peace, and prosperity to the millions of human beings the world over, gloriously emancipated from the thralldom and all the woes of Intemperance, and triumphantly happy in the accomplishment of the Temperance Reformation.

CHAPTER VI.

Further Considerations on the comparative amount of Loss and Gain Estimations, at Hazard by the Adoption or Rejection of the Law of Maine, as a Statute of the State of New York-Importance of Humiliation and Prayer, in View of this General War of Principle, for and against the Cause of Temperance, in answer to the Forebodings of the Twelfth Reason of the Remonstrancers against the Adoption of the Law of Maine, as a Statute of the Empire State.

COMPARATIVE LOSS AND GAIN.

THE subject of this chapter is to consider a comparative view of the loss and gain, at hazard, pending upon the legislative adoption of the Liquor Law of Maine, as a statute of the State of New York, in compliance with hundreds of thousands of petitions from advocates of total abstinence temperance societies, for the enactment of the statute aforesaid; or, the legislative rejection of the Maine Law statute, in accordance with the remonstrance of thousands of citizens of New York, sustained by their "Twelve Reasons, Review, and Defense," in favor of the prevailing liquor-craft monopoly.

We have been thus particular in stating this concluding article of the eleventh “reason" of the New York remon strance, because it comprises an estimation of the loss and gain on the two great principles of loss and gain, which have thrown the whole community of the State of New

York into two grand divisions, in direct opposition to each other, on one great question of interest; to be estimated in "dollars and cents" by the grand division of all interested advocates of the liquor trade, who are remonstrancers against the proposed statute in question; and the professed, paramount interest claims of all total abstinence temperance advocates, to be estimated, not in paltry dollars and cents, nor even in any amount of millions of dollars, but in the more important valuation of a sober community, instead of tipplers, hard drinkers, and drunkards, and the inestimable value of immortal souls of human beings, in competition with the claims of any amount of cash, real estate, or liquor-stock valuation what

ever.

Now, the comparative difference between many millions of dollars, indefinitely, lost or gained, to a party concerned, on the one hand, and the valuation of a sober community, and the worth of an indefinite number of human souls, lost by drunkenness, or gained by total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors, and washed from the guilt of sin in the blood of atonement, delineated and exhibited in contrast, is the design of this descriptive and comparative conclusion.

And let it be distinctly understood, that the amount of valuation, computed by each party above described on the respective principles of their estimation, namely, of an amount of cash, or cash valuation, on the one hand, and the amount of sobriety and the value of human souls, on the other hand, even both of which conflicting amounts, we claim, are to be considered as at hazard, of loss or

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gain, to each party concerned in the conflict, to be determined, decided, and awarded, to the full amount of gain claimed by the successful party, and to the full amount of loss estimated by the unsuccessful party, each of whose conflicting claims are to be decided by the casting vote of the New York State Legislature, now in session in the city of Albany, with hundreds of thousands of temperance petitions for the Maine Law statute, and thousands of antitemperance remonstrance signatures before them against the adoption of the Maine Law statute. One party petitioning for a law to suppress intemperance, the other party, by remonstrance, praying for laws to secure the perpetuity of the present popular and prevailing liquorcraft monopoly, unmolested.

It must also be confessed by all of both conflicting parties concerned in this political warfare, that a question of equal importance was seldom, if ever, before pending on the decision of human legislators! And yet it must, also, be confessed that the legislature of this Empire State, now in session in the city of Albany, have it in their power o favor the party of their choice, by enacting a statute in compliance with petitions of total abstinence temperance advocates for the suppression of intemperance, and its woes and wretchedness; the gain of which can be estimated only by the value of a total abstinence temperance society, comprising the whole State community of New York, with their Maine Law statute in full operation, for the total extermination of the common use of intoxicating liquors; or, by rejecting all temperance petitions, and thus to favor the party of remonstrancers against the pro

posed Maine Law statute, by a total rejection of the petitioned statute, and even, if they please, by denouncing it, in the repudiable language of the remonstrancers, as " The audacious and fanatical project of temperance or total abstinence societies, the chief instigators and abettors of a despotic usurpation, more degrading in its political character than any which history records !”

Thus, it is confessed to be in the power of combined officers of the Empire State to reject the respectful prayers of all the advocates of total abstinence temperance societies, and to give the whole amount of gain claimed by the proprietors of the liquor-trade monopoly, and all interested advocates of the liquor craft, without the award of any degree of loss on their part whatsoever. But, instead of loss, to give them the full value of their own estimated immense cash gain, to the amount of at least one hundred millions of dollars, to the liquor-craft associates of the city of New York, and a proportional estimated sum to the liquor-craft associates of the other fifty-seven counties of the State of New York, whatever that proportion may be, whether five hundred and seventy millions of dollars, or ten times that sum, amounting to five billions seven hundred millions of dollars, more or less, the amount of their whole claim would be granted. And in addition to this grant, an annual increase would be added, in proportion to the facilities for the promotion of the increase of the use of intoxicating liquors, in one great State anti-temperance society, organized for the purpose of sustaining the liquor-trade monopoly, of making and selling the poison of intoxicating liquors to make drunkards for gain, in the