But it was not all sunshine at first.  He fell ill, and the doctor ordered him better living than he had been getting; and where the money was to come from to get more nourishing food Livesey knew not.

He had been ordered to take some cheese in the forenoon, so he bought a piece at about eightpence a pound; and as he munched it came this thought:  cheese wholesale cost but fivepence per pound; would it not be possible to buy a piece wholesale and sell it to his friends, so that he too might have the benefit of getting it at this low price?

No sooner thought of than done.  But, when he had finished weighing out the cheese to his friends, he found he had made, quite unexpectedly, a profit of eighteenpence, and that it was more than he could have gained by a great deal of weaving.

So he changed his trade:  weaving gave place to cheese mongering; and, after some very hard work and persevering efforts, he placed himself beyond the reach of poverty.

Now came the important moment of his life.  One day in settling a bargain he drank a glass of whisky.  It was, he said, the best he ever drank, because it was the last.  For the sensation it produced made him resolve he would never again taste a drop of intoxicating liquor.

Finding himself the better for this course, he soon tried to get others to join him.  His first convert to total abstinence was a man named John King; Livesey and he signed together; and on 1st September, 1832, at a meeting held at Preston, seven men—­“the Seven Men of Preston,” as they are called—­signed the pledge, of which the following is a facsimile:—­

    [Handwritten:  We agree to abstain from all Liquors of an
    Intoxicating Quality, whether ale porter Wine, or Ardent
    Spirits, except as Medicine.

    John Gratix
    Edw’d Dickinson
    Jno:  Broadbelt
    Jno:  Smith
    Joseph Livesey
    David Anderson
    Jno:  Ring.]

It was a terrible struggle for these men at first.  They were laughed at, they were abused, they were persecuted; but the more people tried to put them down the harder they fought; and soon hundreds and thousands had joined their ranks, and the movement spread throughout the kingdom.

“There is more food in a pennyworth of bread,” said Livesey, “than in a gallon of ale”; and he proved it.  He lectured far and wide; and, though he met with much opposition, facts in the end prevailed.

He was not only a temperance advocate, but an earnest worker for the good of others in various directions.  He visited the sick, and helped them.  When the railways came he started cheap trips to the seaside for working people, and was never happier than when he was helping the poor and unfortunate.

Joseph Livesey is a striking example of the benefits to health derived from teetotalism, as he lived to the good old age of ninety.

A GREAT MISSIONARY EXPLORER.