Here is a set of facts which, if once fully understood by the democracy, would entirely put a stop to that foolish and inflammatory saying which I have already noticed that the rich are getting richer, the poor poorer, and that the middle class are being crushed out. Here we have chapter and verse, derived from the labours of experts and official statisticians, showing conclusively that the exact reverse is the truth-that the poor are getting richer, the middle classes increasing, and the rich, though increasing also, increasing far more slowly, and making smaller fortunes than formerly. In other words, wealth, instead of concentrating itself, is diffusing itself, and its diffusion is steadily affecting every class except the lowest.

VII.-Paupers and the distressed classes.

The existence of a mass of pitiable distress, in the midst of a nation showing every sign of wealth, is an undoubted fact which is not only lamentable but dangerous. But to exaggerate its extent is almost as mischievous as to neglect its existence. No efforts to cure or to alleviate it can be too great; but those who study it should, the more it occupies them, be the more careful to recollect its proportionate extent. They should realise that comparatively it is small. It is only in this way that they will be able to keep their heads cool, and to take a true instead of a morbid view of the situation in general. And the same holds good of the people in general also, when descriptions of want and poverty are circulated amongst them. It will be said, bitterly, by numbers who have been closely acquainted with distress, that no one would call it small who had studied it closely for themselves. We should be told that it was everywhere, all over the country, that every town, that every district was undermined with it. Such persons should be asked to consider the following figures. The distressed population of England and Wales is, as I have said before, not more than an eighth of the population, if so much; but that eighth is more in number than the whole inhabitants of Scotland. These are the two facts recorded-the appalling extent of distress, and yet the smallness of it.

VIII.-A typical town, showing the proportions of classes.

As a further illustration of the foregoing facts, there will be found in Plate V. what may be called a social ground-plan of a typical large town, of about the size of Manchester-a town of some 320,000 inhabitants. The eye will at once perceive the relative proportions of the various classes of society, with

pauperism and distress, not eclipsing the general prosperity, but like a black blot in the midst of it. Such a town will contain100,000 persons belonging to families with incomes of £80-£90

IX.-Some general aspects of the pecuniary relations of classes.

The relation of classes with respect to wealth, can be properly brought home to the imagination only by looking at them in several lights. Plate VI. contains two diagrams, which will throw additional light upon them. Fig. 1 requires little comment or explanation. The vertical column represents the amount of the national income, the various sections in it corresponding to the gross amounts taken by persons of various incomes; and the horizontal columns represent the number of persons amongst whom these amounts are divided. Fig. 2 shows the proportions between the wealth possessed by the bulk of the community, as compared with the aggregate wealth of those who are spoken of as "the rich," and so classified by the imagination of the democracy. It is easy to see the value of definite facts of this kind, and how salutary would be the results of making a knowledge of them general. The inexhaustible gold-mine, the limitless field for plunder, as the property of the rich is supposed to be, would at once be reduced to its true proportions. "Comparison I." in Fig. 2, classifies as the rich all families with more than £500 a year. That is stretching the conception of "the rich" to the utmost, and far beyond the meaning attached to the word by the democracy in this country. They associate "riches" not with maid-servants and four-wheeled cabs; but with gorgeous carriages, footmen, and high-stepping horses. In "Comparison II.," "the rich" are classified more in accordance with common usage; though even here their number and wealth are much exaggerated; since certainly an income of from £1,000 to £1,500 a year, for instance, does not enable a family to flaunt much splendour before the eyes of the public. may be left to the reader in both these cases to see how ex

It

In a classification like the above there is some difficulty as to where to place servants; their board and wages being on the average less than £50, but each servant being generally, as a servant, without any family.

tremely small by comparison are the total possessions of the rich, as compared with those possessed by the bulk of the community.

X.-The income of the land-owners, as compared with the gross income of the nation.

Let us pass from wealth in general to one sort of wealth in particular, to which the eyes of the democracy have been especially directed, as the principal object of their plunder. I mean the wealth derived from letting land-especially letting land in large quantities. We have not heard so much about this lately, it is true; but the old cries may be at any moment revived, unless public opinion be meanwhile supplied with a sounder basis on which to form itself. The diagram on Plate VII. will show at a glance the main facts connected with this question.

Fig. 1 is a circle, which represents the gross national income. The lower section represents the income of those who do not pay income-tax; the remainder-less than half-represents the incomes of those who do. The sections numbered 1, 2, and 3, represent the gross total of rents of all kinds. Section 3 represents the rental of houses. Sections 1 and 2 represent the rental of land. This, taking the whole of it, is small enough; but much of this rental-about two-thirds of it-goes to small owners, whose existence is but little regarded. The large landed proprietorsincluding all who own more than 1,000 acres-actually take but one-third of this-represented by Section 2. The total of this, which bulks so large in the misguided imagination of many, amounts in reality to less than 3 per cent. of the gross wealth of the community.

There is another very important point, still less known and regarded than the above, which is illustrated in Fig. 2. It was one of the statements most vehemently made by Mr. George, and most widely and credulously believed in England, that rents from land not only increased in value (which they have done) with the increase of wealth generally, but that they increased proportionately faster than wealth of any other kind. As a matter of fact the very reverse of this is the truth. Of all kinds of wealth they have increased most slowly; all other kinds of wealth have distanced them. The three columns in Fig. 2, marked A B C, represent a million of the pounds assessed to income-tax in 1814, in 1851, and in 1881; and the section of these columns with the vertical white lines represents the proportion of this sum that was drawn from land. In 1814 it was considerably more than a half of the total; it is now less than a quarter.

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Whether the contrary assertion is now much credited or no, it is useful to exhibit the truth, as a warning to those who are liable to be led away by the crude statements of enthusiasts.

XI.-The prospects of British Farming, and its recent history.

Much is said by political speakers-many of whom do not know a mangold from a turnip-about the recent changes in the conditions of agriculture in this country, about the rapidity with which the country is being turned into a grazing ground, about the consequent extinction of the rural population, and again about the ruin of the farmers and the decline of farming as an industry; and much of what such speakers say is true; but it is truth often so overlaid by exaggerations, that its real features are altogether hidden. The real features, at least some of them, will be made broadly apparent by the accompanying diagrams.

Plate VIII. represents the acreage of the country, with the acreage devoted to the various agricultural purposes. Part of the increase in permanent pasture will be seen to be due to more and more land having from year to year been brought under cultivation, a fact which-whether its significance be great or small-alarmists will do well to note.

Plate IX. requires but little explanation. It shows, firstly, the proportionate amounts of each year's harvests during sixteen years, 1868 to 1883 inclusive; but it does not profess in any case to indicate the actual total. The Statistical Abstract, which affords the data for the diagrams, takes its figures from about 150 different markets; the varying accounts cited in these from year to year, being taken to represent the variations of the entire produce.

Side by side with the variations in the yields of the harvest, are represented the actual numbers of horses employed in farming, and the cattle-by far the most valuable part, in proportion to the numbers of our agricultural live stock-from year to year, during a corresponding period.

Plate X. illustrates the same subject farther. Side by side are placed three figures representing, 1st, the variations in the price of wheat during the years specified; 2nd, the gross value of the British harvests; and 3rd, the amounts of foreign corn imported into this country, and retained for home consumption during the corresponding years. With regard to the gross value of the British harvests, the numerals in the diagrams represent only the proportion borne by one year to another, not the actual amount in money. What has just been said with regard to Plate IX. will explain the reason of this.

XII.-The Employments of the people.

They suggest

The foregoing diagrams speak for themselves. many comments, but require none here. As a conclusion to this short series of facts, so arranged as to strike the eye, and stamp themselves on the imagination, the reader will find on Plate XI. a farther analysis of the population, whose welfare we have been examining from various points of view. This last diagram exhibits the population of England and Wales, divided so as to show the number of persons in certain marked positions-engaged in various occupations, or without any productive or professional occupation at all.

One of the commonest beliefs amongst uninstructed social reformers is, that there is an enormous number of idle rich people, who, if they were made to do their share of work, would enormously lighten the load of the working classes generally. And at first the figures of the census would seem to more than justify this belief. Far more than half of the population are returned as unoccupied. The diagram shows these persons in the taller of the two columns which are placed side by side; but this apparently startling feature is instantly explained by a second glance at it. The larger part of it consists of children, and of women employed at home in tending their children and performing their domestic functions. Only one twenty-ninth of the number consists of men, and these men are all over sixty-five.

The smaller column represents the population in the prime of life. Of these about one-eleventh belong to a class above that of industrial employées. The class, that is to say, includes all persons from commercial travellers, clerks, and others in similar positions, upwards; but it does not include the farmers. This class is represented by the section towards the top of the column marked with diagonal white lines; and below it the various occupations are arranged, according to the number of the persons engaged in them. Two things appear which will, perhaps, surprise some people. By far the most numerous class of workers in the kingdom is the class of domestic servants; and next to this comes the class engaged in agriculture. The occupations at the bottom of the columns, described as "various," are trades which employ comparatively so few persons each as not to be comparable in number with the persons employed in those mentioned. The minute section quite at the bottom represents the army and navy; and even this is necessarily drawn too large, so as to be able to catch the eye. Lastly, at the top of the column, is a streak yet more minute, which represents-and, small as it is to the eye, exaggerates-the number of persons without specified trade or occupation. The propor