Being anxious to catch even the faintest streak of dawn in the dreary political sky, we _do_ look to the great parties. I have been looking to them for quite twenty years. And nothing has come of it. What _can_ come of it? What are the "practical" reforms about which we hear so much? Putting the broadest construction upon them, it may be said that the practical politics of both parties are within the lines of the following programme:-- 1. Manhood Suffrage. 2. Payment of Members of Parliament. 3. Payment of Election Expenses. 4. The Second Ballot. 5. Abolition of Dual Voting. 6. Disestablishment of the Church. 7. Abolition of the House of Lords. And it is alleged by large numbers of people, all of them, for some inexplicable reason, proud of their hard common sense, that the passing of this programme into law would, in some manner yet to be expounded, make miserable England into merry England, and silence the visionaries and agitators for ever. Now, with all deference and in all humility, I say to these practical politicians that the above programme, if it became law to-morrow, would not, for any practical purpose, be worth the paper it was printed on. There are seven items, and not one of them would produce the smallest effect upon the mass of misery and injustice which is now crushing the life out of this nation. No. All those planks are political planks, and they all amount to the same thing--the shifting of political power from the classes to the masses. The idea being that when the people have the political power they will use it to their own advantage. A false idea. The people would not know _how_ to use the power, and if they did know how to use it, it by no means follows that they would use it. Some of the _real_ evils of the time, the real causes of England's distress, are:-- 1. The unjust monopoly of the land. 2. The unjust extortion of interest. 3. The universal system of suicidal competition. 4. The baseness of popular ideals. 5. The disorganisation of the forces for the production of wealth. 6. The unjust distribution of wealth. 7. The confusions and contradictions of the moral ethics of the nation, with resultant unjust laws and unfair conditions of life. There I will stop. Against the seven remedies I will put seven evils, and I say that not one of the remedies can cure any one of the evils. The seven remedies will give increased political power to the people. So. But, assuming that political power is the one thing needful, I say the people have it now. Supposing the masses in Manchester were determined to return to Parliament ten working men. They have an immense preponderance of votes. They could carry the day at every poll? But _do_ they? If not, why not?