Conditions of Social Well-Being; Or, Inquiries Into the Material and Moral Position of the Populations of Europe and America, with Particular Reference to Those of Great Britain and Ireland (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: were still in shackles, and therefore comparatively heedless of the welfare of the State. On the other hand, the wealthy and powerful became careless, then immoral, then weak. The barbarians at last broke the lines of mercenaries placed to oppose their progress, and wave succeeded wave till, first the colonies, and ultimately the centre of the empire, were submerged by their constantly increasing power. The principle of Conquest had triumphed over that of Commerce, but not before the virtues of the latter weak as it had always been from the presence of slavery had become clouded. There remained, however, in the general collapse, a few old Roman towns which preserved a feeble flicker of their primal life. To these in course of the gradual settlement of the new state of things were added other towns situated in positions on the coast or on navigable rivers. These grew very slowly into centres of commerce. When the cities were still embryonic, they could scarcely be distinguished from the country except by the fact that their inhabitants drew together for the advantage of asylum and defence. The defence was imperfect, for even the lord of the domain wherein the town was situated would gratify his avarice by attempting its pillage. Thus, in the words of Guizot, ' The merchants, after having made their journeys, were not permitted to enter their towns in peace; the roads and approaches were incessantly beset by the lord and his followers. The time at which industry was recommencing was exactly that in which security was most wanting. Nothing can irritate a man more than being interfered with in his work and despoiled of the fruits which he had promised himself from it. ... There is in the progressive movement towards fortune of a man or a population, a principle of resistance aga...