N. B. The county clerk says that he is acquainted with the man who was imprisoned for whipping his wife; that he was once a man of property, and has become poor, he has no doubt soley on account of his intemperance; that when intoxicated he threatened to kill his children, and the neighbors were obliged to interfere. The jailer was unacquainted with him previous to his imprisonment. Poor-House. Whole number assisted during a year,. It was not convenient for the keeper to make Not from intemperance,. Doubtful, 374 205 22 70 113 Intemperance, Three-fourths of those classed as temperate are idiots or lunatics. Of the doubtful, I give it as my decided opinion, that a large majority of them, could their history be known, were reduced to poverty, directly or indirectly, by intemperance. ISAAC COUTANT, Keeper. Mount-Pleasant, Dec. 11, 1833. County tax,.. Expenses. Of this there was raised to pay for addi- $13,600 00 3,037 68 JOHN B. UNDERHILL, Clerk of Sup. N. B. In 1826, before the establishment of our county poorhouse, the poor tax was $12,306.97. YATES COUNTY.-Population 19,009. Particulars.-Eight of these belong to one family, and the father makes free use of ardent spirit. I have however classed them as not reduced to poverty by intemperance. : I have now, sir, laid before you the result of my agency. I might, it is true, (and it may be expected that I should do so) give you other information touching the cause of temperance, which my tour may have enabled me to obtain but this I purposley omit doing. My object was to obtain facts in relation to particular points; and were I to attempt giving you an account of the state of the temperance cause, and its comparative advancement in different counties or sections of our country, it is obvious that the hasty view I have been able to take in passing rapidly through the counties visited, would render the information I could furnish you of little value. I might too, speak of the manner in which our jails and poor-houses are kept; but here again I have to say that this was not my object, and it would have required time which I did not feel at liberty to spend in this way. My business was with the keepers of poor-houses and jails, and not with their inmates. Of jails, I have seen little; of poor-houses, I have necessarily seen more, the latter lying more open to inspection. Of these I can not deny myself the pleasure of saying, that generally they appear to possess every comfort which they are designed to afford, and that cleanliness is a striking feature in the appearance of nearly all of them, and the superintendents have in most cases selected as keepers men of business and intelligence. Of the cause of temperance I may just say, that I have not found a spot where it has not made some progress. In the southern tier of counties, parts of which are comparatively new, I was supprised to find that this subject appeared to be as old, was as well understood, and had received as large a share of attention, as in the older counties. In fact, I have at every step seen conclusive evidence that the blessing of God has attended the means that have been used to arouse public attention to the desolating evils of intemperance; and that in proportion to the means has been the success. On this, as on every subject of moral reform, the people need "line upon line, and precept upon precept"-to have facts and arguments presented—to have them pressed home upon their consciences where they have any, and where they have not, the appeal must be made to their self-interest. I am fully aware that in the details I have give there is great sameness, but my object is to show what is the uniform, legitimate effect of the use of ardent spirits, and without going into these details this could not be fully accomplished. ALCOHOL is on trial-sheriffs, keepers of poor-houses, clerks of supervisors, magistrates, the superintendents and officers of the house of refuge and of the lunatic asylum, &c. are giving testimony. Let them be heard. The greater the uniformity in the testimony they give, the greater the influence it ought to have and will have on the minds of an honest and intelligent jury. There is another reason for giving these particulars. Those officers have chosen to insert them in their certificates-they may deem them important, especially in their own counties, where their statements will be scrutinized. I will not assume the responsibility of adding or diminishing aught. And now, in view of the facts which the statistics I have exhibited, showing the proportion of pauperism and crime growing out of intemperance, and the expense which it occasions, arising directly from the same cause, besides the incalculably larger amount arising from it indirectly, in the loss of time, of litigation it occasions; the time of parties, witnesses and spectators; the interruption and derangement of business; the destruction of property; the loss of health, and the bills of physicians; it would seem that men endowed with reason would look around them and inquire for the benefits to counterbalance these evils; and if none could be found, that the next object of inquiry would be the remedy. And this reason and common sense can not mistake. The evils had existed, had been seen and deplored, and yet had in creased for centuries until societies were formed taking for their fundamental principle, total abstinence. The success which has followed their organization, and the exertion of their members, can leave no doubt that a complete victory will finally crown their efforts. And notwithstanding I have shown beyond the power of contradiction that more than three fourths of the ordinary tax is absorbed by the support of poor, and the administration of criminal justice that more than three-fourths of the pauperism is occasioned by intemperance, and more than five-sixths of those committed on criminal charges are intemperate, yet the greatest obstacle in your way is the pecuniary interest of a few individuals—that of manufacturers and venders. If the tax-payers will submit to this, we might, looking upon it as a mere matter of pecuniary profit or loss, stand by and laugh at their folly but when we reflect that the business of the manufacturer and vender involves the temporal happiness of thousands, as well as their eternal interests, this subject assumes an infinitely more serious aspect. In no poor-house that I have visited have I failed of finding the wife or the widow, and the children of the drunkard. In one poor house, as my certificate will show, of 190 persons releived there the past year, were NIE TEEN wives of drunken husbands and SEVENTY-ONE children of drunken fathers. In almost every jail were husbands confined for whipping their wives or for otherwise abusing their families. In one nine, in another fourteen, in another sixteen, had been in prison for this offence the last year: in anothor, three out of the four who were then in prison were confined for whipping their wives. But when we reflect that but a very small proportion of these brutes in human shape are thus punished, the amount of misery and domestic suffering, arising from this source, exceeds the powers of the human mind to compute; and yet the sale of that which causes all this is not only tolerated but is AUTHORIZED by LAW. Could we collect the wives and children of this class in a great amphitheatre-place in an outer circle the manufacturers and the venders, and fix them there until each mother and child had told the history of their griefs-of their downward course from affluence, or competency, from respectability and domestic happiness to poverty, to misery and wretchedness-could the scenes of domestic discord be all acted over-could the blows of the sworn and once loved and cherished protector, now transformed to a madman and a brute, be made to sound in their ears, with the shrieks of these wives and mothers, and the wailings of their innocent children; could they for the occasion be furnished with powers of language to describe their days of toil and misery, and their nights of unmitigated, unmingled and unavailing sorrow and anguish; could they throw into their countenances all the agony which has so often wrung their souls, all the terror and trembling, all the digust and loathing which the conduct of their husbands and fathers have caused them; could these men hear the prayers of these wives for their husbands, that the temptation which had so besotted and enslaved them might not again be thrown in their way-and finally, could the secret tears which they have shed be made to flow in full view of this circle of makers and dealers that surrounded them-could all this be done, is there a soul not absolutely in league with the great Adversary and Tempter himself, who could for another day or hour continue in his unholy business!!! Yet all this is seen by the eye of Omniscience, and these groans and wailings, and prayers have entered into the ears of the God of Sabaoth; and yet these men who are the chief agents in producing all this, would have us consider them as patriots, as philanthropists, or even as christians—yes, men who profess to be governed by the law of love!-to feel their paramount obligation to do good to all men ;—yet assisting to hoist the flood-gates of intemperance, spreading desolation, and ruin, and death!!Occasioning misery in all its disgusting and horrid and heartrending forms;—and crime, which is filling our jails with felons, our madhouses with maniacs, and our land with widows and orphans, and hastening to the grave and to the judgment, those who God has said, cannot inherit his kingdom!!! And yet all this is seen in every section of our country at this day, when no man can plead ignorance in regard to this subject. You, sir, with every friend of his country, and especially, every friend to the religion of our Saviour, cannot but be pained at the bare recital of these facts; yet you, and all that are engaged in the temperance reformation, may have the pleasing reflection that you are labouring to eradicate these evils, and that all your labours and sacrifices in this cause have thus far been crowned with a measure of success so far beyond your most sanguine anticipations, as to demonstrate that the cause of temperance is under the special protection of Him who can and will cause it ultimately to gain a complete and glorious triumph. I am, sir, Very respectfully, yours, t |