PRINCESS MARIE VICTORIA OF EDINBURGH PRINCESS ALEXANDRA OF EDINBURGH PRINCESS BEATRICE OF EDINBURGH THE QUEEN PRINCESS ALICE OF HESSE DUKE OF CONNAUGHT PRINCESS HENRY OF BATTENBERG PRINCESS IRENE OF HESSE ] These changes for the lads and working-men I foresee very clearly. With regard to the position of women I also foresee important changes. At the present moment there is a wild and insensate game of “grab” going on. Women admit of no restrictions, they claim everything. They are not satisfied with the whole intellectual field, they would overrun the field of physical labour. They take the men’s work at half the pay, they drive the men out of the country, they remove from themselves the possibility of marriage, they deny the country that increase of population which the country has a right to expect. This folly will presently cease; calmer and more sensible counsels will prevail. It will be recognised that Nature assigns limitations and prescribes certain kinds of work for men, and certain other kinds for women. Above all, it will be remembered that if a man owes himself to his country as a soldier or a workman, so a woman owes to her country the duties of maternity. [Illustration: SIR J. E. MILLAIS, F.R.A. SIR E. J. POYNTER, F.R.A. G. F. WATTS, R.A. LORD LEIGHTON J. M. W. TURNER, R.A. JOHN RUSKIN SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A. REPRESENTATIVE ARTISTS OF THE REIGN] Such is the contrast between the English of 1837 and the English of 1897. I am not ignorant that there are still many, and great, improvements to be effected; but I hope that my readers who have followed me will acknowledge that we are not only advanced, but that we are advancing in new directions which will lead the country into paths hitherto unsuspected, or contemplated with dread. I regard these steps without anxiety; that is to say, I recognise the dangers if these lines are pushed out too far. In all human efforts there is danger; if we always thought of the danger we should effect nothing. There is weakness, unworthiness, among the best of men; yet, with my countrymen, the prospect which opens out before them is so splendid that it makes one forget the danger. * * * * * I would offer this book as a small tribute towards the reconciliation of the Anglo-Saxon race. It is not only with England that we have to do--not only with what Shakespeare called This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden. We have to do with other nations, soon to become great nations: Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, all with the same language, the same laws, the same institutions, the same literature, the same ancestors. * * * * *