timists that we are) believed its ultimate
success to be but a question of time. But I think I may say we never
regarded it as a pressing question--such as the reform of the House
of Lords, for instance. The general impression (I call it no more)
was that we should all be temperate sooner or later; possibly as the
next step after espousing our Deceased Wife's Sister.

Well, our Vicar laid his copy of the 1894 almanack on the
reading-room table at 11.30 a.m., or thereabouts, looked over the
local papers for a few minutes, and left the building at ten minutes
to noon. I get this information from Matthias James, our respected
pilot, who happened to be in the room, reading the _Shipping
Gazette_. It is confirmed by Mr. Hansombody and four or five other
members. At noon precisely, Mr. Rabling (our gasman and an earnest
Methodist) came in. His eye, as it wandered round in search of an
unoccupied newspaper, was arrested by the scarlet and green binding
of Whitaker. He picked the book up, opened it casually, and read:

The proof gallons of spirits distilled during the year ending
March 31st, 1893, were 10,691,576 in England, 20,107,077 in
Scotland, and 13,615,668 in Ireland. . . .

He tells me he was on the point of closing the book as a voluptuous
work of fiction, when a second and even more dazzling paragraph took
his eye.

The beer charged with duty in the United Kingdom was 32,104,320
barrels, 532,047 barrels of which were exported on drawback,
leaving 31,572,283 barrels for home consumption. There were
also 38,580 barrels of beer, and 1,653 barrels of spruce
imported from abroad.

And again:

The spirits "retained for home consumption" in the year were:--
rum, 4,268,438 gallons; brandy, 2,668,499 gallons; "other
sorts," 824,078 gallons. The home consumption of tobacco in the
year reached the total of 63,765,053 lbs. Though the tobacco
duty was reduced by 4d. a lb. in 1887-8, the annual yield
averages 1,336,240 pounds sterling more than it was ten years
ago. Smuggling still continues. . . .

Mr. Rabling was declaiming aloud by this time, and when he read out
about the smuggling, one or two of his audience gazed up at the
ceiling and agreed that the fellow had some of his facts right.
Old Pilot James added that the book could hardly be a work of
fiction, since the Vicar had left it on the table, and the Vicar was
not one to scatte