Politics, as such, I cared not for at all, for the necessary compromises of political life were intolerable to me; but wherever they touched on the life of the people they became to me of burning interest.

The land question, the incidence of taxation, the cost of Royalty, the obstructive power of the House of Lords--these were the matters to which I put my hand; I was a Home Ruler, too, of course, and a passionate opponent of all injustice to nations weaker than ourselves, so that I found myself always in opposition to the Government of the day.

Against our aggressive and oppressive policy in Ireland, in the Transvaal, in India, in Afghanistan, in Burmah, in Egypt, I lifted up my voice in all our great towns, trying to touch the consciences of the people, and to make them feel the immorality of a land-stealing, piratical policy.

Against war, against capital punishment, against flogging, demanding national education instead of big guns, public libraries instead of warships--no wonder I was denounced as an agitator, a firebrand, and that all orthodox society turned up at me its most respectable nose..