our readers will not look upon the particulars now set before them as mere matters of curiosity, or speculative research; but as what deeply affects the empire-as what guides multitudes, by an easy and authorized descent, into unheard-of depths of national debasement; and is daily making awful and suitable preparation for that scene where another craving gnaws-a craving for relief from pain, intolerable and unremitting, "where the worm dieth not."

It is notorious, as above stated, that the drinking habits and customs, and the general manners of nations, have an intimate connexion. A very important branch of the question of national intemperance, therefore, lies in the courtesies of society. Here, in addition to the provocatives to intemperance that arise from taste and stomachic desire, we have superinduced a great metaphysical agency, general in its diffusion, energetic in its power. When the friends of temperance attack the physical appetite, and cry down the indulgence of a craving palate, they are in some measure supported by the conscience of the public, and that moral sense which argues against all inordinate gratification of sensual pleasure; but the symbols of compliment are so intimately connected with the sentiment of benevolence, that a mighty array is thus surreptitiously obtained against the cause of temperance, of some of the best feelings of our nature. There is no nation in the world where wine, ale, and spirits have so completely insinuated themselves, as the instruments of mere compliment and etiquette, as

in ours. This state of things exists (as we have said, and it is of the utmost consequence to repeat it again and again,) in a much smaller degree in America, and is nearly unknown upon the continent. Let no one, therefore, infer, that the arraigning the particular outward mark or symbol of courtesy, strikes at the grace of courtesy itself. Continental nations, much more gracious and courteous than we, in all the usages of social life, do not acknowledge this instrument, and are surprised that we seem compelled to do so.

If we divide the society of the United Kingdom into six gradations, commencing with the nobility, and ending with the labourer and beggar, we shall find, that in all these departments, except the highest, the use of liquor, as the instrument of courtesy and compliment, is general, but becoming more and more strictly and imperatively such, the lower we descend. It is a usual, but great mistake, in the upper ranks, to suppose that the forms of outward complaisance and courtesy are less binding on the lower classes than on themselves. To understand this topic, it is necessary to have examined with great attention the manners of the working classes, and marked the chains of decorum and formality which bind them. In some particular cases, the omission of the understood mark or symbol of civility is there not regarded with indifference, but resented as the most cruel affront, and supposed to imply an inveterate determination by the offending party to cease from all habits of amity. The fact is, that some etiquettes are much more obligatory

on the lower classes than among their superiors; and in no case is the tyranny of fashion and rule with them more palpable, than in the regulations of drinking. That working man, therefore, who refuses to join a Temperance or Abstinence Society, on the ground that he is a person who can either drink or decline to drink, as he pleases, is under the greatest mistake; he supposes himself a free agent, but he is so by no means. The most pitiful tippler that crawls the streets, can force that man to drink; not, doubtless, by pouring liquor down his throat, but by assailing him on some one of the foregoing etiquettes or customs, when, so far from being free, he will prove himself a very slave to the most servile principles of imitation and conformity; and we repeat it, that it is the influence of these rules and customs, more than any physical craving, that at first impedes the advance of the inhabitants to temperance membership, and afterwards withdraws them from their engagement.

CHAPTER XVIII.

DRINKING USAGES COMMON TO THE THREE
KINGDOMS, CONTINUED.

Origin of Anti-Usage Proposals—Teetotalism and Anti-Usage ought to be simultaneous-Solitary Drinking-Error of Upper Ranks -Usage Difficulties of joining a Temperance Society-General Ignorance on Subject of Drinking Usage - Sobriety-forcing Process defeated by the Usages-Definition of Usage-Case of Brothers meeting-of Lady's Coachman-of half-drowned Mariner-Duel Case contrasted.

Ir is now towards nine years since the author, (to whose lot it fell, under Providence, first to propose temperance association to the inhabitants of North Britain,) suggested the absolute necessity of coupling anti-usage regulations with the obligation to abstinence from liquor; and in this opinion, and in operations founded upon it, he has persevered till the present date. He argued, that temperance association, in the peculiar circumstances of the Scotch, could only be placed on a truly solid foundation by working with this double power. And after abundance of labour and expense, he hopes that he has now demonstrated that the same must be said of the English and Irish. He prophesied, that after the first flush of the anti-spirit regulation,

the usages would supervene and swamp the Societies; and with a sorrowful mind he has for some time perceived, that what he predicted has proved but

too true.

The fact is, that men rushed without thought into Temperance Societies, during the first years of their institution; and greatly ignorant or forgetful of all the imperative usages they would require to break, if they continued to adhere to their abstinence engagement. Their desire was to be quit of ardent spirits, and all its temptations; and the intention was most commendable; but, alas! they were neither aware of the multiplicity and universality of the drinking usages, nor of their energy and efficiency. In vain the writer pleaded, in 1829 and 1830, with advocates of temperance throughout the three kingdoms, to combine the two processes of abstinence and anti-usage. He was from the first generally heard with indifference, and afterwards, on persisting, with a sort of friendly ridicule. "The American plan has succeeded, therefore we must adhere strictly to its rules, and try no novel theories. We are laughed at sufficiently already, for giving up ardent spirits; we cannot think of turning every thing topsy-turvy. The temperance principle will of itself undo the usages, as you call them. Your anti-usage advocacy will merely turn men's minds away from the temperance principle, which is the true one." Driven from all his expected stations of anti-usage, the writer was forced to turn from metropolitan cities to minor towns and villages; and amid the encircling scorn and vociferation of their neighbourhoods,