Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay:
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade—
A breath can make them, as a breath has made:
But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride,
When once destroyed, can never be supplied.
The Deserted Village: Oliver Goldsmith
This column follows on from ‘Whence Europe; Whither Europe’.
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