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regret the baneful result of intemperance. It is beyond all question a gigantic evil, and one which requires to be grappled with by every fair and legimate means with the view of its extermination. The fearful amount of immorality, the immense sacrifice of comforts, the misapplication of working men's earnings, the prevalence of misery and destitution, the homes that are made cheerless, and the social degradation which result immediately from, or are the companions of intemperance, are enough to lead the mind to view our drinking customs as a national curse. What wonder then is it that, after listening to the stirring appeals of a Gough or the sweeping denunciations of a Burns, persons are ready to cry "Down with the liquor traffic! away with it! shut up the public-houses? &c.?" For ourselves we are not surprised that our horrified philanthropists join in the shout; nor do we hesitate as the foregoing sentiments show to disclose our conviction of the vast magnitude of the evil in question. We have indeed, an utter abhorrence of every species of intemperance, and therefore it is that we hope to be free from the chore of wishing to advocate a system so undeniably pernicious in its consequences, and fraught with so many disadvantages to the community. But to annihilate the trade in liquors at one fell swoop, as the Alliance would have us do, is a proposition so utterly at variance with present notions of unrestricted commerce, that we cannot allow ourselves either persuasively or compulsorily to adopt a principle of so arbitrary a character. We are moreover so practical in our habits as to view with some degree of suspicion the soundness of more than one of the theoretical speculations which agitate the public mind. We give the Alliance credit for sincerity and purity of motive, and so far agree with its members as to believe that some legislative interference may be necessary to protect the public from fraudulent adulterations, and to enable the retailer of beer and spirits to approximate his hours of business to those usually observed in other retail trades. We would also like to see the number of public houses limited to actual requirements but which should be regulated by the law of demand and supply so that the publican being freed from the ruinous competition which more or less in all towns, may have less occasion to resort to those questionable means of enticement now so universally practiced. But so long as the public demand to be supplied with beverages, the evil effects of which they believe to be due only to an immoderate use of them, so long, in our humble opinion, has the Government no right to suppress a traffic which is as much the privileges of Englishmen to engage in as is that which pertains to any other business. Thus it may be seen that in the above extract from a previous article, no attempt is made to conceal the evils of drunkenness, nor of that habitual practice of certain members of our common brotherhood and sisterhood which -