articular were
extremely amused, without specially noting the increasing bitterness of
his tone.

'But our watch-dogs, our watch-dogs! You will surely let us keep them,
doctor?' exclaimed a coal-merchant laughingly.

'Not at all. Nothing is more unreasonable than that a poor man, who
comes to fill his bag from a coal mountain, should be torn to pieces by
wild beasts. There is absolutely no reasonable relation between such a
trifling misdemeanour and so dreadful a punishment.'

'May we ask how you would protect your coal mountain, if you had one?'

'I should erect a substantial fence of boards, and if I were very
anxious, I should keep a watchman, who would say politely, but firmly,
to those who came with bags: "Excuse me, but my master is very
particular about that. You must not fill your bag; you must take
yourself off at once."'

Through the general laughter which followed this last paradox, a
clerical gentleman spoke from the ladies' end of the table:

'It appears to me that there is something lacking in this
discussion--something that I would call the ethical aspect of the
question. Is it not a fact that in the hearts of all who sit here there
is a clear, definite sense of the revolting nature of the crime we call
theft?'

These words were received with general and hearty applause.

'And I think it does very great violence to our feelings to hear Dr.
Hansen minimising a crime that is distinctly mentioned in Divine and
human law as one of the worst--to hear him reduce it to the size of a
trifling and insignificant misdemeanour. Is not this highly demoralizing
and dangerous to Society?'

'Permit me, too,' promptly replied the indefatigable Hansen, 'to present
an ethical aspect of the question. Is it not a fact that in the hearts
of innumerable persons who do not sit here there is a clear, definite
sense of the revolting nature of the crime they call wealth? And must it
not greatly outrage the feelings of those who do not themselves possess
any coal except an empty bag, to see a man who permits himself to own
two or three hundred thousand sacks letting wild beasts loose to guard
his coal mountain, and then going to bed after having written on the
gate: "Watch-dogs unfastened at dusk"? Is not that very provoking and
very dangerous to Society?'

'Oh, good God and Father! He is a regular _sans-culotte_!' cried old
grandmother.

The majority gave vent to mutterings of displeasure; he was going too
far; it wa