COMPETITION. 121 



at any rate, they can put them in such positions as 

 will enable them to produce wealth for themselves. 

 The children of those families who possess little 

 wealth are from the first at a disadvantage, and only 

 those with very exceptional powers can possibly 

 succeed in a struggle against their more fortunate 

 neighbours. 



Property is not always acquired by the Most Capable. 



But if riches and power had always remained in the 

 hands of the most capable, and if these had always 

 married women of capacity, then riches and power 

 would be where they would be of most advantage ; 

 but this has certainly not been the case. As already 

 remarked, the awards of land and wealth at the time 

 of the conquest were given to those of the conquering 

 side who had showed most prowess in war and in- 

 trigue, at the expense of equally capable men 

 amongst the vanquished. England thus received a 

 nobility who were practically on an equality with her 

 common people, but who, on account of previous 

 contact with the wonderfully organising power of the 

 Romish Church, and with the more civilised com- 

 munities of the South, had acquired the art of 

 organised warfare, and thereby the necessary sub- 

 ordination of the many to the few, lessons that the 

 races living in England had not had the chance of 

 learning. In more recent times wealth and con- 



