powerful Mammon, to array the filthy tempter in all the finery of her holiday attire. The joiner, the glazier, the painter, the gilder, receive their most extensive orders, and exhibit the master-pieces of their skill, to finish the equipment of this pandemonium of vice. And what is the Is it to gratify object of all this expense and show? those gaily-dressed females, who display themselves to the public behind the handsome counter? No-these are but the servants of this princely establishment. Where then, and who, is the master? For whom are all these costly preparations made? See that poor, miserable, scowling beggar, bending with decrepitude, and pining with disease and hunger; want and woe engraven on his visage, filth and rags his only covering, an oath on his lips, the drugged cup quivering in his hand: this is the master! Yes, this wretched man, if man he may be called, who is so far sunk below the level of the brute; this lost, depraved creature, and such as he, are the chief frequenters, and most considerable supporters of this splendid dwelling. It is to gain the pence of this lowest caste of the people, to fleece of their poverty the very dregs of the community, to wanton in the spoils of misery, drunkenness, and debauchery, that thousands of pounds have been thrown away, and the most sumptuous establishment is daily maintained. O tempora, O mores! Shame, and curse of London! It is thus that the myriads of her swarming population are sunk in the lowest depths of ruin; the Poor-houses are crowded with helpless paupers, the Prisons with abandoned culprits and criminals, and the Asylums with lunatics.* The streets abound with vagrants and prostitutes, miserable men and women, and halfnaked children; the garrets and back alleys are occupied by gangs of the most desperate characters, who are ripe for every kind of wickedness, and only wait for opportunity to commit it. Drunkenness is the main cause of all these dreadful evils: it is not only demoralizing, but depopulating the country. The latter effect is not, indeed, perceptible at present, in a time of peace, and with so many sources of increase; but the tendency of the evil is still the same as is found to be the case in savage nations, where it often cuts off a whole people. It prevails chiefly among the lower classes, the poor and depraved; but is not by any means confined to them; it is continually making fresh inroads on the ranks of the virtuous and respectable, and carries off its wretched victims, to swell the mass of the forlorn outcasts of society, which, but for these recruits, would rapidly diminish, and ultimately disappear. In vain the charitable exert themselves, to provide for the wants of the poor and destitute, by their humane and benevolent plans; the progress of Intemperance, and its concomitant evils, far outstrips the course of Charity in her most active hours, when winged with all the ardour of her heavenly nature, and sustained by all the perseverance of her noble and disinterested purposes. There is still an ever-increasing mass of human misery to act upon, and it seems just like weaving Penelope's web; there is no progress made. "Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise." * Note K. Nor is this dreadful evil confined to the stronger sex; alas! that it cannot now be concealed or denied, that woman, lovely woman, the gentle, the delicate, the elegant mistress of creation, the sweet charmer of the cares and troubles of life, the tender nurse, the affectionate mother, the faithful wife; she too has been led astray by the deceitful snare; has caught the infection of the Gin-palace, breathing around its pestilential vapours, and become the victim of that bloated monster, which, ever devouring, but never satisfied, is preying upon the vitals of the people, and, holding them fast in its talons, is proceeding to destroy, at leisure, both body and soul. We are told by those, who had made accurate observations on the subject, that among the thousands who daily resort to the principal Gin-shops in the Metropolis, a very large proportion, probably not much less than one half, are women!* What then must be the corrupting, destructive effects, of such a system as this! A drunken female! What a shocking thought! To realize its horror, we must remember how Providence has fitted her to be a great moral engine, in the social system—a lever of uncommon power, to move the mass of the community; a spring to impel the wheels of virtue, piety, and peace throughout the domestic circles which collectively make up the entire frame of the commonwealth, and a regulator to keep them in order, and moderate their movement. We must call to mind how all these purposes of Nature are blasted, and all her * Note L. benevolent designs perverted and frustrated. Who can well estimate too highly a Mother's influence, the moral weight of a Mother's example, the blessing of a Mother's prayers? Who can overrate the gracious design, which planted the softer sex beside the sterner nature of man, to sooth the asperities of life, and make him happy, by teaching him to be virtuous? Woman is the household Diana, as it were, of each man's hearth, the patroness of health, chastity, and domestic propriety; the best gift of God to his first-born, man, she ought to be treasured with tenderness, and protected with vigilance. But what a reverse to all that we have described, is presented in the family where the mother, as well as the father, are the slaves of Intemperance! When the father falls a prey to the cursed vice, sad indeed is the calamity, but still the mischief is not irretrievable, as long as the mother is sober, honest, and industrious. Though depressed by poverty, struggling with difficulty, and almost heart-broken with sorrow, still, many a virtuous woman has felt the hand of a gracious Providence secretly bearing her up under this heavy burden; and while the wants of her children have stimulated her to fresh exertions, and self-denying labours, she has risen above the natural weakness and timidity of her sex, and exhibited a pattern of self-supporting and sustained independence, truly honourable in its character; regulating her household, maintaining them in honesty and respectability, providing her children with food, clothing, and education; and all this by the fruit of her own unassisted toils, and notwithstanding the drawback of a husband, who, instead of sustaining her and her children, basely endeavours to rob them of the scanty pittance she has so hardly earned. But when the Mother also falls into the snare of the destroyer-when she carries her little ones along with her on the road to ruin, the entrance to which is at the door of the Gin-palace, the Ale-house, or the Beer-shop, miserable then, indeed, is the result, and truly awful and hopeless the catastrophe which ensues. All decency is thrown aside the veil of natural modesty is cast off-woman is woman no longer. The Mother becomes a monster to her children, cruel to her babes; even her suckling is no longer the object of her regard. She will expose it to the piercing cold of winter-she will pledge the tattered garment which shelters it-she will rob it of its natural nutriment—she will poison the stream it imbibes: she will do this, or any other act of hard-hearted barbarity, to gratify her mad desire of that indulgence, the love of which has swallowed up all the better feelings and principles of her heart her children are early taught to follow her example; she, who will not provide them with wholesome food, yet will not deny them a portion of the poisonous liquor: she has no bread, perhaps, for them to eat, but she gives them gin to drink. More callous and unfeeling than the ostrich of the desert, her children cry to her, but she hears them not; they ask for bread, and she gives them a serpent and a scorpion. The effect of this practice, of taking young children to such scenes of wickedness and immorality, can easily be conceived. They grow up in |