A spot uncommunicated with may be
visited by the honors of famine, and no channel exist for conveying
thither the food required. A grievous pestilence may sweep off an
isolated people before the aid of the physician can arrive to arrest
its progress.
Such facts are obvious to even the most indifferent observers of human
society. Yet, nevertheless, there have been, and are, short-sighted
individuals, in every gradation of it, with minds and views so warped
and distorted by an ignorant selfishness, that they have opposed
every improvement which tended to make the least change in their
long-established habits. Such persons were they, who, during the last
century, promoted petitions from counties in the neighbourhood of
London, praying Parliament not to extend the turnpike-roads into remoter
parts of the country, lest these remote districts, by means of a less
expensive labour, should be able to sell their agricultural products
in the London markets at a cheaper rate than themselves!--and such in
our own day are the attempts made to put down steam conveyance. How
short-sighted we are! Did we consult our own advantage we should see
that those facilities of communication, against which we oppose
ourselves, are the growing sinews of a greater fabric of wealth and
prosperity.
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