xxxv.) CONTINUANCE OF THE CONTROVERSY. = 895

their uses, When in my speech at Rochdale I came to touch upon the
subject of the land, the thought instantly flashed upon me—and none bat
the public speaker knows with what velocity thoughts move when in the
Presence of 4000 listeners—that I was dealing with a question about
which there is a superstition in England, unknown elsewhere, and that
the enemy would raise the cry of agrarianism against me, and hence my
denunciation of agrarian outrage, which will be found in the following
extract. Had I been inspired with the faculty of second-sight, and seen
the Editor of the Times sitting bodily penning his criticism on my speech,
I could not have more completely refuted and confounded in anticipation
the charge now brought against me.
The following is the passage referred to i
“Tt has been a fashion of late to talk of an extension of the franchise as
something not to be tolerated, because it is assumed that the mass of the
community are not fitted to take a part in government, and people point to
America and France, and other countries, and draw comparisons between
this country and other countries. Now, I hope I shall not be considered
revolutionary, because at my age I don’t want any revolutions, They
won't serve me, I am sure, or anybody that belongs to me. England may
compare very favourably with most other countries if you draw the line. in
Society tolerably high; and if you compare the condition of the rich and
the upper classes of Hngland, or a considerable portion of the middle
olasses, with the same classes abroad, I don’t think a rich max, barring
the climate, which is not very good, could be very much happier anywhere
alse than in England; but when my opponents treat this question of the
franchise as one that threatens to bring the magses of the people down
from their present state to the level of other nations, I say that I have
travelled in most civilized countries, and that the masses of my fellowcountrymen
 do not compare so favourably with the masses of other countries
as I could wish. I find in other countries a greater proportion of people
owning property than there are in England. I don’t know a protestant
community in the world where the masses of the people are go illiterate as
in Bogland. These are not bad tests of the condition of a people. It is
no uge your talking of your army and navy, your exports and your im-Ports—it
 is no use telling me you have a small portion of your people
oxceedingly well off. I want to bring the test to a comparison of the
majority of the people with the msjority of the people in other countries,
Now, I say with regard to some things in foreign countries we don’t coms
pare favourably. The condition of the English peasantry has no parallel
on the face of the earth. (Hear. You have no other peasantry but that
of England which is entirely divorced from the land. There is no other
Country in the world where you will not find men holding the plough and
turning up the furrow upon their own freehold. I don’t want any agrarian
outrages by which we should change all this, but this I find, and it is quite
tongistent with human nature, that wherever I go the condition of the
people is generally pretty good, in comparison with the power they have
ko take care of themselves; and if you have a olass entirely destitute of

1868.
Zt, 59.