DISCOURAGERS AND PESSIMISTS 219 



economists, or the jargon of the " professors " of this or that 

 " ism," than flesh and blood can withstand the deadly fusilade 

 of the modern machine gun. 



After tliis comes that great school of "controversialists" 

 which perhaps exercises a wider influence over the minds of the 

 people tlian any other school extant, because of the omnifarious- 

 ness of its studies. No subject is too lofty for its ambitions, 

 and none are l)eneath its consideration. It will tackle the 

 most abstruse problems in astronomical science as readily as it 

 will devote its attention to the best way of boiling broad 

 beans ! Tell a member of tliis school that it is better and 

 truer economy to cultivate your garden patch than to leave it 

 lying unfruitful, and he will prove by all the laws of science, 

 and entirely to his own satisfaction, that you are as wrong in 

 your position as the man who happens for the moment to be 

 standing on his head. 



Nor should we overlook the political economist, pure and 

 simple, who may be likened unto the spider that spins on and 

 on until his web is broad enough to enmesh all those who are 

 unwary enough to come in contact with it. This man is a great 

 thinker, a professed student of all matters pertaining to the 

 movement of trade, the import of food products, and the export 

 of merchandise, and he will prove to you that the man in this 

 country who attempts to grow bacon and make butter, when he 

 can import both of these commodities cheaper from Chicago and 

 Denmark, is nothing more or less than an imbecile. 



IXTERESTED MERCHANTS, BANKERS, AND ^MANUFACTURERS 



Then there is that great army of those who, for excellent 

 reasons, are deeply interested in the maintenance of existing 

 conditions, and whose widespread intluence militates seriously 

 against the chances of carrying British agriculture to a successful 

 issue. 



In the ranks of this army are to be found bankers, merchants, 

 shipowners, stockbrokers, produce-brokers, commercial com- 

 panies of many sorts, the " Trusts," those engaged, directly or 

 indirectly, in the import and export trade, and a host of others 

 too numerous to mention. Question these last — the " hoi- 

 poUoi " of this crowd — as to the advantages or otherwise of 

 preserving the st((tw^ quo in respect to this matter, and they will 

 probably know little or nothing of the subject ; but ask the 

 bank director, the merchant, the shipowner, or the " Trust " 

 magnate whether we should grow our own corn or imj^ort it, and 

 his answer will be short, empluitic, and to the point. Merchants 

 and exchange bankers, dock owners, and ship owners are, 



