commitments due, either directly or indirectly, to strong drink."

The whole number of commitments is given in these words: "Not less than
60,000 to 70,000 [or the sixtieth portion of the inhabitants of the
State of New York] human beings--men, women and children--either guilty,
or arrested on suspicion of being guilty of crime, pass every year
through these institutions." The answers made to the committee by the
jail officers, varied from two-thirds as the lowest, to nine-tenths as
the highest; and, on taking the average of their figures, it gave
seven-eighths as the proportion of commitments for crime directly
ascribed to the use of intoxicating drinks!

Taking this as the proportion of those who are made criminals through
intemperance, let us get at some estimate of the cost to tax-payers. We
find it stated in Tract No. 28, issued by the National Temperance
Society, that "a committee was appointed by the Ulster County Temperance
Society, in 1861, for the express purpose of ascertaining, from reliable
sources, the percentage on every dollar tax paid to the county to
support her paupers and criminal justice. The committee, after due
examination, came to the conclusion that upwards of sixty cents on the
dollar was for the above purpose. This amount was required, _according
to law_, to be paid by every tax-payer as a _penalty, or rather as a rum
bill_, for allowing the liquor traffic to be carried on in the above
county. What is said of Ulster County, may, more or less, if a like
examination were entered into, be said of every other county, not only
in the State of New York, but in every county in the United States."

From the same tract we take this statement: "In a document published by
the Legislature of the State of New York, for 1863, being the report of
the Secretary of the State to the Legislature, we have the following