114 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



throughout with the detestation of war, with admiration of 

 those who fought only for freedom, and with scorn and 

 contempt for the majority of English landlords, who subor- 

 dinated all ideas of justice or humanity to the keeping up of 

 their rents. Even if it stood alone, this one poem would 

 justify the poet as an upholder of the rights of man and as 

 a truly ethical teacher. 



Returning from this digression to the villagers who came 

 within my range at the little tavern where we lodged, I had 

 an opportunity of seeing a good deal of drunkenness, inevitably 

 brought on by the fact that only in the public-house could 

 any one with enforced leisure have the opportunity of meet- 

 ing friends and acquaintances and of hearing whatever news 

 was to be had. Sometimes a labourer out of work, and having 

 perhaps a week's wages in his pocket, would have a pint of 

 beer in the morning, and while waiting alone for some one to 

 come in, would, of course, require another to pass away the 

 time ; and sometimes, if a young unmarried man, he would 

 remain quietly drinking beer the whole day long. On one 

 such occasion the landlord told me that a man had consumed 

 twenty-two pints of beer during the day. At that time there 

 was no temperance party, no body of people who thought 

 drinking intoxicants altogether wrong; while deliberately 

 aiding a man to get drunk was often a mere amusement. 

 My brother was a great smoker but a small drinker, and he 

 used to say that as he neither drank nor expectorated while 

 smoking it did him no harm — a view which seems very 

 doubtful. He was, however, accustomed to take a glass of 

 spirits and water in the evening, and usually kept a gallon 

 jar of gin in a cupboard by the fireplace, not only for his own 

 use, but to have something besides beer to offer any friend 

 who called. He had several acquaintances at Silsoe, the 

 architect of the mansion then being built for Earl Cowper 

 being an old friend of about his own age, a Mr. Clephan. 

 One day, I remember, a young farmer whose acquaintance 

 we had made while surveying gave us a call, and my brother 

 hospitably invited him to take a glass of gin, which he 



