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Letters on International Copyright; Second Edition by H. C. (Henry Charles) Carey
page 66 of 115 (57%)
enslavement of the body and the mind, travel always in company, and with
each step of their progress there is an increasing tendency towards the
accumulation of power in the hands of men who should be statesmen, the
difficulties of whose positions forbid, however, that they should refer to
scientific principles for their government. Action must be had, and
immediate action in opposition to principle is preferable to delay; and
hence it is that real statesmen are "shunned as an impediment to public
business." The greater the necessity for statesmanship, the more must
statesmen be avoided. The nearer the ship is brought to the shoal, the
more carefully must her captain avoid any reference to the chart. That
such is the practice of those charged with the direction of the affairs of
England, and such the philosophy of those who control her journals, is
obvious to all who study the proceedings of the one or the teachings of
the other. From year to year the ship becomes more difficult of
management, and there is increasing difficulty in finding responsible men
to take the helm. Such are the effects upon mind that have resulted from
that "destruction of nationalities" required for the perfection of the
British system of centralization.

England is fast becoming one great shop, and traders have, in general,
neither time nor disposition to cultivate literature. The little
proprietors disappear, and the day laborers who succeed them can neither
educate their children nor purchase books. The great proprietor is an
absentee, and he has little time for either literature or science. From
year to year the population of the kingdom becomes more and more divided
into two great classes; the very poor, with whom food and raiment require
all the proceeds of labor, and the very rich who prosper by the cheap
labor system, and therefore eschew the study of principles. With the one
class, books are an unattainable luxury, while with the other the absence
of leisure prevents the growth of desire for their purchase. The sale is,
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