en can never be so poor
as to have no rights at all: and that, in England, they have a legal, as
well as a natural, _right_ to be maintained, if they be destitute of other
means, out of the lands, or other property, of the rich. But, it is an
interesting question, HOW THERE CAME TO BE SO MUCH POVERTY AND MISERY IN
ENGLAND. This is a very interesting question; for, though it is the doom
of man, that he shall never be certain of any-thing, and that he shall
never be beyond the reach of calamity; though there always has been, and
always will be, poor people in every nation; though this circumstance of
poverty is inseparable from the means which uphold communities of men;
though, without poverty, there could be _no charity_, and none of those
feelings, those offices, those acts, and those relationships, which are
connected with charity, and which form a considerable portion of the
cement of civil society: yet, notwithstanding these things, there are
bounds beyond which the poverty of the people cannot go, without becoming
a thing to complain of, and to trace to the Government as a fault. Those
bounds have been passed, in England, long and long ago. England was always
famed for many things; but especially for its _good living_; that is to
say, for the _plenty_ in which the whole of the people lived; for the
abundance of good clothing and good food which they had. It was always,
ever since it _bore the name of England_, the richest and most powerful
and most admired country in Europe; but, its _good living_, its
superiority in this particular respect, was proverbial amongst all who
knew, or who had heard talk of, the English nation. Good God! How changed!
Now, the very worst fed and worst clad people upon the face of the earth,
those of Ireland only excepted. _How, then, did this horrible, this
disgraceful, this cruel poverty come upon this once happy nation?_ This,
my good friends of Preston, is, to us all, a most important question; and,
now let us endeavour to obtain a full and complete answer to it.

55. POVERTY is, after all, the great badge, the never-failing badge, of
slavery. Bare bones and rags are the true marks of the real slave. What is
the object of Government? To cause men to live _happily_. They cannot be
happy without a sufficiency of _food_ and of _raiment_. Good government
means a state of things in which the main body are well fed and well
clothed. It is the chief business of a government to take care, that o