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

Tht _Sun.

LONDON :

S ATI/MD.IY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 10, 1842.

Now that the supremacy of the law is fully
pestored, 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
fhel and lodging. The harvest is happily
abundant, and there will be on the whole, in-
- eluding 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
thero 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 done for the people under
favourable auspices?
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 he 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 all
legislation—for even the security, which penal
. laws are supposed to guarantee, is chiefly valu-
able because it enables man to sow and reap in
Peace—but of all human toils, including all the
fine-arts and all trade ; and any legislation which,
"it-our-present condition, does not contemplate
•-•"` ensUring abundance as its great end, is at least
1.24
triihno• and
t” unworthy the attention of a rational
AOd -serious- man. As the law, . however, can
wtherfeed nor clothe the people, what can ?
S ature,-
bounteous, harmonious Nature, in
iliekting the wants treats the means of gratifying
A, them. She unites muscular power with appe-
tite ; 'in her system, the mouth which craves and
the hand whiCh can supply So
go together.
provident is she, that she brings no human being
into the world, as the rule, without preparing its
. food in the bream of the mother fora certain
time beforehand. Where the wants are, there
- exists the power of supplying them,
and conse-
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 o•f
feeding and clothing its subjects. What the
law, in all its supremacy, can not, individuals
49mi ,can do. They can feed and clothe themselves;
'AsastfAhey can procure abundance ; and all they re-
.. (Wire of the law, all which it can accomplish,
ho vever powerful, subtle, and refined, is to pro-
tect individuals while they are feeding and
clothing themselves, or performing some useful
lahour for which they can obtain food and
cZothiiig. -

In fact, so to protnet individuals and give them
• /security, is the prof:lssed object and end of all
(1164 institutions ; but our law, far from keeping
this object in view, far t':"om protecting people in
their honest exertions to procure food and c10th-
.... ing for themselves, absolutely prohibits them
from providing for themse.i.vele Like some great
• camp of prowling Indians, hovering round the
settlement of civilised mon, it henis them in..
.- as its- prey, .and keeps them from expanding:
hit° the neighbouring fields, which invite their.
itricluStry. Of the arts by q Melt man can be
clothed and fed, it is necessarily more ignorant
~..than; are. the Indians of the skill of civilised