34 JOSEPH PRIESTLEY I 



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 intemperance 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. In ordinary life, no civil disability 

 attaches to any one on theological grounds, and 

 high offices of the state are open to Papist, Jew, 

 and Secularist. 



Whatever men's opinions as to the policy of 

 Establishment, no one can hesitate to admit that 



