falling to pieces, and the old pressure of the master having been
taken off these poor men, it seemed likely that nothing but the mere
animal necessities and passions of men would have any hold on them,
and that mere general overturn would be the result. Doubtless this
would have happened if it had not been that the huge mass had been
leavened by Socialist opinion in the first place, and in the second
by actual contact with declared Socialists, many or indeed most of
whom were members of those bodies of workmen above said.

If anything of this kind had happened some years before, when the
masters of labour were still looked upon as the natural rulers of the
people, and even the poorest and most ignorant man leaned upon them
for support, while they submitted to their fleecing, the entire
break-up of all society would have followed. But the long series of
years during which the workmen had learned to despise their rulers,
had done away with their dependence upon them, and they were now
beginning to trust (somewhat dangerously, as events proved) in the
non-legal leaders whom events had thrust forward; and though most of
these were now become mere figure-heads, their names and reputations
were useful in this crisis as a stop-gap.

"The effect of the news, therefore, of the release of the Committee
gave the Government some breathing time: for it was received with
the greatest joy by the workers, and even the well-to-do saw in it a
respite from the mere destruction which they had begun to dread, and
the fear of which most of them attributed to the weakness of the
Government. As far as the passing hour went, perhaps they were right
in this."

"How do you mean?" said I. "What could the Government have done? I