Page:The Moral and Religious Bearings of the Corn Law.djvu/13

13 been in an infinitely more pitiable plight than they are now. If the present markets for our manufactures abroad are not kept, and new ones found, the agriculturists must suffer keenly when the thousands of unemployed artizans seek employment and support from the soil; the labourer will suffer from the competition thus created lowering his wages, and the farmer from the increase of poor rates rendered necessary to the bare existence of the people. All are alike interested in the present subject, and let us not forget that every day the case becomes more distressing. The number of mouths to be supplied is being continually augmented, and the means of supply are being continually diminished. It is not at our option what we shall do. We cannot put a check upon population. We cannot reduce it or keep it within any fanciful limits. As its tide pours into our already crowded towns we cannot say, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further." We must open new outlets for our commerce, or we perish; and the Corn Law says, "You shall not."

It is not difficult to discover how God regards the inhuman operation of this law. "He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him; but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it." The Corn Law does, in effect, deprive people of bread, for it not only raises its price, but takes away the power of purchasing it. "Go to, now, ye rich men, and weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." This is God's judgment upon those who pay not for work done; think you he has a less severe judgment for those who prevent the doing of it? The Corn Law deprives the poor of part of