It is so easy and gratifying for some people to meddle with the affairs of others while they neglect their own, and to condemn those far away, but quite overlooking their own immediate vices and sins.
While I was in Glasgow a request was made upon the Provost to call a public meeting to protest against the Tsar of Russia for expelling the “scurvy Jews” who rob and demoralize his people by their usury and promotion of drunkenness, and at the time I was astounded at the poverty and squalor, the numbers of deformed, debauched people, and shocked with the fights and brawls of drunken barelegged women and brutal men on a Saturday afternoon on one of the main streets of that city.
Consistency may be a jewel, but it is a very rare one. The people of Great Britain should get it as quickly as possible. It would be of more honor and credit to them than that stolen Kohinur.
I spoke to a man near me about the great crowd of poor. He replied, “This is only a handful, only a few drops. Let the degraded poor of all London come out and they would more than fill the whole park.” I asked him about their morality. “Morality,” said he; “they do not know what it means.” And he told me such tales of misery, vice and crime that would make, not only angels, but the very devils, weep to know that humanity had fallen so low.
Are civilization and religion failures, that they cannot provide a remedy for such ulcers on the social body that must affect the very life of the nation?
For very shame’s sake the Christians of England should heal their own sores before they damn the heathen, for I doubt from what I saw and heard if there is any city in all heathendom so sunken in degradation and vice as this famous metropolis of a so-called Christian country.
This question is not only for the Christian, the philanthropist, but for the statesman or politician, if it be true what Mr. John Bright says:
“I believe there is no permanent greatness to a nation except it be based on morality. I do not care for military pomp or military renown. I care for the condition of the people among whom I live. There is no man in England less likely to speak irreverently of the crown and monarchy of England than I am, but crown, coronets, mitres, military displays, pomp of war, wide colonies, and a huge empire are in my view, all trifles light as air, and not worth considering unless with them you can have a fair share of comfort, contentment and happiness among the great body of the people. Palaces, baronial halls, castles, great halls, and stately mansions do not make a nation. The nation in every country dwells in a cottage.”
CHAPTER XXX.
I was not surprised to find castes in England, high castes, middle castes, low castes and also outcasts, as I had personal experience of these among the English in India, but what seemed strange was that among these civilized Christian people, there was such a deep-rooted prejudice against tradesmen. A story was told me that illustrates this. A tailor, who had plenty of money as well as brains and education, often assisted a young lord, and quite an intimacy sprang up between them. The lord took his friend to Scotland for the shooting season, where they were the guests of a laird, and met a number of distinguished people. In his cups the lord was quite abusive, and his friend, the tailor, had to suffer. His best whip was merely to say, “Well, my lord! to-morrow morning I shall introduce myself to your friends here as your tailor.”