CHAPTER XXXIII.

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.

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* * * * *

BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.

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_Second Edition_. _Price_ 7_s._ 6_d._

EAST ANGLIA:

Personal Recollections and Historical Associations.

BY J. EWING RITCHIE (‘CHRISTOPHER CRAYON’).

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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_.

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LONDON: JARROLD & SONS, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, E.C.