Those, however, who are exercising the most powerful influence upon all grades and classes are the Nonconformist clergy and laity, and the members of the Society of Friends. In many parts of the United States, as we stated in our last chapter, it is a _sine qua non_ that the minister should be a total abstainer, and that he should lead the temperance movement in his congregation. In England the mantle of the Puritans has undoubtedly fallen upon the Nonconformists, and the only fault to be found with a few of the more earnest of them is, that there is a little too much unction in their public and private utterances. This is, however, quite pardonable, for their zeal is beyond question, and in the author’s view they are obtaining even more valuable results from their indirect than from their avowed temperance action, which is always regarded as somewhat professional in its character. Whoever has interested himself in the establishment of social clubs, cocoa-rooms, or British workmen’s public-houses (it is immaterial by what name the reforming institution may be known), is well aware that the men who have made the most sacrifices, who have expended the largest amount of time, thought, and money on the work, who have been the most hopeful in adversity, and the most tenacious in carrying out the project, have been the Nonconformist members of the temperance organisations.[383] The Church of England is also beginning to be active, and her clergy are coming somewhat tardily to the front, though many of them have long been privately at work in their own parishes. A society has recently been formed under the auspices of that body, “which accepts as members non-abstainers as well as abstainers,” and the objects of which are to promote counter-attractions to the public-house, in the shape of reading-rooms, working men’s clubs, and coffee-rooms.[384] The noble speaker, whose words we have quoted, still adheres to the old temperance principle, believing that in good health men and women can do without spirits, and that they would be much better off with very much less than they now consume. These views may meet with the approbation of the members of the Church of England Society, but we fear they will hardly commend themselves to any of the old-established associations. And yet he does not stand alone in pressing the “temperance” view upon public notice. The greatest statesman of the day, Mr. Gladstone, in speaking at the annual meeting of the “Coffee Tavern Company” in the metropolis, expressed his conviction that drunkenness, which he characterised as a “monster evil,” could not be altogether checked by “heroic remedies,” by which, we presume, he meant legislative measures for the entire suppression of the liquor traffic. And many more of our leading statesmen conscientiously hold that view, although they are doing all in their power by precept and example to diminish the evils of intemperance.