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have a righ to all the enjoyment of which they are capable , without injury to themselves or others . If , in a certain stage of society , the possession of the elective franchise is a reasonable natural desire , and can be given without injury to society , it becomes a right . Secondly , there would not only be no harm , but great advantage in extending to such men the franchise . They are equal in capacity , information , and intelligence to thousands who possess it—indeed , they are superior to many . They have the same stake in the preservation of public order and in the general
prosperity of the country ; a status to maintain , a settled means of living , to the continuance of which they trust , families that are dear to them , and hopes of advancement for themselves and children by steady industry , energy , honourable conduct , and frugality . While , if the more intelligent of the working classes were admitted to the franchise , the Legislature would thereby be much better informed as to the condition , and much more awake to the interests of the great body of the people , which would be attended by many great advantages , direct and indirect . Lastly , the refusal may be dangerous .
The working classes have a deep conviction that their interests have been neglected , and that they never will be attended to as they ought to be till the voices of their own representatives are heard in the Legislature . Numbers of the people feel strongly , and with good reason , that the franchise is their right ; and other classes sympathise with their claim . There must be constant agitation and continual risk of turmoil , till some political consideration , some share of power , is allotted to them . The people cannot now be reconciled to a system which excludes them from all direct voice and vote in public affairs .
But there are large masses of the people who are very far from being in the condition described above ; who are utterly uneducated , inexperienced in the transaction of business , unable to ~ judge of public questions , liable to be easily excited or led away by declamatory harangues , or delusive schemes , and in so wretched a condition that they gladly rush towards any project that promises a change , thinking that they may be better but cannot be worse . The claims of this class should be provided for at present by measures for relieving their distress and improving their condition ; and by the admission to power of a sufficient number of the more intelligent of their order , to ensure their general interests being fully and fairly considered in the legislature . The lowest class is clamorous for bread , not for power and
privilege . But unless we do something more than this a new agitation would spring up in a few years . The political knowledge of the people , and their feeling of rights increase in a rapid proportion . The very humblest class , -who may be content for the present with kindliness and attention to their " creature comforts " will assuredly soon come to feel higher wants , to claim the privileges enjoyed by the rest of their fellow-citizens , to demand admission to political power . For this preparation should be made . The admission of a part of the people to power will be viewed
only as an instalment ; we must prepare for discharging the whole . An effectual measure of national education , the removal of taxes on literature , the encouragement of mechanics' institutions , public libraries , and reading rooms would make a great change in a very few years ; while the very consciousness of such a right being acknowledged , and soon to be possessed , would attract attention to it , excite interest , and thought , and discussion regarding it , and ensure a certain degree of preparation for it ; far beyond what can exist if it be conceded abruptly ; which is pretty certain to happen if not
anticipated by a deliberate and well-matured settlement . At the same time it must be allowed that the dangers apprehended from immediate universal suffrage might never occur , that the intelligence of the great body of electors , and their strong sense of what is for the best interests of all , might perhaps predominate , and prove our alarms to bo imaginary . It is possible that the evils of a minority legislating for its own interests are fully as great as those to be feared from the blundering of an unenlightened majority .
It is not improbable that universal suffrage , granted now in a generous and conciliatory spirit , and accompanied with those measures for improving the condition of the people , which sooner or later must be passed , would be not only harmless but beneficial ; and that the only occasion for fearing power in the hands of the people is , when it has been extorted after a violent struggle , when party feelings have run high , when they are irritated at what they view as a factious opposition , and elated with victory and the sudden acquisition of power .
But all this is matter of conjpeture . The truly safe course is to pass quickly such useful measures as the franchise is sought for the purpose of obtaining ; to extend the franchise itself to a considerable proportion of the working classes , and to make preparations for in time extending it to all . It is matter of doubt whether the whole people are yot in a fit state for the exercise of the suffrage ; it is certain that many most anxious for the best interests of the working classes are not satisfied that universal
suffrage would be safe ; and very certain indeed that the claim of the suffrage as the * ' right" of every one , is acknowledged and sympathised with by but few . In these circumstances would it not be prudent in the advocates of an extension of the suffrage to content themselves at present with urging the claims of that portion of the working classes who are , by almost universal consent , so well qualified for its exercise ; whose claims would meet with great general sympathy ; and whose admission to the suffrage would undoubtedly go a great way towards a full representation of the wishes , wants , and feelings of the great body of the people ?—Yours , &c , H . R .
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A NEW RELIGION . July 15 , 1850 . Sib , — great many uncircumcised mouths , like my own , which the Church has not permitted , begin now without permission to speak of religion , and Socialism , which is a kind of religion . It is curious how the words of the wise men are confounded . The persons who have overthrown the power of the Church , as far as it has been overthrown , were men very ignorant of what the Church was , never knowing those very feelings which constitute a Church . There is scarcely an instance of a man like Mr . Newman , who understands the most intimate feelings
by experience , speaking down the public religion . The same thing has happened with Socialism . ^ Men who do not understand the present constitution of society , seek to bring about another which they do not understand . I should call this folly and the men fools if I had not settled in my own mind that this is the way in which great movements have always begun . They begin among the ignorant , the dregs of the people sometimes it seems , as if the instincts of humanity were so worn out of the educated , that they are unable to feel far before them by any process but the ordinary senses of touch , and deductions from touch . The ignorant touch nothing , but believe without proof , and go on in a blind faith . Truly , faith
removes mountains . These things going on in society have long given the great faith in the instincts of a large body of people , and when they have schemed like madmen , I have still endeavoured to respect , not thevoiceof the blustering savages around me , but the great voice of the whole , made resonant by a life carefully handed down to them by the guidance of Providence . Educated to believe revolution a crime , I now see
that it is a necessity , and wonder how the people , with their indistinct notions of things , can make , like the bee , a perfect hexagon , and like the beaver , become perfect architects from their birth . It is , however , often so ; and I venerate the great movements of a people even in confusion , as I do the great workings of natural forces—the black storm and the white ocean . Perhaps this is itself faith . I consider great men heads of the majorities , clerks to the people , spokesmen , amanuenses . They sum up and make intelligible . What company knows its own concerns till the books are balanced ?
Some men see the people as a mere crowd , to be headed by a great man ; well , it is in one sense so . But this crowd contains , as far as I can see , all the life and vigour that exists ; it is the embodiment on this earth of the vitality of the Creator . For these reasons I can join in the cry , Vox populi vox Dei ; whilst I also , with equal sympathy , can call out , Odi profanum vulgus et arceo , because they feel and do not
reason . We must , then , pay all attention to the feelings of the majorities ; but we are equally bound to pay attention to the reasonings of the minorities . Men who begin new religious movements are not often characterized by reasoning , it is by faith and moral power ; men who begin the cry for something new before the old is done , who are in the fight of change , are poetical and have much faith . For this reason I can see why the Socialists have among them men of the most beautiful and simple faith , men who love truth and their brother men . And for this reason I understand why the writers to your Open
Council are often in a debating state of mind on some of the most important point * , and love Socialism , but do not know why . A tree does not grow merely for its fruit ; there is a pleasure in its growing to all who see it : a man does not live merely for the result of his life ; there should be a pleasure in living . The discontent of a nation is , therefore , the most serious matter ; it is for us the universe ; it is a feeling that all things which we see and know are in a state of dissatisfaction , all the consciousness around us is in a state of complaint . These instincts of the majority are a divine law , at least to me , but being inarticulate they must be explained by the reasonings of the minority : every little noise , therefore , has its value in the great cry .
When I hear men calling for a new religion I am bound to listen , and , if possible , to know what that means ; it means , at least , that they have not derived satisfaction from the religion which they have . I conclude no more from it , because I believe that the call is chiefly from those who have taken a dislike to the nonessentials of religion . The great religion which has made a hero , a demigod , and a saint in all
ages , and in whatever clime , out of those who shone in human virtues , is enough surely for all men to the end of time . If this be recognised as religion , ther no man will call for a new religion , which is , in e historical sense , a mere change of worship , or oJ dogma , or of authority . This I do not call a religion . The greatest divines still differ as to the sameness oi the religion of the Christians and Jews : no man can dispute the difference of ceremonial . The eliciting oi human virtues is a religion , and every plan makes a new religion in the smaller sense of the word ; but the virtues themselves are the same , and the end is as clearly explained by Job as it is by our latest divines . When we get to the abstract we can get no further . We know somewhat of abstract goodness ;
and now we want to know the mode of reaching it . It is the mode of reaching it that is to be new ; and here all social changes come in . I cannot allow myself to seek new virtues , and cannot love a higher religion . To seek for a new religion in any other sense than this is to me unintelligible . I hear it repeated , and my friends who are sensible and good repeat it , what do they want?—a new palaver to induce them to be good , a new amusement to induce the lower classes to follow their leaders . ^ Do they mean that we are to give up our real religion , that when we visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction , and keep ourselves unspotted from the world , that this is tiresome , and a change is wanted ? That when we love the truth with all our hearts , and
have as a goal before us the perfect excellence in all things impersonated in one word , so to speak , God , and when we love , or endeavour to love , our neighbours as ourselves , that this also is not enough for men to do , they want to do more ? That when we are bowed down with humiliation for our shortcomings , that when we are raised into exaltation by the religiously poetical beauty of holiness , goodness , and truth , that this also is not enough , and a new religion is wanted ? I say , heaven forbid . So far am I from being ready for it , that I can only say , let it come when I shall be able to go to the stars and fetch it . So utterly is a new religion beyond my
comprehension , so entirely out of the sphere of my ideas , I seek it as I seek the end of space , rambling over all the universe to get the outermost wall . I seek it as I seek infinity , and am lost , and shall I believe for ever be lost ; as no man can see the end when there is no end , so no man can see the limit of our religion when it is infinite or without an end . I know what many people desire by a new religion ; but the word is displeasing , and I feel as if it slandered all the great who have lived , to float over all the little in the past times , and who might now sink their heads and begone , if we are told that they are men of an old and worn out religion .
Any system to elicit human life , social or unsocial : social , I believe , it must be ; but the abstract goodness has in all sound men been like God himself , the same yesterday , to-day , and for ever . Heimiaistos .
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July 20 , 1850 . ] « t !) tf 3 L ** & **? 3 "
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The Middlk Class . —I do not call the sons of little squires , long descended but untitled , the middle class ; I call the middle class those who , fifty , eighty , or a hundred years ago , were down among the lowest of the people . The children and grandchildren of those butchers , bakers , small drapers , manure-gatherers , Scotch pedlars , and journeymen tinkers , who arose with
the cotton trade and its numberless ramifications ; those Liverpool brokers , Manchester manufacturers , Yorkshire wool-spinners , London merchants , Hull and Bristol traders , Norwich , Coventry , Nottingham , and Leicester manufacturers , large rural towns retail merchants , coal proprietors , copper-miners , clerks , bankers , lawyers , all of which rose , in countless Bhoals and with astounding strength , with the great spread and growth of the cotton trade . Carlyle has said " Richard Arkwright carried us through the Peninsular war . He and his cotton could do that . " This , at first sight , seems but one of the splendid exaggerations of that wonderful mind ; but on investigation it is literally true . The men who in
various ways were concerned in the cotton trade , some so distantly that you could hardly see how that trade influenced them at all , and yet who owed everything to it , found such a lucrative field for the employment of their money and their energies in England , that it was cheap to them to give any sum to maintain the inviolability of that field . Hence they endorsed the bills that provided the sinews of the war abroad ; while , at home , their strong sense , their simple lives , their honesty and sincerity made them the adjusting weight of the natio :. ai machinery ; the iron bars which kept the mob from the Regalia ! If any class of the community have light particularly to tho name of the People , it is that great middle class . —Social Aspects , by J . S . Smith ,
Chiiistiakjsby Macjuinkky . —We arc Christians now by machinery ; we have a clock of dexterous woikmnnship , which , if only regularly wound up with its golden key , will chime for us all our Christian duties regularly enough , alarming no man with too earneBt striking . Let a man pay pew-rents and a few annual benevolent sub * scriptions , and he may fold his hands comfortably without a distracting care , in sure knowledge that there is something to pray for him , and to do good for hint . Money having been seen to bo God now , as is mituial , money wins heaven ; and he who has only cash suliicunt to pay the tolls will find the straight , narrow , upwi . rd road ( macadamized sinco the time of Christ by modern progress ) as oasy travelling as the broad , open , downward one l—Ibia .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 20, 1850, page 399, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1847/page/15/
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