160 



&l)c -farmer's JHonthli) btsitor. 



Land Monopoly. 

 It is truly wonderful that die great work of 

 human improvement has progressed at all in 

 Europe during the past eight or nine centuries. 

 War, the state of every country more than half 

 the time— the land nearly all monopolized by 

 kings, nobility and clergy— manufactures and 

 commerce, for the most part under the most rigid 

 and severe restrictions — liberty of conscience, 

 liberty of speech, and liberty of action mere ab- 

 stract theories — labor an I personal freedom at 

 the mercy of capital and titled rank. And with- 

 in the present half century, the great extent to 

 which machinery has supplanted labor, and re- 

 duced its price where it has not supplanted — the 

 enormously increased taxation resulting from the 

 doubling or tripling the amount of national debt, 

 as has actually been the case throughout the 

 greater portion of Europe within the last fifty 

 years; the exorbitant rents resulting from the 

 rapid increase of population; and the enhanced 

 price of provisions, owing to the same cause in 

 part, and to the exclusion of foreign products 

 from the markets in another part. And yet un- 

 der these mountainous disadvantages, population 

 has doubled its numbers every where in Europe, 

 and in some places has quadrupled them. And 

 within the last century, the march of improve- 

 ment has been more general and rapid, by far 

 than ever before. Viewing all these facts togeth- 

 er, we are led to the conclusion that nothing, 

 within the limits of possibility is loo much to 

 expect from European intellect, energy, and en- 

 terprise, when it shall have discarded its useless 

 burdens and time-honored fooleries. 



Their kings and hereditary nobility, certainly, 

 ought to be thrown away as unnecessary and 

 worthless incumbrances, and this is coming to 

 be the practical belief very extensively, in the 

 present year more than ever before, and we 

 think that their armies and navies might all be 

 transported to New Holland, or some where else 

 where there is plenty of room for them, and 

 made to dig or starve, as they like. Their 

 church establishments might be dismissed, and 

 the policy of forcing religion by the powej- of 

 the civil government, discarded. That system 

 and policy are obviously of as little value to the 

 people of the United States. Our estimate of 

 such things makes their value a minus quantity, 

 and that most decidedly. Their national debt, 

 accumulated by the vices and oppression of past 

 ages, ought certainly to be repudiated. By such 

 measures, the laboring millions of Europe mi'g/fy 

 and should be relieved forthwith, of some eleven 

 or twelve hundred millions of dollars of their 

 yearly taxation — an amount which, if it were 

 properly distributed among the lower classes, 

 would effectually remove their miseries and de- 

 pression, so far as they have want and poverty 

 for their cause. 



But the land ! The people properly speaking, 

 have now, for more than eight hundred years 

 been robbed of their God-given right to the use 

 of the soil ; or if not entirely debarred from the 

 privilege of using it, they have been compelled 

 to pay so enormously that it has been almost 

 equivalent to utter exclusion. 



The titles to the lands in the greater portions 

 of Europe had their origin in the most stupen- 

 dous systems of fraud (human slavery excepted) 

 which history records. The lands were first the 

 property of the sovereign. Sheer usurpation ol 

 course. The i utire territory of 

 property ol one individual, and hereditary in tin 



king's favorites; as in Earls, Dukes, Marquises, 

 Counts, &c. These were sovereigns on a smaller 

 scale, but not unfrequently more tyrannical and 

 despotic than king or emperor. These had their 

 subordinates and favorites, a most numerous 

 class, whose income must be the amount they 

 can manage to extort from the lower classes) 

 viz : the tenants, serfs, or villains, who must per- 

 form all the servile labor, must furnish the sup- 

 port for the nobility, the support of the landed 

 aristocracy, the support of the military servicei 

 the support of the church, &c. &c. But they 

 had as little ownership of the soil as the teamster 

 has of the bridge which he crosses. 



In England after the Norman conquest, the 

 old Saxon proprietors being mostly slain, or 

 their lands confiscated, the then present landed 

 proprietors, (ostensibly as a measure of common 

 defence, but in the actual and ultimate working 

 of the system a surrender to the king and chief 

 nobility, of all the lands in the kingdom,) agreed 

 to adopt the feudal system, in it its most matured 

 and perfected form, as had recently been done 

 in France. Some few hundred of the great men 

 of the nation agreeing to hold and to use for 

 their own purposes, all the lands of the king- 

 dom, and all the people who were occupiers of 

 them. 



Here we find a system of sheer violence — of 

 unqualified and undisguised robbery, every whit 

 as devoid of every semblance of right as is the 

 more modern custom of kidnapping and enslav- 

 ing the natives of Africa. The present tenures 

 of those lands are, and through all the interven- 

 ing periods, have been, only the continuation and 

 perpetuation of the unmitigated robbery in 

 H hich they originated. The plundered acquisi 

 tions of the land were made the hereditary pos- 

 sessions of the plunderers. In the next genera- 

 tion the children of the robbed were plundered 

 by the children of the robbers. The same was 

 true of the third generation, the fourth and fifth, 

 and of every one till now. Eight hundred years 

 in this unrighteous business of land monopoly, 

 have the many continued to be plundered by the 

 few. So long has the robber's right been legalized 

 and sanctioned by custom, that it is viewed by 

 most as perfectly valid, perfectly equitable, and in 

 every sense unimpeachable. 



The one in a hundred has been the robber of 

 the ninety-nine, until the tradition of the com- 

 mencement of the robbery has been almost for- 

 gotten or lost. And now, occasionally, when 

 the hint is thrown out that the ninety-nine will 

 take what they have been forcibly kept out of 

 from age to age, and from century to century, 

 the nominal and legal proprietor is utterly aghast 

 with amazement and terror at the bare mention 

 of a purpose so atrocious. — Southpvrt (Jf'it.) Tel. 



where, an old man receives but a passing glance, and 

 it is not an unfrequent occurrence to see a man scarce- 

 ly able to walk, supporting himself in a car by the back 

 of a seat, or by a post on a steamer, for lack of the 

 seat which a young strong man occupies near him. 

 We saw a lady give up her seat to an old gentleman 

 once, in such a case, and a halfa dozen chairswere in- 

 stantly offered her by gentlemen who had remained 

 motionless before. Americans know what politeness 

 is, if thuy do not practice it. — JV. Y. Jour. Com. 



Effect of Imagination on the Physical Frame. 



Many years ago, a celebrated physician, author of 

 an excellent work on the effects of the imagination, 

 wished to combine theory with practice, in order to 

 coufirm the truth of his propositions. To this end he 

 begged the minister of justice to allow him to try an 

 experiment on a criminal condemned to death. The 

 minister consented, and delivered to him an assassin of 

 distinguished rank. Our savant sought the culprit, 

 and thus addressed him: — "Sir, several persons who 

 are interested in your family, have prevailed on the 

 judge not to require of you to mount the scaffold and 

 expose yourself to the gaze of the populace. He has, 

 therefore, commuted your sentence, and sanctions 

 your being bled to death within the precincts of your 

 prison; your dissolution will be gradual and free from 

 pain." The criminal submitted to his fate; thought 

 his family would be less disgraced, and considered 

 it a favor not to be compelled to walk to the place of 

 public execution. He was conducted to the appointed 

 room, where every preparation was made before hand; 

 his eyes were bandaged, he was strapped to a table, 

 and at a preconcerted signal, four of his veins were 

 gently pricked with the point of a pin. At each corner 

 of the table was a small fountain of water, so contriv- 

 ed as to flow gently into basins placed to receive it. 

 The patient believing that it was his blood he heard 

 flowing, gradully became weak; and the conversation 

 of the doctors in an under tone confirmed him in this 

 opinion. " What fine blood!" said one. " What a 

 pity this man should be condemned to die; he would 

 have lived a long time." " Hush!" said the other; 

 then approaching the first, he asked in a low voice, 

 but so as to be heard by the criminal, " how many 

 pounds of blood are there in the human body ?" 

 " Twenty-four. You see already about ten pounds 

 extracted; that man is now in a hopeless state." The 

 physicians then receded by degress, and continued to 

 lower their voices. The stillness which reigned in 

 the apartment, broken only by the dripping foun- 

 tains, the sound of which was gradually lessened, so 

 affected the brain of the poor patient, that although 

 a man of very strong constitution, he fainted and died 

 without having lost a drop of blood. 



Politeness in olden times. — There is a 

 story of an occurrence at Athens, during the celebration 

 of games in honor of a god, illustrative of the respect 

 paid by the Lacedemonians to old age. The seals in the 

 theatre were crowded, and an old man entering late, 

 found no seat. Some young men beckoned him to- 

 wards them and offered him a seat; bul as he ad- 

 vanced, they sat closer together, making the vacant 

 seat further along, and continued to do so as he ap- 

 proached it, so as to excite the laughter of the audi- 

 ence. There were departments of I ho theatre devo- 

 ted to foreigners, and as Ihe old man approached the 

 seats of ihe Lacedemonians, they all arose. The 

 Athenians, with characteristic impetuosity, cheered 

 iheir courteous neighbors with tremendous applause, 

 and the ohl man, turning around, remarked : " The 

 Athenians know the right, th ' tcedenhnmans do it." 

 i age - ■ mi .1 |i agon from the La 



The politeness everywhere shown tn 



f£/^ The mackerel fishery continues to be ve- 

 ry productive. This season is the best that has 

 been known on the New England coast. An in- 

 telligent gentleman from Yarmouth informs us 

 that the host informed men in the towns in that 

 vicinity are of opinion that mackerel woith over 

 one hundred thousand dollars were landed on the 

 cape during the last week. The probability is 

 that quite as large a quantity was landed on the 

 north shore — perhaps more. The fishermen are 

 wise in packing some of the best of their fish in 

 kegs for family use. We should think this would 

 be quite a convenience for consumers in private 

 families. — Boston Post. 



ladies, makes a poor excuse for the inattention to old 

 family. Next, it was paneled out among the age. In steamboats, railroad cars, hotels, and else- 



Cause of the dark color of the Skin. — 

 Darkness of complexion has been attributed to 

 the sun's power, from the age of Solomon to 

 this day. — " Look not upon nip, because 1 am 

 black, because the sun bath looked upon me :"-— 

 and no doubt, that, to a ceitain degree, the opin- 

 ion is well founded. The invisible rays in Ihe 

 solar beams, which change vegetable color, and 

 have been employed with such remarkable ef- 

 fects in the daguerreotype, act upon every sub- 

 stance upon which they fall, producing mysteri- 

 ous and wonderful changes in their modular 

 state, man not excepted. 



The most agreeable of all companions is a 

 simple, frank man, without any high pretensions 

 to oppressive greatness; one who loves life, and 

 understands the use of it, obliging alike at all 

 hours, above all, of a golden temper, and stead- 

 fast as an anchor. For such a one we gladly ex- 

 change Ihe greatest genius, the most brilliant 

 wit, the profotindest thinker. 



