after which Bro. Johnson, G.W.P., of the London Grand Division, instituted a cadet section of the Order, in which 26 members were enrolled, thus successfully meeting a long-felt want. A public meeting was held at 8.15, at which Bro. Johnson delivered a lecture on the special advantages of the Order, showing the satisfactory state of the funds, and proving by statistics that the average illness is only 4 days per member per annum, whereas, in other (non abstaining) benefit societies it is much higher, showing that the society recommended itself to all thoughtful abstainers. The lecturer also spoke very encouragingly regarding the rapid growth of the Brighton Division, which had initiated 14 members during the quarter, and now numbers 161 members. Bro. Robinson then gave a very earnest and impressive address on the work of the Order, and concluded by cordially inviting those present who had not joined the Sons of Temperance, at once to do so. The meeting was then brought to a close by singing the doxology.

Wednesbury.-The Grand Division quarterly returns just to hand, show an increase of one Division, and 22 members in the quarter ending, September 30. The following amounts have also been added to the respective funds, viz:funeral fund, £19 5s. Od.; management fund, £8 8s. 3d.; guarantee fund, £15 2s. 6d. The Gwyther Division has joined this fund for the first time. The Cadet fund has also been augmented by the sum of £2 6s. 8d. The number of members reported in good standing was 401; Cadets, 128. Stockton-on-Tees.-Peacemaker Division met on Saturday, October 7th. One was received for membership, and five proposed, making ten candidates waiting for initiation. Total number of members in good standing at end of quarter, 157.

METROPOLITAN DRINKING.

A correspondent, signing himself "J. W. H.," writes to the Echo as follows:

The number of persons taken into custody on all charges in the Metropolitan area during 1881 was 77,377, which is 2,113 under the total for 1880, 4,008 under that for 1879, and 6,369 under that for 1878. It is, however, above the average, for the total apprehensions for the decade ending 1880 present an average of 76,314.

Of these, 8,567, of whom 3,854 were females, were charged with drunkenness, which seems a remarkable improvement since last year, when the figures were respectively 13,348 and 6,439. Sir Edmund Henderson has, however, been under the necessity of pointing out that this improvement is more apparent than real, being due largely, if not entirely, to the fatuous police order, whieh resulted from some magisterial decisions, whereby drunken persons are ordered to be released, when sober, on their own recognisances to appear. "As a rule," he says, "nothing more is seen of them;" and though 1,570 who were thus released must be added to the 8,567- making 10,137 for the year's apprehensions for simple drunkenness-we have also to bear in mind that the police, as their superintendents stated in their reports last year, do not trouble to apprehend drunkards while conviction is so easily evaded by a false address and a non-appearance.

The separate charge of being drunk and disorderly contains 18,721 cases, of whom 8,689 are females, which shows pretty clearly the misleading effect of the order and action above mentioned; for these figures show an increase of no less than 2,201 as compared with the previous year. In this case culprits are not released, as there is against them the additional charge of being disorderly. The London drinking charges in 1881 thus stand at the terrible total of 28,858, of which women account for 12,543. Of those apprc

hended, only 19,743 were summarily convicted, a

The decade from 20 to 30 is therefore far the worst, as it is for nearly all crime. It is noticeable that the whole of the year's increase in intemperance is observable in the decades 20 to 30 and 30 to 40, the other decades showing a decrease as compared with the previous year.

We may also note that, in spite of the accumulated and varied evidence as to the futility of the present system of punishment, 18 out of 19 are merely fined, and a month remains the maximum of punishment even for those who have scores of previous convictions. In March the number of females apprehended for drunkenness actually exceeded the males.

There were 196 publicans, &c., summoned by the police, but only 122 convicted, i.e. one to every 254 persons apprehended for drunkenness an eloquent fact. Drunkenness may increase, but the publicans are apparently less and less responsible, even for permitting it, as the numbers of those convicted in the last five years have been 210, 187, 182, 158, 122 which is more remarkable than explicable.

The learned professions are thus represented:Clergymen and ministers, 2; lawyers, 27; and medical men, 40. Of those who describe themselves as of no trade or occupation, 3,562 were men and 9,176 women, these being in most cases married women.

We must, of course, take these figures, saddening as they are, as but one item in the calculation of the amount of crime that is due to intemperance; for in thousands of other cases the murder, manslaughter, assault, suicide, wilful damage, furious driving, desertion, and even vagrancy or theft, was due to, or committed when under, the influence of intoxication. And even then, taking three-fourths of all crime as due to intemperance, we must add those thousands who have escaped notice or evaded apprehension, and the quiet sot-at-home drunkards. And parish clergyman, doctor, or relieving officer who probably knows of ten undoubted drunkards who had for the year, or perhaps altogether, escaped apprehension. We can begin to calculate from these figures, but must not consider the whole extent of the evil as herein indicated.

The causes? Heedless acquiescence in custom; habits formed on inclination, not on duty; defective laws; futile punishments; and the apathy, whether with regard to preventive or rescue work, of the otherwise patriotic and good.

HAVART'S TEMPERANCE ENTERTAINER & TEMPLAR RECITER, for Good Dialogues and Effective Recitations, has no rival. In 12 Penny numbers, or the whole complete, bound in cloth, 1s. 6d. C J. HAVART, 61, Allcroft-road, London, N. W. National Temperance Publication Depot, 337, Strand, W.C.; also of whom may be had "Merry Temperance Songster," 2d.-[ADVT.]

Illustrations for Speech-makers.

DRUNKENNESS AND CLUB PATIENTS.-When drunkenness in an Odd Fellow leads to sickness he is not entitled to the benefit of the club during the said sickness. The rule is that-" any member incapable of following his employment by any immoral or disorderly conduct, by fighting, or by accident or illness arising from intoxication or continued excessive drinking, shall not be entitled to any sick pay." The rule is a most proper one; and an equally proper inference from it would seem to be that a member should have no claim on the medical attendant of the club for accident or disease so disgracefully incurred. The question has often been raised. It has been lately raised most properly before J. Stephen, Esq., County Court Judge, Holbeach, by Mr. A. H. Haines, in an action for £22 18s. for attendance upon a club member for delirium tremens and other disorders caused by drunkenness. The man at various times seemed to recognize that attendance on his ailments was a private affair between Mr. Haines and himself, and had paid various bills on that view. The jury gave prompt judgment for the plaintiff for the whole amount, in spite of some hesitation on the part of the judge. Benefit societies have an enormous power for good in marking drunkenness as an offence against societies and the working class generally; and they owe it to their medical officers to protect them in this matter.-Lancet.

66

LOVED AND LOST :-The Rev. Charles Garrett, of Liverpool, President of the Wesleyan Conference, tells the following: was the other day in a beautiful residence, where I have often been entertained before. There was a large gathering of friends, for this family I knew had been prominent for their hospitality. I knew that total abstinence had not been smiled upon there, but I was astonished when I sat down at the table to notice that there were no wine-glasses. I almost took it as a compliment to myself in my foolishness; but, whispering to the lady, I said: "I see no wine-glasses here; are you teetotalers for the day because I am here?' And I saw in a moment the change in her face. She said "I have something to tell you about that." As soon as dinner was over, she said to me: You asked me about the wineglasses ?" I said: Yes, I noticed their absence." "I will tell you the reason. You remember my Willie ?" "Oh! yes; I remember Willie well." "Was he not a bonny boy?" she asked, with tears in her eyes. "Yes," I said, "one of the finest lads I ever knew." "Yes," she said, "and he was my pride. You know he used wine freely. You know that the leading ministers in the connexion had always made this house their home, and that they have always been welcome. I used to allow the children to stay up when the ministers were here to have the benefit of their conversation. children had half a glass of wine, ministers a full glass, and so had their father. By and by," she said, "I noticed what aroused my suspicion. William used to come home smelling of wine, and I didn't like it. I spoke to him, and he said there was no danger; he had only been meeting a few friends. By and by I noticed he was husky, and at last he came home in a state that made my heart ache. One night he came home quite drunk. I could not conceal it from his father. His father is a hot-tempered man. He met him in the lobby, and bitter words passed. His father ordered him out of the house, and he went, and for months we never knew what became of him. Father would not let us mention his name, and I and his sisters could do nothing but pray. We did not know whether he was dead or alive; and one night when the servants had gone to bed, and we were sitting together, I suddenly heard a noise, and I thought it was Willie's voice. I dared not speak. My husband looked round and said: 'Did you hear anything? I thought I heard a voice. I believe,' he said, it is Willie. Just go to the door and see.' She said:

The

"I went to the door, and there he stood, more like a ghost than a young man. He looked at me, and I said: ' Willie!' 'Mother,' he said, will you let me in?" Ay, my lad; you ought never to have gone away. Come in, come in';" and she said, "I had to lend him my arm. Don't take me into the drawing-room; take me into the kitchen. I feel, mother, as if I were dying.' No, my lad, you shall not die.' you make me a basin of barley broth like you used to make me?' 'I will make you anything you like, my boy, but you must come upstairs and lie down."O mother! I can't take it. I feel as if I was fainting.' I called his father, and he came.

'Will

but didn't say an angry word to him. He could not when he saw the state he was in. We carried him upstairs and laid him down upon the bed, and after a moment's pause he said: 'Father, the drink has killed me.' 'No, my boy,' said his father, We shall bring you round yet.' Never, father-God be merciful to me a sinner'-and his head fell back, and there was an end of our boy in this life. His father stood and looked at Willie as he lay there, and said to me: Mother, the drink has killed our Willie, and there shall never be another drop of drink in this house while I am alive."" Sir and gentlemen, (continued Mr. Garrett), there are many Willies. I am at the head of a mission in Liverpool, and I can truly say there is not a week in which I do not have a Willie, or a letter about a Willie, from some respectable Methodist home blighted and withered by this terrible curse. Is this a mere idle whim that we are speaking about? Ought we not to battle with it now and ever, and exert all the powers we possess in order to rescue the young people of our land, and make England what it ought to be? May God help us!

me.

Facts for the Thoughtful.

PARTY OR FAMILY.-In Indiana the democrats supported the whiskey ticket. The Hon. J. R. East thus explains why he left his party. "I can't stand on the Democratic platform on these amendments, nor I can't vote for the men nominated on it. The platform is too slick and slippery, and too narrow to hold Peter Lieber, the great Indianapolis bulldozer, and myself at the same time. The whiskey league has taken all the room there is on this plank of our platform, and, as a submission Democrat, I shall have to ask the use of yours this fall, as it is democratic, and all I can promise you is to vote your State ticket for the whiskey-ring, and I can't dwell together under the same tent, especially when they pull all the cover off of And I further promise you that as soon as you take the whiskey league back into your camp I will leave you and trouble you no more for ever. Fellow-citizens, I have come to this conclusion after considering the matter in all its phases, and I confess that it has given me no small amount of mental trouble to feel it necessary to sustain a long-cherished democratic principle to vote against that party with which I have always been associated. No man regrets more than I do that such men as Hendaicks and McDonald and others have espoused, for policy's sake merely, the cause of a league of men who neither respect the laws of God nor man; a league which tramps beneath its unhallowed feet every law for the preservation of the Christian Sabbath, every law which tends to the elevation of man and society-this league, which is a kind of organized mob, who violate law with impunity and threaten open resistance to the enforcement of any law which may interfere with their business, and arrogantly deny to the people the right to make law or enforce it; and that the leaders of my own party would, with seeming willingness, enter into an alliance with such men, and that, too, for the purpose of upholding a dangerous business, which is conceded to be destructive of the best interests of society, and no good to any man on earth save the man engaged in it, is indeed astonishing. One other reason impels me to vote the Republican ticket this year as a Democrat on this question: I have a wife, four children, and an aged and crippled mother as members of my family, and I love them better than I do the whiskey league, yea, better than I do Lieber and Seidensticker, who, as Republicans, have stabbed the Democratic party in the back, for lo! these many years, and they never injured it half so bad as when they made the recent unholy alliance with it. I love my family better than I do my party. My home is one of continued sunshine. It and its occupants are nearly all I possess, except my convictions of right, and I desire that the traffic should be destroyed rather than that my boys should ever find their way into its dens of iniquity. I will never bring a shade of sorrow in the pathway of any member of my family if I can help it, and they are more deeply interested in this question than I am. I have no controversy with a man who is opposed to prohibition from honest conviction, and when the time comes I am perfectly willing that he shall so vote and use all his influence that way, for that is his right in this free government, and we ask the same privilege of voting for it if we desire. This and nothing more."-N. T. Advocate.

ORDER OF THE SONS OF TEMPERANCE

Of Great Britain and Ireland (American Unity). The objects of this society are to shield its members from the temptation to, and the evils resulting from intemperance, and to afford mutual assistance in time of sickness or accident. The first is effected by the adoption of the total abstinence pledge, avoiding the public-house, and securing its members from the many evils attending upon unabstaining societies holding their meetings in public-houses, which have proved not only injurious to the societies themselves, but to the members individually—wasting the money of the one, and destroying the health, morals, and social standing of the other; the second, by the payment of a stated initiation fee, and a weekly subscription, affording advantages second to none offered by any other society.

Societies or bodies of men can obtain a charter to open a new Division of the above Order, provided their ages do not exceed 45 years.

Applications for charters to open new divisions. or any other information, can be had by applying to

WILLIAM CLARKE, M.W.S., 29, Pitt-terrace, Miles Platting, Manchester.

RICHARD D. PETTERSON, 70, Jacob-street, Liverpool.

W. H. LOWE, G.S., 136, Bedford-street, Lower Moss-lane,
Hulme, Manchester.

HENRY GARSTANG, G.S., 23, Charnock-street, Preston.
CHARLES KERSHAW, G.S., 28, Norreys-street, Rochdale.
HENRY LLOYD, G.S., 4, Commercial-street, Dowlais, Wales.
JAMES GIBSON, G.S., 46, Derby-street, Newcastle-on-Tyne.
P. TURNBULL, G.S., 12, Picton-street, Sunderland.
JOSEPH STEEL, G.S., 24, West Burton-street, Regent-road,
Salford.

W. BURLEY, G.S., 5, Imperial-arcade, Granville-st., Newington, Hull.

HENRY NICHOLSON, G.S., Rodley, near Leeds.

JOHN RICKARDS, G.S., 26, Oxford-street, Wednesbury. WILLIAM SCULLY, G.S., 16, Queen-street, Droylsden, Manchester.

NATHAN YATES, G.S., 17, Grafton-street, Bolton.
THOMAS RIGBY, G.S., 59, Westward-street, Middlesboro'.
HUGH DUNN, G.S., 43, McNiel-street, Glasgow.

F. W. PHILLIPS, G.S., 24, Clifton-street, Easton-rd., Bristol.
JAMES VINCENT, G.S., 18, Little Britain, London.
STEPHEN GLADWIN, G.S., 6, Denmark-street, Darlington.
WILLIAM GEORGE SUTTON, G.S., 7, Wellgate, Rotherham.
GIBEON J. WHITE, G.S., 36, Sterling-street, Buckland, Ports-
mouth.

THOMAS COOKE, G.S., Y.M.C Association, Camden-buildings,
Runcorn.

JOHN ANDERSON, G.S., Crown Smith Works, Coatbridge.
JOSEPH ASMAN, G.S., Wigford-street, Lincoln.

JOHN GRUBB, G.S., Windmill House, Mill-lane, Stockton-on-Tees.

T. C. HOBSON, G.S., 3, America-street, Tunstall, Stoke-on-
Trent.

C. RICHARDSON, F.S., 3, Shandoor-place, Edinburgh.
WILLIAM WATSON, G.S., 34, Church-street, Barnsley.

DIVISION DIRECTORY.

(Received too late for classification. See also pages 13 and 14. ASHTON.-Safety Div., Temp. Hall, Church-st., Sat., monthly, 7 p.m.; John Robinshaw, F.S., Shepley-rd., Hooley-hill. LONDON.-Royal Albert Div., Temperance Hall, Swanscombest., Canning Town, 1st & 3rd Thurs., 8 p.m.; E. Potter, 10, Philip-st., King-st., Barking-rd., E.

NEWCASTLE.-Excelsior Div., Temp. Society's Rooms, 23, Nuns-st.; Henry Coysh, F.S.

SAMUEL HAWLEY,

TAILOR AND OUTFITTER,

King Henry's-walk, Ballspond-road, N.

Prompt attention to Country Orders. Latest Styles in Ladies' Jackets, and every branch of the business.

In compliance with the requests from several quarters, it has been resolved to defer binding a set of the Son of Temperance until the issue of the number for December. The first volume will then contain fourteen numbers. Subsequent volumes will run with the year; and it is proposed to number the pages so that they may run on from month to month, and make the way easy for a complete index at the end of next year.

THE response to the appeal for orders has been so ample, that the copies of first volume we expect to bind are practically bespoken already. Correspondents will be supplied in order of application. An intimation will be given in our next issue of the cost.

Ir has been suggested that our paper might be printed in such a way as to enable the binder to omit the advertisements. This would be all very well for those who are not overburdened with book accommodation, but we fear the advertisers would then discount the value of our pages as advertising media. It would also involve a new arrangement of the matter. These objections appear to us insuperable.

WE have on hand a pile of original poetry. Our brethren who favour us with their productions must not write us down indifferent to their abilities and

efforts because their work does not at once appear. It is really a question of finding time to go through the manuscripts. So many letters 'come on matters that would be a thousand times better answered locally, that we fancy some of the brethren have come to the

conclusion that we are really waiting the arrival of their notes, and have only to sit down at once and answer them.

THERE is only one drawback to this, or it might be a reality. The postman brings the bulk of the letters in the morning instead of late at night. If the latter were the arrangement then many a post might be saved; but, as the former prevails, a day must always intervene between receipt of country letters and reply thereto.

MANY letters are now coming to hand which are really most welcome. They contain postal orders for five shillings to pay for renewal of advertisement of the Division for the next twelve numbers. Our brethren are sending most promptly, and we are glad to say that Divisions which neglected us last year are beginning to advertise now. The Editor would so like to fill that second page.

OTHER letters, too, are now coming in, containing the names and addresses of members resident at distance from their Divisions in towns where our Order is not represented. About thirty names are to hand. During the week which sees the issue of this number, the whole of these members will receive a personal appeal from the M.W.P. to push the formation of new Divisions, and supplies of materials for working up the

same.

THE members will be glad to know that arrangements are in progress with a view of having Grand Divisions for Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. If any brethren have influence in either county, the M.W.P. will be glad to have a line. Cumberland and Westmoreland are to have a Grand Division. An energetic committee has been formed to work the matter up, and the M.W.P. has been glad to supply printed material for circulation through both counties. There is no reason why our brethren there should not rival the energy of our Tyneside brethren, with whom they have been so long associated.

THE brethren show great forbearance in waiting their turns for official replies from the M.W.P. As hinted above, many letters come which would be better dealt with elsewhere, still there are others which deserve a page or two instead of a line in reply. Thus, the G.W.P. of London sends word of a Section of Cadets he has opened at Brighton, a new Division in Bloomsbury, one in St. Mary Cray, and another at Shoreditch. An attempt was made at Chelmsford, but the Rechabites stood in the way, saying there was no room for us! this is the burden of another letter. Then comes letter from Wales, asking for advice on how to develope a new hall. And so the story runs on, all telling of movement, the prelude to progress, and the precursor of final triumph.

a

APPLICATIONS, too, come in thick and fast for the personal services of the M.W.P. Darlington, Middlesboro', Bolton, Rochdale, Portsmouth, Lincoln, Bristol, have all put in a claim, and certainly they deserve their turn. Bristol is to have it's shortly when the M.W.P. expects to meet the members in full force. Christmas may see two or three of the others satisfied all being well, but of that more specifically next month. Manchester, with Salford, put in rather a peremptory claim during the current month. A negative was given to

an appeal by letter, so the brethren worked the telegraph, and managed to commit the M.W.P. to a Division anniversary on the Saturday evening, a speech before a sermon on Sunday afternoon, and another speech at night. The gatherings, certainly, were very successful.

BRO. M. MACLEOD, P.M.W.P., is one of the chosen candidates of the Liberal Party for contesting a seat in the Salford Council. If we mistake not, one of the leading officers of the Rechabites, a neighbonr of Bro. MACLEOD's, is chairman of the committee for promoting his election. We hope the Salford Sons will do their part in placing Bro. MACLEOD at the head of the poll.

THE article in our current number on the "Hearts of Oak Benefit Society" will be continued and completed in our next issue. Of course our readers will understand that the article is not intended to be an attack upon the society. It is designed to be mainly a comparison, with the object of meeting some of our critics who are always exalting it at our expense. The results of the society's work must of course command the admiration of all thoughtful people, for the thousands paid out in benefits must have prevented much loss of self-respect and personal suffering. It is mainly a question of method to secure higher advantages as well as substantial returns in pecuniary benefits, and in these respects we expect to shew that we as an Order have best claims upon public support.

IN going through our Publisher's returns for five months it is satisfactory to see that with the exception of one month our circulation has been wonderfully well maintained. Strange to say, that month was July, the month in which the report of the National Division meeting appeared. That number involved more labour than any other of the whole series. It was supposed to be the most interesting. Can anybody explain the phenomenal falling off in the sale?

WRITING of our sale we are reminded that complaints have come from Stockton and Liverpool about the late arrival of the paper, it not being obtainable until about the 9th of the month. We shall be glad if our members will immediately report any delay of this kind, as it is altogether avoidable. The paper is always delivered for issue on the 25th of the month preceding that it bears the date of. Thus, this-Novemberissue is really obtainable at the Publisher's on the 25th of October, so there is no excuse for such delay.

ONE Division-we are informed-has ceased in consequence to take the paper. Rather short-sighted policy that, because enquiry might have remedied the inconvenience at once, and probable loss in other quarters. Besides, our brethren may now get their parcels direct at very low rates under the new parcels scale, so we hope shortly to report a substantial increase.

WITH the January number it is proposed to publish a complete Directory of the Divisions and their days and hours of meeting, for the whole of the year 1883, as a supplement. To do this, it will be necessary for brethren in office to make their returns immediately on receipt of the proper forms. Of course a reasonable time will be given, but the interval specified will be rigidly adhered to, so our brethren will do well to lay their plans accordingly. No extra charge will be made.

THE bills which were sent out last month, appear to have given satisfaction. We now propose to follow them up, or supplement them, by the issue of a supply of printed circulars, which will only need signing and forwarding. These circulars are addressed to temperance men, and urge them to entertain the notion of establishing branches of the Order. The handbills will do well to accompany them as giving fuller particulars, and it will not be amiss if a copy of the Son of Temperance were also to be forwarded with them. A supply of the new circulars will be sent to the Grand Scribes during the first week of November, at least to such of them as thought it worth while to acknowledge the receipt of the handbills. A note has been made of these brethren, who we are pleased to add are a very large majority, and really represent districts where substantial progress is being made. Of the minority a list has also been made for presentation to the National Division. They form a consistent few who not only fail to acknowledge practical aids, but hold aloof from reporting or advertising in the paper as if they belonged to another organiza

Sir Wilfrid Lawson as president, there was no lack of practical suggestions; and one, that favoured a general Sunday Closing Bill for England to be enforced by Local Option as each county proved ready, has excited a great deal of comment. It is hardly likely to be necessary, so rapid are the strides public opinion is making, for a Sunday closing bill for immediate enforcement is quite within the range of practical politics. There is a rumour too that the government intend to transfer liquor-selling debates to County Boards, which shall also deal with local matters generally. A strong stand will have to be made against this, unless the government are prepared to tack on the popular veto, so that, whether County Boards or Magistrates are the licensing authority, the people shall have the opportunity of selfprotection.

DURING this month the School Board for London will have to be elected. One of the candidates, a long-tried friend of teetotalism and of popular education, is the Rev. G. M. MURPHY, who has done excellent service in previous years as a working member of the Board. Mr. Murphy is an honorary member of the Southwark Division, which meets in a class-room of his chapel, where he often says a good word for the Order. So, apart from public claims-and no candidate has so many -the fact that he is one of us should send every Son of Temperance of the several Divisions of Lambeth very early to the poll in his support. In Southwark, our friend Mr. HAWKINS has strong claims upon the support of temperance men.

THE M.W.P.'s limp is now fairly overcome, and he is able to get about with some degree of ease. Owing to change of locality, he had with great regret to draw his card from the T. H. Barker Division, of which he was the founder some fourteen years ago, and he deposited it in the G. C. Campbell division, perhaps the smallest numerically in the London district. The M.W.P. is the W.P. elect of the division, and his son fills the position of R.S. Singular to relate the installing officer was Bro. John P. Heath, P.G.W.P., whom the M.W.P. initiated into the Order when he and another instituted the Southwark Division quite fourteen years ago.

Our Book Table.

[Books, &c., for notice, must be addressed to the Editor, 16, Lorrimore Square, London, S.E.]

A Handbook of Temperance History. London National Temperance Publication Depot, 337, Strand, W.C.

This is a sensible reprint of the League Annuals for 1880 and 1881. There are papers on every phase of the question by recognised authorities. The history of the movement receives ample treatment by the Rev. D. Burns, M.A., John Andrew, Rev. D. Rowlands, M.A., Rev. Thomas Houston, D.D., and W. Walker, each of whom takes a special portion of the United Kingdom, and concisely, yet fully, a record gives of the up-coming of what is sure to be called by subsequent historians, the movement of the nineteenth century. There are portraits of Samuel Bowly and Sir Edward Baines, with grateful biograpical sketches. Seven years' work at the London Temperance Hospital by Dr. James Edmunds is a valuable record in favour of non-alcoholic treatment of disease. When we note that in addition to what has already been mentioned there are papers by Captain Grant, T. W. Russell, Norman S. Kerr, W. Hoyle, J. W. Horsley, Charles Garrett, C. H. Collyns, and statistical information of permanent value; our readers will see that Mr. Rae, the indefatigable Secretary of the League, who has edited the volume, has again done good service in providing a book for every library-home and public-in the Kingdom.

Talks with the People by Men of Mark: Sir W. LAWSON on Temperance. "Home Words " Publishing Office, 1, Pater

noster-buildings, E.C.

This is a nicely got-up little book, with a capital portrait of Sir Wilfrid, and a sketch of his life by Mr. Sherlock. The "talks with the people" are practically the essence of Sir Wilfrid's " gay wisdom " in well-selected paragraphs from his speeches. A really sensible present for any one with brains, who does not support Local Option.

Temperance Worker and Reciter. London: N. T. Publication Depot, 337, Strand, W.C.

In anything but pretentious guise the Rev. F. Wagstaff presents, in this twopenny monthly, a real storehouse of matter and method for all who do public service for teetotalism. There are notes of lessons, topics and illustrations for speakers, capital recitations, and a treasury of temperance in form of a Dictionary. Our readers would do well to get a copy regularly for perusal.

The Epochs of History. London: Ward, Lock, & Co.

This enterprising firm has hit upon an excellent idea in thus giving in graphic pictures some of the crises in the history of nations. This number comes to us we suppose because herein the Temperance question was selected for treatment. The topic was entrusted to Mr. Joseph Malins, who unhappily is now compelled to rest through illness. Possibly this illness has affected the work, which strikes us as comprehensive, but somewhat scrappy. The opportunity was a good one for a graphic picture of the history of our movement, but the historian was hardly so well qualified as he pre-eminently was and is for that with which he has been so long identified. Two or three names at once occur to us as those of men fitted by their life work to have done justice to the subject. Still the enterprise of the Publishers deserves recognition, and whatever Mr. Malins' effort may lack in graphic treatment, there is little ground for complaint in the matter of comprehension.

WE once saw a young man bravely turning up the glass. He was a free-hearted, glorious fellow; he was, as he said, sowing his wild oats. We afterwards saw the constable hauling a miserable drunkard from the gutter to the jail. It occurred to us that the wild oats were being dragged in. A glorious crop! The bar-room and the gutter are exhaustless in their fertility.

THE "oldest inhabitant" has been reading a series of articles on the adulteration of liquors, and has arrived at a somewhat singular conclusion. The analysis of these liquors allowed an average of about sixty-five parts of water to thirty-five of spirits. "They don't give the spirits a fair chance," said the aged bacchanal: "they'll keep on fooling with the water till it depopulates the earth again."