arlow, 'but at
present, all the land, railways and factories, belongs to private
capitalists; they can't be bought without money, and you say you ain't
goin' to take 'em away by force, so I should like to know how the
bloody 'ell you are goin' to get 'em?'

'We certainly don't propose to buy them with money, for the simple
reason that there is not sufficient money in existence to pay for them.

'If all the gold and silver money in the World were gathered together
into one heap, it would scarcely be sufficient to buy all the private
property in England. The people who own all these things now never
really paid for them with money--they obtained possession of them by
means of the "Money Trick" which Owen explained to us some time ago.'

'They obtained possession of them by usin' their brain,' said Crass.
'Exactly,' replied the lecturer. 'They tell us themselves that that is
how they got them away from us; they call their profits the "wages of
intelligence". Whilst we have been working, they have been using their
intelligence in order to obtain possession of the things we have
created. The time has now arrived for us to use our intelligence in
order to get back the things they have robbed us of, aid to prevent
them from robbing us any more. As for how it is to be done, we might
copy the methods that they have found so successful.'

'Oh, then you DO mean to rob them after all,' cried Slyme,
triumphantly. 'If it's true that they robbed the workers, and if we're
to adopt the same method then we'll be robbers too!'

'When a thief is caught having in his possession the property of others
it is not robbery to take the things away from him and to restore them
to their rightful owners,' retorted Barrington.

'I can't allow this 'ere disorder to go on no longer,' shouted Philpot,
banging the table with the plumber's hammer as several men began
talking at the same time.

'There will be plenty of tuneropperty for questions and opposition at
the hend of the horation, when the pulpit will be throwed open to
anyone as likes to debate the question. I now calls upon the professor
to proceed with the second part of the horation: and anyone wot
interrupts will get a lick under the ear-'ole with this'--waving the
hammer--'and the body will be chucked out of the bloody winder.'

Loud cheers greeted this announcement. It was still raining heavily,
so they thought they might as well pass the time listening to
Barrington as in a