mbers and power; and it will do this without inflicting
on them the least substantial injury. Cardinal Wiseman will be the
local head of the Catholic Church in England, whether he is legally
forbidden to be styled "Archbishop of Westminster" or not, and so of the
Irish Catholic prelates. The obstacles which the ministerial bill
attempts to throw in the way of bequests to the Catholic Bishops as
such, will be easily evaded; these Bishops will exercise every function
of the Episcopate whether this Bill shall pass or fail: and their moral
power will be greatly increased by its passage. But the Ministry, which
has found the general support of the Catholics, and especially of the
Irish Catholic Members, very opportune at certain critical junctures,
will henceforth miss that support--in fact, it has already been
transformed into a most virulent and deadly hostility. Rural England was
hostile to the ministry before, on account of the depressing effect of
Free Trade on the agricultural interest; and now Ireland is turned
against them by their own act--an act which belies the professions of
Toleration in matters of Faith which have given them a great hold of the
sympathies of the best men in the country throughout the last half
century. I do not see how they can ride out the storm which they by this
bill have aroused.

The cause of _Temperance_--of Total Abstinence from all that can
intoxicate--is here about twenty years behind its present position in
the United States. I think there are not more absolute drunkards here
than in our American cities, but the habit of drinking for drink's sake
is all but universal. The Aristocracy drink almost to a man; so do the
Middle Class; so do the Clergy; so alas! do the Women! There is less of
Ardent Spirits imbibed than with us; but Wines are much cheaper and in
very general use among the well-off; while the consumption of Ale, Beer,
Porter, &c. (mainly by the Poor) is enormous. Only think of L5,000,000
or _Twenty-Five Millions of Dollars_, paid into the Treasury in a single
year by the People of these Islands as Malt-Tax alone, while the other
ingredients used in the manufacture of Malt Liquors probably swell the
aggregate to Thirty Millions of Dollars. If we suppose this to be a
little more than one-third of the ultimate cost of these Liquors to the
consumers, that cost cannot be less than _One Hundred Millions of
Dollars per annum!_--a sum amply sufficient, if rightly expended, to
banish