ariondas/full_text_dataset · Datasets at Hugging Face

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out of their possessions by trick or by main force, or, being wearied out
by ill usage, they are forced to sell them; by which means those
miserable people, both men and women, married and unmarried, old and
young, with their poor but numerous families (since country business
requires many hands), are all forced to change their seats, not knowing
whither to go; and they must sell, almost for nothing, their household
stuff, which could not bring them much money, even though they might stay
for a buyer. When that little money is at an end (for it will be soon
spent), what is left for them to do but either to steal, and so to be
hanged (God knows how justly!), or to go about and beg? and if they do
this they are put in prison as idle vagabonds, while they would willingly
work but can find none that will hire them; for there is no more occasion
for country labour, to which they have been bred, when there is no arable
ground left. One shepherd can look after a flock, which will stock an
extent of ground that would require many hands if it were to be ploughed
and reaped. This, likewise, in many places raises the price of corn. The
price of wool is also so risen that the poor people, who were wont to
make cloth, are no more able to buy it; and this, likewise, makes many of
them idle: for since the increase of pasture God has punished the avarice
of the owners by a rot among the sheep, which has destroyed vast numbers
of them--to us it might have seemed more just had it fell on the owners
themselves. But, suppose the sheep should increase ever so much, their
price is not likely to fall; since, though they cannot be called a
monopoly, because they are not engrossed by one person, yet they are in
so few hands, and these are so rich, that, as they are not pressed to
sell them sooner than they have a mind to it, so they never do it till
they have raised the price as high as possible. And on the same account
it is that the other kinds of cattle are so dear, because many villages
being pulled down, and all country labour being much neglected, there are
none who make it their business to breed them. The rich do not breed
cattle as they do sheep, but buy them lean and at low prices; and, after
they have fattened them on their grounds, sell them again at high rates.
And I do not think that all the inconveniences this will produce are yet
observed; for, as they sell the cattle dear, so, if they are consumed
faster than the breeding countries from which they are brought can afford
them, then the stock must decrease, and this must needs end in great
scarcity; and by these means, this your island, which seemed as to this
particular the happiest in the world, will suffer much by the cursed
avarice of a few persons: besides this, the rising of corn makes all
people lessen their families as much as they can; and what can those who
are dismissed by them do but either beg or rob? And to this last a man
of a great mind is much sooner drawn than to the former. Luxury likewise
breaks in apace upon you to set forward your poverty and misery; there is
an excessive vanity in apparel, and great cost in diet, and that not only
in noblemen's families, but even among tradesmen, among the farmers
themselves, and among all ranks of persons. You have also many infamous
houses, and, besides those that are known, the taverns and ale-houses are
no better; add to these dice, cards, tables, football, tennis, and
quoits, in which money runs fast away; and those that are initiated into
them must, in the conclusion, betake themselves to robbing for a supply.
Banish these plagues, and give orders that those who have dispeopled so
much soil may either rebuild the villages they have pulled down or let
out their grounds to such as will do it; restrain those engrossings of
the rich, that are as bad almost as monopolies; leave fewer occasions to
idleness; let agriculture be set up again, and the manufacture of the
wool be regulated, that so there may be work found for those companies of
idle people whom want forces to be thieves, or who now, being idle
vagabonds or useless servants, will certainly grow thieves at last. If
you do not find a remedy to these evils it is a vain thing to boast of
your severity in punishing theft, which, though it may have the
appearance of justice, yet in itself is neither just nor convenient; for
if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be
corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to
which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded
from this but that you first make thieves and then punish them?'

"While I was talking thus, the Counsellor, who was present, had prepared
an answer, and had resolved to resume all I had said, according to the
formality of a debate, in which things are generally repeated more
faithfully than they are answered, as if the chief trial to be made were
of men's memories. 'You have talked prettily, for a stranger,' said he,
'having heard of many things among us which you have not been able to
consider well; but I will make the whole matter plain to you, and will
first repeat in order all that you have said; then I will show how much
your ignorance of our affairs has misled you; and will, in the last
place, answer all your arguments. And, that I may begin where I
promised, there were four things--' 'Hold your peace!' said the
Cardinal; 'this will take up too much time; therefore we will, at
present, ease you of the trouble of answering, and reserve it to our next
meeting, which shall be to-morrow, if Raphael's affairs and yours can
admit of it. But, Raphael,' said he to me, 'I would gladly know upon
what reason it is that you think theft ought not to be punished by death:
would you give way to it? or do you propose any other punishment that
will be more useful to the public? for, since death does not restrain
theft, if men thought their lives would be safe, what fear or force could
restrain ill men? On the contrary, they would look on the mitigation of
the punishment as an invitation to commit more crimes.' I answered, 'It
seems to me a very unjust thing to take away a man's life for a little
money, for nothing in the world can be of equal value with a man's life:
and if it be said, "that it is not for the money that one suffers, but
for his breaking the law," I must say, extreme justice is an extreme
injury: for we ought not to approve of those terrible laws that make the
smallest offences capital, nor of that opinion of the Stoics that makes
all crimes equal; as if there were no difference to be made between the
killing a man and the taking his purse, between which, if we examine
things impartially, there is no likeness nor proportion. God has
commanded us not to kill, and shall we kill so easily for a little money?
But if one shall say, that by that law we are only forbid to kill any
except when the laws of the land allow of it, upon the same grounds, laws
may be made, in some cases, to allow of adultery and perjury: for God

out of their possessions by trick or by main force, or, being wearied out

by ill usage, they are forced to sell them; by which means those

miserable people, both men and women, married and unmarried, old and

young, with their poor but numerous families (since country business

requires many hands), are all forced to change their seats, not knowing

whither to go; and they must sell, almost for nothing, their household

stuff, which could not bring them much money, even though they might stay

for a buyer. When that little money is at an end (for it will be soon

spent), what is left for them to do but either to steal, and so to be

hanged (God knows how justly!), or to go about and beg? and if they do

this they are put in prison as idle vagabonds, while they would willingly

work but can find none that will hire them; for there is no more occasion

for country labour, to which they have been bred, when there is no arable

ground left. One shepherd can look after a flock, which will stock an

extent of ground that would require many hands if it were to be ploughed

and reaped. This, likewise, in many places raises the price of corn. The

price of wool is also so risen that the poor people, who were wont to

make cloth, are no more able to buy it; and this, likewise, makes many of

them idle: for since the increase of pasture God has punished the avarice

of the owners by a rot among the sheep, which has destroyed vast numbers

of them--to us it might have seemed more just had it fell on the owners

themselves. But, suppose the sheep should increase ever so much, their

price is not likely to fall; since, though they cannot be called a

monopoly, because they are not engrossed by one person, yet they are in

so few hands, and these are so rich, that, as they are not pressed to

sell them sooner than they have a mind to it, so they never do it till

they have raised the price as high as possible. And on the same account

it is that the other kinds of cattle are so dear, because many villages

being pulled down, and all country labour being much neglected, there are

none who make it their business to breed them. The rich do not breed

cattle as they do sheep, but buy them lean and at low prices; and, after

they have fattened them on their grounds, sell them again at high rates.

And I do not think that all the inconveniences this will produce are yet

observed; for, as they sell the cattle dear, so, if they are consumed

faster than the breeding countries from which they are brought can afford

them, then the stock must decrease, and this must needs end in great

scarcity; and by these means, this your island, which seemed as to this

particular the happiest in the world, will suffer much by the cursed

avarice of a few persons: besides this, the rising of corn makes all

people lessen their families as much as they can; and what can those who

are dismissed by them do but either beg or rob? And to this last a man

of a great mind is much sooner drawn than to the former. Luxury likewise

breaks in apace upon you to set forward your poverty and misery; there is

an excessive vanity in apparel, and great cost in diet, and that not only

in noblemen's families, but even among tradesmen, among the farmers

themselves, and among all ranks of persons. You have also many infamous

houses, and, besides those that are known, the taverns and ale-houses are

no better; add to these dice, cards, tables, football, tennis, and

quoits, in which money runs fast away; and those that are initiated into

them must, in the conclusion, betake themselves to robbing for a supply.

Banish these plagues, and give orders that those who have dispeopled so

much soil may either rebuild the villages they have pulled down or let

out their grounds to such as will do it; restrain those engrossings of

the rich, that are as bad almost as monopolies; leave fewer occasions to

idleness; let agriculture be set up again, and the manufacture of the

wool be regulated, that so there may be work found for those companies of

idle people whom want forces to be thieves, or who now, being idle

vagabonds or useless servants, will certainly grow thieves at last. If

you do not find a remedy to these evils it is a vain thing to boast of

your severity in punishing theft, which, though it may have the

appearance of justice, yet in itself is neither just nor convenient; for

if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be

corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to

which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded

from this but that you first make thieves and then punish them?'

"While I was talking thus, the Counsellor, who was present, had prepared

an answer, and had resolved to resume all I had said, according to the

formality of a debate, in which things are generally repeated more

faithfully than they are answered, as if the chief trial to be made were

of men's memories. 'You have talked prettily, for a stranger,' said he,

'having heard of many things among us which you have not been able to

consider well; but I will make the whole matter plain to you, and will

first repeat in order all that you have said; then I will show how much

your ignorance of our affairs has misled you; and will, in the last

place, answer all your arguments. And, that I may begin where I

promised, there were four things--' 'Hold your peace!' said the

Cardinal; 'this will take up too much time; therefore we will, at

present, ease you of the trouble of answering, and reserve it to our next

meeting, which shall be to-morrow, if Raphael's affairs and yours can

admit of it. But, Raphael,' said he to me, 'I would gladly know upon

what reason it is that you think theft ought not to be punished by death:

would you give way to it? or do you propose any other punishment that

will be more useful to the public? for, since death does not restrain

theft, if men thought their lives would be safe, what fear or force could

restrain ill men? On the contrary, they would look on the mitigation of

the punishment as an invitation to commit more crimes.' I answered, 'It

seems to me a very unjust thing to take away a man's life for a little

money, for nothing in the world can be of equal value with a man's life:

and if it be said, "that it is not for the money that one suffers, but

for his breaking the law," I must say, extreme justice is an extreme

injury: for we ought not to approve of those terrible laws that make the

smallest offences capital, nor of that opinion of the Stoics that makes

all crimes equal; as if there were no difference to be made between the

killing a man and the taking his purse, between which, if we examine

things impartially, there is no likeness nor proportion. God has

commanded us not to kill, and shall we kill so easily for a little money?

But if one shall say, that by that law we are only forbid to kill any

except when the laws of the land allow of it, upon the same grounds, laws

may be made, in some cases, to allow of adultery and perjury: for God