During tlie recent meeting of the British Association at York, a day was set apart to hear the great social re former, Mr J. Hoylo. That gentle man, in the course of his addi'ess, explained to the Associotion that the nation Avhich, Aye may say, lifts its ' moral head higher than, all ita neigh- . hours, Avhich counts its churches and schools by tens of thousands, which is tlie fountain-head of missionary enter prise and Bible distribution, has for ten years past annually spent one hun dred and thirty-six millions of money . on strong drink. As if that one hugo appalling fact were not enough for mental digestion at one meal, he heaped up the dish with the estimated indirect cost to the country of its drinking customs ; he debited heavy sums to tlie , accounts respectively of crime, pauper- . ism, lunacy, and disease ; he* summed these up at a hundred and thirty-eight - millions yearly. The tAvo items to-> " gether amount to L 274,000,000 "; but » L 54,000,000 has to he deducted for reve nue, leaving a balance of L 220,000,000 ;: as the annual loss to the nation from the consumption of strong drink. Black as the case seemed then; Mr Hoyle proceeded to paint it a deeper hue; • He added the loss to trade from the" - divergence from useful employment of ; the L 136,000,000 actually spent in drink. Had this money — saying no thing of the time occupied in spending . it, the Avork neglected and the working '■ time squandered' — been directed .into channels of reproduction, Avhere* .it Avould have promoted manufactures and , trading, what might it not have accom- > plished ! Grouping these several cal culations, and multiplying . them . by fifteen, he found from his OAvn figures, that -in fifteen years the United^ King- . dom had Avasted or lost -fourteen thou sand- millions sterling,- a sum- equal -td .* L 382 for each man, Avoman, and child > in Great Britain and Ireland. It looks ' startling enough in that bald -terrible - mode of presentation.
