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CHAPTER 27:
EXPROPRIATION
OF
THE
AGRICULTURAL
POPULATION
FROM
THE
LAND02
NOTES:
1\"The
petty
proprietors
who
cultivated
their
own
fields
with
their
own
hands,
and
enjoyed
a
modest
competence....then
formed
a
much
more
important
part
of
the
nation
than
at
present.
If
we
may
trust
the
best
statistical
writers
of
that
age,not
less
than
160,000
proprietors
who,
with
their
families,
must
have
made
up
more
than
a
seventh
of
the
whole
population,derived
their
subsistence
from
little
freehold
estates.
The
average
income
of
these
small
landlords...
was
estimated
at
between
￡60
and
￡70
a
year.
It
was
computed
that
the
number
of
persons
who
tilled
their
own
land
was
greater
than
the
number
of
those
who
farmed
the
land
of
others.\"
Macaulay:\"History
of
England,\"
10th
ed.,
1854,
I.
pp.
333,
334.
Even
in
the
last
third
of
the
17th
century,
4\/5
of
the
English
people
were
agricultural.
(l.
c.,
p.
413.)
I
quote
Macaulay,
because
as
systematic
falsifier
of
history
he
minimises
as
much
as
possible
facts
of
this
kind.
2We
must
never
forget
that
even
the
serf
was
not
only
the
owner,
if
but
a
tribute-paying
owner,
of
the
piece
of
land
attached
to
his
house,
but
also
a
co-possessor
of
the
common
land.
\"Le
paysan
(in
Silesia,
under
Frederick
II.)
est
serf.\"Nevertheless,
these
serfs
possess
common
lands.
\"On
n'a
pas
pu
encore
engager
les
Silésiens
au
partage
des
communes,tandis
que
dans
la
Nouvelle
Marche,
il
n'y
a
guère
de
village
où
ce
partage
ne
soit
exécuté
avec
le
plus
grand
succès.\"
[The
peasant
...
is
a
serf.
...
It
has
not
yet
been
possible
to
persuade
the
Silesians
to
partition
the
common
lands,
whereas
in
the
Neumark
there
is
scarcely
a
village
where
the
partition
has
not
been
implemented
with
very
great
success]
(Mirabeau:
\"De
la
Monarchie
Prussienne.\"
Londres,
1788,
t.
ii,
pp.
125,
126.)
3Japan,
with
its
purely
feudal
organisation
of
landed
property
and
its
developed
petite
culture,
gives
a
much
truer
picture
of
the
European
middle
ages
than
all
our
history
books,dictated
as
these
are,
for
the
most
part,
by
bourgeois
prejudices.It
is
very
convenient
to
be
\"liberal\"
at
the
expense
of
the
middle
ages.
4In
his
\"Utopia,\"
Thomas
More
says,
that
in
England
\"your
shepe
that
were
wont
to
be
so
meke
and
tame,
and
so
smal
eaters,
now,
as
I
heare
saye,
be
become
so
great
devourers
and
so
wylde
that
they
eate
up,
and
swallow
downe,
the
very
men
themselfes.\"
\"Utopia,\"
transl.
by
Robinson,
ed.
Arber,
Lond.,1869,
p.
41.
5Bacon
shows
the
connexion
between
a
free,
well-to-do
peasantry
and
good
infantry.
\"This
did
wonderfully
concern
the
might
and
mannerhood
of
the
kingdom
to
have
farms
as
it
were
of
a
standard
sufficient
to
maintain
an
able
body
out
of
penury,
and
did
in
effect
amortise
a
great
part
of
the
lands
of
the
kingdom
unto
the
hold
and
occupation
of
the
yeomanry
or
middle
people,
of
a
condition
between
gentlemen,
and
cottagers
and
peasants....
For
it
hath
been
held
by
the
general
opinion
of
men
of
best
judgment
in
the
wars....
that
the
principal
strength
of
an
army
consisteth
in
the
infantry
or
foot.
And
to
make
good
infantry
it
requireth
men
bred,
not
in
a
servile
or
indigent
fashion,
but
in
some
free
and
plentiful
manner.Therefore,
if
a
state
run
most
to
noblemen
and
gentlemen,
and
that
the
husbandman
and
ploughmen
be
but
as
their
workfolk
and
labourers,
or
else
mere
cottagers
(which
are
but
hous'd
beggars),
you
may
have
a
good
cavalry,
but
never
good
stable
bands
of
foot....
And
this
is
to
be
seen
in
France,
and
Italy,and
some
other
parts
abroad,
where
in
effect
all
is
noblesse
or
peasantry....
insomuch
that
they
are
inforced
to
employ
mercenary
bands
of
Switzers
and
the
like,
for
their
battalions
of
foot;
whereby
also
it
comes
to
pass
that
those
nations
have
much
people
and
few
soldiers.\"
(\"The
Reign
of
Henry
VII.\"Verbatim
reprint
from
Kennet's
England.
Ed.
1719.
Lond.,1870,
p.
308.)
6Dr.
Hunter,
l.
c.,
p.
134.
\"The
quantity
of
land
assigned
(in
the
old
laws)
would
now
be
judged
too
great
for
labourers,
and
rather
as
likely
to
convert
them
into
small
farmers.\"
(George
Roberts:
\"The
Social
History
of
the
People
of
the
Southern
Counties
of
England
in
Past
Centuries.\"
Lond.,
1856,
pp.
184185.)
7\"The
right
of
the
poor
to
share
in
the
tithe,
is
established
by
the
tenour
of
ancient
statutes.\"
(Tuckett,
l.
c.,
Vol.
II.,
pg.
804805.)
8William
Cobbett:
\"A
History
of
the
Protestant
Reformation,\"§
471.
9The
\"spirit\"
of
Protestantism
may
be
seen
from
the
following,
among
other
things.
In
the
south
of
England
certain
landed
proprietors
and
well-to-do
farmers
put
their
heads
together
and
propounded
ten
questions
as
to
the
right
interpretation
of
the
poor-law
of
Elizabeth.
These
they
laid
before
a
celebrated
jurist
of
that
time,
Sergeant
Snigge
(later
a
judge
under
James
I.)
for
his
opinion.
\"Question
9
—
Some
of
the
more
wealthy
farmers
in
the
parish
have
devised
a
skilful
mode
by
which
all
the
trouble
of
executing
this
Act(the
43rd
of
Elizabeth)
might
be
avoided.
They
have
proposed
that
we
shall
erect
a
prison
in
the
parish,
and
then
give
notice
to
the
neighbourhood,
that
if
any
persons
are
disposed
to
farm
the
poor
of
this
parish,
they
do
give
in
sealed
proposals,on
a
certain
day,
of
the
lowest
price
at
which
they
will
take
them
off
our
hands;
and
that
they
will
be
authorised
to
refuse
to
any
one
unless
he
be
shut
up
in
the
aforesaid
prison.
The
proposers
of
this
plan
conceive
that
there
will
be
found
in
the
adjoining
counties,
persons,
who,
being
unwilling
to
labour
and
not
possessing
substance
or
credit
to
take
a
farm
or
ship,so
as
to
live
without
labour,
may
be
induced
to
make
a
very
advantageous
offer
to
the
parish.
If
any
of
the
poor
perish
under
the
contractor's
care,
the
sin
will
lie
at
his
door,
as
the
parish
will
have
done
its
duty
by
them.
We
are,
however,apprehensive
that
the
present
Act
(43rd
of
Elizabeth)
will
not
warrant
a
prudential
measure
of
this
kind;
but
you
are
to
learn
that
the
rest
of
the
freeholders
of
the
county,
and
of
the
adjoining
county
of
B,
will
very
readily
join
in
instructing
their
members
to
propose
an
Act
to
enable
the
parish
to
contract
with
a
person
to
lock
up
and
work
the
poor;
and
to
declare
that
if
any
person
shall
refuse
to
be
so
locked
up
and
worked,he
shall
be
entitled
to
no
relief.
This,
it
is
hoped,
will
prevent
persons
in
distress
from
wanting
relief,
and
be
the
means
of
keeping
down
parishes.\"
(R.
Blakey:
\"The
History
of
Political
Literature
from
the
Earliest
Times.\"
Lond.,
1855,
Vol.
II.,
pp.84-85.)
In
Scotland,
the
abolition
of
serfdom
took
place
some
centuries
later
than
in
England.
Even
in
1698,
Fletcher
of
Saltoun,
declared
in
the
Scotch
parliament,
\"The
number
of
beggars
in
Scotland
is
reckoned
at
not
less
than
200,000.
The
only
remedy
that
I,
a
republican
on
principle,
can
suggest,
is
to
restore
the
old
state
of
serfdom,
to
make
slaves
of
all
those
who
are
unable
to
provide
for
their
own
subsistence.\"
Eden,
l.c.,
Book
I.,
ch.
1,
pp.
60-61,
says,
\"The
decrease
of
villenage
seems
necessarily
to
have
been
the
era
of
the
origin
of
the
poor.
Manufactures
and
commerce
are
the
two
parents
of
our
national
poor.\"
Eden,
like
our
Scotch
republican
on
principle,errs
only
in
this:
not
the
abolition
of
villenage,
but
the
abolition
of
the
property
of
the
agricultural
labourer
in
the
soil
made
him
a
proletarian,
and
eventually
a
pauper.
In
France,
where
the
expropriation
was
effected
in
another
way,
the
ordonnance
of
Moulins,
1571,
and
the
Edict
of
1656,
correspond
to
the
English
poor-laws.
10Professor
Rogers,
although
formerly
Professor
of
Political
Economy
in
the
University
of
Oxford,
the
hotbed
of
Protestant
orthodoxy,
in
his
preface
to
the
\"History
of
Agriculture\"
lays
stress
on
the
fact
of
the
pauperisation
of
the
mass
of
the
people
by
the
Reformation.
11\"A
Letter
to
Sir
T.
C.
Bunbury,
Bart.,
on
the
High
Price
of
Provisions.
By
a
Suffolk
Gentleman.\"
Ipswich,
1795,
p.
4.Even
the
fanatical
advocate
of
the
system
of
large
farms,
the
author
of
the
\"Inquiry
into
the
Connexion
between
the
Present
Price
of
Provisions,\"
London,
1773,
p.
139,
says:
\"I
most
lament
the
loss
of
our
yeomanry,
that
set
of
men
who
really
kept
up
the
independence
of
this
nation;
and
sorry
I
am
to
see
their
lands
now
in
the
hands
of
monopolising
lords,
tenanted
out
to
small
farmers,
who
hold
their
leases
on
such
conditions
as
to
be
little
better
than
vassals
ready
to
attend
a
summons
on
every
mischievous
occasion.\"
12On
the
private
moral
character
of
this
bourgeois
hero,among
other
things:
\"The
large
grant
of
lands
in
Ireland
to
Lady
Orkney,
in
1695,
is
a
public
instance
of
the
king's
affection,and
the
lady's
influence...
Lady
Orkney's
endearing
offices
are
supposed
to
have
been
—
fda
labiorum
ministeria.\"
(In
the
Sloane
Manuscript
Collection,
at
the
British
Museum,
No.4224.
The
Manuscript
is
entitled:
\"The
character
and
behaviour
of
King
William,
Sunderland,
etc.,
as
represented
in
Original
Letters
to
the
Duke
of
Shrewsbury
from
Somers
Halifax,Oxford,
Secretary
Vernon,
etc.\"
It
is
full
of
curiosa.)
13\"The
illegal
alienation
of
the
Crown
Estates,
partly
by
sale
and
partly
by
gift,
is
a
scandalous
chapter
in
English
history...
a
gigantic
fraud
on
the
nation.\"
(F.
W.
Newman,\"Lectures
on
Political
Economy.\"
London,
1851,
pp.
129,
130.)[For
details
as
to
how
the
present
large
landed
proprietors
of
England
came
into
their
possessions
see
\"Our
Old
Nobility.
By
Noblesse
Oblige.\"
London,
1879.
—
F.
E.]
14Read,
e.g.,
E.
Burke's
Pamphlet
on
the
ducal
house
of
Bedford,
whose
offshoot
was
Lord
John
Russell,
the
\"tomtit
of
Liberalism.\"
15\"The
farmers
forbid
cottagers
to
keep
any
living
creatures
besides
themselves
and
children,
under
the
pretence
that
if
they
keep
any
beasts
or
poultry,
they
will
steal
from
the
farmers'
barns
for
their
support;
they
also
say,
keep
the
cottagers
poor
and
you
will
keep
them
industrious,
&c.,
but
the
real
fact
I
believe,
is
that
the
farmers
may
have
the
whole
right
of
common
to
themselves.\"
(\"A
Political
Inquiry
into
the
Consequences
of
Enclosing
Waste
Lands.\"
London,
1785,
p.75.)
16Eden,
l.
c.,
preface.
17\"Capital
Farms.\"
Two
letters
on
the
Flour
Trade
and
the
Dearness
of
Corn.
By
a
person
in
business.
London,
1767,
pp.19,
20.
18\"Merchant
Farms.\"
\"An
Enquiry
into
the
Causes
of
the
Present
High
Price
of
Provisions.\"
London,
1767,
p.
11.Note.—
This
excellent
work,
that
was
published
anonymously,is
by
the
Rev.
Nathaniel
Forster.
19Thomas
Wright:
\"A
Short
Address
to
the
Public
on
the
Monopoly
of
Large
Farms,\"
1779,
pp.
2,
3.
20Rev.
Addington:
\"Inquiry
into
the
Reasons
for
or
against
Enclosing
Open
Fields,\"
London,
1772,
pp.
37,
43
passim.
21Dr.
R.
Price,
l.
c.,
v.
ii.,
p.
155,
Forster,
Addington,
Kent,Price,
and
James
Anderson,
should
be
read
and
compared
with
the
miserable
prattle
of
Sycophant
MacCulloch
in
his
catalogue:
\"The
Literature
of
Political
Economy,\"
London,1845.
22Price,
l.
c.,
p.
147.
23Price,
l.
c.,
p.
159.
We
are
reminded
of
ancient
Rome.\"The
rich
had
got
possession
of
the
greater
part
of
the
undivided
land.
They
trusted
in
the
conditions
of
the
time,that
these
possessions
would
not
be
again
taken
from
them,and
bought,
therefore,
some
of
the
pieces
of
land
lying
near
theirs,
and
belonging
to
the
poor,
with
the
acquiescence
of
their
owners,
and
took
some
by
force,
so
that
they
now
were
cultivating
widely
extended
domains,
instead
of
isolated
fields.Then
they
employed
slaves
in
agriculture
and
cattle-breeding,because
freemen
would
have
been
taken
from
labour
for
military
service.
The
possession
of
slaves
brought
them
great
gain,
inasmuch
as
these,
on
account
of
their
immunity
from
military
service,
could
freely
multiply
and
have
a
multitude
of
children.
Thus
the
powerful
men
drew
all
wealth
to
themselves,and
all
the
land
swarmed
with
slaves.
The
Italians,
on
the
other
hand,
were
always
decreasing
in
number,
destroyed
as
they
were
by
poverty,
taxes,
and
military
service.
Even
when
times
of
peace
came,
they
were
doomed
to
complete
inactivity,
because
the
rich
were
in
possession
of
the
soil,
and
used
slaves
instead
of
freemen
in
the
tilling
of
it.\"
(Appian:\"Civil
Wars,\"
I.7.)
This
passage
refers
to
the
time
before
the
Licinian
rogations.
Military
service,
which
hastened
to
so
great
an
extent
the
ruin
of
the
Roman
plebeians,
was
also
the
chief
means
by
which,
as
in
a
forcing-house,
Charlemagne
brought
about
the
transformation
of
free
German
peasants
into
serfs
and
bondsmen.
24\"An
Inquiry
into
the
Connexion
between
the
Present
Price
of
Provisions,
&c.,\"
pp.
124,
129.
To
the
like
effect,
but
with
an
opposite
tendency:
\"Working-men
are
driven
from
their
cottages
and
forced
into
the
towns
to
seek
for
employment;but
then
a
larger
surplus
is
obtained,
and
thus
capital
is
augmented.\"
(\"The
Perils
of
the
Nation,\"
2nd
ed.
London.,1843,
p.
14.)
25l.
c.,
p.
132.
26Steuart
says:
\"If
you
compare
the
rent
of
these
lands\"
(he
erroneously
includes
in
this
economic
category
the
tribute
of
the
taskmen
to
the
clanchief)
\"with
the
extent,
it
appears
very
small.
If
you
compare
it
with
the
numbers
fed
upon
the
farm,you
will
find
that
an
estate
in
the
Highlands
maintains,
perhaps,ten
times
as
many
people
as
another
of
the
same
value
in
a
good
and
fertile
province.\"
(l.
c.,
vol.
i.,
ch.
xvi.,
p.
104.)
27James
Anderson:
\"Observations
on
the
Means
of
Exciting
a
Spirit
of
National
Industry,
&c.,\"
Edinburgh,
1777.
28In
1860
the
people
expropriated
by
force
were
exported
to
Canada
under
false
pretences.
Some
fled
to
the
mountains
and
neighbouring
islands.
They
were
followed
by
the
police,
came
to
blows
with
them
and
escaped.
29\"In
the
Highlands
of
Scotland,\"
says
Buchanan,
the
commentator
on
Adam
Smith,
1814,
\"the
ancient
state
of
property
is
daily
subverted....
The
landlord,
without
regard
to
the
hereditary
tenant
(a
category
used
in
error
here),
now
offers
his
land
to
the
highest
bidder,
who,
if
he
is
an
improver,instantly
adopts
a
new
system
of
cultivation.
The
land,formerly
overspread
with
small
tenants
or
labourers,
was
peopled
in
proportion
to
its
produce,
but
under
the
new
system
of
improved
cultivation
and
increased
rents,
the
largest
possible
produce
is
obtained
at
the
least
possible
expense:
and
the
useless
hands
being,
with
this
view,
removed,
the
population
is
reduced,
not
to
what
the
land
will
maintain,
but
to
what
it
will
employ.
\"The
dispossessed
tenants
either
seek
a
subsistence
in
the
neighbouring
towns,\"
&c.
(David
Buchanan:
\"Observations
on,
&c.,
A.
Smith's
Wealth
of
Nations.\"
Edinburgh,
1814,
vol.iv.,
p.
144.)
\"The
Scotch
grandees
dispossessed
families
as
they
would
grub
up
coppice-wood,
and
they
treated
villages
and
their
people
as
Indians
harassed
with
wild
beasts
do,
in
their
vengeance,
a
jungle
with
tigers....
Man
is
bartered
for
a
fleece
or
a
carcase
of
mutton,
nay,
held
cheaper....
Why,
how
much
worse
is
it
than
the
intention
of
the
Moguls,
who,
when
they
had
broken
into
the
northern
provinces
of
China,
proposed
in
council
to
exterminate
the
inhabitants,
and
convert
the
land
into
pasture.
This
proposal
many
Highland
proprietors
have
effected
in
their
own
country
against
their
own
countrymen.\"(George
Ensor:
\"An
Inquiry
Concerning
the
Population
of
Nations.\"
Lond,.
1818,
pp.
215,
216.)
30When
the
present
Duchess
of
Sutherland
entertained
Mrs.
Beecher
Stowe,
authoress
of
\"Uncle
Tom's
Cabin,\"
with
great
magnificence
in
London
to
show
her
sympathy
for
the
Negro
slaves
of
the
American
republic
—
a
sympathy
that
she
prudently
forgot,
with
her
fellow-aristocrats,
during
the
civil
war,
in
which
every
\"noble\"
English
heart
beat
for
the
slave
owner
—
I
gave
in
the
New
York
Tribune
the
facts
about
the
Sutherland
slaves.
(Epitomised
in
part
by
Carey
in
\"The
Slave
Trade.\"
Philadelphia,
1853,
pp.
203,
204.)
My
article
was
reprinted
in
a
Scotch
newspaper,
and
led
to
a
pretty
polemic
between
the
latter
and
the
sycophants
of
the
Sutherlands.
31Interesting
details
on
this
fish
trade
will
be
found
in
Mr.David
Urquhart's
Portfolio,
new
series.
—
Nassau
W.
Senior,
in
his
posthumous
work,
already
quoted,
terms
\"the
proceedings
in
Sutherlandshire
one
of
the
most
beneficent
clearings
since
the
memory
of
man.\"
(l.
c.)
32The
deer-forests
of
Scotland
contain
not
a
single
tree.The
sheep
are
driven
from,
and
then
the
deer
driven
to,
the
naked
hills,
and
then
it
is
called
a
deer-forest.
Not
even
timber
planting
and
real
forest
culture.
33Robert
Somers:
\"Letters
from
the
Highlands:
or
the
Famine
of
1847.\"
London,
1848,
pp.
12-28
passim.
These
letters
originally
appeared
in
The
Times.
The
English
economists
of
course
explained
the
famine
of
the
Gaels
in
1847,
by
their
over-population.
At
all
events,
they
\"were
pressing
on
their
food-supply.\"
The
\"clearing
of
estates,\"
or
as
it
is
called
in
Germany,
\"Bauernlegen,\"
occurred
in
Germany
especially
after
the
30
years'
war,
and
led
to
peasant-revolts
as
late
as
1790
in
Kursachsen.
It
obtained
especially
in
East
Germany.
In
most
of
the
Prussian
provinces,
Frederick
II.
for
the
first
time
secured
right
of
property
for
the
peasants.
After
the
conquest
of
Silesia
he
forced
the
landlords
to
rebuild
the
huts,
barns,
etc.,
and
to
provide
the
peasants
with
cattle
and
implements.
He
wanted
soldiers
for
his
army
and
tax-payers
for
his
treasury.
For
the
rest,
the
pleasant
life
that
the
peasant
led
under
Frederick's
system
of
finance
and
hodge-podge
rule
of
despotism,
bureaucracy
and
feudalism,
may
be
seen
from
the
following
quotation
from
his
admirer,
Mirabeau:
\"Le
lin
fait
donc
une
des
grandes
richesses
du
cultivateur
dans
le
Nord
de
l'Allemagne.
Malheureusement
pour
l'espèce
humaine,
ce
n'est
qu'une
ressource
contre
la
misère
et
non
un
moyen
de
bien-être.
Les
impts
directs,
les
corvées,
les
servitudes
de
tout
genre,
écrasent
le
cultivateur
allemand,
qui
paie
encore
des
impts
indirects
dans
tout
ce
qu'il
achète....
et
pour
comble
de
ruine,
il
n'ose
pas
vendre
ses
productions
où
et
comme
il
le
veut;
il
n'ose
pas
acheter
ce
dont
il
a
besoin
aux
marchands
qui
pourraient
le
lui
livrer
au
meilleur
prix.
Toutes
ces
causes
le
ruinent
insensiblement,
et
il
se
trouverait
hors
d'état
de
payer
les
impts
directs
à
l'échéance
sans
la
filerie;
elle
lui
offre
une
ressource,
en
occupant
utilement
sa
femme,
ses
enfants,ses
servants,
ses
valets,
et
lui-même;
mais
quelle
pénible
vie,même
aidée
de
ce
secours.
En
été,
il
travaille
comme
un
forat
au
labourage
et
à
la
récolte;
il
se
couche
à
9
heures
et
se
lève
à
deux,
pour
suffire
aux
travaux;
en
hiver
il
devrait
réparer
ses
forces
par
un
plus
grand
repos;
mais
il
manquera
de
grains
pour
le
pain
et
les
semailles,
s'il
se
défait
des
denrées
qu'il
faudrait
vendre
pour
payer
les
impts.
Il
faut
donc
filer
pour
suppléer
à
ce
vide....
il
faut
y
apporter
la
plus
grande
assiduité.Aussi
le
paysan
se
couche-t-il
en
hiver
à
minuit,
une
heure,
et
se
lève
à
cinq
ou
six;
ou
bien
il
se
couche
à
neuf,
et
se
lève
à
deux,
et
cela
tous
les
jours
de
la
vie
si
ce
n'est
le
dimanche.
Ces
excès
de
veille
et
de
travail
usent
la
nature
humaine,
et
de
là
vient
qu'hommes
et
femmes
vieillissent
beaucoup
plutt
dans
les
campagnes
que
dans
les
villes.\"
[Flax
represents
one
of
the
greatest
sources
of
wealth
for
the
peasant
of
North
Germany.Unfortunately
for
the
human
race,
this
is
only
a
resource
against
misery
and
not
a
means
towards
well-being.
Direct
taxes,
forced
labour
service,
obligations
of
all
kinds
crush
the
German
peasant,
especially
as
he
still
has
to
pay
indirect
taxes
on
everything
he
buys,
...
and
to
complete
his
ruin
he
dare
not
sell
his
produce
where
and
as
he
wishes;
he
dare
not
buy
what
he
needs
from
the
merhcants
who
could
sell
it
to
him
at
a
cheaper
price.
He
is
slowly
ruined
by
all
those
factors,
and
when
the
dirct
taxes
fall
due,
he
would
find
himself
incapable
of
paying
them
without
his
spinning-wheel;
it
offers
him
a
last
resort,
while
providing
useful
occupation
for
his
wife,
his
children,
his
maids,
his
farm-hands,
and
himself;
but
what
a
painful
life
he
leads,
even
with
this
extra
resource!
In
summer,he
works
like
a
convict
with
the
plough
and
at
harvest;
he
goes
to
bed
at
nine
o'clock
and
rises
at
two
to
get
through
all
his
work;in
winter
he
ought
to
be
recovering
his
strength
by
sleeping
longer;
but
he
would
run
short
of
corn
for
his
bread
and
next
year's
sowing
if
he
got
rid
of
the
products
that
he
needs
to
sell
in
order
to
pay
the
taxes.
He
therefore
has
to
spin
to
fill
up
this
gap
...
and
indeed
he
must
do
so
most
assiduously.
Thus
the
peasant
goes
to
bed
at
midnight
or
one
o'clock
in
winter,and
gets
up
at
five
or
six;
or
he
goes
to
bed
at
nine
and
gets
up
at
two,
and
this
he
does
every
day
of
his
life
except
Sundays.These
excessively
short
hours
of
sleep
and
long
hours
of
work
consume
a
person's
strength
and
hence
it
happens
that
men
and
women
age
much
more
in
the
country
than
in
the
towns](Mirabeau,
l.
c.,
t.III.
pp.
212
sqq.)
Note
to
the
second
edition.
In
April
1866,
18
years
after
the
publication
of
the
work
of
Robert
Somers
quoted
above,Professor
Leone
Levi
gave
a
lecture
before
the
Society
of
Arts
on
the
transformation
of
sheep-walks
into
deer-forest,
in
which
he
depicts
the
advance
in
the
devastation
of
the
Scottish
Highlands.
He
says,
with
other
things:
\"Depopulation
and
transformation
into
sheep-walks
were
the
most
convenient
means
for
getting
an
income
without
expenditure...
A
deer
forest
in
place
of
a
sheep-walk
was
a
common
change
in
the
Highlands.
The
landowners
turned
out
the
sheep
as
they
once
turned
out
the
men
from
their
estates,
and
welcomed
the
new
tenants
—
the
wild
beasts
and
the
feathered
birds....
One
can
walk
from
the
Earl
of
Dalhousie's
estates
in
Forfarshire
to
John
O'Groats,
without
ever
leaving
forest
land....
In
many
of
these
woods
the
fox,
the
wild
cat,
the
marten,
the
polecat,
the
weasel
and
the
Alpine
hare
are
common;
whilst
the
rabbit,
the
squirrel
and
the
rat
have
lately
made
their
way
into
the
country.Immense
tracts
of
land,
much
of
which
is
described
in
the
statistical
account
of
Scotland
as
having
a
pasturage
in
richness
and
extent
of
very
superior
description,
are
thus
shut
out
from
all
cultivation
and
improvement,
and
are
solely
devoted
to
the
sport
of
a
few
persons
for
a
very
brief
period
of
the
year.\"The
London
Economist
of
June
2,
1866,
says,
\"Amongst
the
items
of
news
in
a
Scotch
paper
of
last
week,
we
read...
'One
of
the
finest
sheep
farms
in
Sutherlandshire,
for
which
a
rent
of
￡1,200
a
year
was
recently
offered,
on
the
expiry
of
the
existing
lease
this
year,
is
to
be
converted
into
a
deer-forest.'Here
we
see
the
modern
instincts
of
feudalism
...
operating
pretty
much
as
they
did
when
the
Norman
Conqueror...destroyed
36
villages
to
create
the
New
Forest....
Two
millions
of
acres...
totally
laid
waste,
embracing
within
their
area
some
of
the
most
fertile
lands
of
Scotland.
The
natural
grass
of
Glen
Tilt
was
among
the
most
nutritive
in
the
county
of
Perth.
The
deer-forest
of
Ben
Aulder
was
by
far
the
best
grazing
ground
in
the
wide
district
of
Badenoch;
a
part
of
the
Black
Mount
forest
was
the
best
pasture
for
black-faced
sheep
in
Scotland.
Some
idea
of
the
ground
laid
waste
for
purely
sporting
purposes
in
Scotland
may
be
formed
from
the
fact
that
it
embraced
an
area
larger
than
the
whole
county
of
Perth.
The
resources
of
the
forest
of
Ben
Aulder
might
give
some
idea
of
the
loss
sustained
from
the
forced
desolations.
The
ground
would
pasture
15,000
sheep,
and
as
it
was
not
more
than
one-thirtieth
part
of
the
old
forest
ground
in
Scotland
...
it
might,
&c.,
...
All
that
forest
land
is
as
totally
unproductive....
It
might
thus
as
well
have
been
submerged
under
the
waters
of
the
German
Ocean....
Such
extemporised
wildernesses
or
deserts
ought
to
be
put
down
by
the
decided
interference
of
the
Legislature.\"
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