food, and clothing, within the little income earned by daily toil. The most proper sign for these places of allurement to intemperance and extravagance would be "Man-traps set on these premises." Many a poor fellow has entered one without any dread of the consequences; and, led on by his companions from simple refreshment to hilarity and drunkenness, has staggered home, from that day forth, to become the companion of fools, a reckless spendthrift, a cruel husband, an unkind and negligent father. The Beer-houses are normal schools for the poor-house and the gaol. They cause poverty, rags, diseases, ruin, starvation, crime, early deaths, and endless misery. When Benjamin Franklin was a journeyman printer, he used to prove to his associates the folly and extravagance of spending their money in beer, by showing them how much nourishment could be produced in the shape of wholesome bread for the sums which they squandered in liquor, which yielded little or no nourishment. At present, a staple article of food is perishing, and the cry has been, Give the people cheap bread! Is not the time and opportunity favourable for diminishing the number of Beer-houses, which encourage the consumption of so large a quantity of nutritious grain in a form which does far more to weaken than to recruit the strength of our labouring population, and is destructive, at the same time, of their health, morals, and happiness?-Bristol Mirror. NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. We have received the communications of L. S. R.; E. A.; a Layman; M. D.; O. W. D.; P. S. L.; A. B.; and some anonymous correspondents. |