tive assemblies, whose debates and decisions form the study and
precedents of other nations, and involve the interests of the world.

I have been both surprised and disappointed, therefore, at finding
that on this subject I was often indulging in an Utopian dream, rather
than a well-founded opinion. I have been concerned at finding that
these fine estates were too often involved, and mortgaged, or placed
in the hands of creditors, and the owners exiled from their paternal
lands. There is an extravagance, I am told, that runs parallel with
wealth; a lavish expenditure among the great; a senseless competition
among the aspiring; a heedless, joyless dissipation among all the
upper ranks, that often beggars even these splendid establishments,
breaks down the pride and principles of their possessors, and makes
too many of them mere place-hunters, or shifting absentees. It is thus
that so many are thrown into the hands of government; and a court,
which ought to be the most pure and honourable in Europe, is so often
degraded by noble, but importunate time-servers. It is thus, too, that
so many become exiles from their native land, crowding the hotels of
foreign countries, and expending upon thankless strangers the wealth
so hardly drained from their laborious peasantry. I have looked upon
these latter with a mixture of censure and concern. Knowing the almost
bigoted fondness of an Englishman for his native home, I can conceive
what must be their compunction and regret, when, amidst the sunburnt
plains of France, they call to mind the green fields of England; the
hereditary groves which they have abandoned; and the hospitable roof
of their fathers, which they have left desolate, or to be inhabited by
strangers. But retrenchment is no plea for abandonment of country.
They nave risen with the prosperity of the land; let them abide its
fluctuations, and conform to its fortunes. It is not for the rich to
fly, because the country is suffering: let them share, in their
relative proportion, the common lot; they owe it to the land that has
elevated them to honour and affluence. When the poor have to diminish
their scanty morsels of bread; when they have to compound with the
cravings of nature, and study with how little they can do, and not be
starved; it is not then for the rich to fly, and diminish still
farther the resources of the poor, that they themselves may live in
splendour in a cheaper country. Let them rather retire to their