down upon the wife of a dissenting minister as her social inferior, and this is, on the whole, I think, well, for it tends to break up the notion of caste that exists between the two sects; it tends, I mean, to their mutual benefit, to the interchange of the church's sense of "the beauty of holiness" with the chapel's sense of the passion of holiness. Here, then, you are better off than we. On the other hand, you have no prejudice, as we at last have, against Protection, and consequently you go on benefiting a class at the expense of the community in a manner that can only, I think, be defined as short-sighted and foolish. Here we are better off than you. Again, however, you have not the prejudice that we have against the interven- tion of the State. You have nationalized your railways, and are attempting, as much as possible, to nationalize your land.[1] You are beginning to see that a land tax, at any given rate of annual value, would be (as Mr. Fawcett puts it) " a valuable national resource, which might be utilized in rendering unnecessary the imposition of many taxes which will otherwise have to be imposed." Here you are better off than we, better off both in fortune and general speculation. Again, you have not yet arrived at Federalism, and what a waste of time and all time's products is implied in the want of central unity! Now the first and third of these instances show the strength that is in this civilization, and the second shows a portion of the weakness, at present only a small portion, but, unless vigorous measures are resorted to and soon, this Protection will become the great evil that it is in America. There is just the same cry there as here: " Protect the native industries until they are strong enough to stand alone" — as if an industry that has once been protected will ever care to stand alone again until it is compelled to ! as if a class benefited at the expense of the community will ever give up its benefit until the community takes it away again ! On one of the first afternoons I spent in Melbourne, I remember strolling into a well-known book-mart, the book- mart "at the sign of the rainbow." I was interested both in the books and the people who were looking at or buying them. Here I found, almost at the London prices (for we get our twopence or threepence in the shilling on books now in London), all, or almost all, of the average London books of the day. The popular scientific, theological, and even literary
- ↑ The remark is, of course, general. Most of Victoria, as we all know, is unfortunately definitely sold.
