The Merry Past 



rife in the parish, did indeed once declare that such 

 a state of affairs must be checked. Accordingly he 

 preached a long and eloquent sermon on the horrors 

 of intemperance, during which he defined exactly 

 what the vice in question was. There were men, 

 said he, who, quarrelsome in their cups, should never 

 drink at all. There were others to whom one bottle 

 was refreshment, but to whom two caused sickness ; 

 they were, therefore, intemperate when they drank 

 more than one. Some men enlivened a circle of 

 friends, and were kind to their wives, even after they 

 had drunk four bottles ; and it was not right in them 

 to diminish their kindness by drinking less. There 

 were others more highly gifted and favoured, who 

 felt their hearts warm with gratitude to their Maker 

 while the generous juice circulated in their blood, 

 who were friendly with their families, generous to 

 all, and even nobly forgetful of injuries, when they 

 had drunk five bottles ; with them, therefore, in- 

 temperance only began with the sixth bottle. " But 

 these," he said, " were the pecuHar favourites of 

 Heaven, to whom the joys of this world were given 

 as a pledge of a joyful hereafter." 



During election times liquor fairly flowed ; every- 

 one drank his candidate's or someone else's health, it 

 did not matter much whose. 



During the Southwark election in the early part of 

 the nineteenth century, Mr. Illidge, a glass and 

 earthenware dealer, who was a committee-man of 

 one of the candidates (Mr. Calvert, the well-known 

 brewer), called upon that gentleman, and apologising 



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