HEREDITAEY PEERS AND
HEBEDITAKY PAUPERS.
' The state of the times is so grievous that it really pierces through all
private happiness, and haunts me daily like a personal calamity."
Dr. Arnold.
" It fills me with astonishment to see Anti-Slavery Societies, so busy
with the ends of the earth, and yet all the worst evils of Slavery existing
among ourselves." — Ibid.
'• I must write a Pamphlet or burst." — Ihid.
HEREDITARY PEERS AND
HEREDTTARtY PATTERS :
THE TWO EXTREMES OF ENGLISH
SOCIETY.
BY
SAMUEL HUaHAN.
LONDON :
W. SWAN SONNENSCHEIN AND CO.,
PATERNOSTER SQUARE.
1885,
printed by Hazell Watson, & Viney, Limited, Loudou and Aylesbury.
?
^
CONTENTS
CO
CO
CD
CHAPTER I.-Intkoductouy.
YOUNG ladies' CHARMS MOST POWERFUL AT A
DISTANCE — THE DISENCHANTING POWER OF A
TETE-A-TETE
CHAPTER 11.
Q- ENGLAND WIDE AWAKE TO THE WOES OF BLACK
< PEOPLE, BUT ENTIRELY APATHETIC AS TO THE
WOES OF WHITE ONES.
Boston poverty an accident — A Crust of Bread and Lil)erty
— Ice Cream for Labourers — Something like cause and
effect— The Pudding in his Sleeve — The most thun-
dering instance of hypocrisy on record — The inception
of Noble Families — The Advantages of Slavery — An
embodiment of physical comfort — A fit subject for
S5 the Lunatic Asylum— The exigencies of a glutted
^ Market — The advantage of being a Horse or a Mule —
^ The moral equilibrium — Utopia — Liberty or Death —
Human life under Slavery secure
301042
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
THE COWHIDE A MISTAKE.
PAGE
Starvation or the Cowhide— Free to Starve— Lords of
Creation— Emancipation in Barbadoes— Not much of
the Oyster left— The Fetith of Supply and Demand—
The B.Gr. plays the Good Samaritan— They touch our
Country and their Shackles fall— Not Worms but
Human Torpedoes ! 40
CHAPTER IV.
QUESTIONS THAT HAVE AN UGLY HABIT OF SETTLING
THEMSELVES,
Will the British Safety Valve continue to act ?— The claims
of Grouse and Blackcock— Vested Rights, the Roots
of Civilization — The Upper and Nether Millstones —
Is it Cause and Effect V — The Lord and the Baker— A
Stalwart Yeomanry — The Curses of the Poor — Judeean
nobles and Judtean fields— The Colossus of the North . 59
CHAPTER V.
SOCIAL STRUCTURES BUILT RIGHT OVER SLUMBERING
FIRES.
Expelled Demons dangerous guests to entertain — Pure and
disinterested effort — When England was Housekeeper
— A certain occult force — The Molten Lava just
beneath — John Bull as " Holy Willie " — Fabulous
Wealth and Degrading Poverty — The Elect of the
CONTENTS.
World — The iuipcrviousncss of tlic Crocoilile society
— A species of Saint difficult to acclimatise — A Glass
with peculiar [)roperties — May I — become an English-
man — Still lieneath the Norman harrow- -Eight Shil-
lings a week HO
CHAPTER VI.
LAWS WHICH HAVE ENABLED THE NOEMANS TO RETAIN
THEIll GRIP FOR OVER EIGHT CENTURIES.
A tidal wave of Prosperity — Touching Memorials of
Heavenly Charity — Beneath the Heel of his Employer
— My Lords legislate for the British Peasant — The
Hawks have the best of it — Nothing to be Jubilant
about — Advancing with gigantic strides — Their feet
are there still— Manhood stamped out — In the Work-
shop of the World 108
CHAPTER VII.
EVEN THE DOOR OF HOPE SHUT AGAINST THE ENTER-
PRISE OF THE FUTURE.
Robbery sanctioned by Law — Strong Language — The
Emancipation of Englishmen still incomplete — The
Norman Grip — A heaven for tlio English Elect —
Wanted, Aqueducts and Irrigating Channels — The
blended yoke of Landlord and Capitalist . 128
HEREDITARY PEERS AND
HEREDITARY PALTERS.
CHAPTER I. — Introductory.
YOUNG ladies' CHARMS MOST POWERFUL AT A
DISTANCE — THE DISENCHANTING POWER OF A
T^TE-A-TETE.
Mr. Matthew Cuthbert, a Boston Trans-
cendentalist, the son of a wealthy merchant,
has, in the course of a European tour in the
year of our Lord 18 — , arrived in Dresden.
Much to his surprise, in the person of Miss
Evangehne Lessing, the daughter of an old
friend of his father's, he finds a young lady
whose physical charms, though of a high
order, are only a faint foreshadowing of a soul
and intellect such, as in his most rose-coloured
dreams of the possible, he has never imagined.
It is naturally some time before he can be
convinced that his senses are not deceiving
him. For his whole previous experience of
1
2 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
the fair sex has been something altogether
different. From the serious effects produced
upon his heart by pretty faces, not once nor
twice, but often, has he been delivered by a
lengthened Ute-d-Ute.
So long as the force of circumstances has
kept him at a distance from the lovely charmer,
the links forged by an ardent imagination for
the enslavement of his soul have remained
strong as adamant. A glimpse of a fairy face,
caught at church or opera, would throw a
spell over his susceptible soul. "What a divine
smile ! " he would mentally ejaculate. "What
heavenly eyes ! What an angelic face ! " In
the retirement of his lonely rooms, the very
recollection, reproduced by an intensely vivid
imagination, " would take his prisoned soul
and lap it in Elysium."
And if one smile could so beguile, what
ecstasy, he would reason, to approach the fairy-
like creature, come within the immediate sphere
of her attractions, sun oneself in those divine
smiles, gaze into those heavenly eyes, and hang
enraptured over every syllable that dropped
from those rub}'' hps. He would move heaven
and earth until he obtained an introduction.
INTR OD UCTOR Y.
The much-coveted introductiou is obtained
through an ohhging friend. Heaven appears
within his reach. He approaches his divinity
upon the tiptoe of expectation. The smiles
are indeed divine ! She parts her ruby lips !
He listens spell-bound, awestruck, his sole
thought whether the angelic syllables will
frame themselves into a language which a
mortal may comprehend.
Can he believe his ears ? Surely that
commonplace remark, that silly giggle will
not be repeated ?
But, alas ! the next remark is upon a still
lower key. The chain is not now so ada-
mantine.
TJie conversation proceeds. The fairy-like
creature unfolds her intellectual winsfs ! Alas !
she proves, like her predecessors — to be of the
earth earthy. The dulcet sounds that proceed
from those ruby lips are married to the most
prosaic and commonplace thou,£^lits. As point
after point of her character unrols to his critical
inspection, link after link of that ethereal
chain which had bound liis soul snaps. The
sharp click is audible to his inner ear.
An hour's tcte-a-tcie^ during which his
HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
strained vision has been unable to descry
upon her mental horizon the dawning of a
single original idea. The chain which had
been of adamant is now of gossamer. A good
healthy appetite at supper-time, unrelieved
except by a little vacuous twittering as to
balls and operas, completes his disenchant-
ment. He goes home bored.
This, with variations, had been Mat's ex-
perience over and over again. His fervid
imagination made him exceedingly susceptible
to female charms. But, thanks to his keen
critical faculties, he very speedily cooled down,
a nearer inspection revealing to him the
prosaic facts.
His first Ute-d-tHe with Miss Lessing, how-
ever, had, to his astonishment, heightened his
admiration instead of lessening it. There had
been no dreadful pauses in that first conversa-
tion. Could his intellectual steel be of finer
grain than he had hitherto suspected ? Or
were the sparks and flashes of thought, that
had responded to each slightest stroke, to be
attributed to the fact that he had at last
chanced upon a rare flint full of concealed fire?
It was more than delightful to have a
INTR OD UCTOR Y.
listener whose sympathies were so wide, and
whose perceptions were so keen, — one who
appreciated to the full the best things that
his mind could furnish when in its highest
moods, and one upon whom the faintest shade
of humour or satire was never thrown away.
In conversation with Miss Lessiug, Mat
found himself enjoying that rare satisfaction,
the consciousness that he was talking his
best. He was astonished, in fact, at his own
flights. He was really a much cleverer fellow
than he had given himself credit for. At first,
indeed, he had been continually apprehensive
of coming suddenly upon the dead wall which
formed the outer boundary of her intellectual
resources. This had been his experience with
so many people — male as well as female — whose
acquaintance, with youthful enthusiasm, he
had too hastily set down as constituting an
era in his life. But as yet, in the region of
Miss Lessing's mind, he had not caught the
most distant glimpse of a boundary, whether
dead wall or ornamental palisade.
Naturally, in their conversations, the subject
that most frequently came up was the merits,
or rather demerits, of the " peculiar institu-
6 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
tion." Mat's judgment and reason were clear
as to the wrong and impolicy of slavery.
But his feelings were still intensely Southern.
He saw clearly that the Southern states, whilst
aj)parently their own masters, were really
being driven along by the force of fate ; that
they were themselves the blind slaves of cir-
cumstance, swayed irresistibly by the climatic
adaptation of their soil to the growth of
tobacco and cotton. And being unable to
urge one word in their defence, the only way
in which he could relieve his surcharged
patriotic feelings was by pitching into the
plaintiff's attorneys, and unsparingly depicting
their gross inconsistencies and transparent
hypocrisies. Amongst these self-constituted
attorneys, the English being by far the most
conspicuous, to them, as a natural consequence,
Mat directed his keenest and most trenchant
criticisms.
Towards England, indeed. Mat was keenly
critical rather than appreciative. He looked
at her through a " Bunker Hill" atmosphere,
that was apt to bring out her defects in a
strong light. And expecting, as he did, to be
assailed upon the slavery question, he had
IXTRODUCTORY.
made up his mind that, instead of listening
supinely to stale dissertations upon the
national sin, he would holdly carry the war
into the enemy's country. The weak points
of the European position he had studied from
this standpoint, and naturally some of his
conclusions were rather startling. He had
become convinced, in his own mind, that
slavery was merely one phase of a question
which was world-wide, and not, as some
narrow-minded fanatics were in the habit of
insisting, confined to the United States.
It must not be infej-red that subjects more
tender than politico-economic ones were
never touched upon by the fair Evangeline
and her "Transcendental" admirer, Mr.
Matthew Cuthbert. These, however, must be
left to the reader's imagination, the present
purpose being merely to gather together
certain conversations upon subjects which,
though not then, have now become burning
questions, leaving to the said imagination
the filling in of appropriate dramatic scenery,
and the sketching in of the lights and shades
and other well-understood sentimental sur-
roundings.
CHAPTEE II.
ENGLAND WIDE AWAKE TO THE WOES OF BLACK
PEOPLE, BUT ENTIRELY UNCONCEENED AS TO
THE WOES OF WHITE ONES.
Me. Cuthbert's expectations of being assailed
on the slavery question were fully realised.
He found that the conscience of Europe was
everywhere awake to the iniquities of slavery,
particularly democratic American slavery.
But with a strange inconsistency, side by
side with this ultra-humanitarian sentiment,
he found a spirit of arrogant inhumanity and
utter ajjathy, so far as the very poor were
concerned, which, though partly anticipated,
yet in its actual heartlessness completely
appalled him. That the feelings and woes of
black people were matters entirely outside
the consideration of white people, was a
characteristic of the mental and moral atmo-
sphere in which he had been brought up —
BOSTON POVERTY AN ACCIDENT. 9
a sentimeut with which use aud wout had
made him strangely familiar. But that to
white people the feelings and woes of white
peoj)le should he a matter of such supreme
and utter indifference was an experience new
and startling, and impressed him with the
force of something altogether unnatural.
In Boston a poor white man was one of
the ruling caste, a voter in town meetings, to
cater to whose necessities and aspirations was
one of the main purposes for which society
existed. His poverty was an accident, the
result of the mischances of the day — some-
thing which might befall a man in any con-
dition of life, and therefore unaccompanied
by that bitterest ingredient of poverty, a sense
of personal humiliation. And there were
always the thousand chances hidden in the
bosom of the unknown to-morrow. The
thought of these imparted a feeling of bound-
less elasticity and hope, which seemed to fill
the very air he breathed, enabling him to hold
his head high, and breast with manly dignity
and fortitude the sea of troubles which had
for the moment overwhelmed him. But the
poverty of the European labourer was some-
10 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
thing wholly different. It seemed the effect of
a law of nature — something from which there
was no escape ; and far from exciting the least
surprise, was regarded as much a thing of
course as the condition of splendour and secu-
rity in which reposed the classes above him.
That in such a society Mr. Cuthbert was
not prepared to listen with deep respect to
dissertations on the glories of human liberty
is not surprising, nor is it much to be won-
dered at that he frequently struck back with
a force and emphasis which imparted to his
hearers an altogether new sensation.
" I have been trying very hard, Miss Les-
sing," said he, one evening when the irrepres-
sible negro question had come upon the carpet ;
"I have been trying very hard to make out the
real value of what you so proudly term Euro-
pean freedom, but apart from certain senti-
mental considerations, I find exceedingly little
to appraise. If I am to look at it from the
standpoint of prosaic fact, I must honestly say
that our Yirginian slaves are in many respects
more happily situated than your freemen."
" I have heard of that claim, Mr. Cuthbert,
but I confess I have not yet been able to
"A CRUST OF BREAD AND LIBERTY:' ii
understand how you make it out. In wliat
respects, pray," this with ratlier an incre-
dulous look, ''are they better off than our
European freemen ? "
" In everythiug that goes to make up the
important item of material comfort. Were
workmen pure spirits — a species of Scotch
Brownie, without any troublesome physical
necessities — they might, I grant yoa, fare
here right royally. But, so long as the first
necessity of existence, and, therefore, the first
condition of happiness, is an adequate supply
of the merely animal wants, our slaves will
enjoy a degree of happiness to which, generally
speaking, your freemen are strangers."
'' Don't you agree with the country mouse,"
queried Evangeline, with a demure air, " that
a hollow tree, a crust of bread, and libert}^
are incomparably superior to tlie most delicate
fare without it ? "
"I do," replied Mat; "but I think yom-
European scale of wages has been calculated
too exclusively from that standpoint. I think
employers might treat their workmen to
something more substantial than mouse's fare,
without altogether demoralising them."
12 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS. .
" A more varied diet would certainly not
hurt them," conceded Evangeline.
"Were this crust of bread," continued
Mat, " about which the poet is so eloquent,
really to be calculated upon, there is no doubt
that liberty would go a long way to sweeten
it. But even that not over luxurious fare is
not always forthcoming."
" That also," said Evangeline, bent upon
being magnanimous, " I am afraid I must
admit."
" So far as I can see, the labourer here,
when in regular employment, just manages
to keep his family from actual starvation.
There is certainly no margin, as with us, for
luxuries, or for a rainy day. You will not,
as in New York or Boston, see an unmarried
workman sitting down to a dinner of three
courses, topping off with mince pie if in
winter-time, or possibly with ice-cream if in
summer-time."
" Mince-pie and ice-cream for labourers ! "
exclaimed Evangeline. " You astonish me.
The millennium must have arrived and begun
at New York."
"Not quite," rejoined Mat ; " though if
ICE CREAM FOR LABOURERS. 13
your mechanics aud labourers sat down to
beef and mutton three times a day, as many
of ours do, they would conclude it could not
be very far off."
'' They would be afi-aid that it was some-
thing quite uncanny, some hallucination of
the evil one, certain to vanish as soon as
attacked with steel knife and fork."
" Between a diet of for the most part black
bread and the white breads, and varied meats
and fruits — the latter even including straw-
berries and peaches — that our labourers luxu-
riate in, there is certainl}'- a whole heaven of
difference — a difference which, when contrasted
with the meagre diet he has left behind him,
must seem to the European labourer just
landed on our shores liker some beautiful
dream, than solid, sober reality. When I
think of the careful planning and contrivance
necessary in even good times to enable the
honest labourer here to make both ends meet
— when I see that even when practising the
strictest self-denial, and confining himself and
family to the very coarsest fare, he is neverthe-
less liable to be put in prison should he by any
chance commit the awful enormity of getting
14 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
into debt, I am lost in astonishment at the
brazen effrontery of those who call upon such
men to risk life and limb in the defence of a
country that has done, and does so little, for
them. If," he exclaimed wistfully, " if there
were only some means of transporting a few
millions of them to our broad prairies."
" If there were only some means of trans-
porting the labourer to unoccupied lands, and
giving him a start in life, it would seem as
if the labour problem would soon be solved."
" What complicates the matter is, that to
give him a fair start a good deal is required
in addition to expenses of transportation.
Implements, seeds, a rude place of shelter,
and sufficient to live upon until the first crops
have been grown and reaped, are absolutely
indispensable."
" To procure all which," said Evangeline
sadly, " is of course utterly beyond his power."
" It will be a long time before many of the
labouring classes, except such as have literally
a passion for saving, and by dint of great
exertion and self-denial, have contrived to get
one year ahead, will be able to avail them-
selves of the advantages of emigration."
SOMETHING LIKE CAUSE AND EFFECT. 15
" And meantime, the rest must just struggle
on, until the problem of their misery and
destitution can be averted no longer."
'' Until that point has been reached, until
the throne or system of government imder
which such a condition of society has been
possible, is really endangered by its continu-
ance, it will not receive the shghtest atten-
tion."
•' One would think that it would be to the
interests of our upper classes to grapple with
it long before that pomt had been reached."
" The interests of our upper classes ! " re-
peated Mat bitterly; "their interests, unfor-
tunately, lie quite in another direction. From
their standpoint, the denser the population
the more valuable their lands, the lower the
cost of labour, and the greater their margin of
profits, whether from agricultm-e, manufac-
tures, or mines."
. " That looks," said Evangeline, slightly
horror struck, "as if the luxury of our landed
proprietors and upper classes were wrung from
the misery and destitution of the lower
ones."
"I grant you that there is an appearance
1 6 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
of cause and effect. It looks as if there ivere
some connection between them, and as if
such a disposition of the social wealth, as
metes out unbounded luxury to the few, rags
and intermittent starvation to the many,
could scarcely be quite equitable."
" Upon that all are agreed. It is only
when we come to consider the why and the
wherefore that differences arise. It seems
difficult, if not impossible, to point out exactty
where the great inequity or iniquity lies.
For, outwardly, everything is done in accord-
ance with the requirements of law and order."
"It is certainly no easy matter to point
out exactly where the inequity occurs. Those
who make off with the world's wealth do it
so deftly and skilfully, as to make it appear
that they are merely walking off with their
own share. And they contrive, during the
process, to squirt out so much printer's ink,
that their path is as effectually obscured as
that of the cuttle-fish, and any attempt to
track them about as hopeless."
" I see distinctly that the wealth and splen-
dour of our mediaeval barons, like the wealth
and splendour of your southern planters, were
THE PUDDING IN HIS SLEEVE. 17
wrung directly from their serfs. But we
have changed all that, and though the splen-
dour of the one class and the squalor of the
other remain as marked and conspicuous as
ever, there is a missing Unk, it appears to me,
in the chain of reasoning, that would still
attribute the one to the other."
'' The whole matter is certainly more com-
plex than of yore, when the gentlemen of
Europe simply clapped their hands upon, their
swords, and helped themselves to whatever
they wanted."
" I am not sure that that is a perfectly fair
representation of our mediaeval chivalry. But
he that as it may, you cannot deny, that
however prone in days of yore to forget the
distinction between ineum aDd fiium, there
are now no more scrupulous sticklers for
the rights of property than our barons,""
" That scrupulous upholding of the rights
of property would be more praiseworthy were
the motive a little less open to suspicion.
From my blunt standpoint, it bears a strong
resemblance to tlie sermon preached by the
friar against stealing, when, as the old proverb
has it, he had the pudding in his sleeve."
2
1 8 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
"Possibly," suggested Evangeline, "the
stings of an outraged conscience may have
imparted an unusual piquancy to the good
friar's eloquence."
" The public have an idea that he could
have preached a much more brilliant and
effective discourse had he started out by
making restitution of the pudding. For my-
self, I think the poor friar has been pilloried
in that proverb long enough. I have no
doubt there were extenuating circumstances
in the case, though, it must be confessed,
appearances were against him. But had some
wit recited in pithy lines how certain noble
barons, immediately after stealing the entire
lands of England and the liberties of its
people, were moved, in the sacred interests of
honesty, to enact the most draconic laws
against theft, a much more pertinent illustra-
tion, and a much more effective proverb, would
have been the result."
" To say the least of it," said Evangeline,
" it seems to have been one of the most
mu'aculous cases of sudden conversion of
which we have any authentic record."
"The most thundering instance of hypocrisy
THUNDERING INSTANCE OF HYPOCRISY, ig
iipou record," said Mit, a little too excited
to be choice in his language. " Though it
must be admitted, in their behalf, that —
except when public funds were within reach
— they have been fairly honest ever since.
The fact is," continued Mat, walking round
excitedly, " that if a man must steal, he had
better do it upon a gigantic scale. The great-
ness of the theft imparts to it a species of
respectability. The additional guilt upon the
soul is not worth quibbling about. And ever
afterwards, his heirs and successors, along with
other luxuries of his procuring, have within
easy reach that most exquisite of all — the
luxury of posing before an admiring public
as the very embodiments of stainless honour
and rectitude. A great robbery is simply an
act of praiseworthy self-sacrifice committed in
the interest of one's remotest descendants."
" I have often puzzled my woman's soul
in the effort to ascertain why the degree of
guilt attached to tlieft and murder should bo
so miraculously lifted from them so soon as,
from the strictly definite and known, they
mount up into the indefinite and unknown
quantities. The degree of guilt seems to be,
20 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
not as one would naturally suppose, iu pro-
portion to, but in inverse ratio to the amount
of crime committed. If to theft on a grand
scale you add murder on an equally grand scale,
3^ou have that human combination known as
hero — possibly even an embryo emperor. But
if your thefts are on a limited scale, and your
murders merely the result of an occasional
caprice, instead of being on the road to
empire, you are on the way to the gallows."
" The mediaeval barons seem to have been
a kind of cross between the two. Not that
their delight in pillage and murder could be
considered limited, — that would be doing them
an injustice, — but merely that their oppor-
tunities of committing either were never
quite equal to their ambition. When the
miserable Saxons ceased to afford scope for
their efforts in these directions, they turned
round viciously upon the country that had
given them birth ; and that resource failing
them, — owing to the heroism of one Joan of
Arc, — in default of better material, — like true
geniuses, — they fell back upon themselves,
and for a time luxuriated in the delight of
plundering and murdering each other. The
THE INCEPTORS OF NOBLE FAMILIES. 21
last effort seemed, if possible, to afford them
more supreme satisfaction than any previous
one. To mark, therefore, their sense of the
exquisite flavour of tlie fine aroma of the
delight that they experienced in robbing and
murdering each other, the Normans named
these latter wars the Wars of the Eoses."
" I find it next to impossible to preserve
that deep respect for rank in which I have
been educated ; not, I think, that I am
deficient in the qualities that tend to hero-
worship, but simply because the most diligent
search fails to find objects worthy of the
least reverence. Traced to their origin, what
are termed noble families, instead of afford-
ing, in their inception, instances of the
noblest qualities that dignify human nature,
seem, by some weird species of natural selec-
tion, to have been chosen from the most vicious
specimens that have disgraced humanity.
It is only by an exercise of the most biting
sarcasm that such men can be termed
noble. What a complete pandemonium they
did make of merrie England ! "
" By a great effort of the imagination, I can
understand, in some faint measure, this in-
22 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
human delight in robbery and murder. It is
a species of horrible insanity, of which the
world, unfortunately, still presents numerous
instances. What I find more difficult of
comprehension is the deep and unblushing
hypocrisy which accompanied it. Having,
with high-handed insolence, taken everything
there w^as to steal, the Normans turned right
round, and with grave countenances and un-
relaxed muscles, said to those whom they had
just plundered, Now let us have law and order.
Let us make a fresh start, each respecting
scrupulously the rights of our neighbour, and
regarding with the utmost horror the slightest
infringement of the rights of property."
' ' That looks like one of my missing Hnks. It
is the colour of law and order, if not of justice,
under w^hich the arrangements of modern
civilization are carried out, that lends to the
oppression of our working classes their most
puzzling, as well as heart-breaking, features."
" Starting under such unpropitious circum-
stances generations ago, how is it possible,"
asked Mat, " that the condition of the Euro-
pean labourer can be other than squahd?
^x nihilo nihil fit.'"
THE ADVA XTA GES OF SLA VER Y. 23
" The labourer's condition is certainly de-
plorable, even in the best of times, when
work is plenty and wages are at their highest.
When times are bad, and there is no work to
be had, the distress he is called upon to suffer
and live through only a very vivid imagina-
tion can comprehend. What heroism must
be required to starve in the midst of plenty,
in deference to the requirements of law and
order!"
" Our slaves have two great advantages."
" To see the advantages of slavery," said
Evangeline briskly, " must require a very keen
vision, or else a very powerful imagination."
" On the contrary, they are of a very pro-
nounced and tangible character. The first
is the thickness of their skins, both literally
and figurativel3^"
" I should thiuk by all accounts," said
Evangeline, looking up w^ith a merry twinkle
in her eyes, " that that was a decided advan-
tage. Whatever the effect figuratively, there
can be no doubt that, for the black man in
your good country, a thick skin literally, must
be a great desideratum."
" Tlie advantage of this less sensitive con-
24 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
stitution," said Mat, ignoring the interruption,
*' is, that evils, which to the more sensitive
temperament of white people would be abso-
lutely intolerable, barely rufEe the surface
of the more placid temperament and feelings
of the negro. The second advantage is of a
more tangible character still. He has never,
like the European workmen of whom we have
just been speaking, to stare actual famine
in the face. His corn bread — his hog and
hominy, never fail in the severest of winters,
or the hardest of times. A Planter " — this
very energetically — " would as soon think
of starving his horses, as of starving his
niggers. '
" That much," said Evangeline reluctantly,
^' I am afraid I will have to grant" — then
after a moment's pause — "it seems dreadful
that I cannot lionestlij claim as inuch for our
ejnployers.^''
" Can it be wondered at," asked Mat,
following up his success, " that this great
weight taken entirely oif his shoulders — this
harassing struggle to devise ways and means,
which keeps his poor white brother continually
on the verge of distraction — the light-hearted
AN EMBODIMENT OF PHYSICAL COMFORT. 25
negro should rise to the surface of life like
a cork — and instead of having worry aud
trouble written in deep lines on his face,
should present himself before an unbelieving
European pubhc, as the very embodiment of
physical comfort and content?"
" Question — question ! " exclaimed Evan-
geline, laughing.
But, unheeding the interruption, Mat con-
tinued, " In the intervals of labour he has
nothing to do but enjoy himself — ' dance all
night until broad daylight, and go home with
the gals in the morning.' "
" I see," said Evangeline, wdio thought it
high time to stop this rodomontade. " Your
planters are certainly much misunderstood
men. They are really philanthropists, wdio,
noting with calm philosophic eyes the extreme
difficulty poor folks have to make both ends
meet, magnanimously, and out of the fulness
of theii' warm hearts, take this dreadful burden
off their shoulders."
'* Not exactly," said Mat, laughing in spite
of himself; "though I have no doubt, some
of them would not only swallow the compli-
ment, but insist besides that they were God's
26 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
appointed agents for the evangelization of the
heathen. But, if it did not pay handsomely,
I am afraid the philanthropic zeal and mis-
sionary enthusiasm of my friends, the slave-
holders, would soon sputter out."
"I do not see," said Evangeline, whose
keen sense of justice had been at work, '' that
I can avoid granting that your negroes really
enjoy a rude plenty, which I cannot justly
claim for our own day labourers, so much
more intelligent and in every way capable.
And yet — even from the slaveholders' stand-
point — a standpoint not currently believed
to be specially disinterested — they are entitled
to at least meat and clothes the year round,
in exchange for their labour."
" Do you think," asked the remorseless
Mat, "that your close-fisted, shrewd employer
will pay one cent more for labour than it is
actually worth in the labour market ? That
if — owing to the competition of the thousands
struggling for bare existence — he can engage
labour for what virtually amounts to lialf
meat and clothes — and, judged from our
American standpoint, that is tuhat the miser-
ahle piittance of wages given liere, really amounts
A FIT SUBJECT FOR THE LUNATIC ASYLUM. 27
to — he will voluntarily, and out of pure bene-
ficence, agree to give double?"
" I wish from my heart," replied Evan-
geline, " I could say ' yes.' But I am afraid
that any employer of labour, who should offer
to do such a thing, would be considered by
his friends as having taken leave of his senses,
and as having become a fit subject for the
Lunatic Asylum." *
" In justice to our ' domestic institution,'
it must be said that our slaveholders cannot
avoid doing this. If they did, their human
property would immediately depreciate in
value."
'' That seems to be the essence of the
difficulty. There is a community of interest
binding the slaveholder to the slave. The
tie is as strong as pure selfishness can make
it. But between the employer of labour here
and his workmen there is not even this. The
divorce between the interests of the one and
the interests of the other is as complete as
circumstances can make it."
" Thank you, Miss Lessiug. That puts
the case fairly. The tie between the slave-
holder and the slave is at least a human
28 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
one ! He cannot afford to be insensible to
the health and happiness of a valuable piece
of property. But what human tie is there
between the manufacturer and his workmen ?
The stipulated wages once paid, every
legal claim has been honourably discharged.
If it suits his pocket, or the exigencies of
a glutted market, to discharge a thousand
workmen,* he does it without the slightest
compunction. If they starve or hang them-
selves, it is no concern of his ! " — this last
with an intensely bitter expression.
"Your case, Mr. Cuthbert, is certainly
stronger than I thought. It really looks as
if our landholders and manufactm'ers shared
all the pecuniary advantages of slavery, with-
out incurring any of its responsibilities. They
get their workmen for a price which barely
suffices for food and house-rent, not to speak
of clothes. And even this pittance is imme-
diately withdrawn the moment a workman
becomes sick, and therefore in more urgent
need than ever. As if disease were not
enough, his family must battle at the same
instant with starvation."
" To battle with either is difficult enough.
THE EXIGENCIES OF A GLUTTED MARKET. 29
How an ordiuary workman's honesty can
stand the terrible strain involved in battling
with both is more than I can imagine."
" It must certainly he of a much tougher
quality than the article which passes muster
for such in good society."
" The negro, whose woes the European
manufacturer feels so keenly, fares very dif-
ferently. The moment he is sick, the planter's
wife is all tenderness and anxiety to get him
well again. He has a doctor to attend him,
and all the extras that at such a time are
necessities. Europe is aghast," he continued
more warmly, " at the brutality of the slave-
holder, but sees only justice in a system
which allows its manufacturers to discharge
men by the hundred and the thousand when-
ever their self-interest seems to require it —
men to whose skill and intelligent labour
they are indebted for their huge fortunes."
" That is one of those queer cases, unfor-
tunately rather numerous in society as at
present constituted, in which justice to a
man's own interests seems to require that he
should resolutely close his eyes to the in-
terests of his neighbours."
30 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
"Yes! " responded Mat. " And keep them
tightly shut until the market takes an upward
turn. I said just now that manufacturers here
treat their workmen worse than if they were
slaves. But, as discharge virtually means a
sentence to starvation for an indefinite period,
it really amounts to treating intelhgent white
workmen worse than horses and mules, for
they are fed and comfortably housed — ivorh or
no worh.'^
*' It does seem atrocious that treatment,
which in the case of a brute which had served
you faithfully, would be undoubted cruelty,
should be only prudent self-interest, when
meted out to a brother man."
" Were I a workman in Germany or Eng-
land I should agitate for the inherent right of
the labourer to be at least put upon an equality,
so far as substantial comfort was concerned,
with his master's cattle and horses."
" Is the case really so bad as that ? " asked
Evangeline.
" The matter is not difficult to decide,"
replied Mat. " It only requires that we con-
trast the well-appointed comfortable stables,
in which cattle and horses are housed, with
ADVAJ\^TAG£ OF A HORSE OR A MULE. 31
the miserable clay-floored hovels iu the coun-
try, and the still more miserable and rickety
tenement houses in the filthy courts and
alleys of the city, in which intelligent white
labourers are obliged to live, places where they
have not even the decencies, much less the
conveniences, of life. Contrast the certainty
of the horse's meals and his substantial fare,
with the uncertainty of the workman's, and
its deficiencies, not only in quality, but even
in quantity."
'•You make out a terrible case against us.
It almost looks as if we had as big a beam in
our eye, as you have in yours."
" The determination to utterly ignore the
beam in our own eye has never received a
more striking illustration than in Europe, at
the present moment. They discourse in Eng-
land upon the woes of the poor black man,
until the tears run down their philanthropic
cheeks, but for the woes of the poor white
man, kept by low wages continually on the
very verge of starvation, they have no sym-
pathy whatever."
" You feel strongly upon this question, and
I can scarcely wonder at it. But this labour
T,2 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
system of ours, iu which you have contrived
to pick so many flaws, suits our upper and
middle classes. Tliey believe it to be the
most glorious condition of things the world
has ever seen — the very richest fruit, in fact,
of nineteenth century civilization."
"It is the same with us," said Mat; and
then in a tone of deep discouragement con-
tinued, " Men cannot apparently see any
wrong in a system which keeps their o^m
pockets comfortably filled. From that stand-
point, it is excellent, just, and worthy of being
perpetuated. And as for those who do not
see it exactly in this light, they are pesti-
ferous Eadicals and disturbers of society.
Eangs," he added slowly, "have never yet
begun an agitation in favour of Eepublics, and
never will."
" I think that here in Europe we are in a
transition state. In feudal times, dreadful as
in many respects they were, society was
united by the closest bonds of mutual interest.
The lives of lords and knights sometimes
depending upon the prowess of the men who
tilled their fields — they were not likely to
dismiss them when work was scarce, careless
THE MORAL EQUILIBRIUM. 2>i
whether they starved or not. Now, however,
that society depends for protection upon its
standing armies, the strong arms of the
labourer can be dispensed witli. His position
in society is therefore relatively much less
important than in what we are accustomed to
speak of as the dark ages. If you could only
suggest how this position is to be recovered,
and if, possible, improved ! "
"1 am afraid," said Mat sadly, " that we
have not sufficient wisdom to solve our own
labour problem, much less yours."
" The interests of those who constitute
Society, and who alone have tlie power of
making their grievances heard, are so bound
up with the permanence of existing arrange-
meuts, that it is impossible for tliem to see
their defects. We see," this with an arch
glance, " the intolerable wickedness of ijour
labour system, and have any number of
remedies heartily at your service. The only
way to restore the moral equilibrium, is for
you to confer upon us a like favour."
" If we could only contrive to extract that
little mote. Slavery, from tlie American orb of
vision, we would most willingly, con viucho
3
34 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
gusto^ as the Spaniards say, attack this mon-
strous beam in yours. Until that has been
accomplished you will have to excuse us."
" This social condition, which from your
stand point is so deplorable, seems to most of
us, as natural as the revolution of the earth
round the sun. That the millions should
work as long as they can see — subsist on
scantiest fare — and never be more than a few
days ahead of starvation, appears, to every
well-regulated mind, the normal condition of
a well-ordered society. That a thousand men
should toil, and that one man should scoop up
the entire profits, seems not only to our
thoughtful, but even to our religious people,
a condition of things ordained of God."
This last idea seemed more than Mat's
equanimity could stand. '^ If," said he,
'' those miserable Pharisees and Sadducees,
who constitute our good society, could only
have a taste of tliat condition of things, of
which they speak so glibly, as ordained of God,
from the under, instead of the upper side, how
speedily they would discover that it was an
atrocious shame, and not to be tolerated one
instant."
UTOPIA. 35
"The change of view would make a wonder-
ful difference " — then, after a little thoughtful
consideration — " No one will deny, that the
brain of every enterprise, is more important
than the feet, and entitled, therefore, to reap
a richer reward. The difficulty is as to what
constitutes a just division of the joint wealth
of the social body. For it really seems as if
the brain and upper parts were bent upon
drawins: the entire blood from the extremities
to themselves — heedless of the atrophy in the
one case, or the apoplexy in the other."
" That figure seems to bring out the truth
in clear light. A healthy condition of society
is doubtless one in which the life-blood circu-
lates freely to every part of the body — toes
included — in which each member has that
which it can assimilate — no more and no less.
That is Utopia. Meantime the condition of the
extremities of European society is deplorable
enough. Your slave, or, as you prefer to call
them, labour, markets are so glutted, that,
whilst a young calf, or colt, or even pig is a
thing of value to be brought up tenderly — a
young boy or girl is regarded as something
having a factitious, but no intrinsic value.
36 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
You ought to see the look of intense satis-
faction with which a Virginian planter regards
a plump little nigger of either sex."
"And so," said Evangeline, unable to re-
press her intense disgust, " do the chiefs of
the Cannibal Islands the little children they
are rearing for the pot."
" I beg your pardon for putting my idea in
so repellent a form."
" I scarcely know," said Evangeline, slightly
mollified, " which fills me with the greatest
horror — the brutal satisfaction with which, as
you sa}^, a Virginian planter regards his
human property, or the brutal indifierence
with which our constituted authorities regard
the little images of God, which roam our
streets in nakedness and dirt."
" In my humble opinion, the first essential of
society is a condition of things in which
human life, if not regarded as something
sacred and precious, is considered as at least
equally valuable with that of the. ^. lower
animals. I think, therefore, with all due
deference, that your cannibal ilhistration,
though telling as a retort, does not do our
planters justice. The slave-owners' standpoint
LIBERTY OR DEATH. 37
may be a coarse oue — but, even from his low —
if you will, base and sordid — standpoint, the
value of human life is secured. Compared
with a state of things in which meu, taken
prisoners on the battle-field, were offered up
in sacrifice to the gods ; or tliat still lower
depth of human degradation, when the cap-
tive was reserved for the horrible orgies of the
cannibal feast, slavery was felt by every
humane mind to be, and really was, a step
in the direction of an advanced civilization.
For people cannot, all at once, rise from the
depths of barbarism to the heights involved
in our Patrick Henry's exclamation, ' Give
me libert}' — or give me Death.' "
" I acknowledge that there is much more
in your ideas than I had at first supposed.
I see, indeed, that it is merely another way
of expressing an old truth. For, 1 now recol-
lect, that He, who 'spake as never man spake,'
thundered in the ears of the Pharisaic bigots
of His day, that the life of a man was of equal
value to that of an ox or an ass, to save either
of which they were prepared to overleap, if
necessary, even the most sacred of their
traditions,"
301042
38 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
'' Exactly my argument. I had no idea
tliat anti-Sabbatarian speech bad so wide a
reach. But, though in the form I put it the
idea was sound, it was clothed in so repellent
a guise, as to disgust rather than attract."
" And call forth my rather ill-natured
retort."
"A retort richly deserved. But you can
understand that it is next to impossible to
have been brought up, as I have been, in an
atmosphere of slavery, without having a little
of the dehcate bloom rubbed off my percep-
tions of human rights."
"What astonishes me is that these percep-
tions should b^ so delicate," turning upon
Mat, as she said so, two blue eyes of bewilder-
ing beauty and sweetness.
" If you could have known my mother " said
Mat, a sudden tenderness suffusing his dark
eyes, " you would have understood it."
"I believe," he continued, ''that slavery
has really added to the sacredness of human
life. From the lowest point of view, it has
put the life of a young negro upon an equality
of value with that of a young ox or ass — a
point of view, to which, despite the utterances,
LIFE UNDER SLA VERY SECURE.
39
eighteen centuries ago, of the great Eeformer
of Nazareth, I cannot see that the much
vaunted civilization of Europe has as yet
attained."
" It cei-tainly looks like it."
" What makes the contrast all the stronger
is, that here, in Europe, you regard property
of all kinds, down even to a worthless bundle
of sticks, with a semi-rehgious veneration,
approaching to awe, whilst — unless in aristo-
cratic settings — you regard human life — life
that in its highest moods allies itself to the
Infinite — as something absolutely valueless."
" I can think of no reason why it should be
so," said Evangeline, a little bitterly, '' except
that it is not, as with vou, saleahle.""
CHAPTEE III.
THE COW-HIDE A MISTAKE.
"It seems to me that people are not enough aware of the
monstrous state of society, absolutely without a parallel in the
history of the world — with a population poor, miserable, and
degraded in body and mind — as much as if they were slaves,
and yet called freemen." — Dr. Arnold.
" I feel the state of public affairs so deeply that I cannot
bear, either to read, or hear, or speak, or write about them.
Only I would recommend them to God's care and deliverance,
if the judgment is not now as surely fixed as that of Babylon."
—Ibid.
" It seems necessary to look through foreign
spectacles, if one would learn the real condi-
tion of the country. I have to thank you, Mr.
Cuthbert, for placing several things, the other
evening, in quite a new light."
" Until the life of a white child shall be at
the least as valuable as that of a young colt
or a plantation negro, Europe, I think, has
studied the first lesson in civilization to very
little purpose."
THE COW-HIDE A MISTAKE. 41
" That, certaiuly, is not asking too much of
us," conceded Evaugeline.
"From the standpoint of pohtical economy
I am convinced that slavery is a huge mistake,
and that the European wages system is the
best. From the moral standpoint it would
take a toss up to decide. Employers here are
as firmly convinced that the masses were
created for their especial benefit, as the
Southerners that the negroes were created
for theirs. They differ slightly in their
methods, that is all. To effect his purposes
the slave-holder resorts to pliysical force.
He believes in the cow-hide. Your shrewder
employer has resort to a method, which, while
making less outcry, is at the same time much
more effective. He believes in starvation ! "
" I am not sure that I comprehend. I
acknowledge the terrible j^er contra account
you make out, but I think you do not suffi-
ciently realise how priceless, after all, is his
inherited freedom to the European labourer."
" Grauted," replied Mat, " that the Euro-
pean labourer is free. How far does tliis
vaunted freedom extend ? He finds himself
existing — I will not say living — in the midst of
42 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
a gorgeous civilization, to none of the delights
of which he has the slightest natural right.
He finds himself without even its barest
necessities! As to its delights" — this with
a mocking emphasis — "they are a heaven
entii^ely out of his reach."
" Virtually," conceded Evangeline mourn-
fully, "lie finds himself outside the pale of
civilization, if born outside an exceedingly
limited circle."
" Worse than that. He finds himself not
only outside the pale of civilization — but, if
there is such a thing, outside the pale of
barbarism as well."
"I do not see," said Evangeline, with a
puzzled expression, " how it is possible for
him to be outside the pale of both."
" Were he born within the pale of barbarism
— say within the wilds of Africa, or in the
savage islands of the Southern seas, his con-
dition would be infinitely better. For he is
not even free, in the limited sense, in which
the savage of the wilderness is free — free to
develope himself physically to the highest
point, — free to fish, shoot, or hunt as the in-
clination seizes him, free to gather the fruits
FREE TO STARVE. 43
that the earth offers to him spontaneously, or
to raise those in the production of which she
requires his labour and co-operation. He is
only free in the exceedingly narrow sense that
the civilizee is free — that is — free to starve.
Should he attempt to exercise the slightest
natural right, should he undertake, like his
savage brother, to lisli, shoot, or hunt, he will
speedily lind himself within the four walls of
a prison ! "
" You certainly contrive to j^lace our Euro-
pean civilization in a very unflattering light.
According to you, it has taken from the great
majority all the advantages of a savage state,
and failed, as yet, to confer upon them any of
the undoubted advantages of a civilized one.
You are willing only to allow the European
the possession of a freedom which fails him
the very instant he attempts to make the
slightest use of it."
" I am wdlling enough," rejilied Mat, em-
phasising the word, *' were it only consistent
with a state of sanity, to come to any other
conclusion."
Then, after a few moments, continued —
" Looked at closely, this freedom of yours
44 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
shrinks into very narrow dimensions. The
European labourer, awakening to a conscious-
ness of his surroundings, finds himself in a
world where he is free, but where his natural
rights — those rights which alone make free-
dom worthy of the name — are absolutely nil I
He finds himself with a mouth clamorous
to be filled, but discovers, to his disgust, that
the sole recognised source of the good things
that fill it — the land — has, unfortunately for
him, been divided up some centuries before
his arrival, and is as absolutely closed to him
as if he were a natural denizen of the sea or
air, and had no rights in the laud what-
ever."
" The advantages of being a denizen of sea
or air are evidently greater than I had ima-
gined. The new comers are in no way em-
barrassed by finding themselves shut out from
the enjoyment of the good things in their
respective spheres, by the existence of vested
rights of a strictly exclusive character. The
monsters of the deep are, I have no doubt,
bad enough, but they have not yet been able
to see their way to the establishment of
monopolies."
LORDS OF CREATION. 45
"And, unfortunately," replied Mat, laugh-
ing heartily, "our monsters have."
" It does seem an anomalous state of things,
and somewhat puzzling. It does not har-
monize with the evident designs of nature,
however much it may chime in with the de-
ductions of Political Economy, that tlie Lord
of Creation should fiud himself with no
natural rights to the creation whatever."
" There are Lords of Creation, and Lords of
Creation," said Mat, oracularly. " The one
finds that the arrangements of this lower
world have for some centuries been conducted
^^dth an ex23ress view to his expected arrival.
The other finds that with the exception of
jails, whipping posts, pillories, and little grue-
some attentions of that character, no parti-
cular pains have been taken with a view to
his reception. European freedom simply
amounts to this. That the labourer is free
to choose the form and character of his
slavery. This done, he becomes a volunteer
slave during his entire waking moments, in
return for the miserable boon of such a suffi-
ciency of the coarsest food, as will save him
from absolute starvation."
46 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
" I think that picture shghtly overdrawn,
but it is a httle difficult for me to say exactly
where. If obliged to specify, I should object,
I think, to the phrase — ' his entire waking
moments.' "
" I will willingly allow you to modify that
phrase, so as to make it in entire accordance
with the facts, which, heaven knows, are
melancholy enough, without the aid of ex-
aggeration. I am unable, however, to recog-
nise any special advantages that your free
men have over our slaves, in the matter of
either hours or labour."
" I suppose that there must be some, but
I confess that for the moment they have
escaped me."
" Not at all surprising," said Mat, smiling.
' ' They are of a decidedly fugitive character —
members, doubtless, of that
" Borealis race,
Which flit, ere you can point their place."
"As an actual fact," he continued, " 3^our
free men work harder and accomplish more
than our slaves, another proof that starvation
is a much more effective instrument of coer-
cion than the cow-hide."
EM A NCIPA TION AS IN BA RBADOES. 47
" Or, as we put it," suggested Evangeline,
*' another proof of the advantages of free over
slave labour."
'' I will willingly," replied Mat, " allow you
any advantage that comes from the admission
that your free men have to work harder than
our slaves ! But, personally, it is an advan-
tage with which, as a free man, I would
gladly dispense."
" How very magnanimous ! " exclaimed
Evangeline.
" Not magnanimous," replied Mat. "Only
fair. In Germany and England," he con-
tinued, " you have upon a large scale, what
one sees in Barbadoes, for instance, upon a
smaller one. The slaves there were emanci-
pated. There was a great ilourish of trum-
pets. Liberty was proclaimed throughout
the island. But the island was small — the
land all in possession of, or controlled by, the
Planting interest. The white men were few.
But they had entire control of the Legislature,
as well as of the land, and were virtually a
unit. The negro population was large, but,
having no cohesive power, their numbers, in-
stead of proving a source of strength, were
48 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
under the skilful manipulation of their old
masters, adroitly turned against them. Crowds
seeJcing ivorlc enable masters to fix ivages loiv.
They simply said to the negroes, ' Work at the
wages we choose to give, or starve ! ' This
weapon was fully as effective as the cow-hide.
The masters retained that power, which, in
Jamaica, where there was room to squat,
dropped from their hands."
" That seems like taking advantage of their
necessities, to rob them of the wages to which
they were justly entitled."
" Current morality does not call it by such
an ugly name. The planters would reply
that, as business men, they simply availed
themselves of the advantages of an entrenched
position, and dictated terms."
"But," replied Evangeline, "it was dic-
tating terms at the mouth of the Pistol — Star-
vation. And, between compelling one to give
his labour for less than it is justly worth and
robbery, the dividing line is extremely narrow.
These Barbadoes planters seem to have
picked the Oyster — Freedom — very carefully,
and thrown to the poor negroes the shell."
" If the white labourers of Europe have
NOT MUCH OF THE OYSTER LEFT. 49
anytliing more than that — if any of the
Oyster has been left for them to regale them-
selves with — I must say, I have been unable
to discover it. But the Barbadoes planters
would use a very different figure. They
would say, that, by grasping the Nettle —
Emancipation — boldly, they had succeeded in
plucking out its sting. It was an admirable
arrangement for them. The British Govern-
ment allowed them over eight millions of
dollars, by way of compensation for the loss
of rights, which, as the event proved, they
still retained — the right of compelling a
certain amount of labour, for less than it was
intrinsically worth, being the essence of their
whole claim ! As the whole island is only
one hundred thousand acres in extent, and
only some sixty to seventy thousand acres are
under cultivation, this was cfertaiuly a magni-
ficent working capital. The negroes, for the
alleged loss of whom the eight millions were
paid, were as much under their control as
before. And they were relieved at once of
the care of the sick, the aged, and the help-
less — all clear gaiu. The wages question
presented no difiiculty. For the negro popu-
4
50 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
lation being dense, the competition in the
labour market was as keen as the planters
could desire. The wages were fixed agree-
ably to the august law of supply and demand.
Their control of the land made them masters
of the situation."
" That seems to prove that lolien all the
land is in possession of a feiv^ the many must
either ivork at the loages they choose to give,
or starve. To talk of supply and demand in
such a case is a mockery."
"To question the law of supply and
demand, Miss Lessing, is simply profanity.
That law is the fetish worshipped by the capi-
talist, and the well-to-do ! It is the shield
behind which they screen their enormous
greed, and under cover of which they manage
to rob the poor, without losing their position
in society, like ordinary thieves. It is an
admirable doctrine for capitalists and the
favoured few, who, either of themselves, or
through the land-grabbing propensities of
their ancestors, have undisputed possession
of the soil. Where people are equally inde-
pendent, or at least in no danger of starvation,
it may regulate matters fairly enough. But
THE FETISH OF SUPPLY AXD DEMAND. 51
in such a case as Barbadoes, it is, as you say,
nothing but a mockery."
" To have made the gift of freedom to the
Barbadoes negro really valuable, the British
Government — the power responsible for rob-
bing him of his labour up till that time — should
have allotted each family as much ground as,
properly cultivated, would have kept them
from actual starvation. That would have
made the negro really, as well as nominally,
free. He could then have stood out against
injustice, and insisted on his right to fair
wages."
" In compensating the slave-holder, instead
of his victim, you think tliat the British
Government made a slight mistake ? "
" I think it would be difficult to find a
queerer burlesque of the Parable of the Good
Samaritan, than that furnished b}^ the pro-
ceedings of the British Government. Punch,
of course, did not see it, but that is not
wonderful."
" Not at all," agreed Mat.
"The British Government," continued
Evangeline, " finds a poor black man that has
fallen among thieves ; thieves of the most
52 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
atrocious and persistent character ; thieves
who have robbed him of his just wages, not
for one day only, but for days in long and
unbroken succession, days running to weeks,
and months, and weary years. Worse still —
these persistent robberies have been effected
with violence, with the aid of cruel floggings,
the horrors of which have echoed all round
the civilized world.
" Here was an opportunity of emulating
the Good Samaritan, of binding up the poor
black man's wounds, and pouring in oil and
wine — an opportunity of using its powerful
influence to enforce restitution, and make
such arrangements as would ensure his pro-
tection and welfare in the future.
"Instead of which, with a strange perver-
sity and moral blindness, utterly incomprehen-
sible, it darts one short contemptuous glance
at the wayside— and, will it be beheved,
proceeds to parley with the thieves — devoting
its imperial powers to soothing their wounded
feelings, forsooth, and deprecating their wrath.
They are entirely wrong, it hastens to ex-
plain, both as to its intentions and motives.
It is extremely sorry to have intruded at such
7'HE B.G. PLAYS THE GOOD SAMARITAN, -^i
an inopportune moment. Nothing, it beseeches
them to beUeve, but the sternest necessities
of State could have forced it to interfere with
the legitimate exercise of an honourable pro-
fession. But it really has no intention of
hinting at the desirability of restitution.
That, at least, is a mistake. There was, tliere-
fore, no necessity for scuttliog off so rapidly.
It has been altogether a w^rong impression on
their part, — a little natural, perhaps, under the
circumstances, but, nevertheless, a mistake.
The truth is, its sympathies are entirely with
its friends — the — the — the gentlemen with
whose lucrative business arrangements the
necessities of State have compelled it to
interfere. Far from thinking they should »be
compelled to make restitution, theB.G., look-
ing at the matter from the loftiest imperial
and moral standpoints, has arrived at the
profound conclusion that they are entitled
to a handsome compensation for the whole-
some discipline, — the civilizing and evangelis-
tic influences to which they have subjected
the black man in the past — and for their
magnanimous iindertaking not to take the
least advantage of him in the future. In
HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
sterling proofs of which, as well as substantial
tokens of its profound sympathy and distin-
guished consideration, the E.G. begs their
acceptance of eight millions of dollars — an
unexpected conclusion to the farce of the
Grood Samaritan — which is received by the
thieves with a very broad, but very natural,
grin."
" Eather hard upon my good friends, the
slave-holders," said Mat, unable to keep from
laughing at the appositeness of the illustra-
tion.
" I cited Barbadoes," he continued, " as an
illustration that they who hold the land in
any country, where the supply of it is hmited
an\i the population dense, are in a position to
dictate terms to the thousands and millions,
who must either work for such wages as they
choose to give, or starve."
" Stated thus, you seem to lay down an
axiomatic truth, and yet I hesitate to make
the acknowledgment, dimly perceiving that,
once granted, such an admission carries with
it a long train of consequences that cannot
be contemplated without politico-economic
horror. '
"THEY TOUCH OUR COUNTRVr ETC.
" I suppose," said Mat smiling, " I must
conteut m3'self with that half-hearted ackuow-
ledgment of the truth of my premises ; " cou-
tiuuing, " For Barbadoes, let us uow substi-
tute Germauj^ or, better still, Great Britain,
also an islaud. Britain boasts that she is
the very lionie of Liberty. Her poet proudly
sings : —
They touch our country, and their shackles fall :
as if, in vision, he saw an oppressed world
flocking to her shores !"
" A proud boast, but, I think, nobly earned.
For do we not see refugees flocking to her
shores from all quarters — Italy, Austria,
Russia, France ? "
" Those that flee to her, as if she were a
City of Refuge, are as nothing to the thou-
sands that flee from her, as if sire were the
very City of Destruction."
"What a bitter speech. You look at
England, as I have often told you, through
Yankee spectacles."
" Possibly I do, but I will willingly be
corrected, if I err, either in my facts, or
inferences. I acknowledge, England has
56 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
done a great deal for Liberty. I see also,
that for her upper, and a large portion of her
middle classes, she is a most delightful
country to live in. But I cannot help seeing
that, for this luxury and happiness, her lower
classes have to pay a fearful price, in misery
and degradation."
" I think her upper classes would repudiate
the connection."
" I have no doubt they would."
" They would say, doubtless, that the
misery of the lower classes was entirely due
to their vices, and that the splendid luxury
in which they live was a reward conferred
upon them by a beneficent Providence, for
their conspicuous virtue. Altogether ignoring
the fact, that had their ancestors, in some
instances at least, not been conspicuous for
the want of it, many of them might now be
earning their bread, like honester folks."
" I have often wondered," said Evangeline,
after some little interval, " why the French
aristocracy, above all others in Europe, w^ere
singled out, for the tremendous outpouring of
wrath visited upon them in the last century."
" The upper classes there," replied Mat,
NOT WORMS BUT HUMAN TORPEDOES. s7
" learned at an awful cost that the descen-
dants of those who have profited hy long
centuries of cruel wrong and oppression, may
he suddenly called upon, in their own persons,
and those of their families, to settle to the
uttermost farthing the long- score that Nemesis
has been silently but surely rolling up against
them."
" But why should Nemesis have visited the
upper classes of France rather than the upper
classes of England or Germany ? "
"The elite of France," rephed Mat, ''forgot
that even ' worms will turn,' and, to their
irrepressible horror, awoke to the awful C(m-
viction, that the worms, upon which they
had been insolently treading, were in reality
' Human Torpedoes.'
" As long," — continued Mat, walking up and
down, as he was in the habit of doing, when
swayed by intense emotion — " As long as the
outraged people that ministered to their
luxury and happiness were merely half-
starved, they groaned but submitted to their
fate, as to something inevitable as the law of
gravitation. Long continued impunity, how-
ever, had made the aristocracy reckless.
58 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
What had the chivahy of France to fear
from a clodhopping peasantry ? The fast
young men wanted to go still faster ! To
provide the means it was necessary to 'grind'
still farther ' the faces of the poor, already
sharpened by the pangs of hunger, to the
point of savagery.' And so, from the normal
condition of half-starvation, it finally got
down to three-quarters, and even seven-
eighths- starvation, at which point the pressure
upon the engine became too great, and society
blew up like a Mississippi steamer."
CHAPTER IV.
QUESTIONS — TPIAT HAVE AN UGLY HABIT OF
SETTLING THEMSELVES.
" Unquestionably our aristrocratic manners and habits have
made us, and the poor, two distinct and unsympathiziug bodies.
This is the plague spot, to my mind, in our whole state of
society, which must be removed, or the whole must perish." —
Dr. Arnold.
"The prophets, in a similar state of societj' in Judiea, did
not preach subordination only or chiefly — they denounced op-
pression and amassing overgrown properties, and grinding the
labourers to the smallest possible pittance, and they denounced
the Jewish higli church party for countenancing all their iniqui-
ties and prophesying smooth tilings to please the ari3t(jcracy.
The truth is, we are living amongst a population whom we treat
with all the haughtiness and indifference that we could treat
slaves." — Ibiil.
" That striking comparisoD," Mr. Cutlibert,
''in which you hkened the outburst of the
French Revokitioii to the blowing up of a
Mississippi steamer, has hauuted me for the
whole week ! But why, with such a couditiou
of things as they have in England, has there
been no similar blow up there ? "
"The English aristocracy," replied Mat,
6o HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
" are much shrewder than the French. They
do not go quite to the point of killing the geese
that lay their golden eggs. They take great
credit to themselves for their humanity in
sparing their lives, and their extreme modera-
tion in contenting themselves with the eggs
and the entire feathers."
" The wonder is that geese capable of lay-
ing golden eggs would submit to such out-
rageous treatment."
" They cackle and protest very loudly at
times, but so long as they confine themselves
to cackling, the plucking process is not likely
to be moderated. So long as there is a
feather left, nothing short of a strictly belli-
gerent attitude will enable them to keep it."
" There were indications recently of just
such an attitude."
' " A mere blowing off of steam, after which
the Ship of State proceeded as usual. The
English ruling classes are magnificent en-
gineers, who understand their business and
watch the engine closely. They have got- the
British labourer down to half- starvation point
— nine shillings a week. But they have taken
measures never to exceed this. Whenever
WILL THE BR in Sir SAFETY COXTIXUE ? 6i
the pressure upon the engine indicates that
this point is likely to he exceeded, the safety
valve of the Poor House immediately opens,
and continues open, until the point of danger
has been safely passed."
"That safety valve has certainly worked
admirably, during many a dangerous crisis,
but it appears to me that there are s5^miitoms
of late that it begins to get out of order."
*' I can foresee a point at which it will
altogether cease to act. During this genera-
tion of stolid, uneducated, and, to a certain
extent, therefore, stupid British peasantr}^, it
will doubtless continue to do its work. But
should they, who wish to make education uni-
versal, succeed, there will, year by year, be
a greater horror of entering that House, by
means of which philanthropic England con-
trives to extract from thousands of her sons,
every vestige of that energy, and enterprise,
and self-respect which constitute their man-
hood — contrives, out of Englishmen, to manu-
facture certain degraded tilings she terms
* paupers.' As the English workmen become
educated and, consequently, more sensitive,
the loathing attached to the term pauper will
62 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
increase more and more until an inevitable
time arrives, when they will die, rather than
enter its walls. When tJiis point is reached,
society in England must be remodelled in the
interests of justice, or this safety valve having
ceased to act, it ivill hloiu up, as did that in
France.''
"A prediction which, T trust, may not be
realised. England has always had the luck
of finding statesmen equal to the solution of
her knottiest problems."
" She has sometimes steered dangerously
near to the sunken rocks, upon which other
goodly vessels have been wrecked. Had it
not been for that phenomenal growth of
manufactures, which has postponed the evil
day, the English labour problem, with the
entire land in the possession of a few thousand
elder sons, would long ago have reached a
crisis. As it is, I consider that crisis merely
postponed, not averted. The English labourer
has yet to learn that which events have
taught the negro in Barbadoes, that any free-
dom ivhich is not rooted in the soil, is merely
a modified form of slavery. '^
" But how," asked Evangeline, " is the
CLAIMS OF GROUSE AND BLACKCOCK. 63
difficulty to be remedied, where the soil is
limited and the population immense."
'^ Oh," replied Mat, in a tone of biting
irony, '* nothing more easy. Once rid our-
selves of the antiquated notion that the land
in any country may possibly have been
intended to furnish food and building sites for
its people, and the matter presents no diffi-
culties whatever. The question then resolves
itself into how much you will devote to Grouse
and Blackcock — how much to Pheasants and
Partridges — how much to Eabbits and Hares —
how much to Deer Parks — and how much to
Pleasure Grounds."
'* Such conditions are almost too awful for
irony. People willing to labour — forced to
leave the lands for which their forefathers
have given their lives — and crowded into the
alleys and slums — jn order that there may be
more room for Grouse and Blackcock — for
Deer Forests and Pleasure Grounds. It is piti-
ful — it is pitiful. The love of the picturesque
gone mad."
In a few moments she continued — " Bat
how, in England for instance, where the
population runs up into the millions, and the
64 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
soil itself is so very limited, can such a con-
dition of things be remedied ? "
"In England," replied Mat," a few noble
families have solved the difficulty — by dividing
its millions of acres into a few great estates,
and leaving the millions to shift for themselves
— a solution exceedingly satisfactor}^ to them,
and the wisdom and justice of which they
consider it the grossest profanity to question."
" It seems as if once a nation's soil has been
divided, no matter how unjustly, no possible
good can come of reopening the question —
that only trouble and disorder can result from
any attempt to review a decision come to,
even two generations since, not to say after
the lapse of centuries."
"That which holds good of isolated cases
of injustice in the apportionment of a nation's
soil, because required in the general interest
of the entire owners — becomes, for the same
reason, a monstrous injustice when applied —
not to isolated cases — not to individual fields
or estates — but to the entire soil of the
country. Whether such a disposition of a
nation's lands should be reviewed, and when,
is a question which those in possession must
THE ROOTS OF CIVILIZATION. 65
settle for themselves. It will be unwise, 1io\t-
ever, should tliey'overlook the important fact
that, when postponed too long, such questions
have an ugly habit of settling themselves ; and
that, not always in a sense entirely satis-
factory to vested rights."
" That may be ; but we must not forget
that vested rights, dating from feudal times,
are, nevertheless, the roots of our present civi-
lization, and, therefore, dangerous to meddle
with. It is, doubtless, exceedingly unfortunate
that the entire soil of a country should be in
the possession of a few thousand elder sons ;
but it is difficult to see how, without per-
petrating great injustice, it can be remedied."
"You surely do not think that any one
generation can have a right to make such a
disposition of this little Planet, of which we
are merely the tenants for a day, as shall
absolutely exclude the rights of all coming
generations ; a few elder sons alone ex-
cepted."
'' That seems to savour a little of presump-
tion. We may possibly be entitled to sign
away our own right and title to the soil upon
which we find ourselves ; but, being at the
5
66 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
utmost, merely as you say, life tenants, it
seems like the grossest impertiuence to
arrogate to ourselves the power of signing
away the right, title, and interest of all the
generations that shall come after us.''
"And if," continued Mat, "no one genera-
tion can justly sign away the right, title, and
interest in the soil of the generation which is
to succeed it, what shall we say, when such a
right has never been signed away, but simply
usurped by force and fraud ? "
" There ! I seem to lose standing ground,
and to find all the difiiculties of the question
reopened."
" I grant you the difficulties and exceeding
complexity of the subject. I merely contend
that these difiiculties cannot be said to have
received anything like a satisfactory solution,
by the present arrangement — an arrangement
under which the nation has permitted a few
families to clutch the entire soil of Eu gland,
and, taking unjust advantage of their position
as legislators, to pass laws intended to keep
that soil in their grip until the Day of Judg-
ment. That, however, is no concern of mine,
though, possibly, that day of judgment may
THE UPPER AND NETHER MHLSTONES. 67
arrive a little sooner than they think, and in
a form they little expect."
" This alone seems clear, that whilst the
soil of England is in possession of a few
thousands, the millions, as in Barhadoes, will
be vii'tually at their mercy."
" It looks as if it would require a miracle to
prevent it ! "
" Whilst this condition remains, it appears
to me that, between the manufacturer on the
one hand, and the landowner on the other,
the Enghsh labourer will be ground as between
the upper and nether millstones."
" But why," asked Evauo^eline, '' should you
make the landowner responsible for the low
wages given the labourer ? Does not the
farmer come between them, so that, except
upon occasions of State, they seldom even come
in contact — my Lord, living in an elevated
heaven, with which there is no communication
fi'om the regions below ? "
"• That is, to my mind, the worst feature of
the whole case. The misery and destitution,
that people do not immediately see, affect
them but little. By placing the farmers
between themselves and the labourers, the
68 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
owners of great estates avoid the disagreeable
incidentals, necessitated by any process of
compelling work for starvation wages, and
flatter themselves that they thus escape res-
ponsibility. ' '
" This ' grinding of the faces of the poor '
by deputy," continued Mat, waxing warm,
"in order to obtain the luxuries of existence,
or minister to an insane thirst for accumula-
tion, arouses my indignation more than direct
acts of oppression, committed in the struggle
for existence, and in the endeavour to obtain
its absolute necessities."
" I can see this grinding process working
very clearly in the case of your cotton planters ;
but are you quite sure that the connection
between the luxuries of the English landlords
and the extreme poverty of the agricultural
labou3:ers is quite as close."
" I do not see how^ it could well be closer,"
replied Mat. " Upon our Southern planta-
tions, you find a planter, two or three over-
seers, and a few hundred slaves. The planter
avoids the disagreeable, but, as he thinks,
necessary dut}^ of cow-hiding his negroes, by
devolving it upon an overseer. But you
IS IT CAUSE AND EFFECT? 69
surely would not argue that lie thus escapes
responsibility ? "
" No ! a thousand times, no ! Kather
would I argue that this hrutalisation of
another — this forcing another to do that from
which his own feelings, none too delicate,
lead him to shrink in disgust — were an aggra-
vation of a revolting offence, committed
against our common humanity."
" Exactly what I think myself. Now apply
the same rule to circumstances slightly, not
essentially, different. Upon English estates
I find a lord, some score or so of farmers, and
hundreds of labourers. I find the lord living
in extravagant luxury, the farmer in moderate
comfort, whilst the labourers, by hardest toil,
can scarcely manage to keep soul and boJy
together. Am I wrong in tracing, in both
cases, this poverty to this luxury, and con-
cluding the connection to be that of cause and
effect ? "
" The connection certainly seems very close.
How it can be right, that they who do no-
thing should receive all, and they who do all
slioidd receive next to nothing, I confess I
have not sufficient imagination to discover 1 "
70 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
" It has puzzled me, too. But I had the
extreme good fortune to have my darkness
enlightened the other day, and that by no less
authoritative a personage than a literary lord."
"It is a conundrum, of which I long to
hear the solution."
'* This lord, evidently speaking for his class,
claimed that he had as much right to be paid
for his land, as the baker for his bread."
'* As much right ! I should think so ! In
classifying his sei^vices along with those of the
baker, he rated them much too modestly!
For, it must be acknowledged that the ability
to make land argues a much higher order of
power than to make bread, besides opening
up altogether new and brilliant possibilities
for the future of the ' tight little island ! '
But, if he didn't do this, and I have heard the
credit of the work ascribed to a very different
source, the argument of the noble lord appears
to be a ' non sequitur.^ "
" The English people must have a different
version of the Scriptures from that in use
amongst us. We read, ' The earth is the
Lord's, and the fulness thereof.' The Eng-
lish reading evidently gives the indefinite
THE LORD AND THE BAKER. ^\
article, or else alters tli(3 position of the apos-
trophe," — a critical opinion delivered by com-
mentator Mat, with a very grave face, but a
very perceptible smile in his eyes.
" The fact that the English labourer should,
under such circumstances, keep up the struggle,
shows of what splendid material he is made.
Taking your facts as correct, I cannot wonder
at your considering the English landholders
equally culpable with the landholders of your
Southern States."
" Not only equally culpable, but more so.
Our Southern slavery has been a stepping-
stone, by which the negro has ascended in
the scale of civilisation. Between slavery —
plus the chance of human sacrifice, as prac-
tised at Dahomey, or plus the chance of being
eaten, as in the interior of Africa — and slavery
as it is in Virginia ; there is much that for
the negro is clear gain. But to what bigher
condition, to what except pauperism has
British slavery — a slavery slightly modified,
so as to keep the promise of liberty to the
ear, but break it to the heart — proved the
stepping-stone V "
" Another conundrum," said Evangeline ;
72 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
then after a slight pause — " The consideration
that, whilst all other classes have heen so un-
mistakably rising, this lowest class has either
remained stationary, or sunk still lower, is
certainly an alarming one. But that English
statesmen should look on with stupid, I had
almost said brutal, indifference, satisfied that
this is the best realisable condition of things,
the ' ne plus ultra ' of the most advanced
civilization, in the best and freest country
under heaven, is to me, the most appalling
fact of alL"
"The condition of things," said Mat, "in
which, by some law as inevitable, apparently,
as the law of gravitation, the entire land of a
country becomes the possession of a privileged
few — is no new one. What is new is that no
iudgment has overtaken a country in which
the divorce between the land and the people is
as complete as we now see in Engla.nd. The
old prophet, who denounced a woe upon those
who ' added house to house and field to field,'
must have seen to the very roots of society.
For that there is an immediate connection
between huge estates and a degraded people
I am firmly convinced. In the Northern
A STALl^f^ART YEOMANRY. 73
States our farms are small, the farmers very
generally ploughing their own fields. The
result is a stalwart and intelligent yeomanry,
of whom any nation might he proud — and —
liberty. In the South we have huge estates,
splendid luxury — and — slavery. In the North
we have as yet no extremes of society, all but
a small fraction living in simple comfort. In
the South we have at one extreme of society
a planter — at the other, a slave. In England,
also, they have huge estates. And, like cause
and effect, you see at one extreme of society
a lord — at the other, a pauper."
" As you put it, the connection seems
perilously close ; but that the peer should
necessarily involve the pauper is a startling
hypothesis which I am scarcely prepared to
admit."
" Though you are quite open-eyed to the
fact that the hereditary woes of the slave are
involved in the hereditary splendours of tlie
planter. ' '
"As to that I have no doubts whatever."
" The links in the chain of causes may not
in appearance be so closely welded in tlie
one case as in the other ; but that is the sole
74 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
difference. If this adding of house to house
and field to field were merely a mild species
of insanitj^ — say like the craze for the accu-
mulation of old china, — and could he pursued
with as little detriment to the neighbour,
it were, if not quite a laudable enterprise,
at any rate outside the range of prophetic
denunciation. Set a man down in the midst
of our illimitable prairies, and he might safely
be left to indulge the passion at his own
sweet will ; but unfortunately the passion
seems to rage just in the exact proportion
in which it cannot be indulged without
the direst results to society generally. In
England, for instance, it is impossible to add
house to house and field to field without of
necessity leaving certain others — say with
the faculty for accumulation less perfectly
developed — without houses and without fields;
a condition of society which can scarcely be
considered perfectly satisfactory to the latter."
"Though," suggested Evangeline, "it may
seem to the politico-economist flat blasphemy
to question it."
" Once questioned, it will be a ghost
difficult to lay. The resources of intellects
THE EMPTY COMB. 75
trained in the subtle dialectics of Oxford or
Cambridge may flash before tlie questioners
in bewildering splendour, but they will fail
utterly in the endeavour to demonstrate tlie
proposition that, seen dispassionately and
in the clear light of truth, that is a strictly
equitable division of tlie social wealth which
reserves the entire honey for the delectation
of the drones — and — when their lordships have
leisurely completed the w^ork of extraction —
flings tlie empty comb to the luorking bees.''
'* I can quite see that in such an effort,
even the most brilliant intellects are likely
to be somewhat strained."
"Not only strained," said Mat, "but ex-
ceeding likely to snap — snap like the slender
cords which bind such an unnatural society
together."
" It ought not," said Evangeline, *' to require
a very keen perception to see that, in the
last resort, the strength of a society is the
strength of its basis, no more and no less, and
that that basis is necessarily its loivest class."
" A doctrine difficult to dispute, but not
likely to be relished by those in possession
of the fields. For, wdien these are all in
76 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
possession of the few and strictly entailed,
tlie feiv inevitahhj give laws to tlie inany —
and, sooner or later, you will find at one
extremity of the social scale that most
perfect fruit of an advanced Christian civiliza-
tion — He7'editari/ Peers; and at the other
extremity that most lamentable fruit — Here-
ditary Paupers.^^
" The actual fields, of which the good old
prophet spoke, are not worth much in the
' Real Estate ' market of to-day," said Evan-
geline, a picture of the awful desolation of
Palestine rising suddenly before her ima-
gination.
" No I " said Mat, with energy, " the curses
that fell upon them, from the lips of an out-
raged poor, have not yet been lifted ! Though
I can fancy how these ancient land-grabbers,
as they stretched themselves upon their luxu-
rious couches, or lay on their beds of ivory,
discussing languidly the politics of the day,
and quaffing in bowls the delicious wines of
Palestine, laughed the old prophet's predic-
tions to scorn ; I can imagine the wild exul-
tation when, by special favour of some wicked
king, or through influence with his unworthy
THE CURSES OF THE POOR. 77
favourites, they succeeded in adding another,
and still another, to their overgrown estates.
''And for a while it looked as if this adding
of house to house and field to field, were the
most legitimate of all earthly aspirations —
the one great ohject of life to he aimed at and
struggled for by every man of spirit — every
man filled with the laudable ambition to found
a family. Occasionally, indeed, some eccen-
tric Judaean noble — visited with an uneasy
sense of compunction, that perhaps this
patent system for founding great families at
the expense of the little ones, however agree-
able to the then prevalent theories of political
economy, might not be so entirely in harmony
with the will of heaven — would urge attention
to the denunciations of the Prophet ; only,
however, to find himself hooted at, and voted
a mere theorist — a dreamer interested in
things altogetlier outside the region of prac-
tical pontics. And the existing social arrange-
ments continued exactly as they had been
for centuries. Tlie fortunate possessors of the
great estates died in peace, leaving to their
descendants the lands tliey had proudly called
by their ow^n names ; died, in the confident
78 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
belief that tlie then condition of society would
end only with the world itself.
'' And for generations the land continued
to rise in value ; rose in value to an extent of
which its original possessors, keen and shrewd
as they were, never dreamed. For the popu-
lation doubled, and quadrupled, and the value
of the land increased in a more than equal ratio
— a continually increasing population, con-
tinually decreasing the cost of cultivation, and
swelling, to more than princely proportions, the
margin of profit in Judsean fields. The cost
of cultivation became, in fact, merely nomi-
nal ; the price of labour steadily becoming less
and less, until a labourer could be bought
for the price of a pair of shoes ; a state of
things brought about by the high price of
bread, and the natural working of the great
law of Supply and Demand — a state of things,
from the merely economic standpoint of the
Judaean landlord, positively delectable.
" But just about this time it began to be
whispered, in the inner circles of Assyrian
diplomacy, that the stalwart yeomanry, who
had long defended these fertile fields, and
whose fierce prowess had so often driven back
THE COLOSSUS OF THE XORTH. 79
the might of the invading foe, were at length
extinct ; and that this renowned kingdom,
overflowing with riches, though full of fenced
cities, horses, chariots, and all the newest
and most ingenious of warlike engines, was,
nevertheless, a kingdom — the glittering apex
of which rested on a liugQ substratum of
paupers and labourers, between whom, and
the soil they tilled, the last thread of con-
nection had been ruthlessly severed.
'* It was the coveted opportunity for which
they had long waited. That terrible cavahy,
which we seem still to see on their bas-reliefs,
were speedily in motion. The hour so long
foreseen __by prophetic eyes had at length
arrived. The small standing army of Judaea
was no match for the forces brought into tbe
field by the Colossus ot the North. A sliort
and sharp struggle ; and then, vainly calling
upon a miserable peasantry, from whom tliey
had contrived to extract every vestige of man-
hood, to rise and resist the Assyrian invader,
the Judagan nobles were swept into a cap-
tivity and a slavery they certainly most
richly deserved."
CHAPTEE Y.
SOCIAL STEUCTUEES BUILT EIGHT OVEE SLUMBEE
ING FIEES.
" WTiat between the landed aristocracy, and tlie moneyed
aristocracy, the interests of the productive classes are generally
sure to go to the wall — and this goes on for a time, till at last
the sqiieeze gets intolerable, and then the productive classes put
up their backs, and push in their turn so vigorously that rank and
property get squeezed, in their turn, against the wall opposite."
— Dr. Arnold.
" Those wild creatures will permit other beasts to partake of
their food after they themselves are satisfied ; and they will
even invite by signs, those of a different species, after their own
present wants are supplied ; but, on the contrary, see these man-
monsters, wallowing in luxiiries, and thousands of their own
species starving with cold and hunger."— I. I.
Aftee some preliminary skirmisliing upou
the subject of American slavery, deftly turned
in accordance with conversational tactics, in
the practice of which Mr. Cuthbert was now
an adept, he said, "I am convinced that
the European labour question, and that of
American slavery, are one and the same
problem."
"I know," said Evangeline smiling, "that
that is a pet theory of yours."
EXPELLED DEMONS. 8i
"It is in both cases, the old, old problem,
as to whether some people are not of in-
herently better quality than others, and
whether these latter do not exist solely in
order to minister to the gratification and
convenience of the former."
" Those Eoyal families, with whom it was
a prime article of belief that the people
existed for their benefit, and not tliey for the
benefit of the people, have had some pretty
sharp lessons read them to the contrary."
"But what a sysiphean task the believers
in pure and simple justice have before them !
Of what use being at infinite pains and
trouble to knock such whimsies out of the
heads of Kings -and lioyal Families, only to
find that they have taken refuge in the heads
of those who style themselves the upper
classes."
"The upper classes forget, I am afraid, that
expelled demons are somewhat dangerous
guests to entertain."
" You mean, I suppose, tliat they have
been known to precipitate their hosts over
steep places into tlie sea "
" If the risiug sense of justice, which begins
6
82 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
to surge within humanity, can no longer
tolerate such fantasies in Kings, it may be
expected to make short and sharp work with
w^hat became even wilder fantasies, when
urged by those who are simply subjects them-
selves.
" The most discouraging thing is that
many of those who were fiercest in repelling
such assumptions upon the part of Kings, to-
day assume, in their august persons, the self-
same attitude."
" Of which," said Evangeline, with a
mischievous light in her eyes, " a certain
Eepublic, afi'ords the most conspicuous ex-
ample on record ! With w^hat vehemence you
repelled poor King George's pretentious !
What scorn you poured upon his assumption
of a divine right to reign ! And how deter-
minedly you have taken up the self-same atti-
tude towards a whole race!"
This was a sudden and unexpected home-
thrust, difficult to parry. But Mat was equal
to the emergency. "In that particular," said
he, "we resemble, I suppose, the Barons,
wdio WTung Magna Charta from the feeble
hands of King John, never for a moment
PURE AND DISINTERESTED EFFORT. 83
imagining that their despised serfs could have
part or lot in it. But they did a good work,
nevertheless ; " lie continued with increasing
emphasis, " and so did ?re."
"It is ver}^ dispiriting, nevertheless, to
reflect that instead of heing the result of pure
and disinterested effort, the steps taken by
Humanity, in its march upward from the
dreary depths of barbarism, have been gained,
one by one, through the miserable collision
of selfish interests."
"Pare and disinterested effort," replied
Mat, with one of his dry smiles, "is, I am
afraid, a little foreign to human nature. The
genius of Humanity has had to fight its battles
with whatever weapons the chances of time
and circumstance afforded : confined to the
poor material which this Planet has hitherto
furnished — its successes are the more extraor-
dinary — seem, indeed, to border on the mira-
culous ! "
" Each age, nevertheless, has given birtli
to men of inherent nobility of character ; men
apt to see, and quick to take advantage of
any collision of selfish interests, calculated to
forward the great cause of the commonweal ."
84 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
" Of that there can be no doubt."
" We can see clearly that the car of pro-
gress moves ; but we had better not examine,
too microscopically, the motives of those who
are pushing the wheels. No ! let us be satis-
fied to extend to them from a distance the
tribute of our respectful admiration. What-
ever, for instance, our sins towards the black
race — in the uplifting of the white race — we
are now the prime factor. We have secured,
for their use and service, an entire continent.
And we even keep a second in reserve. This
continent we have consecrated as a field,
upon which, free from the entangling compli-
cations of kings and aristocracies, the great
question of white labour can be quietly
wrought out and brought to a happy issue."
" I am afraid you will find coloured labour
as entangling a complication as either kings
or aristocracies. But," looking up demurely,
" in the solution of that interesting question,
you have unusual advantages. You are at
liberty to supplement your own, with the still
vaster stores of England's accumulated wis-
dom."
"If England," said Mat, in a . le f in-
WHEN ENGLAND WAS HOUSEKEEPER. 85
tense irritation, " would only mind her own
business, and put her own house in order first,
instead of giving herself so much unnecessary
concern about the disorder in ours."
'* Perhaps," suggested Evangeline, " she is
conscience-stricken ; knowing that the begin-
ning of til is disorder dates fi'om a time when
she herself was the recognized house-keeper."
'* If I could only think that, I might be
able to summon up greater charity, where
she is concerned."
" As for what you term her own business,
she afiects the most utter unconsciousness of
there being anything but the most perfect
order and harmony in her entire domestic
arrangements."
" England's labour problem is complicated
by the fact that a very large proportion of
those most deeply affected by it — her paupers
— a term, as used by Englishmen, conveying
a sense of such deep contempt that I would
not use it, could it be avoided — have sunk
into such an abject and dehumanised condition,
that special remedial measures are first of
all required to raise them to the level of
manhood."
86 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
" Strange," said Evangeline, musingly,
"that a nation, distinguished for intelligence
and public spirit, can contemplate such a con-
dition of things with entire unconcern ! The
only thing that enables me to understand it
is that your countrymen are as completely
apathetic with regard to what, in our Euro-
pean eyes, is a much graver one."
" The apathy with us is apparent rather
than real. It is merely a thin crust. Under-
neath, as is proved whenever the subject is
even remotely alluded to; there is plenty of
slumbering fire."
" A much more hopeful condition of things
than the other. With you, it does look as if
the fires underneath were gathering strength
for an upheaval that would level mountains
that now look as if they would last for ever."
" My good southern friends scout the idea
of the non-eternity of slavery. They feel
much surer of its eternity than their own.
It always has been they argue, and always
will be. It is difficult for us to believe,
and apparently as easy for us to forget, that
there are forces in nature to whom it is mere
play to upheave or level those mountains,
A CERTAIN OCCULT FORCE.
which to us are the very symbols of strength
and stability."
" Your social structure resting upon slavery,
and our social structure resting u^ion caste,
have this disagreeable feature common to both.
The rocks upon which they rest are mainly
volcanic. They are, in fact, built right over
slumbering tires, though possibly the inter-
vening crust is not quite so thin in some
particular places as in others."
"As, for instance, in our Southern States.
Though the ground there is believed to be
very solid, they do have an occasional shake.
"There is," said Evangeline, "a certain
occult force pent up within humanity, that
has a strength of which people little dream.
And yet, every now and again, like the uneasy
giants buried beneath Pelion and Ossa, it
suddenly rouses itself, and makes these social
structures of ours, which we think strong as
the everlasting hills, rock and reel to theu*
very foundations."
" How any one can read history," said Mat,
" without seeing that that is the great lesson to
which its continuall}^ recurring convulsions ever
point I cannot imagine, and yet because cases
HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
like the French Eevohition, when the disgusted
earth opens aud swallows up the dominant
class, are rare, or have been rare hitherto,
those who trample down their fellow-men
think the risk they run scarcely worth con-
sideration."
" So long as the molten lava is just beneath,"
said Evangeline, " it cannot but be dangerous
to dance as some of them are doing just now,
particularly in places where the crust is so
evidently thin."
" The wonder is," said Mat, " that though
some of the dancers every now and again drop
through the crust, little or no impression
seems to be made on their associates. There
is something very mysterious in the fact that
all social upheavals are so soon, and apparently
so entirely, forgotten."
" Those who forget them are like those
foolish people living in the neighbourhood of
Vesuvius. Before the burning lava has well
cooled they are busy rebuilding their little
houses upon the selfsame spots, convinced
that the eruption was a mere accident, and,
that iu any event, another is not likely to
happeD in their time."
THE MOLTEN LA VA JUST BENEATH. 89
*' I think that had I a house in that
neighbourhood, I could not help having an
uncomfortable feeling when I happened to
glance in the direction of Herculaneum and
Pompeii."
*' It seems to me," said Evangeline, smiling,
*' that you have a house just in that very
vicinity ; and that, under the circumstances,
you are wonderfully cool. Still, as you say, a
question which cannot be referred to without
provoking excitement, cannot be considered
dead."
" It is certainly an exceedingly lively corpse,
as any one may discover by a short trip to the
Southern States. Let him, when down there,
breathe the faintest whisper of suggestion that
the peculiar iustitution is not quite perfect,
and he will speedily discover that it is the
liveliest subject he ever attempted to handle.
The difficulty with us is of quite another
character — a difficulty in touching it at all,
without fanning smouldering fires that break
out in every direction."
"x'V difficulty utterly unlike that under
which they labour in England. For it seems
impossible for English statesmen sj to strike
90 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
the pauper question as to evoke the faintest
spark of fire."
" The United Kingdom and the United
States are sinners of two entirely difi"erent
types. We are sinners, — loud, hhistering,
buUyiug sinners if you will, — but, at any rate,
we know it, and have at least the grace that
we do not pose as saints. But the trouble
with John Bull is, that he is deeply imbued
mth a persuasion of his own saintliness and
perfection. You cannot take up an English
magazine or review without seeing that he
contemplates himself, both politically and
socially, with the most supreme self-satisfac-
tion. He thanks God every day that he is
not as other men, — wicked Frenchmen, for
instance, or atheistical Germans, — but particu-
larly, and more especially, that he is not like
these slave-holding Democrats — the Americans.
His is a land of Bibles and Liberty ! From
his own standpoint John Bull is truth-loving,
self-sacrificing, and philanthropic to such a
degree, that it is an unceasing cause of profound
wonder and astonishment to himself. Like
Burns' ' Holy Willie,' the Englishman is ' a
burnin' and a shinin' licht to a' this place,' by
JOHN BULL AS HOLY WILLIE. 91
place, meaning this little planet of ours, which
his piety alone prevents from being burned up."
** How savagely you do attack England !
You seem to see no beauty in her whatever I "
"It is because England so arrogantly calls
attention to her beauty and perfections tliat
I have no patience with her. She is con-
tinually posing before the world, as if she
were justice and loveliness personified. But
let us tear aside this beautiful mask. As
against the beauty of those English homes,
which has become proverbial, let us set the
poverty and squalor of those — ' homes ' shall
we call them ? — in which live her labouring
poor. I grant you that her country seats, her
lawns, her parks, her palaces, are indeed
things to go into raptures over — a very para-
dise for those who own them. But what is
the condition of the great bulk of her popula-
tion? Every thirteenth family beggars, and
every tenth family continually trembling
on the verge of beggary. This, too, in a
country into which the entire wealth of tlie
world seems to be precipitating itself."
" I do not wonder at your strong expres-
sions. Were such a condition of society that
92
HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
of a country where the conquerors were in-
solently lording it over the conquered, it
would be horrible enough. But to see those
of the same flesh and blood stamping on each
other in such brutal fashion, and yet all the
while maintaining a general look of innocence
and pious unconsciousness, is more unnatural
still."
" It certainly has an ugly look, and makes
me wonder what English literary snobs can
mean when they prate so loudly about the
luliolesome influence of ra7ih and station.''
"You express yom-self too vehemently, my
dear sir. Is it possible that you can look
around you without being everywhere struck
by the wholesome influence of rank and
station ? "
" I might," replied Mat, with a droll face,
" ascribe all the sweetness and wholesome-
ness of European society to the influence of
rank and station, and yet credit them with
exceedingly little. It requires a powerful
magnifying glass to discover the presence of
either the one or the other."
" There, I think, your democratic leanings
make you unfair. But let that pass. The
FABULOUS WEALTH. 93
influence of rank and station is not likely to
be exerted in a direction calculated to under-
mine its privileges. And yet when I note
how enthusiastically English statesmen hail
the rising star of liberty in every country but
their owai, I cannot help wondering as to their
mental attitude with regard to that most un-
natural conjunction of extreme and degrading
poverty with almost fabulous wealth to he
seen at their very doors.''
'' Their attitude appears to me," said Mat,
"one of pure dismay. They are surprised that
having taken measm-es entitling every English
citizen to the privileges of that noble institu-
tion, the workhouse, these citizens do not
forthwith bloom and develop into enterprising
and self-respecting members of society. Hav-
ing done their duty so fully, the degradation
that is the only apparent result, must of course
be ascribed to some unfathomable cause, the
English equivalent for the will of Heaven."
" The fact," said Evangeline, "that arrange-
ments intended to be purely beneficent, should,
in their actual working, undermine the most
essential foundations of manhood, and stamp
out all aspirations after self-help, should
94 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
surely prompt the inquiry, whether, after all,
the resources of statesmanship have been
quite exhausted."
"English statesmen," said Mat, "educated
in the belief that their institutions are as near
perfection as things can be, in this sublunary
sphere, are driven to find the reason of the
squalor and wretchedness that persist in
cropping to the surface everywhere, in some
essential difference between themselves and
the loiver classes. If, for instance, the work-
ing classes were only as sober, as self-denying,
and as virtuous as their noble selves, would
not everything be well ? "
"I am afraid," replied Evangeline, "that
even if the working classes did contrive to
mount to those moral heights where repose
the elect of the world, the gain in either
sobriety, or self-denial, or virtue, would scarcely
be apparent." •
"Exactly what I think myself; but this
theory of the drunkenness and inherent
viciousness of the working classes is a de-
lightful salve to the complacency and self-
righteousness of the classes above them, when,
from their empyrean heights, they contemplate
THE ELECT OF THE IVORLD. 95
the wretchedness and degradation below.
Besides, if not owing to some inherent moral
di£ference between the lower classes and them-
selves, there is only one alternative. It
must then be owing to undue pressure of
social regulations, calculated to exalt the one
and degrade the other. But this, of course,
is impossible. English statesmen are firmly-
convinced that between this degradation and
misery, and their laws and institutions, there
is no essential connection. And yet, in all
other matters, they are keen in tracing up
evils to their sources, and prompt in devising
appropriate remedies. They are not in the
least sympathy with that stupid superstition
which ascribes cholera to the ^illof Heaven."
'' The light," said Evangeline, " that science
is now shedding upon such subjects is of so
fierce and searching a character, that the
retention of such superstitions as regards the
diseases of the physical bod}^ is no longer pos-
sible. But the ignorance that still prevails
upon all social questions is of such a dense and
tenebrious character, as to allow this selfsame
idea to be readily entertained as regards the
diseases of the social body. The origin of
96 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
these is less apparent. It lies concealed
amidst certain social phenonema which the
eyes of statesmen have not yet been trained
to see, and to the recognition of which, when
seen, the remnant of old Adam, still lurking in
their celestial natures, renders them exceed-
ingly averse."
" The remnant of that old Adam," said Mat,
"is an unknown quantity difficult to guess.
Still, the idea of a social body is something so
exceedingly simple and elementary that one
need not despair of ultimately making it clear
to the apprehension of a modern statesman."
" If the idea that the state is really, and to all
intents and purposes, a social body, had only
penetrated the minds of thinking people, how
it would smooth the path of every reform!"
''The minds of thinking people," replied
Mat, bluntly, " are so permeated with the
feelings of caste, that snch ideas glance ofi
them like bullets off a crocodile."
"But even crocodiles are not altogether
impervious "
" Not altogether. Even crocodiles have
their weak spots, but they are exceedingly
difficult to find.'
IMPERVIOUSXESS OF CROCODILE SOCIETY. 97
" And the representatives of the thinking
people, what of them ? "
" Their representatives," rephed Mat, " are
even less pervious to such ideas than they
are themselves. In matters of legislation
they represent the interests of those who elect
them. Their solicitude w^itli reference to
everything affecting the health and comfort of
horses, cattle, sheep, or swine partakes of a
tenderness and a devotion — of an enthusiasm,
indeed, that is truly affecting. If," he ex-
claimed wistfully, " it were only possible to
cany a little of the keen zest with which they
discuss the most distant approaches of rinder-
pest into discussions affecting the health and
comfort of their unhappy brethren in the
slums and alleys !
" The capabilit}^ of rising into enthusiasm,
where merely cattle are concerned, surely
argues the possibility of rising into that
higher condition, the 'enthusiasm of humanity.'
But until statesmen become permeated with
that feeling, the idea of the State being a
social body will be merely a phrase, good
enough to round a period at election times,
but of entirely too dim and nebulous a cha-
7
HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
racter to serve as a base for special legisla-
tion.
" In believing that nothing ever originated
without a cause, the English statesman makes
a mental reservation of pauperism ; that, he
is inclined to attribute to the mysterious
perversity inherent in sublunary things. It
has sprung up he kuows not how, and
continues he knows not why, unless for the
purpose of plaguing him, and increasing an
already troublesome poor rate."
" English statesmen are too deeply saturated
with the feelings and prejudices of their caste
to be able to grapple effectively with the
difficulties of a subject, the saddest features
of which can only be comprehended by such
as are deeply touched with a feeling of their
common humanity. It will be a long time
before the high caste Brahmin becomes keenly
sensitive to the sufferings and hardships of
the despised Pariah ! To rise so far out of
themselves as to feel the degradation and
suffering involved in being born and brought
up a pauper, as keenly as if the sufferer were
a being in all respects identical with their
noble selves, is a moral height to which proud
SAINTS, DIFFICULT TO ACCLIMATISE. 99
Normans have insuperable difficulties in
climbing.
"It certainly is as far as possible from the
thoughts of an English statesman that the
beginning, middle, and final causes of pauper-
ism are identical with those causes which
have produced that monument of aesthetic
culture, himself."
" Human nature being what it is," said
Evangeline, "it would be strange if that should
appear to him a strictly axiomatic truth."
" That I grant you. The man who can see
clearly the opposite side of a case in which
his own pockets are deeply interested, is a
species of saint, which we have not yet
managed to acclimatise."
"A very cynical speech," replied Evangeline.
"I cannot," said she, warmly, "think of any
definition of honesty in which that is not
involved."
"But this is a rare kind of honesty, that
must not be confounded with the ordinary
kind. Men see things affecting tlieir own
interests microscopically. But a sufficiently
powerful glass to bring those distant matters
affecting other men's interests within the
100 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
narrow radius of their vision, does not seem
to have been invented yet."
"A glass of just that description was in-
vented in Palestine some eighteen centuries
since. It brings other people's interests so
near, that they are interests to live and die
for."
" I have heard of such glasses. They are
supplied, I believe, at certain stores, known
to the heretical as gospel shops. But if so,
there must be some radical defect in the
instruments now manufactured. The lenses
in these are so adjusted as to enable those
looking through them to see what they term
their souls' interests with the same micro-
scopic minuteness as the interests of their
more material parts. Their owners simply
extend that horrible selfishness which dis-
tinguishes, or I should rather say, charac-
terises them in their relations to the things of
time, so as to include the things of eternity as
well. That, in fact, is almost the sole difference
I can discern between the nineteenth century
saint and the nineteenth century sinner.
The one, even when convinced — a rare thing
■ — that he lias a soul to be saved, treats the
A GLASS WITH PECULIAR PROPERTIES. loi
matter witli contemptuous iudifference. The
other differs from his neighbours in beheving
he has a soul ; but the only evidence he
furnishes of the fact, is his ingenuity in
devising measures that will forward his spiritual
interests without doing the least damage to
his material ones."
'' Every good invention is sure to be imitated
and counterfeited. The instrument of wliidi
I speak — patented in Galilee, and bringing
other people's interests so near that they are
interests to live and die for — may be readily
distinguished by a peculiar trade mark — never
counterfeited in the past, and not likely, I think,
to bo counterfeited in the future. Each glass
bears upon it in large letters, in the hand-
writing of the inventor, the mysterious words,
' Whosoever will save his life, sliall lose if.' "
"If that is the case," said Mat, with ar
expressive shrug of his broad shoulders, "it
is a glass never likely to be in much demand.
And yet without a glass of somewhat similar
properties, toned down, say, to every day nine-
teenth century requirements, it seems diffi-
cult to see how people's eyes can be opened to
certain very glaring facts. It will, for instance,
102 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
require a glass of considerable illuminating
power to bring out into clear light the fact
to which I just now referred — that England's
paupers are as certainly the product of circum-
stances, and the result of special legislation,
as that superb fruit upon which she prides
herself — her noble Lords."
"It should not, I think, require extraordinary-
keenness of vision to see that it is impossible
to make special laws in the interests of the
few, without, to the same extent, discriminat-
ing against the interests of the many."
" Possibly not. So long as it is merely a
general phrase, it is only a loaded gun, lying
harmlessly by. But raise it, and take aim at
something. Say, for instance, that it was
im])osnhle to convey to a few families the
entire soil of England, without, by the same
act, virtually making serfs and paupers of the
rest, and you state a proposition to which
no noble lord, however philosophic, philan-
thropic, or scientific, can be expected to
subscribe."
"As the imperfections of our neighbours
require no magnifying glass to bring them
within the range of vision, he would perhaps
MA V I— BECOME AN ENGLISHMAN! 103
admit more readily that that was tlie reason
why, in tlie tenth century, nearly the entire
people of France were serfs.
"A proposition so innocent looking as that
might possihly be assented to. It would,
however, be like swallowing a hook. For
once admitted, it would be difficult to deny
that — special circumstances excepted — similar
causes would, in neighbouring countries, pro-
duce similar effects."
"It certainly would," Evangeline agreed,
" be open to that objection."
" One might then point to a period of
England's history, when, instead of emphasis-
ing the truth of his remarks, by saying as he
does now, ' May I be damned,' the more
emphatic oath of the proud Norman was,
' Ma)' I — become an Englishman.' "
And here Mat seemed to be struck with a
sudden sense of the ludicrous. For he first
chuckled, and then laughed right out. And
Evangeline, though not absolutely sure
whether she ought to laugh or not, fouud it
impossible to resist joining him. But soon
recovering herself, she exclaimed iu a voice
full of pity, " Of how mucli deep contempt on
104 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
the one side, and deep degradation on the
other, that seems to tell us ! "
" It enables us to comprehend that awful
statement of a great historian that the
English peasantry were then ''upon a level
with the swine and oxen which tliey
tended."
" Such a statement seems conclusive proof
that it ivas impossible to convey to a few
families the entire soil of England without
making serfs and paupers of the rest. But
what an immeasurable improvement has taken
place in the condition of the people of England
since then ! "
" That is, I know, the general impression.
And, thanks to the rise of her manufactures
and commerce, — a contingency the land-
stealers did not contemplate, and for which
they certainly deserve no credit, — numbers of
the English people have managed, in the long
course of centuries, to drag themselves from
beneath the Norman harrow. But those, to
whom no such way of escape has been oj^ened,
are there still ! Those, who to-day till the
glorious soil of England, are still drinking the
same cup of dee}) degradation and poverty
BENEATH THE XORMAX HARROW. \os
— still toiling as hopelessly and helplessly as
at tlie period to which the historian refers.
Upon them the Normans seem to have fastened
themselves like tlie bull-dogs they admire so
much, for — after the lapse of centuries — they
still retain their grip."
"Are you sure, Mr. Cuthbert, tliat you are
not exaggerating? It seems inconceivable
that that should still be the case, after such
an unprecedented period of prosperity and
power as England has since enjoyed! When
one thinks of the enormous increase in the
value of England's soil, and of the fortunes
realized by its owners from the sale of build-
ing sites, and the extraction of coal and iron,
— fortunes representing sums that appear
almost fabulous, — it seems inconceivable that
some few drops of this golden stream should
not have trickled down to ameliorate the
condition of the poor labourer, the direct
cause of it all."
"The labourer has, indeed," replied Mat,
" been standing all this time in the midst of a
golden stream ; but not one drop, so far as I can
see, has been allowed to pass his lips. Take, for
example, the Dorsetshire labourer, whose wages
io6 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
in this year of grace, 18 — , are some eight shil-
lings a week, — a sum barely sufficient to keep
his own body and soul together, not to speak of
the souls and bodies of a frequently numerous
family — not to speak of their necessities in
the matter of clothes and education, — and
then say whether ' if not ' still upon a level
with the swine and oxen which he tends,* his
material conditions have been ameliorated
in anything like the same ratio as theirs.
" Take any of the now celebrated breeds of
English swine and cattle, — better still, those
found in Dorset itself, — and in imagination
contrast them with their lean and raw-boned
progenitors of the Norman period. The differ-
ence is something marvellous — a difference
showing conclusively how much good housing,
careful and choice feeding, and unremitting
attention and care, ca,n, and will do, towards
refining and improving the breed of even brute
beasts.
" So much for what British capital and
intelligence has achieved for the swine and
oxen of the Norman period !
" Now for the second contrast. Take the
Dorsetshire labourer as the typical English
EIGHT SHILLINGS A WEEK. 107
peasant, subjected during the long course of
centuries to jjurely agricultural as distin-
guished from manufacturing influences. And
as companion picture, place alongside of
him the poor, shambling pauper, who in the
revolutions of English industry, agricultural
and manufacturing, has been thrown aside as
so much human waste.
^' With either of these contrast the swine-
herd of the Norman period, and say wherein
his descendants have progressed either physi-
cally, mentally, or morally."
CHAPTEE YI.
LAWS WHICH HAVE ENABLED THE NOEMANS TO
EETAIN THEIE GRIP FOE OVER EIGHT CENTUEIES.
" Briton's Church bears, and has ever borne, the marks of her
birth ; the child of regal and aristocratical selfishness and
unprincipled tjTanny, she has never dared to speak boldly to
the great, but has contented herself with lecturing the poor.'' —
Dk. Arnold.
" You recommend that we do something to change the lot of
the black man I Why should he not be content, if God has
given him that lot ? Why do you wish to change it ? Have
you not an equal right to be dissatisfied with the hard lot of the
white slave 1 You say that God has given him that hard lot as
best for him, and yet you want to mend God's work with the
black, but not with the white slave. The black slave, who is
not allowed to die of hunger, you can sympathize with, but the
white slave may die uncared for." — Old Letter.
Me, Cuthbeet's striking contrast between the
heroic efforts of Englislimen to develop the
latent fine points, and improve and refine the
breed of the swine and oxen of the Norman
period, and their sadly unheroic and melan-
choly neglect to develop the latent fine points,
and refine and elevate the breed of the equally
helpless peasantry who tended them, was suc-
ceeded by an expressive silence.
A TIDAL IVA VE OF PROSPERITY. 109
" It seems very difficult," said Evangeline,
resuming the conversation, " to see why that
tidal wave of prosperity, which has lifted the
average condition of the English people so
much ahove the old watermark, should not
have influenced to an equal extent the for-
tunes of the peasantry also."
" That tidal wave has affected, firstly and
chiefly, the trading, manufacturing, and mer-
cantile classes ; and secondfy, thougli in a
much less marked degree, the mechanics,
operatives, and miners. The agricultural
lahourer, in counties where there are no
manufactures, — such as Dorset, — has not, so
far as I can discern, heen affected by it at
alL"
" Not at all."
" Possibly," replied Mat, with the nearest
approach to a sneer of which his handsome
face was capable, "possibly dt may have
resulted in an extra blanket doled out at
Christmas time to his rheumatic wife, or in
a bottle of old port, when his family was
suffering from some low fever, the result of
damp walls and a prolonged continuance uf
low diet. That tidal w^ave of prosperity
no HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
which has enriched the owners of those fair
fields ' beyond the dreams of avarice,' may,
through the medium of that church which
loves him so much, and guards his interests
so well, have left at the labourer's door
those touching memorials of its passage. But
if so, this large-hearted munificence must in
no case be construed as a right. It is, on the
contrary, an unmerited expression of gracious
condescension a Ad heavenly charity ! Should
the fortunate receiver fail to render, in due
measure, the expected incense of gratitude, '
the disgusted squire is certain to subside into
an incurable misanthrope for the remainder
of his natural life."
'' I should think you would be ashamed
to give such a colouring to those beautiful
pictures of squirearchial munificence which
English novelists never tire of holding up
to an admiring world ! But, be that as it
may, I still find it difiicult to understand
why the English labourer's wages should not
have kept pace with the general improvement
of the country."
" The wonder, to my mind, is not that the
condition of the British labourer is not
MEMORIALS OF HE A VENL V CIIA RITY. 1 1 1
mucli better, but rather that it is Dot much
worse."
" Why, in Heaveu's name, should it be
expected to become worse?"
" Because the natural tendency is in that
direction. The divorce of the Enghsli labourer
from the soil he tills is so complete and
thorough — thanks to landlord legislatiou —
that no increase in its saleable worth, neither
increase in the product of his labour, nor
increase in its market value, has any, even
the most remote, effect upon his v/ages."
'' Still," contended Evangeline, " the enor-
mous increase in the value of all three is,
at least, no reason why these wages should
become less."
" The labourer's wages have a natural ten-
dency to become less, owing to the beneficent
operation of the law of Supply and Demand,
which of course acts in England exactly as
it does in Barbadoes. The fact that the
negroes iu Barbadoes have increased some
twenty thousand, whilst the cultivated area
of land remains at the same point as at the
period of emancipation, — some seventy thou-
sand acres, — has of course no tendency to
1 12 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
lessen, in any degree, the firm grip that the
planters have on each man, woman, and child
in the island."
"The addition of some thousands of labourers
to such a very small island, must make it a
difficult matter for the negroes to maintain
the old rate of wages, much less better them-
selves."
" Exactly what we see in England, where
an addition of some millions to the popula-
tion has had the eff'ect of placing the labourer,
more hopelessly than ever, beneath the heel
of his employer."
" With the entire laws of England care-
fully framed, so as to discriminate against
them in every instance, where their interests
and those of their employers came into col-
hsion, the unprotected English peasantry
would long ago have been swept from off the
earth, had it not been for the operation of
two causes, largely partaking of the nature
of accidents — the sadden and altogether won-
derful expansion of English manufactures,
and the equally phenomenal escape of con-
tinually increasing thousands through the
strait gate of emigration."
BENE A TH THE HEEL OF HIS EMPL O YER. 1 13
" That argument lias, I think, two sides.
After all, the great growth of England's
population only dates back abcrnt a century.
Before that time, with English liberty and
a small population, what was there to preveut
the English peasant from bettering his con-
dition ? "
" What I have already alluded to ; the
strong arm of the law, administered and
made by his philanthropic masters, sitting
in the two Houses of Parliament.
'' A Parliament in which he had no voice !
T\^iat a sickening illustration of the power of
selfishness, — the chivalry of England making
laws, not for the purpose of helping a miser-
able peasantry, but for the express purpose
of preventing them fi^om rising !
" Whenever the laws of Supply and Demand
showed a perverse tendency to work in some
other than that heaven given direction, which
tended to keep wages low and the masters'
pockets comfortably filled, the powers of botli
King and Parliament were invoked to bring
such an impious and unnatural condition of
things to an end."
"Is it not melancholy," asked Evangeline,
8
114 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
lier gentle eyes filled with indignation, " that
hitherto the law-making powers have been
invoked almost solely in the interests of
those strong enough to dispense with their
help, and that whenever some scheme tend-
ing to benefit the condition of the helpless
has been so much as broached, there has been
an immediate outcry, an indignant protest
against what is contemptuously termed a
foolish attempt to interfere with the action
of economic laws. I think the poor English
worms, over whom the wheels of civiliza-
tion have so ruthlessly rolled, might have
been permitted the luxury of turning them-
selves."
'' Despite the disadvantages under which
they laboured, there were occasions when they
did turn, and, wriggling up to their lords and
masters, requested an increase of wages."
" History tells us that upon one memorable
occasion they mustered courage to humbly
petition that they might be given such an
increase of wages as would permit of the pre-
sence of a little beef at their Sunday's dinner."
" A very moderate request, surely. Such
a slight infusion of luxury into their dietetic
MY LORDS LEGISLATE FOR THE PEASANT. 115
arrangements could scarcely be considered
enervating either morally or physically."
" Don't you see," asked Mat, " that thoup^h
a specious request, it was an exceedingly
dangerous precedent ? It would have been
an admission of the thin end of a wedge,
which, in tlie interest of sound morals and
a plain diet, both Lords and Commons con-
sidered it their bounden duty to prevent.
Had the British peasant been allowed meat
once a week, the very spirit of luxury and
insubordination might have taken possession
of him ! Oh no ! Had he been a Virginian
negro, he would have mutinied immediately,
at the slightest attempt to institute an un-
natural divorce between the hog and hominy
of his daily diet. But being only an English-
man, — though entitled to the privilege of
carrying his country's flag into every corner
of the world, — he was not, in the opinion of
Lords or Commons, entitled to the slightest
morsel of his country's beef."
" That," said Evangeline, with deep disgust
imprinted on every feature of her expressive
countenance, "was with a vengeance 'muzzling
the ox that treadeth out the corn.' And, I
1 1 6 HEREDITA R Y PEERS A ND PA UPERS.
suppose, in such queer forms does selfishness
disguise itself, that, in coming to that conclu-
sion, both Lords and Commons firmly believed
that they were acting as became wise and far-
seeing conservators of England's greatness."
'' I have no doubt they went home in the
firm belief that they had saved England. It
never once occurred to them that they had
been framing ' iniquity into a law,' legislating
so as to thrust down the British labourer
once more to a ' level with the swine and oxen
he tended. "
" If freedom did not mean emancipation
from slavery, if it did not mean that the
British peasant was entitled to the highest
wages he could get, what on earth did it
mean ? He could not surely be legislated
into serfdom again."
" Nominally," replied Mat, " he could not ;
virtually, he was. His masters legislated him
into a condition strictly equivalent, except
in this one respect : they took good care
that it should be a serfdom unalleviated by
any grants of land, — as in barbaric Russia, —
that it should be a serfdom in which all the
advantages should be on their side. For they
THE HAWKS HAVE THE BEST OF IT. 117
delegated to the magistrates of each coimty
entire jDOwer to fix the rate of wages."
"I do not see that this should have been
such a very one-sided arrangement. In fixing
the rate of wages, wise and humane magi-
strates would take into consideration the price
of flour, and the least amount upon which a
labourer and his family could be comfortable."
Mat laughed a scornful laugh. " When
doves," said he, " can be entrusted to the
keeping of hawks, when sheep can be safely
handed over to the keeping of wolves, then,
and not till then, will it be safe to hand over
to masters, or to magistrates appointed by
masters, the power of fixing labourers' wages.
What the magistrates seem to have studied
in this instance was the lowest possible sum
that would enable the labourer to keep soul
and body together. For I find that in I680
the Warwickshire justices fixed wages at three
shillings and sixpence a week in winter, and
four shillings a week in summer. This was
considered about the average rate, though in
particular counties the magistrates fixed them
at six shillings in winter and seven shillings
in summer — very nearly high watermark with
n8 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
the DorsetsMre labourer of to-day. At this
time wheat was seventy shillings a quarter.
So as meat was out of the question, and
wheaten bread an impossibility, how the
English labourer and his family contrived to
exist is a conundrum I find it impossible to
solve."
" T certainly can see no difference between
slavery and such a system," said Evangeline
in a tone of deep disgust, " except this : that,
under cover of an iniquitous law passed by
the masters sitting in the two Houses of Par-
liament, they were enabled to fix such a rate
of wages as virtually cheated the labourer out
of half his victuals and all his clothes. They
do not, of course, have any such laws in
England now."
" They may be on the Statute Book yet,
for anything I know to the contrary. But,
the population of England having trebled
since that time, their help can be dispensed
with. Wages are now regulated beautifully —
at least, entii-ely to the satisfaction of the
ruling classes — by the more scientific law of
Supply and Demand. In this year of our
Lord, 18 — , we see the Dorsetshire labourer
NOTHING TO BE JUBILANT ABOUT. 119
in a condition not essentially different from
that of 1G85, or that of the villeins in the
second century of the Norman Conquest."
" Are you sure, Mr. Cuthbert, that that
conchision is not exaggerated — that, in coming
to it, you have been guided strictly by the
evidence, and in no degree by your pre-
judices ? I was reading only lately a jubilant
article, telling of the unprecedented improve-
ment that had taken place in Eugland in the
condition and comforts of every class."
"I do not doubt it in the least," replied
Mat. " In forming estimates of their pros-
perity, the English very conveniently leave
the condition of the very poor entirely out
of the estimate."
" It seems to me that the condition of its
lowest class is the only true criterion by
which the real prosperity of a country can
be ascertained."
" Tried by that criterion, I can see nothing
in either the material or moral condition of
England to be jubilant about. I can see
nothing for congratulation in the fact, that,
despite the enormous prosperity of which the}*-
boast, one-thirteenth of the entire population
120 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
is, nevertheless, iu good years, in receipt of
parish relief."
" So that virtually eight families in every
hundred are so circumstanced, that, however
great the general prosperity, there is not the
remotest chance of their being benefited by
it. And how about bad years ? "
In bad years that unhappy thirteenth is
increased to a tenth. But that, of course, is
a trifling matter. To the upper classes it
merely means a slight increase in the poor
rate. It is astonishing how philosophically
we can contemplate the wretchedness of the
multitude from within the snug retreat of
a tasteful villa, or the pleasant surroundings
of a palace. The Christian, in such circum-
stances, shows a complacency and an apathy
that even a Turk would vainly endeavour to
emulate."
" And that is the condition of things about
which the English sing paeans."
" The English look at it from a different
standpoint. They consider that they are
advancing with gigantic strides. And they
point exultingly to the fact, that, instead of
one-fifth of the entire population being
ADVANCING WITH GIGANTIC STRIDES. 121
beggars, — as in the time of King Charles the
Second, — the beggars now, though realhj more
numerous than ever, bear a much smaller ratio
to the whole population."
" A very comfortable standpoint for all
except the beggars. To their misery such a
consideration can bring no alleviation, and
unless their natures are much more angelic
than ours, no consolation. Such special
pleading is unworthy of England's brilliant
historian. Instead of evolving fi-om his inner
consciousness such feats of intellectual
jugglery, — feats calculated to make still more
satisfied with themselves a people in whom
that quality has never been considered lack-
lug, feats calculated to lull to sleep the
consciences of upper classes, — Heaven knows,
sufficiently soporific already, — he might have
employed his marvellous powers of word paint-
ing ill bringing home to the consciences of all
the portentous fact, that in "merrie " England
the tide of human misery and wretchedness
is each year risuu) higher and higher.''
" I wish to heaven he had," responded
Mat fervently.
" That must surely be a diseased condition
122 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
of society in which the efforts of the millions
tend mainly to the aggrandisement and in-
definite increase of the fortunes of the few, in
which, instead of thousands of the very poorest
being lifted up by every wave of general pros-
perity and absorbed into its leading indus-
tries, we see the exact contrary taking place
— thousands of its industrial classes losing
heart, letting go their hold, and being swept
by the retreating wave into the pauper abyss."
*' The laws of England have been skilfully
framed loitli a view to that very purpose ; so
that whilst the few, with scarcely an efi"ort,
are gaily floated upon the waves of an advanc-
ing prosperity, the many, with the full force
of the tide running against them, are unable
to make the least headway."
" I have again to ask whether you are quite
sure, Mr. Cuthbert, that in making such a
sweeping statement, you are strictly within
the truth?"
" I can scarcely wonder," replied Mat, " at
your scepticism ; but if you can think of any
laws better adapted to keep the masses down
than those by which they were divorced
utterly and for ever from the soil, and their
THEIR FEET ARE THERE STILL. 123
employers given absolute power to fix tlieir
wages, or auy laws better adapted to keep the
few up and the many down — to keep the few
in perpetual possession of the nation's land, and
the many in a continual struggle with poverty
in its bitterest and most degrading forms
than the Laws of Primogeniture and Entail,
I shall willingly acknowledge myself a victim
of stupidity and prejudice."
"At the moment I certainly cannot."
" With the help of these laws the Normans
have retained for over eight centuries tlieir
fierce grip of the English peasant. The fact
that William the Norman divided the laud of
England amongst his captains would other-
wise have been a matter of little consequence.
It is only to the extent that you frame
'iniquity into a law,' that you contrive to
make its action eternal. The Normans not
only planted their feet upon the necks of the
English people, hid tlieir feet are there still.
The land laws — which they devised in their
own interest and for the express purpose
not only of makiug the Englisli peasantry
slaves, but of keeping them slaves for ever —
are virtuaUij unchanged.''
124 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
" With what consummate astuteness these
laws must have been drawn up, and how
carefully adapted to the end in view, seeing
that, instead of becoming divided up, as it
should natm-ally do with the enormous in-
crease of population, the land, year by year,
actually gets into fewer and fewer hands."
" It was a very masterpiece of shrewd,
though utterly selfish, legislation. At first
sight it may seem as if it had failed in one of
its ends. But upon a closer view it will be
found, not only that the general condition
of the agricultural labourer differs bat little
from that of the villeins of the Norman
period, but that there is, besides, in England
a large class of people in a more abject
condition still; a class distinguishable from
slaves or villeins by the fact that they are not
only propertyless and moneyless, but, more
terrible still, useless. Of this ' human waste,'
known to their countrymen as paupers, there
is in the England of to-day a mass equivalent
to the entire population of the Norman
period."
" A mass of * human waste,' '* repeated
Evangeline in atone of horror; ''a mass of
MANHOOD STAMPED OUT! 125
' human waste,' equivalent to the entire popu-
lation of the Norman period. What an awful
commentary upon the boasted English civi-
lization ! To be propertyless and moneyless
is certainly terrible enough, but to be useless
is a lower deep still It suggests a being
the spring and elasticity of whose faculties
have run down beyond hope of recovery — a
being from whom all enterprise and manhood
have been absolutely stamped out ! Com-
pared with that of a pauper, the position of
a Eussian serf or even a Virginian negro
seems high up in the social scale. It seems
to show that the Normans, in their eagerness
to insure an abject population, slightly over-
shot the mark."
'' A Virginian negro is an altogether higher
order of human being. Instead of being des-
titute of self-respect, his self-respect is apt
to mount up into the pompous — a clear proof
that the iron has not entered into his soul.
Ul)on an English pauper he would look down
with an infinite scorn. And his epithet of
' white trash ' would be only too expressive.
Yes, they certainly overshot the mark," re-
peated Mat in a mournful tone.
126 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
" To get at the full meaning involved in
such a statement," lie continued, " as that,
giving the number of paupers in the England
of to-day — in the workshop of the world —
seems almost impossible. The mind refuses
to take in what the bare fact means, so far as
the immediate present is concerned. And
the meaning becomes still more portentous
when one endeavours to trace it link by link
into the distant past, and becomes absolutely
appalling if an attempt is made to estimate
its bearings and unavoidable issues in the
near and distant future. Were an endeavour
made to calculate the misery, direct and in-
direct, — proceeding, like a stream from its
fountain, — from the Law of Primogeniture and
Entail — a law framed upon the contemptuous
principle that Englishmen ' had no rights,
and never would have any, which the proud
Normans were bound to respect ' — a law
tying up for long centuries the entire wealth
proceeding from the lands of England, whether
from their fruits above or their minerals below
— a law conferring absolutely upon a few
elder sons the entire powers, privileges, and
enjoyments springing therefrom, and arbi-
nV THE WORKSHOP OF THE WORLD. 127
traril}^ excluding from all participation in
them all the people then living, and that
should be born in the long stretch of time
between that and the present moment, what
a fearful sum total the whole would present !
Rolling up, ^aW^:>ass;^, with the huge estate —
what an aggregation of human misery — its
exact and terrible equivalent ! "
'' Can it be possible that such long-continued
evils entail no day of reckoning ? "
'' Possibly the account may have been kept
in some celestial Court of Chancery ! French
revolution eras seem to suggest that the gods
are more exact reckoners than we mortals
think. And, unfortunately for England, tlie
account is 7iot yet closed.''
CHAPTEE YII.
EVEN THE DOOE OF HOPE — SHUTS AGAINST THE
ENTERPEISE OF THE FUTURE.
" Who does not wish that our clergy dared to exercise more
of the same influence over our higher classes, and could prevent
that most unchristian spirit of family selfishness and pride, by
which too many wills of our rich men are wholly dictated ? " —
Dr. Arnold.
" Wealth has accumulated itself into masses, and poverty
also, in accumulation enough, lies impassably separated from it,
like forces in positive and negative poles. The gods of this
lower world sit aloft on glittering thrones, less happy than
Epicnrus's gods — but as indolent, as impotent ; whilst the
boundless living chaos of ignorance and hunger welters terrific
in its dark fury under their feet." — Carlisle.
" It puzzles, and I confess somewhat disgusts
me, when your southern chivalry appeal to
precedents in Biblical times in support of the
peculiar institution.'
"It is a habit, Miss Lessing, inherited
from their English ancestry, to whom a Bib-
lical precedent, when it happens to suit them,
still furnishes an unanswerable argument.
Take away from them the weapons forged in
that armoury, and how could English states-
ROBBERY SANCTIONED BY LAW. 129
men contrive to impose any longer, upon even
a stupid people, a belief in the sacredness
of that 'peculiar institution,' the Law of Pri-
mogeniture ? And that keystone out of the
arch," said Mat, assuming a horror-stricken
expression, " the whole fabric of English
institutions would tumble to pieces."
" If it is right and lawful for an eldest son
to rob his younger brothers and sisters, one's
moral sense is completely at sea. To brand
as iniquitous the robbery of those to whom
the thief is not even distantly related, seems
in such a case a species of moral affectation.
Why laws should be made for the protection
and encouragement of the greater evil, and
for the punishment of the lesser one, is
beyond my feminine comprehension ! That
such laws should have originated in the
darker ages of the world is not to be wondered
at. That they should ontiuue to exist in
this era of light is the mystery."
" The solution of that mystery, so far as
the English land laws are concerned is to
be found in the existence of another more
mysterious still "
"I am as wise as before, Sir Oracle. Do
9
130 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
yon mean a wheel within a wheel, or some-
thing still more oracnlar ? "
" The oracle," replied Mat solemnly, "will
proceed to elucidate itself, if invoked in dig-
nified and befitting terms, and not in the
spirit of badinage."
" Deign, oh Sir Oracle," said Miss Lessing,
with a mock reverence, " to proceed with the
elucidation."
The muscles of Mat's lips quivered slightly,
but with an effort he proceeded.
" The English pride themselves upon their
clearsightedness, and regard with wonder,
verging on good-natured contempt, the con-
tinuance in other countries of what they
term superstitious beliefs But — and here is
mystery number one — they continue to
tolerate an institution, founded upon the
belief of a doctrine compared with which
the belief in the infallibility of the pope is
easy, compared with which a belief in the
miracles of Buddha is, in the highest degree,
sane and rational. That people should be
somewhat credulous in that cloudy region,
where begin those unknown quantities, their
spiritual interests, is in no way remarkable.
STROA'G LAXGUAGE. \7,\
But that, where their material interests are
concerned, they should shut their eyes and
swallow something grossly irrational, is more
remarkable still. And yet the continued exist-
ence in the England of the nineteenth cen-
tury, of a House of Hereditary Legislators,
argues in an entire people a degree of irra-
tionality that could scarcely be expected out
of Bedlam."
"Have a care, Mr. Cuthbert. The use of
such strong language argues a degree of
mental excitement, which, if prolonged, miglit
prove dangerous. Shall I order a wet band-
age ? "
" Neither bandage nor badinage, if you
please."
** I believe I may look upon that as a
symptom of recovery. You may, I think,
safely proceed to the elucidation of mystery
number two."
" Mystery number two is the continued
existence on the Statute Book of the Law of
Primogeniture and Entail ; an auaclironisui
within an anachronism, a wheel witliin a
wheel, an alisurdity within an absurdity.
For without the Law of Primogeniture and
132 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
Entail the House of Lords. would be impos-
sible ! And without such an anachronism as
a House of Hereditary Legislators, the con-
tinued existence of the Law of Primogeniture
and Entail would be impossible."
*' Two impossibilities, the unnatural con-
junction of which renders impossible that
philosophic equanimity which distinguishes —
or, I should rather say, characterises — your
politico-economic dissertations."
"It is very easy Miss Lessing, to laugh,
and launch at my devoted head your poly-
syllabic expostulations. But you must recol-
lect that I am still not many removes from
an Englishman, and that it is very difficult
for me to contemplate, with equanimity, the
existence of an institution, which is proof to
the entire world iliat the Norman brand is
still on the English people. That masters
should make laws for their slaves is natural
enough. But that freemen, that Englishmen,
should think twice before tearing from their
necks that badge of slavery, the legislative
collar attached by their former masters, brings
a blush to my cheek, and a rushing sense of
indignation to my heart."
THE EMANCIPATION OF ENGLISHMEN. 133
" Your sensibility does you honour, Mr.
Cuthbert. You have placed the matter in an
entirely new light. That the emancipation
of Englishmen should be still incomplete is
an idea that never occurred to me."
" How can it be complete, so long as they
continue, with angelic sweetness, to allow
their old masters to legislate for them?"
" A conundrum difficult to answer."
" Those old Normans were wonderfully
astute. It is a rare thing for mortals to get
their own way whilst still in the flesh ; but
to contrive that when out of it things shall,
for long centuries, shape themselves in accord-
ance with their selfish will and j^leasure, is,
fortunately for their fellows, rarer still. By
the original cession of the lands of England
to William's captains, the door was effectually
shut against the enterprise of that generation.
This iniquity, however, the natural course of
events would have slowly but surely righted
within a few generations. But by the action of
the hard and fast Laws of Primogeniture and
Entail, the land of England was kept tightly
in the Norman clutch, and even the door of
hope shut against the enterprise of the future."
,34 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
" How vividly you put it," exclaimed
Evangeline. " It seems as if the Norman
had contrived to saddle himself upon the
English people, like an ' old man of the sea,'
and make them tributary for ever."
" The Norman division of the lands of
England was in itself no worse than previous
divisions by the Saxons and the Danes. It
was a deep wound in the social body, which
the beneficent influences of time and favour-
able circumstances would have gradually
healed. But these iniquitous laws, by which
the avarice of the present stretched its unclean
hands across the voiceless centuries, and joined
itself to the avarice of the future, have kept
this wound continually open, down even to
our own times."
" The second iniquity seems to have ex-
ceeded the original one."
" Many times exceeded it. For under these
laws, matters, instead of growing continually
better, grow continually worse. Instead of
this clutch round England's throat relaxing,
it seems to tighten with the advancing cen-
turies. A strong statement, of which the proof
is that those sturdy yeomen from whom
THE NORMAN GRIP. 1^5
Cromwell organised that army * which never
failed to destroy and break in pieces ' whatever
force was opposed to it, and of wlioiu, in tlio
seventeenth century, there were some hundred
and thirty thousand, are now extinct."
"As tliat number must have borne a still
larger proportion to the then population of
England than it does now, it certainly does
look as if the Norman grij) had in no way
relaxed."
" Without the help of favouring laws, with-
out any other aids than are afforded by the
fierce selfishness of some, and the indolence
and good-natured indifference of others,
wealth has a natural tendency to aggregation,
and large estates an innate tendency to
swallow up the smaller ones. But with their
help that tendency is increased in a tenfuld
degree."
" It can scarcely be considered surprising
that such laws should inllame to madness an
unnatural greed that borders upon it already."
"Exactly what has happened. Greed has
merged into avarice, and that into a positively
insane thirst for accumulation. The un-
bounded avarice of the upper classes lias
136 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
generated a madness — a madness which, in
England, at least, shows symptoms of spread-
ing downwards. Instead of being ambitious
of conferring some signal benefit upon his
country, the leading ambition of an EngHsh-
man is to found a family, and get within
a magic circle, lifted, as if by the force
of gravitation itself, above the contingencies
and casualties that beset the fortunes of
ordinary mortals . ' '
"By most minds no higher heaven can be
imagined. That the English elect should
crowd into it is natural enough."
•' Unfortunately, the heaven which is
reached by those who mount upon the wings
of primogeniture and entail, like that other
heaven, — the refuge also of an elect few, — seems
to involve at the other extremity of the social
scale a hell for the unhap23y many; a deep,
and apparently bottomless pit, where, unheeded
by the saints of the upper circles, millions of
hapless Englishmen have groaned for ages."
" I protest agninst the assumptions involved
in your theology ; but let that pass. If the
tying up and reserving for the sole use of an
elect few of that which constitutes a nation's
A HEA VEN FOR THE ENGLISH ELECT. 137
first source of wealth, the land, has been at-
tended with such dire results — the tying up
of its movable wealth — that resulting from
commerce and manufactures — should that am-
bition to found a family become a passion —
must necessarily be attended by results still
more disastrous. Were the English to study
the subject in the light reflected by the
condition of a million paupers, they might
possibly conclude that this unnatural aggrega-
tion of wealth had gone far enough."
" If, as I am firmly persuaded," said Mat,
" the evolution of a few noble lords has in-
volved the evolution of almost countless ignohle
2Jaupers, it should seem as if peers were a
luxury, of which a nation might have more
than enough."
" The disposition to place under such a
lock and key as the Law of Primogeniture and
Entail the fortunes now being realised from
commerce and manufactures, is a symptom
calculated, one would think, to fill the mind of
a statesman with alarm."
" If the huge fortunes now being realised
from commerce and manufactures are to be
of as little service to any except their august
138 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
owners as those gigantic ones now locked up
in the land, it would seem a curious problem,
how many ages this sisyphean labour must be
continued before it begins, in any appreciable
degree, to affect the lives and fortunes of the
masses."
"Possibly some microscopic effect might
be discernable in the course of a geologic
aeon."
"And, fortunately for humanity, the entire
fabric will tumble about their ears in some-
thing less than a geologic period. This policy,
which English statesmen doubtless consider
a great and enlightened one, — for they have
pursued it for centuries, — I consider utterly
inhuman. Its great end and aim is to dam
up, and confine within one huge reservoir — a
reservoir accessible only to the elect few,
and the sluices of which, thanks to that
durable cement compounded of primogeniture
and entail, become stronger, instead of weaker,
with the lapse of centuries — that stream of
wealth now flowing, or rather rushiug, into
England."
" One would think that the great aim of
statesmanship should be a policy the exact
WANTED— AQUEDUCTS, ETC. 139
opposite — a policy that would busy itself iu
devisiug aqueducts aud irrigating cliauuels,
by means of which the fructifying and healing
streams might become accessible to all.
" Those who constitute the ' social head,' "
continued Evangeline, '■'- are hugely mistaken
in thinking that the condition of the feet is
a matter about which their highnesses need
give themselves no concern. Any one that
has ever suffered from toothache knows that
anything like persistent neglect of these
humbler members of the body is sure to be
visited wuth swift and sharp retribution, ex-
pressed in a form their royal jaws are not likely
to forget."
"Were there not a touch of madness in the
social head, — did not the fever for accumula-
tion rage to the point of insanit}^ such a self-
evident truth could not escape it."
" A wise statesmanship would take a lesson
from the physician, and endeavour to stop
this unnatural rush of blood to the liead, by
diverting a portion of it, at least, to the pale,
bloodless feet."
" The resources of statesmanship," said
Mat, in a tone of profound scorn, " are soon
140 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
exhausted. All that they have proved equal
to so far, is the devising of a stout and strong
ligature, called the Law of Primogeniture and
Entail, the intent of which is to prevent the
least particle of blood from reachiu'^^ the feet.
Whether they will ever prove equal to the
task of taking it off is, to say the least of it,
exceedingly problematical.
" The problems of the future," he continued,
" whilst differing in appearance from those of
the past, are really the same in character.
Despotism is protean in its forms, and it is
only by slow and painful steps that humanity
emerges into the light of liberty. In the past
it has had to struggle with kings. To-day it
has to struggle with landlords and capitalists.
The upper classes have rid themselves of their
tyrants. The lower classes are still groaning
under theirs. In appearance different, the
tyranny is, in both cases, essentially the same.
The difference is not one of quality, but one of
degree. For this much is clear, that the yoke
of the most detested military satraps, before
whom, in days gone by, our upper classes have
toadied and cringed, was as roses and perfume
compared with that blended yoke of landlord
YOKE OF LANDLORD AND CAPITALIST. 141
and capitalist wliioli to-day encircles the
necks of the labouring i^oor."
"Wealth," said Evangeline, after a few
minutes of absorbed silence, in the course of
which her features had seemed to Mat to
assume a rapt look that reminded him of the
statue of a sibyl he had seen at Kome, '' when
it melts, like snow upon the plains of every-
day life, seems fraught with only beneficence
and blessing. Like snow, it changes its cha-
racter, in the exact proportion that it becomes
piled up in masses. When dispersed evenly,
its action is invariably beneficent ; in masses,
its tendency is to the destructive."
" Snow, when falling, seems the very symbol
of softness and gentleness. And yet it has an
innate tendency to freeze and become hard
as iron. Its beneficent qualities seem to de-
pend on its being speedily melted. If allowed
to accumulate or settle in deep drifts it becomes
dangerous. And where, through the nature
of the surroundings, the altitude of tlio land,
or the coldness of the climate, the accumula-
tions of the winter are ouly distributed in the
summer with the greatest ditliculty, the wise
will be filled with alarm. For have not such
142 HEREDITARY PEERS AND PAUPERS.
portents, in times past, ushered in a glacial
era ? If allowed, as in the higher latitudes,
to accumulate for generations, the result is
the iceberg or the avalanche."
" The iceberg, ' floating down in solitary
grandeur, its thousand turreted pinnacles
piercing above the mist, and shimmering like
silver in myriad shapes of enchanting and
massive grandeur,' is a glorious and an awe-
compelling sight. But its vicinity is cold
and freezing. For hundreds of miles the
temperature is sensibly lowered. And it has
an exceedingly ugly habit of floating quietly,
but remorselessly, over everything it meets."
" Still, though a terribly disagreeable neigh-
bour to stumble against upon the ocean of
life, in daylight the iceberg may be avoided
and given a wide berth."
" But how avoid the ' awful avalanche,' the
same soft snow, allowed to accumulate for
generations, and with ever-increasing volume
and impetus, come rolling down the centuries?
With such an aggregation of power the re-
sources of civilization have hitherto been
unable to cope."
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