ifferent lines, so that a speculative
individual, desiring to provide for his family, might know where to
address himself with best chance of an accident! One can imagine an
assurance company puffing its unparalleled advantages and unrivalled
opportunity, when four excursion trains were to start at five minutes'
intervals, and the prospect of a smash was little short of a certainty.
"Great attraction! the late rains have injured the chief portion of the
line, so that a disaster is confidently looked for every hour. Make your
game, gentlemen--make your game; nothing received after the bell rings."

THE INTOXICATING LIQUORS BILL.

Anything more absurd than the late debate in the House on the best means
of suppressing intemperance it is very hard to imagine. First of all,
in the van, came the grievance to be redressed; and we had a statistical
statement of all the gallons of strong drink consumed--all the moneys
diverted from the legitimate uses of the family--all the debauchees
who rolled drunk through our streets, and all the offences directly
originating in this degrading vice. Now, what conceivable order of mind
could prompt a man to engage in such a laborious research? Who either
doubts the enormity of drunkenness or its frequency? It is a theme that
we hear of incessantly. The pulpit rings with it, the press proclaims
it, the judges declare it in all their charges, and a special class of
lecturers have converted it into a profession. None denied the existence
of the disease; what we craved was the cure. Some discrepancy of opinion
prevailed as to whether the vice was on the increase or the decrease.
Statistics were given, and, of course, statistics supported each
assertion. This, however, was a mere skirmish--the grand battle was, How
was drunkenness to be put down?

Mr Lawson's plan was: If four-fifths of the ratepayers of any district
were agreed that no spirituous liquors should be sold there, that such
should become a law, and no licence for their sale should be issued. The
mover of this proposal, curiously enough, called this "bringing public
opinion to bear on the question." What muddle of intelligence could
imagine this to be an exercise of public opinion I cannot imagine.
Such, however, is the plan. Drunkenness is to be repressed by making
it impossible. Did it never occur to the honourable gentleman, that all
legislative enactments whatever work not by enforcing what is good, but
by punishing what is