Our National Drink Bill. By John Newton. (James Nisbet and
Co. is. net.)—We do not dispute the terrible significance of the facts which Mr. Newton marshals in this volume. They do not, it is true, constitute the whole case. The condition of the nation in respect of alcoholic indulgence is better than it was a hundred and fifty years ago, when the "gin fever," as it lias been called, was in full force. And we must be content with a slow rise, a rise which will increase in amount and speed the more we bring good influences to bear on the hearts and minds of the people. If Mn. Newton thinks that he is going to work a moral revolution merely by shutting up the public-houses, he is much mistaken. And another thing should be remembered. More people die of eating too much than of drinking too nuteh. In the upper and middle classes the proportion of those who thus shorten their lives is frightfully large.
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