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fuel, as may well be supposed; and agitation had readied such a head that even those who wished to bring about reform for the real benefit of the people were looked on with mistrust, and deemed self-seekers by legislators and others who, being very comfortable and prosperous themselves, thought that if others were not so, it must be their own faults somehow; though they did not seek too diligently to study how!
Then we dreamed again; and behold! an active spirit of love for this poor island filled the mind of the sovereign; and that sovereign said—"I will annually reside among this my people; and furthermore, no subject of mine who derives revenue from the rents paid by this my people, shall find favour in my sight if he does not, in his turn, visit that portion of those my dominions in which under me, he is to his tenants what I am to him and to all. Nor will I receive at my court elsewhere any landholder of this island who has not first paid homage to me at the court which shall be holden by me therein. And I will issue commissions of able men who shall inquire into the condition of the country's natural resources, and learn the nature of the obstacles which impede their development. And then will I exhort my Parliament to frame such just and wise laws as will tend to encourage and facilitate the operations of industry, develop the skill, and augment the wealth and prosperity and happiness of these my subjects."
And that Sovereign came and dwelt among the people of the island; and landlords came and dwelt on their estates, and, with their wives, and their sons, and their daughters—following their sovereign's example—visited the poor, considered their condition, worked for their amelioration! Heirs to landed property were no longer left to amuse themselves, or employ themselves as best they might, till the course of nature should chance to place them in their father's shoes; but they received a new training. They, like the sons of the new, the manufacturing aristocracy, were brought up to their business. They were taught how to perform the duties of their station; how the people who were under them could best be advanced, how the properties which maintained them could best be developed. And the rustic youth of that island were especially instructed in the details of the calling by which they had to live, according to the rules of modern agricultural science, so far as they were adapted to their humble style of husbandry; and their sisters were taught to make clothes, to mend them, to cook, and to clean. Poverty vanished, rags vanished, dirt vanished, discontent vanished, the people learned to respect themselves, and they also learned to respect those who were placed over them; love reigned supreme, and that attach-
