THE "BEDUCTION TO INIQUITY." 63
dreamed, I think, of its terrible meaning. But I ask the Duke of Argyll, did that little child, thankful for that poor dole, get what our Father provided for her ? Is he so niggard? If not, what is it, who is it, that stands between such children and our Father's bounty ? If it be an institution, is it not our duty to God and to our neigh- bor to rest not till we destroy it ? If it be a man, were it not better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the depths of the sea ?
There can be no question of overpopulation no pre- tense that Nature has brought more men into being than she has made provision for. Scotland surely is not over- populated. Much land is unused ; much land is devoted to lower uses, such as the breeding of game and the raising of cattle, that might be devoted to higher uses ; there are mineral resources untouched ; the wealth drawn from the sea is but a small part of what might be drawn. But it is idle to argue this point. Neither in Scotland, nor in any other country, can any excess of population over the power of Nature to provide for them be shown. The poverty so painful in Scotland is manifestly no more due to overpopulation than the crowding of two-thirds of the families into houses of one or two rooms is due to want of space to build houses upon. And just as the crowding of people into insufficient lodgings is directly due to institutions which permit men to hold vacant land needed for buildings until they can force a monopoly price from those wishing to build, so is the poverty of the masses due to the fact that they are in like manner shut out from the opportunities Nature has provided for the employment of their labor in the satisfaction of their wants.
Take the Island of Skye as illustrating on a small scale the cause of poverty throughout Scotland. The people of Skye are poor very poor. Is it because there are too
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