To their Irish host, William Smyth, Esq., Fletcher wrote as follows:—
“Madeley, November, 1783.
“Dear Sir,—The many and great favours with which you loaded us, during our long stay under your hospitable roof, have been, are now, and, we trust, ever shall be deeply engraven on our hearts. You united, for us, Irish hospitality, English cordiality, and French politeness. And now, Sir, what shall we say?
“You are our generous benefactor, and we are your affectionate, though unprofitable servants. In one sense, we are on a level with those to whom you show charity in the streets: we can do nothing but pray for you and yours. You kindly received us for Christ’s sake; may God receive you freely for His sake also! You bore with our infirmities; the Lord bear with yours! You let your servant serve us; the Lord give all His servants and His angels charge concerning you! You gave us a most comfortable apartment, next your own chamber; the Lord grant you eternal rest with Himself in His heavenly mansions! You fed us with the richest food; may the Giver of every perfect gift fit you for a place at His table, and may you rank there with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! You gave us wines; may you drink, with Christ Himself, the fruit of the vine, new in your Father’s kingdom!”[[592]]
It has been asserted, that, “towards the close of his life,” Fletcher “abstained entirely from wine and strong drink;”[[593]] but the evidence in favour of this is dubious, and, certainly, the last sentence of the foregoing letter seems to disprove it. Throughout the whole of his life, he was exceedingly temperate in eating and drinking; but it may fairly be doubted whether Fletcher was ever a “teetotaler.”[[594]] It is a curious fact, however, that in this very year, 1783, he wrote a pamphlet bearing upon the subject of drunkenness and other matters, which he intended to be published, but which, I believe, never was. It was sent to “Mr. Hindmarsh, printer, in Baker’s Court, Holborn Bars, London,” together with a letter of instructions as to the printing of it, dated, “Madeley, November 20, 1783.” When printed, Mr. Hindmarsh was requested to send, as soon as possible, a copy to every member of Parliament. The title was, “Three National Grievances,—the Increase of Taxes, the Hardships of Unequal Taxation, and the Continual Rise of the Poor’s Rates: with the Causes and Remedies of these Evils: Humbly Submitted to the Consideration of the Legislature, in a Letter to the Right Honorable Lord John Cavendish, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and one of the Lords of the Treasury. London: November, 1783.”
The temptation is strong to insert this remarkable production in extenso; but to do so, in a chapter like the present, would be an inconvenient excrescence; besides, want of space makes it impossible. Suffice it to say, that, under the heading of the first “Grievance,” Fletcher argues, that, the decrease of the national revenue, and consequent increase of the national taxation, were occasioned by “the amazing progress of smuggling.” He says, “No one can deny that vast quantities of foreign brandy, rum, gin, tobacco, snuff, tea, wines of all sorts, and a variety of other articles, are fraudulently imported and that these, on the sea-coast, are sold at “half the price which they cost the conscientious merchant.” “Many thousands of lawless men are perpetually forming or executing schemes, to defraud the Government, and reduce us to beggary.” Fletcher says, it was once his opinion that “smuggling might be prevented, by the combined services of the army and navy; but,” he adds, “as most of the inferior Custom House officers on the coast, with £50 a year, live in splendour, and as the evil is deeply rooted, I am now convinced that the only way to check it is to take off the duties, to lessen the number of officers in both Customs and Excise, and to advance the salaries of those who are retained. If I prove that, by lessening the duties, the revenue will be increased and smuggling suppressed, there can be no objection to the adoption of the plan proposed.” Fletcher enters into many details to establish his theory; and thus, long before the days of Peel and Gladstone, took the part of free-traders.
His chapter on unequal taxation must be passed; but some of his statements, in the third, deserve notice. He insists that—
“The continual increase of the Poor Rates is occasioned by the corrupted morals of the lower classes of the people, who are seduced into idleness and neglect of their families, in the public-houses to be met with at every turn. There are also multitudes of private retailers of smuggled spirits, who, by enticing their neighbours into drunkenness, entail ruin on them and their families. In some parishes, the number of these lawless retailers far exceeds that of the publicans. But to speak only of licensed houses, what multitudes of these are found all over England! In some places, almost every fifth house is one of those nurseries of vice.”
Terrible is the picture which Fletcher draws, respecting the ruinous consequences of drunkenness; and his arguments would help Sir Wilfrid Lawson to make a most effective speech on “Local Option” in the House of Commons.
“If,” continues Fletcher, “these paltry public-houses are the bane of the nation, let the legislative power interfere in England, as it has done in Holland. Let two-thirds of these nuisances be suppressed; and by raising the licenses of the others, so as to indemnify the revenue, let the law put it out of the power of the idle poor to set up these petty schools of idleness and vice. Then people of character will no longer be afraid to become publicans.”