VIEWS ON QUESTIONS OF THE DAY 233 



flagrant misstatement which seemed to him calcu- 

 lated to do harm to his cause and principles. 



For the opinions of certain statesmen he had a 

 peculiar aversion, and for none more than those of 

 John Bright, whom he looked upon as one not only 

 opposed to the best interests of the Church, but as 

 one who was continually setting class against class. 

 He therefore thought it well to deal with some of 

 what he conceived to be the fallacies commonly put 

 forth by that orator, and this he did in a lengthy 

 pamphlet, styled a " Letter," in which he handled in a 

 lively but telling way some of Mr. Bright's views on 

 questions affecting the Church, the land, and the 

 factory. To give a summary of this " Letter," even 

 if it were possible, for it consisted very largely of 

 quotations from newspapers and the writings of 

 others, would carry me far out of my course. 



It would, perhaps, hardly be straining a point to 

 say that Mr. Morris's political views on all great 

 questions might be described as diametrically op- 

 posite to those of Mr. Bright. On such a subject, 

 for instance, as the tenure of land and the de- 

 sirability or otherwise of large tracts of the country 

 being in the hands of a comparatively small number 

 of owners, he expressed himself at great length. 

 Although strongly in favour of small holdings for 

 the labouring classes, he by no means looked upon 

 it as an evil, but rather the reverse, that the large 

 estates 'of the nobility and gentry comprised such a 

 considerable portion of the land of England. He 

 reminded Mr. Bright of the case of the Duke of 



