."

In reply to the query-"What is the amount voluntarily expended in the kingdom upon religious and moral institutions?" he says, "I have heard it stated at about half a million." (A mere trifle beyond the sum expended in poison in one town!)

We have already stated, that the amount expended in the Empire annually, in the purchase of ardent spirits, cannot fall short of 20 millions; add to this, the value of labour lost during intoxication, illness, lunacy, &c. with enforced idleness from drunkards being refused employment; and assuming the amount as equivalent to the total earnings of one-fiftieth part of the population, or the fifth part of the earnings of one-tenth of it, we have an additional loss of at least eight millions. The moiety of sums expended in charity, must be put to the same cause, and cannot be taken at less than a million and a half; two-thirds of the poor's rate may assigned to the like source. But we will take only half, which, with the proportion of local and public expenses occasioned by crime, must exceed four millions-we will say, three millions and a halfand we have a grand total of thirty-three millions of public wealth annually destroyed by this monstrous vice!!!

be

Let it be observed, that the most intelligent witnesses carry their calculation far, very far, beyond this estimate-the probability is, the amount of the evil exceeds that of THE SUM TOTAL OF OUR TAXATION!!!

Such then being the melancholy facts of the case, it is plain that every individual is personally interested in putting an end to so wretched a state of things. It is obvious that, independent of the

heavy contribution towards the poor-rates and police expenses, he is liable to the most serious injury to both his property and person, from the negligence, or unbridled and guilty passions, of the victims of intemperance. To the philanthropist, however, these considerations fade into insignificance, before the ardent desire he must feel to rescue myriads of his fellow creatures from the miseries and horrors of poverty, disease, ignorance, and crime!

The modes of effecting so god-like a purpose, are pointed out in the Committee's Report; and are, mainly, education, the providing innocent amusements for the poor, raising the duties on spirits, discouraging houses for the sale of the poison, and encouraging "TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES," whose efforts have in America been crowned with the most signal success. In that land of sound sense, the government and legislative bodies have assisted in the glorious work of benevolence and virtue, and the result already has been the abandonment of two thousand distilleries, and the withdrawal of six thousand persons from the retail trade in these execrable potion's!

The philanthropists engaged in the crusade against the " spirit slavery," a slavery far, far more pernicious than the negro slavery, earnestly entreat the aid of all who have the welfare of their common country at heart, and call upon them to petition the legislature, to take energetic measures to stay a plague, compared to which the Cholera was but a slight and unimportant infliction. POPLICOLA.

A FRAGMENT.

THE moonbeam streams through the lattice-how still it is! The vine-leaf sleeps in the midnight hour. You may hear the murmur of the distant brook gurgling over the white pebbles. Not a sound is there in the cottage, but the ticking of the clock. There she sleeps still and motionless as the night-leaf, and cold as the moonbeam that falls upon her bosom. The smile upon her lip will never be changed for tears. Her high fair brow will never be lined with wrinkles. She sleeps in beauty; and her morn of waking is eternity. The chamber is tenantless save by the dead. The moonbeam is her lamp, and solitude her mourner. But listen!a light hasty step approaches the door-it slowly opens. What is that little white figure? His face is pale—he has been weeping-his large eyes glisten in the moonlight. Poor child! thy mother cannot now kiss away the tear. He gently approaches the bed, and draws aside the curtain. He gazes on his mother's face-the tear rolls down his cheek, and falls upon her bosom. He kneels by the bed-side; and, clasping

He

That tender

His

his little hands, he pours forth his prayer of innocence. rises, and bends over his mother's face; he watches her smiling lip, till he forgets that it is cold and motionless. smile soothes his little mind, and makes it forget its grief. spirit is wafted back to days of peace and happiness. His head drops upon his mother's breast; and the mother and her child sweetly sleep together!

SERENADE.

AWAKE, awake, my ladye-love!

The sun is in the sky,

The bee is busy with the flowers,

The lark is up on high,

And grove and garden, heath and hill,

Are full of melody.

Awake, awake, my ladye-love !

Thy lover waits for thee;

Once more he longs thy lip to press,

Thy vermeil cheek to see,
And lingering in some hallow'd spot,
At thy dear side to be.
Awake, awake, my ladye-love!

Let me not sue in vain;

Why should the heavy dews of sleep
On those bright eyes remain?
Wake then, my own, my ladye-love,
And come to me again.

R.

NORWICH MECHANICS' INSTITUTION.

THE debating class connected with this institution commenced its present session on Thursday, the 24th of September, with an interesting discussion of the question-" Ought there to be any restriction upon the publication of opinions?" Mr. J. Kitton, the essayist, contended that such restriction was alike impolitic and unjust, as it interfered with private judgment, and increased the circulation of obnoxious and injurious works. In this view, he was opposed by several of the speakers.

PRINTED BY J. FLETCHER, UPPER HAYMARKET, NORWICH.

In the social history of the human race, the condition of woman may be divided into three great eras. The first-the age of primitive barbarity, when she was made the servile instrument of man's gratification; the second-the age of chivalry, when the lance of the knight was broken for her beauty and the voice of the troubadour sung her praise; the third-that in which we live, when the halo of glory with which the romance of bygone ages encircled her is fast vanishing away, and when, stripped of all extrinsic charms, she is indebted to her own native excellence alone for the estimation in which she is held. Civilization and religion have done much for mankind-they have done this; and while the light of science has been spreading over the earth and illuming its dark places, revealed truth has been going forth in its power and strength, breaking up the great fountains of idolatry and superstition, and scattering the prejudices of past ages to

the winds of heaven.

If woman, however, be regarded now with less of enthusiasm and devotion than when she was the "star of chivalry," she yet exercises an all-important influence on the destinies of the world. We propose a brief inquiry into the causes of that influence, and an attempt to show how it may be rendered subservient to the social and individual renovation of our race.

There is assuredly much that is low and mean in all that is connected with this world-quite enough to sully the fairest and freshest picture; yet should we at times view it in its brighter tints, and dwell upon its holier and more beautiful manifestations; not as those who are deceived by its illusions, but as those who see here a shadowy delineation of the purity and peacefulness of

a better state of being. And though a minute search after strange adventure must always appear, as it really is, absurd and contemptible, there is yet no reason why the imagination should not grasp whatever is bright and fair, or the mind dwell upon whatever is noble, or the heart hold hallowed communion with whatever is soft or stirring in the affections of its fellows. The fountains of feeling were formed to flow. The life-stream of charity, if it has lost much of its fragrance and freshness since it welled from the heart of the first sinless dweller upon earth, has yet enough remaining to smooth the asperities of life, and shed a soft and sacred influence on the intercourse of man with man. But it is in woman that these emotions of piety and pity are most beautiful and most becoming, and it is their manifestation in woman that affects most powerfully the habits and manners of mankind. We would not here be understood to advocate that excess of feeling which, like the sentimentality of Sterne would weep over a dead ass, and leave a living mother to starve. The caricature of sentiment is so absurd and disgusting, that many are led through the fear of it, to affect an indifference they are far from feeling. The Charybdis of callous indifference on the one hand, and the Scylla of spurious sensibility on the other, are alike to be shunned; and she who, having happily avoided either, divested alike of the freezing apathy of formality or fear, and the silly affectation of a sickly sentimentalism, stands forth with all her womanly feelings rife and lovely about her, is possessed of an immortal grace and ineffable beauty, and consequently of an almost omnipotent influence. There is nothing which wins so welcome a way to the human heart as heaven-born sympathy; and woman's tears flow ever with those who suffer-woman's smiles beam ever for those who rejoice.

Another cause of the influence which she exercises upon society is to be found in the very dependence of her situation. She is never so lovely as when leaning on man for guardianship and guidance, nor as when she seems rather to look for than to lend assistance. By the manifestation of such a disposition she insinuates herself into the vantage ground and gains the best position by surprise. Yet with all this beautiful and becoming dependence, she often exhibits in danger or distress a strength of resolution, and firmness of purpose, greater than that of man himself.