During
One Year 134,972 Paupers Were In The Receipt Of Relief, Of Whom 59,000
Were In The State Of New York; But To Show The Evil Influence Of The
Foreign, More Especially The Irish, Element In America, It Is Stated That
75 Per Cent.
Of the criminals and paupers are foreigners.
The larger portion of the crime committed is done under the influence of
spirits; and to impose a check upon their sale, that celebrated enactment,
known under the name of the "Maine Law" has been placed upon the
statute-books of several of the States, including the important ones of
New York, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Nebraska. This law
prohibits, under heavy penalties, the manufacture or sale of alcoholic
liquors. It has been passed in obedience to the will of the people, as
declared at the elections; and though to us its provisions seem somewhat
arbitrary, its working has produced very salutary effects.
When so much importance is attached to education, and such a liberal
provision is made for it, it is to be expected that a taste for reading
would be universally diffused. And such is the case: America teems with
books. Every English work worth reading is reprinted in a cheap form in
the States as soon as the first copy crosses the Atlantic. Our reviews and
magazines appear regularly at half price, and Dickens' 'Household Words'
and 'Chambers' Journal' enjoy an enormous circulation without any
pecuniary benefit being obtained by the authors. Every one reads the
newspapers and 'Harper's Magazine,' and every one buys bad novels, on
worse paper, in the cars and steamboats.
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