Their effects are only a little earthen-ware, and their houses only a handful of straw, the sale of a thousand of which would not perhaps produce twenty shillings.
Edmund Burke: “Their effects are only a little earthen-ware, and their houses only a handful of straw, the sale of a thousand of which…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke describes the dire living conditions of the impoverished farmers, emphasizing their lack of resources.
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More from Edmund Burke
Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.
They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.
Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.
Not being illuminated with the light of which the gentlemen of France tell us they have got so abundant a share, they acted under a strong impression of the ignorance and fallibility of mankind.





