124 JOSEPH PRIESTLEY. [LECT. 



advancement, in a place in which the very stones 

 testify to that progress in the town of Watt 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 

 welfare, although perfection is not yet in sight even 

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

 much better than they were. 



Take the upper and middle classes as a whole, and 

 it may be said that open immorality and gross in- 

 temperance 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 legislature 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 power has passed into the 

 hands of the masses of the people. Those whom 

 Priestley calls their servants have recognised their 

 position, and have requested the master to be so good 

 as to go to school and fit himself for the administration 

 of his property. No civil disability attaches to any 

 one on theological grounds, and the highest offices of 

 the state are open to Papist, Jew, or Secularist. 1 



1 The recent proceedings of the House of Commons throw a doubt, 



