cts of such
changes, paternal governments should provide means of relief, so as to
render them as little prejudicial to individuals as possible; and no
transitions in the productive value of various labour, should be
allowed to destroy the industrious part of the population, or force
them to seek subsistence in foreign climes. It being the object of all
machinery to save human labour, of course society at large ought to
enjoy the benefit; and all who are in danger of suffering for a
benefit to be enjoyed by the whole, should be liberally indemnified
out of the common stock. Nothing could be more easy than for a board
of commissioners or arbitrators to assess on the public such
individual losses; and, in cases of great transitions, imposts should
be so levied on monopoly as to restore the equilibrium of great
branches of industry. For what but for such purposes of equalizing
happiness are governments constituted and maintained?
I passed from the premises of Mr. Brunel, to the nearly adjoining ones
of Mr. Hodgson, an intelligent maltster and distiller, and the
proprietor of the elevated horizontal air-mill, which serves as a
landmark for many miles round. But his mill, its elevated shaft, its
vanes, and weather or wind boards, curious as they would have been on
any other scite, lost their interest on premises once the residence of
the illustrious Bolingbroke, and the resort of the philosophers of his
day. In ascending the winding flights of its tottering galleries, I
could not help wondering at the caprice of events which had converted
the dwelling of Bolingbroke into a malting-house and a mill. This
house, once sacred to philosophy and poetry, long sanctified by the
residence of the noblest genius of his age, honoured by the frequent
visits of Pope, and the birthplace of the immortal Essay on Man, is
now appropriated to the lowest uses! The house of Bolingbroke become a
windmill! The spot on which the Essay on Man was concocted and
produced, converted into a distillery of pernicious spirits! Such are
the lessons of time! Such are the means by which an eternal agency
sets at nought the ephemeral importance of man! But yesterday, this
spot was the resort, the hope, and the seat of enjoyment of
Bolingbroke, Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot, Thomson, Mallet, and all the
contemporary genius of England--yet a few whirls of the earth round
the sun, the change of a figure in the date of the year, and the
groupe have vanished; while in t
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