The struggle for local prohibition was at once renewed, and in a few years license had ceased throughout the Commonwealth.

The statement may surprise many; but I have the authority of the city clerk of Boston for saying, that 'no licenses for the sale of intoxicating liquors were granted in Boston between 1841 and 1852.' * * * And so the chapter of license was apparently closed.

It had not only had its 'day,' but its centuries in court; and the well-nigh unanimous verdict was: '_disgrace_--_failure_'" So strong was this conviction in the minds of the people of Massachusetts, that Governor Bullock, in 1861, while acting as chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the House, gave it expression in these notable words: "It may be taken as the solemnly declared, judgment of the people of the Commonwealth, that the principle of licensing the traffic in intoxicating drinks as a beverage, _and thus giving legal sanction to that which is regarded in itself as an evil, is no longer admissible in morals or in legislation_" THE LIQUOR POWER IN THE ASCENDANT AGAIN.
But in 1868, adverse influences prevailed, and after all her sad and disgraceful experience, Massachusetts abandoned her prohibition of the traffic and went back to license again; but the evil consequences began to show themselves so quickly that the law was repealed in less than a year.
Governor Claflin, in his message to the legislature in January, 1869, thus speaks of the effect of the new license law: "The increase of drunkenness and crime during the last six months, as compared with the same period of 1867, is very marked and decisive as to the operation of the law.

_The State prisons, jails and houses of correction are being rapidly filled_, and will soon require enlarged accommodation if the commitments continue to increase as they have since the present law went in force." While the chaplain of the State prison in his annual report for 1868, says: "The prison never was so full as at the present time.

If the rapidly increasing tide of intemperance, so greatly swollen by the present wretched license law, is suffered to rush on unchecked, there will be a fearful increase of crime, and the State must soon extend the limits of the prison, or create another." This law was repealed, as we have seen.