THE FINAL RESOLVE.
The following letter was addressed to her _protégé_ in Liverpool by Rose
immediately after the consultation already described:
‘MY DEAR BOY,
‘Wentworth and I have formed a scheme for the future in which we hope
you will unite.
‘We propose to establish a co-operative self-supporting community on
the other side of the Atlantic.
‘Old England is played out. It may be that there is a new England to
arise out of the ashes of the old, but it seems rather that—like
Rome, and Athens, and Tyre, and India, and Babylon, and Corinth, and
Carthage—its glory has passed away. The democracy will rule the
land, and that means the separation of Ireland and England, the ruin
of the landlords and of the capitalists, who in their turn will be
sacrificed to the popular demand for a theoretical right. A member
of Parliament will simply have to be the mouthpiece of his
constituents; he will be imposed on them, in ninety-nine cases out of
a hundred, by an assembly of wealthy, ambitions men, prepared to do
anything to retain their hold of power.
‘Parliament or the State will have to interfere between fools and the
results of their folly. The wretch who gets drunk and starves his
wife and children will have to be taken under the care of the State.
The lazy loafer, who cannot and will not work, will have to be
maintained by the community. There is to be no coercion and no
compulsion, and everybody is to be allowed to drive to the devil in
the way most convenient. Economic law is to be set aside to gratify
the demands of the people who want to be known as patriots, and who
will thus put into men’s heads ideas they would never have dreamed
of. Probably a fierce Communism will ravage the land, and by
destroying the wealthy increase tenfold the hardships of the poor.
It is because England has been the reverse of all this—because it has
been the land of men who have preferred to do their duty rather than
talk of their rights; who have gained with the strong arm and the
manly heart victory over the earth and all it holds, that England has
been the home of as noble a race—mixed, as it may be, of Celts and
Saxons—as ever sailed the ocean or ploughed the land.
‘What has England now to fall back on but a rapidly-exhausting coal
supply, an overwhelming debt, establishments—civil, and naval, and
military—preposterous in good times, wicked now when our trade is
declining everywhere, and the number daily increases of people who
have no work to do? Shutting their eyes to all the dangers of the
situation, we see the State split up into two parties—the one in
possession of power clinging to it at whatever cost of principle or
consistency, and the outs equally ready to pay the same price to get
in.
‘And then we have a Church which is a sort of half-way house to Rome,
and a conventional form of worship by thousands who call themselves
Christians, but are really heathen at heart; and hence a growing
class of men who delight to call themselves Atheists, and who fancy
that they are more enlightened than other men because they refuse to
bow the knee to a supreme Being. We are weary of all this. On the
other side of the Rocky Mountains, where the Pacific, with its warm
wind, sweeps up the slopes of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, we have
secured a large tract of country, with mines, and fertile valleys,
and rivers abounding with fish. The region is romantic. The country
is fertile, and it is far from the Old World, with its sin, its
sorrow, its difficulty of living, and its corroding care. There,
freed from the icy conventionalisms of the Old World, we shall lead
happy and useful lives—all engaged in remunerative labour that shall
leave abundant time for the cultivation of the mental powers, and
where none will be exhausted by overwork, either of body or of mind.
And we hope you will join our party.’
* * * * *
THE END.
* * * * *
* * * * *
BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.
* * * * *
_Second Edition_. _Price_ 7_s._ 6_d._
EAST ANGLIA:
Personal Recollections and Historical Associations.
BY J. EWING RITCHIE (‘CHRISTOPHER CRAYON’).
* * * * *
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
‘Very interesting.’—_Daily Graphic_.
‘A pleasant, good-natured book.’—_Echo_.
‘It will be read with a rush by everyone who takes it up.’—_British
Weekly_.
‘We cordially recommend Mr. Ritchie’s book to all who wish to pass an
agreeable hour and to learn something of the outward actions and inner
life of their predecessors. It is full of sketches of East Anglian
celebrities, happily touched if light limned.’—_East Anglian Daily
Times_.
‘A very entertaining and enjoyable book. Local gossip, a wide range of
reading and industrious research, have enabled the author to enliven his
pages with a wide diversity of subjects, specially attractive of East
Anglians, but also of much general interest.’—_Daily Chronicle_.
‘The work is written in a light gossipy style, and by reason both of it
and of the variety of persons introduced is interesting. To a Suffolk or
Norfolk man it is, of course, especially attractive. The reader will go
through these pages without being wearied by application. They form a
pleasant and entertaining contribution to county literature, and “East
Anglia” will, we should think, find its way to many of the East Country
bookshelves.’—_Suffolk Chronicle_.
‘The book is as readable and attractive a volume of local chronicles as
could be desired. Though all of our readers may not see “eye to eye”
with Mr. Ritchie in regard to political and theological questions, they
cannot fail to gain much enjoyment from his excellent delineation of old
days in East Anglia.’—_Norwich Mercury_.
‘“East Anglia” has the merit of not being a compilation, which is more
than can be said of the great majority of books produced in these days to
satisfy the revived taste for topographical gossip. Mr. Ritchie is a
Suffolk man—the son of a Nonconformist minister of Wrentham in that
county—and he looks back to the old neighbourhood and the old times with
an affection which is likely to communicate itself to his readers.
Altogether we can with confidence recommend this book not only to East
Anglians, but to all readers who have any affinity for works of its
class.—_Daily News_.
‘Mr. Richie’s book belongs to a class of which we have none too many, for
when well done they illustrate contemporary history in a really charming
manner. What with their past grandeur, their present progress, their
martyrs, patriots, and authors, there is plenty to tell concerning
Eastern counties; and one who writes with native enthusiasm is sure to
command an audience.’—_Baptist_.
‘Mr. Ritchie, known to the numerous readers of the _Christian World_ as
“Christopher Crayon,” has the pen of a ready, racy, refreshing writer.
He never writes a dull line, and never for a moment allows our interest
to flag. In the work before us, which is not his first, he is, I should
think, at his best. The volume is the outcome of extensive reading, many
rambles over the districts described, and of thoughtful observation. We
seem to live and move and have our being in East Anglia. Its folklore,
its traditions, its worthies, its memorable events, are all vividly and
charmingly placed before us, and we close the book sorry that there is no
more of it, and wondering why it is that works of a similar land have not
more frequently appeared.’—_Northern Pioneer_.
‘It has yielded us more gratification than any work that we have read for
a considerable time. The book ought to have a wide circulation in the
Eastern Counties, and will not fail to yield profit and delight wherever
it finds its way.—_Essex Telegraph_.
‘Mr. Ritchie has here written a most attractive chapter of autobiography.
He recalls the scenes of his early days, and whatever was quaint or
striking in connection with them, and finds in his recollection ready
pegs on which to hang historical incidents and antiquarian curiosities of
many kinds. He passes from point to point in a delightfully cheerful and
contagious mood. Mr. Ritchie’s reading has been as extensive and careful
as his observation is keen and his temper genial; and his pages, which
appeared in the _Christian World Magazine_, well deserve the honour of
book-form, with the additions he has been able to make to them.’—_British
Quarterly Review_.
* * * * *
LONDON: JARROLD & SONS, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, E.C.