CHAPTER XV. 

 THE WAGES OF SIN 



ETERNAL gratitude is expected of us for half a 

 century's barbarism, imposed by professional 

 politicians, accommodated by Imperial legislation 

 and financed by the British taxpayer, while it is 

 assumed that we must remain blind to the real 

 sources of improvement in our position, which 

 are not only different, but also quite opposite. 

 I ask what I must do to be saved, and find that the 

 first article in the new Faith is salvation by crime, 

 not by good farming. To keep up the creed of 

 crime, good farming must be put down, and dis- 

 credited where it occurs in spite of the master 

 criminals. Let us examine this at close quarters. 

 Take my own area, which is, I think, quite close 

 to the average. Under ordinary letting, without 

 either land agitation or reductions, the rent would 



now remain at .9 18 o 



Deduct Purchase Annuity ... 5 13 10 



Balance from Barbarism ... .442 



I cannot calculate the precise amount of murder 

 in securing it, but, for this bloody little balance, 

 the price of a small pig, or the increased market 

 value in a cow, I am to ignore the big advance in 

 market values and to give up the eighty pounds 



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