You see,
in England it is not the Crown nowadays which instigate or insists on
war; it is Parliament and the people. Dynastic ambitions do not trouble
us. There is no reason whatever why we here should hate kings when they
are harmless."
"You are right; the case is different," Lind admitted. "But that makes
adhesion to our programme all the easier."
"I was only speaking of the police of mentioning things which might
alarm timid people. Then as for the priests; it may be the interest of
the priests in Ireland to keep the peasantry ignorant; but it is
certainly not so in England. The Church of England fosters education--"
"Are not your clergymen the bitterest enemies of the School Board
schools?"
"Well, they may dislike seeing education dissociated from religion--that
is natural, considering what they believe; but they are not necessary
enemies of education. Perhaps I am a very young member to think of
making such a suggestion. But the truth is, that when an ordinary
Englishman hears anything said against kings and priests, he merely
thinks of kings and priests as he knows them--and as being mostly
harmless creatures nowadays--and concludes that you are a Communist
wanting to overturn society altogether.
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