Council which he had swindled some thirsty statesman out of, and more
property than he could deal with by himself.

"It is a singular reflection that thirst has very little to do with the
consumption of drink, nor is this appetite subject to the vagaries of
climate, for the inhabitants of the coldest regions will, it is feared,
drink on equal terms with those dwelling in the sun-burnt tropics. In
almost all ceremonial observances drinking has had a special place, and
this diversion lends itself to an infinite number of objects--we can
from the same bowl quaff health to our friends and confusion to our
enemies, doubtless with equal results. Here alone men meet on equal
terms. There is no religion, nationality or politics in liquor: let it
be but sufficiently wet and potent and it matters not if the brew has
been fermented in the tub of a Christian or the vessel of a heathen
Turk.

"I understand that this latter race are forbidden, by the form of
heresy which they call religion, to use liquors more potent than
sherbet. Some thinkers believe that this deprivation is possibly the
reason of their being Turks.--They are Turks, not from conviction, but
from habit, spite, and the bile engendered by a too rigid and bigoted
abstinence. In this belief, however, I do not concur, for I consider
that a Turk is a Turk naturally, and without any further constraint
than those imposed by the laws of geography and primogeniture.

"Meanwhile it is interesting to speculate on the future of an abstinent
nation whose politics have the misfortune to be guided by a Peerage
instead of a Beerage, and whose national destiny is irrationally
divorced from the interests of 'The Trade.' Any departure from the
established customs of humanity must be criticised unsparingly, and, if
necessary, destructively. To overthrow the customs of antiquity must
entail its own punishment and that punishment may be an awe-inspiring
and chastening Success. Therefore, this happy whisky-governed land of
ours should never forsake its liquor or it may be forced by opportunity
and work to become great. The foundations of our civilisation are
steeped in beer--let no sacrilegious hand seek to interfere with it,
for, even if the foundations were rotten, the interests of the Trade
must not be disturbed, the grave and learned members of our Corporation
might be horribly reduced to working for their living, and our
unfortunate City might have the extraordinary misfortune to s