ployers who are tormented by some of their best hands disappearing in a push, just when they cannot be wanted, when their absence brings everything to a stand-still. On such occasions, foremen and employers swear out, as we say, a cargo sufficient to sink a hundred and twenty gun ship.

The nearest approach to the loss in wages_from_drinking which we can make is £80,000 per annum. In such cities as Birmingham and Sheffield, we believe it is proportionately much greater. An intemperate man has to suffer the loss of time, and to take a lower wage than he otherwise would have. One irregular in attendance has not the face to ask the highest pay.

Since we have spoken of hesitating to take into account doubtful items, we will make a few remarks on the lecture delivered in the Merchants' Hall, Glasgow, on 25th January, 1864, by Handel Cossham, Esq., on "Temperance economically considered," and which has been published. We are very sorry that this gentleman, who is a large employer in England, and a thorough man of business, should be so loose in his calculations. Abstainers do not require blunders and exaggerations to make out their case. Let them affirm nothing but what will stand the test of the most rigid scrutiny. Mr Cossham thus sums up the total loss to the three kingdoms from our drinking customs:

1. Money spent on these drinks,

2. Value of 7,500,000 quarters of corn destroyed, at 50s a quarter, 3. The increased value of labour that would result from the increased demand for ditto,

A Year.

£75,000,000 18,750,000

50,000,000

4. Cost of pauperism arising from drink,

5,000,000

5. Cost of detected and undetected crime, resulting from drink, 6. Loss through failure and profligacy, arising from Benefit Societies being connected with drunkenness,

21,000,000

7. Value of labour lost by workmen, employers, and the nation,

1,000,000 65,000,000

£235,750,000

His first item we allow to stand. His second we strike out altogether, for the best of all reasons-the price of the barley is included in the first item. The farmer was paid for his barley by the maltster, and the sum of £75,000,000 is made up of 1st, Price of barley; 2nd, Maltster's labour and profit; 3rd, Brewer and distiller's labour and profit; 4th, Publican's profit; 5th, Duty. Every one will see how unfair it is to charge the barley twice.

His third item we also strike out, for he got it by a process of most erroneous reasoning. He saw that if the £75,000,000 were expended on dwelling houses, furniture, clothes, and food for the working classes, there would be a much greater number of men employed than the maltsters, brewers, and distillers keep; and he thinks this additional employment would be equal to £50,000,000 more work given to the labouring classes than they

have at present. But we cannot jump to a conclusion so quickly as that. We first deduct the Government duty of £19,000,000, because if the Government were not supported by excise duty, it would be by some other tax. £19,000,000 deducted from £75,000,000 leaves £56,000,000, which is the real sum we have to look at, because the amount we have at our own disposal. If we now deduct the wages of the farm servants employed in the production of £20,000,000 worth of barley and hops; of the workers engaged in malting, brewing, distilling; of the porters with wholesale merchants, and of publicans and their servants; of those who make bottles, corks, and casks,-there will not be left a sum anything like the £50,000,000 Mr Cossham dreams of. But now we come to the quick. Why cannot Mr Cossham see that he has already entered this amount in his first item-it is there described as loss, and he cannot, therefore, enter it a second time as loss, on the ground that if expended on dwelling houses, furniture, clothes, &c., &c., for the labouring classes, it would provide a great addition of employment. A gentleman who spends £3,000 in fruitlessly trying to sink a well, does not say, I have lost £6,000." He might with the £3,000 have built a mansion, but then he could only say, "I have value for my money." So the nation, in spending £56,000,000 in drink, cannot say, "We have lost £112,000,000," but we have lost the useful articles which our £56,000,000 of drink money could have procured.

His fourth item we let stand; his fifth requires proof; his sixth we allow; his seventh is exaggerated. If we had adopted his scale, we would have estimated the loss of wages in Glasgow to be nearly £1,000,000, instead of £80,000. There are some conclusions he draws which betray but a superficial acquaintance with the subject. Thus he says—

"Then according to evidence we also find, 'that upon an average, 100 lbs. of barley will produce 80 lbs. malt.' Taking this statement as the most reliable data we can find (and it has been quoted and relied upon by the Times and by Parliament), we perceive that one-fifth of the grain, in quantity, is wasted in the first process of malting."

It is quite true that 100 lbs. of barley will give only 80 lbs. of malt; but it is not true that one-fifth, which is 20 per cent. of the grain, is wasted by malting; for if 100 lbs. of barley be merely put into a common stove, to drive off the natural inherent moisture, the dried barley will weigh only 88 lbs., water having been a constituent of the barley to the extent of 12 lbs. The real amount of waste by malting is only 8 per cent.

While thus remarking freely on Mr Cossham's calculations, we cordially thank him for his labours in our cause. He may imagine the evils which are the result of our intemperance to be as great as his mind can conceive, we will not object--for a

million millions would not represent the moral consequences; but let him not publish anything which the adversary can lay hold of. Facts will make our position strong enough, and facts will conduct us to only half his estimate, viz., £125,000,000 a year. And if the fact of the nation being a loser to the extent of £125,000,000 per annum do not awaken the Church, she would not awaken though one were to rise from the dead.

19th. ON THE TREATING SYSTEM.-None but those who mingle much with business men have any conception to what extent this vile system is carried on. It is maintained more or less by some in almost every branch of trade, by warehousemen, commission agents, and commercial travellers. Not a few tradesmen believe they cannot succeed unless they have recourse to treating with drink, and their practice corresponds with their belief. We grieve to say, there are hundreds who seek to force their way to a competency with the aid of alcohol; and hundreds of commercial travellers make it a point not to seek an order until the liquor has softened the heart of their customers. They seem to be ignorant of alcohol's not being a child's toy that can be played with. The beginning is pleasant, but what is the end? The demon pretends for a season to be as useful and obedient as any slave of the fabled lamp, while inch by inch he acquires the mastery, and then pushes his dupes headlong to ruin. Health, strength, substance, and character are soon beneath the demon's feet. How often have we seen those who started in business with a fresh heart and vigorous frame becoming in a few years a bloated mass, and descend to an early grave; how often have we seen warehousemen and clerks bribed with drink, until every fibre of their nature was a wreck, until their soul was a dastardly, dishonest, mean, wretched thing. It is, indeed, one of the greatest curses connected with business, this treating system; and unhappily it is not confined to Glasgow-it exists in all our great towns, even in Manchester, and that to a greater degree than here. Take a few cases which happened in our own city. 1st. A slight repair was executed upon a certain article belonging to one of our public institutions. Ten shillings was a fair and profitable price for the amount of work done, but the clerk was told to charge thirty shillings. The person connected with the institution called with the account, to complain of the charge. The tradesman knew his man, and how to buy him up. He took him straight over to a public house, treated him well with brandy,-whisky can do much, but brandy can do wonders-and when he had got him soaked, returned to his place of business, and ordered his own clerk to make out a new account, charging two pounds for the job-and the sum of two pounds was paid. 2nd. Certain tradesmen treated the entering clerk in the packing hall belonging to one of our largest wholesale warehouses until he became so dissipated

that his employers had to dismiss him. When he left, one of the partners sighed as he said, "We have lost one of our best men. 3rd. Certain tradesmen treated a clerk holding the same position in another of our largest warehouses, until he became unable to attend his work. He went to a watering place on the coast, to recruit his health, but died there, and died so poor that a subscription sheet had to be sent through the warehouse to get him buried, and for the benefit of his widow. After his funeral, it was discovered that the tradesmen who furnished the drink had made the employers pay for it. The goods supplied to the warehouse were systematically charged higher than the trade price; and what was worse, some were entered in the account that were never sent. The drink, the drink had so overcome the clerk, that he willingly allowed his employers to be thus plundered, for he passed the accounts as all correct. Employers should understand that, as a general rule, they pay for the drink their servants get for nothing; and some extensive employers in the city thus lose more than five hundred pounds a year. 4th. "How is business with you?" was asked in one of our large manufacturing warehouses. "Well, not very brisk," said the person addressed. "You see, since Mr became a partner, we have lost a great deal of our English trade; he is, you know, a director of the Temperance, and will not wait on any of the buyers at the hotel at night, and so they have taken the huff, and now go elsewhere."

The majority of buyers for the large English firms in Manchester and London are quite willing to be treated by those from whom they purchase, and some of them are treated until they lose their situation. About Christmas time, a few geese and a great many jars of best Islay whisky find their way from Glasgow to Manchester and London, to effectually remind the buyers that a call is expected from them when they come to purchase for the spring trade. There are some noble exceptions, both here and in England. Some, when asked where they put up, refuse to give their address, stating that they will call at the warehouse, and look at any goods the party may have to offer.

In estimating the loss sustained by the treating system, we will not take money into account-we will look only at the wreck of all moral principle, and it is very great. We might tell of noble fellows who, in most responsible situations, enjoyed their employers' utmost confidence and esteem, descending step by step to such degradation, that esteem was changed into anger and contempt, and then the unhappy ones leaving the place where they were so well known for some other scene, there to lie down in an obscure den and die-but we forbear. this we will not omit to say, Let all those exposed to temptation from the accursed treating system scorn the bribe, for they

But

know not to what it will conduct. It leads many to the lunatic asylum at last. Out of 92 males admitted to the Glasgow Royal Asylum in 1862, no fewer than 12 were clerks, while there were only 2 bakers, 3 blacksmiths, 2 joiners, 1 dyer, 3 grocers, and 1 shopman, &c., &c. There are more insane clerks admitted than of any other class whatever. We are glad to hear that some of the large warehouses in London insist that all their young men be abstainers. It is time for Glasgow to follow the example.

20th. CITY MORTALITY.-We will look at the number of deaths which occurred during the last three years, with the causes, as given in to the registrar clerks.

Of the 13,327 deaths which took place last year, about 6,000 may be said to have been by the visitation of God, and the remainder by the visitation of man-by his ignorance of the laws of health, by his carelessness, recklessness, and wickedness. No one will have the presumption to affirm that God intentionally sends the angel of death less frequently to the Blythswood district, in which the rich live, than to the other districts in which the poor live, and yet more of the poor die than of the rich. None but a fool will deny, that though God knows the exact duration of each individual's life, he nevertheless has so united foreknowledge and freewill that they do not interfere with each other's action: they work as harmoniously together as a soul and body in one person. God the omniscient has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass; but he fixed everything