36 MASSACHUSETTS AGEICULTURE. 



as it is, into the mouths of his children, and a^ rag on their 

 backs. 



Yes, of free, slave-hating England, sad to say, tales of misery, 

 of ignorance, and degradation can be told which make us weep. 

 See her wretched miners, in the everlasting night of the collieries, 

 knowing not the meaning of the word air, light, sun — year in 

 and year out, commencing as small children and ending as pre- 

 maturely old men — fortunate in getting a bare sufficiency to 

 hold body and soul together, and never looking beyond that. 

 Talk to such men of ambition, and tell them to better their lot, 

 and they understand you not. What wonder, when informed 

 that in this blessed land, every man however poor, whether for- 

 eign born or not, can own his own farm — that there is no dis- 

 tinction between poor and rich, but that the child of the rich 

 man may to-morrow be destitute and the son of the pauper be a 

 millionaire— that the youngest son is equal in the law, and as a 

 member of society, to the oldest — that, in fine, every man may 

 have the certainty, by diligence, frugality, and virtuous indus- 

 try, of obtaining a competency — what wonder, I say, that the 

 miserable, half-starved creatures think of America as a paradise, 

 and sacrifice every thing to set foot on these shores. 



Let me narrate an anecdote beautifully told by a friend of 

 mine in addressing the farmers of Essex : — 



" That you may know something of the Scotch laborer's con- 

 dition, let me tell you what one, who was once one of them, 

 told me within a month. ' Sir,' said he in reply to my inquiry, 

 ' my food was parritch, — dinna ye ken what that is ? — which I 

 prepared in my ain pot over the fire, stirring in the oat-meal 

 for myself, and when it was cooked I dipped it out and ate it, — 

 and this was my food, morning, noon and night, — week in and 

 week out. And I wore corduroy breeches and a corduroy 

 jacket, with a blue bonnet and nought to keep the sun from my 

 e'en. My feet had ne'er a shoe, and so I toiled on till I heard 

 of America. And I just left home and wife and child, and 

 came along, first to Canada, where I almost killed myself chop- 

 ping down trees, — and then to the United States, where I soon 

 felt that I was a man, the which I had hardly felt before. 



" ' For my wages, I earned two dollars and a half a week, while 

 at home, I scarce got half of it. I called it a heap of money. 

 The man that hired me put me out to board, and when I saw 



