Tcmpera7ice. 21 



at dinner is clearly none the worse for it. I judge that 

 if the medical fraternity were polled, a large majority 

 would say he was the better for it, at least after a cer- 

 tain age. Why can't we recognize the fact that all 

 races indulge in stimulants and will continue to do so ? 

 It is the regulation, not the eradication, of this appetite 

 that is practical. The coming man is to consider it low 

 to walk up to a bar and gulp down liquor. The race 

 will come to this platform generations before they will 

 accept that of Sir Wilfrid Lawson and his total absti- 

 nence ideas. 



This was written before the Church of England 

 movement in this direction was known to me. Much 

 good must come of its efforts ; but I confess I should 

 like to see that church show that it is in earnest by re- 

 moving the deep reproach cast upon it by recent state- 

 ments, which pass uncontradicted. Listen to this 

 startling announcement : This holy Church of England, 

 mark you, is the largest owner of gin palaces in the 

 world. The head of the church, the Archbishop of Can- 

 terbury, in passing from his palace at Lambeth to his 

 abbey at Westminster, sees more than one hundred (I 

 believe I understate the case) gin palaces which his 

 church owns and has rented for such purposes ; nay, it 

 is shown that the church has always raised the rents of 

 these houses, with which licenses go, as the sales of 

 liquor have increased ; so that her interest lies in ex- 

 tending the use of liquors as a beverage secretly upon 



