Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/93

 Thompson, though a strenuous advocate of Free Trade, was not an advocate for destroying the advantages afforded to England by her being an island, and for promoting the rise of the dividends of a certain railway company by the sacrifice of all the advantages of England's insular situation. It is a hard fight against the rage for wealth which shuts out of view all other considerations but the gratification of its own auri sacra fames, which words may be translated accursed hunger for gold.

The reference to the duties of private life in the above quotation from General Thompson, reminds one of a reference by a celebrated writer to the conditions of private property in illustration of the English Constitution. That writer says:—

"'The power of King, Lords, and Commons, is not an arbitrary power. They are the trustees, not the owners of the estate. The fee simple is in us. They cannot alienate. They cannot waste.'"