XII] SHROPSHIRE AND JACK MYTTON 177 



of human misery and want in every civilized country in the 

 world. 



And yet our rulers and our teachers — the legislature, the 

 press, and the pulpit alike — shut their eyes to all this terrible 

 demoralization in our midst, while devoting all their energies 

 to increasing our already superfluous and injurious wealth- 

 accumulations, and in compelling other peoples, against their 

 will, to submit to our ignorant and often disastrous rule. As 

 the great Russian teacher has well said, " They will do any- 

 thing rather than get off the people's backs." And we, who 

 adopt the principles of those great thinkers whom all delight 

 to honour — Ruskin and Spencer — and urge the adoption of 

 equality of opportunity " — of equal education, equal nurture, 

 an equal start in life — for all (implying the abolition of all 

 inequality of inheritance) as the one Great Reform which 

 will alone render all other reforms — all general social advance 

 — possible, are either quietly ignored as idle dreamers, or 

 openly declared to be " enemies of society." 



These few remarks and ideas have been suggested to me 

 by the life and death of Jack Mytton, and I trust that some 

 of my readers may follow them up for the good of humanity. 



VOL I. 



N 



