 Individualism, a Reader, edited by George H. Smith and Marilyn Moore, narrated by James Foster. 14. Archbishop Temple on Bedding, Henry Wilson The Liberty Review, June 15, 1901 Henry Wilson, a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army, was a frequent contributor to the Liberty Review, published by the Liberty and Property Defense League, until he was killed in a bicycle accident on January 8, 1907. He was Secretary of the Individualist Club, Treasurer of the Personal Rights Association, and a contributor to Auberon Herbert's periodical titled Free Life. In this article Wilson comments both on the moral double standard that was used when assessing different economic classes and on the uselessness of vice legislation. We all remember the French nobleman whose life had not been a pattern of morality, but who said when dying that he had no doubt the Almighty would make due allowance for the fact that he was a gentleman and would not be so hard on his peccadillos as if he were a plebeian. The Archbishop of Canterbury seems to share this feeling, for he said on May 20 in the House of Lords that bedding was certainly a vice when practiced by those who could not afford it. There are some men so strong that drunkenness does not seem to affect them, so of course in them it ceases to be a vice. When Captain Yelverton was asked at the Longworth trial if he thought seduction was wrong, he said it depended on the social position of the girl. Punch, years ago, had an amusing cartoon representing John Thomas lounging in his mistress's carriage and consulting his bedding book. To me it seems no more blamable in a footman who is an idle person to fill up the vacuity in his mind in that way than it is in his master. Gambling is, of course, an inheritance from our savage ancestors who, having no subjects of interest to think about, killed time in that way as savages do now all over the world. We ought by this time to have got rid of the pestilent heresy that wealth and position give us more license to indulge in idleness and vice than people in a humbler station. Virtue and vice ought to be independent of station or sex. There is nothing wonderful in the bishops of Hareford and London interfering. What good can a select committee do? Bedding has increased because more people read the papers and wages have risen just as smoking has increased among boys since cigarettes have become common. The facts are all well known and a committee can throw no new light on the subject. The bishops say that public opinion will be aroused. Let public opinion direct itself to the rich first and not wink at the bedding ring on racehorses or gambling at the clubs in Paul Mall while sanctioning raids on clubs of tailors and butchers or on men who bet in shillings at street corners. It is very amusing to hear the bishop of Hareford say that moderate legislation on this subject was not open to the same objection as legislation in restriction of the drink traffic or on the hours of shop assistants. It is something to hear a confession that legislation on the latter subjects is bad but there is still the delusion that a little of a bad thing is a good thing and that law can alter men's hearts. This has been Individualism a Reader edited by George H. Smith and Marilyn Moore narrated by James Foster Copyright 2015 by the Cato Institute Production Copyright 2015 by the Cato Institute