a soul as well as
the rich man; like the latter, he has parents, wife and children; a
bullet or a sword is as deadly to him as to the rich man; there are
hearts to ache and tears to flow for him as well as for the squire or
the lord or the loan-monger: yet, notwithstanding this equality, he is
to risk all, and, if he escape, he is still to be denied an equality of
rights! If, in such a state of things, the artisan or labourer, when
called out to fight in defence of his country, were to answer: 'Why
should I risk my life? I have no possession but my _labour_; no enemy
will take that from me; you, the rich, possess all the land and all its
products; you make what laws you please without my participation or
assent; you punish me at your pleasure; you say that my want of property
excludes me from the right of having a share in the making of the laws;
you say that the property that I have in my labour _is nothing worth_;
on what ground, then, do you call on me to risk my life?' If, in such a
case, such questions were put, the answer is very difficult to be
imagined.

339. In cases of _civil commotion_ the matter comes still more home to
us. On what ground is the rich man to call the artisan from his shop or
the labourer from the field to join the sheriff's posse or the militia,
if he refuse to the labourer and artisan the right of sharing in the
making of the laws? Why are they to risk their lives here? To _uphold
the laws_, and to protect _property_. What! _laws_, in the making of, or
assenting to, which they have been allowed to have no share? _Property_,
of which they are said to possess none? What! compel men to come forth
and risk their lives for the _protection of property_; and then, in the
same breath, tell them, that they are not allowed to share in the making
of the laws, because, and ONLY BECAUSE, _they have no property_! Not
because they have committed any crime; not because they are idle or
profligate; not because they are vicious in any way; out solely because
they have _no property_; and yet, at the same time, compel them to come
forth and _risk their lives_ for the _protection of property_!

340. But, the PAUPERS? Ought _they_ to share in the making of the laws?
And why not? What is a _pauper_; what is one of the men to whom this
degrading appellation is applied? A _very poor_ man; a man who is, from
some cause or other, unable to supply himself with food and raiment
without aid from the parish-rates. And, i