The M'Laren herein mentioned was of course the distinguished Scotch
politician and social reformer, Duncan M'Laren, for sixteen years
M.P. for Edinburgh.
_[Menton], Sunday, January 4, 1874._
MY DEAR MOTHER,--We have here fallen on the very pink of hotels. I do
not say that it is more pleasantly conducted than the Pavillon, for that
were impossible; but the rooms are so cheery and bright and new, and
then the food! I never, I think, so fully appreciated the phrase "the
fat of the land" as I have done since I have been here installed. There
was a dish of eggs at _dejeuner_ the other day, over the memory of which
I lick my lips in the silent watches.
Now that the cold has gone again, I continue to keep well in body, and
already I begin to walk a little more. My head is still a very feeble
implement, and easily set a-spinning; and I can do nothing in the way of
work beyond reading books that may, I hope, be of some use to me
afterwards.
I was very glad to see that M'Laren was sat upon, and principally for
the reason why. Deploring as I do much of the action of the Trades
Unions, these conspiracy clauses and the whole partiality of the Master
and Servant Act are a disgrace to our equal laws. Equal laws become a
byeword when what is legal for one class becomes a criminal offence for
another. It did my heart good to hear that man tell M'Laren how, as he
had talked much of getting the franchise for working men, he must now be
content to see them use it now they had got it. This is a smooth stone
well planted in the foreheads of certain dilettanti radicals, after
M'Laren's fashion, who are willing to give the working men words and
wind, and votes and the like, and yet think to keep all the advantages,
just or unjust, of the wealthier classes without abatement. I do hope
wise men will not attempt to fight the working men on the head of this
notorious injustice. Any such step will only precipitate the action of
the newly enfranchised classes, and irritate them into acting hastily;
when what we ought to desire should be that they should act warily and
little for many years to come, until education and habit may make them
the more fit.
All this (intended for my father) is much after the fashion of his own
correspondence. I confess it has left my own head exhausted; I hope it
may not produce the same effect on yours. But I want him to look really
into this question (both sides of it, and not the representations of
rabid middle-class newspapers, sworn to support all the little tyrannies
of wealth), and I know he will be convinced that this is a case of
unjust law; and that, however desirable the end may seem to him, he will
not be Jesuit enough to think that any end will justify an unjust law.
Here ends the political sermon of your affectionate (and somewhat
dogmatical) son,