bours. Does the Christianity of the churches and the sects produce
these results among us? Look at the staple of the country, at the
occupation which employs the largest number of Englishmen of all
degrees--Look at our Commerce. What is its social aspect, judged by the
morality which is in this book in my hand? Let those organised systems
of imposture, masquerading under the disguise of banks and companies,
answer the question--there is no need for me to answer it. You know what
respectable names are associated, year after year, with the shameless
falsification of accounts, and the merciless ruin of thousands on
thousands of victims. You know how our poor Indian customer finds his
cotton-print dress a sham that falls to pieces; how the savage who deals
honestly with us for his weapon finds his gun a delusion that bursts;
how the half-starved needlewoman who buys her reel of thread finds
printed on the label a false statement of the number of yards that she
buys; you know that, in the markets of Europe, foreign goods are fast
taking the place of English goods, because the foreigner is the most
honest manufacturer of the two--and, lastly, you know, what is worse
than all, that these cruel and wicked deceptions, and many more like
them, are regarded, on the highest commercial authority, as 'forms of
competition' and justifiable proceedings in trade. Do you believe in
the honourable accumulation of wealth by men who hold such opinions and
perpetrate such impostures as these? I don't! Do you find any brighter
and purer prospect when you look down from the man who deceives you and
me on the great scale, to the man who deceives us on the small? I
don't! Everything we eat, drink, and wear is a more or less adulterated
commodity; and that very adulteration is sold to us by the tradesmen at
such outrageous prices, that we are obliged to protect ourselves on the
Socialist principle, by setting up cooperative shops of our own. Wait!
and hear me out, before you applaud. Don't mistake the plain purpose
of what I am saying to you; and don't suppose that I am blind to the
brighter side of the dark picture that I have drawn. Look within the
limits of private life, and you will find true Christians, thank God,
among clergymen and laymen alike; you will find men and women who
deserve to be called, in the highest sense of the word, disciples of
Christ. But my business is not with private life--my business is with
the present public aspect of