ther
return to Protection or go to smash by the road I have just mapped. Now,
sooner than let the Protectionists triumph, the Cobden Club itself would
blow the gaff and point out to the workers that Protection only means
compelling the proprietors of England to employ slaves resident
in England and therefore presumably--though by no means
necessarily--Englishmen. This would open the eyes of the nation at last
to the fact that England is not their property. Once let them understand
that and they would soon make it so. When England is made the property
of its inhabitants collectively, England becomes socialistic. Artificial
inequality will vanish then before real freedom of contract; freedom
of competition, or unhampered emulation, will keep us moving ahead; and
Free Trade will fulfil its promises at last."

"And the idlers and loafers," said Erskine. "What of them?"

"You and I, in fact," said Trefusis, "die of starvation, I suppose,
unless we choose to work, or unless they give us a little out-door
relief in consideration of our bad bringing-up."

"Do you mean that they will plunder us?" said Sir Charles.

"I mean that they will make us stop plundering them. If they hesitate
to strip us naked, or to cut our throats if we offer them the smallest
resistance, they will show us more mercy than we ever showed them.
Consider what we have done to get our rents in Ireland and Scotland, and
our dividends in Egypt, if you have already forgotten my photographs and
their lesson in our atrocities at home. Why, man, we murder the great
mass of these toilers with overwork and hardship; their average lifetime
is not half as long as ours. Human nature is the same in them as in us.
If we resist them, and succeed in restoring order, as we call it, we
will punish them mercilessly for their insubordination, as we did in
Paris in 1871, where, by-the-bye, we taught them the folly of giving
their enemies quarter. If they beat us, we shall catch it, and serve us
right. Far better turn honest at once and avert bloodshed. Eh, Erskine?"

Erskine was considering what reply he should make, when Trefusis
disconcerted him by ringing a bell. Presently the elderly woman
appeared, pushing before her an oblong table mounted on wheels, like a
barrow.

"Thank you," said Trefusis, and dismissed her. "Here is some good wine,
some good water, some good fruit, and some good bread. I know that
you cling to wine as to a good familiar creature. As for me, I