Mr. Bass takes the bull by the horns with a
vengeance. He told the Derbyshire Licensed Victuallers on Wednesday that a publican's trade was as good as a baker's or butcher's, that more people were killed by overeating than over-drinking—it is true that gluttony, once a deadly sin, is now never denounced among us—and that he wished people would drink twice as much as they do,—of his own ale, we presume. He did not even believe that drink was a cause of immorality, but rather a vent for the desire of excitement, the teetotal peoples, the Mohammedans and Hindoos, being distinctly worse than the drinking peoples, Scotch and Swedes. That is pushing a sound argument a little too far, is it not, the only true comparison being between the drunkards and
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teetotallers of each race ? Teetotalism is not the sum of the virtues, but a teetotaller is seldom guilty of violent crime, while a drinking Medea, instead of being a good Hindoo, as on this theory he ought to be, is the nearest approach to Caliban extant. Mr. Bass's notion seems to be that we want a beershop for every 200 people, and then may refuse to give more licences ; but we suspect,. for all his bravery, he will consent to some compromise. Suppose we say a shop for each 1,000 souls, and no more licences.
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