Mr. Bartholomew paused for a moment or two, and then said:
"I see some of you fidgeting at your pipes. Fill 'em and smoke 'em. We're not regularly formed, and whether we shall always be at liberty to smoke while we're talking is a matter for you to settle by and by."
The pipes being filled and lighted, Mr. Bartholomew went on.
"That was the story the Conservative candidate told, and it set the packed meeting cheering and laughing to that degree that I couldn't get in another word, and was supposed to be settled. But the Conservative candidate made a great many serious mistakes in that illustration. He intended to liken the government of England, and everybody else in it, to one single being; whether it was beast, bird, or fish don't matter, because it won't do, mates, because it doesn't apply. True enough there must be a head to all constituted societies, to all forms of government, but, mates--"
And here the speaker rested his two hands upon the table and bent earnestly forward.
"We who are governed have eyes; we're not like the serpent's tail--we can see where we're going. The road is stretched before us, and our eyes are open. The serpent's tail not only had no eyes, he had no brains--we have, and we can judge. The serpent's tail not only had no eyes and no brains, it had no heart--we have, and we can see and judge, and love and suffer and enjoy with as large a capacity as those who govern us. I don't for one moment believe that the view the Conservative candidate took--he didn't get in, you know, mates--"
"Ha, ha, ha!" from the audience.
"Is the view entertained by the Conservative party, the leading members of which are far too sensible and clever to put forward such narrow-minded theories. But it must never be forgotten that they're in the main looking out more for themselves and for their own interests than for us and ours. That's human nature, and I don't complain of it; if I did, it would be in a measure like cutting the ground from under our own feet, because one of the objects of this meeting--the principal object, I may say--is to look after ourselves and our own interests, which we've got the idea has been rather lost sight of. Now, before I come to the wind-up of my speech--it has been a great deal longer than I intended to make it--"
"Not a bit too long, Bart," was the general cry.
"Much obliged, mates. Before I come to the end of it, I want to impress one thing upon you. All over the world there are to be found men who go in for equality, with a capital E. Some of those men are scholars, lots of 'em clever and talented; but, mates, they've got a warp in their minds. Such a thing as equality ain't possible. If it was possible to establish it at nine o'clock to-night, by nine o'clock to-morrow morning it wouldn't exist. There must be different degrees among human beings, there must be inequalities, like the very world we live in, which, as we've been taught in school, resembles the outside of an orange. But our argument is--because I suppose we're pretty well agreed upon it--that the inequalities are now too great, and require to be rubbed down a bit. It's a difficult question, and it's got to be treated with good sense. And now, thanking you for your attention, and the meeting being regularly opened, we'll proceed to business."