Page:Speech of the Rev. T. Spencer, of Bath, delivered at the meeting of the Anti-Corn-Law League.pdf/15

7 then, in breaking these yokes, and undoing the heavy burdens, that true religion consists. I have also found a description in another part of the present state of affairs quite to a nicety. The prophet might almost have lived in England when the people's property was taken from them, not by an open tax which they could understand, not by an income-tax which they could estimate, but indirectly by a tax upon the necessaries of life, which they pay when buying their tea and sugar, giving 7d. instead of 3d, paying a tax to monopoly at the very time when they are paying also for bread. It is in these days when the people are paying taxes on whatever they eat, on whatever they drink, and on whatever they are clothed in—it is to this that the description which I am about to read particularly applies. At a time when a great part of the people are poor, and many men do not know how to keep their heads above water—whilst a few are getting enormously rich, because they do not pay their fair share of the burdens of the state—to such persons the description applies. This is the description:—" Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Consider your ways; ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye have drunk; but ye are not filled with drink; ye are clothed, but ye are not warm; and he that earneth wages earneth them to put them into a bag with holes." This is exactly the case in the present day. (Cheers.) The Chancellor of the Exchequer has made so many holes in the bags in which the people's wages are put, that a man has no means of keeping his money. (Cheers and laughter.) Now, after this description of the state of England at this very time, the advice is again repeated, which I will repeat again to you:—"Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Consider your ways." (Cheers.)

It is because the people do not think—because they do not consider—that such a state of things exists. I am of opinion that a wise and understanding people cannot be badly governed. (Hear.) There can be no tyranny where there are free souls and free spirits. (Cheers.) There cannot be bad laws over a wise people, because you cannot bribe a virtuous man, nor make drunk at an election a sober man (cheers), nor can you intimidate a noble-minded man; and, therefore, I say it is partly the fault of the people that the laws are such, and the taxes as heavy as they are. Therefore, the reform must be with the people. (Loud cheers.) There must be a change, and a new understanding must result from enlightening them more; there must be a greater generosity of heart exhibited by every man whilst seeking wisely his own interest, at the same time not injuring the interest of any other man. (Cheers.) There is only one objection to this system not being adopted in this country, and that I will now touch upon.

I am aware that there is a treat in reserve for this audience, and therefore I will not trespass much longer on your time. (Cheers, and cries of "Go on.") Whereever I go, and have talked with farmers and with persons who have stumbled on the subject of the Corn-laws, I find one of the greatest difficulties to be on the subject of the National Debt. "It might be," they say, "very fair if all countries were alike and all equally taxed; but it is impossible for the farmer, with this national debt upon his land, to compete with countries that have no national debt." Now, I say, in the first place, that it is rather a hard thing in the landed interest, for the sake of their wars to defend their own estates, to incur this national debt, and then to use it as an argument against the people to oppress them still more. (Cheers.) It is, however, no argument at all in favour of protection, but rather, in my opinion, an argument upon the other side. Suppose you take two men keeping shops—one in trade with a mortgage on his property, and the other free from any such encumbrance. The man who had the mortgage could not go to the corporation and say, "You must allow me the privilege of monopoly and give me greater prices, because I am not so unencumbered as the other man/' No; he would not be allowed to do so. But what he ought to do would be to try to undersell, or rather to oversell, his competitor, by obtaining more custom, and so pay off his mortgage and clear his estate. Some towns in England have, by means of their corporations, got into debt; but is a town with a heavy debt to say, "You must protect us and allow us privileges not possessed by other towns, because we have