Margaret Maliphant

								

suppose even at father's age one is not impervious to this refined sort
of flattery.
Those were happy days in the dear old home, when we were all together,
and none but the most trivial cloud of trouble or doubt had come to mar
the harmony of our life.
I never remember father merrier than he was at that time. He and Frank
would sit there smoking their pipes, and laughing and talking as it
does one's heart good to remember. There was never any quarrelling
over these discussions, as there used to be over the arguments with
the squire. Not that the young man always agreed at once about things.
He required to be convinced, but then he always was convinced in the
end. And his wild schemes for the development of the people and the
prevention of crime, and the alleviation of distress, all sounded
so practical and pleasant, as set forth in his pleasant, brilliant
language, full of fire and enthusiasm, and not at all like the same
theories that father had been wont to quarrel over with the squire in
his sullen, serious fashion.
Everything that the captain proposed was to be won from the top, by
discussions and meetings among the great of the land. He could shake
hands on terms of equality with the poorest laborer over his pot of
beer, but it was not from the laborer that the reform would ever be
obtained; and he quite refused to see the matter in the sombre light in
which father held it, who believed in no reform--if reform there could
be--that did not come from the class that needed it, and that should
come without bitter struggles and patient, dogged perseverance. And in
the end he convinced--or seemed to convince--Frank that this was so.
I noticed how, imperceptibly, under the influence of father's earnest,
powerful nature, the young man slowly became more earnest and more
serious too. He talked less and he listened more; and truly there was
no lack of food.
The great subjects under discussion were the nationalization of land
and the formation of trade corporations for the protection of the
artisan class. These corporations were to be formed as far as possible
on the model of the old guilds of the Middle Ages; they were to have
compulsory provident funds for widows, orphans, and disabled workmen;
they were to prevent labor on Sundays, and the employment of children
and married women in factories; they were to determine the hours of
labor and the rate of wages, and to inquire into the sanitary condition
of workplaces.
There were many other principles belonging to them besides these that
I have quoted, but I cannot remember any more, though I remember
clearly how father and Frank disagreed upon the question of whether the
corporations were to enjoy a monopoly or not. I suppose they agreed
finally upon the point, for I know that Frank undertook to air the
matter at public meetings in London, and seemed to be quite sure that
he would be able to start a trial society before long. I recollect how