d economy. There are very many in our land who
know this way; and their condition, as compared with those who know it
not, or knowing, will not walk therein, is found to be in striking
contrast.

TAXATION.

Besides the wasting drain for drink, and the loss in national wealth,
growing out of the idleness and diminished power for work, that
invariably follows the use of alcohol in any of its forms, the people
are heavily taxed for the repression and punishment of crimes, and the
support of paupers and destitute children. A fact or two will give the
reader some idea of what this enormous cost must be. In "The Twentieth
Annual Report of the Executive Committee of the Prison Association of
New York," is this sentence: "There can be no doubt that, of all the
proximate sources of crime, the use of intoxicating liquors is the most
prolific and the most deadly. Of other causes it may be said that they
slay their thousands; of this it may be acknowledged that it slays its
tens of thousands. The committee asked for the opinion of the jail
officers in nearly every county in the State as to the proportion of
commitments due, either directly or indirectly, to strong drink."

The whole number of commitments is given in these words: "Not less than
60,000 to 70,000 [or the sixtieth portion of the inhabitants of the
State of New York] human beings--men, women and children--either guilty,
or arrested on suspicion of being guilty of crime, pass every year
through these institutions." The answers made to the committee by the
jail officers, varied from two-thirds as the lowest, to nine-tenths as
the highest; and, on taking the average of their figures, it gave
seven-eighths as the proportion of commitments for crime directly
ascribed to the use of intoxicating drinks!

Taking this as the proportion of those who are made criminals through
intemperance, let us get at some estimate of the cost to tax-payers. We
find it stated in Tract No. 28, issued by the National Temperance
Society, that "a committee was appointed by the Ulster County Temperance
Society, in 1861, for the express purpose of ascertaining, from reliable
sources, the percentage on every dollar tax paid to the county to
support her paupers and criminal justice. The committee, after due
examination, came to the conclusion that upwards of sixty cents on the
dollar was for the above purpose. This amount was required, _according
to law_, to be paid by every tax-payer as a _penal