A SYNOPSIS 375 



under Cobden, and kept alive by the self-interests of that 

 powerful manufacturing section of the community known as 

 the " Manchester School." 



This awakening of the people to such astounding truths, 

 although tardy, is none the less real and abiding, and the time 

 has come for Governments to realise that the old order must 

 give place to the new, and that the British people are no 

 longer disposed to submit to a state of affairs as disgraceful as 

 it is unnecessary, and which, wliilc maintaining a fiscal and 

 economic condition utterly unsuited to this or any other 

 civilised country, only serves to bolster up the sordid interests 

 of a comparatively small coterie of manufacturers and merchants. 

 In spite of the denials of Governments and of political parties, 

 their policy has been, and is, to trim their sails so as to serve 

 Existing Inteuests, whicli include vested interests and class 

 interests. 



The legislative measures of the Conservative Government, 

 which had a long innings of some eighteen years, showed how 

 they trimmed their sails to catch the political breezes, while 

 the measures of the present Government show what course theij 

 steer. Neither of them tackles this burning ([uestion of 

 pauperism and unemployment save from the old time-honoured 

 custom of mulcting rate and tax-payers, and until they are 

 forced by public opinion to abandon these predatory methods of 

 raising the wind to feed the ever-open pauper maw, they will 

 adopt no other. 



But perhaps the most damning indictment against the 

 fiscal and economical system set up in this country sixty odd 

 years ago, and which men call, by misnomer, " Free-trade," is 

 the fact that it costs 135 millions sterling in Slate and imhlic 

 charities to mctintain it. 



This is a view of the case which has not appealed to the 

 average Euglishman till quite recently, but now he finds that 

 his heavy rates and taxes, and the never-ending and ever- 

 increasing charities afford no real relief to the situation, the 

 strain has become intolerable, and Jolm Bull is at last 

 determined to look into the matter himself. He at length 

 realises that the State actually raises £35,000,000 annually in 

 Poor Eates, and he knows that the vast majority of the British 

 people are necessarily engaged year in and year out in helping 

 their destitute brethren. He knows also the aggregate amount 

 of these universal charities must be stupendous, and if they 

 reach the colossal figure of £100,000,000 annually he would not 

 be surprised. 



It then occurs to him that nny social, economic, or fiscal 

 condition that demands £35,000,000 from tax-payers, and 



