"You've seen a flock of partridges of a frosty mornin' in the fall,
a-crowdin' out of the shade to a sunny spot, and huddlin' up there
in the warmth? Well, the Bluenoses have nothin' else to do half the
time but sun themselves. Whose fault is that? Why it's the fault
of the legislature; they don't encourage internal improvement, nor
the investment of capital in the country; and the result is apathy,
inaction and poverty. They spend three months in Halifax, and what do
they do? Father gave me a dollar once, to go to the fair at Hartford,
and when I came back, says he, 'Sam, what have you got to show for
it?' Now I ax what have they to show for their three months' setting?
They mislead folks; they make 'em believe all the use of the assembly
is to bark at councillors, judges, bankers, and such cattle, to keep
'em from eatin' up the crops; and it actilly costs more to feed them
when they are watchin', than all the others could eat if they did
break a fence and get in. Indeed some folks say they are the most
breachy of the two, and ought to go to pound themselves. If their
fences are good, them hungry cattle couldn't break through; and if
they ain't, they ought to stake 'em up, and with them well; but it's
no use to make fences unless the land is cultivated. If I see a farm
all gone to wrack, I say here's bad husbandry and bad management; and
if I see a Province like this, of great capacity, and great natural
resources, poverty-stricken, I say there's bad legislation.
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