CHAP. XXIII THE SOCIAL QUAGMIRE 395 



luxuries that the family required. The farmer of that 

 day worked hard, no doubt, but he had also variety and 

 recreation, and there was none of that continuous grinding, 

 hopeless toil, that appears to characterize the life of the 

 Western farmer to-day. As a rule, his farm was his own, 

 unburdened by either rent or mortgage. Year by year it 

 increased in value, and if he did not get rich he was at 

 least able to live in comfort and to give his sons and 

 daughters a suitable start in life. In those days wages of 

 all kinds were high ; food was cheap and abundant ; and 

 the strange phenomenon — yet so familiar and so sad a 

 phenomenon now — of men seeking for work in order to live, 

 and seeking it in vain, was absolutely unknown. 



The impression of general well-being and contentment 

 given by these tales was confirmed by the narratives of 

 travellers and the more solid works of students of society. 

 All agreed in telling us that not only the pauperism of 

 Europe, but even ordinary poverty or want, were quite 

 unknown. The absence of beggars w^as a noticeable fact ; 

 and except in cases of illness, accident, or old age, 

 occasions for the exercise of charity could hardly arise. 

 The extraordinary contrast between this state of things 

 and that which prevailed in Europe had to be accounted 

 for, and several different causes were suggested. A 

 favourite explanation on both sides of the Atlantic was, 

 that it was a matter of political institutions. On the 

 one hand, it Avas said, you have a Republican government, 

 in which all men have equal rights and no privileged 

 classes can oppress or rob the people ; on the other, there 

 is a luxurious court, a bloated aristocracy, and an esta- 

 blished church, quite sufficient to render a people poor and 

 miserable ; and this was long the opinion of the English 

 radicals, who thought that the cost of the throne and of 

 the church was the chief cause of the poverty of the 

 working classes. Others maintained that it was entirely a 

 matter of density of population. Europe, it was said, was 

 overpeopled ; and it was prophesied that, as time went on, 

 poverty would surely arise in America and become intensi- 

 fied in Europe. More philosophical thinkers imputed the 

 difference to the fact that there was an inexhaustible 



