Southern Christian Advocate

INTEMPERANCE IN IRELAND

A person who has never been in Ireland can form but a very faint idea of the height to which intemperance was carried a few years ago. It may, indeed be truly observed, that " nearly every crime committed in the country might be traced, directly or indirectly, to the influence of the whiskey." Warburton, in his elaborate " History of Dublin," states that this spirit was not introduced into that city until about the year 1750; but that intemperance was just as common with rum and brandy,--the spirits then used. The quantity of claret drunk at the same period was enormous. In the year 1753 the importation from France alone was 8,000 tons. We have no means of knowing what quantity of whiskey was drunk in Dublin before Father Matthew effected his moral revolutions there; but it may astonish some persons to learn that in Thomas-street, in that city, containing 167 houses, no less than 62,we ascertained from personal observation,were spirit-shops, or places where whiskey could be purchased in 1840! This was in one street only; but certainly all the streets were not like this. After Father Matthew visited Dublin, three-fourths of the spirit-dealers became insolvent; and it was to this circumstance more than any other, that O'Connell's non-election after the last dissolution was to be attributed, most of the shop-keepers having been of his interest, and the spirit dealers having lost their votes.-New York Observer.