Page:Prohibition by A.T. Galt.djvu/2

2 any one place more than another where it is my duty to appear publicly to give my adherence to this great and good cause, I think this town of Sherbrooke is that place. (Cheers.) I do not propose this evening to make any appeal to your sympathies. The cause which is advocated here will find other and more eloquent gentlemen to make those appeals. Fortune has generally required me to deal with any subject on which I had to speak rather with the hard facts that surround it, rather with the reasons which attend it, than with those passions and sympathies regarding it which others may, perhaps, have a greater gift in exciting. What I propose is to show the process of reasoning in my own mind by which, after a comparatively long life, I have come to the conclusion that it is the duty of every good citizen to promote this pre-eminently useful work. (Hear, hear.) I have been struck, as we all have, with the fact of what we call the hard times, under which we have suffered during the last live years, and under which the country is still suffering, and I have noticed that the consequence of these hard times has been to produce on all hands, on every side, and in every family, economy. Economy has been found to be absolutely necessary as the only wholesome and reliable cure for much of the distress which previous extravagance had brought upon us. Believing that to be the case, I could not help considering what was the most costly article of consumption in this country,—the one which we could most easily spare, the one which costs us the most in its indulgence, and I did not fail to find that it was in the use,—in the consumption of intoxicating liquors. (Hear, hear.) Reference was made last night by our Chairman, Mr. Brooks, to the amount of revenue that is derived from spirits and wines and beer. The amount is not quite so large as he stated it, but still quite large enough to excite the apprehensions of everyone who is opposed to seeing the resources of his country wasted. Last year the official reports show that the amount of revenue raised from the three articles I have mentioned was $4,367,000. Now it will be observed, ladies and gentlemen, that it is not the amount of revenue that is raised upon these articles which is the measure of their cost to the country,—very far from it, that is