The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-10 00:00:00

LONDON:
~ATURDAY MORNING. SEPTEMBER 10, 1842,

Now that the supremacy of the law is fully
reatoredi as we are assured by the Tories, the
question recurs with more force than ever, what
is to be done for the people ? The law will not
feed and clothe them, nor provide them with
fuel and lodging. The harvest is happily
abundant, and there will be on the whole, in-
cluding the quantity of food imported, a greater
quantity this than last year. As yet, however,
no impulse has been given to enterprise. There
may be no great increase of employment, and
there may therefore be a deficiency in the means
of " purchasing food ; but the comparative
abundance will enable the Ministers, and the
Parliament, and the public, to consider the
question, what is to be dune for the people under
favourable anspices?
It being quite clear that the law, however
surpreme and powerful, can neither feed nor
clothe the people ; equally clear that all the offi-
cers and servants of the State, including the all-
powerful soldiery and police, are fed and
clothed by the industrious people ; and equally
clear that the landlords live on the produce of
other men's labour, and can provide nothing for
them; the question recurs with as great urgency
as ever, notwithstanding the triumph of land-
lords, of the soldiery, and the law, how are
the people to be amply fed, comfortably
lodged, and warmly clothed ? The Corn-law
will not effect this, the importation, of cattle
will not effect it, the alteration in the timber
and coffee duties will not effect it. What will?
It.requires no evidence to prove that at present
a great number of the people are inadequately
fed, very poorly clothed, and very unwhole-
soMely lodged. It requires, too, no evidence to
prove, that though badly fed, lodged, and clothed,
they increase in number, competing with one
another for what they can get, so that a still
greater proportion of the whole society will
become badly clothed, lodged, and fed, and the
Whole be deteriorated, unless an abundance of food,
clothing, and comfortable houses be provided.
After all that can be said or written,
to provide individuals and society with abund-
ance is the main end and object, not only of du
legislation—for even the security, which penal
laws are supposed to (ruarantee, is chiefly valu-
able because it enables man to sow and reap in
peace—but of all human toils, including all the
tine arts and all trade ; and any legislation which,
in our present condition, does not contemplate
ensuring abundance as its great end, is at least
trifling, and unworthy the attention of a rational
and serious man. As the law, however, can
neither feed nor clothe the People, what can ?
Nature, bounteous, harmonious Nature, in
creating the wants creats the means of gratifying
them. She unites muscular power With ap
pe
tite ; in her System, the mouth which cravesa d-
the hand which can supply, go together. So
provident is she, that she brings no human being
into the world, as the rule, without preparing it;
focd in the breast of the mother for a certain
time beforehand. Where the wants are, there
exists the power of supplying them, and come-
quently it is the duty of every man to feed and
clothe himself. As the rule, too, he does it; and
no State has yet taken on itself the duty of
feeding and clothing its subjects. What the
law, in all its supremacy, can not, individuals
can du. They can teed and clothe themselves;
they can procure abundance ; and all they re-
quire of the law, all which it can accomplish,
however powerful, subtle, and refined, is to pro-
tect individuals while they are feeding and
clothing themselves, or performing some useful
labour for which they can obtain food and
clothing.

In fact, so to protect individuals and give them
security, is the professed object and end of all
gorial institutions ; but our law, far from keeping
this object in view, far from protecting people iu
theft' honest exertions to procure food and cloth-
iUg fin' themselves, absolutely. _prohibits them
from providing for themselves. Like some great
&imp of prowling 4idians, hovering. round the
settlement of civilised men, it hems -thew in

cl!
„
- Mfr• •
-z` •
c, ; pi, 0, -1417
?.1%- 4.41.1:;0P •

Ztt