On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (9)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
ojy * , 2Ltl££HIlt l* £ ****** *
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
No . 59 , Poland-street , Oxford-street , where we also commenced a Labour Exchange , and out of the profits of the store huilt a large room for lectures , &c . ; we also contributed upwards of £ 90 to assist in supporting the Gray ' s-inn-road Store , and were able in many instances to give provisions , &c , in exchange for Labour Notes . This store was well supported for upwards of seven years , and , I believe , could
have been carried on profitably until now , had not Mr . Owen stated in his lectures that the Cooperative Stores rather retarded than promoted the advancement of the great objects he had in view . This caused our supporters to fall off , and ultimately the abandonment and closing of the store . The only serious difficulty I consider we had to contend with was the want of legal protection .
I quite agree with you that the opinion m favour of cooperation is more general now than it was twenty years ago ; but there is not half the zeal exhibited now that there was then , in spreading the principles . I wish every success to the Charlotte-street Store , and will assist it as far as X can ; yet I think it would have been calculated to do infinitely more good if there had been a Labour Exchange connected with it .
You are at liberty to use this as you please . I am , dear Sir , yours ' truly , Thomas Whitakeb . 18 , South How , Newrroad .
Untitled Article
NATIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL ASSOCIATION . Stoke Newington , Nov . 18 , 1850 . Sib , —In your last week ' s paper you gave insertion to some remarks which Mr . G . J . Holyoake had intended to deliver at the recent Educational Conference at Manchester ; and , as they may convey an erroneous impression of the objects proposed by the in ational Public School Association , I trust you will allow me briefly to correct them .
Addressing ( apparently ) the Association , he says : —* ' I observe , you only propose to extend the great benefit of public instruction to the religious sects among you . " Now , this is a great misapprehension : the object of the Association being to provide a national system of free secular instruction , of which all Englishmen may avail themselves for the benefit of their children , without distinction of class , sect , or party .
Laboming under the mistake I have pointed out , Mr . Holyoake expressed his approbation of the movement . Now that he is aware of the largo and comprehensive character of the scheme , I have no doubt it will have his still more cordial concurrence . ' I am , yours very respectfully , Samuel Lucas .
Untitled Article
THE MANCHESTER CONFERENCE . [ With the request made to us by Mr . Ernest Jones to insert this address , we readily comply , omitting some paragraphs of a personal nature , which , if objected to , would bind us , in fairness , to admit afterwards a long correspondence of a nature that we might regret incurring . ] Hardwicke-lodge , Bayswater , Nov . 20 . 1850 . BnoTHER Chartists , — Now that public dictatorships have become impossible , we appear in danger of fulling into the hand of a far more injurious kind of dictatoiship— -that of a small faction out of the people themselves , taking the lead , and calling themselves The People .
As I am not in the habit of mincing my words ; and na I neither fear the enmity , nor court the favour of any man , town , or class , I will speak plainly on this subject . I denounce the intended Conference as the attempt of a small and insignificant faction to subvert the very principles of Democracy , to pledge the movement to the views and feelings of a minority of its body , by persisting in calling a Conference at a time when the convokers well know that only a small section of the Chnrtists can bo represented , and thus to perpctmite mistrust and division in our ranks .
Up to lost Saturday ' s Star the majority of the country , as far as its opinion has been expressed , has spoken against the proposed Conference : notwithstanding which the detcrmiiNition of a few , mostly consisting of tho aristocracy of labour , seems to be that the Conference shall be holden . I call on every true Democrat to sot his face against it , and to have no connection with it , if it meets , unless the majority of the Chartist body shall have boon concerned in its election .
of honour , dignity , and power really are there . Say , has not this been the case before ? Brother Chartists ! do not let yourselves be deceived ! You are called upon to keep the Charter distinct from every other " ism" : be it so ! but , at the same time , put the extinguisher on the " isms " in your own ranks . There are several of themlittle associations , professing to be established for carrying the Charter—drawing off sideways into their crooked channels , so much of the strength and volume of the Democratic stream . You must know that their existence does our movement an injury .
No reason for the meeting of a Conference in January next has been assigned or maintained when challenged , except the one contained in the address of the Manchester Council ; " a decided want in that indispensable requisite in all agitations , confidence in those , as a body , who are now presiding over the destinies of the movement . " Permit me to observe that the " Manchester Council" are the very men who create that want , and that such a want -will ever exist as long as the voice of faction is allowed to interfere with the organization of democracy . The " want of faith , " if a reproach at all , is not so to the Executive body , but to the men who harbour that want , and then advance their own disobedience as a reason why the Executive
should not be obeyed ! They urge that the Executive " derived their title ffonrso inconsiderable a section of the community , " that their efficiency must remain circumscribed . On this I offer no opinion ; I was in prison then , and , therefore , cannot judge , but it is perfectly plain that the Conference will " derive their title " much in the same way , and I protest against one Conference electing an Executive , as much as the Manchester Council can against another . town the
The Manchester Councilsay , " every paying expenses of delegation , will have the right of sending one or more delegates , " so that a few shopkeepers in one small town will be enabled to nullify the ^ will of the poor thousands in another large one ! This , no doubt , they will see the prudence of rectifying in their next address , but I protest against a Conference electing an Executive at all ; the whole Chartist body must be appealed to , and I am therefore delighted with what I heard last night , when I had the honour of an interview with the Executive Committee ; they have resolved on taking steps for the immediate election of a new Executive by the country at large , and that on the most enlarged and national basis . For my part I am opposed to all " property qualification , " to permitting only ' paying members" to
vote , and thus excluding the poor who have most need of a voice . I should like to see every workingman , who takes an interest in the cause , give his vote on the occasion , whether poor or better paid , and therefore cordially hail the resolution to that effect , which the Committee have unanimously passed . Our course , I think , is now clear . The new Executive , for the election of which there exists far more perfect and available machinery than for that of a Conference , and whose election , as unpaid , will entail little or no expense , will be the competent authority to call and fix the time of a Conference . The fullest claims of Democracy will hereby be satisfied , and all seeds of bickering and dissension must of a necessity be destroyed .
Perhaps an attempt may yet be made to uphold the perishing spirit of faction in our ranks , by meetings , cheer ? , rhetoric , and claptrap—take it for what it is worth ! Perhaps you may be told the papal question , renders a Conference necessary ; of this the Executive will be the legitimate judges , and they will be elected long before the Manchester Conference , as at present proposed , is intended to meet . As Chartists , we have no interest in the papal question ; papal and state-church are alike hostile to freedom and progression . Indeed , I believe , despite the maudlin of whigs and parsons to create an agitation on the subject , and thus to divert public attention from politics , that the bugbears will die a natural death , and they will signally fail .
Our duty is plain : it is to crush faction , within as well as without . Tho wind is beginning to blow from the right quarter ; let us have clear decks , unincumborcd , and I have no fear of the result . 1 ' or my part , if I stand single-handed , I will raise my "voice against the spirit of faction wherever I meet it . No doubt I shall make plenty of enemies by so doing , perhaps I shall make more friends , and , should I not , I will still remain , brother Chartists , your faithful servant , Euxest Jones .
Should it tako plnce , how will it bo constituted ? Five or six individuals , calling themselves ' tho men" of this locality , will send a delegate : if they belong to the better paid trades , they can afford to pay for him ; if not , the expense will have to fiiU on the shoulders of some individual who can . We shall have * a Conference , living on private charity , separating in debt , both facts trumpeted to tho world , and our movement , degraded in the eyes of tho country and in our own , at a time when the elements
Untitled Article
A SiNturr , A . ii Valedictory Address . —The subjoined gem is attributed to one of those broad-backed puck horses of literature , ' an editor out west" : — " The undersigned retires from the editorial chair with complete conviction that all is vanity . From the hour he stftrled his paper to the present time he has been solicited to lie upon every given subject , and can ' t remember ever having told a wholesome truth without diminishing his subscription list or making an enemy . Under theso circumstances of trial , and having a thorough contempt for himself , he retires in order to recruit his moral constitution . "—A > w York Post .
Untitled Article
Critics are not tlae legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
Untitled Article
Among the many claims which the Athenczum has on the public , there is none , in our opinion , more deserving of recognition than its vigilant guardianship of the interests of Literature against the tricks of the fraudulent and the flagrant injustice of Government . Last week its watchfulness detected a new case for reprobation in that ancient abuse of pension-giving 1 . This it is : — " Her Majesty , on the same day on which she assigned a literary pension of £ 100 a-year to Mr . J . Payne Collier
assigned another of the same amount to ' Mr . James Bailey , of 7 , Carlton-street , New Peckham ; ' the warrant expressly stating that it is given ' in consideration of Mr . Bailey ' s literary merits . ' We are reluctant to quarrel with this grant , —but certainly we think the recipient a very lucky fellow . The name of Mr . Bailey as a literary man is unknown to us ;—nor have we been able to find any one ( and we have asked many ) more enlightened than ourselves . Her Majesty ' s Ministers may have very good grounds for assigning to Mr . Bailey a twelfth , portion of the sum annually placed at their disposal .
• Still to one Bishop Phillips seems a wit , 'so to a Prime Minister Mr . Bailey may be a very great ornament to letters . But the public has a right to know what the reasonable claims of the gentleman in question are to one of the very few prizes in the lottery of literature . "We shall , therefore , be glad to be informed of Mr . Bailey ' s services ; and will readily concede his right to a pension when we shall hear that his claims are such as we are bound to recognize and reward . "
No one will question the claim of Mr . Payne Collier to even a larger amount than that awarded to his services ; but , should Mr . Bailey prove to be a man of letters not unworthy of the national gratitude , we must still ask , Are there no other claimants more deserving than he ? Where , for example—to cite but one—is Thomas Db Quincey ' s pension ? Some may not regard him , as we do , the very greatest living master of the English language ; some may think lightl y of those fragmentary works and fugitive articles
with which he has for more than thirty years enriched our literature ; but , whatever may be the individual estimate of his services , one fact is patent , namely , that you cannot mention De Quincey in any circle of the British Islands , pretending to literary culture , but his name will sound familiar ; in most it will awaken responses of gratitude for high pleasures bestowed , in none will it arouse indignation at the misdirection of high
powers to base uses . Now , this we call a clear case for national beneficence . He has done the state service , and they know it ; but they will not reward it . What are the services of Mr . Bailey ? They may be valuable , though obscure . The nation has a right to demand an explanation of them . Who is Mr . Bailey ? There is a Philip James Bailey , whose name reverberates through England and America , but the author of Festus is on no tension list . There is an illustrious thinker
deeply respected by grateful thousands , and familiarly known as Bailey of Sheffield ; but the author of the Essay on the Formation and Publication of Opinions , is not the Mr . Bailey unknown to the Athenteum and to ourselves . The only person of that name we can suggest as entitled to a pension , is the author of those brilliant leaders in the Times during the Corn-law agitation ; if it should turn out so , the public will probably acquiesce ; but , meanwhile , it is clear that a national act of charity should be warranted by the national voice , and not used for private friendships of Ministers . There are names on the pension list which , when contrasted with those not on it , would make the nation rub its astonished eyes !
Untitled Article
Probably many of our readers are also readers of that thoughtful periodical , The Present Age , or Truth-seeker in Physical , Moral , and Social Philosophy , if they are not , they ought to be . The recent articles on " Indian Theosophy" are of great interest ; and the last number contains the " History of a Creed , " an essay Emerson might have written , gathering the results of long thought and investigation into a succession of epigrams and axioms . To the present time it is very applicable .
Untitled Article
At last the Poet Laureate is appointed , and the author of The Princess h the favoured man . That is the only bit of gossip which the week bus furnished us . So long has Government been making up its mhul that the public had completely for-
Ojy * , 2ltl££Hilt L* £ ****** *
Xitttatntt
Untitled Article
832 && £ & £ && £ ?» [ Saturday , _ ^ . , , . _ . - . .. ... _ . i —*¦* ¦ — ——— - - - ¦ - - - - . . -
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 23, 1850, page 832, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1860/page/16/
-