17 



calculable strength to free institutions. With the vast 

 growth of population and a ballot possessed by all, educa- 

 tion is the solution of many of the doubtful questions 

 which are now rapidly rising upon the future horizon; in- 

 deed, to many thinking men, it is their only solution. Not 

 the education of the philosopher, the theorist and the 

 dreamer, but that of practical men of affairs, who under- 

 stand how to work effectively, and to apply acquired 

 knowledge to produce results, and who seek to know for 

 the benefits that may come to them from the knowledge. 

 With a people that have settled a countr}^ possessing' some 

 surpassing natural product or advantage, the division of 

 classes is wide and permanent. The owners of the soil or 

 their immediate agents dwell upon it but to gather in as 

 rapidly as possible the wealth it yields, which is generally 

 sufficientlj'" great to be spent elsewhere in the more luxuri- 

 ous quarters of the world. It is too early yet, perhaps, to 

 talk of absentee landlordism in this country, but absentee 

 ownership of the productive industry of a people is a bad 

 thing for progress and uncongenial soil for freedom. If 

 the owners permanently inhabit the land, it is some great 

 city which has become affluent as the distributing centre 

 for the country's product, or in mansion houses, or planta- 

 tion halls which resemble the ducal seats of old. 



Labor is vassalage not in name, perhaps, or in law, but 

 in substance nevertheless, with the most hopeful right pos- 

 sessed, the right to go elsewhere. A single industry of 

 overwhelming importance excludes other and ordinary oc- 

 cupations. The laborer, discontented with his lot, cannot 

 seek other employment ; his only resource is to abandon 

 the locality. The population is constantly shifting, that 

 portion which remains permanent is satisfied with mere 

 existence or with provision for mere animal wants. If 

 liope and ambition ever existed in their breasts, they have 

 forever died out. The gulf between them and the next 

 class above is too vast to be crossed. There are no grada- 

 tions and intermediate steps in the social scale about them 



