Page:Who are Insulting the Working Classes?.djvu/5



As a working man I wish to say a few words to my brother working men upon one or two matters which concern us all.

Most of us read the newspapers, though perhaps not very regularly, but we think we know pretty fairly what is going on in this Island Home of ours; and we think, too, we are capable of forming our opinions thereupon.

For some months past I have been attentively noting the speeches made by some of our leading men, and the statements made by some of the daily newspapers, upon matters political and of national importance. I read an immense amount of abuse against the Government of the day, heaped up in no stinted measure, and conveyed in language we working men scarcely expect to find used among gentlemen.

Now I call myself a Liberal of the old school, and I like to look at public matters from a wide and Liberal point of view, but I am amazed when I read statements that the policy of the present Government is a policy of war; that the long commercial trial and depression of trade are due to the present Government; that the prospect of a bad harvest, and I know not how many other bad things are due to the same cause, and all these statements made in language so violent that even a Liberal paper has described it as "noise and bluster," and has added with respect to a speech made by one of the leaders in the House of Commons, "We feel, for our part, ashamed that any English politician who holds a respectable position should condescend to this kind of Billingsgate,"