are not to be depended on, and they sometimes seek occasion for making war, that they may train up their soldiers in the art of cutting throats, or as Sallust observed, for keeping their hands in use, that they may not grow dull by too long intermission.31 But France has learned to its cost, how dangerous it is to feed such beasts. The fate of the Romans, Carthaginians, and Syrians, and many other nations, and cities, which were both overturned, and quite ruined by those standing armies, should make others wiser: and the folly of this maxim of the French appears plainly even from this, that their trained soldiers find that your raw men prove often too hard for them; 32 of which I

men; and Napoleon, at several periods of his history, had no less, frequently more. But all this waste of life and treasure was of no use to France. The men were taken from the plough, and the resources of the country diminished, simply to gratify the paltry desire of two ignorant persons to be talked of by persons more ignorant still. Cromwell, the wisest and greatest politician of modern times, never kept on foot much above thirty thousand men.

31 The Romans seldom allowed their soldiers to lose the habit of throat-cutting. Perhaps they felt for the honour of their swords, and would not subject them to the reproach which was cast upon that of Hudibras;

"The trenchant blade, Toledo trusty,

For want of fighting had grown rusty,
And ate into itself, for lack

Of somebody to hew and hack."

33 Historians have assigned the true cause for these ancient misfortunes of the French arms: the people were still more oppressed and impoverished than in England, where our sturdy yeomen, if they enjoyed no political freedom, had yet considerable personal liberty, and the means of living well. Had their poverty been equal to that of the French peasantry, and their discipline inferior, the battles of Cressy, Poictiers, and Agin

will not say much, lest you may think I flatter the English nation. Every day's experience shows, that the mechanics in the towns, or the clowns in the country, are not afraid of fighting with those idle gentlemen, if they are not disabled by some misfortune in their body, or dispirited by extreme want, so that you need not fear, that those wellshaped and strong men, (for it is only such that noblemen love to keep about them, till they spoil them,) who now grow feeble with ease, and are softened with their effeminate manner of life, would be less fit for action if they were well-bred and well employed.33 And it seems very unreasonable, that for the prospect of war, which you need never have but when you please, you should maintain so many idle men, as will always disturb you in time of peace, which is ever to be more considered than war. But I do not think that this necessity of stealing arises only from hence, there is another

court would have terminated differently. Raw troops, other things being equal, must always yield to veterans; and, accordingly, the author's notions are on this point unphilosophical.

33 On the contrary, of all the modes yet devised for crumbling an army, or the materials of an army to pieces, sloth and idleness are the most effectual. Not to allude to the threadbare topic of Hannibal's troops in the Neapolitan territories, we may refer to the experience of our own generals in Hindoostan, where the men soon become soft and useless from over-indulgence, in conjunction, no doubt, with the enervating effects of climate which reduced even the hardy Mongols into silken soldiers. The case of the Mantchoo Tartars in China has been exactly similar; and wherever the iron troops of the north have been led into countries where the climate and soil dispose to indolence and inactivity, their vigour has quickly evaporated.

cause of it that is more peculiar to England.' 'What is that?' said the cardinal. 'The increase, of pasture,' said I, by which your sheep, that are naturally mild, and easily kept in order, may be said now to devour men, and unpeople, not only villages, but towns:34 for wherever it is found, that the sheep of any soil yield a softer and richer wool than ordinary, there the nobility and gentry, and even those holy men the abbots, not contented with the old rents which their farms yielded, nor thinking it enough that they, living at their ease, do no good to the public, resolve to do it hurt instead of good. They stop the course of agriculture, inclose grounds, and destroy houses and towns, reserving only the churches, that they may lodge their sheep in them: 36 and as if forests and parks had swal

34 It is well known that pastoral nations occupy five times the extent of land they would require for their support, were they addicted to agriculture. In Spain, where in the institution called the Mesta we have a relic of pastoral manners, traceable probably to the Moors, the feeding of sheep is a principal cause of the neglect of agriculture. The enormous flocks of the Mesta are migratory, and move every year some hundreds of miles, literally devastating the country over which they pass.

35 We had here in England, therefore, something not unlike the Mesta, at least in its effects; and the clergy, regular and irregular, were engaged in the good work, as in Spain. This must be one among the many advantages of a Popish priesthood enumerated by Dr. Lingard; but he is quite in error if he imagines the Reformation to have cooled the zeal of this class of men for their own interest. On this point things remain in statu quo.

36

Bayle tells a good story, somewhere in his Dictionary, of an abbot who had converted a church into a stable. It was in France, and set the example, and gave the hint, which was after

lowed up too little soil, those worthy countrymen turn the best inhabited places into solitudes; for when any unsatiable wretch, who is a plague to his country, resolves to inclose many thousand acres of ground, the owners, as well as tenants, are turned out of their possessions by tricks, or by main force, or being wearied out with ill usage, they are forced to sell them.37 So those miserable people, both men and women, married, unmarried, old and young, with their poor but numerous families, (since country business requires many hands,) are all forced to change their seats, not knowing whither to go; and they must sell for almost nothing, their household-stuff, which could not bring them much money, even though they might stay for a buyer. When that little money is at an end, for it will be soon spent, what is left for them to do, but either to steal and so be hanged, (God knows how justly,) or to go about and beg? And if they do this, they are put in prison as idle vagabonds; 38 whereas they would willingly work, but

wards followed up by the laymen at the revolution. Our Saviour, found the Temple of Jerusalem converted into a market-place and den of thieves, by the Jewish priesthood. The spirit of the clergy has ever been the same.

37 From this we may perceive how old the arts of thriving on a large scale are. There is nothing new under the sun. Even in wickedness we are deprived of the praise of originality.

38 What! the Mendicity Society in the reign of Henry VIII? Charles Lamb borrowed his political economy from the Utopia; for he too, like Sir Thomas More, took up the gauntlet for the gaberlunzies, and lamented the prospect of their extinction. I would he had been as long-lived as that race! For I find Plato at work, in the true spirit of the Mendicity Society, for the purpose

H

can find none that will hire them; for there is no more occasion for country labour, to which they have been bred, when there is no arable ground left. One shepherd can look after a flock, which will stock an extent of ground that would require many hands, if it were to be ploughed and reaped. This likewise raises the price of corn in many places. The price of wool is also risen, that the poor people who were wont to make cloth, are no more able to buy it; and this likewise makes many of them idle for since the increase of pasture, God has punished the avarice of the owners, by a rot among the sheep, which has destroyed vast numbers of them, but had been more justly laid upon the owners themselves.39 But suppose the sheep should increase ever so much, their price is not like to fall; since though they cannot be called a monopoly, because they are not engrossed by one person, yet they are in so few hands, and these are so rich, that as they are not pressed to sell them

of dissolving and bringing to nought the worshipful company of beggars, whom, in his simplicity, he reckons the father of thieves, house-breakers, &c.: but most vain and impotent were his endeavours! The beggars outlived him, saw his school dissolved, and the plough driving merrily over the gardens of the Academy. This ought to have satisfied the gentle heart of Charles Lamb, that no institutions, no laws, no societies, or corporations, can really do anything more than annoy beggars for a short time. Like the Bedouins, they disperse when hard pressed; but again pour forth when least expected, and triumph over everything. And so let it be.

39 This must be regarded as a slip of the pen; for judged strictly, it is impious, as calling in question the justice of God, and no impiety could belong to Sir Thomas More.