even an apparent
association with them, have feared to express their own convictions.
These odious parties, however, are very few in number, and their
influence is constantly diminishing. There can be no question that
four-fifths of the friends of female suffrage are to-day active members
of various Christian Churches; and of them no small number are ministers
distinguished for their learning, benevolence, and piety.

The signs of the times indicate a determined struggle between temperance
and intemperance. The use of intoxicating liquors is the source of
nine-tenths of all the dark and terrible crimes that disgrace humanity.
It whets the assassin's dagger, and pours poison into the cup of the
suicide. It beggars the laborer, breaks the heart of the anguished wife,
and starves the helpless children. It fills jails and penitentiaries
with victims, and hospitals and asylums with the injured and hopelessly
wrecked. It fastens on society an army of police to be supported, and it
oppresses the land with taxes. The money amassed by the venders buys our
legislators, corrupts our judges and governors, and controls our
political parties. Who shall stay its ravages, or curtail its power?

My conviction is, and for years has been, that the only hope is in
giving the ballot to women. True, some women love strong drink, and some
are vile; yet the vast majority are utterly opposed to intemperance.
None so well as the drunkard's wife knows the terrible evil, or so
keenly feels its pangs. Could the mother, who bows her head in sorrow as
she beholds her loved boy hastening to ruin; the wife, whose once
affectionate husband has been transformed into a demon; the daughter,
whose cheek has been mantled with shame at her father's fall, and who
has suffered the bitterness of blasted hopes and of dismal
poverty,--could they have the ballot, how quickly would the rum-shops be
closed, and our youth be preserved from multi-fold temptations! What
other triumph could compare with this?

With this conviction, I hail with pleasure this volume from the pen of
Dr. Webster. It discusses an important question calmly, clearly,
forcibly. I may not agree with all of his positions, or with some of his
Biblical criticisms, yet I believe the work possesses much merit, will
lead to serious thoughtfulness, and be productive of good.

I also rejoice that the enterprising publishers whose names appear on
the imprint have added this volume to their catalogue,