disentangle the separate work, or indeed to speak of any one cause as
a simple element: the causes all act together.

England is the most comfortable country in the world for a rich man
to live in, and consequently rich men congregate there; or, if they
travel, keep a headquarters there. In this way we have congregated a
disproportionate population in England. It may be argued that it
would be a healthier economic state if the exports and imports
balanced, and if the population of England was no larger than the
country itself could grow wheat for, _at a price not exceeding 40s. a
quarter_. However that may be, the important point for the working
men of England to mark is, that every loss of rich men resident,
every loss of tribute, every reduction of the wage-fund, every
pressure on the population to emigrate, everything that leads in the
direction of a self-supporting England, means immediate pressure on
the poor, with reduction of wages. That is the only way emigration
could be by natural law enforced. It is the poor, the labouring
population, who are so hugely interested in the empire. Of all the
follies taught to the labouring man the most foolish is the doctrine
that the empire abroad is maintained to provide incomes for the rich,
at the cost of the taxes paid for wars by the poor. It matters
comparatively little to the rich whether they live at Florence or
Dresden four or eight months in the year, whether the population of
England is to be maintained stationary, to increase at its present
rate of increase, or to be squeezed down to half its present number:
but it matters vitally to the poor. Whether, ultimately, after our
empire is gone and the population of England is stationary at fifteen
millions say, the poor in England would be better off than now is a
very difficult question, concerning which doctors differ; but it is
absolutely certain that during the Banting process, in the reduction