Msitxru 



^ 



COXDUCTKD BY ISAAC HILL. 



'Ttl09l£ WHO LABOK IN THE EARTH ARE THE CHOSEN VEOPLE OF GoD, WHOSE BREASTS HE HA9 MADE HIS PECULIAR DETOSITE FOR SUBSTANTIAL AND OENUINE VIRTUE." JtfffrSOJt. 



VOL. 9. NO. 10. 



CONCORD, N. H., OCTOBER 31, 1847. 



WHOLE NO. 106. 



lilll^lH I II I ■ I I1^M«MM1» ■■ ■ Ml— I lll«h<IM» ■!> Tril.TMiMiTf WT 



THE PARMER'S MO)STIlI.Y VISITOR, 



Pl'llLISHEl) BV 



ISAAC HILL, & SONS, 



ISSUED 0-V THE LAST DAT OF EVERT MO.\TH, 



At Atheniau Building. 



J^r^'-GENERAL AoENTs H. A. BiLL, Kcenc, N II.; John 



Marsh, Washinylou St. Itu.ston, Mass.; Charlfs Warren, 

 nrinley ilow, VVorcci^ter, Mas^j. ; Thomas Chandler, Bcdfonl, 

 N. H. 



TERMS.— To siriRlo subscriber.'), FijTij Cents. Ten pnr 

 cent, will be allowed to the person who shall send more than 

 one subscriber. Twelve copies will he sent for the advance 

 payment of Five Dultars; twenty-tive copies for 7'frt VoUar.^-: 

 Bi.\ty copies for Ttccuty Dollars. Tlie payment in every case to 

 be made in advance. 



{O'.Vonci/ nni/ subs':riptionSt by a regulation of the Post Master 

 GrneralfViai/ ill alleu^cs be remitted t)ij the Post Master ^ free t>j 

 posfai^r. 



J)^-.\ll gentlemen who have heretofore acted as Agents aie 

 requested to continue their Agency. Old subscribers who 

 come under the new terms, will please notify us of tlie names 

 already on our books. 



The uuproductive Professions a tax upon the 

 Farmer. 



[Extract from the address of thn Finn, David Henshaw 

 before the Worcester Agricultural Soc.,Sept.23, 184'7.] 



Ill tlu'.^o reinnrks it is not iiiteiuled to cli.s|iai- 

 air<.' llie le.Tnied piofessioiis. In the refined mid 

 comiiiioated relations of sociely of lliis ae;c, llio 

 professional piiisiiits seem a necessary part of 

 I lie social inacliiiiery ; and llie labor of the mere 

 literary man is nodonht beneticial in refiiiinj; thi; 

 ])nl)lic taste in ncquirin;; and in diOiisinj; %'eneral 

 knowledge. The evil most heavily felt is from 

 an excess of the professional and non-prodiiciiiff 

 classes, who are not only educated, but must be 

 supported, from tiie caniin;;s of ihe weallli-pro- 

 dnein^ portions of the cbmmnnity. 



Let ns take the hi^dily res[ieolahle profession 

 of the law, than which none amongst ns ranks 

 higher. It is crowded beyond the natnral wants, 

 the ordinary demands of the comnninity — crowd- 

 ed, as is believed, by the slimnlatln^ influences, 

 the bot-house iirov.lb, of the bi^lier endowed 

 seminaries. Hence artificial means become nec- 

 essary to secure lo the « hole body of the pro- 

 fession an adcquatt; snpport. A sort of claiisliip 

 .Trises from this common necessiiy, and having 

 ill many ways a cnniinmi iiiierest, they band to- 

 jjelher, often under rules independent of the or- 

 dinary and <;eneral law.-; of the comnninity. Un- 

 der this tacit sort of trades union, a kind of vol- 

 untary close corporaticn, lon^', steadily pursued, 

 they have about monopolized the permanent 

 jiarl of the jrovernment — the ju.liciary — and now 

 look upon' Ibis monopoly as theirs by prescrip- 

 tion. They occupy, ill undue numbers, the otl'i- 

 cial administrative stations, (Voni the hipliest to 

 the humblest. They pervade the halls of legis- 

 lation as our law makers; and latierly ihey have, 

 as attornies and advocates, invaded the commit- 

 tee rooms, to teach the representatives how lo 

 perform correctly their legislative duties, to the 

 great delay of Ihe |udilic husincs.s, to Ihe great 

 cost of legislation, and often to ihe great oppres- 

 sion of poor petitioners, who can ill aftbrd to 

 meet such an expense. 



The uncertainly of the law is the certainty of 

 liligation, and this truth is instinctively known to 

 the profession. To this source, it is believed, 

 may he tract d, in a good degree, the nnstabl.", 

 cliangeabic, patch-work character of our legisla- 

 tion ; and lo ihe same source the inlerpolalion of 

 the unwriltcn law upon oiir cexle. What can be 

 more uncertain, undefined and indefinetdile ; and 

 hence, what more conducive to constant litig.i- 

 tion, than the equily system but recenily ongrafi- 



ed upon our laws. It isn power that supercedes 

 the trial by jury, and subverts the supremacy of 

 the law. it might as well be extended lo crimi- 

 nal offences as to civil suits, and could with ecpial 

 utility be given lo otiier branches of the govern- 

 ment as lo the judiciary. Possessed by the judi- 

 ciary, it is called an e<|uity power; if held by an 

 executive, it would be denominated, and right- 

 fully denominated, a despotism. In either case, 

 it is a practical satire tqxni the idea of a govern- 

 ment of law ; a constant mockery, in this slate, 

 of ex()licit conslitulional guaranties. The con- 

 science of the judge is but a frail, flexible, elastic 

 measure lo answer for a fixed standard rule of 

 right. The design, however, in pointing your 

 attention to this enormous and anomalous pow- 

 er, is not for ihe purpose of scanning its political, 

 but ils pecuniary bearing upon the working clas- 

 ses. From its utter uncertainty, and from its 

 prolix and complicated forms, it is a fruitful 

 source of litigation, a mighty drain on labor, and 

 prolific of profit to the profession, who, needy 

 and powerful, will bo likely to cling lo the abuse 

 Willi the tenacity of a suckling to the teat, and 

 for much the like purpose. 



The amount tied, up in the chancery court in 

 Great Hriiain is said to be near three hniidied 

 millions of dollars; many of the suitors have 

 spent their lives in vain attempts to get a decis- 

 ion of their case and possession of their proper- 

 ty. It has there proved an eflicient machine for 

 plundering suitors inuier the mask ofeipiity. 



It has been stateil in the public prints that 

 there was tied up in suits in the late equity 

 court in the state of New York about ihirty-tinee 

 millions of dollars, and that about three millions 

 were in fiinds under the irresponsible control of 

 the court, but I have seen no official returns from 

 lli(!se courts. 



Let lis now turn to examine into the effects of 

 over prodnclinn in anoilier highly respectable 

 and eminemly respected calling — the prieslly 

 profession. Do not lose sight of the fact that we 

 are examining into the eftl'ct of some of our in- 

 stitutions, as they now exist, upon the working, 

 jiroducJUg classes, of whieli ihe farming interest 

 is the great paramount branch. It is not intend- 

 ed to censure the members of the professions, 

 but simply lo examine into the workings of the 

 social machinery and point to ils unavoidable re- 

 sults as it is now conslructcd. 



Public worship, besides its spiritual influences, 

 of which ills not designed here to speak, in ils 

 social and moral influences, and particularly so 

 wilh a rural population, is doubtless one of the 

 most salutary modes of association that has been 

 devised. It is, how(;ver, believed lliat the nsefiil- 

 uess of the institmiou has been impaired and its 

 purposes, in a degree, (lerverted by an excess in 

 the number of preachers; by engaging too many 

 persons in ihc gospel ministry, imposing a worse 

 than useless burden upon the laboring classes 

 fiom whom the support is drawn. 



There are three seminaries in this state espe- 

 cially devoted to educaling protestant young men 

 for the ministry, besides the usual supply from 

 other inslilntiniis and other places. 



Paint Paul tells us, and the experience of 

 eiyhleeii ceniuries but confirms the truth ofSaint 

 Paul's remark, "that those who minister at Ihe 

 altar must live liy the allar." The young gentle- 

 men educated to ihis profession, like most of the 

 young men in this country in other pursuils, en- 

 ter upon ihe busy scenes of lil'e without patrimo- 

 ny or properly, and of course very naturally and 

 very properly depend upon their profession for a 

 living. They seek an altar at whichto inin isler 

 and by whiV.li to live. If none suiting theii- 

 views," as to income and other conditions, he 

 found vacant, ihi'V oi their immediate fiiends 

 take measures to form a new society, to erect n 

 new house, to raise a new altar, an I to fasten up- 

 on the public, or more properly upon the pro- 



ducing classes, the support of a new religious es- 

 tablishment. Ample proof exists in nearly every 

 town in the state of this injurious increase of re- 

 ligious societies and of bouses of public wor- 

 ship. If the burden ended, instead of beginning, 

 here, the evil would be less than at present. La- 

 bor must not only be taxed to erect the house, 

 but it must bring ils cons'.ant tribute to support 

 it. The public excitement must be foslered, the 

 interest in the success of the new association 

 must not be allowed to subside, but it must be 

 kept up and invigorated, lest the society languish 

 and the newly raised allar go down. The old 

 societies, in tlie mean lime, do not sleep over 

 their worldly interests ; they do not quietly, and 

 without a struggle, surrender the members of 

 their congregations, nor yield up to the new so- 

 ciety their accustomed patronage ; and here the 

 old and the new societies become rivals in inter- 

 est, if not unfriendly in feeling, competing for 

 the public favor and the public support, with 

 this sad result to Ihe public interest, and differ- 

 ing ffom most other cases of competition for 

 public favor, for the more the success of the 

 parties the. heavier are the people taxed. 



They are obligeil, in keeping the public atten- 

 tion to their case, to seize upon every imssiiig 

 event, every exciting topic to awaken the public 

 interest, to engross the public attention, in order 

 to obtain the public support for the one or the 

 other society, for the one or the other sect. Sub- 

 jects quite foreign to religions instruction, to 

 moral improvement, or to the rights or duties of 

 the parishioners, are ' at times systematically 

 lugged into the pulpit, and often discussed in a 

 tone indicating a great lack of Christian charity, 

 an entire absence of brotherly love, too often to 

 the utter desecralion of the desk and to thu 1am- 

 eniable discredit of the gospel. Obedience to^ 

 the powers that l;e, enjoined by the Redeemer of 

 Mankind upon his disciples as a duty — His an- 

 nunciation that His kingdom is not of this world 

 — seem at times to be (lisregarded, and our civil 

 rnleis and inslilnlions are assailed by some zeal- 

 ous preachers, in a manner not justified by relig- 

 ion, and which necessiiy alone, tliat necessity 

 which knows no law, can palliate — the necessiiy 

 of raising the required living for an over numer- 

 ous profession. In the pursuit of this object 

 even the command of Ihe Most High, that six 

 days shalt thou labor, is often overlooked, and 

 the laborer is called from his woihliy and neces- 

 sary |)ursuits to attend week-day and week-night 

 preaching, until religion, which should be n 

 source of mental quietude — of consolation — of 

 love — of charity— of humanity, hope and happi- 

 ness — becomes too often a religion of anxiety — of 

 strife — of jiride — of selfishness — of biileruess, 

 menace and terror. And much of all this arises 

 from the necessity of wringing from the hard 

 hand of labor the mncb iieedeil penny. 



From published statistics there appears to be 

 about thirteen hundred and fifty religious socie- 

 ties aud places of public worslji|) in this Com- 

 monwealth, each of which may be considered as 

 coslini', on an average — ini-hiding interest on the 

 outlay for the house, repairs, clergyman's salary, 

 and incidental expenses — one thousand dollars 

 atjuually. Many of iheso bouses are cosily edi- 

 fices, elegant aud elaborated specimens of ar- 

 chilecture, gorgeous temples from whose proud 

 altars to inculcate the precepts of meekness and 

 linmilily 1 There are many, very many, persons 

 who are wrought up to pay a heavier tax for the 

 support of tlicse religious est.ibli»hments ibaii 

 Iheir entire tax for the support of civil govern- 

 ment. I am aware that this is called a volunta- 

 ry lax — legally, it may be so; practically, the re- 

 verse. The influences and agencies employed 

 in levyiu" these heavy contributions, as you nuist 

 be well aware, are poieni, paramount to the law, 

 and very ofte.n quite irresistible. 



Rrmomher that nil these evpenses, all iIipfc 



