Page:Thoughts on the Corn laws, addressed to the working classes of the county of Gloucester.djvu/28

24 ing, or draining; sheep and cattle upon grass land require very few attendants, so that the farm labourer will find not only his wages lowered, but in very many cases his work taken away from him altogether, with very little chance of getting employment in any other part of the country. A large portion of the present farm labourers would find themselves left with the choice of the workhouse or emigration; for, although the manufactures may now be getting more constant employment, it is very difficult to convert a ploughman into a manufacturer.

But, although the fall in the wages of one description of workmen is sudden, and the other gradual, to a lower scale of wages they must both fall, which, though it will provide them with the same amount of food, will diminish the quantity of comforts that they are able to buy.

This subject has many other important bearings; but I have confined myself to the effects that the taking off the duty upon foreign corn will have upon the labouring population.