THE HISTORY OF ALCOHOL. 



385 



severe onset of gout, or the illness leading up to it, would cause 

 the retirement of the most prominent statesmen. Many of them 

 died young. Few indeed of them reached a healthy and vigorous 

 old age. For heavy drinking was not confined to the idlers and 



JOHN BULL PETITIONING PITT AND DUNDAS TO LIGHTEN THE LIQUOR TAX. (Gillray.) 



spendthrifts, the courtiers and country gentlemen ; it was a cus- 

 tom with the ablest and most brilliant men in England. Pitt and 

 Fox, the two " Great Commoners," were noted topers. The old 

 couplet is still remembered that refers to a scene in the House of 



