The working classes have no money to spend. Every
industry is flagging, and every industry seems threatened with
competition from abroad. Do you understand the principles of Free Trade
at all?"
"Not in the least. I wish I did."
"Some day we must have a talk about it. Henslow has made a very daring
suggestion to-day. He has given us all plenty to think about. We are
all agreed upon one thing. The crisis is fast approaching, and it must
be faced. These people have the right to live, and they have the right
to demand that legislation should interfere on their behalf."
She sighed.
"It is a comfort to hear you talk like this," she said. "To me it seems
almost maddening to see so much suffering, so many people suffering, not
only physically, but being dragged down into a lower moral state by
sheer force of circumstances and their surroundings, and all the time we
educated people go on our way and live our lives, as though nothing were
happening--as though we had no responsibility whatever for the holocaust
of misery at our doors. So few people stop to think. They won't
understand.
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