INTRODUCTION.

XXXVll

inequality  both  by  devouring  a  large  portion  of  the  produce
which  might  go  to  improve  the  lot  of  the  labourers,  and  by
enabling  an  increasing  number  of  independent  persons  to  live
on  the  interest  of  loans  necessitated  by  wars  and  armaments.
In  the  second  place,  forced  service  draws  into  the  large  towns,
always  more  or  less  active  centres  of  socialistic  ideas,  all  the
pung  men  from  the  country  districts,  and  through  them  these
Ideas  penetrate  into  the  hamlets  where  lately  the  feelings  and
beliefs  of  the  past  were  preserved  intact  I  do  not  believe
that,  up  to  the  present,  the  majority  of  soldiers  have  anywhere
been  gained  over  to  Socialism  ;  far  from  it  ;  but  evidently  here
les  the  great  danger  for  the  existing  order  of  things,  which
depends,  after  all,  upon  the  support  of  bayonets.  If  this  last
rampart  were  carried,  frightful  convulsions  would  inevitably
ensue.  ^
Let  us  now  endeavour  to  separate  what  is  true  in  Socialism
trom  what  is  false.

The  foundation  of  all  socialistic  claims  is  the  assertion  that
present  social  system  is  to  increase  inequality,
Jï  labourers  becoming  daily  worse,  while  the
a  ote  capitalists  and  landowners  is  always  augmenting.
•.ble  Ibafe™.'".™'’'  ''  '*■  ™  doubt,  incontest-■