§ 64

It is determined already that from London Bridge to Richmond Bridge no factories will be permitted on the banks of our splendid river. Imagination will supply a vision of what our river might be then. Clear water, heaps of good fish, even salmon and trout, a place for pageants, a healthy playground for the people and as beautiful a river as any in Europe.

Centralization has received its death blow. Home rule, including all responsibilities, has taken the place of a gigantic mistake. Each County now rules itself. Only the best and most reliable men are in a position of power. Class legislation is at an end. The rich have no more power than the poor. The great or main effort of New England is to level up. That desirable object, indeed more than desirable, indispensable object, can only be attained by extending enlightenment, and to do so the whole nation is now of one voice. To sharpen our wits, as well as our tools, to enlarge the boundaries of our outlook, and to maintain simplicity. Not to be time-servers, but to recognise the debt we owe to aftercomers, and never to forget that we are trustees, not only of the moment, but for the future. To put big things before small. To realise, and profoundly, that every poor as well as rich man is a responsible agent; that responsibility is equal if different; the rich to use their money well, the poor to earn honourable wages for honourable toil. Never to forget that all labour is honourable, if well and honestly executed; and that idleness and living upon the savings of our neighbours is a crime against Society. Above all, to bear in mind that the Soul of a Nation must not be forgotten. Upon the purity of its conduct, the elevation of its Ideals, carried into effect by constant and the highest efforts, a nation keeps itself on the high road to dignity and prosperity. To do this we must choose our guides, not from platforms on Clapham Common, but from every class which, having learnt the lesson of “Self-Rule,” is in a position to lead others to attain it, and so to proceed with the delicate task of ruling others.

The foregoing statements are becoming truisms, so universal are they becoming. And hence a Democracy is a possibility, even a probability, as it is certainly the most consistent form of Government. To attain it discord must cease! The discord which followed the Great War was more dangerous to Britain than its great enemy, Germany. But, if that discord is resolved into a concord, deplorable as it seemed to be, it will have worked for good. The motto of the New England is an ancient Benedictine proverb:⁠—

“Laborare est Orare.”

And so ends my Dream, which, when I woke, I thought might some day grow to be a Reality.