Page:A protest against the extension of railways in the Lake District - Somervell (1876).djvu/36

 are wild with indignation at the impossibility of keeping the more promising lads, and the necessity of putting up with the worst—that is, with any they can get. Yet, strange to say, this residuum, left on the soil because it has not the spirit, or the knowledge, or the physical power to seek its fortune elsewhere, goes on producing children that lords and ladies might envy it. The profoundest ignorance, or ideas about politics and religion, which it would be awful to enquire into, do not prevent them from supplying Her Majesty with by far the most useful, most loyal, and most convertible portion of her subjects.'

Apart altogether from its special claims, it would be hard to find a more powerful plea than this, for the preservation of the Lake District. In summing the wealth of a country, the quality of its men will surely count for something; and even the 'laws of economy,' if only one understood them, might be found to have something to say against diminishing the production of the 'most useful, most loyal, and most convertible' of Her Majesty's subjects.