INTRODUCTION. 
xxxviii 
and their food is more varied. Their diet has, however, 
become almost everywhere too exclusively vegetarian, because, 
the increase of animals fit for food not having kept pace with 
the increase of the population, meat has become too dear. 
We can no longer say of our working classes as Cæsar said 
of the Germans, “Their food mainly consists of milk, cheese, 
and meat” * What is, unfortunately, well founded among the 
grievances set forth by the Socialists, is that the condition of 
the labourers has not improved in proportion to the increase 
of production, that the share obtained by them in the unex 
ampled development of wealth during this century is too small. 
In support of this assertion I shall cite only three witnesses, 
whose evidence is unimpeachable and who belong to the 
country where capital has increased most rapidly. Mr. Glad 
stone said in the House of Commons on the 13th February, 
1843, “ It is one of the most melancholy features in the social 
state of our country that a constant accumulation of wealth in 
the upper classes, and an increase of the luxuriousness of their 
habits and of their means of enjoyment” should be accom 
panied by “ a decrease in the consuming powers of the people, 
and an increase of the pressure of privation and distress” 
among the poorer classes. Professor Fawcett uses language 
to the same effect : “ Production has been stimulated beyond 
the expectations of the most sanguine, and supplies of food 
have been obtained from even the most distant countries in 
much greater quantities than could have been anticipated ; 
still, however, so far as the labourer is concerned, the age of 
golden plenty seems as remote as ever, and in the humble 
homes of the poor a not less constant war has to be waged 
against penury and want From the bitter disappointment 
thus engendered there has not unnaturally arisen a feeling of 
deep distrust of the fundamental principles on which society 
is based.” t Professor Cairnes speaks even more forcibly than 
Mr. Fawcett : “ The conclusion to which I am brought is 
this—that, unequal as is the distribution of wealth already in 
* De Bel. Gal. vi. 22. 
t “Essays and Lectures on Social and Political Subjects,” by Henry 
and Millicent G. Fawcett {1872), p. 5.