in want and misery,
and infancy, to dawn upon suffering, to last a life long. Duty-labour
calls the poor man from the humble care of his own farm, to come, with
his whole house, and toil upon the rich man's fields, the requital for
which is some poor grace of a week's or a month's forbearance, ere he be
called on for that rent these exactions are preventing him from earning.
Duty-labour summons him from his own profitless ground, to behold the
fruits his exertions are raising for another's enjoyment, and of which
he must never taste! Duty-labour calls the days of fair sky and sunshine,
and leaves him the gloomy hours of winter, when, with darkness without,
and despair within, he may brood, as he digs, over the disproportioned
fortunes of his tyrant and himself! Duty-labour is the type of a
slavery, that hardens the heart, by extinguishing all hope, and
uprooting every feeling of self-confidence and reliance, till, in abject
and degraded misery, the wretched man grows reckless of his life, while
his vengeance yearns for that of his task master.

Nor does the system end here;--the agent must be conciliated by presents
of various kinds;--the humble pittance, wrung from misery, and hoarded
up by industry, must be offered to him, as the means of obtaining some
poor and petty favour, most frequently, one, the rightful due of the
asker. A tyranny like this spreads its baneful influence far beyond the
afflictions of mere poverty--it breaks down the spirit, it demoralizes
the heart of a people; for where was black-mail ever extorted, that
it did not engender cruelty on the one hand, and abject slavery on the
other?

So far from regarding those placed above them in rank and station, as
their natural friends and protectors, the peasantry felt the great man
as their oppressor; they knew him not, as their comforter in sickness,
their help in time of trouble--they only saw in him, the rigid exactor
of his rent, the merciless task-master, who cared not for time or
season, save those that brought round the period of repayment; and as,
year by year, poverty and misery ate deeper into their natures, and hope
died out, fearful thoughts of retribution flashed upon minds, on which
no prospect of better days shone; and, in the gloomy desolation of their
dark hours, they wished and prayed for any change, come in what shape,
and surrounded by what danger it might, if only this bondage should
cease.

Men spoke of their light-heartedness, the