1888] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



For the Farmers' Register. 



THE LAWS OF SrUSISTKKCE AND OCCUPA- 

 TION CONSIDERED, IN KELATION TO THE 

 AGRICULTUUAL I31PKO VE3IENT AND GENE- 

 RAL WELFARE OF THE COUNTRY. 



Of all the errors, (and there are many and 

 grievous ones,) in the present system of political 

 economy, there is none so fireal, and utterly liilla- 

 cious and mischievous, as that of viewinjj manua' 



the power and means of ihe produclioi! of food, are 

 in e.xact |)roportion to the nature and extent of 

 consumption; the true law of the produciion of 

 Ibod, beincr in exact accordance wiih the law of 

 maiVs legitimate swhsisience. That il'he suhsisis 

 upon bread or potatoes, or rice or hon)iiiy, or ani- 

 mal (bod alone, wliich nature did not Ibirn him to 

 do, just so are his means of procurint^ suh.'^istence 

 curtailed, with increase of population; but as he 

 subsists upon animal and vejxeiable food in certain 



operative /i«?7io/i labor, as a mere dead or barter proportions, and upon all their varieties, as he was 



commodity; as if its compensation, value and de 

 mand, were merely regulated and required only 

 by the wants of the few rich; as Wits consumption, 

 alihouirh forming the7?ias?of mankind, had noth- 

 ing whatever to do with the means, power and 

 purpose of all human exertion and industrj', exis- 

 tence and subsistence: just as if the few rich choose 

 lo demand it — very well; and if they do not, it must 

 eutier and abide !I! and the rich receive no injury 1 ! 

 In thus considering that three-fburthsof mankind, 

 and more, are not men>, nothing can morelamenlahly 

 show the withering, blasting effects of aristocratic 

 feelings and principles; for this is the fbundation ol 

 it all. The earth was created for the use of mart, 

 without any regard to any distinctions of wealth or 

 poverty, manual or intellectual labor, size or color. 

 In one respect, all are upon a perfect equality — 

 the stomach; as this is filled, so are nations pros- 

 perous and advancing, or poor and declining. li 

 the rich man has his venison, turtle, canvass-back 

 ducks, wood-cock and asparagus, the operative 

 must have, and with equal if not superior enjoy- 

 ment, his fat beel", pork and mutton, bread, cab- 

 bage and potatoes. No individual can be cheat- 

 ed out of and deprived of his natural rifjhts, with- 

 out a corresponding loss to all. Feed the mass 

 upon rice, Indian corn, potatoes and dry bread, 

 and what is the result? — the utter stagnation of ag- 

 riculture; no flocks and herds to maintain, create 

 and increase the fertility of the soil, and with the 

 consequent due economy; no price, for there is no 

 demand to justify improvement, no means to ac- 

 complish it; all is stagnant and dead, destructive 

 and impoverishing. If agriculture is drooping and 

 dead, what profession is alive and flourishing? 

 None. Agriculture is the fbundation of all pros- 

 perity, and its prosperity depends upon all men be- 

 ing aible to subsist according to the natural law of 

 subsistence. Set the people to work according to 

 the law of occupation, that is, every one being 

 employed according to his natural taste, capacitj'^, 

 and power, and then all will have the means of 

 legitimate subsistence; food will then be produced 

 -according to the law of man's subsistence, and the 

 consequent and attendant true principles of agri- 

 culture, and all will flourish together; deficiency of 

 food and excess of population^ will then be things 

 to be talked of as occurrences gone by. Yet po- 

 litical economists seem to consider low wages and 

 excess of population, as evils of the people's own 

 making, and of which they alone arethe suflerers; 

 and hence the Rlalthusian theory of ''moral re- 

 straint," for their exclusive practice and benefit ! 

 How ignorant was the founder of that wretched 

 system of the true system of the laws of the occu- 

 pation and subsistence of man, and of the produc- 

 tion of his fbod ! 



Niching is plainer and more obvious, to me at 

 least, (and the world will understand it too. bv 



obviously organized to do, exactly and duly, so are 

 the power and means of increasing his means of 

 subsistence, with increase of [topulaiion. 



This is certainly a more comfortable doctrine 

 than that of Malthus; that most hideous, blasphe- 

 mous and atheistical of all theories ever broached 

 by iiinorant man; but not intentionally so; but it is 

 founded upon the most consummate ignorance of 

 first principles, and utter ignorance of any know- 

 ledge whatever of agriculture, grafted upon nar- 

 row, exclusive, aristocratic habits, actions and 

 principles of thinking. Audacious and jiresump- 

 tuousman! profes.ging, too, to be a teacher and 

 fbllovver of the doctrines of him "who condescend- 

 ed to assume the garb of a Galilean peasant;" did 

 yon believe that all this world's productions were 

 made exclusively Ibr the few, and not for manJ 

 Did you believe that the producers of them were 

 only to have a nsere existence? although the 

 physical organization of all is identically the same 

 as to subsistence. Did you discover any differ- 

 ence between the teeth, palate and stomach of the 

 noble, the country-gentleman, the rich merchant, 

 and the mechanic or cultivator of the soil.? No; 

 they are all in this respect the same. The rich' 

 man may have his beef, mutton and pork — veni- 

 son, turtle and wood-cock — bread, potatoes and 

 cauliflower, &c. Nature has evidently so ordain- 

 ed it. But the laborer cannot be pushed from the 

 board of beefj mutton, pork, bread and potatoes, 

 and many other necessaries, luxuries and comlbrts, 

 with impunity. Nature has ordained this too. 

 Man must have his nai»ra/ rights, or the board, 

 and all that is upon it and about it, will ultimately 

 disappear together. The silent wrecks of the 

 fraudful monopolizing exclusive system, are visi- 

 ble in every quarter of the globe. They are true 

 and unerring land-marks, to guide us and many 

 future ages, if we will only read them aright. 

 But it is not the "cloistered philosophers," the 

 "elegant Iiistorians" or the dilletiante tourists, that 

 are the men to do this. It nriust be docie by men 

 who have lived, worked, and fed with men; and 

 these will tell tlie world, man cannot be cheated 

 out of his natural rights, as man, with inipunity. 



It is very remarkable, that Malthus ni;ver once 

 inquires — "Have nations lijifilled their duties so as 

 to obtain the means of subsistence?" Not hing can 

 explain this but fiis utter ignorance of the laws of 

 occupation, subsistence, and the production of 

 Ibod, and their operations and effects on the one 

 hand, and his strong political bias on the other. 

 Such a man ought not to have written upon this 

 greatest and most important of all questions. It 

 was deeply criminal. No man ought to write 

 upon it, who is not prepared to see, feel and un- 

 derstand, that all men are men equally with him- 

 self; he must be prepared to do his duty to himself 

 and society, and at the same time believe that all 



iind-bye, to its immense advantage,) than thai i other men arc _/«/•;««/ to do that duC}' to ti.cinselves, 



