but probably that remark applies equally to every other rank of society. In the middle classes there has been a very great improvement of late years. There is still far too much drinking, but comparatively little drunkenness, excepting among fast young men. There are no more three-bottle men, for in nearly all cultivated circles the gentlemen rise from the table with the ladies, and there are very few men of good position in society who would care to boast that they had drunk a couple of bottles of wine at a sitting. Spirits, which are still consumed by the middle classes more largely in Scotland and Ireland than in England, are rarely drunk to excess by gentlemen. In our clubs and restaurants claret and hock are daily coming more into use; and one of the most satisfactory evidences of the changed drinking habits in this country is the increasing consumption of imported German and Scandinavian beer. If it be true that an English gentleman never gets drunk, not gallantry alone but the facts of the case warrant our saying further that no English _lady_ takes more intoxicating drink than is becoming. Unfortunately our municipal and charitable institutions are made the excuse for entertainments at which old drinking customs are upheld far more than is desirable, and we should not be within the strict limits of accuracy if we were to say that we have never seen a lady at a public table whose conversation had been stimulated by wine more freely than was consistent with the usages of polite society. But these are, after all, exceptions, and we think our readers may take it for granted that the _lady_ who thus forgets herself, or one who sends to her grocer’s for wine or spirits, has gone far to relinquish her claim to the title.[296] Amongst the lower middle classes—as, for example, the smaller tradesmen—there is still much intemperance; but even there, self-respect and public opinion prevent anything like its obtrusion upon the notice of the world. In connection with political action drunkenness is still rife, but secret voting and the abolition of public nominations have to some extent mitigated the evil. There was a time, and that not very far back, when in many English towns the week preceding and that following a parliamentary election was one protracted orgie of the most debasing kind. This part of the subject we shall, however, treat at greater length hereafter. Perhaps the distribution of actual drunkenness through the various ranks of society is pretty fairly illustrated by some of our police records. The following, for example, is a statement condensed and classified from the table of apprehensions for drunkenness as they appear in the report of the Chief Constable of Liverpool for the year 1877:— The total number of men who were apprehended for being “drunk and disorderly” in Liverpool during that year was 7020. These were taken from various classes of society, as follows:—