prevailed here for many years, now in force in great States in Europe,
and yet there is no complete security of life and property
notwithstanding all these repressive laws. Is it because of the House
of Lords, that life and property are secure? Why, orders of
aristocracy more powerful, much more homogeneous, of greater
privileges, acting with much greater energy than our aristocracy, have
been swept away in other countries until not a vestige, or scarce a
vestige, of their existence remains. Is it because of the British
Constitution that life and property are secure? Why, the British
Constitution is mainly British common sense. There never were forty
millions of people dwelling together who had less of an arbitrary and
rigid Constitution than we have here. The Constitution of France, the
Constitution of Germany, the Constitution of the United States are far
more rigid, far better fortified against popular movement, than the
Constitution under which we in these islands have moved steadily
forward abreast of the centuries on the whole to a better state than
any other country.

I will tell those wealthy and powerful people what the secret of the
security of life and property in Britain is. The security arises from
the continuation of that very class-struggle which they lament and of
which they complain, which goes on ceaselessly in our country, which
goes on tirelessly, with perpetual friction, a struggle between class
and class which never sinks into lethargy, and never breaks into
violence, but which from year to year makes possible a steady and
constant advance. It is on the nature of that class-struggle in
Britain that the security of life and property is fundamentally
reposed. We are always changing; like nature, we change a great deal,
although we change very slowly. We are always reaching a higher level
after each change, but yet with the harmony of our life unbroken and