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  unexampled ­
  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.  Gladstone ­
  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  accompanied ­
  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.