The extent and ramifications of modern temperance societies are almost incredible. Most of the United States and Territories have general societies, and in many cities and townships of each State there are, as with us, local societies with their branches. The chief religious denominations are committed by resolution and practice to total abstinence, and many churches connect temperance work with their other organisations. So widespread and universal are these denominational societies, that Father Nugent of Liverpool stated before the Lords’ Committee on Intemperance that he found attached to nearly every Catholic church in Canada and the United States total abstinence societies, and that such society was “the leaven of each congregation.”[382] Indeed, he was so impressed with what he witnessed there, that on his return home, to use his own words, “he took up Father Mathew’s work in Liverpool on the 29th February 1872.” His action, coupled with that of his zealous associates in Liverpool, has had the effect of ameliorating the condition of the Irish Catholics in that town, although there is still ample room for improvement; but his reforming zeal is not universal, for there are places in which the priests have not hesitated to seek the alliance of the gin-shop in the pursuit of what they no doubt believe conscientiously enough to be their religious duty. On the whole, however, the leadership and example of their chief, Cardinal Manning, and the self-denial and devotion of the priesthood, are doing much to stem the tide of drunkenness amongst the class in which that vice is undoubtedly the most prevalent in all English-speaking communities.