34 JOSEPH nilESTLEY i 



tion in the course of a century or so. And, if the 

 picture of the state of things in Priestley's time, 

 which I have just drawn, have any pretence to 

 accuracy, I think it must be admitted that there 

 has been a considerable change for the better. 



I need not advert to the well-worn topic of 

 material advancement, in a place in which the 

 very stones testify to that progress — in the town 

 of AVatt and of Boulton. I will only remark, in 

 passing, that material advancement has its share 

 in moral and intellectual progress. Becky Sharp's 

 acute remark that it is not difficult to be virtuous 

 on ten thousand a year, has its application to 

 nations; and it is futile to expect a hungry and 

 squalid population to be anything but violent and 

 gross. But as regards other than material wel- 

 fare, although perfection is not yet in sight — even 

 from the mast-head — it is surely true that things 

 are much better than thev were. 



Take the upper and middle classes as a whole, 

 and it may be said that open immorality and 

 gross intemperance have vanished. Four and six 

 bottle men are as extinct as the dodo. Women 

 of good repute do not gamble, and talk modelled 

 upon Dean Swift's " Art of Polite Conversation " 

 would be tolerated in no decent kitchen. 



Members of the Iciiislature are not to be 

 bought; and constituents are awakening to the 

 fact that votes must not be sold — even for such 

 trifles as rabbits and tea and cake. Political 



