132 JOSEPH PRIESTLEY. 



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 perfec- 

 tion 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 prop- 

 erty. No civil disability attaches to any one on theo- 

 logical grounds, and the highest offices of the state are 

 open to Papist, Jew, or Secularist.* 



Whatever men's opinions as to the policy of Estab- 

 lishment, no one can hesitate to admit that the clergy 

 of the Church are men of pure life and conversation, 



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

 which it is to be hoped may speedily be removed, on the accuracy of 

 this statement. (September 1881.) 



