“If I did undertake it,” Mannering said, “it would be to leave unsaid the things which you would naturally expect from me, and to say things of which you could not possibly approve.  I am very sorry.  You can command my resignation at any moment, if you will.  But my views, though in the main they have not changed, are very much modified.”

Lord Redford nodded.

“That,” he said, “is our misfortune, but it certainly is not your fault.  As for your resignation, if you crossed the floor of the House to-morrow we should not require it of you.  You are responsible to your constituents only.  We dragged you back into public life—­you see I admit it freely—­and we are willing to take our risk.  Whether you are with us or against us, we recognize you as one of those whose place is amongst the rulers of the people.”

“You are very generous, Lord Redford,” Mannering answered.

“Not at all.  It is no use being peevish.  You are a great disappointment to us, but we have not given up hope.  If you are not altogether with us to-day, there is to-morrow.  I tell you frankly, Mannering, that I look upon you as a man temporarily led astray by a wave of sentimentality.  So long as the world lasts there will be rich men and poor, but you must always remember in considering this that it is character as well as circumstances which is at the root of the acquisition of wealth.  Generations have gone to the formation of our social fabric.  It is the slow evolution of the human laws of necessity.  The socialist and the sentimentalist and the philanthropist, dropping gold through his fingers, have each had their fling at it, but their cry is like the cry from the wilderness—­a long, lone thing!  And then to come to the real point, Mannering.  Grant for a moment all that you have told Borrowdean and myself about the condition of the labour classes in the great towns and the universal depression of trade.  How can you possibly imagine that the imposition of tariff duties is the sovereign, or even a possible, remedy?  Why, you yourself have been one of the most brilliant pamphleteers against anything of the sort.  You have been called the Cobden of the day.  You cannot throw principles away like an old garment.”

“Let us leave for one moment,” Mannering answered, “the personal side of the matter.  I have seen in the majority of our large cities terrible and convincing proof of the decline of our manufacturing industries.  I have seen the outcome of this in hundreds of ruined homes, in a whole generation coming into the world half starved, half clothed—­God help those children.  I have always maintained that the labouring classes should be the happiest race of people in this country.  I find them without leisure or recreation, fighting fate with both hands for food.  Redford, the whole world has never shown us a greater tragedy than the one which we others deliberately and persistently close our eyes to—­I mean the struggle for life which is being waged in every one of our great cities.”