Though there are distinctions of rank and station in society, there is a mutual dependence throughout the community at large, similar to the connexion existing among the members of the human body. “The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” The man whom wealth has exempted from the common lot of humanity, “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,” is as dependent on the cultivator of the soil, the manufacturer, and the mechanic, as they are upon him. Hence all in their several stations are equally the guardians of the peace, happiness, and prosperity of the nation to which they belong; and it becomes both their duty and their interest, either to prevent the introduction of any traffic of an injurious character, or to expel that from the land which may have been found to have such a tendency. The facility with which ardent spirits are obtained in this country, cannot but be regarded as the cause of those habits of intemperance which deface the fair page of our moral history. Drunkenness prevails to a lamentable extent throughout the land, and is the fruitful source of idleness, poverty, immorality, and crime. So far from being diminished, it seems rather on the increase; and the fearful change which it has wrought in the character of our artisans and labouring population, calls for the adoption of some measure to arrest its course. Ardent spirits are destructive of health, property, and morals; unfit to be used by persons in health, being destitute of any nutritious quality; and the traffic in them is injurious to the prosperity of the country. Besides the misery which the use of them inflicts on individuals and families, it greatly augments the national expenditure. It increases the poor’s rates by increasing pauperism; it enhances the expense of judicial proceedings by promoting crime; and our hospitals and lunatic asylums are indebted to the same cause for by far the greater proportion of their wretched inmates. If the money wasted in the purchase of this worse than useless superfluity, were spent on articles of real utility, a stimulus would be given to trade, manufactures, and commerce.