Page:Prohibition by A.T. Galt.djvu/7

7 my own observation. It may be quite true, as is alleged, that the taste for ardent spirits is increased by indulgence in other liqours; but the great and crying evils, the crime, the domestic cruelty to wives and children,—those evils, I believe, are to be traced in all cases rather to an indulgence in ardent spirits than to others more innocuous. I believe the gentlemen of the Dominion Alliance will carry ten persons with them in favor of prohibiting the manufacture and importation of spirits to five persons who will support them in endeavoring to prohibit all kinds of liquors. That is my impression, and I merely throw it out in consequence of the remarks that fell from Mr. Dougall last night. It might be well to follow a similar course to that followed by temperance societies when they were first initiated. If I mistake not, that was their original starting point—that they only prohibited the use of ardent spirits. I think that when you propose to the nation at large to deal with this subject it would be well to be guided by the experience of the past. When you have struck down the greatest source of the evil it will be comparatively easy for you to carry public opinion in any further steps you may find it necessary to take. (Hear, hear.) If I have said a few words which may perhaps be considered a little discouraging, though I do not regard them as such, I would like to say something which I think is rather encouraging. In that respect I wish to deal with two great objections which are raised to the Alliance and to the object that is ultimately sought to be attained. Now, these objections are, first, the difficulty which the Government of the country would experience in replacing the revenue that would be lost by the prohibition of the traffic; and the other objection is that prohibition is incompatible with what we regard as true British freedom. With reference to the first, I think I may say that it a change were made by prohibiting spirits in the first instance and afterwards fermented liquors, the change would be more gradual, and consequently the difficulty of meeting the loss of revenue would be diminished. But I am quite prepared to sustain this statement, after having had a good deal to do with the question of revenue and the raising of taxation. I am quite prepared to assert before