TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 161 
_“ The land” is the elementary basis of all civilized industry; and the desire to 
possess this kind of capital is so universal, as almost to influence mankind every- 
where like an instinct. 
The reasonable gratification of this urgent desire demands a more easy commerce 
in land than we have as yet attained to. 
The facilities given by ‘‘ The Encumbered Estates” sales have led the way in this 
good change; and the extension of that law to properties not encumbered, indicates 
courage in the progress towards a real free-trade in land which is greatly encouraging 
and hope-inspiring, If land could be bought and sold in lots of all suitable sizes, 
several vague inventions proposed for giving either a factitious, or an arbitrary pos- 
session of the soil, would be rendered unnecessary. “ Tenant-right,” as yet an unread 
riddle, would be left in its impracticability, and real possessions made by cash pur- 
_ chases would be a solid, and not a visionary landownership. 
| The excessive emigration of our people has been induced because our agricultural 
population cannot buy small lots of land at home; the result is, that savings gathered 
with much denial at home, are invested in small purchases of “ real estate” in 
_ Canada and elsewhere abroad. We want a yeoman class of contented settlers in 
Ireland, and might soon have them if land were sold in small parcels without dif- 
_ ficulty, and only for cash. 
. The writer suggests the construction of a “land-market” for retail-land sales, one 
in each of Ireland’s four provinces; and that the facilities of these marts be only 
afforded to cash purchasers : he thinks land should be sold in parcels of from one acre 
upward, as is now done in Canada. 
The author also recommends that “all superior rights, even royalties, should be 
sold to purchasers,” so as to make owners real freeholders ; believing that without 
an easily acquired and perfect ownership in the soil, the powers of the people, and 
the capabilities of the land, cannot be properly or fully developed. 
On the Necessity of Prompt Measures for the Suppression of Intemperance 
and Drunkenness. By JAMES HAUGHTON. 
The drinking usages of society cast greater impediments in the way of national 
improvement than any other cause which could be named. 
That education alone is insufficient to effect the overthrow of intemperance, Dr. Lees’ 
statistics of 24 counties in England, prove that 12 of these counties, in which large 
means of education exist, have more crime than the other 12 in which there are fewer 
such facilities. Drinking customs explain the difference. In the first 12 counties 
there are 147 public houses, and the crime is 119. In the second, the numbers stand, 
58 public houses, 78 crime. In making these calculations a mean is taken for all the 
counties in England, and the relative population is taken into account. So much for 
_the insufficiency of education. 
_ Drinking accumulates from generation to generation. The consumption of whisky 
~ in Ireland during the last century proves this. It increased 90-fold, while the popu- 
lation increased but 4-fold. 
_ Number of visits to public houses in Edinburgh, on a single Sunday:—men, 22,202 ; 
women, 11,931; children, 7663: and to taverns, 6609. In Manchester,—men, 
120,122; women, 71,111; children, 23,585. 
_ The use of the poison alcohol by persons in health is condemned by the first 
authorities ; not a single one of eminence is found in its favour. 
__ Number of dealers in intoxicating liquors in 1854, in the United Kingdom, 163,985. 
Supposing these to receive not more on an average than £3 per day each, which, 
allowing them a profit of 25 per cent., would hardly keep their establishments open, 
the annual sum we spend on the poison alcohol is £179,563,575,—a fearful waste 
of national resources. 
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