INTRODUCTION 



A PROLONGED and determined crusade is as 

 urgently needed in these modern days as when 

 the burning eloquence of Peter the Hermit drew 

 the armed hosts of Europe to the attempted rescue of 

 the Holy Sepulchre. The battles now to be waged are 

 not against the Saracens, but against the forces of 

 ignorance apathy and criminal neglect, which have 

 wrought, and are still causing, havoc in our own country. 

 It must be manifest to all keen observers that unless 

 the people and the legislature are soon aroused from 

 their Rip Van Winkle sleep to a full realisation of the 

 insidious manner in which these enemies of our race have 

 entrenched themselves round about us, hemming us in 

 on every side, the d rest perils and disasters must await 

 us. " A strong man armed keepeth his house in peace," 

 but for many years past we have been living in a Fool's 

 Paradise, and have allowed ourselves to be beguiled, 

 surprised and handed over to our foes, bound hand and 

 foot in fetters stronger than those which the mighty 

 Samson awoke to struggle against in days of old. It is with 

 reference to such foes that the warning voice is now raised. 

 The first object aimed at in this book is to focus the 

 attention of the people on the phenomenal, widespread, 

 and yet unnecessary poverty which exists in the United 

 Kingdom as an inevitable result of neglecting the land 

 industry, as well as on the uselessness of all effort, 



