Compared with these the denunciation of the social system is a matter of secondary interest; but it was natural that the author of the "Political Justice," with his mind preoccupied by the defects of the English social system, should make those defects the, evil agencies of his plot.

As the essential conditions of the series of events, as the machinery by which everything is brought about, these defects are of the utmost importance to the story.

It is the accused system that awards to Tyrrel and Falkland their immense preponderance in society, and enables them to use the power of the law for the most nefarious ends.

Tyrrel does his cousin to death and ruins his tenant, a man of integrity, by means of the law.

This is the occasion of Falkland's original crime.