Page:The Complete Works of Henry George Volume 3.djvu/179

 THE "REDUCTION TO INIQUITY." 61

but because of their poverty the direct and indisputable result of the denial of their natural rights. They have not merely been prevented from participating in the " general advance," but are positively worse off than were their ancestors before commerce had penetrated the High- lands or the modern era of labor-saving inventions had begun. They have been driven from the good land to the poor land. While their rents have been increased, their holdings have been diminished, and their pasturage cut off. Where they once had beasts, they cannot now eat a chicken or keep a donkey, and their women must do work once done by animals. With the same thoughtful atten- tion he has given to " the way of an eagle in the air," let the Duke consider a sight he must have seen many times a Scottish woman toiling uphill with a load of manure on her back. Then let him apply the "reduction to iniquity."

Let the Duke not be content with feasting his eyes upon those comfortable houses of the large farmers which so excite his admiration. Let him visit the bothies in which farm-servants are herded together like cattle, and learn, as he may learn, that the lot of the Scottish farm- servant a lot from which no industry or thrift can release him is to die in the workhouse or in the receipt of a parish dole if he be so unfortunate as to outlive his ability to work. Or let him visit those poor broken-down crea- tures who, enduring everything rather than accept the humiliation of the workhouse, are eking out their last days upon a few shillings from the parish, supplemented by the charity of people nearly as poor as themselves. Let him consider them, and if he has imagination enough, put himself in their place. Then let him try the " reduc- tion to iniquity."

Let the Duke go to Glasgow, the metropolis of Scotland, where, in underground cellars and miserable rooms, he will

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