Chapter xxxiii. A Specimen of My Folly.
The incomprehensible submission of Scotchmen to the ecclesiastical tyranny of their Established Church has produced — not unnaturally, as I think — a very mistaken impression of the national character in the popular mind.
Public opinion looks at the institution of “The Sabbath” in Scotland; finds it unparalleled in Christendom for its senseless and savage austerity; sees a nation content to be deprived by its priesthood of every social privilege on one day in every week — f*******n to travel; f*******n to telegraph; f*******n to eat a hot dinner; f*******n to read a newspaper; in short, allowed the use of two liberties only, the liberty of exhibiting one’s self at the Church and the liberty of secluding one’s self over the bottle — public opinion s
