By a Leading Temperance Advocate.

THE TEMPERANCE HOSPITAL.

The story of the Temperance Hospital in Hampstead Road forms one of the most interesting chapters in temperance history. When the experiment of treating accidents and disease without the administration of alcohol was first mooted, the idea was assailed with a storm of criticism in which the medical profession found a most active ally in the public Press. A quarter of a century has now elapsed since the first patient was received in the temporary premises in Gower Street, and although the medical staff have full permission, under certain regulations, to administer alcohol if deemed expedient, the last Report states that out of a total of 13,984 in-patients, alcohol has only been resorted to in twenty-five cases. The percentage of recoveries compares most favourably with the ordinary hospitals, and the cases include every variety of disease and accident. The present head of the medical staff is Dr. J. J. Ridge, who has been connected with the institution from the first. For many years it has been the custom of the United Kingdom Band of Hope Union to organise a Christmas collection in aid of the Temperance Hospital. The amount thus realised has reached many thousand pounds, and it is hoped that this year's collection will prove the best of the series. The body of evidence in favour of total abstinence which the Temperance Hospital has accumulated certainly entitles the institution to the cordial support of the temperance public.

COMING EVENTS.

Among the fixtures worth noting may be named the New Year's Meeting of the United Kingdom Band of Hope Union on Saturday, January 7th; the Annual Meeting of the London United Temperance Council, to be addressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on February 13th, in the Queen's Hall; a great Industrial Exhibition, promoted by the Hackney and East Middlesex Band of Hope Union, on April 10-13; Temperance Sunday for London Diocese April 23rd (St. George's Day, a grand opportunity for the clergy to strike a national note); and, as it is well to look ahead, a World's Temperance Convention to be held under the auspices of the National Temperance League in 1900.

THE NEW ENGLISH DICTIONARY.

It may be news to some of our readers that Dr. James A. H. Murray, the editor-in-chief of the monumental literary work which has been in progress for so many years, is an earnest total abstainer and a Vice-President of the National Temperance League. Dictionary-making and total abstinence seem to run together. In William Ball's "Slight Memorials of Hannah More" is this remark: "I dined last week at the Bishop of Chester's. Dr. Johnson was there. In the middle of dinner I urged Dr. Johnson to take a little wine. He replied: 'I can't drink a little, child, therefore I never touch it. Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult.'" It is rather curious to note that it is only within recent years that our dictionaries have taken any cognisance of the meaning which temperance people give to the word "pledge." More than this, in the early dictionaries the word was almost exclusively given up to the other side of the drink question. For instance, in Bailey's Dictionary (1736) we have the following definition of the word "pledged":—"Having drank by the recommendation of another."... "The custom of pledging in drinking was occasioned by the Danes, who, while they had the superiority in England, used to stab the English or cut their throats while they were drinking; and thereupon they requested of some sitter-by to be their pledge and security while they drank; so that 'I will pledge you' signifies 'I will be your security that you shall drink in safety.'"

Contrast this with the definition given in the last edition of Webster's Dictionary:—

"A promise or agreement by which one binds one's self to do, or to refrain from doing something; especially a solemn promise in writing to refrain from using intoxicating liquors or other liquor; as to sign the pledge."

No doubt, when Dr. Murray reaches the letter "P," we shall have a definition even still more illuminating. The New English Dictionary viewed from a temperance standpoint would make a delightful study. Take, for instance, volume one, in which "Alcohol" has more than a column to itself, while "Ale" has two columns, "Beer" two and a half columns, and "Abstain," "Abstainer," and "Abstaining" are treated with a wealth of illustration and meaning derived from such authorities as Wyclif in 1382 down to J. W. Bardsley (the present Bishop of Carlisle) in 1867, who is pressed into the service in this form:—

"Abstaining.—Practising abstinence (from alcoholic beverages) 1867. J. W. Bardsley in 'Clerical Testimony to Total Abstinence' 30: 'The bride was the daughter of an abstaining clergyman.'"

Now we will leave it to our fair readers to puzzle over until next month as to who the blushing bride was who is thus assured of immortality in the greatest Dictionary the world has ever seen.

"TWO QUEENS OF SONG."

"Example is better than precept," says the old adage, and there can be no doubt that the example of Madame Antoinette Sterling and Mrs. Mary Davies in the matter of total abstinence has been of the utmost value. It was at a reception given by Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Sherlock at Hackney, in 1892, to the Archbishop of Canterbury (then Bishop of London), that Madame Sterling, to the surprise of a delighted audience, volunteered "a few words." The gifted singer remarked that "she had been nearly all her life a total abstainer. When on long tours with members of her profession, it had been rather an aggravation to them to see, when they were pretty well prostrated, that she was almost or quite as fresh at the end of the journey as at the beginning. They also complained of the quality of the wine furnished to them, as well as of water. She took milk and cocoa, and also water, of which she did not complain, and scarcely missed one engagement in the seventeen years during which she had been before the public. She had never had a day's bad health, and had not suffered from those aches and pains of which she had heard other people complaining continually." Like Madame Sterling, Mrs. Mary Davies has upon many occasions shown a deep and practical interest in philanthropic work.

A FAMOUS BAND OF HOPE.

Possibly the most unique Band of Hope in the world is that which is held in the Royal Naval School, Greenwich. It was founded so far back as 1871, by Samuel Sims, an honoured agent of the National Temperance League, and upon his death, in 1892, was taken over by Mr. W. S. Campbell, as the League's representative. No pressure at all is put upon the lads to induce them to join the Band of Hope, but, as a matter of fact, most of the lads in the school readily do so, and the present membership is fully a thousand strong. Regular weekly meetings are held, and the annual gathering, which is held in the great gymnasium, is a most inspiriting spectacle. A visit to the Royal Naval School, if it should happen to be in recreation time, cannot fail to afford considerable satisfaction to those who like to see Young England at play. Every type of healthy pastime is encouraged in its turn, and these young abstainers have frequently shown that they are well able to hold their own. It is encouraging to know that the principles of total abstinence are not discarded when the lads pass out into the Royal Navy or Mercantile Marine, for every year large numbers of them are drafted into Miss Weston's well-known temperance society.

TEMPERANCE SUNDAY.

The appointment of a special Sunday for the preaching of sermons on temperance originated with the Church of England Temperance Society many years ago. Owing to various circumstances, it is not possible for the Church of England clergy to take one Sunday simultaneously for the whole country, but each diocesan Bishop makes choice of a day and issues a pastoral letter to his clergy, so that at one period of the year or another the whole country is covered, so far as the Church of England is concerned. The Nonconformist bodies have, however, for some years past, fixed upon the last Sunday in November for Temperance Sunday, and as we go to press we learn that this year special reference will be made to the importance of Sunday Closing.