Suppose a similar course had been pursued by the friends of Temperance--when would have commenced that mighty reformation which has taken place before our eyes--unparalleled in extent, completeness and rapidity? Suppose, instead of exposing the guilt of trafficking in ardent spirits, and demanding instant and entire abstinence, they had associated themselves together for the exclusive purpose of colonizing all the drunkards in the land, as a class dangerous to our safety and irremediably degraded, on a spot where they could not obtain the poisonous alcohol, but could rise to respect and affluence--how would such an enterprise have been received? Suppose they had pledged themselves not to 'meddle' with the business of the traders in spirituous liquors, or to injure the 'property' of distillers, and had dwelt upon the folly and danger of 'immediate' abstinence, and had denounced the advocates of this doctrine as madmen and fanatics, and had endeavored, moreover, to suppress inquiry into the lawfulness of rum-selling--how many importers, makers and venders of the liquid poison would have abandoned their occupation, or how many of the four hundred thousand individuals, who are now enrolled under the banner of entire abstinence, would have been united in this great enterprise? Suppose, further, that, in a lapse of fifteen years, this association had transported two thousand drunkards, and the tide of intemperance had continued to rise higher and higher, and some faithful watchmen had given the alarm and showed the fatal delusion which rested upon the land, and the Society should have defended itself by pointing to the two thousand sots who had been saved by its instrumentality--would the public attention have been successfully diverted from the _immense evil_ to the _partial good_? Suppose, once more, that this Society, composed indiscriminately of rum-sellers and sober, pious men, on being charged with perpetuating the evils of intemperance, with removing only some of the fruits thereof instead of the tree itself, should have indignantly repelled the charge, and said--'We are as much opposed to drunkenness, and as heartily deprecate its existence, as any of our violent, fanatical opposers; but the holders of ardent spirit have invested their capital in it, and to destroy its sale would invade the right of _property_; policy at least, bids us not to assail their conduct, as otherwise we might exasperate them, and so lose their aid in colonizing the tipplers.' What would have been accomplished? But no such logic was used: the duty of immediate reform was constantly pressed upon the people, and a mighty reform took place.