14 THE HUNTING-FIELD. 



might, for a considerable time, retain an equal 

 position in society ; but even under sucb circum- 

 stances, ill luck-or ill-liealtli would shortly dis- 

 possess one, while it enriched another : and it is 

 quite proper it should be so ; for, supposing Great 

 Britain could give an acre of land to each inhabi- 

 tant, instead of a rich and enlightened nation, we 

 should be a set of Boors, without sense enough to 

 carry on the common cause of all. It is not as 

 Goldsmith describes, even among savage tribes, 

 for with them the best hunter gets the most skins, 

 and the best warrior the most sway. 



The poor, feeling the shoe that pinches them, 

 are induced to envy and decry the rich and great ; 

 they do this from looking at the picture in a wrong 

 light. They can scarcely be expected to believe 

 the fact, that virtually it is by the rich and great 

 that the poorer live ; in fact, without the great the 

 little could not live, for do away with the great, 

 the poor would become slaves here, or pretty 

 much the same thing, to other nations : if, there- 

 fore, every noble and man of wealth could be 

 induced to do what equalisers would wish, namely, 

 distribute his patrimony till he gave a thousand 

 families a hundred a year, and left himself with 

 the same income, so far from benefiting man- 

 kind, he would be taking a most effectual step 

 towards striking at the root of common welfare. 



Avaunt ! then, ye who only rail at the great and 



