 is
preparing to take a step back. Lancashire leads the country. Lancashire men see
what this Liberalism has done for the Labour-market.«
    »Captain Beauchamp considers that the political change coming over the minds
of the manufacturers is due to the large fortunes they have made,« said Miss
Halkett, maliciously associating a Radical prophet with him.
    He was unaffected by it, and continued: »Property is ballast as well as
treasure. I call property funded good sense. I would give it every privilege. If
we are to speak of patriotism, I say the possession of property guarantees it. I
maintain that the lead of men of property is in most cases sure to be the safe
one.«
    »I think so,« Colonel Halkett interposed, and he spoke as a man of property.
    Mr. Tuckham grew fervent in his allusions to our wealth and our commerce.
Having won the race and gained the prize, shall we let it slip out of our grasp?
Upon this topic his voice descended to tones of priestlike awe: for are we not
the envy of the world? Our wealth is countless, fabulous. It may well inspire
veneration. And we have won it with our hands, thanks (he implied it so) to our
religion. We are rich in money and industry, in those two things only, and the
corruption of an energetic industry is constantly threatened by the profusion of
wealth giving it employment. This being the case, either your Radicals do not
know the first conditions of human nature, or they do; and if they do they are
traitors, and the Liberals opening the gates to them are fools: and some are
knaves. We perish as a Great Power if we cease to look sharp ahead, hold firm
together, and make the utmost of what we possess. The word for the performance
of those duties is Toryism: a word with an older flavour than Conservatism, and
Mr. Tuckham preferred it. By all means let workmen be free men: but a man must
earn his freedom daily, or he will become a slave in some form or another: and
the way to earn it is by work and obedience to right direction. In a country
like ours, open on all sides to the competition of intelligence and strength,
with a Press that is the voice of all parties and of every interest; in a
country offering to your investments three and a half and more per cent., secure
as the firmament! -
    He perceived an amazed expression on Miss Halkett's countenance; and »Ay,«
said he, »that
