Some Things Never Change
English Nursery Rhyme c. 1764
"They hang the man and flog the woman
that steal the goose from off the common,
but let the greater villain loose
that steals the common from the goose.
The law demands that we atone
when we take things we do not own,
but leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine."
This would have been right in the middle of the enforcement of the Bloody Code--a series of extremely harsh laws, mostly involving tangible property, that could leave you hanging from the gallows or "transported". There are recorded cases of people being hanged for stealing a shilling or two.
People in the 18th century would also have known about the clearances, during which time peasant farm laborers were banished from feudal estates so the land could be converted to much less labor-intensive livestock farms...and land formerly open to everyone to gather needed resources from was fenced off and turned into private game parks for the nobility. Thus emerged the figure of the poacher into English mythology.
As I understand it, the Bloody Code was basically the up-and-coming burgher class violently cutting their remaining ties with the working classes...a classic case of "I've got mine now, so screw everyone else."
Good thing Robin Hood was around to take care of things back then! You are right though, some things really never change. The lower class still gets taken advantage of to some degree. It is a vicious cycle it seems. The systemic repression of a specific social class or group...
It kind of feels like a double standard to me. The rich steal from the poor, in the form of land and that's okay. But when the poor tries to hunt on land that was once owned by no one, that's offensive. It just doesn't feel right to me.
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