TAP-ROOM POLITICS. 197 



know what there was to oppose them. The miller said there 

 was &quot; gammon.&quot; The sergeant, on being asked, admitted that 

 he was not aware of any respectable force stationed in that 

 vicinity, and the miller told him he was a &quot; traitor then.&quot; Ex- 

 soldier said miller knew nothing about war, any way, and the 

 company unanimously acquiesced. Ex-soldier then resumed 

 his speech asked if government would dare to give arms to 

 the people, and pictured an immense army of Chartists arising 

 in the night, and with firebrands and Frenchmen, sweep 

 ing the government, queen and all, out of the land, and estab 

 lishing a republican kingdom, where the poor man was as good 

 as the rich. The company all thought it very probable, and 

 each added something to make the picture more vivid. A 

 coarse joke about the queen s bundling off with her children 

 produced much laughter ; and the hope that the parsons and 

 lawyers would have to go to work for a living, was much ap 

 plauded. 



It was strange what a complete indifference they all seemed 

 to have about it, as if they would be mere spectators, outsiders, 

 and not, in any way, personally interested. They spoke of 

 the Government and the Chartists, and the landlords and the 

 farmers, but not a word of themselves. 



Late in the evening there was some most doleful singing, 

 and a woman came in and performed some sleight-of-hand 

 tricks, every one giving her a penny when she had concluded. 

 We were obliged to sleep two in a bed, one of us with a 

 Methodist young man, who travelled to make sales of tea 

 among country grocers and innkeepers, for a Liverpool house. 

 He said that what we had seen in the tap-room would give us 

 a very good notion of the character of a large part of the 

 labouring class about here. He thought their moral condition 

 most deplorable, and laid it much to the small quantity 

 and bad quality of the spiritual food that was provided for 



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