SIR THOMAS MORE. The wars of York and Lancaster retarded the process; but immediately after the termination of that fierce struggle, it was accelerated by the rapid growth of commerce, and by the great influx of wealth from the new found world. Under a settled and strong and vigilant government, men became of less value as vassals and retainers, because the boldest barons no longer dared contemplate the possibility of trying their strength against the crown, or attempting to disturb the succession. Four-legged animals therefore were wanted for slaughter more than two-legged ones: and moreover, sheep* could be shorn,..whereas the art of fleecing the tenantry was in its infancy, and could not always be practised with the same certain success. A trading spirit thus gradually superseded the rude but kindlier principle of the feudal system: profit and loss became the rule of conduct; in came calculation, and out went feeling. "If the King's honour, as some men say, standeth in the great multitude of people, then these grasiers, inclosers, and rent-rearers are hinderers of the King's honour. For where as have been a great many householders and inhabitants, there is now but a shepherd and his dog."-Latimer. MONTESINOS. I remember your description* (for indeed who can forget it?) how sheep, more destructive * Oves vestræ, quæ tam mites esse, tamque exiguo solent ali, nunc (uti fertur) tam edaces atque indomita esse cœperunt, ut homines devorent ipsos, agros, domos, oppida vastent ac depopulentur. Nempe quibuscunque regni partibus nascitur lana tenuior, atque ideo pretiosior, ibi nobiles et generosi, atque adeo Abbates aliquot sancti viri, non his contenti reditibus fructibusque annuis, qui majoribus suis solebant ex prædiis crescere, nec habentes satis, quod otiosè ac lautè viventes, nihil in publicum prosint, nisi etiam obsint, arvo nihil relinquunt, omnia claudunt pascuis, demoliuntur domos, diruunt oppida, templo duntaxat stabulandis ovibus relicto. Et tanquam parum soli perderent apud vos ferarum saltus ac vivaria, illi boni viri habitationes omnes, et quicquid usquam est culti, vertunt in solitudinem. Ergo ut unus helluo inexplebilis ac dira pestis patriæ, continuatis agris, aliquot millia jugerum uno circundet septo, ejiciuntur coloni quidam; suis etiam aut circumscripti fraude, aut vi oppressi exuuntur, aut futigati injuriis adiguntur ad venditionem. Itaque quoquo pacto emigrant miseri, riri, mulieres, mariti, uxores, orbi, viduæ, parentes cum parvis liberis, et numerosá magis quàm divite familia, ut multis opus habet manibus res rustica; emigrant, inquam, e notis atque assuetis laribus, nec inveniant quò se recipiant; supellectilem omnem haud magno vendibilem, etiam si manere possit emptorem, quum extrudi necesse est, minimo venundant: id quum brevi errando insumpserent, quid restat aliud denique, quam uti furentur, et pendeant juste scilicet, aut vagentur atque mendicent? quanquam tum quoque velut errones conjiciuntur in carcerem, quod otiosi obambulent, quorum operam nemo est qui conducat, quum illi cupidissime offeNum rusticæ rei cui assueverunt, nihil est quod agatur, ubi nihil seritur.-Utopia, l. i. pp. 63-5. Ed. 1629. rant. than the Dragon of Wantley in those days, began to devour men and fields and houses. The same process is at this day going on in the Highlands, though under different circumstances; some which palliate the evil, and some which aggravate the injustice. SIR THOMAS MORE. The real nature of the evil was misunderstood by my contemporaries, and for some generations afterward. A decrease of popu lation was the effect complained of; whereas the greater grievance was that a different and worse population was produced. MONTESINOS. I comprehend you. The same effect followed which has been caused in these days by the extinction of small farms. SIR THOMAS MORE. The same in kind, but greater in degree; or at least if not greater, or so general in extent, it was more directly felt. When that ruinous fashion prevailed in your age, there were many resources for the class of people who were thus thrown out of their natural and proper place in the social system. Your fleets and armies at that time required as many hands as could be supplied; and women and children were consumed with proportionate rapidity by your manufactures. Moreover there was the wholesome drain of emigration open; facta est immensi copia mundi. But under the Tudors there existed no such means for disposing of the ejected population; and except the few who could obtain places as domestic servants, or employment as labourers and handicraftsmen, (classes, it must be remembered, for all which the employ was diminished by the very ejectment in question,) they who were turned adrift soon found themselves houseless and hopeless, and were reduced to prey upon that society which had so unwisely as well as inhumanly discarded them. MONTESINOS. Thus it is that men collectively as well as individually create for themselves so large a part of the evils they endure. SIR THOMAS MORE. Enforce upon your contemporaries that truth which is as important in politics as in ethics, and you will not have lived in vain! Scatter that seed upon the waters, and doubt not of the harvest! Vindicate always the system of nature,..in other and sounder words, the ways of God,..while you point out with all faithful ness, what ills Remediable and yet unremedied Afflict man's wretched race, and the approbation of your own heart will be sufficient reward on earth. MONTESINOS. The will has not been wanting. SIR THOMAS MORE. There are cases in which the will carries with it the power: and this is of them. and this is of them. No man was ever yet deeply convinced of any momentous truth, without feeling in himself the power as well as the desire of communicating it. MONTESINOS. True, Sir Thomas: but the perilous abuse of that feeling by enthusiasts and fanatics leads to an error in the opposite extreme. We sacrifice too much to prudence; and, in fear of incurring the danger or the reproach of enthusiasm, too often we stifle the holiest impulses of the understanding and the heart. ... Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, But, I pray you, resume your discourse. The monasteries were probably he chief palliatives of this great evil while they existed. |