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labors. A great change in public opinion has already taken place, and there is an increasing conviction that the traffic in intoxicating liquors is inimical to the welfare of the country, and ought to be prohibited. The continued and earnest demand for such an enactment is resulting in considerable numbers of influential men coming forward to advocate at least diminution in the number of licensed liquor-sellers and greater restrictions in the hours and conditions of sale. No fewer than seven bills of this kind have been placed before the British Parliament this year, and, in regard to the sale of liquors in Ireland on Sundays, a resolution proposed by Dr. Smyth, member of Parliament for Londonderry, was last month carried by a majority of fifty-seven. This majority was secured in opposition to the Government and all the influences of the combined forces of the liquor party. The resolution may not be followed by the enactment of a law this year, but this signal triumph will doubtless effect that result at an early period. Other measures I will not describe in detail, but they all point towards the diminution of the power of temptation and towards enactments with which Americans are familiar. The United Kingdom Alliance is vigorously supporting what is called the "Permissive Prohibitory Liquor Bill,” which has been introduced by Sir Wilfrid Lawson. This measure is similar to your "Local Option" Acts, and by it we hope to give effective form to the opinion which temperance reformers are continually creating.

We find the work of all the departments largely counteracted by the licensed traffic, and hence we are demanding that all communities desiring to be free should be protected, so that the traffic may not be forced upon them against their will, which is the case at the present time. Your municipal institutions have, from the commencement of the movement, been much more favorable to protective operations than have those of Great Britain. The licensing authority with us has been outside the direct influence of the people. With you there was power at once to elect licensing boards in accordance with the rising tide of temperance conviction.

I have made it a special subject of en

quiry to discover how far the special advantages which you have have been used, and I find that to this power of fixing responsibility and making it necessary for the most indifferent to take sides you owe much of the advanced position, compared with Britain, which you now occupy. Your teachings of the platform and pulpit and press have been supplemented by your action at the polls. The ballot has aided the cause. I have found this to be the case in regions far apart, right across the continent; and every illustration of its power has increased my anxiety that the mothercountry should be possessed of similar power of protection for their families, churches, schools, and cities. It is impossible to say how much I have valued some of your advantages; and I am confirmed in my conviction that Britain has to look westward to find out the best method of resolving the great problem of "How to stop drunkenness." Assuredly little light can be obtained from the Continental nations. Only west of the Atlantic are illustrations of the true relation which civilized communities. should hold to the liquor-traffic. It was holding such a conviction that made me resolve that, on arriving in the United States, I should land in a State where the sale of liquor, instead of being fostered and regulated, was prohibited. I therefore resolved to sail to Portland in preference to New York, Boston, or even Philadelphia. In Portland and throughout Maine I had the intense gratification of knowing that any liquor which was sold was in contravention of law rather than with the sanction of the law and partnership in the wrong. To walk along the streets of such cities when the sale of liquor as beverages is illegal gives me a consciousness of being in civilization as compared with the degrading system of corruption with which we are familiar.

Since my arrival I have seen wonderful sights in the regions of the East as well as in the far West of California; but the sight which has given me the greatest delight was a liquor-seller in a Maine prison and shaking hands with him. The man was there, not for selling at improper hours, but for selling that which was prohibited at all hours and

all places. I had before me the proof that what was legal in Philadelphia was a crime in Maine. This is the work which we have at this Convention and throughout all our countries—to hasten to create an opinion so high and strong that everywhere this traffic in alcoholic liquors will be regarded as a crime. Last week I was in Washington, and, amid the many exciting scenes of the capital, I had the gratification of conversing with Senator Morrill, of Maine. It was most encouraging to find that the venerable and venerated statesman held firmly by the opinion which he expressed in the Senate, that the system we oppose is the "gigantic crime of crimes." Such a characterization of the desolating traffic is worthy of the Senator from Maine, and it is our duty to act as though it was true. I I may venture to say that we in Britain look to the United States and America generally to keep in the van of the movement, and we hope that in every department of the temperance reformation such efforts may be put forth as to secure a speedy emancipation from "the crime of crimes." We are coming to the conclusion that you are right in your watchword, "Vote as you pray," and that those who wish the kingdom of righteousness to be established must show their desires by acting as well as wishing, so that such men may be selected to execute the laws as worthily represent the true temperance opinion of our nations. [REPORTER'S NOTE.-Those who listened to Mr. Raper's address may be disappointed in the report. The above is substantially what Mr. Raper said, but he is one of those rare speakers whose manner and action and voice give a charm to their words that cannot be put upon paper; and, further, he is so very rapid in the utterance of some of his sentences that the reporter may congratulate himself if he can preserve the sense, though the words may, some of them, elude the skill of his pen.]

The CHAIR. We have heard from England. Now we want to hear from Scotland, and I have great pleasure in introducing to this audience Mrs. J. M. Wellstood, of Edinburgh.

Mrs. Wellstood came forward and said: