There was a spico of very grim -humor in Mr B. Johnstone's defence of alcohol in the debate at tho meeting of tho Mutual Improvement Society a fortnight ago. He said, "Alcohol was a positive boon, in that it rid the community of all surplus population, and thus kept population down to the level of subsist ence." This is the most serious chargo yet brought against alcohol. I fancied death was attributed to various causes, but I see my error. These novel and striking opinions mark Mr Johnstone as a very profound and original thinker, and, whatever may, bo thought of tho sound ness of his views, it must bo admitted he has stated them with a fearlessness that can only bo born of conviction. If hiß remarks have not roused the intellectual world into a frenzy, and lashed tho dead level of modern thought into a tempest of activity, the impression is all tho more deep and lasting. Mr Johnstone has tho sharpest, cleverest and most trenchant intellect since Julius Vogel. May I cordially invite .him to dovoto his life to the service of mankind ?

The Blue Eibbon Army appears to bo making extraordinary headway hero, as in the Old Country, and is likely to become the panacoca for tho evils of drunkenness. As it is essentially an inoffensive and unaggressive institution, it seems to be adapted to attract many who would shrink from a ssociating them selves with demonstrations of an extreme character. The device or badge of tho Association, a small picco of blue ribbon, worn in the button-hole, is calculated to protect the wearer from importunities which might overcome his best resolu tions, and at the same time it enables him to exercise a tacit example to others, and relieves him from the necessity of explaining why he declines a "shout." If success like the present continues to attend the efforts of the Army, Major Atkinson will have to devise fresh methods of raising revenue. He and the other legislators, by their ventilation of our social vices, have probably done much by exciting thought, to pave the way to success for the Blue liibbon phalanx. 