“But what have we to do with it?” persisted Anna.
“As much as any body who cares for the condition of the labouring classes, to say nothing of the state of all the farmers and merchants in the kingdom. Is it not worth knowing why they are sometimes prosperous, and sometimes distressed? Would not you like to be able to know whether their prospects will probably improve or grow worse?”
“Is this learned by studying the question of Free Trade?”
“It cannot be learned by other means, at any rate.”
“But is it not better to help the poor people about us, than to learn what is likely to happen to poor people in general?” asked Anna.
“It certainly would be, if we could not do both; but I am firmly convinced that benevolent persons, women as well as men, may do more good by giving their poorer neighbours right notions about their own interests, than even by bestowing money or clothes. Do you remember the account Mr. Bland gave us of the turn out at Manchester?”
“Yes; I shall never forget it.”
“Well, however much good was done by the benevolent persons who gave soup and blankets to the starving weavers, Mr. Bland did more good than all the other people together, by proving to those who struck for wages that they were hastening their own ruin. His wife helped him very much by her influence among the weavers’ wives; and she could not have done this if she had known nothing of the politics of the case. We hear too of the occasional destruction of machinery in the manufacturing districts; and this mischief will not cease till the people are taught that they injure their own interests by such violence. Why should not ladies help to teach this as well as other truths? and how should they teach it, unless they understand the matter well themselves?”
“Is there any thing about that in the ‘Wealth of Nations,’ papa?”
“Yes; and you shall read it. There are other political subjects, on which there is no occasion to bid you feel an interest.”