latest dietetic combination or guild having as its bond of union specific rules as to what its members shall eat, drink and avoid, is called after the prophet Daniel, The association was founded by a Mr. T. W. Richardson, a student of medicine and a vegetarian. The organization has a form of initiation, degrees, badges, scarfs, and other paraphernalia. Each member takes a solemn vow to abstain entirely from fish, flesh and fowl, from spirituous and malt liquors, from snuff and tobacco. A solemn pledge of secrecy is then given and the candidate is ushered into the garden or lodge. We do not suppose that the Danielites will be a very numerous or influential body, but the number of societies that are being formed on the basis of a common diet is increasing, and the multiplication of such organizations is worthy of notice. It is curious how a renunciation of wine unites persons in Europe just as a renunciation of beef unites persons in China. What beverage a man shall drink is unquestionably of great importance, bat it is not the only consideration in the world, It is highly objectionable to have a subject, which, after all, is secondary and subordinate to many other subjects, thrast forward na the one issue which has to be contested— the pivot around which religion and morals, intellect and politics, are to revolve. We can make allowances for the feelings of those who are engaged in the hand to band contest with a monster abuse. They seo nothing else. When Burke was preparing his case againat Warren Hastings he saw nothing but pillaged natives, desolated provinces, and outraged Begums; when Wilberforce and Brougham denounced slavery the foreground of their minds was occupied with ghastly pictures of the horrors of the middle passage. It is a necessary condition of the philanthropist's mind that the images in it are out of proportion. No one perhaps over attempted with success to remove a great abuse, or series of abuses, unless he had first lashed himself into a con. viction that the well-being of the universe depended on the triumph of the cause he defended and the overthrow of the opposition to it. This being so, and intemperance being unquestionably a grievous national curse, we cannot wonder that the advocates of the cause of Temperance are apt to make a great noise, and now and then by their very clamour to irritate men who have not been dragged face to face with the evils of intemperance, and learned by experience its dangerous and destructive effects. A man who has just rescued a wife from the clutch or the bludgeon of an intoxicated husband, or who has seen a family reduced to penury by the extravagance and the recklessness of a gin-drinking wife, is not disposed to mince his words and to select the mildest adjectives in the dictionary when he spanks of alcohol and its effects, Bnt at the same time he must recollect that the majority of his hearers, if he is on a platform, or of his readers, if he is a writer in magazine, cannot be expected to share this ardent enthusiasm. They receive at second-hand impressions that have been presented to him with terrible vividness, and certified to him by "the sensible and true avouch of his own eyes." And it is the strength of philanthropic conviction which blinds the strong advocates of total abstinence pure and simple to the danger of legislation in this matter. This danger is extremely well explained by Lord Hartington in his recent election speech at Come, The Marquis said, "if I cannot approve of the principles of the Permissive Bill, it is because I cannot think that it is consistent with the principles of individual and personal liberty, that a majority should, for an object, however good, be enabled to say to the minority, 'You shall not' sell, you shall not use such and such things, because there is a minority, as I believe, which is prepared to abuse their use.'" This packs the whole question at issue into a small space, and contains the point which the total abstainers in our judgment lose sight of. In their generous anxiety to check crime, misery and death, they fail to see that if legislation interfered, we might find we had surrendered a prin. ciple too sacred and important to be let go on any pretence whatever, the principle of liberty, At the same time man must be blind who does not see the good done everywhere by the Temperance advocates. We may smile at their zeal, we muy say that they ride their hobby too hard, bat they have undoubted triumphs to recapitulate, and the benefits of the movement have been as conspicuous in Shanghai as in any place of its size and population with which we are acquainted. There are two steps which we should like to see taken before we find our selves in the midst of summer, and the Municipal Council and the Temperance societies would earn the gratitude of the community if they set about taking them without delay. The first is the establishment of coffee shops in Hongkew. The sailors who come ashore get drank because they have no means of procuring unintoxicating liquors at band. We think a few tea and coffee bars would be a boon to the seamen, and would in time become self-supporting. The second step that we should Tike to see taken is a more thorough supervision of the liquor called gin retailed to the unfortunate mariners in Hongkew. The most violent opponent of permissive bill would admit that the article sold should fearsome resemblance tothe spirit from which it takes its name.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.