DRINKING CUSTOMS A CENTURY AGO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2675, 21 June 1905, Page 77

DRINKING CUSTOMS A CENTURY AGO.

A century ago France and England were ruled by statesmen whose mental abilities ■were only equalled by. their herculean capacity for absorbing alcoholic drink (says a writer in the New York Tribune in 'an article on "Drinking Customs"). Lord Carteret, according to Carlyle. is "known chiefly by occasional bursts ot su-ong, rugged speech which came from him, and a. good deal of wine taken into him." Charles Townshend is best known by the "champagne speech" which Horacu Walpole has reported for the amusement of posterity. "William Pitt, the first Earl of Chatham, whose masterly genius in a tew short years made England an Empire, was wholly himself only ' when a sharp fit of gout hart driven the fumes of port and claret from his brain.' His famous son, who added new lustre to tlie name of XVilliam X'itr. j indulged in a mad escapade after a dinner with Jenkinson, Earl of Liverpool, and Dundas. Riding back to London late at night they saw an open tollgate, and, thinking that it would be a capital joke to 1 ride through it without paying, they j spurred their horses and dashed by the toUhouse. The gatekeeper, thinking they were highwaymen, shot his musket after them. This incident found a place in 4 The llosciad Mn the following lines — Pitt, wandering darkling o'er the plain. His reason drowned in Jenkinson's champagne, A rustic's hand, but righteous Fate withstood. Had shed a Preralo: s .: a robber's o'.o~< "Lord Le Despenser, another statesman of the Georgian era, is described .by his friend and companion, John'Wilkes-, as one who, ' from puzzling all his life at, tavern bills, was called by Lord Bute to administer the finances of a kingdom above one hundred millions in debt.' Rigby, a winej drinking place-hunter, whose name was j placed in the stocks by Junins and other j writers of that age, 'fixed his residence • among the swamps of Essex in order thai he might have an excuse for using brandy as the rest of the world used small beer." . . . " ' They tell me, Sir John.' said George 111 to one of his favourites, ' that you • love a glass of wine.' 'Those who have " so informed your Majesty,' was the reply, have done me injustice ; they should have said a bottle.' There is an accurate picture of the age in Walpole's Memoirs. 'Lord Cholmondeley,' he wrote, died last Saturday. He was 70, and had a constitution to have carried him to 100, if he had not destroyed it by an intemperance that would hnve killed anyone else in half the time. As 1 it was, he had outlived by 15 years all his set, who have reeled into the ferry-boat so long before him.' "Speaking of the art of drinking, Samuel Johnson says : ' Drinking may be practised with great prudence ; a man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated has not the art of getting drunk ; a sober man who happens occasionally to get drunk readily enough goes into new company, which a man who has been drinking should never do. Such a man will underH 1--anything ; he. is without skill in inr 1 tion. I used to slink home when drunk too much. A man accustomei. - - self-examination will be conscious when he is drunk, though an habitual drunkard will not be conscious of it. ~ I knew a physician wko for 20 years was not sober ; yet in a pamphlet which ho wrote upon fevers he appealed to Garrick and me for his vindication from a charge of drunkenness ! A bookseller who got a large fortune by trade was so habitually and equally drunk t-hat his most intimate friends never perceived that he was more sober at one time than another.' "Invited to dine with Sir Joshua Reynolds, Samuel Johnson discussed with his host the question whether drinking improved conversation and, benevolence. Sir Joshua maintained it aid. Johnson said : % No, sir : before dinner men meet with great inequality of understanding ; and those who are conscious of their inferiority have the modesty not to talk. When they have drunk wine every man feels himself happy, and loses that modesty, and grows impudent and vociferous ; but he is not improved : he is only not sensible of his defects. I admit that the spirits are raised by drinking, as by the common participation of any pleasure ; cock fighting or bear baiting will raise the spirits

of a company, as drinking does, though surely they will not improve conversation. I also admit that there are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking, as there are fruits which are not good till they are rotten. There are such men, but they are meddlers. I indeed allow that there have been a very few men of talents who were improved by drinking.' "