addressed by the Prime Minister to his newly appointed colleagues,
giving each of them in turn advice how to run his department. In this
case there was no necessity to suggest administrative reforms only. The
Liberals were certain of a majority, and they had no programme: they
were bound to win, not on their merits, but on the defects of their
opponents. The Letter, written by Webb in a rollicking style, to which
he rarely condescends, touched on each of the great departments of
Government, and advocated both the old policy of Trade Union hours and
wages, for which the new Prime Minister had made himself in 1893
personally responsible, but also all sorts of progressive measures,
graduated and differentiated income-tax for the Treasury, Compulsory
Arbitration in Labour Disputes for the Home Office--we discovered the
flaw in that project later--reform of Grants in Aid for the Local
Government Board, Wages Boards for Agriculture, and so on. A few weeks
later the country had the General Election to think about, and the
Letter was merely reprinted for private circulation amongst the members
of the Society. But we took care that the new Ministers read it, and it
served to remind them of the demands which, after the election, the
Labour Party, at last in being, would not let them again forget.

FOOTNOTES:

[26] Bernard Shaw has sent me the following note on this paragraph:--

One London group incident should be immortalized. It was in the W.C.
group, which met in Gt. Ormond St. It consisted of two or three members
who used to discuss bi-metallism. I was a member geographically, but
never attended. One day I saw on the notice of meetings which I received
an announcement that Samuel Butler would address the group on the
authorship of the Odyssey. Knowing that the group would have no notion
of how great a man they were entertaining, I dashed down to the meeting;
took the chair; gave the audience (about five strong including Butler
and myself) to understand that the occasion was a great one; and when we
had listened gravely to Samuel's demonstration that the Odyssey was
written by Nausicaa, carried a general expression of enthusiastic
agreement with Butler, who thanked us with old-fashioned gravity and
withdrew without giving a sign of his feelings at finding so small a
meeting of the famous Fabian Society. Considering how extraordinary a
man Butler is now seen to have been, there is something tragic in the
fact that the greates