MFSS MARTINEAU AND THK MULTITUDE. 61 



The parental government, held, instituted, and delegated by God 

 himself, is perfect, and could only emanate from divinity, associating 

 as it does the most benevolent regard for the individual, with the most 

 intelligent provision for his necessities. In the delegation of this go- 

 vernment to man, it has of necessity, been split into parts ; the 

 world must be divided into states, as states are into families ; but 

 throughout all these, from the Omnipotent to the poorest parent, the 

 being produced by the immutable law of nature, has a claim for pro- 

 tection and provision. Infinite Wisdom has gifted every being (ex- 

 cepting under circumstances of casual calamity) with capabilities for 

 usefulness has so constituted the world that it can give, and must 

 require the exercise of these capabilities ; thus it is the duty of the 

 state and the parent to make such arrangements, that every being, 

 by care arid education, may be fitted for utility, and by giving him, 

 in due time, employment, bring that utility into beneficial exercise. 

 By such arrangements every being born into a state becomes a bless- 

 ing to it, without them, a brand upon, and a burden to it. 



When man was created, God said, " Be fruitful and multiply, and 

 replenish the earth and subdue it." Where in this do we recognize 

 the restrictive clause of the Political Economist? The divine words 

 contain a direct injunction to fulfil a natural law, to meet the conse- 

 quences of which, the world, as an ample provision, had previously 

 been created. Does Miss Martineau mean to assert that the Creator 

 made a mistake, which she and the other Political Economists have 

 wisdom enough to rectify ? Is the earth " subdued," or, in other 

 words, exhausted? Not while there is an acre of productive land 

 over which the plough has yet to pass, or while labour and ingenuity 

 has a field of industry and discovery yet to explore. And what 

 check would Miss Martineau deem sufficient to meet the progress of 

 machinery ? a power in itself equivalent to the increase of millions. 

 How many out of every thousand of the poor would she permit to 

 marry, and of these elect at what age ? 



Political Economy appears to be a science devoted to ascertain un- 

 der how much privation humanity may suffer, and yet exist. A few 

 years ago, a pig fell down the cliffs at Dover, and after a lapse of 

 nine weeks was discovered to be alive, having subsisted by licking 

 the chalk. Were pig-owners like Political Economists, they would 

 have made this fact a precedent for regulating the future economy of 

 the sty, and have confiraed " the swinish multitude " to such fare. 



In all the theories of social life, labour is held to be a salutary and 

 essential necessity of human existence. How is it held in practice ? 

 As the rich man's bane, as the poor man's boon. If a whole life of 

 uninterrupted toil procure the latter the commonest and coarsest ne- 

 cessaries of life, he is thought to have nothing of which to complain, 

 nay much at which to rejoice ; though he has thus only leisure for 

 the sleep necessary to recruit his bodily strength, none for that pro- 

 gressive improvement which from birth to death ought to be in the 

 power of every sentient creature. This is not enough, but the unpi- 

 tying Political Economist steps in, and forbids the banns of th#t 

 union that is the decree of God, and the conservation of man. 



Marriage makes a very different item in the poor and the rich 



