Page:Kopal-Kundala.djvu/11

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INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
xi

of the people and the fondness of the agricultural community for their ancestral fields and homesteads.

"Beatus ille, qui procul negotiis
Paterna rura bubus exercet suis."

But the danger, though appreciable, is not so great as is supposed. There are vast tracts of untenanted and untilled lands awaiting the plough, and these lands are in some cases situate within a few miles of those parts where the density of population is greatest. Emigration, though still unpopular, is losing its unpopularity by degrees. Education is spreading among the masses, and the old order is changing, giving place to new. That which has happened in western countries will assuredly happen in India. During the year 1882 nearly 11,000 persons were registered as emigrants for tea-gardens in Assam, and nearly 9000 were despatched to Mauritius, Trinidad, and other colonies. The fact that 2000 of these emigrants were Brahmans is a