shillings a year for a space nine feet long, five broad, and six high, ventilated only by the chimney; Fors, April, 1874, p. 91; and compare March, 1873, p.

I 2.

The useful animals of the world are not infinite: the finest horses are very rare; and the squires who r.de them, by appropriating them, prevent you and me from riding them. If you and I and the rest of the mob took them from the squires, we could not at present probably ride them; and unless we cut them up and ate them, we could not divide them among us, because they are not infinite.

The useful minerals of Yorkshire are iron, coal, and marble,in large quantities, but not infinite quantities. by any means; and the masters and managers of the coal mines, spending their coal on making useless things out of the iron, prevent the poor all over England from having fires, so that they can now only afford close stoves, (if those!) Fors, March, 1873, p. 17.

The books and works of art in Yorkshire are not infinite, nor even in England. Mr. Fawkes' Turners are many, but not infinite at all, and as long as they are at Farnley they can't be at Sheffield. My own thirty Turners are not infinite, and as long as they are at Oxford, can't be at Sheffield. You won't find, I believe, another such thirteenth-century Bible as I have given you, in all Yorkshire; and so far from other books being infinite, there's hardly a woman in England,

now, who reads a clean one, because she can't afford to have one but by borrowing.

For the mole of

was first taken Some day, I do

Land

So much for the infinitude of wealth. obtaining it, all the land in England by force, and is now kept by force. not doubt, you will yourselves seize it by force. never has been, nor can be, got, nor kept, otherwise, when the population on it was as large as it could maintain. The establishment of laws respecting its possession merely define and direct the force by which it is held: and fraud, so far from being an unimportant mode of acquiring wealth, is now the only possible one; Our merchants say openly that no man can become rich by honest dealing. And it is precisely because fraud and force are the chief means of becoming rich, that a writer for the 'Pall Mall Gazette' was found capable of writing this passage. No man could by mere overflow of his natural folly have written it. Only in the settled purpose of maintaining the interests of Fraud and Force; only in fraudfully writing for the concealment of Fraud, and frantically writing for the help of unjust Force, do literary men become so senseless.

The wealth of the world is not infinite, then, my Sheffield friends; and moreover, it is most of it unjustly divided, because it has been gathered by fraud, or by dishonest force, and distributed at the will, or lavished by the neglect, of such iniquitous gatherers. And you have to ascertain definitely, if you will be wise York

shiremen, how much of it is actually within your reach in Yorkshire, and may be got without fraud, by honest force. Compare propositions 5 and 6, page 12, October, 1872.

It ought to be a very pleasant task to you, this ascertaining how much wealth is within your reach in Yorkshire, if, as I see it stated in the article of the Times' on Lord Beaconsfield's speech at the Lord Mayor's dinner, quoted in Galignani' of the 10th of November, 1876 "The immense accession of wealth which this country has received through the development of the railway system and the establishment of free trade, makes the present war expenditure," etc., etc., etc. What it does in the way of begetting and feeding Woolwich Infants is not at present your affair; your business is to find out what it does, and what you can help it to do, in making it prudent for you to beget, and easy for you to feed, Yorkshire infants.

But are you quite sure the 'Times' is right? Are we indeed, to begin with, richer than we were? How is anybody to know? Is there a man in Sheffield who can,—I do not say, tell you what the country is worth,— but even show you how to set about ascertaining what it is worth?

The 'Times' way, 'Morning Post' way, and 'Daily News' way, of finding out, is an easy one enough, if only it be exact.

Look back to Fors of December, 1871, page 21, and

you will find the Times' telling you that "by every kind of measure, and on every principle of calculation, the growth of our prosperity is established," because we drink twice as much beer, and smoke three times as many pipes, as we used to. But it is quite conceivable to me that a man may drink twice as much beer, and smoke three times as many pipes, as he used to do, yet not be the richer man for it, nor his wife or children materially better off for it.

Again, the Morning Post' tells you (Fors, October, 1872, p. 7) that because the country is at present in a state of unexampled prosperity, coals and meat are at famine prices; and the 'Daily News' tells you (Fors, May, 1873, p. 1) that because coals are at famine prices, the capital of the country is increased. By the same rule, when everything else is at famine prices, the capital of the country will be at its maximum, and you will all starve in the proud moral consciousness of an affluence unprecedented in the history of the universe. In the meantime your wealth and prosperity have only advanced you to the moderately enviable point of not being able to indulge in what 'Cornhill Magazine' (Fors, April, 1873, p. 18). calls the "luxury of a wife," till you are forty-five-unless you choose to sacrifice all your prospects in life for that unjustifiable piece of extravagance; and your young women (Fors, May, 1873, p. 13) are applying, two thousand at a time, for places in the Post Office!

the

All this is doubtless very practical, and businesslike, and comfortable, and truly English. But suppose you set your wits to work for once in a Florentine or Venetian manner, and ask, as a merchant of Venice would have asked, or a good man' of the trades of Florence, how much money there is in the town, who has got it, and what is becoming of it? These, my Sheffield friends, are the first of economical problems for you, depend upon it; perfectly soluble when you set straightforwardly about them; or, so far as insoluble, instantly indicating the places where the roguery is. Of money honestly got, and honourably in use, you can get account: of money i got, and used to swindle with, you will get

none.

But take account at least of what is countable. Your initial proceeding must be to map out a Sheffield district clearly. Within the border of that, you will hold yourselves Sheffielders;-outside of it, let the Wakefield and Bradford people look after themselves; but determine your own limits, and see that things are managed well within them. Your next work is to count heads. You must register every man, woman, and child, in your Sheffield district; (compare and read carefully the opening of the Fors of February last year;) then register their incomes and expenditure; it will be a business, but when you have done it, you will know what you are about, and how much the town is really worth.

Then the next business is to establish a commissariat,