of the population down to that fifteen millions by a process of
starvation and emigration, continued for two generations of men, the
poor would have to go through experiences altogether novel. It is a
thing that would revolutionise England; and in spite of the superior
education of our labourers might lead to a break up of society.
Starvation and bankruptcy make any and every man a Radical if not a
Communist.

To keep the poor comfortable for the present and for many years
immediately in front of us, we require a continual increase in the
wealth laid out in England annually in the purchase of labour. The
growth of the empire, the profitable investment of capital in foreign
countries (whereof the interest is paid and consumed in England), is
one great resource: the profitable investment of capital in England
itself is the other great, probably safer, resource. To effect this
we require every acre of land to fall into the hand of the man (or
company) who can make most of it: we require a Universal Free Trade
that shall render our hold on the commerce of the world secure until
all nations adopt Universal Free Trade (when we shall gain so much in
other ways that we shall be able to afford to share our monopoly with
others); we require the removal of all restraints on railways,
tramways, electric lights, etc., that hamper or prevent the
employment of capital in England (in other words, that send English
capital abroad). Finally, underlying the whole, and as the prime
cause that shall induce capitalists to employ their capital in
England rather than to send it abroad, we require the labour of every
working man to be in the highest degree efficient: this retards the
fall of the natural rate of profits to a minimum, and the attainment
of the stationary state. Whatever ideal beauty has been discovered in
the stationary state by J. S. Mill, it is pretty clear that England