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Cases for
PACES
Second Edition

Stephen Hoole MA, MRCP

Andrew Fry MA, MRCP
Daniel Hodson MA, MRCP, FRCPath
Rachel Davies MA, MRCP
Specialist Registrars
Cambridge University Hospitals
Addenbrooke’s Hospital
Cambridge
UK

A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication

Cases for
PACES
Second Edition
Cases for
PACES
Second Edition

Stephen Hoole MA, MRCP

Andrew Fry MA, MRCP
Daniel Hodson MA, MRCP, FRCPath
Rachel Davies MA, MRCP
Specialist Registrars
Cambridge University Hospitals
Addenbrooke’s Hospital
Cambridge
UK

A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication

This edition first published 2010


C 2010 by Stephen Hoole, Andrew Fry, Daniel Hodson & Rachel Davies

Previous editions published 2003

Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s
publishing programme has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and
Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell.
Registered office
John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ,
United Kingdom
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350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA
For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services and for information about
how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our
website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell.
The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
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Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that
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Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as
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publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This
publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the
subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged
in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is
required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cases for PACES / Stephen Hoole ... [et al.]. – 2nd ed.
p. ; cm.
Rev. ed. of: Cases for PACES / Stephen Hoole, Andrew Fry, Daniel Hodson. 2003.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-4051-9948-3
1. Diagnosis–Case studies. 2. Physicians–Licenses–Great Britain–Examinations–Study
guides. I. Hoole, Stephen. II. Hoole, Stephen. Cases for PACES.
[DNLM: 1. Physical Examination–Examination Questions. 2. Ethics,
Clinical–Examination Questions. WB 18.2 C338 2010]
RC66.H646 2010
616.07 5–dc22
2009046378
ISBN: 9781405199483
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Set in 9/12pt Frutiger Light by Aptara
R Inc., New Delhi, India
Printed in Singapore
1 2010
Contents

Foreword, vi

Preface, vii

Acknowledgements, ix

Abbreviations, x

Station 1: Abdominal and Respiratory, 1

Station 2: History Taking, 34

Station 3: Cardiology and Neurology, 59

Station 4: Ethics, Law and Communication Skills, 106

Station 5: Brief Clinical Consultations, 125

Short Cases: Skin, Musculoskeletal, Eyes and Endocrine, 141

Appendix: Useful addresses, 195

Index, 197
Foreword

Amidst the turmoil of recent ‘modernization’ of medical careers, the funda-

mental essentials of the practice of clinical medicine have not changed at all.
The doctor needs to be able to take a history from a patient, examine them
and decide whether investigations and/or treatment are required. They then
need to be able to discuss the various options with the patient in a manner
that they can understand, hopefully reaching a sensible mutual understand-
ing about how best to proceed. In some instances the doctor may need to
give difficult and distressing information, and must learn how to do this in a
manner that eases the pain rather than increases it. And all of these things
must be done in a reasonable time frame: the next patient is waiting.
The MRCP PACES examination remains the measure that is most generally
respected as indicating that a doctor has developed a fair degree of the
knowledge, skills and behaviours that are necessary to do the things detailed
above. They are not yet the finished article (beware of anyone who thinks
they are), but they can proceed from a junior to a senior stage of training. The
examination is not easy, with a pass rate of around 40%. Those preparing
for it need to immerse themselves in clinical work. There is no substitute
for seeing a lot of cases and taking histories and performing examinations,
but – and here is where books such as Cases for PACES come in – it is not
helpful to endlessly repeat sloppy practice. The physician examining you in
the PACES examination is thinking: ‘Is this doctor ready to be my SpR now?
Can they sort things out in a reasonably efficient and sensible way? Would
I get a lot of people wanting to see me because problems had been poorly
explained or dealt with?’
What comes over in Cases for PACES is an approach that does sort the
wood from the trees, which cuts pretty rapidly to the chase, and I recommend
it to you. If you do what it says on the tin, you will stand a very good chance
of passing the examination.

Dr John Firth
Consultant Physician, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge
Preface

PACES (Practical Assessment of Clinical Examination Skills) was initiated in

June 2001 by the Royal College of Physicians as the final stage of the MRCP
examination. The initial examination consisted of five stations in a carousel:
Station 1: Respiratory/Abdominal (10 minutes each), Station 2: History Taking
(20 minutes), Station 3: Cardiology/Neurology (10 minutes each), Station 4:
Communication Skills and Ethics (20 minutes) and Station 5: Short Cases
(Skin, Locomotor, Eyes and Endocrine: 5 minutes each). The main changes
from the original MRCP long and short case format were that candidates
had to take a history and communicate medical diagnoses to lay patients in
front of their examiners. The viva was replaced by ‘discussions’ that occurred
at the end of each case, which concentrated on management issues relating
to the case.
PACES was refined in October 2009 by restructuring Station 5. There
are now two 10-minute ‘Brief Clinical Consultations’ that reflect day-to-day
practice at work rather than the four 5-minute cases. Candidates will be
expected to take a targeted history and a focused rather than thorough ex-
amination each lasting 8 minutes with the remaining time for discussion. The
cases previously encountered in Station 5 will be accommodated within the
other stations and candidates must still prepare to examine these systems.
New topics to Station 5 will include acute and geriatric medicine, previously
underrepresented in the PACES examination.
Cases for PACES 2nd Edition prepares candidates for the updated PACES
examination. It mimics the examination format, and is designed for use in an
interactive way. The 2nd Edition is a completely revised text, incorporating
the changes to Station 5, as well as new cases. It has useful information on
ethical and legal issues, history-taking advice and worked examples. It also
provides mock questions for candidates to practise themselves. The short
cases that appeared in the original Station 5 remain as an appendix, but
Station 5 now contains new Brief Clinical Consultations including worked
examples in acute and geriatric medicine. However, seeing medical patients
on a busy receiving unit or outpatient department must be the best way to
prepare for this new station!
Common cases rather than rarities have been deliberately chosen and are
set out in an examination format. It is taken as read that candidates will
be familiar in examination techniques and the appropriate order in which
viii Preface

to elicit the various signs. In the book, only the key diagnostic clinical signs
are documented, followed by extra points that will ensure you score high
marks in the case. What follows in the discussion are some of the potential
topics that a candidate could be expected to comment on at the end of
the case. Examiners are specifically monitoring for knowledge of the dif-
ferential diagnosis and organized clinical judgement, whilst managing the
patients’ concerns and maintaining patient welfare. The detail is not exhaus-
tive but rather what is reasonably needed to pass. There is additional room
for candidates to make further notes as they see fit. This book is designed
to enable groups of candidates to practise ‘under examination conditions’
at the bedside.
The aim of this book is to put the information that is frequently tested in
the clinical PACES examination in a succinct format that will enable capable
candidates to pass with ease.

Good luck.
Stephen Hoole
Andrew Fry
Daniel Hodson
Rachel Davies
Acknowledgements

We thank the doctors who taught us for our own PACES examination, and
above all the patients who allow us to refine our examination techniques
and teach the next generation of MRCP PACES candidates.
Abbreviations

ABG Arterial blood gas CMV Cytomegalovirus

ACE Angiotensin-converting COPD Chronic obstructive
enzyme pulmonary disease
ACTH Adrenocorticotrophic COMT Catechol-o-methyl
hormone transferase
AF Atrial fibrillation CRP C-reactive protein
AFP Alpha-fetoprotein CSF Cerebrospinal fluid
AICD Automated implantable CVA Cerebrovascular accident
cardiac defibrillator CXR Chest X-ray (radiograph)
ANA Anti-nuclear antibody DIPJ Distal interphalangeal
AR Aortic regurgitation joint
ARVD arrhythmogenic right DM Diabetes mellitus
ventricular dysplasia DVLA Driver and Vehicle
5-ASA 5-Aminosalicylic acid Licensing Agency
ASD Atrial septal defect DVT Deep vein thrombosis
AVR Aortic valve replacement eGFR Estimated glomerular
BIPAP Bi-level positive airway filtration rate
pressure EBV Epstein–Barr virus
BM Bohereinger Manheim ECG Electrocardiogram
(glucose) EMG Electromyogram
BMI Body mass index ESR Erythrocyte
CABG Coronary artery bypass sedimentation rate
graft FBC Full blood count
CAPD Continuous ambulatory FEV1 Forced expiratory
peritoneal dialysis volume in 1 second
CCF Congestive cardiac FTA Fluorescent treponema
failure antibodies
CFA Cryptogenic fibrosing FVC Forced vital capacity
alveolitis GH Growth hormone
CFTR Cystic fibrosis Hb Haemoglobin
transmembrane HBV Hepatitis B virus
conductance regulator HCG Human chorionic
CK Creatine kinase gonadotrophin
CML Chronic myeloid HCV Hepatitis C virus
leukaemia HGV Heavy goods vehicle
 Abbreviations xi

HLA Human lymphocyte MCPJ Metacarpophalangeal

antigen joint
HOCM Hypertrophic obstructive MTPJ Metatarsophalangeal
cardiomyopathy joint
HRT Hormone replacement MVR Mitral valve replacement
therapy NIPPV Non-invasive positive
HSMN Hereditary sensory pressure ventilation
motor neuropathy NSAIDs Non-steroidal
HSV Herpes simplex virus anti-inflammatory drugs
IBD Inflammatory bowel NSCLC Non-small cell lung
disease cancer
IDDM Insulin-dependent OA Osteoarthritis
diabetes mellitus Pa Partial pressure (arterial)
IGF Insulin-like growth factor PBC Primary biliary cirrhosis
INR International normalized PCT Primary Care Trust
ratio PEG Percutaneous
ITP Immune endoscopic gastrostomy
thrombocytopaenic PEFR Peak expiratory flow
purpura rate
IV Intravenous PET Positron emission
JVP Jugular venous pressure tomography
KCO Transfer coefficient PIPJ Proximal interphalangeal
LAD Left axis deviation joint
LDH Lactate dehydrogenase PRL Prolactin
LFT Liver function test PSC Primary sclerosing
LMWH Low molecular weight cholangitis
heparin PSV Public service vehicle
LQTS Long QT syndrome PTHrP Parathyroid
LV Left ventricle hormone-related
LVH Left ventricular peptide
hypertrophy PUVA Psoralen ultraviolet A
mAb Monoclonal antibody RA Rheumatoid arthritis
MAO Monoamine oxidase RAD Right axis deviation
MI Myocardial infarction RBBB Right bundle branch
MND Motor neurone disease block
MPTP Methyl-phenyl- RR Respiratory rate
tetrahydropyridine RV Right ventricle
MR Mitral regurgitation RVH Right ventricular
MRI Magnetic resonance hypertrophy
imaging Rx Treatment
xii Abbreviations

SCLC Small cell lung cancer TNM Tumour nodes

SIADH Syndrome of metastasis (staging)
inappropriate TOE Transoesophageal echo
anti-diuretic hormone TPHA Treponema pallidum
SLE Systemic lupus haemaggutination assay
erythematosus TR Tricuspid regurgitation
SOA Swelling of ankles TSH Thyroid stimulating
SSRI Selective serotonin hormone
reuptake inhibitor TTE Transthoracic echo
SVCO Superior vena cava U&E Urea and electrolytes
obstruction UC Ulcerative colitis
T4 Thyroxine UFH Unfractionated heparin
T ◦C Temperature UIP Usual interstitial
TIA Transient ischaemic pneumonia
attack UTI Urinary tract infection
TIMI Thrombolysis in VEGF Vascular endothelial
myocardial infarction growth factor
TL CO Carbon monoxide VSD Ventricular septal defect
transfer factor WCC White cell count
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think over what is absent or to trace effects to causes, that it is more
often by ignorance than by selfishness that they are cruel. They
have been so eager in managing their inheritance of wealth that
they have failed to use their other inheritance—the power of putting
questions. Such people, it is argued, hearing of atrocities, learning
the cost at which wealth is made, and seeing the brutal side of vice,
get such development of character that they question habits,
customs, conditions which they before accepted, and become more
just and generous.
On the other hand, against this use of sensationalism, keeping
still in view the effects on character, it is urged (1) that actions
caused by the excitement of the emotions before they can be
supported by reason are followed by apathy. The people who
became ‘frantic’ at the tale of the Bulgarian atrocities have since
heard almost with equanimity of suffering as terrible. The many who
wrote and spoke of the bitter lot of the poor hardly give the few
pounds a year required to keep alive the Sanitary Aid Society which
was started to deal with what was allowed to lie nearest the root of
the bitterness—the ill-administered laws of health. The leaders of the
Salvation Army, pursued by this fear of apathy, have continually to
seek new forms of excitement, just as politicians have to seek new
cries.
Such examples seem to show that the wave which is raised by
the emotions must fall back unless it is followed by the rising tide of
reason, and that the effect on character of neglecting the reason is
to make it unfeeling and apathetic. According to Rossetti’s allegory,
they who are stirred by the sight of vice become, like those who look
on the Gorgon’s head, hardened to stone.
Let not thine eyes know
Any forbidden thing itself, although
It once should save as well as kill; but be
Its shadow upon life enough for thee.

The emotions, certainly, cannot be strained without loss. Of the

greatest English actress it is told that she paid in old age the price of
early strain on her feelings ‘by weariness, vacuity, and deadness of
spirit.’
It is urged further on the same side, (2) that the advertisement
which is said to be necessary to promote association promotes only
organisation, or that if it does promote association it fills it also with
the party spirit, which is a corrupting influence.
Organisations, we have been lately told, are weakening real
charitable effort. They have at once the strength and the weakness
of the standing army system, they produce a body of officials keen
to carry out their objects and careless of other issues, and they
release individuals from the duty of serving the need they have
recognised. That the sensational method of rousing the charitable
activities has resulted in organisation rather than in association may
be seen by reference to the Charities Register, with its long record of
new societies and institutions. That it also inspires with party spirit
the associations which it forms is more difficult of proof. Strong
statements which are necessary to advertisement can hardly,
though, be fair statements, and loud statements can rarely be
exhaustively accurate. Where there is in the beginning neither
fairness of feeling nor accuracy of thought there will be afterwards a
repetition of the old theological hatred.
‘Ye know not what spirit ye are of,’ said Christ to His disciples,
who, ignorant of His purpose, would have used force in His service
against the Samaritans. The same party spirit still sometimes
inspires those who hold grand beliefs and support great causes, the
height and depth and breadth of which they have had neither time
nor will to measure; and such a spirit degrades their character. It is
not a gain to a man to be a Christian or a Liberal if by so doing he
becomes certain that there is no right nor truth on the side of a
Mohammedan or of a Tory. He has not, that is, risen to the height of
his character: rather, as Mr. Coleridge says, ‘He who begins by loving
Christianity better than the truth will proceed by loving his own sect
or Church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better
than all.’ A teetotaller will not add so much to society by his
temperance as he will take away from society if his character
becomes proud or narrow.
 Party spirit—the spirit, that is, which is roused and limited by
some hasty view of truth or right—is likely to make men unjust and
cruel, and so a method of reform which produces this spirit cannot
be approved. In the name of the grandest causes, missionaries were
in old times cruel, and philanthropists are in modern times unjust.
Lastly, (3) those who have claimed for sensationalism the
parentage of some law have been met by the paradox that laws and
institutions rarely exist till they have ceased to be wanted. In
England public opinion condemns cruelty to animals, and so a
society has been created. In Egypt, where the need is greater, but
where there is no public opinion to condemn the cruelty, there is no
society. Certain it is, at any rate, that the statute-book is cumbered
with laws passed in a moment of moral excitement which remain
without influence because they have never represented the true
level of public opinion.
Where arguments are so urged for and against sensationalism it
may be useful if, out of thirteen years’ experience of East London
life, I shortly collect what seem to be some of the effects on
character developed during this period.
The first effect which is manifest is the great increase of
humanity in the richer classes. This is shown not only by talk, by
drawing-room meetings, and by newspaper articles, but by actual
service among the poor. The number of those who go about East
London to do good is largely increased. The increase is, though, I
believe, greatest among those philanthropists who aim to apply
principles rather than to provide relief. There have always been
people of good-will ready to give and to teach; there is now an
increase in their numbers, but the marked increase is among those
who, following Mrs. Nassau Senior, work registry offices, on the
principle that friends are the best avenues by which young girls can
find places; or, following Miss Octavia Hill, become rent collectors, on
the principle that the relation of landlord and tenant may be made
conducive to the best good; or, following Miss Nightingale, take up
the work of nursing, on the principle that the service of the sick is
the highest service; or, following the founders of the Charity
Organisation Society, examine into the causes of poverty, on the
principle that it is better to prevent than to cure evil; or, following
Miss Miranda Hill, give their talents to making beauty common, on
the principle that rich and poor have equal powers of enjoying what
is good; or, following Edmund Denison, come to live in East London
and do the duties of citizens, on the principle that only they who
share the neighbourhood really share the life of the poor. In all these
cases the increase began more than thirteen years ago, and it must
be allowed that the development of humanity which they represent
is not of that form which can as a rule be traced to the use of
sensationalism.
Another effect I notice as generally present is increase of
impatience.
The richer classes seeing things that have been hidden, and
ignorant that any improvement has been going on, have taken up
with ready-made schemes. Irritated that the poor should find
obstacles to relief in times of sickness, they, in their hurry, give the
pauper a vote, but leave him to get his relief under degrading
conditions. Angry that children should be hungry, but too anxious to
consider other things than hunger, they start an inadequate system
of penny dinners which keeps starvation alive. Stirred by the news of
uninhabitable houses, and insanitary areas, and brutal offences, they
pass stringent laws and take no steps to see that the laws are
administered. Affected by the thought that the majority of the
people have neither pleasure-ground, nor space for play, nor water
for cleanliness, they raise a chorus of abuse against London
government, but do not deny themselves every day the bottle of
wine or the useless luxury which would give to Kilburn a park or to
East London a People’s Palace. Hearing that the masses are
irreligious, means are supported without regard as to what must be
the influence on thoughtful men of associating religion with things
which are not true, nor honourable, nor lovely, nor of good report.
On all sides among persons of good-will there seems to be the
belief that things done for people are more effective than things
done with people. There is an absence of the patience—the
passionate patience—which is content to examine, to serve, to wait,
and even to fail, so long as what is done shall be well done.
 The same impatience which takes this shape among the richer
classes is, I think, to be seen among the poorer classes in a growing
animosity against the rich for being rich. Strong words and angry
threats have become common. All suffering and much sin are laid at
the doors of the rich, and speakers are approved who say that if by
any means property could be more equally shared, more happiness
and virtue would follow. Schemes, therefore, which offer such means
are welcomed almost without inquiry. Artisans, roused by what they
hear of the state in which their poorer neighbours live, misled often
by what they see, do not inquire into causes of sin and sorrow.
Scamps and idlers come forward with cries which get popular
support, and the mass of the poor now cherish such a jealous
disposition that, were they suddenly to inherit the place of the richer
classes, they would inherit their vices also and make a state of
society in no way better than the present.
There may be such a thing as a noble impatience, but the
impatience which has lately been added to character of both rich
and poor is not such as to make observers sanguine of the social
reform which it may accomplish. The old saying is still true, ‘He that
believeth shall not make haste.’
The other effect on character which has become manifest is one
at which I have already hinted. It is a growing disposition among all
classes to trust in ‘societies,’ whose rules become the authority of
the workers and whose extension becomes the aim of their work.
Men give all their energies to get recruits for their ‘army,’ recognition
for their clubs, and more room for their operations. ‘Societies’ seem
thus to be very fountains of strength, and the only method of action.
Bishops aim to strengthen the Church by speaking of it as a ‘society,’
and individual ministers try to keep their parishes distinct with a
name, an organisation, and an aim which are independent of other
parishes. The lovers of emigration have for the same reason grouped
themselves in no less than fourteen societies, and it has seemed that
even to give music to the people has required the creation of three
large societies.
A ‘society’ has indeed taken in many minds the place of a priest,
its authority has given the impetus and the aim to action, but it has
tended to make those whom it rules weak and bigoted. I see,
therefore, in the members of these societies much energy, but less
of the spirit which is willing to break old bonds and to go on, if need
be, in the loneliness of originality, trusting in God. I see much self-
devotion, but more also of the spirit of competition, more of the self-
assertion which yields nothing for the sake of co-operation.
If now I had to sum up what seems to me to be the effect on
character of the method of striving and crying, I should say that the
possible increase of humanity is balanced by increase of impatience,
by sacrifice of originality, and by narrowness. Whether there is loss
or gain it is impossible to say, but it will be useful, considering the
end in view, to see how the most may be made of the gain and the
least of the loss.
The end to be aimed at is one to be stated in the language either
of Isaiah or of the modern politician. We all look for a time when
there shall be no more hunger nor thirst, when love will share the
strength of the few among the many, and when God shall take away
tears from every eye. Or, putting the same end in other words, we
all look for a time when the conditions of existence shall be such
that it will be possible for every man and woman not only to live
decently, but also to enjoy the fulness of life which comes from
friendships and from knowledge.
For such an end all are concerned to work. Comparing the things
that are with the things that ought to be, some may strive and cry,
others may work silently, but none can be careless.
None can approve a condition of society where the mass of the
people remain ignorant even of the language through which come
thought, comfort, and inspiration. Let it be remembered that now
the majority are, as it were, deaf and dumb, for the mass of the
nation cannot ask for what their higher nature needs, and cannot
hear the Word of God without which man is not able to live. None
can approve a condition of society where, while one is starving,
another is drunken; where in one part of a town a man works
without pleasure to end his days in the workhouse, while in the
other part of the town a man idles his days away and is always ‘as
one that is served.’ None can look on and think that it always must
be that the hardest workers shall not earn enough to secure
themselves by cleanliness and by knowledge against those
temptations which enter by dirt and ignorance, while many have
wealth which makes it almost impossible for them to enter the
kingdom of God. A time must come when men shall hunger no
more, nor thirst any more, when there shall be no tears which love
cannot wipe away, and no pain which knowledge cannot remove. For
this end everyone who knows ‘the mission of man’ must by some
means work.
That all may avoid the loss and secure the gain which belongs to
their various methods, it seems to me that they would be wise to
remember two things—(1) that national organisations deserve
support rather than party organisations, and (2) that the only test of
real progress is to be found in the development of character.
A national organisation is not only more effective on account of
its strength and extent, but also on account of its freedom from
party spirit. Its members are bound to sit down by the side of those
who differ from themselves, and are thus bound to take a wider
view of their work. They are all under the control of the same body
which controls the nation, and they thus serve only one master. A
public library, for instance, which is worked by the municipality will
be more useful than one worked by a society or a company. The
books will not be chosen to promulgate the doctrines of a sect so
much as to extend knowledge, and its management will not be so
arranged as to please any large subscriber so much as to please the
people. Instead, therefore, of starting societies, it would be wise for
social reformers to throw their strength into national organisations.
The Board of Guardians might thus be made efficient in giving
relief. From its funds and with the help of its organisation a much
more perfect scheme of emigration could be worked than by private
societies whose funds are limited and whose inquiries are
incomplete. The workhouse might provide such a system of
industrial training as would fit the inmates on their discharge both to
take and to enjoy labour. It is as much by others’ neglect as by their
own fault that so many strong men and women drift to the relieving
officer, unable to earn a living because they have never been taught
to work. The poor-law infirmary, too, properly organised under
doctors and nurses and visited by ladies, might be the school of
purity and the home of discipline in which the fallen might be helped
to find strength. The pauper schools in which, by the service of
devoted officers, education could be perfected might do better work
than the schools and orphanages which depend on voluntary
offerings and often aim at narrow issues. The Guardians, moreover,
having the power over out-relief, have in their hands a great
instrument for good or evil. Rightly used, the power gives to many
who are weak a new strength, as they realise that refusal implies
respect, and that a system of relief which encourages one to bluster
and another to cringe cannot be good.
The School Board might, in the same way, be made to cover the
aims of the educationalists. As managers of individual schools these
reformers could bring themselves into close connection with teachers
and children. They could show the teachers what is implied in
knowledge, introduce books of wider views, and they could visit the
children’s homes, arrange for their holidays, and see to their
pleasures. Much more important is it that the schools under the
nation’s control should be good than that special schools should be
started to achieve certain results. In connection, too, with the Board
it is possible to have night classes, which should be in reality classes
in higher education, and means both of promoting friendship and
gaining knowledge.
Then there are the municipal bodies, the Vestries and Boards of
Works, who largely control the conditions which people of goodwill
strive to improve. It rests with these bodies to build habitable
houses and to see that those built are habitable, and they are
responsible for the lighting and cleaning of the streets. It is in their
power to open libraries and reading-rooms, to make for every
neighbourhood a common drawing-room, to build baths so that
cleanliness is no longer impossible, and perhaps even to supply
music in open spaces. It is by their will, or rather by their want of
will, that the houses exist in which the young are tempted to their
ruin, and it only needs their energy to work a reform at which purity
societies vainly strive.
 Lastly, there is the national organisation which is the greatest of
all, the Church, the society of societies, the body whose object it is
to carry out the aim of all societies, to be the centre of charitable
effort, to spread among high and low the knowledge of the Highest,
to enforce on all the supremacy of duty over pleasure, and to tell
everywhere the Gospel which is joy and peace. If the Church fulfilled
its object, there would be no need of societies or of sects. If the
Church fails, it is because it is allowed to remain under the control of
a clerical body; its charity tends thus to become limited, its ideas of
duty are affected by its organisation, and it preaches not what is
taught by the Holy Spirit, who is ‘the Giver of life’ now as in the past,
but it teaches only what its governing body remembers of the past
teaching of that Spirit. All this would be changed if the people were
put in the place of this clerical body. The Church would then be the
expression of the national will to do good, to distribute the best and
to please God.
Because the national organisations are so vast, and because
association with them is the most adequate check on the growth of
party spirit, it is by their means that the best work can be done. The
cost involved may at times be great. It may be hard to endure the
slow movement of a public body while the majority of that body is
being educated; it may be bitter work for the ardent Christian to
endure the officialism of a public institution; it may seem wrong that
profane hands should mould the Church organisation; but the cost is
well endured. The national organisations do exist, and will exist, if
not for good, then for evil. They are vast, a part of the life of the
nation, and the cost which is paid for association with them is often
the cost of the self-assertion which, if it sometimes is the cause of
success, is also the cause of shame.
Further, at this moment when many methods of social reform
offer themselves, it seems to me that all would be wise to remember
that the only test of progress is in the development of character.
Institutions, societies, laws, count for nothing unless they tend to
make people stronger to choose the good and refuse the evil.
Redistribution of wealth would be of little service if in the process
many became dishonest. A revolution would be no progress which
put one selfish class in the place of another. The test, then, which all
must apply to what they are doing is its effect on character, and this
test rigorously applied will make safe all methods both new and old.
When it is applied there will be a strange shifting of epithets. Things
called ‘great’ will seem to be small, and efforts passed by in
contempt will be seen to be greatest.
The man in East London who, judged by this test, stands among
the highest is, I think, one who, belonging to no society, committed
to no scheme of reform, has worked out plan after plan till all have
been lost in greater plans. Years before the evils lately advertised
were known, he had discovered them, and had begun to apply
remedies unthought of by the impatient. He has won no name,
made no appeal, started no institution, and founded no society, but
by him characters have been formed which are the strength of
homes in which force is daily gathering for right. The women, too,
whose work has borne best fruit are those who, having the
enthusiasm of humanity, have had patience to wait while they work.
After ten years such women now see families who have been raised
from squalor to comfort, and are surrounded by girls to whom their
friendship has given the best armour against temptation.
That work of these has been great because it has strengthened
character, and there are other fields in which like work may be done.
Conditions have a large influence on character, and the hardships of
life may be as prejudicial to the growth of character as the luxuries.
They, therefore, who work to get good houses and good schools,
who provide means of intercourse and high teaching, who increase
the comforts of the poor, may also claim to be strengthening
character. One I know who by patient service on boards has greatly
changed some of the conditions under which 70,000 people have to
live. He has never advertised his methods nor collected money for
his system; he has simply given up pleasure and holidays to be
regular at meetings; he has at the meetings, by patience and good
temper, won the ear of his fellows, while by his inquiries into details
and by his thorough mastery of his subject he has won their respect.
A change has thus been made on account of which many have more
energy, many more comfort, and many more hope.
 One other I can remember who, even more unknown and
unnoticed, came to live in East London. He gathered a few
neighbours together, and gradually in talk opened to them a new
pleasure for idle hours. They found such delight in seeing and
hearing new things that they told others, and now there are many
spending their evenings in ways that increase knowledge, who do so
because one man aimed at providing means of intercourse and high
teaching.
Those whose aim it is to reform the material conditions in which
life is spent may, as well as those who teach, claim to be
strengthening character, but the admission of their claims must
depend on the way in which they have worked. They themselves can
alone tell how far in pursuit of their aims they have forgotten the
effect of their means upon character, and how those means are now
represented by people whose growth they have helped or hindered.
Teachers are not above reformers, and reformers are not above
teachers. The people must be taught, and conditions must be
changed. It is for those who teach as well as for those who try to
change conditions to judge themselves by the effect their methods
have on character. If striving and crying they have avoided
impatience and allowed time for the growth of originality, if working
silently they have indeed done something else than find faults in
others’ methods, they may be said to have secured the good and
avoided the loss.

Samuel A. Barnett.
 XII.

PRACTICABLE SOCIALISM.[1]
1 Reprinted, by permission, from the Nineteenth Century of April 1883.

Some time ago I met in a tramcar a well-known American clergyman.

‘Ah!’ said he, ‘ten years’ work in New York as a minister at large
made me a Christian socialist.’ The remark illustrates my own
experience.
Ten years ago my wife and I came to live in East London. The
study of political economy and some familiarity with the condition of
the poor had shown us the harm of doles given in the shape either
of charity or of out-relief. We found that gifts so given did not make
the poor any richer, but served rather to perpetuate poverty. We
came therefore to East London determined to war against a system
of relief which, ignorantly cherished by the poor, meant ruin to their
possibilities of living an independent and satisfying life. The work of
some devoted men on the Board of Guardians, helped by the
members of the Charity Organisation Society, has enabled us to see
the victory won.
In this Whitechapel Union there is no out-relief, and ‘charity’ is
given only to those who, by their forethought or their self-sacrifice,
awaken those feelings of respect and gratitude which find a natural
expression in giving and receiving presents. The result has not
disappointed our hope. The poor have learnt to help themselves,
and have found self-help a stronger bond by which to keep the
home together than the dole of the relieving officer or of the district
visitor. The rates have been saved 6,000l. a year, and that sum
remains in the pockets of ratepayers to be spent as wages for work,
and by the new system of relief the poor are not only more
independent but distinctly richer. The old system of relief has been
conquered, and the result we desired has been won. What is that
result? With what a state of things does the new system leave us
face to face?
We find ourselves face to face with the labourer earning 20s. a
week. He has but one room for himself, his wife, and their family of
three or four children. By self-denial, by abstinence from drink, by
daily toil, he and his wife are able to feed and clothe the children.
Pleasure for him and for them is impossible; he cannot afford to
spend a sixpence on a visit to the park, nor a penny on a newspaper
or a book. Holidays are out of the question, and he must see those
he loves languish without fresh air, and sometimes without the
doctor’s care, though air and care are necessities of life. The future
does not attract his gaze and give him restful hours; as he thinks of
‘the years that are before’ he cannot think of a time when work will
be done, and he will be free to go and come and rest as he will. In
the labourer’s future there are only the workhouse and the grave. He
hardly dares to think at all, for thought suggests that to-morrow a
change in trade or a master’s whim may throw him out of work and
leave him unable to pay for rent or for food. The labourers—and it is
to be remembered that they form the largest class in the nation—
have few thoughts of joy and little hope of rest; they are well off if
in a day they can obtain ten hours of the dreariest labour, if they can
return to a weather-proof room, if they can eat a meal in silence
while the children sleep around, and then turn into bed to save coal
and light; they are well off indeed, only because they are stolid and
indifferent. Their lives all through the days and years slope into a
darkness which is not ‘quieted by hope.’
If the wages be 40s. a week the condition is still one to depress
those who on Sunday bless God for their creation. The skilled
artisan, having paid rent and club money and provided household
necessaries, has no margin out of which to provide for pleasure, for
old age, or even for the best medical skill. There can be for him no
quiet hours with books or pictures, while his children or friends make
music for his solace. He can invite no friends for a Christmas dance;
he can wander in the thought of no future of pleasure or of rest.
England is the land of sad monuments. The saddest monument is,
perhaps, ‘the respectable working man,’ who has been erected in
honour of Thrift. His brains, which might have shown the world how
to save men, have been spent in saving pennies; his life, which
might have been happy and full, has been dulled and saddened by
taking ‘thought for the morrow.’
This ought not so to be, and this will not always be. The question
therefore naturally occurs, ‘Why should not the State provide what is
needed?’ This is the question to which the Socialist is ready with
many a response. Some of his suggestions, even if good, are
impracticable. It may be urged, for instance, that relief works should
be started, that State workshops should be opened, and starvation
made impossible. Or it may be urged that the land should be
nationalised and large incomes divided. To such suggestions, and to
many like them, it is a sufficient answer that they are impracticable.
Their attainment, even were it desirable, is not within measurable
distance, and to press them is likely to distract attention from what
is possible. If a boy who goes out ‘in the interest of the fox’ can spoil
a hunt by dragging a herring across the scent, a well-meaning
socialist may hinder reform by drawing a fair fancy across the line of
men’s imagination. All real progress must be by growth; the new
must be a development of the old, and not a branch added on from
another root. A change which does not fit into and grow out of
things that already exist is not a practicable change, and such are
some of the changes now advocated by socialists upon platforms.
The condition of the people is one not to be long endured, but the
answer to the question, ‘What can the State do?’ must be a
practicable one, or we shall waste time, make mistakes, rouse up
anarchy, and destroy much that is good.
Facing, then, the whole position, we see that among the majority
of Englishmen life is poor; that among the few life is made rich. The
thoughts stored in books, the beauty rescued from nature and
preserved in pictures, the intercourse made possible by means of
steam locomotion, stir powers in the few which lie asleep in the
many. If it be true, as the poet says, that men ‘live by admiration,’ it
is the few who live, for it is they who know that which is worth
admiration.
It seems a hard thing—but I believe that it is on the line of truth
—to say that the dock labourer cannot live the life of Christ; he may,
by loving and trusting, live a higher life than that lived by many rich
men, but he cannot live the highest life possible to men of this time.
To live the life of Christ is to make manifest the truth and to enjoy
the beauty of God. The labourer who knows nothing of the law of
life which has been revealed by the discoveries of science, who
knows nothing which, by admiration, can lift him out of himself,
cannot live the highest life of his day, as Christ lived the highest life
of His day. The social reformer must go alongside the Christian
missionary, if he be not himself the Christian missionary.
Facing, then, the whole position, we see first the poverty of life
which besets the majority of the people, and further we recognise
that the remedy must be one which shall be practicable, and shall
not affect the sense of independence. It is difficult to state any
principle which such remedy should follow. If it be said that men’s
needs, not their wants, may be supplied by others’ help, then it is
necessary to set up an arbitrary definition and to define wants as
those good things which a man recognises to be necessary for his
life, and needs as those good things the good of which is unseen by
the individual to whose well-being, in the interests of the whole,
they are necessary. Food and clothing would thus be an example of
a man’s wants, education of his needs; and it might, according to
this definition, be a statement of a principle to say that the remedy
for the sadness of English labour is to be sought in letting the State
provide for a man’s needs while he is left to provide for his own
wants. It is, however, a statement which, depending on an arbitrary
and shifting definition, would not be understood. If, as another
statement of a principle, it be said that means of life may be
provided, while for means of livelihood a man must work, then it
becomes difficult to draw a distinction, for some means of life are
also means of livelihood. There is no principle as yet stated
according to which limits of State interference may be defined.
 The better plan is to consider the laws which are accepted as
laws of England, and to study how, by their development, a remedy
may be found. On the statute book there are many socialistic laws.
The Poor Law, the Education Act, the Established Church, the Land
Act, the Artisans’ Dwellings Act, and the Libraries Act are socialistic.
The Poor Law provides relief for the destitute and medical care
for the poor. By a system of outdoor relief it has won the
condemnation of many who care for the poor, and see that outdoor
relief robs them of their energy, their self-respect, and their homes.
There is no reason, however, why the Poor Law should not be
developed in more healthy ways. Pensions of 8s. or 10s. a week
might be given to every citizen who had kept himself until the age of
60 without workhouse aid. If such pensions were the right of all,
none would be tempted to lie to get them, nor would any be
tempted to spy and bully in order to show the undesert of
applicants. So long as relief is a matter of desert, and so long as the
most conscientious relieving officers are liable to err, there must be
mistakes both on the side of indulgence and of neglect. The one
objection to out-relief, which is at present recognised by the poor, is
that the system puts it in the power of the relieving officer to act as
judge in matters of which he must be ignorant, so that he gives
relief to the careless or crafty and passes over those who in self-
respect hide their trouble. Pensions, too, it may be added, would be
no more corrupting to the labourer who works for his country in the
workshop than for the civil servant who works for his country at the
desk, and the cost of pensions would be no greater than is the cost
of infirmaries and almshouses. In one way or another the old and
the poor are now kept by those who are richer, and the present
method is not a cheap one.
Many men and women fail because they do not know how to
work. The workhouses might be made schools of industry. If the
ignorant could be detained in workhouses until they had learnt the
use of a tool and the pleasure of work, these establishments would
become technical schools of the kind most needed, and yearly add a
large sum to the wealth of the nation.
 Lastly, the whole system of medical relief might be so organised
as to provide for every citizen the skill and care necessary for his
cure in sickness. As it is, no labourer nor artisan is expected to make
such provision, as there are hospitals, infirmaries, and dispensaries
to supply his wants. By application or by letter he can gain
admission to any of these, and he is expected to be grateful. Medical
relief is thus supplied; to organise the relief is merely to take another
step along a path already entered, and properly organised the relief
need not pauperise. The necessity of begging for a letter, the
obligation of humbly waiting at hospital or dispensary doors, the
chance that real needs may be unskilfully treated—these are the
things which degrade a man. If all the dispensaries, hospitals, and
infirmaries were properly ordered, controlled by the State, and open
as a matter of right to all comers, it would be possible for every
citizen at the dispensary to get the necessary advice and medicine,
and thence, if he would, to enter a hospital without any sense of
degradation. The national health is the nation’s interest, and without
additional outlay it could be brought about that every man, woman,
and child should have the medical treatment necessary to their
condition. The rich would still get sufficient advantage, but it would
no longer happen that the lives most useful to the nation would be
left to the care of practitioners who, however kind and devoted,
cannot provide either adequate drugs or spare the time for
necessary study when for visit and drugs the charge cannot be more
than 1s. or 1s. 6d.
By some such development as these suggested, without any
break with old traditions, without any fear of pauperising the people,
the Poor Law might help to make the life of England healthier and
more restful.
In the same way the Education Act might be developed in
conjunction with the Church and the Universities to make the life of
England wiser and fuller. A complete system of national education
ought to take the child from the nursery, pass him through high
schools to the University, and then provide him with means to
develop the higher life of which all are capable. Some steps have
already been made in this direction, but secondary schools or high
schools are still needed, and the Church organisation will have to be
made popular, so as to represent, not the opinions of a mediæval
sect, but the opinions of nineteenth-century Englishmen. Schools in
which it would be possible to learn the facts and thoughts new to
this age, Churches in which, by ministers in sympathy with their
hearers and by the use of forms native of the times, men could be
lightened with light upon their souls, would add an untold quantity
to the sum of national life.
Alongside of such development much might be done with the
Libraries Act and with the powers which local bodies have to keep up
parks and gardens. It would be as easy to find in every
neighbourhood a site for the people’s playground as it is for the
workhouse, and all might have, what is now the privilege of the rich,
a place for quiet, the sight of green grass and fair flowers. It would
be as easy to build a library as an infirmary. In every parish there
might be rooms lighted and warmed, where cosy chairs and well-
filled shelves might invite the weary man to wander in other times
and climes with other mates and minds. In every locality there might
be a hall where music, or pictures, or the talk of friends would call
into action sleeping powers, and by admiration arouse the deadened
to life. The best things gain nothing by being made private property;
a fine picture possessed by the State will give the individual who
looks at it as much pleasure as if he possessed it. It is no idle dream
that the Crystal Palace might become a national institution, open
free for the enjoyment of all, dedicated to the service of the people,
for the recreation of their lives, by means of music, knowledge, and
beauty.
If still it be said that none of these good things touch the want
most recognised, the need of better dwellings, then we have in the
Artisans’ Dwellings Act a law which only requires wise handling to be
made to serve this purpose. A local board has now the power to pull
down rookeries and to let the ground at a price which will enable
honest builders to erect decent dwellings at low rents. Unwisely
handled, the law may only destroy existing dwellings and put heavy
compensation into the pockets of unworthy landlords and fees into
those of active officials; wisely handled, the same law might at no
very great expense replace the houses which now ruin the life of the
poor and disgrace the English name.
Thus it is—and other laws, such as the Irish Land Act, are open
to the same process of development—that without revolution reform
could be wrought. I can conceive a great change in the condition of
the people, worked out in our own generation, without any
revolution or break with the past. With wages at their present rate I
can yet imagine the houses made strong and healthy, education and
public baths made free, and the possibility of investing in land made
easy. I can imagine that, without increase of their private wealth, the
poor might have in libraries, music-halls, and flower gardens that on
which wealth is spent. I can imagine the youth of the nation made
strong by means of fresh air and the doctor’s care, the aged made
restful by means of honourable pensions. I can imagine the Church
as the people’s Church, its buildings the halls where they are taught
by their chosen teachers, the meeting-places where they learn the
secret of union and brotherly love, the houses of prayer where in the
presence of the Best they lift themselves into the higher life of duty
and devotion to right—all this I can imagine, because it is
practicable. I cannot imagine that which must be reached by new
departures and so-called Continental practices. Any scheme,
whatever it may promise in the future, which involves revolution in
the present is impracticable, and any flirting with it is likely to hinder
the progress of reform.
But now there rises the obvious objection, ‘All this will cost much
money;’ ‘Free education means 1d. in the pound; libraries and
museums mean 2d.;’ ‘The suggested changes would absorb more
than 1s.; the ratepayers could not stand it.’
I agree; the present ratepayers could not pay heavier rates.
There must be other means of raising the money. Some scheme for
graduated taxing might be possible; but perhaps I may be told that
such a scheme means the introduction of a new principle, and is as
much outside my present scope as the scheme for nationalisation of
the land. Well, there remains the wealth locked up in the endowed
charities, the increase which would be brought to the revenue by a
new assessment of the land-tax, and the sum which might be saved
by abolishing sinecures and waste in every public office.
The wealth of the endowed charities has never been realised,
and if that amount be not reduced in paying for elementary
education, it might do much to make life happier. If men saw to
what uses this money could be put, they would not be so ready to
back up an agitation raised on the School Board to get hold of this
money for School Board work. They would say, ‘No; the schools are
safe; in some way they must be provided and paid for. We won’t
shield the Board from attacks of ratepayers by giving them our
money to spend; we want that for things which the board cannot
provide.’ There is also a vast sum which might be got by a new
assessment—which in some cases would be a re-imposition—of the
land-tax, and by a closer scrutiny into the ways of public offices. The
land-tax returns the same amount as it returned more than two
hundred years ago, while rents have gone on increasing. The abuses
of sinecures and of useless officials are patent to all who know
anything of public work in small areas; and it is possible that what is
done in the vestry, on a small scale, is developed by the atmosphere
of grander surroundings into grander proportions. The parish
reformer can put his finger on one or two officials who are not
wanted, but whose salary of a few hundreds seems hardly worth the
saving; perchance the parliamentary reformer might put his finger
on unnecessary officials whose salaries amount to thousands. Out of
the sums thus gained or saved a great fund could be entrusted to
the governing body of London, and the responsibility would then lie
with the electors to choose men capable of administering vast
wealth, so as to give to all the means of developing their highest
possibilities.
Perhaps, though, it is unwise to go into these details and attempt
to show how the necessary money may be raised. In England
poverty and wealth have met together. It is the fellow-citizens of the
poor who see them in East London without joy and without hope.
The money which is wasted on fruitless pleasures and fruitless effort
would be sufficient to do all, and more than has been suggested in
this paper. There is no want of the necessary money, and much is
yearly spent—some of it in vain—on efforts on societies or on
armies, which promise to save the people. When it is clearly seen
that wealth may provide some of the means by which their fellow-
countrymen may be saved from dreariness and sickness if not from
sin, then the difficulty as to the way in which the money may be
raised will not long hinder action.
The ways and means of improving the condition of the people
are at hand. It is time we gave up the game of party politics and
took to real work. It is time we gave up speculation and did what
waits the doing. Here are men and women. Are they what they
might be? Are they like the Son of Man? How can they be helped to
reach the standard of their manhood? That is the question of the
day; before that of Ireland, Egypt, or the Game Laws. The answer to
that question will divide, by other than by party lines, the leaders of
men. He who answers it so as to weld old and new together will be
the statesman of the future.

Samuel A. Barnett.
 XIII.

THE WORK OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.[1]

1 A sermon preached on Advent Sunday, November 27, 1887, at St.
Jude’s Church, Whitechapel, before a body of men and women engaged in the
work of social reform.

‘If I find ... fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their
sakes.’—Genesis xviii. 26.

My first thought, as I face you this evening, is of your variety—of

your different classes and creeds, of your various communities, and
your various views. My second thought is of your common object, of
the one longing—the voice of your real selves—which converts
variety into unity. You would save the city. Like Abraham, you have
seen doom impending; like Buddha, you have seen sights in your
daily walk which make the life of ease impossible. You have met
poverty, ignorance, and sin.
You have met Poverty. You know families whose weekly income is
under the price of a bottle of good wine; men dwarfed in stature,
crippled in body, the inmates of a hospital for want of sufficient
food; women aged and hardened, broken in spirit because their
homes are too narrow for cleanliness or for comfort; children who
die because they cannot have the care which preserves the children
of the rich.
You have met Ignorance. You know men and women gifted with
divine powers, powers of clear sight and deep feeling, you have seen
such people taking shallow rhetoric for reason, delighting in
exaggeration, clamouring for force as a remedy, adopting swindlers
as leaders, making a game—a Sunday afternoon’s excitement—of
matters which should tear their hearts, killing time which might have
been fruitful in thought and joy and love. ‘The future belongs to the
man who refuses to take himself seriously,’ says the mocking
philosopher. The ignorance which accepts the teaching, and which
goes with a light heart to agitate or to repress agitation, is a sight to
destroy anyone’s ease of mind.
You have met Sin, the degradation which comes of selfishness. In
West London it often hides under fine trappings. Culture covers a
multitude of sins. In the exquisitively ordered banquet intemperance
and self-indulgence are unnoticed; in the phraseology of the office
greed and selfishness pass as political economy; and in the polished
talk of books and of society impurity loses its true colour. You,
though, are familiar with East London, and here you see sin without
its trappings; you know that intemperance—over-eating and over-
drinking—means a brutalised nature; you know that greed is cruelty,
and that impurity is destructive both of reason and of feeling. You
have seen the victims of sin, that drunkard’s home, the gambler’s
hell, and the sweater’s shop. You know that the wages of sin is
death, and that no culture can give to Mammon any nobility or warm
his heart with any spark of unselfish joy.
Poverty, Ignorance, Sin—these threaten the city. Your common
longing is to avert its doom. Our fathers nourished a like longing.
They hoped in Free Trade, the Suffrage, the National Education, and
they have been disappointed.
Free Trade has, indeed, greatly increased wealth; the number of
the comfortable has been multiplied, but it is a question whether, in
the same proportion, the number of the uncomfortable has not also
been multiplied. Our England is larger than the England of fifty years
ago, but a larger body—like a giraffe’s throat—may only provide a
larger space for pain! At any rate, Free Trade, which has given us
cheap bread, has not solved the problem of the unemployed.
The extension of the Suffrage, again, for which our fathers
strove, has had good results; but the example of later parliaments
and the growing tendency to legislate by demonstration hardly
justifies their hopes. Our fathers held that the possession of the
Suffrage would be effective to destroy Ignorance; they thought that
responsibility would develop the seriousness which is necessary to
knowledge. They—like other good men who need God’s forgiveness
—fed Ignorance with abuse of opponents; with exaggerations, with
party cries, they bribed Ignorance to establish its own executioner;
and now Ignorance is too much puffed up by flattery, too much
enriched by bribes, to yield to the voice which from the register and
polling booth says, ‘England expects every man’ to vote according to
his conscience, and then to submit to the common will.
Lastly, the passing of the Education Act seemed to many to be
the beginning of a new age. Schools were rapidly built, money was
freely voted, and the children were compelled to attend. The
Education Act has not, however, taught the people what is due to
themselves or to others. Greed is not eradicated because its form is
changed, and, though criminals may be fewer, gambling is as
degrading as thieving, and oppression legally exerted over the weak
is as cruel as the illegal blow. The children do not leave school with
the self-respect born of consciousness of powers of heart and brain
and hand, nor with the humanity born of knowledge of others’
burdens. It seems, indeed, as if their chief belief was in the value of
competition, and their chief aptitude a skill in satisfying an inspector
with the least possible amount of work. At any rate, at the end of
twenty years, when a generation has been through the schools, our
streets are filled with a mob of careless youths, and our labour
market is overstocked with workers whose work is not worth 4d. an
hour.
Poverty, Ignorance and Sin threaten the city. Free Trade, the
Suffrage, the Education Act have been tried, and the doom still
impends. What is to be done? The principle of true action lies, I
think, imbedded in the old Jewish tale. It is not laws and institutions
which save a city—it is persons. Institutions are good, just in so far
as they are vivified by personal action; laws are good just in so far
as they allow for the free play of person on person. There may be
need of reform in institutions and in laws, so as to give to all an
open career and equality of opportunity, but it is persons who save;
and if to-day fifty—a company of righteous—men could be found in
London, the city might be spared and saved.
In support of this position I would offer two considerations. (1)
The common mind is now scientific. Professor Huxley, in summing
up the results of fifty years of science, claims the creation of a new
habit of thought as a greater achievement than any material
invention. The common man in the street no longer expects a
miracle or worships a theory as men once worshipped the theory of
social contract; he asks for a fact. The fact, therefore, that a
neighbour is righteous does most to extend righteousness. He who
knows a just man is likely to give a fair day’s wage and do a fair
day’s work, to live simply and tell the truth, and it is bad pay and
bad work, luxury and lying, which do most to make poverty. He who
knows a wise man is likely to search after what is hidden in thought
and things, and it is carelessness of what is out of sight which makes
ignorance. He who knows a good man is likely to have a passion for
honour, for purity, for humanity, and it is the want of higher passion
which makes sin.
The righteous man is in a real sense the master of the city. He,
as Browning says, who ‘walked about and took account of all
thought, said and acted’ was ‘the town’s true master.’ Were there in
London a company of such righteous men, the power of Poverty,
Ignorance, and Sin would be broken.
(2) I am often led to observe that taste is more powerful than
interest. People remain on in situations, hold opinions, and adopt
habits which are against their interests, because they are more in
accordance with their tastes. They like the surroundings, they like
the life, and liking is an armour which resists the strong lance of the
economist. Now why is it that taste overpowers interest, and that
habit is stronger than law? It is because taste comes through
persons and is spread by contact. The habits or tastes, therefore,
which lie at the root of Poverty, Ignorance, and Sin may best be met
by the formation of other habits, which come through the example
of persons, by the contact of man with man. Righteous men are
therefore necessary—men who would live simply and share their
luxury, whose gain would not mean another’s loss, who would work
for their bread, who would do justice on wrong-doers, show mercy
to the weak, and walk humbly before God. The habits of respectable
people, the waste, the idleness, the sensuousness are writ large in
the poverty, ignorance, and sin of the disreputable. Fifty—a company
of righteous men, rich or poor, setting an example of generosity and
honesty, living Christ’s life in contact with others—might create
habits in them which would take the place of the old bad habits.
The question is sometimes asked, What has been the secret of
the success of Christianity? Its basis is not a system but a life. Jesus,
the Righteous One, drew to Himself the righteous. They that loved
the light came to the light and found the universe instinct with life.
Like leaven, the disciples leavened the mass. Christianity, in
distinction from other systems, gives no scheme of belief and
promises no paradise of plenty—it says instead, ‘The kingdom is
within you.’ ‘When you do right you have all that God can give.’ ‘The
joy of Christ’s is the highest joy, and His is the joy of the righteous.’
Christianity spreads, if it spreads at all, by pointing to a life.
To you, then, desiring to save the city, I take up the lesson as old
as Abraham and illumined in Christ. I say, ‘Be righteous.’
Follow the light and do the right,
For man can half control his doom,
Till you find the deathless angel
Seated in the vacant tomb.

Now, as once more I look at you, I am conscious of you not only

as fellow-workers seeking a common end, but as our friends. I
remember how one has sorrow, another joy, and another pain; I
know the anxiety which besets those whose dear ones are in danger,
and the failing of heart which comes with age. I go farther, I remind
you that I know some of your shortcomings, the impatience and the
indolence, the will worship and the weakness, the too great speech
and the too great silence. I think I know the difficulties of some as I
am sure I know the goodwill of all of you. Remembering, then, that
some are sad and some are tried, I say again, ‘Let everyone do that
which he knows to be right.’ This implies self-examination, the
deliberate questioning, ‘What do I think?’ ‘What am I doing?’ This
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