It may be objected, however, that these opinions concerning the improvement in the drinking habits of the working classes, and the facts in connection with them, have been supplied to the author by persons whose interests and inclinations would naturally prompt them to present the best side of the picture for publication. No doubt it has been so; but if the reader will permit the author to take him into his confidence, he may mention that the same thing applies equally to the accounts which have been given to him by experienced men in every rank of society, from the highest to the lowest, each believing his own class to be the most sober. If there has been any unfriendly criticism of their own order, it has been amongst those who can unfortunately not close their eyes to the effects which drink is producing in their midst. For although a review of the whole question leads to the conclusion that national drunkenness is diminishing, it would be useless to conceal the fact that there are periods when the great increase in the consumption of intoxicating drinks, and especially of spirits, points to a corresponding increase in intemperance. The general prosperity of the trading community, and the rise of wages which accompanied that prosperity, from about the years 1871 to 1875, swelled the figures that represent the national thirst very considerably. But it would be very unfair to say that there was a proportionate increase of drunkenness amongst the working classes only. Gentlemen laid down wine who had not laid down wine before, and the consumption of all kinds of alcoholic drinks increased in every class of society. So far as the indulgence in drink can be blameless, much of that which was the concomitant of increasing wealth was of an innocent character. Let us not, however, forget the lesson of Rome in her latter days. The present commercial depression, with its diminution of profits and wages, may not be without its advantages, and may prove a blessing to the nation if it teaches all classes to husband their resources, and not to “eat and drink, for to-morrow we must die.” Let us remember that there are others to come after us, whom we would desire to see better and more temperate than ourselves. This brings us to a phase of the subject which the author would gladly have passed over without any further comment, namely, the character of gin-palaces; for however people may otherwise differ concerning the cause of drunkenness, there can be but one opinion of the baneful influence which these places exercise upon the habits and morals of the community. They were, perhaps, never more fairly, and certainly not more graphically, described than by a foreigner who visited England about sixteen years ago,[309] and since that period their meretricious adornments, and therewith their dangerous character, have been very much augmented. The boarded window, with its glowing descriptions of the liquid treasures (often the vilest compounds