Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/387

Rh each other. In consequence, they look to nothing but gain. They govern the voice of the country so far as regards their own purposes, it being nobody's business to contradict them except the landlords', who comparatively form a small body, inactive, ignorant, and timid. Besides, there is a general tendency to take part with the many against the few, always against the one. There is a false principle of justice and always popularity in this. But while a landlord thinks he is doing good by not raising his rents, and that he at least gains the esteem and goodwill of the country, it is the business of the farmers to persuade every one, and if possible the landlords themselves, that the best landlord is a hard one; that it is as much as they can do to live upon the rent; and that whatever may be their fortune, it is made some other way; in order to prevent the value of land from being known, and the general price of it raised, which must affect all farmers in their turn.

"But there is another description upon whom too much liberality can never be bestowed. If there was no other reason for raising rents, it would become an act of piety to do it, to bestow upon the cottagers or agricultural poor, the strength and wealth and glory of England, who must be the means of saving the country, when the misers of farmers have sold it (as they will any thing for the sake of lucre), and of restoring the race of men after the manufacturers have debased it. While the hoggish farmer grudges bread to every thing around him, and while the manufacturer abounds in wealth (from the upstart master, who finds himself possessed of a fortune, for which he was not educated, and consequently considers it only as the means of insolence, down to the wretched weaver, who knows no other use of high wages except to be idle two or three days in the week, or to ruin his constitution and that of his family by debauchery and spirits), the agricultural poor are dying through want, the prey of every disorder which results from poverty, filth, cold, and hunger, with laws intended for their relief, but so ill adapted to the present state of things and so