PROHIBITION DURING THE WAR.
[To Tax Erma OD ins " &memo.")
Sat,—It is not very clear what some people mean by " prohibition," but apparently it is nothing lees than for- bidding the production and consumption of alcoholic liquors of all sorts—whisky, gin, British wines, cyder, and beer—as well as the importation of brandy and wine. This, in the slang of the day, is "a large order," and it is chiefly demanded by those who hold that the consumption of alcohol, in any form and at any time, is wrong and ought to be abolished. As a brewer and a citizen I am willing to suffer ruin if by so doing I can benefit, not only the British Empire, but, what is even more important, the cause of human freedom, and merely ask that those who demand this from me should be willing to make an equivalent sacrifice themselves. Unfortunately there io no sign on the partof most prohibi- tionists that they would be willing to undertake a burden equivalent to that which they wish to impose—they would decree my martyrdom and watch it complacently, but beyond this their generous impulses would not carry them. In asking you, Sir, to publish this letter I am doing a bold thing in these days of suppression, but I believe that the Spectator still holds by Milton's plea for freedom of speech "Give me, before all other liberties, the liberty to speak, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience."—I am, Sir, &a.,
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