are, in like manner, very much discarded.  At the tables of members of the Society of Friends, it is very rare to see either wine or malt liquor introduced; while, as already noticed, the selling, using, or giving ardent spirits is so great an offence as to be made the subject of church discipline.  This is, by no means, one of the “peculiarities” of “Friends,” as I believe it may be generally stated that the same practices, in most other Christian communities, would be considered as quite incompatible with a profession of religion.

The effects of this great reformation are not confined to the United States, although the change hitherto has been much more gradual in my native country; not so, however, in Ireland, now, by a happy reverse, a scene of light and promise, amidst surrounding gloom and depression.  Of the American facts I have to record, connected with the temperance movement, the most grateful is the striking contrast that is exhibited in the Irish emigrants.  By the divine blessing on Theobald Mathew’s benevolent labors, they have generally forsaken their besetting sin of drunkenness in their native land, and if compelled to seek the means of subsistence in another country, they now at least do not carry with them habits that tend irresistibly to destitution and degradation.  The Irish movement is likewise re-acting most beneficially on the native Irish, who have long been settled in America, and who are joining the total abstinence societies in great number, though hitherto the most intemperate part of the community.

In short, whether I consider the religious, the benevolent, or the literary institutions of the Northern States—­whether I contemplate the beauty of their cities, or the general aspect of their fine country, in which nature every where is seen rendering her rich and free tribute to industry and skill—­or whether I regard the general comfort and prosperity of the laboring population,—­my admiration is strongly excited, and, to do justice to my feelings, must be strongly expressed.  Probably there is no country where the means of temporal happiness are so generally diffused, notwithstanding the constant flow of emigrants from the old world; and, I believe there is no country where the means of religious and moral improvement are so abundantly provided—­where facilities of education are more within the reach of all—­or where there is less of extreme poverty and destitution.

As morals have an intimate connection with politics, I do not think it out of place here to record my conviction, that the great principle of popular control, which is carried out almost to its full extent in the free states, is not only beautiful in theory, but that it is found to work well in practice.  It is true that disgraceful scenes of mob violence and lynch-law have occurred; but perhaps not more frequently than popular outbreaks in Great Britain; while, generally, the supremacy of law and order have been restored,