On the subject of lowering wages too, you ought to consider that your employers cannot give to you that which they have not.  At present, corn is high in price, but that high price is no benefit to the farmer, because it has risen from the badness of the crop, which Mr. Hunt foretold at the Common Hall, and for the foretelling of which he was so much abused by the hirelings of the press, who, almost up to this very moment, have been boasting and thanking God for the goodness of the crop!  The farmer whose corn is half destroyed, gains nothing by selling the remaining half for double the price at which he would have sold the whole.  If I grow 10 quarters of wheat, and if I save it all and sell it for two pounds a quarter, I receive as much money as if I had sold the one-half of it for four pounds a quarter.  And I am better off in the former case, because I want wheat for seed, and because I want some to consume myself.  These matters I recommend to your serious consideration; because it being unjust to fall upon your employers to force them to give that which they have not to give, your conduct in such cases must tend to weaken the great cause in which we ought all now to be engaged, namely the removal of our burdens through the means of a reformed Parliament.  It is the interest of vile men of all descriptions to set one part of the people against the other part; and therefore it becomes you to be constantly on your guard against their allurements.

When journeymen find their wages reduced, they should take time to reflect on the real cause, before they fly on their employers, who are in many cases in as great or greater distress than themselves.  How many of those employers have of late gone to jail for debt and left helpless families behind them!  The employer’s trade falls off.  His goods are reduced in price.  His stock loses the half of its value.  He owes money.  He is ruined; and how can he continue to pay high wages?  The cause of his ruin is the weight of the taxes, which presses so heavily on us all, that we lose the power of purchasing goods.  But it is certain that a great many, a very large portion of the farmers, tradesmen, and manufacturers, have, by their supineness and want of public spirit, contributed towards the bringing of this ruin upon themselves and upon you.  They have skulked from their public duty.  They have kept aloof from, or opposed all measures for a redress of grievances; and indeed, they still skulk, though ruin and destruction stare them in the face.  Why do they not now come forward and explain to you the real cause of the reduction of your wages?  Why do they not put themselves at your head in petitioning for redress?  This would secure their property much better than the calling in of troops, which can never afford them more than a short and precarious security.  In the days of their prosperity they were amply warned of what has now come to pass; and the far greater part of them abused and calumniated those who gave them the warning.  Even if they would now act the part of men worthy of being relieved, the relief to us all would speedily follow.  If they will not; if they will still skulk, they will merit all the miseries which they are destined to suffer.