52 BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



Imperial interests, and many national evils will soon disappear, 

 and many a stain on tlie escutcheon of national honour will 

 soon be wiped away. 



They must, liowever, learn the maxim, " The surest help 

 comes from within," because no aid can come to them from 

 without. Many modern Conservatives are as averse to real 

 reform that would benefit the people as were the old-fashioned 

 Tories. The Radicals' fiscal legislation is notoriously pre- 

 dacious, and directed entirely against the great Middle-Classes. 

 Labourites and Socialists hold the bourgeoisie in supreme con- 

 tempt, and would, if they had the power, render them as extinct 

 as the Dodo ; and so — the Middle- Classes must learn to help them- 

 selves, as the Labourites and Socialists have done, by their strong 

 right arms and stoiit hearts. 



USELESSNESS OF POLEMICS IN PeAGTICAL INDUSTRY 



Then, once more, this great body of men who discern grave 

 dangers in existing conditions to national integrity, recognise 

 the senselessness of the mass of polemics that are hurled at the 

 very simple question of how to cultivate our waste fields and 

 make the most of our industries. These rudimentary questions, 

 which were settled by our Continental neighbours long ago, and 

 which never give their " professors " a moment's thought to-day, 

 are treated by many people in this country as though they 

 constituted in themselves some new discovery in the broad 

 fields of science. In regard to agriculture, all the civilised 

 States of the world, and the uncivilised as well, long ago 

 discovered the golden rule that it is better to cultivate your 

 fields than to allow them to lie waste and unproductive, and 

 they simply cultivated them. In regard to trade and industries, 

 they discovered another golden rule, namely, that these should 

 be conducted along lines that would insure the best possible 

 national results, and also conduce to the comfort, wealth, and 

 prosperity of the people generally. This is practically a universal 

 law with all the chief nations of the world. 



With us it is different. The subject of whether we should 

 or should not cultivate our fields is a controversial question. 

 The result is, we do not cultivate them, and therefore there is 

 enormous loss. The question as to how to run our trades 

 and industries is also a matter for endless controversy ; the 

 result being enormous pauper taxation, unemployment, unfair 

 foreign competition, immense poverty, discontent, political 

 unrest, and a general state of exactly what we deserve for our 

 folly ! 



