Any spouter who chooses to rant about the landlady's gold
chain and silk dress can make sure of a laugh, and anyone who talks
about "prosperous Mr. Bung" is approved. For the sake of a good cause I
beg the abstainers to tell the plain, brutal truth as I do, and refrain
from scandalising a decent class of citizens. Why on earth should the
landlord be named as a pariah among the virtuous classes? He is a
capitalist who is tempted to invest money in a trade which is the
mainstay of our revenue; he is hedged in with restrictions, and the
faintest slip ruins him for ever. The very nature of his business
compels him to be smart, obliging, ostentatiously friendly; yet with all
this the Government treat him as if he were by nature a thief, while
thousands of earnest but ignorant and foolish people reckon him an enemy
of society.
Pray who is forced or solicited to buy the landlord's wares? Your
butcher cries "Buy, buy, buy!" your draper sends out bills and
sandwich-men; but the publican would be scouted if he went out touting
for custom.
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