of men have suffered more from the evils of
intemperance than our brave sailors, fishermen, and rivermen. Foreigners
tell our missionaries to convert our drunken sailors abroad, and when
they wish to personify an Englishman, they mockingly reel about like a
drunken man. And what lives have been lost through the intemperance of
captains and crews! The 'St. George,' with 550 men: 'The Kent,' 'East
Indiaman,' with most of her passengers and crew: 'The Ajax,' with 350
people: 'The Rothsway Castle,' with 100 men on board, with many others
we might name, were all lost through the drunkenness of those in charge
of the vessels. Of the forty persons whom our friend rescued from
drowning, a very large percentage got overboard through intemperance. We
read that on the morning following the Passover night in Egypt, there
was not a house in which there was not one dead, and it would be
difficult to find a house in our land, occupied by sailors, in which
this monster evil has not slain its victim, either physically or
morally.

[Sidenote: HIS DRUNKEN FATHER.]

Our friend, speaking of his own family, says:--'I owe my Christian name
to the favour with which drunkenness was regarded by my relatives. Soon
after I was born, one of my uncles asked, "What is the lad's name to
be?" "Thomas," replied my mother. "Never," said my uncle, in surprise,
"we had two Thomas's, and they both did badly; call him John. I have
known four John's in the family, and they _were all great drunkards, but
that was the worst that could be said of them_." 'So it appears,' said
our friend, 'that at that time it was thought no very bad thing for a
man to get drunk, if he was not in the habit of being brought before the
magistrate for theft, &c.' John's father was one of the four drunkards.
In early life he became a hard drinker, and he continued the practice
until a damaged constitution, emptied purse, a careworn wife, and a
neglected family, were the bitter fruits of his inebriation. 'He drank
hard,' says John, 'spending almost all his money in drink, and was at
last forced to sell his vessel and take to the menial work of helping to
load and unload vessels. At length he went to sea, and for a long time
we heard nothing of him; nor did my mother receive any money from him.
In old age he was quite destitute, and while it gave me great pleasure
to minister to his necessities, it often grieved me to think of the
cause of his altered circumstances.'

Nightly, when