MR. olivek's address. 15 



tion of Europe, are but mere delving, digging, ditching and 

 drudging Gibeonites, upon soil, not a rood, nay ! not a button's- 

 size of which, they can ever hope to own ; — toiling to the very 

 verge of physical endurance, slaves in all but the name, and 

 some of them slaves in the name and in the fact, — that they 

 may force from the earth, what may be used to satisfy the ex- 

 actions of a tyrannous government, for the first part, — what 

 may further bloat the exorbitant wealth of landholders, 

 whose domains are already gigantic, for the second part, — and 

 for the third and last and least part, leave a slight residue, to 

 put something called clothing upon the backs, and something 

 miscalled food, under the ribs of self, wife and children, — and 

 provide something else, call it hut, hovel or shanty, as you 

 please, under which they may partially protect their household, 

 their pigs and their poultry; they and their children hopelessly 

 tied down to the same employment, — if ditchers, always ditch- 

 ers, — if ploughmen, always ploughmen, — if bondagers under a 

 gangmaster, always bondagers, — doomed to labor for life, with- 

 out hope of relief, and as unable to rise above their caste, as they 

 would be to rise up bodily and to stand erect, were they buried, 

 as was said to have been the Giant Enceladus of old, beneath 

 the incumbent weight of Mount Etna. The same is true, with 

 even added bitterness and hopelessness, with the laborer of Ita- 

 ly, of Germany and of Spain, and with the still lower degrad- 

 ed serfs of Russia and of Poland. In France it is something 

 better, and the strength of the contrast may be known by the 

 fact, that whilst in England, there are but thirty thousand land- 

 holders, out of a population of fifteen millions, — there are in 

 France, four millions of land-holders, out of a population of thir- 

 ty-two millions. That is to say, in England, one man out of 

 every four hundred and seventy is a land-holder, — and in 

 France, one out of every eight. I speak of England proper, 

 excluding Scotland, Wales and Ireland. 



Were the square acres in England equally divided among 

 the land-holders, each one would possess one thousand two 

 'hundred thirty-six and one-half acres — and were the same done 

 in France, each one would have but thirty-two acres. 



Now it is wholly impossible, yes impossible, for such facts 



