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A PEOPLE'S ADMINISTRATION . Until the People of England organize a Provisional Government for the conduct of movements in the popular interests , it is very unlikely tljat much progress will be made in obtaining popular power and Social Reform . An administration appointed by the People , to collect information for the People , to take the instructions of its constituents , and to promote the objects advantageous tQ those constituents , is only rendered the more necessary by the well-organized Officialism which rules in this country and throughout Europe . It is necessary also in order that the People may acquire a knowledge of foreign relations , and a power of
action in foreign affairs . We believe that no one People in Europe can assert its independence , or secure even its own internal freedom , " while it remains in a state of isolation . To prove this necessity , let us n ote the state even of France—a republic in name , but prevented from being a republic in reality , by an organized conspiracy of officialism at home , which can at any time obtain reinforcements from the organized officialism of other countries . It > is to the interest of the English People that the trial of republican principles in France should be complete and successful ; but , by something worse than a fiction of law , the English People is only able to act upon France through the Govern men t of which Lord Palnaerston is a
Minister ; and that Government has a very slight and indirect connection with the English People . It is very desirable that this point should be thoroughly understood by our popular politicians , and made clear , not only to the People , but to those among the exclusive classes who can appreciate th . 3 value of concord in the country ; still more to all " Reformers" who really desire to do anything .
A country with an exclusive franchise is a nation divided into two Peoples . That is the case with our own country at this moment . The enfranchised class possesses the Government , the laws , the funds , the army and navy , the official Church , and the subordinate public servants who perform public services throughout the country : this class is a separate People in the nation : it is endowed with the instinct of . self-preservation , which gives it
separate ^ interests ; it has separate views , opinions , and . feelings ; collectively , it has slight sympathies with , the other part of the nation—its own iustiuct of suif-presorvatiou tends to make it act towards that other part , iu a spirit of autipathy and opposition . Hut opposition between a People possessing power and a People not possessing power implies , in the best regulated countries , the . oppression of the powerless .
Mho unenfranchised claws is governed by the representatives of the other class . ; those representatives appointing the supreme Executive ; which in its turn appoiuts all the public servants- In boroughs there is somo slight exception to this , with respect to local affairs ; aud there is no doubt that if " ratepayers " generally were to accustom themselves to a more vigorous ami systematic action in local government , they might devolope the power inherent iu the naliou at laritt " - Hut we
are speaking of matters as they stand ; and at present , even the " ratepayers " by no means include the whole L \ : ople , In England the enfranchised , class is not a lU ' tU of the wuolc country ; ( rota the titled and the very opulent down to the " respectable , " the enfranchised class includes the whole of the moneyed classes ; they constitute , therefore , a separate iiat , um wUlun the l ' . u < jrtjsih , nation . T'uuui ulVuuchi . sed cIh , kn is , the other fomsliftlv # - *~ i <* . more l . haii u " majority " —it , in the body and bulk oil he rVopIo ; it ; i « the People .
l he , r . n ^ li . sh People , therefore , cannot , claim the lorn is in whi < : h it , is- described by historians and political classifiers : it is a " free people" only in so
{ jar as it is governed by the Money People . It has no Government of its own , but it is governed by the public servants of the Money People . The English People does not possess the land . The English , People has great difficulty in retaining eveathe produce wrought by its own labour out of the land , because the laws relating to accumulated produce , or /' property / ' are made b y the representatives of the Money People . The English People does not even possess its own labour , ber cause- the laws relating to labour are made by the
representatives of the money class . The Engbsh People * therefore , possesses neither its own labour , no *? the land , nor the produce thereof ; every individual of the English People performs his labour under djeerees emanating from the Money People ; he even stands upon any one foot of the land to which he is horn , under the decrees , and therefore by the sufferance , of the Money People . He cannot lay his letfgth upon his native land without permission of those decrees ; even if he lies down to die in the broad face of heaven he commits an
act of " vagrancy . The consequences are not limited to present helplessness . The Money People not only makes the laws and appoints the servants by which the English People is governed , but it is able to keep up all the self-preserving defensive contrivances by which it continues to prevent the " encroachments " of the English People towards any power over its own land , its own labour , its own produce—its own action , individual or collective . Opposed to the Money People , thus organized and fortified , thus
able to act through the concentrated instrumentality of Government , the English People has not even a consultative voice—has not , even as a subject nation , any means of collective action , —has not the means of collecting its own suffrages on any general question ; and so it remains a prey to its own undirected and conflicting impulses . It is for these reasons that the emancipation of the People would be greafcly facilitated , if it were to appoint a provisional government for the conduct of its own affairs—for the collection of its own suffrages and the promotion of its own objects .
In the present state of civilization it is impossible for one country to escape being acted upon by another ; but in the actual constitution of nations , this international influence is administered in the interest of the Government-holding class . In England , for example , it is administered in the interest of the Money People ; the interest of the English People being seldom regarded . Their advice , if it could be given , —which , for want of the suffrage , it cannot be in any authentic shape , —would be utterly scouted .
In France , popular opinions have made considerable progress ; as we may judge by the fact , that the Socialists are reckoned to have placed a hundred and eighty members in the National Assembly . But wanting our long practice in local Government , the French nation does not possess any effective power proportioned to its innate strength . In the capital , where the various conflicting powers of ^ he country are concentrated , the statesmen who sympathize with sectional interests or retain , a gambling expectation of advancement through those interests , are combined against
the nation : the Orleanists , the Legitimists , and the bureaucratic Republicans , however they may conflict with each other , will unite against any new manifestation of popular power ; they have united with President Bonaparte so far as ho seemed opposed to popular power , they wore arrayed against him wherever he sympathized with the People . They showed their spirit , when they upheld that personification of dragooning , Changarnier . The President is strengthened against the popular interests by foreign suppact : if the national representatives were not to give him the- dotation of £ \ 'l () , () i ) O a-year wkieU ho asks , it is understood that ho can have the
uumwy froui Russia ; who would be willing enough bo invest any such trifling sum in . fortify i » K an o . utpemt of constituted authority . It is stated , with 'tttoru thuu probability , that influential paitics in ' Pruucu would welcome an occasion for veiutcodjuciutf Austrian and Prussian armies : it is uwt U > the interest of any of the Veoples . subject to « tUe ( iwvernioeut at Vienna , that ! popular px > jwe « r Hh / jijlit I bo erwyhed in . fr ' nance ; . but tlic rctjoiu'coK of tlvosu subject Peoples can only bo bt ou ^ ht to bear upou b'mince tKrongh the Ennperor and his ayrvauts : Uucuiany must sympathize with Franco , so must tfiit flvji't ; \>\ ib Gei'inany nuiHt act through \ X » princes and dip lomatists , who have just wot up a crowned culprit over th © Hessians ; J' ) ngluml muttt
act through Lord Palmer&ton , who carries on all his transactions in secret , is permitted by the ariatocracy and petted by the middle class , and has no connection with the English People . Thus , for want of true national administrations , the Germans , the Italians , the Hungarians , the Bohemians , the Austriajis , the French , the English ^ and the Irish , who all have interests , in common , are kept apart ; while the public servant * who profess to act in their name , act against them all , and bring against each the united resources of all .
It is necessary far the damest < u > emancipation of the People that it should have an Adrninistnitioa of its own ; it is necessary to the alliance of Peoples , that they should be able to act together through really national administrations .
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PROTECTION OF THE POOR , The Morning Chronicle is still performing its duty as " protector of the weak against th $ strong . " It is still foremost of the daily press in this duty , although it has used reservations which its Commissioner , Henry Mayhew , justly and gallantly repudiated . It has drawn special attention to three cases before the public almost rivalling the Sloane case ; all , however , happening in different kinds of abode , yet all illustrating the grossly defective state of our laws relating to the poor .
Hannah Hinton was engaged at Michaelmas last , at a statute " mop " in Worcestershire , by Mr . Lee , a farmer , of Kempsey , to be a nursemaid , at £ 2 ayear : her course of life was miserable ; her food was bad and scanty ; she lived in an atmosphere of vituperation ; her master beat her with his leggings ; her mistress with a stick . She appealed to a police court : the defence was eviden ce to character for "humanity "; but the chairman of the Bench naively pronounced the case to be one of " grea , t and unnecessary cruelty , " the defendants were convicted of a common assault , and fined £ 2 each , with costs .
The next case has recently been disclosed by the exertions of Mr . Osborne , chaplain of Bath goal , although it occurred more than a year ago . In November , 1849 , Elizabeth Hillier , who was within a few weeks of giving birth to an illegitimate child , applied to the relieving-officer of the Hath Union for assistance . Summoned before the Board of Guardians , she was told that shemust go to her own parish , eiy hleen miles off . She walked three miles on the way , and was then exhausted ; a poor woman took her in and gave her a little food ; and she got back to Hath . Another poor woman
procured her a shirt to make ; and , on the proceeds of that single job , she lived until her confinement . Her child was found dead , concealed in a box : she was tried for " wilful murder , " convicted of illegally concealing the birth , and sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment ; and she found , in the gaol that refuge and counsel which were denied to her , inhumanly and illegally , by the " Guardians of the Poor . " At the instance of Mr . Osborne , the Poor-Law Commissioners order an enquiry , which is instituted , and results in an expression of " regret " by the Chairman of the Guardians .
In the Peckham-house Lunatic Asylum a pauper dies ; an inquest is held , and a medical witness pronounces that the death was caused by violence . The body was greatly emaciated ; the hair was infested with vermin ; the flesh was bruised in various places ; tue bone of the upper arm was broken by a comminuted' fracture , the broken end pressing into the armpit ; four of the ribs were broker * Another lunatic charges Hill , an attendant , with tile violence ; but the coroner thought the evidence inadmissible ; and the verdict was "• Manslaughter against some person or persons unknown . " In a fourth cane reported by the Hampshire Ad ~ vertiser , at a coroner ' s inquest , the Southampton Hoard of Guardians , was accused fey Mr . Cooper , a Hiirgeon , witih hastening the death of Dinah Embury , by refuhiug the relief ! lie had ordered : the woman was in a very ilixe&sed state , aud he had oadcreU relief in the shape of nourishing 1 ' iuul . The inquest Htaud « adjourned , aud while we write we do no * knuw blie verdict < if the jury on iha conflict between , thit median ! idea of necessity and the dilatory neglect of fclio relueviug ailtuur ; hnt i % is certaiu that tba wouiaji died , and it is probable that Ktsapvation # uiued > tlut nice with organic dimeuxt ! Hi kkkliutf Iver . [ tx th « fimfi o £ these easeN the victim does obtain some protection , and there in no de « , t » h ; b « t it is evident that hu » ueyJerwenfc three ur ibur moqths t ) i persecution because her itfworuiieo w » n ua « walightened as to her personal rights , aud her helplensn « H « won not lauirht where to ttuuk protection .
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, - mm * tr SATURDAY , JANUARY 1 , 8 , . 185 t .
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There is no thing so revolutionary , teeauae there 13 nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keentlSn ^ s fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dr . Arnold .
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Jan . 18 , 1851 . ]
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 18, 1851, page 59, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1866/page/11/
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