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The Land Question viewed from a Church Aspect
The Land Question viewed from a Church Aspect Author:Joseph Dodd 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: TEACT III. ST. MATTHEW xxvi. 11. " For ye have the poor always with you." TT has been said of the Anglo-Saxon, as a member of the human family, that the a... more »cquisition of land is a characteristic of the race. At least, so strongly is the love of it rooted in his nature, that in this particular few nations can compete with him. If this be the fact, is it only when circumstances concur for forming this portion of his character? Certainly, in the present day, wherever we view the Anglo-Saxon, whether as the inhabitant of a country which is limited in its space by the surroundings of the sea, necessitating thereby in the increase of population a proportionate increase of food and employment,—or whether we view him as an emigrant abroad, away from his first home, it is land and the possession of it, which forms the one great object of his desires. So it is in regard to the various outlets of employment, which trade and commerce have opened out over the broad surface of the earth, science contributing to the development and increased power of human labour, even the acquisition of money is made subservient to the other great principle of securing an interest in the acquisition of the soil. The conclusion being, that the peculiarity exists indepenTea.ct in.] The Land Question viewed, %c. 35 dently of any external or accidental cause; and however much the limited size of our island may account for the existence of our vast colonial dependencies, it does not explain how the same habits at home, touching this one single point, find their counterpart among all classes, rich as well as poor, thousands of miles away from each other. We must look, therefore, to other causes for the phenomenon. Before the systematic, and, doubtless, the forcible settlement of the Saxons in our isl...« less