Great Britain -- Description and travel; Great Britain -- Rural conditions
It is curious, and very _useful_, thus to trace events
to their causes.
Soon after quitting Billingshurst I crossed the river Arun, which has a
canal running alongside of it. At this there are large timber and coal
yards, and kilns for lime. This appears to be a grand receiving and
distributing place. The river goes down to Arundale, and, together with
the valley that it runs through, gives the town its name. This valley,
which is very pretty, and which winds about a good deal, is the dale of
the Arun: and the town is the town of the Arun-dale. To-day, near a
place called Westborough Green, I saw a woman bleaching her home-spun
and home-woven linen. I have not seen such a thing before, since I left
Long Island. There, and, indeed, all over the American States, North of
Maryland, and especially in the New England States, almost the whole of
both linen and woollen used in the country, and a large part of that
used in towns, is made in the farmhouses. There are thousands and
thousands of families who never use either, except of their own making.
All but the weaving is done by the family. There is a loom in the house,
and the weaver goes from house to house. I once saw about three thousand
farmers, or rather country people, at a horse-race in Long Island, and
my opinion was, that there were not five hundred who were not dressed in
home-spun coats. As to linen, no farmer's family thinks of buying linen.
The Lords of the Loom have taken from the land, in England, this part of
its due; and hence one cause of the poverty, misery, and pauperism that
are becoming so frightful throughout the country. A national debt and
all the taxation and gambling belonging to it have a natural tendency to
draw wealth into great masses. These masses produce a power of
_congregating_ manufactures, and of making the many work at them, for
the _gain of a few_. The taxing Government finds great convenience in
these congregations. It can lay its hand easily upon a part of the
produce; as ours does with so much effect. But the land suffers greatly
from this, and the country must finally feel the fatal effects of it.
The country people lose part of their natural employment. The women and
children, who ought to provide a great part of the raiment, have nothing
to do. The fields _must_ have men and boys; but where there are men and
boys there will be _women_ and _girls_; and as the Lords of the Loom
have now a set of real slaves, by the means of whom they take away a
great part of the employment of the countrywomen and girls, these must
be kept by poor-rates in whatever degree they lose employment through
the Lords of the Loom. One would think that nothing can be much plainer
than this; and yet you hear the _jolterheads_ congratulating one another
upon the increase of Manchester, and such places! My straw affair will
certainly restore to the land some of the employment of its women and
girls. It will be impossible for any of the "rich ruffians;" any of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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