some half-dozen
amidst the concourse applauded. At length he said:--

"After all, brethren, such drinking is no joking matter, for it is the
root of all evil. Now, brethren, if you would all get to heaven, and
cheat the enemy of your souls, never go into a public-house to drink, and
never fetch any drink from a public-house. Let nothing pass your lips,
in the shape of drink, stronger than water or tea. Brethren, if you
would cheat the Devil, take the pledge and become teetotalers. I am a
teetotaller myself, thank God--though once I was a regular lushington."

Here ensued a burst of laughter in which I joined, though not at the
wretched joke, but at the absurdity of the argument; for, according to
that argument, I thought my old friends the Spaniards and Portuguese must
be the most moral people in the world, being almost all water-drinkers.
As the speaker was proceeding with his nonsense, I heard some one say
behind me--"a pretty fellow that, to speak against drinking and
public-houses: he pretends to be reformed, but he is still as fond of the
lush as ever. It was only the other day I saw him reeling out of a
gin-shop."

Now that speech I did not like, for I saw at once that it could not be
true, so I turned quickly round and said--"Old chap, I can scarcely
credit that!"

The man, whom I addressed, a rough-and-ready-looking fellow of the lower
class, seemed half disposed to return me a savage answer; but an
Englishman of the lower class, though you call his word in question, is
never savage with you, provided you call him old chap, and he considers
you by your dress to be his superior in station. Now I, who had called
the word of this man in question, had called him old chap, and was
considerably better dressed than himself; so, after a little hesitation,
he became quite gentle, and something more, for he said in a
half-apologetic tone--"Well, sir, I did not exactly see him myself, but a
particular friend of mine heer'd a man say, that he heer'd another man
say, that he was told that a man heer'd that that fellow--"

"Come, come!" said I, "a man must not be convicted on evidence like that;
no man has more contempt for the doctrine which that man endeavours to
inculcate than myself, for I consider it to have been got up partly for
fanatical, partly for political purposes; but I will never believe that
he was lately seen coming out of a gin-shop; he is too wise, or rather
too cunning, for that."

I stayed li