once was,

"Intellectual or moral advancement; improvement in knowledge or in
virtue."

Now it means _cheap cotton and cheap men and women_. To the enlightened
and prosperous English nation belongs the credit of this radical
discovery.

To England too belongs the invention or creation of our new god. She--I
am happy to say it--she invented and created the god we now worship. We
call him

TRADE!

The first, last, and only commandment of our new god is,

"_Buy cheap and sell dear._"

Whatever nation or man worships this god, and obeys this first and
great commandment, is sure of blessedness; for that man or that nation
will get more money than other men and other nations, as England has;
and will be happy, _as she is_!

Swiftly and surely the belief and worship of the new god and the new
gospel is spreading into all lands. Men _fancy_ they still worship "the
Trinity," "Confucius," "Zoroaster," "Mohammed," "Mumbo-jumbo." It is
wholly a fancy. Men still _say_, "I believe in God the Father," etc.
They still say, "Do to others as you would have them do to you," is the
first and great commandment. But what they _do_ do, and wish to do, and
mean to do, is,

"To buy cheap and sell dear."

We need no missionaries to drive this gospel into heathen minds. It has
the charming vitalizing power of going itself. The Chinese have
received it, and have immediately taken the whole tea business out of
the hands of Messrs. Russell & Co. and Jardine, Matheson & Co.; have
quite put an extinguisher upon _their_ money-making. Indeed, do we not
know that _almost_ every European, Chinese, and Indian merchant has
failed, and the heathen Chinee sits in their seats.

How England came to invent this new gospel is known to many, though not
to all. Let me briefly sketch the amazing creation:

A century ago the strength and power of England was based upon her
yeomanry. They possessed much land; and upon the lovely rolling fields
of that lovely country their stone farm-houses and their small farms
were the homes and habitations of millions. From this strong and hardy
yeomanry were drawn the bowmen and the pike-men who made the armies of
the Edwards and the Henrys invincible; from them came the "jolly tars"
who seized victory for Drake and Nelson.

Then Liverpool was not, and Manchester was not, and _creation_ did
not pay tribute to England's god.

But a century ago Watt, the keen, canny Scotsman, discovered that
_steam_ was a gia