The Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign: Why It Exists, and How It May Be ExtinguishedCarey, Henry Charles
History
The Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign: Why It Exists, and How It May Be Extinguished
Carey, Henry Charles
Labor; Slave trade; Slavery; Slavery -- United States; Tariff -- United States; Working class
body of labourers, abroad and at home,
Where population and wealth increase together, there is always found a
growing respect for the rights of persons and property. Where they
decline, that respect diminishes; and the tendency of the whole
British politico-economical system being toward the destruction of
population and wealth at home and abroad, it tends necessarily toward
agrarianism in its worst form. That such is the tendency of things in
England we have the assurance of the London _Times_, by which, it has
recently been shown, says Mr. Kay,
"That during the last half century, every thing has been done to
deprive the peasant of any interest in the preservation of public
order; of any wish to maintain the existing constitution of society;
of all hope of raising himself in the world, or of improving his
condition in life; of all attachment to his country; of all feelings
of there really existing any community of interest between himself
and the higher ranks of society; and of all consciousness that he has
any thing to lose by political changes; and that every thing has been
done to render him dissatisfied with his condition, envious of the
richer classes, and discontented with the existing order of things.
"The labourer," he continues "has no longer any connection with the
land which he cultivates; he has no stake in the country; he has
nothing to lose, nothing to defend, and nothing to hope for. The word
"cottage" has ceased to mean what it once meant--a small house
surrounded by its little plot of land, which the inmate might
cultivate as he pleased, for the support and gratification of his
family and himself. The small freeholds have long since been bought
up and merged in the great estates. Copyholds have become almost
extinct, or have been purchased by the great land-owners. The
commons, upon which the villagers once had the right of pasturing
cattle for their own use, and on which, too, the games and pastimes
of the villages were held, have followed the same course: they are
enclosed, and now form part of the possessions of the great
landowners. Small holdings of every kind have, in like manner, almost
entirely disappeared. Farms have gradually become larger and larger,
and are now, in most parts of the country, far out of the peasant's
reach, on account of their size, and of the amount of capital
requisite to cultivate them. The gulf between the peasant and the
next step in the social scale--the farmer--is widening and increasing
day by day. The labourer is thus left without any chance of improving
his condition. His position is one of hopeless and irremediable
dependence. The workhouse stands near him, pointing out his dismal
fate if he falls one step lower, and, like a grim scarecrow, warning
him to betake himself to some more hospitable region, where he will
find no middle-age institutions opposing his industrious
efforts."--Vol. i. 361.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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