DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 26 ) after dinner, and made the boy drink twice as much as he did himself, saying, ‘The son should not be a witness of the father’s intoxication.’ The younger Pitt, who died in 1806, as illustrious and high-minded a Minister as ever ruled Great Britain, was addicted to intemperance, the public opinion of his time not being powerful enough to make him feel its disapproval. Nor did it affect his contemporary, Sheridan, who, according to Lord Byron, gave English literature the finest comedy it possesses, and Parliament the noblest effort of oratory in its annals. Before one of his greatest speeches he drank, at one gulp, a pint of brandy neat. A friend remarked upon this, that he would destroy the coats of his stomach. ‘Then my stomach must digest in its waistcoat, retorted Sheridan. Sheridan, it may be added, died in abso- lute want. It was an almost general custom at the beginning of this century, where a party had assembled for dinner, to order up several dozen bottles of wine, then throw the key out of the window as a pledge that they would not leave until all the drink was consumed. Intemperance is still prevalent in the country, and certain antiquated drinking customs are even now in existence that promote the vice ; but we must hope they will soon be abolished. I cannot say whether the custom still prevails at Cambridge, but I remember when I first visited the University i ——<