now, when they have been cold sober for two years, be incarcerated
in this humiliating place, surrounded by the morbid relics of
those weaker souls who found their grog too strong for them.

"I say therefore that we must give Bishop Chuff credit for a sense
of humor. It makes him all the more deadly enemy. Yet I think we
will have the laugh on him yet, in a manner I shall presently
describe. For the Bishop has what may be denominated a single-
tract mind. He undoubtedly imagines that we will submit tamely to
this outrage. He has surrounded us with guards. He expects us to
be meek. In my experience, the meek inherit the dearth. Let us not
be meek!"

There was a shout of applause, and Quimbleton's salient of horse-
hair beard waved triumphantly as he gathered strength. His burly
figure in the lilac upholstering dominated the audience. He went
on:

"And what is our crime? That we have nourished, in the privacy of
our own intellects, treasonable thoughts or desires concerning
alcohol! Gentlemen, it is the first principle of common law that a
man cannot be indicted for thinking a crime. There must be some
overt act, some evidence of illegal intention. Can a man be
deprived of freedom for carrying concealed thoughts? If so, we
might as well abolish the human mind itself. Which Bishop Chuff
and his flunkeys would gladly do, I doubt not, for they themselves
would lose nothing thereby."

Vigorous clapping greeted this sally.