I will tell those wealthy and powerful people what the secret of the security of life and property in Britain is.  The security arises from the continuation of that very class-struggle which they lament and of which they complain, which goes on ceaselessly in our country, which goes on tirelessly, with perpetual friction, a struggle between class and class which never sinks into lethargy, and never breaks into violence, but which from year to year makes possible a steady and constant advance.  It is on the nature of that class-struggle in Britain that the security of life and property is fundamentally reposed.  We are always changing; like nature, we change a great deal, although we change very slowly.  We are always reaching a higher level after each change, but yet with the harmony of our life unbroken and unimpaired.  And I say also to those persons here, to whom I now make my appeal:  wealthy men, men of light and leading have never been all on one side in our country.  There have always been men of power and position who have sacrificed and exerted themselves in the popular cause; and that is why there is so little class-hatred here, in spite of all the squalor and misery which we see around us.  There, gentlemen, lies the true evolution of democracy.  That is how we have preserved the golden thread of historical continuity, when so many other nations have lost it for ever.  That is the only way in which your island life as you know it, and love it, can be preserved in all its grace and in all its freedom—­can be elevated, expanded, and illumined for those who will occupy our places when our share in the world’s work is done.

And I appeal to the leaders of industry and of learning in this city to range themselves on the side of a policy which will vigilantly seek the welfare of the masses, and which will strictly refuse to profit through their detriment; and, in spite of the violence of extremists, in spite of the harshness of controversy which hard conditions produce, in spite of many forces which may seem to those gentlemen ungrateful, I ask them to pursue and persevere in their crusade—­for it is a crusade—­of social progress and advance.

Cologne Cathedral took 600 years to build.  Generations of architects and builders lived and died while the work was in progress.  Still the work went on.  Sometimes a generation built wrongly, and the next generation had to unbuild, and the next generation had to build again.  Still the work went on through all the centuries, till at last there stood forth to the world a mighty monument of beauty and of truth to command the admiration and inspire the reverence of mankind.  So let it be with the British Commonwealth.  Let us build wisely, let us build surely, let us build faithfully, let us build, not for the moment, but for future years, seeking to establish here below what we hope to find above—­a house of many mansions, where there shall be room for all.

    The result of the election was declared as follows