NUMBER OF PLACES WHERE LIQUOR WAS ILLEGALLY SOLD. Under the prohibitory law, 1874, 5,609 NUMBER OF PLACES LICENSED TO SELL LIQUOR. Under the license law, 1877, 5,273 JUDGMENTS ON COMPLAINTS FOR ILLEGAL SALES. Under the prohibitory law, 1874, 3,644 Under the license law, 1877, 1,693 “It will thus be seen that the number of arrests for drunkenness under the operation of the license law, during the year 1877, as compared to the prohibitory year 1874, shows a decrease of fully twenty-five per cent. In the number of convictions for drunkenness the difference in favor of the license year is at the same rate. The number of places where liquor was _illegally_ sold under the prohibitory law of 1874, was larger by 336 than the number of places _licensed_ in 1877. It is evident from these returns that the prohibitory law has failed to prohibit, or even to regulate, the sale of liquor, while it is equally apparent that the license law, as a legislative measure, not only regulates the sale of liquor, but decreases drunkenness. “A law, to be effective, must have the support of the people; the prohibitory law will never be thus supported, as common sense will teach that it is neither just nor judicious, to make somebody else than the drunkard himself responsible for his failing; and is not just this the questionable theory upon which prohibition is based? “The prohibitionists condemn the use of alcoholic beverages of every kind, as the prolific source of sin and vice. Nothing less than total abstinence finds favor with them. To them, the terms use and abuse have no distinctive meaning, and their curse falls upon brewery and distillery alike. It must be admitted that as long as alcoholic stimulants are used, intemperance will exist, and that the evil of drunkenness will only disappear with their total suppression. In view of the actual state of social habits, and the position which alcoholic beverages hold in civilized life, as now constituted, no sane person will believe such a total suppression possible. There are no means by which a habit, transmitted from generation to generation, and forming so important an element in the development of the civilization of the human race, can be uprooted. Alcoholic stimulants once invented are never again abandoned, and seem to be destined to co-exist with man. The deplorable vice of drunkenness has always accompanied their use, and all attempts of rulers and philanthropists, the severest penalties and the sincerest compassion, have alike failed to suppress the evil. But it does not follow that, because the temptation of excessive use is too strong for some to be resisted, the great mass of people, who can and do use these beverages in moderation, should be made responsible for the weakness of the few. Nor does it follow that the intensity of the temptation is to be regarded as an excuse for the drunkard. Excess