five per cent on
the outlay." In other words, "if you will let me share the increased
profits to this extent." The bargain is agreeable to both sides; the
productiveness of the land is largely increased; who is wronged? Surely
such a transaction could not fairly be described as "not according to
the will of God"; surely, unless the commerce and productive industries
of the country are to be destroyed, and, with the destruction, its
population is to be reduced to what it was in the days of Elizabeth,
these and similar transactions--which can be kept entirely clear of the
sin of covetousness, and rest upon the well-understood basis of mutual
advantage, each and all being gainers by them--are not only legitimate,
but inevitable (M). And now that I have taken up your challenge, and, so
far as my ability goes, answered it, may I, without staying to inquire
how far your charge against the clergy can be substantiated, that they
"generally patronize and encourage all the iniquity of the world by
steadily preaching away the penalties of it" (N), be at least allowed to
demur to your wholesale denunciation of the great cities of the earth,
which you say "have become loathsome centers of fornication and
covetousness, the smoke of their sin going up into the face of Heaven,
like the furnace of Sodom, and the pollution of it rotting and raging
through the bones and souls of the peasant people round them, as if they
were each a volcano, whose ashes brake out in blains upon man and
beast."[127] Surely, Sir, your righteous indignation at evil has caused
you to overcharge your language. No one can have lived in a great city,
as I have for the last ten years, without being aware of its sins and
its pollutions. But unless you can prevent the aggregation of human
beings into great cities, these are evils which must necessarily exist;
at any rate, which always have existed. The great cities of to-day are
not worse than great cities always have been (O). In one capital
respect, I believe they are better. There is an increasing number of
their citizens who are aware of these evils, and who are trying their
best, with the help of God, to remedy them. In Sodom there was but one
righteous man who "vexed his soul" at the unlawful deeds that he
witnessed day by day, on every side; and he, apparently, did no more
than vex his soul. In Manchester, the men and women, of all ranks and
persuasions, who are actively engaging in some Christian or
philanthr