Temperance Societies proceed upon the belief that ardent spirits are, _under all circumstances_, injurious to people in health, and that, therefore, they ought to be altogether abandoned. I am anxious to think favourably of any plan which has for its object the eradication of drunkenness; and shall therefore simply express my belief that those Societies have done good, and ought therefore to be regarded with a favourable eye. That they have succeeded, or ever will succeed, in reclaiming any considerable number of drunkards, I have great doubts; but that they may have the effect of preventing many individuals from becoming drunkards, is exceedingly probable. If this can be proved—which I think it may be without much difficulty—it follows that they are beneficial in their nature, and consequently, deserving of encouragement. That they are wrong in supposing ardent spirits _invariably_ hurtful in health, and they are also in error in advocating the instant abandonment, _in all cases_, of intoxicating liquors, I have little doubt; but that they are correct in their great leading views of the pernicious effects of spirits to mankind in general, and that their principles, if carried into effect, will produce good, is self-evident. Spirits when used in moderation, cannot be looked upon as pernicious: nay, in certain cases, even in health, they are beneficial and necessary. In countries subject to intermittents, it is very well known that those who indulge moderately in spirits are much less subject to these diseases than the strictly abstinent. “At Walcheren it was remarked that those officers and soldiers who took schnaps, _alias_ drams, in the morning, and smoked, escaped the fever which was so destructive to the British troops; and the natives generally insisted upon doing so before going out in the morning.”[45] The following anecdote is equally in point. It took place on the Niagara frontier of Upper Canada, in the year 1813. “A British regiment, from some accident, was prevented from receiving the usual supply of spirits, and in a very short time more than two thirds of the men were on the sick list from ague or dysentery; while, the very next year on the same ground, and in almost every respect under the same circumstances except that the men had their usual allowance of spirits, the sickness was extremely trifling. Every person acquainted with the circumstances believed that the diminution of the sick, during the latter period, was attributable to the men having received the quantity of spirits to which they had been habituated.”[46] Indeed, I am persuaded that while, in the tropics, stimulating liquors are highly prejudicial, and often occasion, while they never prevent, disease, they are frequently of great service in accomplishing the latter object in damp foggy countries, especially when fatigue, poor diet, agues, dysenteries, and other diseases of debility are to be contended against. It has been