ht of Fact,--which it is so
perilous not to keep forever in sight! Fact, if we do not see
it, will make us _feel_ it by and by!--From much loud controversy
and Corn-Law debating there rises, loud though inarticulate, once
more in these years, this very question among others, Who made
the Land of England? Who made it, this respectable English Land,
wheat-growing, metalliferous, carboniferous, which will let
readily hand over head for seventy millions or upwards, as it
here lies: who did make it?--"We!" answer the much-_consuming_
Aristocracy; "We!" as they ride in, moist with the sweat of
Melton Mowbray: "It is we that made it; or are the heirs,
assigns and representatives of those who did!"--My brothers, You?
Everlasting honour to you, then; and Corn-Laws as many as you
will, till your own deep stomachs cry Enough, or some voice of
human pity for our famine bids you Hold! Ye are as gods, that
can create soil. Soil-creating gods there is no withstanding.
They have the might to sell wheat at what price they list; and
the right, to all lengths, and famine-lengths,--if they be
pitiless infernal gods! Celestial gods, I think, would stop
short of the famine-price; but no infernal nor any kind of god
can be bidden stop!--Infatuated mortals, into what questions are
you driving every thinking man in England?

I say, you did _not_ make the Land of England; and, by the
possession of it, you _are_ bound to furnish guidance and
governance to England! That is the law of your position on this
God's-Earth; an everlasting act of Heaven's Parliament, not
repealable in St. Stephen's or elsewhere! True government and
guidance; not no-government and Laissez-faire; how much less,
misgovernment and Corn-Law! There is not an imprisoned Worker
looking out from these Bastilles but appeals, very audibly in
Heaven's High Courts, against you, and me, and every one who is
not imprisoned, "Why am I here?" His appeal is audible in
Heaven; and will become audible enough on Earth too, if it
remain unheeded here. His appeal is against you, foremost of
all; you stand in the front-rank of the accused; you, by the
very place you hold, have first of all to answer him and Heaven!

What looks maddest, miserablest in these mad and miserable Corn-
Laws is independent altogether of their 'effect on wages,' their
effect on 'increase of trade,' or any other such effect: it is
the continual maddening proof they protrude into the faces o