But whilst this is the condition of the remote States of the Union, where civilisation has but recently set its foot, a very different state of affairs is found to exist in the New England and other north-eastern States. It may at once be remarked, that so far as actual prohibition is concerned, in the large towns especially, the “Maine Liquor Law” has proved a failure. Upon that score all kinds of authors, excepting perhaps a few extreme teetotallers, and all observant travellers are agreed. In the article already referred to, Mr. M’Carthy somewhat exaggerates the failure, for he says that in Portland, when he visited that city, there was no more concealment in the sale of drink than there would have been in a public-house in Fleet Street.[350] The whole of his article, indeed, betrays a mind which had largely prejudged the question, and had been prepared to find failure rather than success; but it is not he alone who has testified to the breakdown of the prohibitory law. Mr. W. S. Caine, the leader of the temperance movement in and around Liverpool, who is certainly not likely to underrate efforts in the cause which he warmly advocates, has favoured the author with an account of two visits made by him (in 1875-76) to the United States, when he made a point of inquiring into the law, and he says that “he was reluctantly compelled to come to the conclusion that it needs considerable modification.” Unlike Mr. M’Carthy, he says he “wandered about the city of Portland looking for a public-house in vain.”[351] He could see nothing externally that would lead him to suppose that any building was devoted to the purpose; but when he asked in various shops “where he could get a drink,” he had a score of places pointed out to him. He then did what Mr. M’Carthy had done with the same result, namely, paid a visit to the English Consul. That gentleman had sent home a strong report against the Maine Law,[352] and he satisfied Mr. Caine of the ease with which liquor could be procured by taking him to at least a score of places where it was freely sold. Mr. Caine also gives an amusing account of a temperance meeting which he attended at Bangor (State of Maine). “On the platform,” he says, “were one hundred and fifty men decorated with sashes and medals, the speakers and president being ladies. The men with medals were drunkards who had been reclaimed in the city of Bangor during the winter by the ‘Ladies’ Temperance Association.’ At the close of the meeting, I spoke to the lady president, and expressed my surprise that in a town where liquor was prohibited, both in sale and manufacture, one society of women should be able to find no less than one hundred and fifty drunkards in six months. She replied that the law was a dead letter in Bangor, and that it was only of use in the country districts. The speeches at the meeting were of the same character as those delivered at English temperance meetings: the rum-sellers of Bangor were denounced,