296 THE WEDGWOODS. 



I shall make no apology for saying a word or two more in their 

 behalf. 



" The farmer must be supposed to enter upon his useful employ- 

 ment with the same views as the tradesman does upon his business. 

 He means to provide a comfortable subsistence for himself and his 

 family, and surely every labourer is worthy of his hire ; but if he 

 is compelled to sell the produce of his farm at the same price when 

 the badness of the season prevents him from getting more than half 

 the usual crop from his land, though he pays for getting it the same 

 or a greater expense than he does when the seasons are more 

 plentiful, his case would be hard indeed! JS"o person would be 

 found to till the land upon those unreasonable conditions ; and 

 would not the consequences of the ground lying untilled be felt by 

 us as soon and as severely as by the farmer ? 



" Let me now intreat you to look back for a moment, and reflect 

 coolly upon the late violent proceedings. Can you think that they 

 were the likeliest means of relieving you under your present dis- 

 tress ? Will riot and tumult, accompanied with acts of injustice, 

 incline Providence to be more bountiful to us in the next season ? 

 Or will the forcibly seizing upon provisions brought to our markets 

 induce the farmers to supply them better in the future ? You 

 cannot think it will. These certainly are not the proper means to 

 redress the grievances complained of. And as the com grown in 

 our neighbourhood is not at all sufficient for our wants, we should 

 at least permit those who supply us with this and other necessaries 

 of life from distant parts to do it with safety to their persons and 

 properties. It is, indeed, happy for them and us that we live 

 under the same equal laws, which must and will protect both from 

 the violence offered by either. I say the laws MUST protect us both ; 

 for if it was not so, there would be an end of all government an 

 end of the State. No man could be secure in the enjoyment of the 

 fruits of his labour for a single day. No man, therefore, would 

 labour ; but the stronger would rob and murder the weaker, till the 

 kingdom was filled with rapine and violence, and every man afraid 

 to meet his neighbour. The land would be untilled ; for who 

 would plough and sow without the hopes of reaping for himself, 

 and being protected in his property ? Famine and its companion, 

 pestilence, must follow, and sweep the miserable remains of the 

 people who had not murdered one another into an untimely grave, 

 the kingdom itself falling a prey to some foreign invader. 



" These, my friends and neighbours, would be the inevitable 

 consequences of such proceedings as have lately happened amongst 



