Licensed _to make_ the strong man weak; Licensed _to lay_ the wise man low; Licensed a wife's fond heart _to break_, And _make_ her children's tears to flow. Licensed _to do_ thy neighbour harm; Licensed _to kindle_ hate and strife; Licensed _to nerve_ the robber's arm; Licensed _to whet_ the murderer's knife. Licensed thy neighbour's purse _to drain_, And _rob_ him of his very last; Licensed _to heat_ his feverish brain, Till madness crown _thy_ work at last. Licensed, like a spider for a fly, _To spread_ thy nets for man, _thy_ prey; _To mock_ his struggles--_suck him_ dry, Then cast the worthless hulk away. Licensed, where peace and quiet dwell, _To bring_ disease, and want, and woe; Licensed _to make this world a hell_, And _fit_ man for a hell below." . . . . . . . . . . "Call up the dead from their cold, cold graves And summon up memory's link, And see if human tongue can tell, The millions damned through drink." To sum up and crystallise his great temperance efforts, Mr. Charrington has invented a concrete symbol of them. The initials B.R.O.T.A. stand for "The Blue Ring of Total Abstinence," which is entirely Mr. Charrington's idea, and serves as a badge that unites abstainers throughout the whole world. This ring is made of metal and blue enamel, bearing the aforesaid initials. It can be had in cheap metal, while for richer people it is manufactured in gold set with diamonds. In itself it is a beautiful and decorative thing. As a symbol, as a cementing of the great brotherhood of abstainers formed by Mr. Charrington, it is unique. Mr. Charrington invariably wears one of these rings himself, and from the farthest parts of the world applications for them are daily received. We now pass to the final chapter of this book, where we see Frederick Charrington in an entirely new setting. THE LAST CHAPTER LORD OF THE MANOR OF OSEA You have seen the subject of this memoir under very many changing circumstances, the central figure in one lurid scene after another, but there is a side to Frederick Charrington's life as strangely contrasted as possible to nearly all I have hitherto written. My readers will not have accompanied me so far without realising that in Mr. Charrington is an unique personality. No one has done what he has done, and the originality of temperament has always been curiously aided and abetted by originality and strangeness of circumstance. I venture to think that this chapter illustrates not the least interesting of the great missioner's activities. Certainly he again appears against a background without parallel in English life to-day. A few years ago--many people will remember it--the press of Great Britain was full of articles upon Osea Island.