Litchfield enquirer., 1857-01-22
Town and Country.

The jealousy between town and country ap- pears to be almost as old as civil society itself. The interests and employments which pertain to these two conditions of humanity are wide ly different, aud seem destined to maintain q perpctually rivalry with each other. Each has Ut different periods been in the ascendant, and the cause of each has been espoused and man- ,ained by rival schools of philosophers and DO, lltical economists. . -.. .- ..
 The ancient Romans delighted in cities, and deemed the country fit for the permanent resi- dence ouly of agricultural slaves; while the conqucrors of Europe, who gave birth to the
 eudal system, bsit their castles and strong hc|ds in the unoccupied country, and from thence sent out their robbcr bands to pilage the despiscd burghers of the towns, .. :. .r
 Adala Smith, the author of the Wealth of Nations proaonuces the cu!tivators of the soil to be the only producers, and all other classes of society, whether industrious or idle, to be merely consumers Of the products that farm CTS create. In accordance with this idea, some of his followers have contcnded that all the ad- vantages and exemptions which government has to be tow, should be given to them, while the champions of all opposite school have asserted that nothing ever requires the protection or aid of government but commerce and munufAc- lures, and that if these are nourishng all otE- CT things will of necessity thrive.
 With these doctrines however, we have at present nothing to dc. We have nothing to say about the question between town and coun- try historically, as 1t stood ia the times when barons and merchants debated it with halbert
 and pike nor economically, as it was argued, by Adam Smith and his opponent 5--nor yet politically, as it used to be understood in Rhode Island in the days when Ward and Hopkius headed the two host lc parties--or in those la l ter days when Arthur Fenner united them in d temporary coalition, aud secured for us the federal constitution. tf
 We merely wish to call attention to the i'm prcssisc and really alarming fact, that country life and labor, country tastes ard manners are fast disappearing from among us, and that town and its interests and ways arc cv,ry where 1 usurping their place. Especially is this true
 of all our older States of the North. The country is either abandoned for the town by increasing proportions of every successive gen
 eration, or what is nearly the same thing, the
 town is spreading it's influence and control over
 the country, and setting up its wretched altars 1 for mammon worshp-its vanity fairs of fasi:- l iou and extrayagancc on the spots which till
 lately have been sacred to rural industry, to
 frugal happiness, to untainted morality, and
 unsophisticated nature Great cities are eve
 rywhere advancing in population at stuper-
 dous rates, while agricultural districts arc rap
 idly declining save, perhaps, where the pola,-
 hton is concentrated in overgrown villages
 that aspire to initiate tLe vices and foilies, the iextravagance and idle;,ess of the distant city. But this is not all Even where the people l remain in the country and are ostensbly enga-
 ged in agricultural employments, they 10 lon
 ger resemble that ancient yeonanry Of the l aud-sucll as at first battled with the Indi- ans and afterwards mustered with simple
 hearted heroism in the fights at Concord aud Bunker Hal. They are all strangely citifed
 They arc afraid of being considered rustic and
 uucoutIl. They aspire to the accomplishments
 and the fashions. They are ashamed of their proper employments, and are too often eager 1 to change the rural quiet of their country
 homes for the tumuIt and hustle, the excite l ment and glitter, and the fancied ease and spfendor of the town.
 We confess we are sorry to perceive so ms- . ny unmistakablc evidences in our northern States of the decline of the old fashioned 1 country life We know not what is.to become of cities when there ceases to be any country.