and after throwing certain parts of us, rather contemptuously, to Borough Councils, they have reserved the lion's share for themselves to be assimilated at their leisure. In view of these considerations I have thought it better to raise a discussion to-day upon the wider issues underlying these changes, rather than to any specific points of Poor Law administration: issues with which we are concerned not only as Poor Law Guardians, who may be presumed to have special knowledge of questions concerned with the relief of the poor, but as citizens.
I suppose that we shall all agree that the force which is at the back of all this is that which is known as "Socialism"; but before going further it is necessary to be clear as to what is meant by the word itself. There are probably few words which are used by so many, and the meaning of which has been exactly thought out by so few. It is rare, except within a very small circle, to find two people who are agreed about it. Broadly speaking, every one who is not purely selfish, but has aspirations for better social conditions, and is prepared to help towards these conditions, is a socialist: in that sense, most of those who are the most convinced individualists are very practical socialists. They have no selfish ends to serve, but they believe that the solution of the social problem is to be found in the strengthening of the position of the individual, and their idea of social service is directed to that end. They deplore, as much as any one can deplore, the evils of poverty and the contrasts of poverty and wealth. But their remedy is to stimulate the ambition and accumulative instincts of the industrial classes, rather than to supersede the necessity for these qualities. They agree with Carlyle, that Poor Laws and poor relief of all kinds are "an anodyne, not a remedy," and that to accept them
