CHAPTER VI.

Effects of the knowledge of the principal cause of poverty on Civil Liberty.

IT may appear, perhaps, that a doctrine which attributes the greatest part of the sufferings of the lower classes of society exclusively to themselves, is unfavorable to the cause of liberty, as affording a tempting opportunity to governments of oppressing their subjects at pleasure, and laying the whole blame on the laws of nature and the imprudence of the poor. We are not however to trust to first appearances; and I am strongly disposed to believe that those who will be at the pains to consider this subject deeply will be convinced, that nothing would so powerfully contribute to the advancement of rational freedom, as a thorough knowledge generally circulated of the principal cause of poverty; and that the ignorance of this cause, and the natural consequences of this ignorance form at present one of the chief obstacles to its progress.

Effects of the knowledge of

The pressure of distress on the lower classes of people, with the habit of attributing this distress to their rulers, appears to me to be the rock of defence, the castle, the guardi in spirit of despotism. It affords to the tyrant the fatal and unanswerable plea of necessity. It is the reason that every free government tends constantly to its destruction; and that its appointed guardians become daily less jealous of the encroachments of power. It is the reason that so many noble efforts in the cause of freedom have failed, and that almost every revolution, after long and painful sacrifices, has terminated in a military despotism. While any dissatisfied man of talents has power to persuade the lower classes of people that all their poverty and distress arise solely from the iniquity of the govern ment, though perhaps the greatest part of what they suffer is unconnected with this cause, it is evident that the seeds of fresh discontents and fresh revolutions are continually sowing. When an established government has been destroyed, finding that their poverty is not removed, their resentment naturally falls upon the successors to power; and when these have been immolated without producing the desired effect, other sacrifices are called

the principal cause of poverty, &c.

for, and so on without end. Are we to be surprised, that under such circumstances, the majority of well disposed people, finding that a government with proper restrictions was unable to support itself against the revolutionary spirit, and weary and exhausted with perpetual change to which they could see no end, should give up the struggle in despair, and throw themselves into the arms of the first power which could afford them protection against the horrors of anarchy.

A mob, which is generally the growth of a redundant population goaded by resentment for real sufferings, but totally ignorant of the quarter from which they originate, is of all monsters the most fatal to freedom. It fosters a prevailing tyranny, and engenders one where it was not; and though, in its dreadful fits of resentment, it appears occa. sionally to devour its unsightly offspring; yet no sooner is the horrid deed committed, than however unwilling it may be to propogate such a breed, it immediately groans with a new birth.

Of the tendency of mobs to produce tyranny, we may not be long without an example in this country. As a friend to freedom, and naturally an enemy to large standing armies, it is with exvol. ii. bb b

Effects of the knowledge of

treme reluctance that I am compelled to acknowledge, that had it not been for the great organized force in the country, the distresses of the people during the late scarcities, encouraged by the extreme ignorance and folly of many among the higher classes, might have driven them to commit the most dreadful outrages, and ultimately to involve the country in all the horrors of famine. Should such periods often recur, a recurrence which we have too much reason to apprehend from the present state of the country, the prospect which opens to our view is melancholy in the extreme. The English constitution will be seen hastening with rapid strides to the Euthanasia foretold by Hume, unless its progress be interrupted by some popular commotion; and this alternative presents a picture still more appalling to the imagination. If political discontents were blended with the cries of hunger, and a revolution were to take place by the instrumentality of a mob clamoring for want of food, the consequences would be unceasing change and unceasing carnage, the bloody career of which nothing but the establishment of some complete despotism could arrest.

We can scarcely believe that the appointed guar

the principal cause of poverty, &c.

dians of British liberty should quietly have acquiesced in those gradual encroachments of power, which have taken place of late years, but from the apprehension of these still more dreadful evils. Great as has been the influence of corruption, I cannot yet think so meanly of the country gentlemen of England as to believe that they would thus have given up a part of their birthright of liberty, if they had not been actuated by a real and genuine fear, that it was then in greater danger from the people than from the crown. They ap peared to surrender themselves to government on condition of being protected from the mob; but they never would have made this melancholy and disheartening surrender, if such a mob had not existed either in reality or in imagination. That the fears on this subject were artfully exaggered and increased beyond the limits of just apprehension is undeniable; but I think it is also undeniable, that the frequent declamation which was heard against the unjust institutions of society, and the delusive arguments on equality which were circulated among the lower classes, gave us just reason to suppose that if the vox populi had been allowed to speak it would have appeared to be the voice of error and absurdity, instead of the vox Dei.