J. Ah, Thomas, Thomas, but it is a bad example. Scripture aye approves o’ them that tak’ nae drink, and I could gie ye plenty o’ instances o’t if you and I had time; and to finish the whole story, it declares to you, in Habakuk, in plain terms no to be misunderstood, “Woe to him that giveth his neighbour drink.” The beginning to drink is something like beginning to smoke or snuff, it is fun at first, but truly it often grows earnest, as we mony a time see; and I think, for my part, it’s far better to let it alane athegither; and I think it is the duty of every patriot and every Christian to give no countenance to these vile things; and every man that drinks intoxicating liquor is only assisting to support 40,000 men who break every Lord’s day, by destroying the bounties of Providence, by converting them into a most destructive and pernicious drink. And I think that a man that would not gie up the use o’ a thing that is baith useless and unnecessary, for the sake o’ his suffering fellow creatures, is nae man ava. T. Ye really gang a great length wi’ your teetotalism, ye seem to think it will be a general salve for a’ the distresses and sufferings with which we are afflicted; but I doubt, John, tho’ we were a’ teetotlars the nicht, it wadna better our condition a bawbee, in the present awfu’ state o’ things; we’re gae an’ weel teetotal’d the noo, and that sair against our wills. J. Nae thanks to you for that kin’ o’ teetotalism, that’s no the genuine principle; besides, I am sure, if we were a’ pledged, and sterling to the cause, we wad soon see a different state o’ things, for I am quite convinced it wad be a general salve for a’ our distresses. In the first place, it would prevent 45 millions bushels of good grain from being destroyed every year, which would have a great tendency to cheapen our food, enabling us to manufacture our goods at a cheaper rate, and to cope with other nations, and completely put a check to the evil workings of the Corn Bill; and besides all this, the miseries and crimes, the misfortunes and calamities, the lunacy and suicide, the Sabbath desicration and a thousand other evils would almost entirely vanish from among us. T. Really John, ye seem to hae’t a’ by the back, and I must confess, there’s a good deal o’ truth in what ye say; but what wad become o’ our puir revenue if we were a’ to drap drinking, there wad be a bonny cry out then, for we hae facht enough to get the win’ rais’d as it is.