have been reported from one town; that their daily moderate use is the cause of many distressing diseases in the temperate; and that their general use renders the whole community much more exposed to infection; and medicine much less efficacious.

Nor is this all; but the physical and intellectual energies of our population, our social enjoyments, our moral and religious principles, and our very liberties were fast fading away before the insidious but fell destroyer.

As a remedy for these wide spread and desolating evils, this Society, persuaded that no other measures would be of any avail, coincided with the American Temperance Society, in adopting the principle of Entire AbstinenCE. Each member gave his pledge to use no distilled spirit, except in case of bodily hurt or sickness; to give none to others and to discountenance as much as possible its use in the community. The only means by which they hoped or wished to extend the remedy were example and moral suasion. Laws would be of little avail, while popular opinion was all in favor of drinking. Popular opinion, therefore, was to be changed, by a fair expose of the entire uselessness of spirituous liquors to men in health; of their poisonous qualities, and their pernicious influence upon the body, mind, and heart; and by powerful appeals to the humanity, patriotism, and religion of our citizens.

For this purpose your Committee designed to employ a General Agent for the State; but as they had no funds they have been utterly unable to do it. They received, however, occasional aid from the powerful appeals of the Rev. Mr. Hewitt. The American Temperance Society also sustained for a few months, the Rev. Talcott Bates as an Agent, who labored with much success, chiefly in Litchfield County.A few friends of the cause sustained the Rev. Stephen Crosby three months in Hartford County. And Daniel Frost, Esq. performed an agency in the eastern part of the State, at the expense of the Windham and New-London County Societies. But the cause has found agents and patrons in very many of our most distinguished divines, physicians, and jurists; and of our best farmers and mechanics, who have displayed a zeal, firmness, and wisdom in the cause, that are tokens of great good to our State.

The Middlesex Temperance Society early adopted a system of monthly meetings, which should be held in rotation in each of the towns in the County. In these meetings, reports were made by a delegation from every Auxiliary, respecting the state of Temperance, and a written address was delivered, often to crowded auditories, by some gentleman, exhibiting the great principles of the Society, and enforcing them, with eloquence and power. This system was soon adopted by other County Societies, and became general through most of the State.Each minor Temperance Association has been led by it, to monthly meetings, by which there has been, in almost every village, a free and full discussion of the subject.

Temperance Tracts have also been extensively distributed in the State. The Litchfield County Society early resolved, that every family in the County should be supplied with a temperance tract. This resolution has been carried, in most towns, into full effect.

The general results of these efforts have been such as call for the most lively gratitude to Almighty God, who has remembered us in mercy. Your Committee, in answer to a request for information, issued in a Temperance Circular, have received letters from several parts of the State, of a most cheering character. These they would gladly lay before you, did time permit. A summary only can be exhibited. A Coun ty Society exists in every County in the State. Each County Society has numerous Auxiliaries. Hartford has 34; New Haven 28; Litchfield 30; Fairfield 8; Middlesex 19; Tolland 13; New London 21; Windham 19-in all 172, embracing 22,532 Members, who have signed to your Constitution in about one year.*

The Temperance cause has flourished in different parts of the State, much in proportion to the exertions which have been made for its promotion. But throughout the State, even where the reform is least, a great change has taken place in regard to the common use of ardent spirits. The practice, once common, of treating visitors and friends on all occasions, with spirituous liquor, is generally, it is believed, abolished. A multitude of families, who considered it as necessary, in the closet and on the sideboard, as meat in the barrel, have ceased keeping' it in their bouses. From the sick room, as a support to nurses and watchers, and a guard against infection, it is extensively banished.Hundreds, in every occupation, who once used it freely for refreshment, and considered it essential, no more resort to it now than to laudanum and arsenic. To recount the labor effected, without ardent spirits, in the past year, and reported to your Committee, would be peculiarly gratifying. Some of the most prominent cases only can be recited.

Many of the Stone Quarries on Connecticut river, employing several hundred men, have been worked without ardent spirits in the quarries. Several Fishing Companies, on the river, used none the last season, and use none this. In some Ship-yards there, and at Madison, and on the Housatonic, none has been used for some months; and several vessels have been built and repaired without.

At Saybrook, one fishing pier has been built without; and at Haddam, one wharf has been laid, in cold weather, without. In Derby, a large bridge has been built without. One hundred men worked several days without at the Shetucket dam, and were most of the time, exposed to wet and subjected to great fatigue.

In North Haven, two brick-yards are conducted without. In New Haven, one hundred master-builders, mechanics, and artisans, use none, and allow none among their workmen.

In Meriden, more than 300 mechanics do their work without. Two

* Appendix, No. I.

ivory establishments, employing about 50 hands each, have used none for more than a year. Three extensive tin establishments, and one augur establishment use none. A mechanic in Windham County, who employs no less than 20 men, has made special contracts wiih them all, to furnish no ardent spirits, and has found no difficulty in accomplishing the most laborious undertakings.

Buildings of every description have been framed, raised, and moved in most parts of the State, without strong drink.

A meeting-house was raised and completed, without, in New Hartford. Another in Willington. Another, of unusual size, was raised without in Guilford. "The raising occupied eight days. The labor was hard, and the exposure great; yet no one was hurt; no damage ensued ; no loud altercation; no quarreling—all went on quietly and pleasantly.” Nearly all the manufacturing establishments in Middletown, have been conducted without.

In New-Britain, several large brass founderies, one iron foundery, and several small manufactories, without.

In Pettypaug, three comb factories, one toy factory, and all the smithshops.

In Chester, one gimblet factory, and one anchor factory.

In Lyme, one woollen factory.

In Mount Riga, Salisbury, all the iron furnaces.

In Waterbury, of five factories which employ 200 hands, four, certainly, totally reject ardent spirits.

Of most of the extensive manufacturing establishments in New London County, very few are willing to have any connexion with ardent spirits. A nail factory, a rolling mill, slitting mill, iron foundery, cotton and woollen mills, and other establishments at Norwich, are conducted without. The iron works require intense heat, and are frequently wrought during the night.

The large manufacturing establishments at Bozrahville, use none. In the extensive works at Whitneyville, no ardent spirit is used. Your Committee have been informed, by a respectable tanner, that in several of the important tanneries in the State, no ardent spirit is now used, though it has been thought generally absolutely indispensable in that business.

Your Committee have heard also, with great pleasure, of more than 20 of our own vessels, which are navigated without ardent spirits; and of about 1,000 of our most substantial farmers who have now, for a considerable period, used none in their labors.

Nor is the disuse of this expensive and destructive article confined to members of your Society; but is becoming general. Not a few have entirely abandoned it, who have not as yet seen fit to give their pledge for total abstinence.

There is no town, your Committee believe, in which there has not been a marked reduction, both in the use and sale. In some towns, it has been great. In South-Canaan, twelve hogsheads less were used the

last year, than in former years. In Lyme, the diminution has been from 100 hogsheads to 35. In Wintonbury, from 24 to 11. Generally, the reduction is placed, in the communications made to your Committee, from one-half to two-thirds. In some towns, at seven-eighths. The quantity sold, by one wholesale merchant in Hartford, in 1829, was only one-fifth; by another, one-sixth; by another, one-eighth, sold in 1825. A retailer in Litchfield County, who sold, in 1827, 750 gallons, sold last year but 120.

There has been, of late, a great reduction in the quantity of foreign spirits introduced. In the year 1828, there were entered, at the Custom House in Middletown, 186,845 gallons of foreign distilled spirits. In 1829, 74,944 gallons. Up to the present time, of the present year, only 3,337 gallons, and very little more is expected. A similar, though not equal reduction is reported from the Custom-House in New-York. This reduction in the importation is owing to various causes; but the Temperance reform has had its influence.

Your Committee have heard of more than 30 distilleries, in the State, that have been totally abandoned, in the year past; and of several which have done very little business. Some have been abandoned for want of support, and others from principle.

They have also heard of some licensed retailer, in almost every town, who, from principle, has abandoned all traffic in an article so fraught with ruin to mankind. Of one, your Committee have heard, who has abandoned it because his only two sons, one 14 and the other 16 years of age, had become openly intemperate. From the State Treasurer, your Committee learn, that about 1,000 dollars less have been received into the State Treasury, this year, for licenses to retail wines and foreign distilled spirits, than in the last year, making a decrease of 200 licensed retailers in the State, the present year. From a few of these, licenses were withheld by the town authorities; but your Committee have heard of about 150 who did not apply for them, and who have voluntarily relinquished the business. Several of them have assured your Committee, that they are now better satisfied with their business, have fewer bad debts, and have suffered nothing, as was apprehended, in the profits of their trade, and in their ability to support their families.

Several taverners, in various parts of the State, have ceased keeping spirituous liquors for travellers;-believing that men no more need unnatural excitement in travelling than in labor.

Before the commencement of the Temperance reformation, the law forbidding the sale of strong drink, to be drank in small quantities in stores, was almost universally disregarded. Almost every licensed retailer kept a dram shop; nor was it thought inconsistent with patriotism or Christianity; and the officer, who entered a complaint, was sure to lose his office, and become the song of the drunkard. What statutes could not effect, public opinion has, to a considerable extent, accomplished. This most pernicious practice, a prime cause of drunkenness in the land, is extensively abolished. And many merchants, who felt

themselves compelled to it, to aid them in the sale of other goods, rejoice that it is abolished. Your Committee fully coincide with an opinion delivered from the bench by high judicial authority,* which opinion they are happy to quote in this place," that if parents, masters, and guardians, magistrates, and ministers of religion, and all lovers of their country, would unite in placing dram shops and tippling houses, on a level with the haunts of counterfeiters, the depositories of stolen goods and the retreats of thieves; if over the doors of every house furnished for the purpose of practising this vice, public opinion would fix its seal of reprobation by inscribing, THE WAY TO HELL, LEADING DOWN TO THE CHAMBERS OF DEATH, we might expect that these prolific sources of ruin would soon be annihilated, and this great evil, in part at least, cease to disgrace our fair land.”

Your Committee believe that a great amount of property has been saved to the citizens of this State by the temperance reformation. The inhabitants of Hadlyme have informed them, that they have been spared the expense of purchasing in the last year 2,000 gallons of spirituous liquor, which is a great thing to them as the times are hard, and they are but 500 in number. Inhabitants of Wintonbury view this reform as saving to them in the last year about a thousand dollars. Inhabitants of the four parishes in Saybrook declare, that it has saved to that town, at least nine thousand. Making, says a report of the Litchfield County Society, "the most temperate part of Litchfield County a standard, the inhabitants of that County have consumed 94,711 gallons a year, at an expense of $75,500. Now admitting that the Temperance reformation has reduced that expense three fourths for the last six months; the county has already realized in half a year, the actual savof $28,312 50, or $2574 for each town." If the general diminution of use in the State, for the year has been one half, the State has realized a saving of $391, 447 47. While they make this remark, your Committee are aware that it will be said, that a portion of this has gone for other drinks. They believe a very small proportion: it being found that men who cease using ardent spirits, require but little drink of any kind, and even use less of cider and beer than when their system was in a constant fever from the use of strong drink.

Several sources of direct gain from the principle of entire abstinence have come to the knowledge of your Committee. One of the most enterprising, skilful and successful mechanics in the State, who employs an hundred men on this principle, and has acted upon it for ten years, has stated to your Committee, that the gain in a business of $40,000 per annum, the ordinary profit of which is ten per cent, will result in ten years, in a profit of $15,000 more on the principle of abstinence, than if performed with the moderate use of ardent spirits, (chiefly through its effect on the mind,) and that business conducted in this country, on the strict principle of abstinence, will, with common industry and ap

* Judge Daggett.

+ Mr. James Brewster.