Great Britain -- Description and travel; Great Britain -- Rural conditions
it might be before some Jew would begin to fix his eye upon Highclere,
and talk of putting out the present owner, who, though a _Whig_, is one
of the best of that set of politicians, and who acted a manly part in
the case of our deeply injured and deeply lamented Queen. Perhaps his
Lordship thinks that there is no fear of the Jews as to _him_. But does
he think that his tenants can sell fat hogs at 7_s._ 6_d._ a score, and
pay him more than a third of the rent that they have paid him while the
debt was contracting? I know that such a man does not lose his estate at
once; but, without rents, what is the estate? And that the Jews will
receive the far greater part of his rents is certain, unless the
interest of the Debt be reduced. LORD CAERNARVON told a man, in 1820,
that _he did not like my politics_. But what did he mean by my
_politics_? I have no politics but such as he _ought_ to like. I want to
do away with that infernal _system_, which, after having beggared and
pauperized the Labouring Classes, has now, according to the Report, made
by the Ministers themselves to the House of Commons, plunged the owners
of the land themselves into a state of distress, for which those
Ministers themselves can hold out no remedy! To be sure, I labour most
assiduously to destroy a system of distress and misery; but is that any
reason why a _Lord_ should dislike my politics? However, dislike or like
them, to them, to those very politics, the Lords themselves _must come
at last_. And that I should exult in this thought, and take little pains
to disguise my exultation, can surprise nobody who reflects on what has
passed within these last twelve years. If the Landlords be well; if
things be going right with them; if they have fair prospects of happy
days; then what need they care about me and _my politics_; but, if they
find themselves in "_distress_," and do not know how to get out of it;
and, if they have been plunged into this distress by those who "dislike
my politics;" is there not _some reason_ for men of sense to hesitate a
little before they _condemn_ those politics? If no great change be
wanted; if things could remain even; then men may, with some show of
reason, say that I am disturbing that which ought to be let alone. But
if things cannot remain as they are; if there must be a _great change_;
is it not folly, and, indeed, is it not a species of idiotic
perverseness, for men to set their faces, without rhyme or reason,
against what is said as to this change by _me_, who have, for nearly
twenty years, been warning the country of its danger, and foretelling
that which has now come to pass and is coming to pass? However, I make
no complaint on this score. People disliking my politics "neither picks
my pocket, nor breaks my leg," as JEFFERSON said by the writings of the
Atheists. If they be pleased in disliking my politics, I am pleased in
liking them; and so we are both enjoying ourselves. If the country wants
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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