Alexandria Gazette

Dr. B. Washington of the Navy has written a long letter on the subject of Temperance, which is published in the American Temperance Recorder. We have nothing to object to the Doctor's general views in favor of the great object for which he writes, but we observe one sentence in his letter which we would notice.—
Speaking of the use of rum and tobacco, he says:
"They are the cause of the desolation that has spread over the whole State of Virginia—a desolation scarcely paralleled in the history of the world."
Now, we should be pleased to hear something further of this "unparalleled desolation" in the State of Virginia; for it is the first time that we have ever read of it. We do not know that rum and tobacco have been more prejudicial in Virginia than elsewhere; and we repeat, that as for any "unparalleled desolation" from the use of these articles in that state, we never before heard or read of it.