five dollars a gallon, and then he should stop drinking it." On the whole, the probability is, that a more fo: midable resistance to the taxation of spirituous liquors, will spring from the manufacturers, importers and sellers of them, than from the consumers. This conclusion is authorised by the fact, that so many fortunes have been acquired by those occupations; by the acknowledgment of the Alderman, as narrated in the preceding essays, (page 23) and decisively by the late remonstrance published by the grocers of the city of New-York. So that the business at length resolves itself into this great moral and political problem ;-WHETHER THE MAJORITY OF

OUR CITIZEN, FROM WHOM ALL POLITICAL AUTHORITY ORIGINATES, SHALL FIND IT TO BE JUSTICE AND CORRECT POLICY, TO GRANT ONE SECTION OF THE COMMUNITY, THE PRIVILEGE OF "GETTING THEIR LIV. ING." OR ACCUMULATING ESTATES, THROUGH THE

BANKRUPTCY AND MORAL AND PHYSICAL DESTRUCTION

OF ANOTHER MORE NUMEROUS, BUT IMPRUDENT SECTION?

THE HABITUAL TEMPERATE USE OF SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS, A VIOLATION OF MORAL PURITY, AND RELI

So far as it is in our power to understand the designs and laws of our Creator, for the regulation of our conduct, it is both our duty and interest to yield perfect compliance. The preservation of health and life, is unquestionably one of our most palpable and explicit duties. Every act therefore which impairs our health and diminishes the period of our lives, is a violation of the express command of God. I shall endeavor to demonstrate by physiological facts, that both these effects are produced more or less, by the application of distilled spirits to the stomach, in whatever quantity. All our food, whether vegetable or animal, is originally derived from the vegetable kingdom. The materials from which vegetables receive their nutriment generally exist in an oxided state. Thus water contains nearly seven eighths of its weight of oxygen; carbonic acid nearly three fourths, and all decaying vegetable and animal matter is found highly saturated with it. The great process of vegetation appears to consist in decomposing the various substances which sup

ply the rudiments of its food, and in expelling the excess of oxygen, with which they are always combined. The first product of vegetation is sugar, which contains 8 parts hydrogen, 28 carbon, and 64 of oxygen, and being the crudest and most abundant article of food that exists, is probably designed for the support of the gramenivorous races of animals; as the various grasses, including the sugar cane, yield more of it than any other plants. Whether a digression or not, I must here announce the important fact that sugar is an improper and deleterious article of diet for man, and a prolific source of disease, which, if my life is spared, I shall at a future time, attempt to demonstrate both from facts and the physical laws of nature. The second stage towards the perfectability of the nutritive principle, is that of gum or mucilage, which contains. only half its quantity of oxygen; 14 parts in a hundred less than sugar. Fecula or starch is a fraction finer, and is the product of those seeds which constitute the principal and propably the most appropriate food for men. Sugar is found in the most common juice or sap of plants and trees, while gum is confined chiefly to the bark, root, or heart, and fecula and oil, to the seeds and nuts. Oil is still farther refined, containing 77.243 carbon, 13.36 hydrogen, and only 9.427 of oxygen. Gluten the most nutritive substance with which we are acquainted, is composed, according to Accum, entirely of hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen. It is afforded in greater quantity from wheat, than any other vegetable.

Now in order to obtain alcohol, (or whiskey.) from any of the seeds used for bread, it is necessary that they should be subjected to the recontamination of oxygen, so as to reduce them back to their crude saccharine state. Then the vinous fermentation, imparting still more oxygen, must be applied and continued until those once natritive milky materials have become sensibly acid or sour. From this loathsome leaven (or yeast) of depravity,disease and death, the serpentine alembic,with the aid of the furnace, disgorges a liquid fire, which consumes the health, happiness and lives of thousands and millions of unthinking infatuated men. The literal chemical term for this fluid would be the oxide of nutriment; and it is in this state that most poisons exist; being indebted for their activity to oxygen; as the oxides of arsenic copper, antimony, lead, silver, quicksilver, &c. The com

position of alcohol is as follows:-Oxygen 37.85, Carbon 43.65, Hydrogen 24.94, Azote 3.52, Ashes 0.04, 100.00. Composed of very inflammable materials, in a disengaged state, and mingled with more than one third of its weight of oxygen, the common vehicle of fire, it commences a kind of smothered combustion instantaneously on its reception unto the stomach; corrodes the organs of digestion, excites an unnatural heat and violent circulation of the blood; attended with delirium, and succeeded by a loss of strength, proportioned to the excess of excitement produced by the irritating agent. Several other poisons produce similar effects. It is an infallible axiom in the physical organization of man, that every excitement of his vital powers beyond the point to which his Creator has adapted him, which is the uniform effect of alcohol, diminishes his capacity for repeating like motions from like means. Hence it may be safely inferred that every dram of spirituous liquors of any description, is a check upon the capital stock of strength and life, and hastens the approach of the hour of dissolution, in proportion to the indulgence. Each dram increases the appetite for another, and the necessity of an increased quantity, to produce an equal effect, multiplies in a progressive ratio. Thus it follows, unavoidably, that the habitual temperate use of ardent spirits is a pernicious and vicious practice. Besides its consumption of vital power, it will be found an unjustifiable and immoral habit in another point of view. It is a wanton and unnecessary waste of proper ty, which ought to be religiously preserved, even by those who possess it, in ever so great profusion. Dr. Franklin says whoever draws a fish from the sea, draws up a piece of silver. Whoever swallows two gills of distilled spirits daily, annihilates 20 ounces of silver a year, or 20 bushels of rye; for the want of which many of his own posterity may eventually starve to death. In this way, it has been estimated by a late writer that the people of the United States, destroy 33,365,529 dollars annually. Considering this, and the many other useless and superfluous modes of diminishing the common stock of national wealth, there is no reason to be surprised to hear the present universal re-echo of "hard times," "dull times," "scarcity of money," "scarcity and high price of bread corn,” "sales by execution," " difficulty of collecting debts,” “ insolvencies," " pauperism.” &c. &c. &c.

APPENDIX.

AMERICAN POLITICS.

The reason why the citizens of the U. States are separated into two great contending political parties, calumniating and provoking each other with vollies of corrosive epithets and abuse, is to me inexplicable.、 Ask every citizen indiscriminately his political creed, and 99 hundredths will give synonimous answers. Both parties cling to the same standard, the federal constitution, and yet reproach each other with the terms federal, democrat, &c. without reflecting on the meaning of either. The word federal signifies nothing more than united, and has no concern with modes or systems of government whatever. The word democracy signifies government by the people, and composes one of the most essential and admirable qualities of our political system. Any other mode of government must originate from usurpation, violence, and oppression. It is very plain that no man is born marked by the Creator above another, "for none comes into the world with a saddle on his back, nor any booted and spurred to ride him." With rare exceptions it is the unanimous political theorem of the citizens of the United States, of both parties, that the people are the only source of legitimate power, and that legislators are only public agents, or servants, dependent on the confidence of their employers for the continuation of their term of service. All claim and assume the title of republican, the literal meaning of which is public affairs, general interest, common good, &c. Whence then all this senseless clamor about Toryism and Democracy, Federalism and Republicanism, British Influence and French Influence, &c. &c.? Can it spring entirely from pure patriotism on either side? Does not a great proportion of it proceed from self-interested aspirants for office,and publishers of news papers? Let every one examine and decide for himself. In selecting candidates for public trust, beware of the imperious haughty Aristocrat or tyrant, whatever party or title he may assume. Without distinction of party names, let the indispensable qualifications, be integrity, capacity, wisdom, moral rectitude and patriotism. But the most lamentable and mischievous prevailing political errors, after all, and which are confined to no specific party, are the customs of sending to the other side of the globe annually, several millions of silver dollars, to be exchanged for tree leaves, which produce an injury seven fold greater than the cost of them,

in promoting the general epidemic of indigestion and nervous complaints; of sending to Europe several millions more for contemptible trifles for the gratification of a vain and ridiculous fancy; several millions more to the West Indies for rum, sugar, molasses, coffee, and tobacco, which co-operate in their effects as joint allies with the said shrubbery, first mentioned; of sacrificing 20,000,000 more for whiskey the worst commodity of all, in our own country; and lastly of paying many millions more to the numerous distributors of those various seeds of moral and phy. sical-contamination three fourths of whom might otherwise, be employed in augmenting the national wealth, in a variety of useful occupations.

Soon after having finished the foregoing work, the author was presented, by a friend, with the following mournful dirge; with a request to insert it, if thought appropos to the present subject.

THE LOVERS OF RUM.

I've mus'd on the mis'ries of life,
To find from what quarter they come,
Whence most of confusion and strife,
Alas! from the Lovers of Rum.

I met with a fair one distress'd;

I ask'd from whence her sorrows could come,
She replied, "I am sorely oppress'd,
"My husband's a Lover of Rum."

I found a poor child in the street,

Whose limbs by the cold, were all numb,
No stockings or shoes on his feet,

His father's a Lover of Rum.

I went to collect a small debt,

The master was absent from home;

The sequel I need not relate,
The man was a Lover of Kum.

I met with a pauper in Rags,
Who ask'd for a trifling sum :
I'll tell you the cause why he begs,
He once was a Lover of Rum.

I've seen men, from health, wealth and ease,
Untimely, descend to the tomb,

I need not describe their disease,
Because they were Lovers of Rum.

Ask prisons, and gallowses all,

Whence most of their customers come:
From whence they have most of their calls,
They'll tell you," from Lovers of Rum."

Copy Right Secured.