Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



light," we may reap some advantage in a more 

 detached view of facts, policies, and tendencies, 

 than if we were in the thick of the fray. 



It is not only from the blasts of the northern 

 winter that the expanse of ocean and the 

 mountain barrier seclude us. We have passed 

 completely from the conditions of modern 

 social life as we know it. With a labour- 

 ing class utterly illiterate, and Incapable of 

 organization or of expressing its wants and 

 grievances otherwise than by open revolt against 

 authority ; with a government conducted by, 

 and perhaps I may say not indifferent to the 

 interests of, that small portion of the population 

 which can read and write ; the political and 

 social problems which arise here are quite other 

 than those with which we are concerned. 

 Over-population there may be, but it is con- 

 siderably mitigated by emigration ; " unemploy- 

 ment," in the sense that those who want work 

 and wages cannot find them, is among a people 

 almost entirely agricultural not a burning 

 question ; poverty is doubtless widespread, but 

 with cold unknown and hunger easily appeased 

 its consequences are far less severe than in less 

 fortunate climes. Such difficulties and dangers 



lO 



