Page:Thoughts on the Corn laws, addressed to the working classes of the county of Gloucester.djvu/9

5 according to the state of the harvest;—and the average price of corn, taking one year with another, for a considerable space of time,—depending upon the expense of growing corn in this country, and the duties imposed upon its importation.

When there comes a cheap year, the labouring classes have more to eat, arid are happy and contented. When there comes a dear year, their condition becomes very miserable; and though in this country none can be said to die of actual starvation, yet the diminution of the quantity, or the deterioration of the quality of their food, facilitates the ravages of disease. A dear year always produces an increase in the average mortality of the country. A very dear year is generally accompanied or followed by some fatal epidemic. Thus a fall in the price of food makes the labouring population happy, contented, and healthy.

Again, a rise in the price of food brings with it intense misery, facilitates the inroads of disease, and hastens the approach of death.

Every poor man remembers with thankfulness an abundant harvest, and looks back with horror to the time of scarcity, and to the ravages of contagious disease that have probably accompanied it. Accursed be the man that does not feel with him—happy when his fellow-creatures are comfortable, and sorry when they are wretched!

I have hitherto been speaking of the fluctuations