REV. WM. BANCROFT HILL. 17 



the results of high license or local option, and who see 

 little present possibility of prohibition are turninoj to it 

 with increasing interest as possibly the most practicable 

 renaedy for existing evils. It has seemed to me, there- 

 fore, a very profitable subject to present to the members 

 and friends of Vassar Institute on the present occasion, 

 and I have given the few spare moments which a minister 

 can take from other duties to the preparation of a simple 

 statement of just what the system is, and a suggestion of 

 its advantages or possible obstacles. In doing this I 

 have made use of the Government Report just men- 

 tioned, and of an equally full report xn'epared for the 

 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as of several 

 articles in the Forum and other magazines. 



Sweden at the beginning of the present century was 

 one of the most intemperate states in Europe. The na- 

 tional drink was a fiery liquor distilled from grain or 

 potatoes, and containing about fifty per cent of alcohol. 

 It is properly our whiskey, though the Swedish name 

 bianvin is commonly translated brandy. Anyone who 

 paid a trifling tax might manufacture it ; a still was part 

 of each farm's equipment, and brandy could be bought 

 in almost every cottage. There was a still for each 

 seventeen inhabitants ; and though later on the number 

 was diminished, yet their product was increased by im- 

 proved methods, so that in 1850, according to the most 

 moderate estimates, the consumption of native brandy 

 was seven gallons for each man, woman and child in the 

 land. (In the United States last year it was one gallon 

 and a half.) The situation can easily be imagined. To 

 quote from a native writer, "The very marrow of the 

 nation was sapped. Moral and physical degradation, 

 insanity, poverty and broken family ties, brutal habits, 

 all those grim legions that ever range themselves under 

 the banner of intemperance took possession of the land." 

 Of course such a state of things must sooner or later 



