STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 139 



the soil is salutary to us all, but from the pleasures it yields. Noth- 

 ing can be more profitable, nothing more beautiful, than a well cul- 

 tivated farm." 



These were the proudest and happiest days of Rome, then the 

 greatest nation that had ever existed. 



" Then none was for a party, 



Then all were for the State ; 

 Then the great man helped the poor, 



And the poor man loved the great. 

 Then lands were fairly portioned, 



Then spoils were fairly sold ; 

 The Romans were like brothers, 



In the brave days of old." 



• 



Wars of conquest filled the republic with slaves, who superseded 

 freemen in the tillage of the soil; labor became degraded, luxury 

 enervated the richer classes; agriculture drooped, withered, sank into 

 decay, and the decline of Rome began. 



Slavery and luxury are associate evils in the economy of a state; 

 it is a question which is the greater evil; slavery degrades, luxury 

 enervates; each is an element of vice and weakness; each is incom- 

 patible to healthful and vigorous action, to just and wise law and its 

 impartial administration, and to the development of the higher facul- 

 ties and nobler aspirations of our being. 



To feudalism, a species of slavery which sprang up in the fifteenth 

 century, and which has continued, under some modifications, down 

 to our time, is to be attributed the constant apathy in the minds of 

 the tillers of the soil toward improving the land and the means of 

 cultivation. The tenant at will had no incentive to improve his 

 holding, for by so doing he only increased his rent and not his profit. 

 The feudal system precluded efficient' agriculture. Its relics are 

 still a bane to England. The uneasy and restless condition of mind 

 with the masses of the people throughout the British Empire, grow- 

 ing out of the social and legal relations between the owner (virtually 

 feudal lord) and the cultivator of the land, presages that the time is 

 not far distant when this long-suffering and oppressed people will 

 rise as a giant in his might and free themselves. It is an unhealthy 

 condition of affairs in any state when the lands are owned by a few, 

 or when the masses are landless, as they are in the British Empire. 

 The English statesmen see this and acknowledge the evil, recogniz- 

 ing the truth of these lines by Goldsmith: 



" Princes and lords may flourish and may fade, 

 A breath can make them, as a breath has madej 

 But the bold yeomanry, a country's pride. 

 Once gone, their place can never be supplied." 



It behooves us to profit by the lesson of our transatlantic friends, 

 and not suffer our public domain to be squandered on bold and reck- 

 less speculators; but parcel it out to the tiller of the soil, so as to effect 

 the greatest good to the greatest number. By so doing the ends of 

 justice will be attained, and the government strengthened. 



The human heart loves its own. Make the tiller of the soil its 

 owner. He will love it, and fight for it to the hilt, because it is his 

 own, a part and parcel of himself. Let government see to it that such 

 only shall enjoy its bounty. The owner of the soil, feeling his inter- 

 est allied with the best interests of the country, and being a free man. 



