their annual reports, and thus dispense with the abstracts which the county clerks are now required by law to make. This recommendation is made not only as a matter of economy, which will effect a considerable saving in the sums paid to the county clerks for making these reports, but because the labor of arranging and combining them may be done in the Superintendent's office with much greater certainty of its correctness in view of all the interests to be affected by it. To carry into effect the foregoing recommendations, I am instructed by the committee to report a bill to amend chapter 56 of the revised statutes, and a bill to amend chapter 58 of the revised statutes, and to ask to be discharged from the further consideration of the subject HOVEY K. CLARKE, Chairman. 1850. No. 18. [ No. 18. ] REPORT of a minority of the Select Committee on the License Laws. A minority of the select committtee, to which were referred sundry petitions relative to the sale of spirituous liquors, respectfully report: That after a careful examination of the subject referred to them, they are free to admit that legislation upon it is attended with many difficulties. There is, perhaps no other subject of general interest upon which the representatives of the people are called to act, surrounded with so many difficulties as this. And yet, difficult as it is, the protection of individual rights, and the promotion of the general welfare, seem to demand action. Nor in the opinion of your committee, should the difficulties with which the subject is encumbered deter those in whose hands the people have placed the law-making power, from endeavoring to devise a remedy for the numerous evils which are acknowledged to flow from the traffic in spirituous liquors. These difficulties admonish us that wisdom and caution, careful investigation and firm decision, are necessary in the management of this subject. With an earnest desire to recommend a course which would be productive of good, and only good, to the whole community, your committee have carefully examined the petitions referred to them, and have availed themselves of such other sources of information as were within their reach. These investigations have but served to confirm them in an opinion which they entertain in common, they believe, with a large majority of the people of Michigan, that the traffic in spirituous liquors as now carried on, is productive of evil and only evil. While they have looked in vain for any good results from the spirit-traffic, the numerous and enormous evils flowing from it have ⚫revealed themselves at every stage of the investigation. They are felt more or less in all parts of the State. Not a township, perhaps scarcely a neighborhood, is free from them. They reach all classes of society. No condition, nor age, nor sex, is exempt. Neither wealth nor talent is a guarantee against them. The little child that tremblingly flies the approach of its intoxicated father-the sensitive youth that blushes and hangs his head in shame at the thought that the is a drunkard's child-the heart-broken wife sighing over the past, suffering the present, and looking forward to the future with gloomy forebodings-all attest the magnitude of these evils, and proclaim the necessity of devising, if possible, an effective remedy. The sufferers from this cause address us in tones and with a power which the heart of the philanthropist cannot resist, They speak from the heart and to the heart. Their sufferings plead in their behalf, and furnish unmistakeable evidence of the truth and justice of their complaints. In the opinion of your committee, there must be something wrong in the law, or in public sentiment, or in both, when such a state of things is permitted to exist in an enlightened christian land. Hence, it becomes important to know the law and its effects—to ascertain whether it accords with public sentiment-and whether any material change can be made with a fair prospect of beneficial results. Your committee find, on looking at the legislation of past years, that frequent changes have been made in our license laws. Almost every legislature has amended or modified, or repealed the enactments of the preceding session. But after all these enactments and repeals, and modifications, and re-enactments, but little, perhaps we might say with truth, that nothing towards suppressing intemperance has been accomplished through the instrumentality of law. What has thus far been done is attributable mostly, if not entirely, to the untiring efforts of benevolent and philanthropic individuals, acting in their individual capacity, or through the various temperance organizations. They have, from time to time, invoked the aid and proteg tion of the law; and their requests have been heard, and laws designed to limit and discourage the sale of spirituous liquors, enacted. We have already seen that these laws have proved entirely ineffectual. The fact of this failure-the fact that generally the existing law, even where the people have decided at the ballot box against the granting of licenses and selling of liquors, is wholly disregard. ed, has led many well meaning and well informed persons to believe that it is expedient to repeal all laws relative to the traffic, making those who engage it answerable at the bar of public opinion, and amenable at common law. Your committee, however, are not prepared to recommend such a course. They believe there is a better way. They believe legal enactments may do something-may do much— towards suppressing the sale and use of intoxicating liquors. And in this opinion they are happy to find that they are supported by the numerous petitioners whose memorials have been referred to them. Your committee believe that the people of the State are generally dissatisfied with the existing law, and are anxiously looking to the present legislature for something more effective. This opinion is strengthened by information from various parts of the State, and by the petitions which have been laid before them. It is true, the petitioners do not all propose to reach the desired end (the suppression of intemperance) by the same means. A portion of them ask for the passage of law which shall entirely prohibit the sale of spirituous liquors as a beverage. That such a law would be just-that it would violate the rights of no one-and that it would, in a more advanced state of public sentiment, be eminently useful, your committee fully believe. But it has been a question with them whether it is expedient-whether the success of the temperance cause would be advanced by the passage of such a law at the present time. While they have no reason to doubt, and earnestly hope, that the time is near at hand when such a law would be sanctioned by an overwhelming majority of the people, and its enforcement ren dered certain by reason of its strong hold upon the public feeling, yet they have doubts of the propriety of enacting so stringent a law while public sentiment remains as it now is. But if a prohibitory enactment, of the character referred to, would be placing the law in advance of public sentiment, it is believed, on the other hand, that the |