adding, "I must absolutely _shut up_ in that direction, to save my
sanity." And so it fell to the younger man to work through piles of
pamphlets and newspaper correspondence, to interview politicians and men
of business, and--what was so very foreign to his habits--to take a
leading share in a party agitation.

But in all this he was true to his Jacobite instincts. He had been
brought up a Tory; and though he had drifted into an alliance with the
Broad Church and philosophical Liberals, he was never one of them. Now
that his father was gone, perhaps he felt a sort of duty to own himself
his father's son; and the failure of liberal philanthropy to realise his
ideals, and of liberal philosophy to rise to his economic standards,
combined with Carlyle to induce him to label himself Conservative. But
his conservatism could not be accepted by the party so called.
Fortunately, he did not need or ask their recognition. He took no
interest in party politics, and never in his life voted at a
Parliamentary election. He only meant to state in the shortest terms
that he stood for loyalty and order.

CHAPTER VII

"TIME AND TIDE" (1867)

The series of letters published as "Time and Tide by Weare and Tyne"
were addressed[13] to Thomas Dixon, a working cork-cutter of Sunderland,
whose portrait by Professor Legros is familiar to visitors at the South
Kensington Museum. He was one of those thoughtful, self-educated working
men in whom, as a class, Ruskin had been taking a deep interest for the
past twelve years, an interest which had purchased him a practical
insight into their various capacities and aims, and the right to speak
without fear or favour. At this time there was an agitation for
Parliamentary reform, and the better representation of the working
classes; and it was on this topic that the letters were begun, though
the writer went on to criticise the various social ideals then popular,
and to propose his own. He had already done something of the sort in
"Unto this Last"; but "Time and Tide" is much more complete, and the
result of seven years' further thought and experience. His "Fors
Clavigera" is a continuation of these letters, but written at a time
when other work and ill health broke in upon his strength. "Time and
Tide" is not only the statement of his social scheme as he saw it in his
central period, but, written as these letters were--at a stroke, so to
speak--condensed in exposition and simple in language,