“While there is so much prating and preaching about the morals of the people; while the increase of crime is grossly exaggerated, and the necessity of instruction is loudly talked about! when even the lotteries, which of late years did no harm at all, have been given up to the prevailing fashion of affected sanctity, it is quite preposterous that such filthy nuisances as the numerous gin-shops of London should not merely be tolerated, but sanctioned and encouraged by the legislature. We do not speak of regular public-houses, but of those places which are devoted only to the sale of spirits by retail. They cannot be necessary for the purpose of refreshments, and can only, as they do in fact, serve to produce evils of the most lamentable nature.” Who, that has a spark of feeling and integrity in his nature, does not coincide in opinion with the ingenious and accomplished editor of the distinguished periodical, from which this spirited and sensible passage is extracted? But the truth is, as has been well observed by the author of “The Manual for Invalids,” that it would be difficult to discover any thing in social life that is more virtually neglected than Public Health, which ought to be an object of the greatest concern to all wise and paternal governments, as well as to every influential and well-disposed individual in the nation. “The Public Health and the Public Morals,” as the same excellent writer sagaciously observes, “should be the object of the greatest solicitude on the part of every government, instead of extracting a profit from deception and villany, ignorance and vice. Were the various descriptions of liquors in which alcohol bears so predominant a part taxed to prohibition, there would be less of felony, less of moral degradation, less employment for police magistrates and judges, and less occasion for the executioner. There would be a counterpoise in the reduction of the parochial burthens, and a greater value given to the moral character of the people; but, unfortunately, the produce to the revenue is such as—while it does not prevent the injurious use of spirituous liquors, it enriches the coffers of the nation; and the sacra auri fames has, as well in government matters as in those of the quack, the adulterator, and the impostor, the power of making that appear relatively right which is absolutely wrong.”