nt, and could he but capture him and harness him into
his machine, what work might he not do? He did capture him, and he did
harness him to his machine; and now he works on, on, up, down, here,
there, not ceasing by night and day, by summer and winter; he tires
not, he rests not; for ever and for ever he toils on. He saws, he
grinds, he spins, he weaves, he ploughs, he thrashes, he drags, he
lifts. Such a giant he is!

_One_ man with the steam machine now does the work which once was done
by _ten_, _twenty_, _fifty_! He files, he cuts, he sews, he polishes,
he brews, he bakes, he washes, he irons. Is all this nothing?

It is vast--it is a _revolution_! And no man yet sees the end.

Trade now was exaggerated beyond all former measure, and henceforth was
to be the god of England and of the world. "Let us produce, let us buy
cheap and sell dear, and so we shall be blessed." England had coal deep
down in her bowels. Let her send her sons by thousands into the slime
and darkness to dig it out. Let her make steam, and cheap cotton, and
infinite iron, and let her make all mankind buy of her. "Let us," she
cried, "demand free trade! for _we_ can make cheap and sell dear, and
none can rival us."

She did demand free trade. She demanded it in India by seizing a
kingdom. She demanded it in China at the cannon's mouth. She got it.

She said to all peoples, "You may make corn, and cotton, and wool for
us, and we will make everything you want cheaper than you can make it
for yourselves, and happy you will be. We will make all the ships, will
bring your corn, and cotton, and wool to us, and we will carry all our
lovely manufactures to you, to the uttermost ends of the earth--at
_your_ cost. We will take toll of you both ways; we will make fair
profit on _your_ cotton, and on _our_ manufactures, and that will be
just and even, and we shall both be happy."

And so it has gone on for a hundred years, and gold has poured into
England's stomach, a flowing stream, until her eyes stick out with
fatness; she has even sought Turkish bonds for investment, and has lent
much money to the good Khedive of Egypt--_which she can't get back_!

Let us look at England for a moment, as she is to-day. She has built
magnificent temples dedicated to her great god all over England: at
Birmingham and Manchester, at Glasgow and Paisley; at Birkenhead and
Liverpool, at Preston and Salford, at Leeds and Nottingham--and where
not? England has become a grea