448 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



was the most merciful judgment Almighty benignity could have inflicted 

 upon him. 



The relation of agriculture and science is close and vital. It is not 

 enough to plow, sow, and reap. The nature of soils and plants, the food 

 they require, and the best methods of applying it, the study of the breed- 

 ing and rearing of animals, are scientific questions as subtle as any to be 

 met with in life, and must be investigated and understood and applied by 

 the successful farmer. 



The doctrine that agriculture constitutes the best basis of the prosperity 

 and happiness of a State, is the true doctrine, and is derived from the 

 Scriptures; and in every instance in history, ancient or modern, in which 

 this doctrine has been departed from, has been always fatal to the pros- 

 perity of the State, and generally destructive of the government and the 

 State's existence. 



No one will cultivate the soil of another with the same thoroughness, 

 intelligence, and content that he will cultivate his own land. Hence, the 

 government that liberally provides for the tiller of the soil to be the owner 

 of the soil, and encourages, fosters, and protects agriculture, lays the 

 foundation for the greatest attainable strength and prosperity. And the 

 citizen who provides the means for his children to become owners and 

 tillers of a portion of the soil of his country, performs best service to the 

 government under which he lives. If a good, liberal, free government, he 

 does that which will most aid in its being perpetuated. If it be a bad, 

 illiberal, and tyrannical government, he is laying a sure foundation for its 

 reform. What a broad and prolific subject is this upon which I have 

 entered, and I cast about, not for something to say, but to determine what 

 I shall leave unsaid, for the subject is far from barren. 



No people who were tillers of the soil and owners of the soil they tilled 

 have ever been conquered and enslaved. 



No people not the owners of the soil which they tilled have ever estab- 

 lished and maintained a free government or enjoyed home rule. I can 

 conceive of no greater calamity that can befall a free people than the 

 transfer of the ownership of their soil to aliens, subjects of another, per- 

 haps rival government. What a notable and melancholy example of the 

 truth of these assertions is Ireland to-day! It might be egotism in one so 

 humble as myself to suggest to the grand old man, Gladstone, but if the 

 opportunity presented itself I should feel constrained to say to him, the 

 misfortunes of Ireland are traceable to the fact that Irishmen do not own 

 the soil of Ireland, and until Irishmen own Irish soil there can be no home 

 rule for Ireland. No more patriotic race ever existed, but they do not own 

 that for which they would so boldly contend. 



As the opposite of Ireland, what more striking and noble example than 

 that of France. Surrounded by the greatest monarchies of the world, her 

 people successfully establish and maintain a great, powerful, and prosper- 

 ous republic. We would naturally ask, why is this? The answer is easy. 

 The soil of France belongs to Frenchmen, and to Frenchmen only; and 

 the average size of a landed estate in France is less than twenty acres. In 

 proportion to her adult male population, a much larger number of French- 

 men are landed proprietors than are the people of our own country; not 

 nearly half of ours are land owners, while more than three fifths of the 

 French are. France is maintaining her system of small landed estates, 

 while we are rapidly running into large ones, and, worse than all, our 

 lands are fast falling into the hands of aliens and great monopolies. And 

 what is more startling, many of our young men and the rising generation 

 do not care to own land, and will not strive to do so. These most danger- 



