'of educating the people to fit them--'

'They speak of commanding the winds and tides,' he cut her short, with no
clear analogy; 'wait till we have a storm. It's a delusion amounting to
dementedness to suppose, that with the people inside our defences, we can
be taming them and tricking them. As for sending them to school after
giving them power, it's like asking a wild beast to sit down to dinner
with us--he wants the whole table and us too. The best education for the
people is government. They're beginning to see that in Lancashire at
last. I ran down to Lancashire for a couple of days on my landing, and
I'm thankful to say Lancashire is preparing to take a step back.
Lancashire leads the country. Lancashire men see what this Liberalism has
done for the Labour-market.'

'Captain Beauchamp considers that the political change coming over the
minds of the manufacturers is due to the large fortunes they have made,'
said Miss Halkett, maliciously associating a Radical prophet with him.

He was unaffected by it, and continued: 'Property is ballast as well as
treasure. I call property funded good sense. I would give it every
privilege. If we are to speak of patriotism, I say the possession of
property guarantees it. I maintain that the lead of men of property is in
most cases sure to be the safe one.'

'I think so,' Colonel Halkett interposed, and he spoke as a man of
property.

Mr. Tuckham grew fervent in his allusions to our wealth and our commerce.
Having won the race and gained the prize, shall we let it slip out of our
grasp? Upon this topic his voice descended to tones of priestlike awe:
for are we not the envy of the world? Our wealth is countless, fabulous.
It may well inspire veneration. And we have won it with our hands, thanks
(he implied it so) to our religion. We are rich in money and industry, in
those two things only, and the corruption of an energetic industry is
constantly threatened by the profusion of wealth giving it employment.
This being the case, either your Radicals do not know the first
conditions of human nature, or they do; and if they do they are traitors,
and the Liberals opening the gates to them are fools: and some are
knaves. We perish as a Great Power if we cease to look sharp ahead, hold
firm together, and make the utmost of what we possess. The word for the
performance of those duties is Toryism: a word with an older flavour than
Conservatism, and Mr. Tuckham preferred it. By all mean