PART V
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL VIEWS
"When a country is well governed, poverty and a mean condition are things to be ashamed of. When a country is ill governed, riches and honour are things to be ashamed of."—CONFUCIUS.
In the above sentences, written long before the dawn of Christian civilisation, we have an apt summary of the social and political views of Alfred Russel Wallace.
As we have stated in a previous chapter, it was during his short stay in London as a boy, when he was led to study the writings and methods of Robert Owen, of New Lanark, that his mind first opened to the consideration of the inequalities of our social life.
During the six years which he spent in land-surveying he obtained a more practical knowledge of the laws pertaining to public and private property as they affected the lives and habits of both squire and peasant.
The village inn, or public-house, was then the only place where men could meet to discuss topics of mutual interest, and it was there that young Wallace and his brother spent some of their own leisure hours listening to and conversing with the village rustics. The conversation was not ordinarily of an educational character, but occasionally experienced farmers would discuss agricultural and land problems which were beginning to interest Wallace.
In reading his books and essays written more than seventy years later, we are struck with the exceptional opportunities which he had of comparing social conditions, and commercial and individual prosperity during that long period, and of [pg 140] witnessing the introduction of many inventions. He used to enjoy recalling many of the discussions between intelligent mechanics which he heard of in his early days regarding the introduction of the steam-engine. One and another declared that the grip of the engine on the rails would not be sufficient to draw heavy trucks or carriages; that the wheels, in fact, would whiz round instead of going on, and that it would be necessary to sprinkle sand in front of the wheels, or make the tyres rough like files. About this time, too, there arose a keen debate upon the relative merits of the new railroads and the old canals. Many thought that the former could never compete with the latter in carrying heavy goods; but facts soon proved otherwise, for in one district alone the traffic of the canal, within two years of the coming of the railway, decreased by 1,000,000 tons.
It was during these years, and when he and his brother were making a survey for the enclosure of some common lands near Llandrindod Wells, that Wallace finally became aware of the injustice towards the labouring classes of the General Enclosure Act.