ers, dram-shops and
tippling-houses. Grieved to the heart to see the number of idlers,
thieves, sots and consumptive patients made for the physicians in these
infamous seminaries, I applied to the Court of Sessions, procured a
Committee of Inspection and Inquiry, reduced the number of licensed
houses, etc., _but I only acquired the reputation of a hypocrite and an
ambitious demagogue by it_. The number of licensed houses was soon
reinstated; drams, grog and sotting were not diminished, _and remain to
this day as deplorable as ever_."

OPENING A WIDER DOOR.

In 1816, so demoralized had the sentiment of the people become, and so
strong the liquor interest of the State, that the saving provision in
the license laws, which limited the sale of liquor to inns and taverns,
was repealed, and licenses were granted to common victualers, "who shall
not be required to furnish accommodations" for travelers; and also to
confectioners on the same terms as to inn-keepers; that is, to sell and
to be drunk on the premises. This change in the license laws of
Massachusetts was declared, by Judge Aldrich, in 1867, to be "one of the
most fruitful sources of crime and vice that ever existed in this
Commonwealth."

Up to as late as 1832, attempts were continued to patch up and amend the
license laws of the State; after that they were left, for a time, to do
their evil work, all efforts to make them anything but promoters of
drunkenness, crime and poverty being regarded as fruitless.

"Miserable in principle," says Judge Pitman, "license laws were found no
less inefficient in practice." Meantime, the battle against the liquor
traffic had been going on in various parts of the State. In 1835, a law
was secured by which the office of county commissioner (the licensing
authority) was made an elective office; heretofore it had been held by
appointment. This gave the people of each county a local control over
the liquor question, and in the very first year the counties of Plymouth
and Bristol elected boards committed to the policy of no license. Other
counties followed this good example; and to bar all questions of the
right to refuse every license by a county, the power was expressly
conferred by a law passed in 1837.

A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER.

The good results were immediately apparent in all places where license
to sell intoxicating drinks was refused. After a thorough investigation
of the matter, the Judiciary Committee of the Legislat