on the trains at twenty-five cents a bottle and dry sherry at
eighteen cents a glass.

When I first saw this I expected to see the waiter arrested on the
spot. I looked around to see if there were any "spotters," detectives,
or secret service men on the train. I anticipated that the train
conductor would appear and throw the waiter off the car. But then
I realised that I was in England and that in the British Isles they
still tolerate the consumption of alcohol. Indeed, I doubt if they
are even aware that they are "consuming alcohol." Their impression
is that they are drinking beer.

At the beginning of my discussion I will therefore preface a few exact
facts and statistics for the use of geographical societies, learned
bodies and government commissions. The quantity of beer consumed in
England in a given period is about 200,000,000 gallons. The life of a
bottle of Scotch whiskey is seven seconds. The number of public
houses, or "pubs," in the English countryside is one to every half
mile. The percentage of the working classes drinking beer is 125: the
percentage of the class without work drinking beer is 200.

Statistics like these do not, however, give a final answer to the
question, "Is prohibition coming to England?" They merely show that
it is not there now. The question itself will be answered in as many
different ways as there are different kinds of people. Any
prohibitionist will tell you that the coming of prohibition to
England is as certain as the coming eclipse of the sun. But this is
always so. It is in human nature that people are impressed by the
cause they work in. I once knew a minister of the Scotch Church who
took a voyage round the world: he said that the thing that impressed