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August 28,1852. TfHE STAR OF FREEDOM. ' ...
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PROTECTION TO WOMEN. "he?he treatment of...
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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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August 28,1852. Tfhe Star Of Freedom. ' ...
August 28 , 1852 . TfHE STAR OF FREEDOM . ' 41
Protection To Women. "He?He Treatment Of...
PROTECTION TO WOMEN . " he ? he treatment of women has ever been considered a sure rrk Irk by which to tell the degree of civilization arrived at j a i a people . If foreigners judge us by the records of our iiceice courts , they will conclude that we are a nation of ^ ag'ages . Scarcely a day passes but the police magistrates isoisorae half dozen metropolitan offices find themselves ijpbjpty occupied in adjudicating on cases of violence , — Lwtaiital and ferocious assaults upon women . Savage and mrmrovoked attacks upon men are bad enough , and the
(' engenders should be punished much more severely than they luaTually are . But how much worse are such acts of bararitrity when committed upon women ! It is a matter of iilyily occurrence to read of some beastly drunkard returning mimne penniless , demanding money from his female partner , . tatat he may return to" his debauch , and failing to get it , ; vevenging himself by some most brutal assault upon the
.. ckckless sharer of his home . It is also quite a common "cucurrenee for the most ill-conditioned of the multitude to idithibit their spleen and ill-temper after the same manner , ridid for no assigned cause . On such occasions the wife , or oroman living with though not . married to the brute , finds icrerself assailed not merely by blows , but by kicks , beatings "frith sticks and pokers , and wilfully wicked attempts to naiaim , disfigure , and inflict lasting bodily injury .
] Doubtless this brutality is largely to be ascribed to the lack of education , and want of moral training , which , in pipite of the wealth of the Church , and the resources of luhe State , continue to discredit the name of England , and aiause masses of her population to grow up , generation tftfter generation , no better than hordes of unfeeling and ) oesotted savages . While millions sterling are recklessly squandered in the endeavour to bring wild Caffres under mm * yoke , a multitude of beings , born on British soil , and
sppeaking "thetongue that Milton spake , & c , " are in our rvery midst , exhibiting the worst vices without any of the vwirtues of savage life . While the Established Church is ggorged with wealth , and innumerable priesthoods and ppriestly combinations are engaged in sweating the faithful cof their money to enable them , as they declare to extend tthe Gospel , and convert tlie heathen , there are , about and { around these doctors of souls , masses of human beings fsreeped in ignorance , brutality , and crime . And when the
( question of educating these degraded beings , or their children , is forced upon the country , immediately the priests and sectaries commence fighting among themselves as to which set of them shall enjoy the monopoly of cramming the infant mind with the fusty musty dogmas of superstition ; agreeing only as to one point , that there shall be no education undiluted by the inanities of their favourite theological systems . So , year after year , the reign of Ignorance is perpetuated , and Crime and Brutality hold their horrid sway .
Even if that which is very unlikely to be seen should come to pass , that our legislators , aroused to a sense of the nation's dangers , should proceed to take measures to insure the education of the people , in spite of the favourite schemes of sectaries , and in defiance of their opposition , that could hardly , if at all , affect the manners of those whose characters are already formed , Your true British ruffian , full grown
and hardened in brutality , is rarely , if ever , to be converted to humanity by Sunday schools and evening lectures ; he understands no argument but that of force , no reasoning but that of terror , and averse though we are to Draco-like punishments , we see no other means at hand to check the brutality of the brutal but by making them feel at least some portion of that pain they are so ready to inflict upon the weak and
the defenceless . The punishment usually inflicted for assaults is inadequate to restrain the rage of the ruffianly and the depraved , The fine of a few pounds , or sentence of a few weeks' imprisonment , seems to have no effect in deterring them from acts that would disgrace a savage . Even among the lowest ranks it used to be considered cowardly to strike a man when down , or to thrash a man who was no fair match in size and strength for his antagonist . It was also considered
cowardly to strike a woman . Whether aught of this rude chivalry remains as regards men-we know not ; as regards women it seem to be utterly obliterated . Upon the least provocation , or no provocation whatever , to strike a woman to feilher to the earth with a butcher ' s blow , to jump upon her prostrate body , to stab , cut , maim , and disfigure her person , seems to be the first impulse , if not the regular pastime of vast numbers of wretches wearing the outward form
and semblance of men . " We are informed on authority we cannot doubt , " says the Times , " that the number of women who resort to our hospitals to recover from the ill effects of systematic brutality is enormous , and that m many cases the pathmf : only returns to her home to suffer violence , which renders any further application to these benevolent institutions unnecessary . " Here is a gigantic evil crying for a remedy , a national disgrace that we should blush to tolerate even for a day .
That the evil may cease , and the disgrace be obliterated , theremedviniistbe instant and equal to the evil . Thesavages who reign by terror must be terror-stricken . They delight in inflicting pain , let them . feel it . As their crimescowardice mingled with cruelty—is infamous , let their punishment be the same . The pain and shame of the lash is the only adequate punishment for the unmanly miscreant who lays violent hands upon a woman . ——« $
SURVEYED THE GBOUND . We want to see a really national party—a party of and for the whute people firmly established . The only way to set about this , so as to have a hope of success , is to do it calmly and thoughtfully ; to build that upon reason which we intend to urge with enthusiasm . No mechanic worthy tlie name of a workman woidd think of going to work upon a complicated piece . of machinery without surveying the capabilities of his work .
Protection To Women. "He?He Treatment Of...
shop , estimating the quality of his tools , taking note and measurement of his materials , clearing away the old lumber , and seeing what was ready made to his hand , and what was left to be done . If a man did not take these precautions , we should expect to see his work turned out a botched and bungled affair , or not turned out at all . Is it to be thought that less care and foresight are requisite in constructing anew governmental machine , or repairing an old one ? Is that a job we may rim at head foremost , and with our e }^ es shut ,
trusting that out of the concussion something may come ? Depend upon it , no . This meddling with the confused , wheezing , ricketty wheels arid cranks and pulleys of the state is no such child ' s play . It is no task for the rash or the foolish . It is work for earnest men , men with a well-defined purpose and a clear comprehension of their mode of action , men with hearts and brains ; and unless it be attempted by such—badly as it was wants doing—it had better not be clone at all .
_ the past history of the agitations of the people for their rights , we may see one very evident cause of failure beyond the faults of leadership , or insubordination of followers , or any merely personal considerations . It is this : that all such agitations have arisen out of distress , and in consequence of the actual pressure of tyranny , or the direct sense of wrong . In taking this course the agitations have only followed the character of the people , who , practical in their nature , deal with effects rather than causes , love and hate facts better
than reasonings , and arc only taught by contact with suffering . We speak thus plainly because we wish to speak truly ; which we take to be the part of a friend in contradistinction to that of flatterer . The motto of the many seems to be the very reverse of that saying , " prevention is better than cure . " They leave alone the causes of evil while they are latent , or so long as they do not very actively affect them , and are only roused to action when the penalty of apathy has to be paid . Just as our sanatory reformers allow filth to accumulate in the sewers , and nuisances to poison the air , and graveyards teeming with dead to infect whole
populations , so long as the Cholera is ravaging India , or Turkey , or Russia ; just as they wait till the pestilence is upon them , to sweep and wash out that , the causes of which they should have swept and washed out beforehand , so do we let corrupt influences and political cesspools grow up and accumulate around us , never bestirring ourselves to get rid of them till they are strong enough to prostrate us . We have all been playing « fche wise game of "locking the stable-door after the horse has been stolen ; " but , unless wo choose to continue beasts of burden ourselves , we must , late as it is , begin a new system .
Almost everyone by this time understands that , to say the least of it , political degradation is one of the greatest causes of social suffering . If we judge men however by their acts , it would be difficult to believe that they thought so , for until social suffering comes , they let political degradation do its worst . They stand by aud allow the cause to grow into effect . Then indeed , when the nauseous blossom has flowered , and the bitter food has ripened , when it is mixed with their bread , and that of their little , ones , they complain loudly and struggle violently . In times of . want of work and scarcity of food , political agitators' are plenty .
Ultrarepublicans knit their brows at you m every street , and patriots meet you at every corner . There is then abundance of discontent and valorous resolves to do or die ; but trade grows better again , employment is to be found once more , wages are to be earned , and bread becomes cheaper , and then the republican bends his brow over the loom , and the partiot , forgetting his resolves to die , turns him to do at the forge or the Bench . And so year after year the same vicious circle of discontent and apathy goes round ; the apathy sowing the seeds of misery—the misery forgetting itself when a temporary gleam brightens over the immediate future .
We should laugh heartily at a nation which , living in a country where the people were tormented with heat in summer and cold in winter , were ever and anon clamouring about the necessity of building houses to protect themselves against tho climate , but never built them . We should be inclined to setthem down for complete imbeciles if they did actually begin the work when the frosts of winter were at the hardest , but left
off when they felt the balmy air of spring . We should be vexed by them almost past all patience , Jf they renewed their efforts in the dog-days only to cease , again when autumn brought less oppressive skies . To see a race go on in that way , generation after generation , would be a spectacle of ridicule for Gods and men . We should say , what idiots they are to wait till winter or summer monies—what worse than
idots to leave off after they have gone . They are worse than bees , or field-mice , or birds . The beasts of the field have more foresight . Yet , reformers of England , look to yourselves , and ask whether the parallel does not hold ?—whether or not this is what we have been , ancl arc doing ? The mills are out—the loom is idle—the forge is coldpolitical agitation is rife . The factory bell rings—the shuttle ilies—the forge glows , and political agitation is stilled . Can it be possible that the people know a fact—this fact , that a oreat political economist—a very Gamaliel , at whose feet wise
men sit—one of the elders and chief priests of his mammonworshipping tribe—a man , indeed , who gained a prize—wrote in the very essay , for which that prize was awarded a great truth , that under our present system these recurring changes are inevitable , that there is no hope nor remedy , that they seem to be produced by necessary laws . What is that but saying to you , millions of workers , ' you are made to put up with misery ; that is your fate ; you may be a little better off now than then , but you must loot for the tertian ague fit of poverty every three years or so . Come it must , so long as our present system lasts ? Just so , and yet you let the system last ^ and when the fit is over , seem to forget that it is . to come again .
Another great evil of these sudden misery-bred and hungerforced agitations is , that they come just at th - time when men have the least power to struggle . Take a soldier , deprive him of his ammunition , keep him on short allowance till he becomes a shadow , and then set him to fig ht—what sort of fitness would he evince for his task ? Takea worker , deprive him of his toil , exact the last coin from his . ' . pocket , put
Protection To Women. "He?He Treatment Of...
famine in his house , fill his heart with harrowing fears , rack his brain with anxious thoughts , show him the workhousewhere they break on one wheel God ' s laws and man ' s affections—in perspective , and then—what then ?—why , he will clamour for his rights ; but he will clamour for them because he suffers , not because they are rights ; and when the suffering goes , the outcry ceases . Truly , this is no better than young rooks which caw for food , but hold their peace when the evening worm comes , little thinking that to-morrow they will be hungry again . * " . . "
But the evil sinks yet deeper , and has a wider range ; at such times men agitate violently , with rage in their breasts and violence at their fingers' ends . We do not wonder that it is so , we only marvel that there has been so little of outbreak . Wc state the bare fact that such movements have , at the least , a strong tendency to become physical . That is
playing the spoiler ' s game ; that is walking straight into the toils . Arbitrary power could not be better served . There are always traitors to fan the flame , always spies to exaggerate , always a press to excite class fears and arouse class hatred . Then for every hand there is a staff somewhat , heavier than a reed , and as a last resort the trinity of tyrants ' tools , "horse , foot , and artillery . "
If wc arc to have a national party at all , one worth having , we must steer clear of this . We must have rights demanded , because they are rights ; we must have them asked for firmly without passion ; we must begin to ask for them while we are most prosperous and able to enforce our requests ; wo must seek them as the means of preventing worse evils before they come ; w <* must have funds to work with and accumulate
them while wc have funds to give . Wc must have time to pick out our best men for leaders , and organize our forces under them . We must—as wo can—add to the people ' s right , social power and intellectual force . Wc must mark out the ground upon which the battle is to bo fought , and where and how the decisive charge is to be made . We must measure out our work and apportion it to our strength ; and settle where we arc to begin . We must have no more popular rulers in high place without confidence ; no more bankrupt
exchequers guiltless of coin ; no more debts to wrangle about , and to clog our progress ; no more schemes which will not hold together ; no more rash movements which wc arc not prepared to carrv out , and wc must , set about our task at once , while the opportunity lasts . If we once more rally round the flag inscribed "The Charter" in the right spirit , each man knowing his work , and determined to do it onefourth of our former , numerical force will suffice . For
opinions have moved forward since then . The enemy no longer shows our unbroken point ; here ancl there his line has been pierced , elsewhere he has deserted his posts , and some of the points are as good as won already . On this vantage ground then let us marshal our hosts , from it . survey our field , ancl then rushing down—not tumultuously —but in orderly array ; not driven by rage , but inspired by confidence ; not pressed on by misery , but determined to prevent it—win as we can , and may the rights of all . . a
THE WAY TO POWER . In two preceding articles wo have taken a glance at the present of associative effort . That present is now the only basis for the future . We must take what there is , strengthen what is-weak , add what is deficient , and unite the whole . We must do this through patient toil , looking rather to ultimate results than immediate benefits ; we must teach a faith in association which will enable men to work and wait . ' Now this faith is to be gained as much from what wc see as what we reason to . The character of the English mind is such
that it gams more , ancl accepts it more readily from observation than from thought . Hefwas surely an Englishman , and one who well understood his fellows who first gave expression to that widely honoured adage , " an ounce of fact is worth a ton of theory . " It may be imphilosophical , but it is consonant with human nature as we find it . Depend upon it that the man who first picked up a lump of gold from the soil of California or Australia , did more to create a gold fever than a score of mineralogists could have done by learned dissertations upon the strata . Theoretical thought may be all very
well for the scientific few , but for the practical many some thing real is wanted . Soycr might perhaps sit down entranced with the recipe for a new dish , but the epicures he cooks for want the thing itself—the realized dainty , and would fail to appreciate the description . - So it is with the great masses for whom we write about association . We may reason up to the most unassailable demonstration—we may lavish eulogy and pen glowing panegyrics , but still wc shall not arouse faith up to the point of good works ; or at least only in a comparatively few instances . To do . that requires the exhibition of something tangible .
Let us look round the world , then , and see if we can find any material argument for the value of association ready to our hand . Can we ? Really if we will but use our eyes the difficulty is not in finding what we want , but selecting the best illustrations out of the many . Remember that what we require is the means of acquiring positive power , and then glance at all . the great works of modern times—the results of power , and see how they have been effected—clearly by association . Railroads span the land from end to endand
, their proprietors . dictate terms to the great mass of the public —vast docks receive into their bosoms thousands of ships , and those who caused them to be erected force the merchants of the world to yield obedience to their rules—immense fleets of ocean steamers , surpassing tho navy of an empire , transport from clime to clime the wealth of the world . How diet these things come to be ? By virtue of association . Think
of that age when the owner of a few pack horses in company with other carriers , conveyed merchandize from one end of tho kingdom to the other , over roads almost impassable . Go on a little farther to when the broad-wheeled waggon took weeks to reach the metropolis . Still , advancing , remember the stage coach with its relays of horse ' s , reducing the , weeks to days .. Compare this with the present , when clays are re- , ducecl to hours , and remember that { his is all the result of com' -
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Citation
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Northern Star (1837-1852), Aug. 28, 1852, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/ns2_28081852/page/9/
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