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 favouritism." The family have to take their meals at the public tables, where every one has the same food, and though the complaints as to its quality are many and loud no attention is paid to them. The workmen in the State workshops refuse to recognise the authority of the State foremen, and are in a chronic condition of insubordination. There are also some humorous touches: domestic service has been abolished as degrading, and the President of the Republic has to black his own boots before proceeding to his State duties. He finds that this and other domestic duties interfere with the proper perusal and consideration of State papers. There are many other details for which I must refer you to the book itself, but it appears to me that it presents a very fair picture of what would actually happen if the social democratic revolution were brought within the sphere of practical politics. That such can ever be the case is, I think, highly improbable; it is true that a large section of the Labour Party have adopted it as their programme, but the returns of the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies shows that the industrial classes have amongst them some four hundred millions of savings and accumulations, and it is very unlikely that they would acquiesce in the absorption of their savings by the State. But it is impossible to strike at one class of property without affecting the whole. Neither is it likely that they would tolerate any such interference as is contemplated in their private lives. The instincts of self-preservation and the love of family life are still, happily, strong with the Englishman.

But there is another section of public opinion from which perhaps the largest body of those who would call themselves "Socialists" is found. These last, for the most part, represent a vague but widespread resentment against the inequalities of