orrid than those facts, is the cool and _unresentful_ language and
manner in which the facts are usually spoken of. Those who write about the
misery and starvation in Lancashire and Yorkshire, never appear to think
_that any body is to blame_, even when the poor die with hunger. The
Ministers ascribe the calamity to "_over-trading_;" the cotton and cloth
and other master-manufacturers ascribe it to "_a want of paper-money_," or
to the _Corn-Bill_; others ascribe the calamity to the _taxes_. These last
are right; but what have these things to do with the treatment of the
poor? What have these things to do with the horrid facts relative to the
condition and starvation of English people? It is very true, that the
enormous taxes which we pay on account of loans made to carry on the late
unjust wars, on account of a great standing army in time of peace, on
account of pensions, sinecures and grants, and on account of _a Church_,
which, besides, swallows up so large a part of the produce of the land
and the labour; it is very true, that these enormous taxes, co-operating
with the paper-money and its innumerable monopolies; it is very true, that
_these enormous taxes_, thus associated, have produced the ruin in trade,
manufactures and commerce, and have, of course, produced the _low wages_
and the _want of employment_; this is very true; but it is not less true,
that, be wages or employment as they may, the poor are not to perish with
hunger, or with cold, while the rest of the community have food and
raiment more than the latter want for their own sustenance. The LAW OF
ENGLAND says, that there shall be no person to suffer from want of food
and raiment. It has placed _officers_ in every parish to see that no
person suffer from this sort of want; and lest these officers should not
do their duty, _it commands all the magistrates_ to hear the complaints of
the poor, and to compel the officers to do their duty. The LAW OF ENGLAND
has provided ample means of relief for the poor; for, it has authorized
the officers, or overseers, to get from the rich inhabitants of the parish
as much money as _is wanted_ for the purpose, without any limit as to
amount; and, in order that the overseers may have no excuse of inability
to make people pay, the law has armed them with powers of a nature the
most efficacious and the most efficient and most prompt in their
operation. In short, the language of the LAW, to the overseer, is this:
"Take care that