James Wilson

“ The power of direct taxation has likewise been treated as an improper delegation to the federal government; but when we consider it as the duty of that body to provide for the national safety, to support the dignity of the union, and to discharge the debts contracted upon the collected faith of the States for their common benefit, it must be acknowledged that those upon whom such important obligations are imposed, ought in justice and in policy to possess every means requisite for a faithful performance of their trust. But why should we be alarmed with visionary evils? ”

“ The nature of the Roman evacuation of Britain is well known. It was almost a rout: a kind of forced march in which every impediment was left behind and only fighting gear and the minimum of food supplies were carried. The necessary transport animals were taken away, but cows and young stock, which would have been an insufferable encumbrance, were left behind. We know also the state of the country after the flight of the Romans; how the unsettled natives had little more than time to think of settling down when the Saxon was upon them. ”

“ Modesty is a mixture of gravity and sweetness, that stamps plety on the behaviour, and makes the divine transports of the soul sparkle in the very eyes. It reaches every part of the exterior, and guides our whole comportment abroad and at home, in our closet, and in conversation: it plants virtue upon the forehead, and embellishes the exterior, with an universal decorum
Gentlemen I cannot conclude the discourse better, than in the words of the author of the economy of human life. ”

“ To show that the British variety of Bos longifrons was black, we must anticipate some part of what is to follow, on the understanding that what is now taken on credit will be made good hereafter. It is a well-known fact in human history that, as one race retires before another, the retiring and the invading races are usually accompanied by some part of their live stock, and above all by their cattle which, in earlier times, not only afforded food and clothing but took a chief share in tilling the earth, and thus were an outstanding necessity in man's existence. ”

“ Thus fettered I do not know any act which the Senate can of itself perform, and such dependence necessarily precludes every idea of influence and superiority. But I will confess that in the organization of this body a compromise between contending interests is descernible; and when we reflect how various are the laws commerce, habits, population and extent of the confederated States, this evidence of mutual concession and accommodation ought rather to command a generous applause, than to excite jealousy and reproach. ”

“ But the greatest argument for the Bakewellian system is that the breeds that superseded the Longhorn were originated, and have been maintained, in the same manner. Besides, to say nothing of his horses, the blood of Bakewell's Leicester sheep, which were equally or more in-bred than his cattle, now flows in the veins of every "longwooled" sheep that trots, and is still alive in almost absolute purity in two breeds—the Leicesters and the Border Leicesters. ”

“ Remembering that cattle were still valued for draught rather than for milk or beef, we cannot imagine that farmers would be ready to set aside their red or their black cattle for either the red-and-white or the white. ”

“ And when animals whose money value is large get into the possession through inheritance or otherwise, of poorer men but better judges, how are these men to determine whether their purse or their taste is to prevail? In the face of some of the preceding chapters and these considerations, in-breeding must escape the charges against it with at least the Scots verdict, not proven. When once a breed has been established, however, that is to say, when it has reached such a degree of steadiness that it can be called "pure," the need for in-breeding is greatly decreased. ”

“ At the present day Aberdeen-Angus cattle are hornless, similar in weight to Shorthorns and Herefords, and black, with occasional white markings upon the back underline. In the stock-breeder's sense of the term the Aberdeen-Angus breed is pure; but the irregular occurrence of white on the underline suggests that from a more stringent point of view the purity is not absolute. For that matter, it is inconceivable that any set of animals of more than one cell—or even of one cell, perhaps—can ever be absolutely pure. ”

“ But the authorities we have quoted are all so emphatic that the cattle imported from the Low Countries were red and white, pied, not brindled, that the Dutch must also be absolved. There is but one weak spot in their defence, and that is a small one. The Low Countries, and some parts of France—say Normandy—were neither so far apart nor so definitely separated in an Englishman's mind, but that some of the cattle imported as from the Low Countries may have come from France. ”

“ The white-coloured cattle of Devon size are white Devons, from which any number of white Devons might be produced, and by the use of such cattle the whole red Devon breed could be made white in not so very many generations.
There are, however, hybrids which are not obvious intermediates, but which masquerade in the guise of one of their parents. The progeny of black and red cattle are black, yet they are hybrids nevertheless. ”

“ Then, as the natives were pushed westward and northward, the Roman cattle they had been unable to secure were left behind to fend for themselves in the forests. For some centuries more, the country from which the Celts had been expelled was the arena of strife and war, by no means thickly populated, and exposed on the western border to continual rieving and raiding. And, so, when the Normans came in, they found the Roman cattle no longer quiet and uncomplaining animals of burden, but wild and ferocious beasts of chase. ”

“ I will venture to predict that the great revenue of the United States must, and always will, be raised by impost, for, being at once less obnoxious and more productive, the interest of the government will be best promoted by the accommodation of the people. ”

“ It is true that many cattle now hornless—and sheep, too, for that matter—are descended from ancestors that were horned; but in those cases the horns were removed by crossing with hornless breeds.
Whence, then, came our hornless cattle? That question can only be answered after some consideration of their history and distribution. At the present time there are only three breeds of hornless cattle in Britain; but in the eighteenth century there were hornless breeds in eight or ten places round the coasts of England and Scotland and also in Ireland. ”

“ The Yorkshire oxen are, in general, black all over, and they are very large, firm, and valuable Kind in every respect. There are none that exceed them for Labour and few feed like them. The Oxen of Staffordshire, and many of the neighbouring Counties, are also of this kind. The Oxen of Lincolnshire are in general red-and-white: they are very bulky, and equal to any in Value. The Oxen of Somersetshire, and some of the adjoining Counties, are naturally red. They are also a very fine, large, and valuable Breed. ”

“ Let her be set off with all the other embellishments of art and nature, so long as holiness is read in her face, this vice alone will eclipse her other perfections, and like a cloud overcast all the glittering beams of beauty, wit, and dignity.
When a town is well provided within, and strongly fenced with out works, a victorious general has seldom the courage to attempt the siege. ”

“ It has often been argued that the system of breeding which Bakewell established must be a wrong one, since the breed which he did so much to improve, and which at one time overran a great part of England and almost the whole of Ireland was well-nigh extinct within a century of the time when Bakewell was in his zenith. But it must be remembered that another type of animal has been in demand since Bakewell's day. The Longhorns were graziers' cattle—slow to mature as we now understand them, and capable of withstanding the severity of winter in the open air. ”

“ In former times there were far more of these blackish-brown cattle in the Highlands than now. Indeed, early in the nineteenth century they were found wherever the old Celtic black cattle were found in Scotland, the north of England, Wales, and Ireland—but, since the establishment of pure breeds, and perhaps before that, they have gradually disappeared: the Highland breed being the last of the Celtic breeds to give them a lodging. There are still a few among the non-pedigreed Irish black cattle, but very few in the territories of the Welsh, the Galloways, or the Aberdeen-Angus. ”

“ It must be remembered that other factors interfere with milking capacity as such alone. The cow's size, age, and health might be mentioned, for instance. If these other factors can be eliminated, then, if the hybrids are intermediates, there will be three grades of cows, viz. high grade, medium, and low grade. The cows' grade being manifest by their yield of milk, the difficult part of the problem is to determine the grade of the bull; and for this there is only one test, the test of breeding. He is either high grade, middle, or low grade. ”

“ From these considerations we may say, without doubt, that the red race of cattle, whose representatives to-day are the Lincolns, the Norfolks and Suffolks, the Sussex, the Devons, and the Herefords, were in possession of the southern half of England till towards the close of the eighteenth century. If still further evidence were required, a very interesting statement of Leonard Mascal's might be quoted: "Also for Oxen to labour, the blacke Oxe and the redde Oxe are best, and the browne or greezled Oxe nexte: the white one is worst of all colours." ”

“ They are believed to have originated in reversions or sports according as hornlessness or hornedness is held to have been the older condition. Darwin favoured the latter view: "It is probable that some breeds, such as the semi-monstrous niata cattle, and some peculiarities such as being hornless, etc., have appeared suddenly from what we may call a spontaneous variation," [1] and "No one can give any explanation—although no doubt there must be a cause—of the loss of horns, any more than of the loss of hair, both losses strongly tending to be inherited. ”

“ There being no deception about the colours, it is easy to see how the whity-grey or light dun vanished long ago, and the dun lingered on a while longer, while the hornless masqueraders, a gradually decreasing number, kept the horns bobbing up till comparatively recent times.
The blackish-brown cattle, the "foundlings" as we have called them, the date of whose arrival upon the scene we have been unable to fix, produced brindles with both races—dark brindles with the black natives and light brindles with the Scandinavians. ”

“ Modesty is the duty of a wife, as well as of a virgin: and it is no longer a virtue, than while it continues all of a piece, in thought, word, and deed: for loose words lead naturally to loose actions; and the very provocation to lewdness is within one degree of the thing itself.
Modesty heightens the charms of a woman, and in a more peculiar manner becomes the fair sex. ”

“ Little would be gained, for instance, by telling cattle owners that no British breed, excepting, perhaps, the Sussex, could lay serious claims to purity of blood in a long and unbroken stream, unless it could be shown that the most exalted breeds have attained their present eminence entirely through the mingling of diverse strains and races. ”

“ When the Celtic people retired before the English they carried their cattle along with them into the west and the north; and till this day, the cattle in the Celtic parts of Britain, which are descended from the cattle of the pre-Roman Celts, and through them from the pre-historic Bos longifrons, are predominantly black, and, as we look farther and farther into the past, we find the territory of these black cattle larger, and the regularity of their colour increasing. ”

“ It will be proper, however, before I enter into the refutation of the charges that are alleged, to mark the leading discrimination between the state constitutions, and the constitution of the United States. When the people established the powers of legislation under their separate governments, they invested their representatives with every right and authority which they did not in explicit terms reserve: and therefore upon every question, respecting the jurisdiction of the house of assembly, if the frame of government is silent, the jurisdiction is efficient and complete. ”

“ So far we have dealt with the different races of cattle that have come to Britain according to the order of their arrival. Now we have to deal with a race whose presence in Britain is a puzzle; for not only must we confess ignorance as to the date of its arrival, but even doubt as to whether it ever arrived at all. At the present day, animals of this race have an unpleasant habit of turning up unasked in several breeds, most notably among Highlanders and Longhorns. ”

“ One fact must be borne in mind, namely, that, from the final settling down of the English till the junction of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there was very little movement of cattle or other live stock, with the exception of horses. We may therefore assume that, if a race of cattle is found occupying any particular part of the country about the end of the seventeenth or early in the eighteenth century, it had occupied that same part for nearly a thousand years. ”

“ To me the evidence appears overwhelmingly to prove that the modern park cattle are not wild survivors of the Urus, but are the descendants of a race which had escaped from domestication, and had lived a feral life till they were enclosed in the parks and chases of the mediaeval magnates. ”

“ The colour of the Suffolk cattle may be inferred from a communication of Sir Thomas Beevor's, published in the Bath Society's " Letters and Papers:" "The cows you saw were bred from the polled or horn-less Suffolk dun-coloured cows (than which, for profit, though not for beauty, I think, with the most intelligent Mr. Young, there is not so valuable a breed in England) by a Derbyshire black-and-white bull [6] given me by my friend. ”

“ Shorthorn bulls were introduced and put to all kinds of cows. Often when a Shorthorn bull was mated with a small polled cow, the produce was a black poll of the finest character—immensely superior to either of the parents. ”

“ The State of Pennsylvania particularly, which has encumbered itself with the assumption of a great proportion of the public debt, will derive considerable relief and advantage, for, as it was the imbecility of the present confederation which gave rise to the funding law, that law must naturally expire, when a competent and energetic federal system shall be substituted -- the State will then be discharged from an extraordinary burthen, and the national creditor will find it to be his interest to return to his original security. ”