534 History of the E^iglish Landed Interest. 



payments, substituting for the Saturday night's wages, a pro- 

 portion partly in kind, partly in specie of the farmer's profits. 

 We would replace the voluntary club system by some national 

 scheme of compulsory insurance against the wants of sickness 

 and old age, and we would divert the magnificent but irregular 

 charities of the rich into some great central organisation, 

 which would relieve the distresses while it did no I degrade 

 the character of the impotent poor. 



By the union of the interests of the national wage-earner, 

 under a system of profit-sharing, with those of the national 

 wage-payer, the statesman would be able to concentrate his 

 undivided attention on some mutual scheme of defence against 

 the encroachments of the foreign producer. Internecine war 

 would cease between the capitalists of commerce and those of 

 land. The artizan and labourer would no longer band to- 

 gether against the manufacturer and the farmer ; and since 

 every consumer in the kingdom must then perforce belong to 

 one or other of these united interests, the difficulties between 

 buyer and seller would soon become amicably adjusted. 



This is not a purely agricultural question, for the same dis- 

 putes crop up in commercial circles. In their struggle with 

 the landlords we have shown how the plutocracy had called 

 in the aid of the proletariat. We have hinted that before 

 even that struggle is over, the proletariat, like the Angles and 

 Jutes, are beginning to turn and rend their quondam allies. 

 War has been described as the last resort of kings, and strikes 

 occupy much the same position in the counsels of the artizan. 

 Any one who has read this History, and has learned how the 

 wage-earners were left to starve in times of plenty, would 

 scarcely wish to cancel their newly acquired powers of com- 

 bination. But the whole community must regard a strike as 

 it would war, viz., the dire necessity of desperate men. Can- 

 not, therefore, the former, like the latter, be at any rate 

 occasionally avoided ? Is there no impartial tribunal, to the 

 arbitrament of which the disputes between capital and labour 

 could be safely referred, or must we continually witness the 

 arts of peace paralysed, the interests of both sides shattered, 

 permanent losses in the national income sustained, and future 



