Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/83

 As a consequence of this sort of training, Sir Wilfrid Lawson is almost entirely devoid of personal ambition. Goodness, not greatness, is the object at which he aims. He is rich; but his sympathies with the poor are as fresh and keen as if he were one of them. He has not been deluded by the deceitfulness of riches, nor is "rank" to him other than the poor "guinea stamp" in comparison with the pure gold of genuine manhood. I know no one in any station of life who seems to me to realize more fully that

For fifteen or sixteen years he has been a total abstainer, simply from a sense of duty towards his fellows, and not from any personal or physical antipathy to stimulants. While the world standeth, he will do nothing to cause his brother to offend; nay, more, he will do his utmost to remove stumbling-blocks from his brother's path. In so acting, he may be right or he may be wrong; but at all events the motive is eminently respectable.

In 1859, in his father's lifetime, he entered Parliament as member for Carlisle, and found a more useful and honorable occupation than that of "a hunter of Cumberland beasts with hounds." In March, 1864, he first brought in a bill, since known as the Permissive Bill, "to enable owners and occupiers of property in certain districts to prevent the sale of intoxicating liquors within such districts." He lost his seat in consequence, and from 1865 to 1868 he was out of Parliament. Then the tide turned; and the cathedral city reversed its verdict, many publicans and sinners doubtless repenting them of the evil they had done.