One hundred years ago
THE BISHOP of London made an interesting speech on Saturday at Deansgate, the Sanctuary, Westminster, to the Church of England Temperance Society. His rather emphatic preference for new as against old sermons we have discussed in another column, but may add here that the Bishop exhorted all friends of temperance who had a pro- found belief in any one remedy for intemperance, to nail their colours to the mast, and insist on the adoption of that particular remedy, so long as the special kind of remedy for intemperance to be adopted is still unsettled; but, nev- ertheless, to be prepared for compro- mise whenever the time comes when some particular remedy must be tried, and not to sulk and lose their whole interest in the movement because their particular specific is not accepted by the nation at large. That is good advice, but not very easy to act upon. To keep up your enthusiasm for a specific reform to the last moment before a compromise is imposed upon you, and yet not to be damped and discouraged when that reform is rejected or so mutilated as to be unrecognisable, is a hard matter. It is like expecting an engine to go full speed in one direction, and yet to be ready to reverse its action and go full speed in an opposite direction at almost a moment's notice.
The Spectator 19 November 1892
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