CULTIVATION OF THE 



bers of the civil community. The sum of labour 

 restored to the national wealth, is worth a states- 

 man's study. I have passed three years in 

 France, where I never saw a drunken French- 

 man. Eighteen months in Italy, and in that 

 time, not an Italian intoxicated. Nearly two 

 years in Switzerland, of which I cannot say 

 the same, but I can safely aver, that during that 

 period, I did not see twenty drunken men ; and 

 whenever my feelings were pained at beholding 

 a prostration so sad over better principles, it was 

 invariably on an occasion of extraordinary fes- 

 tivity. 



The Swiss are by no means an intemperate 

 people, nor is it, so far as I have seen, the cha- 

 racter of any vine growing country. In the ar- 

 guments, therefore, which may fairly be urged 

 in favour of a cultivation of the vine, a strongly 

 inciting motive addresses our personal interest, 

 and invites us to adopt a system by which our 

 revenues will be increased, and agriculture im- 

 proved. There is yet a more important light in 

 which it appeals to our public spirit, and our 

 better principles as a Christian community the 

 moral- improvement of society. That we are not 

 indifferent to this important view of it, is mani- 

 fest from the numerous philanthropic institutions, 

 both public and private, with which our country 

 abounds. Juvenile indiscretion, seduced from 

 the paths of rectitude, by temptation or inexpe- 

 rience, is plucked as a brand from the burning, 

 and before it sinks into crime, restored to useful- 

 ness and virtue, by the system of " refuge." The 

 discipline of our houses of correction, shows that 



