Alfred John Morris

“ The things by which men live should surely be left free as air. Let the ornaments and luxuries of life be taxed, let the comforts and conveniences of life be taxed, but let not the necessaries of life be taxed. The iniquity of such a tax appears from its partiality. At first sight, indeed, it might seem impartial on the very ground that it presses upon all without exception, but it is to be remembered that it does not press upon all equally. Supposing the poor to eat only as much bread as the rich, it is obvious that a law which raises the price of bread affects the poor more than the rich. ”

“ The Corn Law is unjust, not only because it is a tax upon bread, and, as such, presses unequally, and benefits a class at the expense of the nation, but it is a violation of the rights of labour. It is the miserable operation of this law, not only to make food dear, but to diminish the means of obtaining it. It is God's curse upon man, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." ”

“ Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that ye bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him ”

“ When, therefore, we are enjoined to love our neighbour with the same love with which we regard ourselves; to owe no man any thing, but to love one another; to do unto others as we would they should do unto us, we are not to imagine that these precepts relate only to individual action, but should consider them as rules and grounds of national obligation. We have no right, therefore, to pursue the exclusive interest of our own country, even if we could secure it apart from the welfare of other countries. It is not enough that we ask what will promote our own wealth, and honour, and strength ”

“ Are we bound to relieve the poor and not bound to seek the abolition of laws which engender poverty? Is it an imperative obligation to lessen suffering, and not one to prevent it? Is it a duty to support the needy, and not a duty to enable them to support themselves? It is, to say the least, a very mistaken charity which exerts itself to remove a portion of the effect, and that for a time, and does not try to destroy the main cause, and that for ever.
III. The Corn Law is a violation of the obvious intention of the God of heaven and earth. ”

“ Peace abroad is connected with our subject. It is true that the Corn Law is advocated on the ground that if we were dependent upon other nations for bread they might starve us. This is, indeed, to be deaf to all the lessons of history, to pour contempt on the conduct of commercial states in all times, to prefer certain misery to a most improbable and unlikely one, to starve ourselves, lest others starve us, and others, too, whose interest it would be to keep us alive. But the fact is, that the abolition of this law would operate most powerfully in preventing war. ”

“ Why, what a cruel absurdity it seems to talk to a man of intellectual improvement, of cultivating and recreating his mind, when he is ill-housed, ill-clothed, his meals deficient in quantity, and not of a nutritive or stimulating quality, when he has no opportunity for collecting his wandering thoughts, his narrow abode forming no refuge from noise and distraction, his temper incessantly jarred, books not within his reach, or only with difficulty scarcely to be surmounted, and body and soul worn down by carking cares! ”

“ It is easy to sermonize on the blessings of poverty, and to congratulate the poor on their peculiar privileges, but it is mockery. The testimony of all whose experience qualifies them to bear it is, that in proportion to the keenness of want are men unfitted for the exercises of religion. It is vain to attempt spiritually to bless those who are struggling against the horrors of starvation. Poverty may no doubt be sanctified, but to the irreligious it is far more frequently a curse than a blessing. ”

“ Why, to take America alone, there is a country which has the soil and the facilities for raising corn enough to supply almost any demand, and which is willing to give it at a reasonable price in exchange for our goods. What is the plain dictate of these facts? Why, "foster your manufactures, which is your interest, and let America grow corn, which is its interest, but do not foolishly injure both countries by trying to be yourselves, and compelling the other to be, what obviously frustrates the benevolent design of God. ”

“ It may sound as well, as it is easy, to talk of one country—being entirely able to do without the aid and contributions of all other countries, but the heavens and the earth, the history of the world, and, in our own case, the facts of every day and every hour reprove it. We are dependent—we must be dependent. Every thing shows that God intends that we should be. If we look abroad upon the various countries of the earth we discover a great diversity in their resources. All lands are not alike, nor all people. ”

“ What right has any one to come between the labour of the industrious and the food on which they live? The language of multitudes in this distressed land is, "We ask you not to make laws which will give an unnatural value to our labour, but only to destroy laws which take from us the opportunity of availing ourselves of the natural value of our labour; we want not to be kept in idleness, but to be permitted to toil; we pray not that they should eat who will not work, but only that they who wish to work should be allowed to do so, that they may eat. ”

“ They that have power with God have begun to pray about it, and unless the righteous Governer of nations have in store for us judgments of too stern and desolating a nature not to be contemplated without dismay and consternation, "the truth is mighty, and it shall prevail."
May we not be first infatuated and then destroyed! May we not be permitted any longer to cripple the energies with which we are endowed, and refuse the food which is put within our reach, and while in our father's house there is enough and to spare, to "perish with hunger!" ”

“ We have an immense population already, and it is increasing at the rate of a million within less than three years; we have attained to a most important position as a manufacturing nation, and we have the means of attaining to a still more important one. But we cannot grow corn enough for our own consumption, and even the present supply is, to a considerable extent, the fruit of a law which induces men to grow corn on land which was never meant for any such purpose, by granting a protection which cripples our energies and destroys our trade. ”

“ The dearness of provisions and lowness of wages lead to a most pernicious engagement of children in bodily labour at an age which utterly prevents any proper education of their minds. Instead of being sent to school they are sent to the factory; they are labouring when they should be learning; and thus mind and body receive an injury which can never be destroyed.
The effect which poverty directly exerts on morals is bad. If it prevents the filling of the mind with right principles, it supplies temptations which, in their absence, are of the most dangerous kind. ”

“ But in this, as in other cases, human wickedness increases the painfulness of the divine dispensation, and, as has been well remarked, the Corn Law says, "Thou shalt not eat bread in the sweat of thy face." It thus interferes with a right, for labour is a right. God that gives the ability to labour, gives the right to labour. It is a man's own property, as it is the foundation and condition of all property. It is as much a man's own as his limbs, and his senses, and his soul ”

“ Are there no means of conveying or purchasing this corn? The providence of God and the ingenuity of man have made abundant provision for its safe and rapid transferance to our shores, and they that are perishing for want are in possession of that for which it might be obtained. Wherefore, then, the heart-rending and wide-spread misery? It is because men have made a law which practically says, "However rich and plentiful the corn of other countries, it shall not be admitted to our own except for that which we have not to give for it. ”

“ I have thus glanced at some of the moral and religious bearings of that law of our land which relates to the admission of foreign corn, and only at some of them. Time would fail to allude to all. It is a root of all evil. I believe the misery or the mischief cannot be mentioned which does not spring from it in a greater or less degree. And all its fruits are increasing day by day. The already grievous accumulation of national guilt is being augmented while it remains; the ignorance, and vice, and irreligion of the people is being augmented while it remains ”

“ Besides, my religion teaches me charity to the poor. The gospel requires this as a sign and evidence of its operation. Now the poor are deeply interested in the present subject. Believing as I do, sincerely, that the corn law produces more poverty than all other causes put together, excepting, perhaps, drunkenness, how can I evince my charity to the poor, if I do not, in every possible way, seek its utter extinction? Surely, if I feel it a duty to contribute of my property to keep others from starving, it is my duty to endeavour to destroy laws which make them starve ”

“ They met to take deep counsel respecting the laws of God and the miseries of men, to "take the gauge" of human wretchedness, to listen to the voice of nature and religion, to expose the ignorance of foolish men and denounce the injustice of bad ones, to soothe the sorrows of the widow, the fatherless, and the poor, and to utter the resolves and reveal the power of a "faith which worketh by love." ”

“ In such a case the poor are taxed by it far more heavily than the rich; for taxes, like gifts, are to be measured by ability. But the fact is, that the poor consume more bread than the rich. The nature of their occupations requires strength, which can only result from solid and nutritious food, and plenty of that; whereas the rich may have recourse to other and more pleasant, though less nourishing provision.
We have spoken of the Corn Law as a tax, and a tax it is. ”

“ The people of this country might find a ready market for the fruit of their toil in other countries, under a system of fair and righteous legislation. Under the present system, oppressive and injurious as it is, they do export immense quantities of their manufactures, and, under a better, they might export still greater. America and other nations are saying to us, "We want the articles you produce, but we have not money with which to buy them; but we are richly favoured with the means of raising corn, and this we will give in exchange for them, if you will allow us so to do." ”

“ God's will is to be found in nature as well as in the Bible. We may, from the constitution of the human mind and body, from the state and condition of society, from the character and resources of the various countries of the earth, conclude as safely and easily respecting his designs on many subjects, as from the Bible. Now, one fact which nature and providence clearly teach us is this—the mutual dependence of different nations, and the policy and propriety of the intercourse which that dependence suggests. ”

“ Let nations be mutually dependent, and a strong argument would exist against going to war. It is a mistake to suppose that in case of our receiving more corn from abroad in exchange for our manufactures we only should have reason not to quarrel—though this would be something, and a great deal too, for our past history shows that England can originate and promote unnecessary and unjustifiable battles as well as other nations—but those with whom we traded would have reason not to quarrel too. ”

“ The means are not possessed of cultivating benevolence in outward exercises, the pressure of misery checks its flowings forth, and the sense of others' neglect and injustice as its chief cause tends to the restraint of generosity. A cold selfishness is thus generated in hearts which should breathe a free and noble love. Nor is it improbable that the conviction that human wickedness is a main cause of the felt distress should beget hard thoughts, and cherish dispositions of distrust, hatred, and all uncharitableness.
And if you look at religion the case is not relieved. ”

“ It is wrong to steal, without question; but it is too much to suppose that in all cases virtue will be strong enough to refuse so loud a call as starvation. But in other and not less evil ways must the present state of things operate. Multitudes have nothing to do, and idleness is the great nourisher of all iniquity. There is danger of the spirits of men being broken. Self-respect is seriously affected by the necessity of appearing in the world otherwise than as a man likes, or of not appearing at all ”

“ This is God's judgment upon those who pay not for work done; think you he has a less severe judgment for those who prevent the doing of it? The Corn Law deprives the poor of part of their wages by making them pay more than they ought for bread, and to a great extent it hinders their earning of wages at all. ”

“ There is not an oasis in the wilderness. What with actual destitution on the one hand, and the apprehension of it on the other, the prevailing misery is universal and intense. Multitudes are utterly without the most common necessaries of life, and multitudes have but a poor and paltry supply of them. Private charity and legal relief are entirely inadequate to meet the grievous necessity that appears in every quarter. Starvation, literal starvation from want of food, is continually taking place. Children are crying for bread, and there is none ”