TRUE AND FALSE SOCIALISM 217 



dous contribution of over /ioo,ooo,ooo (one hundred Voluntary 

 millions sterling) annually to the needs of the people, is 

 purely voluntary. 



It is a form of charity which grows out of pity and 

 compassion, and once you crush out pity and stifle com- 

 passion, you cut off the source of charity. 



Those who give so liberally, and so continuously, out 

 of their ample means to help the helpless and cast a few 

 bright rays of sunshine over the lives of those who, but 

 for this help, would live on in darkness and despair, are 

 not obliged to give, and this significant fact should never 

 be lost sight of for a single moment. We are apt to think 

 that these good people are obliged to hand over their 

 millions annually, and this attitude on the part of that 

 section of Progressivists, Socialists, or whatever they 

 call themselves, has already had a bad effect. Many a 

 generous giver whose hand was constantly in his pocket 

 in aid of the poor and needy, the sick and suffering 

 among his fellow countrymen, has ceased to give because 

 of the blustering, bullying attitude of those who lead the 

 people astray by false doctrines. 



"An Englishman's house is his castle," and his money 

 is his own ; and in spite of the ravings of the paid agitator 

 and the vapourings of the social iconoclast, it will remain 

 so. England is a free country, and her sons and daugh- 

 ters are free; free to give or free to withhold. The 

 wealthy and well-to-do classes have exercised that free- 

 dom by generously giving, but, given sufficient cause, they 

 may stay their hand and withhold those many millions, 

 which are as life-blood to a vast number of our poor, and 

 without which the one bright beam that sheds a small 



