Page:The Life of William Morris.djvu/518

ÆT. 50] letters written this summer to Mr. C.E. Maurice give his thought fully and frankly.

"Kelmscott House, "June 22, 1883.

"Dear Mr. Maurice,

"I think you might be able to help a friend of mine with advice in the following case: A poor woman comes to her asking for a ticket for her son for the Consumptive Hospital: son obviously ill, but not with consumption: woman herself ill, sore throat and out-of-sorts: husband ill also; very bad smell in the house; the rent-collector, or landlord, when asked to mend matters by the tenant, won't do anything; won't even give his address; inspector when written to by tenant don't answer: Can you tell me who is the proper inspector or board to apply to? and forgive my troubling you on such a simple question.

"I should have been glad to have continued our conversation last Friday night; as I so much desire to convert all disinterested people of good will to what I should call active and general Socialism, and to have their help: I think that you, like myself, have really been a Socialist for a long time, and I know you have done your best, as you would be sure to do, to carry out your views. For my part I used to think that one might further real Socialistic progress by doing what one could on the lines of ordinary middle-class Radicalism: I have been driven of late into the conclusion that I was mistaken; that Radicalism is on the wrong line, so to say, and will never develope into anything more than Radicalism: in fact that it is made for and by the middle classes and will always be under the control of rich capitalists: they will have no objection to its political development, if they think