PAUPER QUESTION IN ENGLAND AND GERMANY 71 



should be relieved from this hauntinj:^ shape; and "economists" 

 reply by pointing' to trade expansion and the wealth of the 

 country as vindicating the truth of political science and in proof 

 of the unreasonableness of the people's demand. The people 

 ask for bread, and they got a stone. 



All this, and much more besides, is, as anti-Free-traders 

 insist, ever in evidence in favour of sharp drastic reforms in the 

 system which has produced results so disastrous to the people, 

 and of bringing every available acre in the United Kingdom 

 under the highest possible form of cultivation. It is pointed out 

 that instead of progress we get reaction, while the reactionists 

 are ever ready with numerous plausible arguments showing that 

 the unfortunate position which the country has drifted into is 

 due to every conceivable cause other than those which are 

 known to be responsible for it. There are, however, signs of a 

 great awakening, and it is to be earnestly hoped tliat the people 

 will be aroused to the dangers which threaten them, and to a 

 realisation of their own wrongs, sooner than the reactionaries 

 think. 



