ineteenth century had some effect upon the system of tillage;
they materially enhanced the price of agricultural produce--rents were
raised, and the national debt was contracted, which remains a burden on
the nation.

The most important change, however, arose from scientific and mechanical
discoveries--the application of heat to the production of motive power.
As long as water, which is a non-exhaustive source of motion, was used,
the people were scattered over the land; or if segregation took place,
it was in the neighborhood of running streams. The application of steam
to the propulsion of machinery, and the discovery of engines capable of
competing with the human hand, led to the substitution of machine-made
fabrics for clothing, in place of homespun articles of domestic
manufacture. This led to the employment of farm-laborers in procuring
coals, to the removal of many from the rural into the urban districts,
to the destruction of the principal employment of the family during the
winter evenings, and consequently effected a great revolution in the
social system. Many small freeholds were sold, the owners thinking they
could more rapidly acquire wealth by using the money representing their
occupancy, in trade. Thus the large estates became larger, and the
smaller ones were absorbed, while the appearance of greater wealth from
exchanging subterranean substances for money, or its representative,
gave rise to ostentatious display. The rural population gradually
diminished, while the civic population increased. The effect upon the
system of landholding was triplicate. First, there was a diminution in
the amount of labor applicable to the cultivation of land; second, there
was a decrease in the amount of manure applied to the production of
food; and lastly, there was an increase in the demand for land as a
source of investment, by those who, having made money in trade, sought
that social position which follows the possession of broad acres. Thus
the descendants of the feudal aristocracy were pushed aside by the
modern plutocracy.

This state of things had a double effect. Food is the result of two
essential ingredients--land and labor. The diminution in the amount of
labor applied to the soil, consequent upon the removal of the laborers
from the land, lessened the quantity of food; while the consumption of
that food in cities and towns, and the waste of the fertile ingredients
which should be restored to the soil, tended