“... I know,” he urged in a speech full of dignity and wisdom, “that we have been told that ... we shall derive from this great struggle not merely the repeal of the Corn Laws, but the transfer of power from one class to another, to one distinguished for its intelligence and wealth--the manufacturers of England. My conscience assures me that I have not been slow in doing justice to the intelligence of that class; certain I am that I am not one of those who envy them their wide and deserved prosperity; but I must confess my deep mortification that in an age of political regeneration, when all social evils are ascribed to the operation of class interests, it should be suggested that we are to be rescued from the alleged power of one class, only to sink under the avowed dominion of another;” and he concluded with the hope that if the monarchy of England, “mitigated by the acknowledged authority of the estates of the realm,” was to prove “a worn-out dream,” if England was to sink “under the thraldom of capital, ... of those who while they boast of their intelligence are prouder of their wealth,” if a new force must be summoned to maintain “the immemorial monarchy of England,” that “novel power” might be found in “the invigorating energies of an educated and enfranchised people.” All this has happened. A thraldom to the middle class came into being, and was tempered by Disraeli’s own franchise bill, and by an education act sufficient, though not conceived in the decentralised form which Disraeli desired, but never won the opportunity of effecting. And out of this thraldom is springing that other of plutocracy--one which exercises great political power without assuming great political duties; one in the interest of which, it seems to me, some of the new fiscal changes now being mooted are designed.