“If, in times past, a man robbed his employer of twenty shillings he was imprisoned for five years with hard labour, whereas if the theft was of twenty thousand pounds he was merely cautioned not to do it again, or at the most imprisoned for a few months without labour, and the quiet, restful time of serving the sentence invariably set him up in health at the country’s expense; but nowadays, a man stays in prison and must earn his keep and expenses, and in addition, enough to pay back every farthing to the person robbed, who receives an instalment every month until the loss is made good, or until the prisoner dies. Thus, not only are the prisons self-supporting and a profit to the State, but the ‘punishment fits the crime,’ and under the present business methods anything beyond petty frauds is altogether impossible. Then there are no poor, no really destitute; and there is no institution in the world that is not self-supporting, whilst the excellent system of our finances makes wealth, if not an impossibility, of little value—for wealth formerly meant power and oppression, but now the comparatively so-called poor are not poor enough to be oppressed, consequently the rich have none to oppress, and in most cases people spend their surplus wealth in scientific research, in inventing and discovering that which will make life brighter, easier, and happier to their fellow-men by lifting higher those who chance to be less fortunate than they themselves. For what use is wealth to a right-minded man when every man must work and earn enough to keep himself comfortably, and he knows that when he gets past work he will receive a pension according to his deserts. Nor can he marry till he receives a certain salary, and even then his family must not exceed the calls on his income for their maintenance, clothing and education, suitable to their station. If he errs in this respect, or is unfaithful, or betrays anyone, no further offence is made possible to him. Why! formerly, in the twentieth century, so far as some of the working men of that period were concerned, one who earned what would have kept half a dozen families in comfort would drink and gamble his earnings away, have an unconscionable number of children, and if he were but half a day out of work he was destitute. With a blissful selfishness, he would neglect work to go drinking and gaming, to the utter disregard of the needs of his wife and family, knowing his neighbours would not let them starve; nor did they. If he were sent to prison he did not care, for the burden of the maintenance of his numerous family had to be borne by others who by self-denial had saved and yet who, for humanitarian reasons, had to deny themselves still more to help the idler. All that is now an utter impossibility, and yet you long for the old times, Ross! I don’t. I like, too, to know what I’m eating, to have everything made under rigid antiseptic conditions,