derstand things a little better than | without first finding the place of Ricardo; but this is not the sort irruption? of drain that we want: this is a drain of labour; a drain of capital; a drain of goods and chattels; not a drain of paupers, but of the means of maintaining paupers. In my leave-taking address I said, that farmers would quit the country. I said, that, with such a country as this open to them, they never could remain to pay the poor-rates and the taxes in England. I said, that their removal would add to the miseries of the mass; would lessen the means of paying taxes; would enfeeble the nation. All these things are going on in full swing; and go on they will and must, until the paper-swindle be completely abolished. see. It is in this case, as in all the others, the remedy-makers proceed without appearing to see the cause. There is a great cause at work, which they never appear to Has it ever happened to any rational man, when he found any thing amiss in any of his affairs, not to inquire into the cause before he proceeded to the invention of a remedy? If a man find his carriage or horses to go amiss, does he not look about the wheels, the axletrees, the harness? If he find his bed wet from rain, does bé not go and make diligent search after the leaky place? If he find any thing unusual, does he not inquire into the cause? Did ever man 'set about keeping back the overflowing of a danı, The idleness of the poor; the ale-houses; the love of ardent spirits; the mismanagement of parish-officers; the giving of poorrates instead of wages: all sorts of things are found out except the true thing. The natural disposition must be the same that it always was. The ale-houses and the habit of drinking have always existed. Parish-officers have always been the same sort of men, And, as to the giving of relief instead of wages, it is only a mode of paying the single man less than he ought to receive. None of these, then, are the causes. Yet, you hear the Borough-ruffians exclaiming against the whole system of the poor laws; against the principle of them: and they want a radical change of those laws. In my petition, which I requested Lord Folkestone to present, and which his Lordship refused to present on account, solely, of its being too long, I clearly, though in few words, stated the real cause; and I am vain enough to think, that that petition contained more sound political philosophy, than is contained in all the skulls of all the Lords in England. But, upon subjects of this kind weneed not fear to repeat. They never can be made too clear; and, what is published to-day may be read by many, who have not read what was published before. If I am asked whether I look .: upón such or such a nation to be in a state of prosperity; I ask, whether the labouring classes be, out of their honest earnings, well fed and well clad. Shift the matter how we will, there is no other criterion. Society ought not to exist, if not for the benefit of the whole. It is and must be against the law of nature, if it exist for the benefit of the few and for the misery of the many. I say, then, distinctly, that a society, in which the common labourer, with common health and strength and with economy and sobriety and industry and good morals and good manners, cannot secure sufficiency of food and raiment, is a society which ought not to exist; a society contrary to the law of nature; a society, whose compact is dissolved. a With our vagabonds, we have no need to enter into any detail of complaint. We know, that the people of England, rich (generally) as well as poor, are in such a state that as many as conveniently can, are fleeing from their native land. We know, that the most industrious, the most careful, the most provident, are taking this course. We know those facts, and knowing them, what need we of more to convince us, that the manner of managing the nation's concerns has been bad? Then, if we ask, was this ever the case before? The answer is in the negative. Hence it follows, that the management of the nation's affairs must have been worse latterly than at any former period. And, in order to justify us in demanding a change, what need have we of more than this? Yet, if we say that all is not right; if we call for a change; that moment do the vagabonds fall upon us, and destroy us, if they can. 'They call us Jacobins; they call us traitors; they call for our blood, and they do their best to get at it. The real cause of the miseries of the labouring classes consists of two things: the taxes and the paper-money: : and these causes are continually co-operating. That the cause cannot be in the poorlaws themselves is clear. Because they have existed three hundred years, without producing any such effect; and because, they have existed in America from its Yet, first settlement, without ever having produced any such effect. The poor-laws of England, as they existed forty or fifty years ago, are in full force here. they have not produced such effects. We have really no poorrates here; for a penny in the pound upon rentsis really nothing. The great cities, which are overrun with unfortunate foreigners from all parts of the world, and, which is worse, with dissolute blacks, have a good deal to pay for the poor; but, then, these poor will touch no victuals, that a man of property in England would refuse to eat. Now, though these facts as to the non-effects of the poor-laws, though it be not positive proof, is proof quite satisfactory, that the present situation of the poor in England does not arise out of any defect in the nature of the poor-law system. Besides, if we look at countries, where there are no poor-laws; do we find, that no misery exists there. Ireland, for instance, is a nation of beggars and of ragged people. Stop at an Inn Door in France, and you are assailed by a regiment of beggars, who din you with their importunities and cover you with their lice. This is what ought not to be in any country. The law ought to provide, that no person shall be in want of the means of existence, This is provided by the laws of England and by the laws of Ame rica. The real cause of pauperism is this: that that which those who labour ouglit to have to live on is taken from them, and given to those who do not labour: A tax, be it to what amount it may, is so much taken away from soine persons and given to others. It is a deduction from the dinner of one, to make an addition to the dinner of another. Soldiers, for instance, are purely consumers of the labour of others; or, rather, of the fruits of those labours. For, suppose a community of ten persons. They are all engaged in labour of some kind or other, useful to each other. The shoemaker, for instance, is as useful to the community as the ploughman, or the miller; because, though he neither raises, nor dresses, he corn, he provides a covering for the feet of those who do raise and dress it. So of the carpenter, who builds houses for the ploughman and the miller to live in. From the earth comes every thing that we eat, drink, and wear. The earth is the source of all the necessaries of life: of all that man wants. He who does nothing to make the earth produce, either directly or indirectly, must eat and drink and wear to the loss of those who labour. It is, then, clear as day. light, that the greater the number of the idle, the greater the suffering of some part, at least, of all those who are compelled to la bour. If, in the society of ten persons, one do nothing but eat, drink and wear, at the expence of the common stock; it is evident, that the other must be the poorer for this: that is to say, that they must have less than they otherwise would have to eat, drink and wear. Now, how many hundreds of thousands are maintained in idleness by the taxes! These all go to feed idlers, except the part which is absolutely necessary to support a necessary authority and power in the government; for good, that is to say, necessary, government, aids those who la bour. Whence comes want of employment? Not because the farmer, for instance, does not wish to employ people; not because he has no work that wants to be done; but because he has not money to pay the labourer; or, to speak in better words, has not wheat to give in exchange for labour enough to keep the usual number of labourers employed. Suppose, for instance, farmer GRIPUM to have annually, upon an average a thousand quarters of corn; and that corn is his only produce. He has three hundred to give in rent. He has three hundred to give in labour and tackle. He has fifty to give in taxes. And the other three hundred and fifty he has to consume and to pay the interest of his capital. Suppose, that this is doing very well. But, that, the next year, five hundred quarters are taken away in taxes. Then there are three hundred for rent; and only two hundred left for labour and all the rest. Is it not 1 1 clear, that GRIPUM cannot employ nearly half as many men as he employed before? Aye, but those who receive the taxes; that is to say, the six hundred bushels of wheat, do not eat themselves. No: but, they waste a great deal, and they give a great part of the rest to persons who, though they Labour, and may labour hard too, do nothing that, in any way, tends to produce useful things; or, to give security to the useful things created by others. But, it is said, that taxes return. Yes, if they be earned again. And in no other possible way, unless they, in the shape of pensions, sinecures and grants, be given back to those who pay them; as they are, with large interest, paid, or rather, taken back, by our Boroughmongers. This is the cause of poverty, pauperism and starvation. This cause may be, in certain cases, greatly aided by the operations of a paper-money; but, taxation, even without a paper-money, will do the business very effectually. If any proofs, further than the reason of the thing itself, were wanted, that taxation is the great cause of regularly existing pauperism, such proofs would be amply afforded in the facts, that the poor-rates have kept on, upon an average of seasons, regularly increasing with the demands of the odious and detestable tax-gatherer; and that, in this country, where the poor-laws have always existed, and where taxes, properly so called, are almost unkuown, the increase has been merely in proportion to the increase of the population; and that, at this time, take America as a whole, there is not one single pauper to every hundred persons. If, then, taxation be the main cause of pauperism, how is the effect to be done away without removing the taxation? And what is the real worth of any, or of all, of the pitiful and spiteful measures? These measures are all, if you examine them closely, penal measures; measures of punishment; measures to pinch the poor; to make them work and to contract their meals. There is no measure of this kind that can produce, by any possibility, any effect of a salutary nature. Nor can the wheedling measures, the Savings Banks, Parish Funds, and Friendly Societies, answer, upon the whole, any useful purpose; and, indeed, is it not monstrous, to talk of collecting funds from the surplus of a nation of paupers ? I have, as I said before, not the smallest doubt, that the project of the insolent MALTHUS was intended for us. It could not have been carried into complete execution; but, it was certainly intended, and, in my opinion, would have been attempted, if I had not rendered it so odious to the nation. I do not know, that I did good by this exposure. Lought, perhaps, to have waited, 'till the hole-digging assembly had tried their hand at the thing. But at any rate, the people will take the will for the deed, and will detest the Boroughmongers for their intentions, and will, I hope, act, one of these days, upon the ground of that just de testation. I am always, my dear Hunt, your faithful friend, and most obe. dient servant, WM. COBBETT. P.S. I have this minute, or, within this hour, received the newspapers up to 28th of May. There is a great chasm in my papers; but, I have the debate of pressed, a discontented, and justly "Lower Orders." the House of Borough Gentlemen | be famed for her greatness and her and Shoy-Hoys on the Resolutions, freedom. With this system of moved by MR. PEEL, relative to sway; with a burdened, an op the Bank paying in bullion. Of course, my good fellow, I know the situation of things well. In my letter to the Stockport Reformers, written here on the 20th of December, and published in England on the 20th of February, I said that the Borough-ruffians would be hard pushed this time. I said, that, something they must do, I said, that it was impossible for the Borough-mongers to avoid doing something; I said, that they could do nothing without reducing the interest of the debt; and, that, if they did that, only in a trifling degree, I would "strike my tent, "and be off at once." They have done this; or, at least, they have resolved to do it. Therefore, I shall strike my tent, and, most curious it is, that an accident by fire, should have put me into a real tent! However, I am not going to strike my tent till the fall. I shall be with you long before the dens assemble again; unless they he frightened together sooner than usual. I see to the bottom of the abyss, into which they are falling; or, rather, plunging themselves. I see precisely the point, to which their projects tend. My good fellows, they are a rabble, a veritable rabble. They talk of Lower Orders, indeed! They are the real Lower Orders. It is we and our adherents, who discover skill, knowledge, talent, and love of country; and we will let the ruffians see, very shortly, who it is, that the nation will confide in. If these fellows had the sway for five years, England would be the most despicable and most despised nation upon the face of the earth. She will not be such: She will recover herself: She will always In case of any great trouble of the system, I most anxiously hope, that the people will have no de signs of destroying the form of the government. I never knew any man, worth a straw, that had any such design. As I have said many times, there is no telling what may become necessary, in order to obtain our rights; that is to say, our right to live and to have a belly full, and our right to live, as long as we are not criminal, out of dungeons. But, my wish is, that nothing may be necessary beyond the things mentioned in my last winter's letter to the Prince Regent; and those things I know to be necessary. Let us stick to our text. "Reform, and nothing "but Reform." If we diverge from this: if we get into new doctrines and new projects, we shall ruin England; we shall break England up; and my good friend, no man knows what England really is, 'till he is no longer in it. Let us not run about a government hunting. Let us guard against this rock, and all will be safe. In a future Register, to be addressed to another person, I shall fully comment on the debate, and, of course, shall notice the PETI 1. < 1 |