it is to enjoy a father's presence on that hallowed day. Various attempts have been made to obtain an alteration of the days of sailing, but hitherto without much success. In different cities and towns of our land, there is a great amount of petty merchandise carried on. The number of shops of a lower class which are open on the Sabbath is truly appalling. Your Committee rejoice to know that at present the attention of different parties is directed to this great evil, so hurtful both to the poor and the young, and they earnestly pray, that as such efforts have by the Divine blessing been successful in some of the large towns of England, they will prove no less so in Scotland.

A bill was introduced into the House of Commons on the 19th of February last, by Mr. Hughes, M.P. for Lambeth, having for its object to render lawful the sale of such articles as newspapers, periodicals, confectionary, meat, fish, poultry, game, vegetables, pastry, fruit; and also throughout the entire Sabbath, the business of cook-shops, eating-houses, coffee-houses, bakers, public-houses, etc., except between the hours of ten A.M. and one P.M.;-thus secularizing by Statute the whole Sabbath-day but these three hours. Your Committee regret to find that many professed friends of the Sabbath in England, looking upon this measure in the light more of the limitation of an already existing evil than its extension, have agreed to support it. They rejoice, however, to report that the friends of the Sabbath in Scotland, viewing it as a measure which attempts to legalize what the law of the Sabbath condemns, and which strikes at the foundation of the observance of a whole day sacred to the Lord, have in many quarters petitioned against it. Your Committee hope that these efforts will be successful.

A bill has been lately introduced into the House of Commons by Lord Amberley, the object of which is to legalize the delivery of lectures, and the holding of public discussions, at places where money is taken at the door, or tickets for admission are sold. This bill, your Committee believe, is but part of a system which the enemies of Evangelical Religion are arranging, and will attempt, if they can, to carry out. Their first efforts are, therefore, directed against this holy day. They feel that all attempts against religion itself will be ineffectual, so long as the Sabbath of the Lord is hallowed in our land.

Your Committee are much encouraged by the efforts of all parties and denominations in Ireland, for the extension of the provisions of the Forbes Mackenzie Act to that country. They earnestly pray that this wondrous unanimity will, through the Divine blessing, secure success for the measure.

Your Committee would call the attention of the Assembly to the fact, that the opening of the Paris Exhibition will be a great inducement for a large number of our countrymen to visit that capital. Knowing the many temptations to Sabbath breaking which exist there,

your Committee consider it a suitable time for the Church to utter a note of warning to her members, calling upon them when away from the restraints of home and their own country, to remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy,' and commend their religion to the strangers among whom they may be sojourning, by the observance of its blessed ordinances. Your Committee are thankful that this Church has made such excellent provision for maintaining the worship of God on the Lord's day in Paris, for the benefit of her members who may be there during the summer and autumn months.

Your Committee would suggest, for the serious consideration of the Assembly, whether, seeing that post-office work, and the carrying of mails on the Sabbath, lie in no little measure at the root of much of our railway work on that day, the time is not now come when the Church, in co-operation with other denominations in England and Scotland, should not put forth their united efforts for obtaining the stoppage of all Sabbath mails. If the Churches and the country would resolve on this, who can tell what blessing from on high would descend upon us! May it not be, that, because we are so often aiming at the removal of what may be regarded as the minor evil, while we leave untouched the greater, we are so unsuccessful in our efforts about the lesser itself? There is nothing that we require to guard against so much as that because an evil is great and of long standing, and countenanced by the many, there is no use of attempting its removal. The faith of the Church exclaims, 'Is there anything too hard for the Lord!' Let us not be looking on in indifference or discouragement, as if nothing could be done, or as if all our efforts will be unavailing, for 'by prayer and praise we can do everything.' Let us never forget that if we are deprived of our Sabbaths, and we can only be so by our own sinful disregard of them, they may never be restored to us; or, if they are, who can tell what a period of fearful national suffering will precede that restoration ?

ALEX. M'KENZIE, Convener.

Free Church of
of Scotland.

REPORT

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON TEMPERANCE.

MAY 1867.

YOUR Committee have again, with deep concern, to bring under the notice of the Church the sad evils of intemperance. Its history is indeed a roll written within and without with 'mourning, lamentation, and woe.' We cannot avoid asking what can be done to check this evil, which is producing so great an amount of wretchedness, poverty, and crime. In proportion as it is our duty to seek the social and moral elevation of our fellow-creatures, so ought we to exert ourselves to remove the evils of intemperance, to which the moral and social degradation of the people is so directly traceable.

Within the last fifteen years, a great deal has been done in our large towns to spread the gospel among our fellow-countrymen. Churches, home missions, and territorial efforts, have increased the number of our congregations by hundreds; but all who have engaged in the work of Home Missions can testify that strong drink is the great obstacle to their success: it limits the gospel, hardens the heart, and makes every ministry powerless.

I. Looking at some of the causes of the evil of intemperance, there is one thing which, above all others, inflames the desire for strong drink throughout the country, and that is, the excessive number of public-houses, and the want of a proper enforcement of the laws for their regulation and control.

The Act of 1862 has been beneficial in its operation. It has been the means of promoting quiet Sabbaths, diminished drinking, lessened crime, and fewer public-houses. But the law is inadequately enforced, and for this there are more parties to blame than one the police and prosecutors are to blame, for there is too little attention paid to the provision in the Act of 1862-' That such chief officer of police shall also, without undue delay, report to the procurator-fiscal, or other party by this Act directed to prosecute offenders, all offences committed against the recited Acts and this Act, or any of them, coming to his knowledge; and shall at all times use the means within his control for the detection, and, when necessary, the apprehension of all offenders.'

The Magistrates are to blame, because they have not duly considered the moral wellbeing of the community, and the obligation which lies upon them by Statute, not to licence a greater number of persons than is' meet and convenient.' But the general public are also to blame; they may have grumbled at times, but they have not put forth their strength to fortify the hands of the Magistrates, or availed themselves of the right to object to the licensing of new houses, conferred upon them by the 11th Section of the Act of 1862.

It does not seem also to be generally known that when the Magistrates have granted a licence at the ordinary Licensing Court, the case may, on the appeal of a Justice of the Peace, be brought before the Appeal Court, at which the Justices have, in several instances, been found prepared to reverse the decisions of the Magistrates, and to withdraw licences which the Magistrates had granted.

However beneficial laws might be, if they are not faithfully carried out by the authorities, the good results they were fitted to accomplish will not be attained.

Public opinion must not therefore remain dormant, it must take means to let its voice be heard; because Magistrates, in the matter of restraining and controlling the dangerous traffic in intoxicating drinks, and lessening the number of licenced houses, cannot be expected to proceed faster than public opinion.

Your Committee are accordingly glad to notice that, in various parts of the country, influential meetings have been held, and deputations appointed to wait upon the Magistrates, to urge upon them the necessity of reducing the number of public-houses, and systematically enforcing the terms of certificates.

Your Committee were much surprised to notice that the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, in replying to memorials from a variety of deputations on the subject, actually stated in reply, that by limiting the number of public-houses, the Magistrates would be running a risk of increasing the number of shebeens, over which, he said, the Magistrates had no control. Now, in the first place, we know that though the number of public-houses was gradually reduced, by watching every practical opportunity arising from deaths, removals, and convictions, and refusing to license new houses, it would take years before there was any sensible reduction in the number, and though they were ultimately reduced by a fifth, a fourth, a third, or even a half, ample facilities would still remain for obtaining exciseable liquors at lawful hours. In regard to any shebeens which sell at unlawful hours, the Act of 1862 gives such ample powers for their suppression, and for taking into custody, and fining or imprisoning persons found drinking in them, that no willing Magistrate can have any difficulty in putting them down; and it is quite clear also, that if you increase public-houses, you will pari passu increase shebeens: they are attendants on public-houses, and not substitutes for them.

Your Committee were glad to notice that, in such an influential quarter as the April Statutory Meeting of the County of Renfrew, the Commissioners thoroughly condemned the conduct of the Justices. of the County, in permitting such an abuse of the licensing of socalled hotels in Gourock, and the Sabbath drunkenness and desecration which proceeded from it. A similar complaint was at the same time made, that in the district of Pollokshaws the evil of drinking on Sunday also existed; there were a number of people who went out to Pollokshaws from Glasgow on Sundays, and the amount of dissipation was disgraceful. It was recommended that the licensing Magistrates should in every case withhold the licences from houses that infringed the Act.

It should be constantly kept in view that Magistrates are subjected to a great deal of importunity from the agents of the publicans and the landlords; and unless the friends of Sabbath observance, good order, and sobriety, bestir themselves energetically, and let their voice be heard, the publicans and the landlords will be apt to succeed in their solicitations. The publicans prefer a lazy, idle employment, and the landlords covet enhanced rents; if it were possible to get rid of the inducements on the part of landlords to multiply public-houses, for the sake of high rents,