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(jDrgam^fintm ijjt Ifiwftt, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL.
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dtyflt Cmraril..
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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.
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(Jdrgam^Fintm Ijjt Ifiwftt, Political And Social.
( jDrgam ^ fintm ijjt Ifiwftt , POLITICAL AND SOCIAL .
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NATIONAL CHARTER ASSOCIATION . At the usual weekly meeting of the Executive on "Wednesday , a vote of thanks was passed to Mr . Reynolds , and the vacancy caused by his resignation ordered to be filled up . On the financial report being brought up by the Secretary , Mr . Arnott and Mr . Hunt were requested to draw up a statement of the financial position of the Association . Accordingly , they drew up the following address "To the Charti sts " : —
" Brother Democrats , —We feel assured there never was a time when it was more important than the present for the Charfist machinery to be kept in working order ; because , as a means of Propagandists its ramifications are unparalleled ; because , also , on looking at the serious aspect of affairs at home and abroad , we see that great events are looming in the distance , and that this strong engine can be so worked as to be of incalculable benefit to the Democratic cause . For it to be now broken up and dissevered would be a disaster . We feel confident that all true friends to progression would deplore such an untoward event .
" We are aware that the so-called ' World ' s Fair , ' with many other circumstances , have diverted your attention for the last five or six months from political subjects , and , consequently , the funds which have flowed into the Chartist Exchequer have been of that limited description , that we feel it to be our imperative duty to lay before you , as explicitly as possible , our present financial position . " In addition to the above balance due to the Treasurer of £ 11 6 s . lj-d ., there is due for rent of office , £ 13 4 s ., and for printing , £ 9 10 s . 6 d ., making a total of £ 34 0 s . 7 ? d . This debt is yours ; and we candidly ask you , as men who value justice , to pay it . What we require is two thousand sixpences ; and surely there can be that number found who will , with pleasure , subscribe this small sum , in order to save the organization from becoming a wreck . We have
very briefly and plainly stated the case , and call on all , who love liberty , to exert their utmost energies to raise this amount within one month . If it cannot be so raised within that period , we must conclude you are content to let the machinery fall , and that the attempt to elevate yon by your own organization is useless . On your response the movement depends . " You cannot fail to fed the full extent of that responsibility . Chartism was never in a more wealthful condition . After all the dissensions and doubts that have hindered us , your organization is continually recruiting itself . Most of you know this . Cut the recovered action has not ypt fully develop '( 1 itself ; you have not yet provided for the increased activity of your central ma clii ; i < -ry ; rind you are increasing the neglect of letting that full through before your renewed strength is brought intonciK , n . Yo : ; will appreciate this frank appeal , and W'j doubt not respond to it at once .
" ^ Si gned , on behalf of the Committee , " Jonx Aitxorr , General Secretary . " The Secretary will , of course , be happy to receive subscriptions at the office . A detailed balance-sheet will be published next week .
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lli . nr . Mvtion SociiiTY . — Upwards of a thousand pcrroiis iUH'ii'k ' d the camp mi eiiug on Woudhmuse Jluor , list . Sunday , including a considerable , number of the
upon Mr . HendeiKon to read the rules , and urged the members to consider them well before lliey adopted or rejected them . Mr- Henderson conoidei cd it . best , before readini . ; the rules , to make some lemarks upon the ile-Hirability of having a cooperative More in Leeds , and pointed out , the causeH of failure in cooperative movements ; such an dishonesty , not having a proper person to buy for thi' store , attempting too much at . lw < st , want of confidence , » ti \; an'i showed that , the committee had provided against all t hct < e e vils , ; is f . ir an poHsiole ; allowing , also , that the < . stablinlmicnt . of the " Central Cooperative Agcticy , " in London , f ^ ave to provincial M ' ori ' . s a greater certainly of succca . s than had ever pre - viously existed . lie concltnh'd by l / iovin ^ - " That , it . in ( le . 'iiia ' l ) h-to have a cii'ipci ati vi > i . loi I : in connection \\\\\\ the Redemption . Society . " Thin having bt en ( leeondeil by Mi . It . . / ones , was carried un ; mi < nouHly . Mr . II . then )> r * cecded . lo readtlie mien ; alter some discussion , thu liit . 1 . lour were adopted , and I he meeting adjourned till
next Wednesday evening , for the consideration of the rest . A . h < arty cooperative spirit pervaded the meetinjj ; . Moneys received for Hie week : —Leeds , l'Js . lid . ; Stali-11111 ,: ley , per . / . Wilson , 6 s . s . <>< 1 . lJuildin ;< Fund : JLeedn , 6 s . Cd . ; JLoiikIoii , ' M . J ' ropagunditit Fund : ' 2 ii . 7 id .-J . Hi ; Ni ) i ' . unoN , kH-oruiury .
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TO GIUSEPPE MAZZINI . London , September 29 , 1851 . Friend and Brothek . —We start , then , togethe r from this well settled point : that it is only by hardfought strife that Italy may be called into existence in other words that " physical strength" is a main necessity with us ; the question is merely where that material power lies , and by what moral agencies it may be brought into the field . It is not to a man who has written on his banner " God and the People , " that I need say that God is to be the soul , and the People the instrument of our veneration . All the difference between you and the Moderate party may be reduced to a mere definition of the word " People . " People , by right , we all are . Every Italian , prince , noble , or priest , every man who is willing is entitled to fight the battles of his country . He , therefore , shall best have deserved of it who shall enlist the greatest number of Italians in the Italian ranks . Nothing , it would seem , could bettor answer our purpose than the utmost simplification of the national question , and the indefinite adjournment of all extraneous subjects of discussion . Let every man in Italy pronounce either for or against Italy , and let every man who either by generous feelings , or by selfish interests , is prompted to join us in our warcry " God for Italy ! Down with the foreigner ! " be welcomed as n brother .
Many and serious are your objections to this scheme . Yet , remember , it is not much more than three years ago , in January , 1848 , that with a countenance beaming with honest pride you stepped before the French Minister Guizot , and asserted , " that there was only one party in Italy , and that was the national party . " \ Vh ; tt you then justly contended , I still stoutly maintain . An Italian ' s judgment may fail on all other subject ? , but never on the groat question of nationality . It has pleased God to make our cause as simple and obvious as it is
righteous and holy . Hence the arrant folly , the great crime of complicating it , of mixing it up with other matters . " Would you rather have French and Austrian ^ to rule over Italy , or would you rather be your own masters r" Such would bo the test to winch I would put every man throughout the country : the answer would nowhere be doubtful , except where unnatural animosities , the result of our blind partisanship , have either perverted the judgment , exaperated the heart , or alarmed the self-intereKt .
I have said that I would accept as u patriot every man who delared himself tmch , even if actuated by less noble motives ; and that , because God alone is the judge of men ' s motives , anil there is not much to be gained by too strict , an investigation of our neighbour ' s conscience . Thu Italians are but too fatally tainted with jealousy and HtiKpiciousm-HS . They are but too fain to put the worst possible conhtruetion on other people ' s words and fictions . Since the dayH of Ludovic the Moor , they have chicily fallen through mistrust . With good reliance on themselves , let the good and true go Meadily lowoik . Let them openly lace the open foe . The false enemy that , lights by their hide if Mich there ; be—will be awed by their Huecess , and will look in vain for an opportunity of defection or treason . ¦ '
1 repeat it : there are not many men in Italy hostile to the Italian cuu . se ; there would bo many , on the contrary , anxious to range thcuiHclvcH amongst itH champion * , if they were not too rudely and ignoliiimously Mutinied from the ranka . It him be < : i » your fate , Ma / . / . ini , to utter wise and uacrcd words , and to have them madly and impiously interpreted . Your ndvirsaries mark you out . as a liist sower of Hchisin and neandal among tin ; lover . s of Italy ; and it HceniH to me possible , however , to embrace your theories in their full extent , and yet he at , peace with all those- who , from honest conviction , wuge Huch ti mthk-Hu wur Hgiunt » t you . It it * now twenty yearn
since we first met , fresh exiles , on the French soil Availing yourself of the prestige that the beauty of your countenance and of your soul gave you amongst our ardent youth , youthen first threw out that word " Young Itahs" which , taken too literall y , arrayed so great a number of our elderly brethren against you . Yet , even then , it was against superannuated notions , orexploded principles , not against men , y oune or old , that Young Italy waged war . You surel y never shut your door against an Italian merely on account of his being " on the wrong side of forty . " All yo ur other exceptions and exclusions are always conceived in the same liberal spirit ; they are never personal . You could surely take a nobleman , a king , a pope * to your bosom , could you only feel assured that he is an Italian .
But it is because long years of bitter experience and too fond a spirit of generalization , have rather hurried you to the conclusion that princes , priests and nobles , that , to a great extent , all notable persons ' are not , and cannot be , Italians , that you ha ve thrown yourself upon the " People , " . and have adopted the more bigoted definition of that word . " He who is not with me is against me , " is now your motto . Charles Albert might have been your beau ideal of a king in 1831 ; and you would have accepted him even in 1848 ( we have your letters to that effect ) , if you had thought it possible that he meant well by Italy . And yet , with all his imperfections , hesitations , fears , tergiversations , that poor king was a well-meaning man , as it turns out ; and many of us may at the present moment envy his last day ' s agony and his lonely deathbed .
Mazzini , these letters shall not contain one word of reproach ; but tell it , in God ' s name , were it in your power at this moment to retrace your steps , had you clearly perceived—what all the world too fatall y doubted—how that poor king had staked his all on the cast of a die , and was determined to live king of Italy or to die its martyr , do you not now think that you would have forgotten all the past , you would have disregarded the very blood of Jacopo Ruffini that rose between you , and . would have placed yourself by that poor king ' s side ; you would have breathed your own energy into his wavering mind , you would have struck into it a spark of that immortal fire of genius which burns in your soul for some great hidden purpose ; and Italy would then have only one will , Italy only one
party" Trojaquenunc stares . ' It was not so decreed ; but woe to him who learns nothing from that cruel experience ! See the moral : It is then possible for you , as it is for all of us , to misjudge the intentions of our fellow mortals . There are then—there have been—there can yet be patriot kings : in the same manner you may perhaps find patriot nobles . . . Oh ! you will answer , Charles Albert , even in las supreme momentswas a patriot from ambition .
, Piinces and nobles can only be so from sell-interest . Mazzini , that can be said of the lowest rabble likewise . It is not easy to decide ; who it is who has nothing to lose all to gain , in a revolution . I have said-we must accept man with all his motives of action Our policy does not consist in stripping men ot tneir natural feelings , in extinguishing hope and fear m their bosoms . Our aim should rather be to clash as little as possible with their interests , and to make subservient to cause
their wishes and aspirations a which we deem pacred . . - You will call this political Jesuitism ; and it w easy to imitate Gideon ' s examp le-discard all but the three hundred chosen few , and trust to God a terror to defeat the Midianites ; but I think such conciiatory views consistent with the strictest noni'siy . When I admit kings and nobles in the ranks oi national combatants , I need not abandon my Prm " ciples iiH a staunch llepublican , if Hiich they l > e , or renounce the hope of securing their future tlliun { " I I merely invite all Italians lo meet me on a iiclu tnai oo
is perfectly and essentially neutral . They may proved to have , they may bo convinced that tney have , us much intercut in the emanci pation ut ^ common country as any of us . If they must nee ho blind to their own real good , if they luUSt ( . " n \ e for the Hake of a disgracelul vassalage , or <> 1 ho - paltry privileges , truckle to a foreign despot , a take the field against uh-why , then , let them ^ victims to their own unnatural pervurMty , a | | - j involved in the Htrange . r ' n ruin ; but let uh be di _ to the last ., lent we Hhould by ungenerouH » u » p" : ' j by unchaiitable prepoH . seH . sioiiH , force our j > " ' ally into thu etieiny ' n camp , and widen that ml " b' l
of division which makes all our weakm-w-Mn / . zini , 1 have already proved by your own w <» n » that your policy admits ot every p hiine (> l . l »"<» IV ^ i ,,,, compromise . Suppose , for a moment , that , > [ Albert bad been MueceHsful in 1848 , mid « »«» J king either of the whole of Italy or of its « ° " , division ; bin victory resulting cttpecially in ' nupport which , hud you read IiIh hisurt iiriK " ' Wi > uld Hure you would not have withheld—1 nsk you . * { if , have l » e « M » iiiooiinihlont uilh y ° , . '" , ' .. rut princip les lo acquii-Hce in the Htato <> ' thul « , . ollr about by Hueh auspieiouH vioiHHitudoH . to iaK < > Jl Heat peaceably in the extreme left of the purl """"
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nf 950 1 Ki ) t & ££ & *?? [ Saturday , ^ j . ^ r- —afa ^^ M ^^ - . --- , , MM - ^ - ^— . - — . - - -
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[ In this department , as all opinions , however extreme , are allowed an expression , tub editor necessarily holds himself responsible for none . ]
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There is no learned man but will confess he hath much profited bv reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . It , then , it be profitable for him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for has adversary to write . — Milton .
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 4, 1851, page 950, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1903/page/18/
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