It is monstrous to
be told you have a heart as sinful as the common wretches that crawl on
the earth. This is highly offensive and insulting; and I cannot but
wonder that your ladyship should relish any sentiments so much at
variance with high rank and good breeding. I shall be most happy to
come and hear your favourite preacher." Her Grace's sentiments towards
the common wretches that crawl on the earth were shared, we may be
sure, by her Grace's waiting-maid. Of humanity there was as little as
there was of religion. It was the age of the criminal law which hanged
men for petty thefts, of life-long imprisonment for debt, of the stocks
and the pillory, of a Temple Bar garnished with the heads of traitors,
of the unreformed prison system, of the press-gang, of unrestrained
tyranny and savagery at public schools. That the slave trade was
iniquitous hardly any one suspected; even men who deemed themselves
religious took part in it without scruple. But a change was at hand,
and a still mightier change was in prospect.
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