The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1844-07-04
THE POOR or ENGLAND.

| ~NN 'AS" NiO CIy ulCuu
Rings through the lordly hall,
The Mother by hel famished dead
Weaves for herself the pail
l! is true, and should not be forgotten,
that our ancestors of the olGen time suffer-
ed sharply from occasional dearth, or
from scarcity caused from improvident
consumption. Yet these were the excep-
tons, not the rule. And they cannot in
validate the direct proofs adduced, that, in
the wealthiest and one OF the most pros
porous nations of the civilized world, the
re'oard Of labor to the producer of wealth
has, as general rule, for five centuries
past, been gradually diminishing t'om
age 10 age. 1t has at last sunk down to
a point, at which, to employ the words of
the Westminster Review, there is not a
step, but simply hands breadth, between
the condition of the agricultural laborer
and pauperism.' Comfort has disappear
ed. Famine watches by the door, The
peasant feeds his family on potatoes and
salt, with a little bread and lard, and
miserable dole of scalded milk. lnces.
SAINT labor keeps his head just above the
rising waves of indulgence; and at the first
trining accident, these close and over
whelm him. For the thousand casualties
of life, there is not the scautiest provision.
The indisposition of day curtail the
meager rations dealt out around his board;
and the sickness OF a week threatens with
starvation his wife and her little ones.
The recognition of this terrible truth is
the first step in the approach to the state
ment of the Problem we refer TO. A civ
ijzed nation cannot afford bread and meat
10 the men who produce these And
what nation? a nation restricted indeed,
in her territory at home, yet possessed of
colonies and dependencies, some of vast
extent, in every part ofthe habitable globe;
a nation whose proud boast it is, that the
sun never sets on her island flag ma.
ton proverbial for an industry that never
tires, vigilance that never sleeps, an en-
ergy and an enterprise that have carried
her arms and her commerce to the far
thest ends of the earth. That nation
which now looks on and declares that she
cannot rescue her own peasantry from
famine, maintained, not half century
since, a triumphant war against the Ce.
sar of modern times, with half Europe at
his back; poured forth for ten successive
years, men and treasure with pro(usion
that COMPOUNDED her enemies, and aston
ished herself; and rising in strength and
resources with the occasion, obtained from
her own subjects alone, without an effort,
in the very last year of that proracted
struggle, sum so vast, that it would pur-
chase, out and out, the fee simple of some
half dozen among the States that com.
pose our own Confederacy. 1t is in the
favortc abode of ait and practical science,
in the land where Wau and Arhwright,
and Bolton, first furnished nanimate slaves
TO mankind it is there, where the magic.
al machinery of the age more than real
ICES the story of Alladn's tabled lamp.
and gorges, at its masters bidding, one at. |
ter another, the markets of the civilized |
world it is there, in the very midst of
superabundance, with complaints of over
production daily ringing in their ears,
that thousands and tens of thousands, |
among those who create these countless
riches, are denied the means to procure
the coarsest clothing against the wintry |
blast, or a single blanket to cover the
rude straw bed on which their weary |
limbs repose