Page:The collected works of Theodore Parker volume 7.djvu/56

52 ment which imprisons tho father takes care of (he children, and sends them to school. Here they are forced into crime.

Ah I gave some statistics of the cause, let mo also give some of tho effects. Two years ago your grand jury reports that one of the city police, on Sunday morning, between the hours of twelve and two, in walking from Cornhill Square to Cambridge Street, passed more than one hundred persons more or loss drunk! In 1844 there were committed to your House of Correction, for drunkenness, 453 persons; in 1845, 695; in 1846, up to the 24th of August, that is, in seven months and twenty-four days, 440. Besides, there have been already in this year, 390 complained of at the police court and fined, but not sent to tho house of correction. Thus, in seven months and twenty-four days, 842 persons have been legally punished for public drunkenness. In the last two months and a half 445 persons were thus punished. In tho first twenty-four days of this month, ninety-four! In the last year there were 4643 persons committed to your watchhouses, more than the twenty-fifth of the whole population. The thousand drink-shops levy a direct tax of more than $2,000,000. That in only the first outlay. The whole ultimate cost, in idleness, sickness, crime, death, and broken-hearts—I leave you to calculate that! The men who live in the lower courts, familiar with the sinks of iniquity, speak of this crime as "most awful!" Yet in this month and the last, there were but nine persons indicted for the illegal sale of the poison which so wastes the people's life! The head of your police and tho foreman of your last grand jury are prominent in that trade.

Does the Government know of these things ; know of their cause? One would hope not. The last grand jury, in their public report, after speaking manfully of some actual, evils, instead of pointing at drunkenness and barrooms, direct your attention "to the increased number of omnibuses and other large carriages in the streets."

These are sad things to think of in a Christian church. What shall we do for all these little ones that are perishing? "Do nothing," say some. "Am I my brother's keeper?" asked the first Cain, after lolling that brother.