Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Social problems
Yes, were the Corn-Laws ended tomorrow, there is nothing yet
ended; there is only room made for all manner of things
beginning. The Corn-Laws gone, and Trade made free, it is as
good as certain this paralysis of industry will pass away. We
shall have another period of commercial enterprise, of victory
and prosperity; during which, it is likely, much money will
again be made, and all the people may, by the extant methods,
still for a space of years, be kept alive and physically fed.
The strangling band of Famine will be loosened from our necks;
we shall have room again to breathe; time to bethink ourselves,
to repent and consider! A precious and thrice-precious space of
years; wherein to struggle as for life in reforming our foul
ways; in alleviating, instructing, regulating our people;
seeking, as for life, that something like spiritual food be
imparted them, some real governance and guidance be provided
them! It will be a priceless time. For our new period or
paroxysm of commercial prosperity will and can, on the old
methods of 'Competition and Devil take the hindmost,' prove but a
paroxysm: a new paroxysm,--likely enough, if we do not use it
better, to be our _last._ In this, of itself, is no salvation.
If our Trade in twenty years, 'flourishing' as never Trade
flourished, could double itself; yet then also, by the old
Laissez-faire method, our Population is doubled: we shall
then be as we are, only twice as many of us, twice and ten
times as unmanageable!
All this dire misery, therefore; all this of our poor Workhouse
Workmen, of our Chartisms, Trades-strikes, Corn-Laws, Toryisms,
and the general downbreak of Laissez-faire in these days,--may we
not regard it as a voice from the dumb bosom of Nature, saying to
us: Behold! Supply-and-demand is not the one Law of Nature;
Cash-payment is not the sole nexus of man with man,--how far from
it! Deep, far deeper than Supply-and-demand, are Laws,
Obligations sacred as Man's Life itself: these also, if you will
continue to do work, you shall now learn and obey. He that will
learn them, behold Nature is on his side, he shall yet work and
prosper with noble rewards. He that will not learn them, Nature
is against him; he shall not be able to do work in Nature's
empire,--not in hers. Perpetual mutiny, contention, hatred,
isolation, execration shall wait on his footsteps, till all men
discern that the thing which he attains, however golden it look
or be, is not success, but the want of success.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account