edn edddress 15

emotions is the most soul-destroying habit that
can be indulged ; yet if the market is so fully
supplied it is because there is a demand, and the
average uneducated man likes to have his newspaper
 full of murders and divorce-cases and bad
jokes, and loves to sit in front of a spectacle that
pricks him with horror or tickles him to foolish
laughter, — No sane philosopher would wish
such men to have any voice in national politics.
This state of things is due to uncontrolled
competition : competition for money. The
reason why the housing is so dirty and costly is
that the mean dingy streets have been run up by
a speculating builder who only wanted interest
for his money. And the reason why this poisontree
 has been allowed to grow is that the Liberal
statesmen in the reign of Queen Victoria were
agreed that the way to promote national prosperity
 and general happiness was to allow every
man to do as he liked—blind to the fact that this
prevented any one from living as he ought,
whether he wished it or no. But they believed
in their doctrine.
The cure of all this is difficult enough. Our