---------------+-------------+--------------+---------------- | | | PERCENTAGE OF | POPULATION. | NO. OF |PRISONERS TO THE | | PRISONERS. | POPULATION. ---------------+-------------+--------------+---------------- Irish | 56,900 | 14,673 | 25.78 German | 5,606 | 364 | 6.49 ---------------+-------------+--------------+---------------- Similar general results are found more or less marked wherever such laws are in force. Druggists tell us that as a rule the consumption of opium in various forms from paregoric to laudanum has increased, bitters are more extensively used and in some places Scotch snuff for “dipping” has come into demand. The amount of opium annually imported is greater than that received by China a hundred years ago, and there is reason to suppose that many who are called reformed drunkards have adopted opium in some form and thus given themselves to a new bondage no whit better than the old. Notice that the increase in the sale of opium keeps pace in a very fair measure with the enforcement of prohibitory laws. One dealer in drugs in Hartford, Conn., recently advertised for sale five thousand pounds of opium, certainly a good dose for the land of steady habits. In the state just mentioned both prohibition and “local option” laws have been tried and neither can be considered a success. Under the present “local option” many towns wholly forbid the sale of spirituous and malt liquors, and this fact has given great prominence to suits arising out of the sale of what is called Schenck beer, which is substantially lager beer. The courts at last decided that this article is not intoxicating within the meaning of the act, and though the decision as to intoxicating quality is just, the fact that this beer is allowed while lager beer under its own name is forbidden shows how great a part prejudice instead of reason has played in the contest. “Peripatetic gin mills” are increasing in about the same ratio as “temperance societies” and “temperance detectives.” Those who pass by the name of temperance reformers seem in many cases to lose the sense of human charity and brotherly kindness, and little else can be expected when we remember how often they are the slaves of this single idea and how in all ages of the world bigotry has been attended by cruelty. Before giving one striking instance of cruelty which it is to be hoped has since been sincerely regretted by all concerned, we must reiterate that any law which every one knows to be constantly violated brings law into disrespect and demoralizes the community so far forth. The case to which reference was just made was mentioned in the New York _World_, and although other matters are added the whole is of sufficient interest to bear reproduction. The article is as follows: