Were
They To Be Driven From This Spot, The Only Acquisition Of The
Conquerors Would Be A Few Acres Of Land, Inclosed And Cultivated; A
Few Houses, And Some Movables.
The genius, the industry of the
inhabitants would accompany them; and it is those alone which
constitute the sole wealth of their island.
Its present fame would
perish, and in a few years it would return to its pristine state of
barrenness and poverty: they might perhaps be allowed to transport
themselves in their own vessels to some other spot or island, which
they would soon fertilise by the same means with which they have
fertilised this.
One single lawyer has of late years found means to live here, but
his best fortune proceeds more from having married one of the
wealthiest heiresses of the island, than from the emoluments of his
practice: however he is sometimes employed in recovering money lent
on the main, or in preventing those accidents to which the
contentious propensity of its inhabitants may sometimes expose them.
He is seldom employed as the means of self-defence, and much
seldomer as the channel of attack; to which they are strangers,
except the fraud is manifest, and the danger imminent. Lawyers are
so numerous in all our populous towns, that I am surprised they
never thought before of establishing themselves here: they are
plants that will grow in any soil that is cultivated by the hands of
others; and when once they have taken root they will extinguish
every other vegetable that grows around them.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 184 of 291
Words from 49927 to 50185
of 79752
