The debate on the Licensing Bill in the Commons on
Friday week produced a speech from Mr. William Johnson, a Liberal-Labour Member, which is well worth noticing. It was very amusing, but it was also very shrewd. Mr. Johnson was anxious to support all reasonable legislation, but he would have nothing to say to fanatical measures. " Any man," he said, " who attempts to stop me having my glass of beer at any time will have a difficult subject to deal with." It is pleasing to read this revelation of a Labour Member's indignation at the thought of undue State interference. Here is another agreeable revelation. " I always tell my children two things. First, they must go to a place of worship at least once every Sunday. Secondly, they must never be late for dinner." Those are, after all, and in spite of the naivete of the expression, essential points,—the need of religion in human life, and of teaching discipline in the family if it is to be taught anywhere. Mr. Johnson's father, who had a red face, and said to his friends, " You can have one too, if you go to the expense," pleasantly illustrated what Carlyle called the "pot-bellied equanimity" of the Anglo-Saxon. " Good beef and good beer make good blood," says the farmer similarly in "Rhoda Fleming." We are not sure of that, but we are sure that Mr. Johnson's very British mood is a thoroughly sound one, and a symptom of a mental attitude which will save England one day from madness.
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