222 THE MURDER OF AGRICULTURE 



tain that by such means national prosperity can never 



come. 



And this is true, that, in one way and another, we find 

 our best interests have suffered through the efforts of 

 those who have been pulHng and hauhng them in this 

 direction and that, and we are sick and tired of it all. 

 Whigs, Tories, Liberals, Conservatives, Liberal-Union- 

 ists, Radicals and Labourites, Cobdenites, and now 

 Socialists, have all had a turn at us, and played with us 

 like a shuttlecock, with their own particular little Party 

 game as a battledore, and so — our interests have been 

 tossed about one to the other. 

 Doubt, Another thing, of which we should beware, is the fatal 

 and Self- habit of hesitancy, doubt and disbelief, which is a 

 Interest jyi^rked characteristic of the day. Bring along your 

 scheme, it matters not what it may be, and you will have 

 a veritable host of scoffers and disputants ready to pull it 

 to pieces. 



In Parliament or out of it, it is the same, always doubt, 

 ridicule, derision, opposition, always a" Party " against 

 it, always somebody ready to pull down remorselessly 

 what it has taken better men such infinite pains to build 

 up. Your scheme may be as hollow as a drum, or as solid 

 as Mother Earth, it is aU the same to your iconoclast ; his 

 business is to destroy, and he does it in many cases. " Oh, 

 I can't stomach that." " You won't catch me beheving 

 this." and the short, but trenchant " bally rot " are 

 common sayings in the mouths of thousands of people, 

 whose only warrant for their utterance is that spirit of 

 foolish unbelief which possesses so many of our country^- 

 men. 



