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THE iVOETHEKN STAE. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1842.
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MAN Y £ RbUS MACHINE . Oh ! handtess man , through hapless sge Conderaced a war with want to wage . Sach vr&s the description given by an ancient poet of & -wretched individual , -who was left , l&e Kobinaon Crusoe , ^> on a desert island and where he still contrived , with h : s bow and arrows , as the other did with fc ' s sun , to prolong a miserable existence . And such , too , " , " stranse to say , the deecripUon which a modem philanthropist ha « applied to thousands of operatives , who , in a country that boasts of it * religion , civiliuti ( jn , and science , have been compelled to endure all the horrors of hunger , and fn a laud rich with all the chc . -ctst sifts of « reation , bat from which the working TEsn has been debarred by a forced competition with the Mammon-made jnadane ; that with its eternal tfaamp . thump , thump , has been reducing , nnder the piston of the steam-engine , the poor to powder , and like the Riant ol whom we have read in our nursery tales , has been crying
out—Fee fan , fatn—I smell the blood of a working man ; Be he alive , or be half d ^ ad , 1 'li grind his bonts to mate my bread . That snch would be the effects of the unlimited nse of machinery , was predicted in my hearing by a Lanes shire cotton-manufacturer , in 1810 ; and who , when he was told that the Luddites were smashing the newly-invented frames at Nottingkam , ttated that they were knocking the rigat nail on the head . " , " said he , " if fabrics are reduced in price , depend upon it the wages of the -workmen will be dimisbed eventually like wise ; and unless all the expences of the operatives are lessened equally , the effect of tbe machinery will be to make the poor poorer , and the rich richer ; and as the latter will thus gain what the others lose , the invention of man will nullify the injunctions of Grod ; by whsm the rich , if tfeey are believers in his words , have been taught to keep their hands from picking—at least the pockets of the poor .
So , too , in 1 S 16 , when the power-loom first bejean to show its teeth , the same keen-eyed seer stated that the machine would be as mighty , but far less merciful , than tte Dastroying Angel ; for that scourge of the Almighty did its work of destruction at once ; whereas the machire would coolly cat off the bands merely of its victims and leave the body to perish by inches . And rkLiv have they deserved their fate , say the fiendlite political economists ; for after the invention of the power-loom , what right had the hand : loom weavers to live , when they had ceased to have a place at Nature ' s t * ble ? " Or . if they were fools enongh , " says tbe Westminster Review , in its last number , " compete vtltb the steam engine , what man uf sense would listen to their complaints ? As well might the jickass bray out its abase of the blood-horse for carrying off the cop at Doncaster . "
Bnt though scarcely a single ear was turned , ten years ago , to the heart-rending complaints of the handloom weavers , ground , to the dust by the machine—for , ?*\ the insolence of presumed power , the millowners tcld the working men to bow down to the steam idol or starve—yet now every ear has been stunned by the wailings of tbe millocrats themselves ; and even the H * use of Commons , that formally professed its inability to legislate for the protection of the poor , has stepped forwaid to reliefe the rich ; . end , melted by the tales and tears of tie millowners . has been gulled by tbe impudent falsehood that trade has be « n mined through the resirictiens imposed by tbe Corn Laws , an * not tbe unlimited use of machinery ; for our rulers wanted tbe wit to see that when machinery reaches a certain pitch , it cannot fail to make tbe supply greater than the demand , and thus to destroy the very sonrce of profit ,
which arises from keeping the supply less than tbe demand , which must always be tbe case wbtre machinery is employed only partially . Of these facts , however , tbe prophet , whose words 1 have livbd to see verified to the letter , wps so conscious , as to predict that the tiire would come , and quicker , too , than the millo-Kners would like , when every market in the globs wcuid be gln-ted with English goods ; and that , as this glut would force sales on the part of the more needy acTrnturers , every article made by machinery weuld , in turn , be diminished in value ; nnd , as no manufactured article , sftei it has been once sold for a less sum , has ever realised its former price , no market , that had been once glutted , would ever recover itself , except for a limited period , when the stocks in band should be r 1 uced to the lowest point in consequence of the previous fcrcea sales .
" But , " said the man , from whose lips I learnt more truths than the whole race of political economists could teach me , were they to scribble till doomsday , " it wiil feke about thirty years to convince the supperters of the unlimited use of machinery , that tbe very power which tbe Solomons , as they call theniEelves , fancy will shower npon the land all the blessings of cotton shirts and shifts , of silk Btockings and gloves , and of linen and kce . at the cheapest rate , will give b . rth v > evils frightful to contemplate , and which it will require no li £ t : e p-itieDcs to endnre , and still greater resolution to colter In the meantime , however , " added the Beer , " princely fortunes wiil be made and princely lost : nor -will th 6 truth burst npon the world , that when the Creator made man , he meant him to be the master and n ~ t tbe slave of the machine , until they who have set dd tte Mammon machine , as the Isralites did tbe goiden calf , shall find that their idol , with its arms oi iron but breath of steam , is utterly incompetent ivhea called on to Bave its deluded worshippers . "
Of tbe mor » l evils to which the unlim tad nse of machinery may have given birth , the political economist triil , of course , take no account ; for"be will assert that there is no necessary connection between machinery and immorality . But if it be shown that tbe introduction of machinery has produced a state of society where tbe worst passions of oar nature are called most res-lily into play , and , with the greatest opportunity for indulgence , are controlled by the fewest and weakest of checks , in a moral point of Tiew machinery may be fairly considered a curse of no common kind . I allude pyiiculariy to the story I heard when travelling through the manufacturing districts , in 1836 , from a jrerscn of whose veracity I had no reason to donbt . In a factory , about twelve miles from Manchester , there ¦ were two partners , one of whom rarely visited the works , except for the purpose of seeing what young and handsome females had lately entered it , when , like tbe Saltan at Constantinople , he selected the one most to his tasie to be the partner of his bed , until satiety
required the stimulant of a fresher face . To what extent this practice is carried on in other factories , where there are Bleeping partners , I know not For the horour of one ' s species and country , it is to be hoped that the case is a solitary one . But whether the instances of such cold-blooded villany in the owners of factories be many or few , they formed no part of tbe prophet's predictions relating to the moral mischiefs of machinery . Still less dirt the seer anticipate tbe destruction of all the bonds of filial duty which machinery was destined to produce , as exhibited in a case at MacclesEeld ; where I heard that whtn a father , who had been thrown ont of employ by the introduction of machinery , was going to correc ; his son for some misconduct , the little rogue , about thirteen years old , said to his parent , who depended on hia children alone for support— " If you dare lift your little Snger against yonr feeder , I'll stop your grub , old boy , next Sunday ; and , instead of your sending me to b'd without a Euppar , I will mak « jou pass the whole day without a meal . "
Of the other moral mischiefs to which machinery "would give birth , the prophet had , however , a correct anticipation ; for he stated , that as machinery could never be worked successfully , except by bringing together larje masses of men and women , population or prostitution would increase according as high wages enabied parties to marry or low ones prevented them ; and , as continned improvements in machinery would throw persons out of employ , without beic ? able to set sside tbe command cf God to increase and multiply , it was quite evident that prostitution wcnld increase as machinery did .
He did not , however , even dream of the general displacement of male by female lab » ur , to which that real nobleman , Lord Ashley , has Mfa **** in his recent answer to the address of the Short Time Committee ; where his Lordship saya , that the moral pestilence , which machinery bas introduced , is not confined to tbe factories connected with cotton , Bilk , and woollen fabrics , bat is spreading through oar mines end collieries , and destroying at once the peace and the virtue of every hearth and home ; and so complete is the separation of husband and wife , and of parents and
children , that all the endearments of the family group will be shortly unknown . " Thousands , " adds his Lordship , " of yeung females are absorbed into the whirlpool of avarice aad plunged into factories and mines , where every hour is gtven to toil ; and while not a few become mothers before they have well ceased to be children , tbe licentiousness of others , whose evil passions bave been called out by their close and constant contact with the other sex , has exhibited the penurious results of violating the order of Providence by abstracting females from their peculiar calling . "
Equally blind was the prophet to another violation of the lair of nature to which machinery has been found to lad ; for it has not only prevented the parent from supporting his child , bat compelled the child to support tbe parent ; a law that the supporters of machinery , who were all the aopporters of the New Poor Law , have enacted , sot ao much in ignorance of , as in contempt for , the lair of € r « d , that the hen is to cratch for the chickens , not the cbicknrm for the hen . Had , however , tbe idea come into tbe mind of the prophet , he would hare mA that even a Tory Hook of Common * would throw the shield of legal protection over children ; nor bare permitted babies jost out oi their mother ' s arms to be carded in those of their
father ' s from their beds , hungry aad half asleep , to be immolated by a Moloch machine ; nor weald be have fcelieved that the Whigs , whose politics be had always ntpported , would have damned themselves to ever-Is . ~ ong infamy , by drawing , with the aid of the mighty iu : Jsrifcy of one , a temporary veil over tbe barbarities practised with impunity in factories , which were laid bare bj the lamented Sadler , when be stood forward as the opponent of tbe child-crushing machine . Still less would the prophet have believed that the icy tottcb of svariea would ao freexa " the blood of tbe once warmhearted maater-manufsetnrers , as' to lead them , without a pang , to commit ivfa&ticide by wholesale , to enable th < m to add pennies to their pounds by . tbp plunder of tliu unprotected &MU ; i * » whose production th « ma-
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chine itself has held oat sach a premium , by throwing Jhe parents out of employ , that when I was at Bradford , in 18 S 6 , a partner in one of the largest factories told me that if 500 children were dropped , like cherubs , from the clouds , they could be all absorbed by different eoDcernt , bat that fifty of their parent * weald with difficulty find food by tbe sweat of their brow . Although the time has been when some of oar cracK political economises presumed to ridicule the God-made man as an imperfect machine , compared with tbe man-made spinning-jenny and power-loom worked by the almighty steam-engine , yet one or twe of those , who in their youth fancied themselves to be Solomons , hare lived to discover they were only fool * . At least , I infer as much from finding in the British and Foreign Quar terly for 1838 , the sentiments following , and penned by one whose handwriting is aa visible as that which appeared on the wall : —
" The application of the discoveries of the laws of matter amongst a people , whose god is gold , has been injurious to the community ; for it has festered one of the lowest propensities of onr nature—the inordinate love of gain . Its attendants have been a forced and undue production of manufactured commodities , and a reckless speculation , veiled nnder tbe flimsy name of enterprise , which has been the precursor of a radden depreciation of goods , followed by anxiety , engendered by disappointment , and ending frequently in ruin ; to say nothing of temporary cessations of a demand for labour , producing in the operatives discontent and mistrust , together with abject poverty and its fearful and fatal consequences—demoralisation . ''
On sach testimony , coming from such a quarter , tbe opponents of tbe unlimited use of machinery might almost rest their case , as regards tbe moral evils of a system which has fostered inanimate power at tbe expense of animate . While , ss regards the political evils to be traced to the Bame source of misery and crime , it may be safely asserted that if machinery , in its earliest stage , bad not broaght together masses of human beings to meet a temporary demand tor labour , and then turned them adrift , or offered them starvation wages , when their labour was diminished in value by subsequent improvements in machinery , there would have been no smashing of the frames by the Luddites , nor of thrashing machines by farming men : no burning of ricks by Swing ; nor , lastly , should we bave witnessed the appalling spectacle of a simultaneous turn-out of nearly every
trade through the whole length and breadth of the manufacturing districts . For , although the rebellion of the belly bas been pat down by the Btrong arm of the law , ot has fallen to pieces from the inherent weakness of such outbreaks , where the parties are bound together by a rope of sand , it may justly be called appalling ; as it has shown , what was never seen before , that the operatives of almost all kinds , have discovered that they have been all attacked in turn by the same power ; and though they have been unable , eyen when united , lo . offer a successful resistance , they have still the conviction at once , and consolation that the time is not far off when their very masters , who
have grown rich by despoiling the poor , will suffer all the evils of incessant and ruinous competition , which the unlimited nse of machinery cannot fail to produce Nor is it with little delight they have heard the lamentations of Mr . Cobden ; who , at a recent meeting of the Anti-Corn Law League , at Manchester , wept over the ruin which has come npon Stociport ; where £ 7 , 000 a-week is now spent less than used to be three years ago ; and who asserted that tbe prospects for the ensuing winter were more gloomy than ever ; while the manufacturing districts in general bave been suffering for the last six years , by a decline of trade , more widely extended , and continued for a longer period than tbe oldest person ever remembered .
Nor with less joyous feelings have the machineground operatives heard from Mr . Bazley , that , though the turn-out has ceased , tbe shops of the retailera axe still scanty of customers , while the warehouses of the manufacturers are groaning nnder the weight of unsaleable goods ; that booses are occupied by tenants who can pay no rent , and docks filled with vessels that can obtain no freight ; and to complete the climax of commercial distress , wkile the farmers in Devon , said Mr . Bright , mean to reduce the wages of their labourers to eigbtpence a day , the Stockbrokers in Change-alley , and tbe hankers of Lombard-street , in London , are going to curtail the hours of business ; because , says the Morning Chronicle , the clerks have now nothing to do after four o ' clock , bat to pick their teeth , mend their pens , and to calculate how much the firm are loosing daily by the gas-lights .
That sach would be the ultimate effects of the unlimited use of machinery was shown by the prophet to whom I have before alluded ; and though tbe reasons on which he based bis predictions were published by myself some nine years ago , yet I shall reprint them in my next letter , and accompany them with such confirmations as subsequent events have furnished , For the present I will merely state , that , if in the cause of " Man versus Machine" the witnesses had not been suborned , the jury packed , and the judges prejudiced against the plaintiff , the law of the land would bave confirmed instead of auanlling tbe precept of Christ , — " Thou shalt lore thy neighbour as thyself ; '' nor would the philanthropist have had reason to smile at the stupidity of the millocrats , who he saw were cutting their own throats , when they fancied they were catting the throats of their rivals in trade . Still less would the operatives , had they received a fair day ' s wage for a fair day ' s work ,
have been found to answer the cry for free trade , to benefit tbe mill-masters , by tbe cry for the Charter , to benefit the mill-slaves ; nor would those -who have stupidly substituted the cheap power of the machine for the dear power of man have discovered , to their cost , that they are now playing a losing game , whether they work their steam-engines or stop them ; nor , lastly , wouid the joint-stock banks of Manchester , where manufacturers fancied that their Chamber of Commerce could manage all the trade of the empire , so mismanage their own concerns as to exhibit to their hapless creditors tbe spectacle , at once piteous and laughable , of the bear in a boat , as detailed in the fables of Gay , who , doubtless , had an eye to the South Sea bubble of his day , the counterpart of those which have brought ruin and ridicule upon an age which calls itself ''TheMarch of Intellect Era . " Hungry Handless .
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THE MODEL PRISON AT PENTONVILLE . We give elsewhere a letter from a Correspondent of the Morning Chronicle , in reference to this modern Hell . To that letter we direct attention-We hare not yet seen the ' embodyment of Deriliszn in the shape of an Act of Parliament to which it refers , but intend to buy and read it , for the purpose of exhibiting to our readers the animus and the philosophy (!) of the mild spirit of liberalism in the nineteenth century .
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THE EXECUTIVE . The incarceration of the President and Secretary , and the compulsory absence from their duties of two other members of the Executive Committee are circumstances well calculated to beget a spirit of uneasiness in the minds of all true lovers of our national organization ; lest , in the temporary paralysis of the Executive , the general affairs of the association should suffer derangement . This can scarcely have happened , in so short a period as has yet elapsed , if the general scheme of organisation have been adhered to and enforced by the
Executive—while they yet had the power— -with that carefulness which should recommend them to the people as trust-worthy and deserving servants in a like capacity hereafter . Their conduct has not , so far as we know , been publicly impeached , on . that or any other head ; and we do not see therefore that any Chartist , or body of Chartists , can have the right to assume and take for granted thst the Chartist public is prepared to cast over * board its present Executive , merely because the storm of persecution has overtaken them ia its
onjust career . True ; it is important that the functions of the Executive should suffer no interruption in their course of exercise . The men of London saw this instantly , and , therefore , wisely and properly appointed an unpaid Provisional Executive , to advise with and aid the one member of the present board , who is yet unscathed , until the real Executive should again be able to resume their duties or the time should come for tbe nomination and election of a new Executive , accordant with our plan of general organization . In this the London men did well and wisely . They deserve the thanks of the country for their promptness , and we are glad to see , by the resolutions sent us , that they have them . But some people are not thus easily contented . There are , it
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seems , parties calling themselves Chartists whom nothing less will satisfy than that the Executive shall be deserted—abandoned by the people—thrown overboard in the hour of their difficulty , —and a new Executive appointed . And Hub , too , though there has been no impeachment of their conduct , and no pretence , publicly urged , of their being guilty of any crime , Bave that of having fallen into the fangs of power ! A correspondent draws onr attention to the following paragraph , which he says he has seen is Hh& Evening Star : — " Hahleston , Nohiolk . —Mr . Nathaniel Morling , of Brighton , was nominated for the ensuing Executive at a general meeting of the Council of the above place . "
We have not personally noticed this paragraph in the Evening Star , but we have perfect faith in our correspondent ' s veracity ; and we must say that , if it be there , it betokens on the part of those who sent it a recklessness of common decency , which we sincerely hope is not participated by any other parties claiming to be Chartists , and an ignorance of the constitution of the National Charter Association , of whioh we trust " The Council of the above place "—( if there be any Buoh body , and if they authorised the sending of this paragraph . )
—enjoy an unenviable monopoly among the officers of onr National Association . Perfectly approving the appointment of a Provisional Executive to supply the forced lack of functionary operation in the Executive , we yet think the whole country will agree with us that if the present members of the Exeoutive Committee are to be turned out before their time , there ought to be some reason assigned for their expulsion ; and that the expulsion itself ought to be effected in an orderly and regular way .
The Executive are not the servants of the Counci l of Harleston—a body of whom we suppose nobody ever heard before—but of the National Charter Association . They were appointed by its members as a whole ; subjeot to the regulations of the plan of organization . That plan specifies that : — " 14 . The General Council of the Association shall cfeoose five members of their own body to sit as an Executive Committee , in manner 83 herein follows : — Every Sub-Secretary shall bs at liberty to nominate one candidate , on the 1 st day of February in each year , and five persons from among these so nominated shall be elected by all the Members on tbe 1 st day of March following .
" MODE OF ELECTING XHK EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE " 15 . —The nomination of candidates of the Executive Committee , by the several Sub-Secretaries , Bhall be in accordance with the following form : — To the General Secretary of the National Charter Association of Great Britain . ' February 1 , 18—'Sia , —I hereby nominate A . B . ( blacksmith , ) of ( 14 , High-street , Bath , ) a member of the General Council of the National Chatter Association of Great Britain , as a fit and proper person to be elected a member of the Executive Committee , on the 1 st day of Much next ' Signed , CD ., ' ( Carpenter , No . 6 , Tib-street ,
' Manchester , ) Member of the General Council , and sub-Seoretary of ' the National Charter Association of ' Great Britain . " A list of all the candidates so nominated , shall be transmitted , per post , by the General Secretary , to every sub-Secretary , on or before the 10 th day of February ; tbe election shall be taken on the 1 st day of March following ; and the number of votes shall be immediately forwarded to the General Secretary , who shall lay tbe same before the outgoing Executive Committee for examination , and by their order publish , within one week of receiving them , the Whole of such returns ; together with the declaration or the outgoing Executive Committee , of the persons duly elected . "
The constitution of the society gives no power to the Council at Harleston or anywhere else , nor to any officer or member of the association to nominate persons for the ensuing Executive until the proper time . If any extraordinary circumstances may be thought to render the election of a new Exeoutive necessary , it is thedutyof the parties who so think , not to presume to nominate cardidates , but to communicate with the members of the Association generally , and take the opinion of the majority , first , upon the question of whether candidates shall be nominated .
There are two ways in which this may be done . The first way is to communicate 'through the Secretary , with the Provisional and Acting Exeoutive ; to lay before them the reasons upon which the opinion that a new permanent Executive should be elected is entertained ; and to require them to take the proper steps for ascertaining the sense of the people upon the subject . The other way is to address the people through the press , mooting the question , and leaving it fairly open to discussion among the members in their several localities .
Either of these courses would be likely to bring the question fairly before the people ; to give fair play to democratic principle ; and to do something like justice to the suffering members of the present Executive ; and if good reasons could be shewn why a new Executive should be now appointed , no doubt the country would acquiesce in it , and probably none would more cheerfully acquiesce in it than the members of the Executive themselves . But for any Councillor , or for any two or three Councillors , living together in a little village , to preaume ,
without regard to the plan of organization—without regard to the spirit of democracy , which requires that the people should be consulted , and that their voice should determine upon all publio measuresand without regard to the inferences which must be drawn from such a step in referenoe to the present Executive—at such a time as this to proceed to the nomination of particular individuals to fill the places of those who have not yet vacated office , and who are only precluded from its duties by the hand of uDJust power , is monstrous .
Our Correspondent—a Councillor of the Association and a good Chartist—calls warmly on the Chartist publie not to elect Mr . Moelikg whom he knows well and whom he describes as a most improper person . We have a so received , in reference thereto , the following resolution from the Councillors at Brighton : — " Brighton , October 16 th , 1842 . "At a meeting of the members of the General Council of the National Charter Association residing in
Brighton , it was unanimously resolved , that Mr . Nathaniel Morling , of this town , having been nominated by the Council of Harleston , in Norfolk , as a member of the proposed Executive Council , we are of opinion that Mr . Morling is net a fit and proper person to be elected to such an important office , and hereby call upon oar brother Chartists not to sanction the ejection of that gentleman . " James Flaxman , Chairman . " William Floweb , Treasurer . "
Without inquiring why the Councillors of Brighton , in particular , deem Mr . Morling unfit for the office of Executive Committeeman , and without entering into , or even stating , the reasons alleged against hi 3 election by our other correspondent , we say at once that if Mr . Moklinq was a consenting . party to this most unfair , most irregular , and most indecently presumptuous nomination , that act alone proves him to be utterly unfit for the important and responsible office to whieh he aspires .
Having said thus much about this extraordinary Nomination , may we now be permitted to inquire from whom it comes ! Who are " the Coancil of Harleston ! " How many are there of them ! How many inhabitants are there in Harleston ! and of these how many are members of th « National Charter Association ! We neve * yet heard of there being more than one person at Harleston claiming to be a Chartist . Whether that person is , or ever was , a member of the Association -we don't
knowbut we have seen in a defunct print some rigmarole letters signed by a person who dates from Harleston , and who calls himself a Chartist ; but we never heard of his having any associates there . We were so much amused , therefore , with the idea of •* A general meeting of the Council" at Harleston , that we had some difficulty in believing the whole thing to be any other than & hoax . Be this as it may , it may be as well for the peopl e to ba on their guard , lest any such hoaxing should he attempted in earnest .
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LORD ABINGER'S POPULARITY , AND
THE POLICY OF THE PEOPLE . Few men have obtained a more unenviable notoriety than that which Lord A binges has achieved for himself during his crusade against Chartism in the Special Assizes at Chester and Liverpool . The whole press of the whole country cries shame ! Even the Tory press , almost Without exception } joins in the common language of reproof , and grioves to see the judgment-seat thus foully desecrated . Several of our contemporaries boldly put the question whether it is fit that the ermine should be longer suffered to encompass the bloated
form of ignorant and dishonest partisanship whioh is exhibited in the person of his Lordship . Eveji the Tory Merning Herald affirms that any of the Chartist prisoners would have a fair right to protest against being tried by him , and to demand that his trial should take place before a less prejudiced Judge . Certain it is , that , within the compass of our memory , never was the British Benoh so degraded and . disgraced as during these proceedings by this doting old man . To attempt anything like sober refutation of the rigmarole which with our own ears we heard him deliver not merely to the
Grand Jury but the petit Juries of Liverpool , would be an insult to the understandings of our readers , little short of that perpetrated in the grave enunciation of his stupid and malignant trash by the ermined fuaotionary himself . We will give our readers a sample , and leave them from that to judge ot the whole sack . In the case of Warwick , a small shopkeeper at Oldham , whose offence consisted in having exhibited on a board at the door of bis shop the placard alleged to have been issued by the Executive . Commenting to the Jury " in round set terms" upon
the misohievous crime perpetrated in the publication of this placard , the Judge was pleased oracularly to lay down that Universal Suffrage must issue in the complete disorganization and overthrow of society and all existing institutions , and he took , as an illustration of his assumed position , military discipline ; demanding how it could reasonably be expected that an army could be kept in proper order if the common soldiers were to have equal power with their officers . Here was a Judge and a lawyer—an English Judge and lawyer ! actually holding up the perfect despotism of military
discipline as the most perfect model of civil government , and denouncing every effort to procure for the great mass of the people one jot more of freedom than is enjoyed by the great mass of the soldiery as an atrocious crime which deserved heavy punishment ! Why do we again call attention to this sickening exhibition ! Is it because Judge Abinger is a subject worthy of so muoh notice \ By no means . But we think this with every passing circumstance worth noting by the people as evidence which grows in every instance stronger of the remorseless character and unchangeable nature of class domination . Let them not imagine for an instant that the spots of the beast , however they may
change their form , can be obliterated . While ever the usurped power of creating and administering the law is suffered to remain in the hands of those by whom it has been usurped , judgment will ba a mockery , justice an airy shadow of a name , and religion a vile covering for oppressive cruelty . Let , then , all these things infase fresh determination into the people ' s minds . Let them , as they successively behold them , look upon them as so many sacred shrines on which to swear eternal hatred to class tyranny , and unceasing warfare with it . Let every man be a Hamilcar—let him rear bis children ia just hatred to unrighteousness in all its forms , and make them vow unceasing opposition to its rule .
But while these lamentable exhibitions of partizanship on the judgment seat are regarded by the people as evidence of the utter futility of any hope to obtain justice while the system of class dominance exists ; while they are regarded as so many sacred altars on which to dedicate our Hannibals to holy war against unrighteousness ; while they supply so many additional incentives to cling firmly and adhere closely to our agitation and demand for the whole Charter , unmixed and unmitigated , let them be also that which they are not intended for , the beacon light of warning—the remembrance of the
power against which we have to contend , and the sort of hands by which that power is wielded ; and let the people hence learn the lesson we have so long laboured to inculcate , that their resistance to oppression to be successful must be prudently and cautiously , as well as boldly and manfully , conducted . God forbid that we should ever recommend a trimming policy ; a coquetting with the rampant enemy , even though disposed to near the appearance of a smile . We know his heart too well ! But while we have ever sat our faces against that smirking cowardice which to conciliate the
enemy would sacrifice a tittle of the cause , we have been ever equally opposed to that greater cowardice which in its blustering seal would peril every thing for fear of being thought cowardly . We have had too much of this amongst us , or my Lord Abimoeb might have had less opportunity to show the teeth of faction than has been afforded him . Let the time past Berve for a lesson . While the people redouble their vigilance and defcerminanation , let them redouble also their caution . Let every new step be well weighed before taken . Examine in all its bearings , in all its aspects , and in all its probable consequences , every great question : and proceed not hastily to act before you
have well looked at the end to which it may conduct you . Let the organization of our National Society be strictly looked to . In itself it is perfectly legal ; but it is in the power of a few fools , by inattention to its details , to invalidate all that has been done to throw round us the safe mantle of protection . Remember that we have again , and again , and again , pressed this point upon the attention of the country ; let it not be negleoted . Present not unnecessarily any weapon to the adversary's hand . Do all peacefully , all quietly , all within the precincts of the law , but all with determined energy and persevering vigilance ; and God , who abhors injustice , " will maintain the cause of the afflicted and uphold the right of the poor . "
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CLERICAL SYMPATHY FOR THE POOR . To whatever point on the wide field of observation the eye may be directed , it encounters the appalling evidence of an invincible and deadly animosity entertained by the whole complex of the wealthy against poverty . This spirit is usually manifested with the greatest virulence by those who have most of the oil of pharisaic "liberalism" on their lips , and by none more fully than the canting hypocrites who in the guise of dissenting parsons " creep into widows' houses , and for a pretence make long prayers . " We intend not , of course , to apply this censure to the whole body of dissenting
ministers . There are among them good and pious men ; men who , as far as their knowledge and opportunities afford the means , do honour to their holy calling by " reproving sin with boldness" whether clothed in rags or in broadcloth ; and by maintaining , in all honesty and sincerity , the cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor . But the bulk of them are dependant on the " Green Pews" and their broad doth occupants for their subsistence—and are also fall of the spirit of self-importance and desire of distinction —and hence pander to that hurt of " respectability "
which is so ably and so eloquently reproved by the Apostle James . We know no distinction of sect in this matter ; for our painful observation has assured us that all sects are alike deeply tinctured with this cursed leaven . The professors of Divine Truth , under its new and more pure dispensation , and the old consummated church under all its multitudinons forms and sections , alike manifest a betrayal of the interests and doctrines of true religion , in their neglect of , or contempt for , the rights and liberties of the poor . The greater part of these gentry , however , do , like their famous predecessor is the days of the Lord ' s
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flesh , "carry the bag . " They have generally an abundance of sympathy for the poor upon their lips , however much their "talk" may be belied by their practical upholding of the hands of the oppressor . ( And we believe many of them to be theoretically sincere , and that their smpport of faction's dominance is the result rather of ignorance than design . ) Now and then , however , we find one who is bold enough to throw off the mask , and proolaim open war against the principles of his religion ; amongst whom we now find it to be our duty to accord a prominent position to a Reverend Mr . M'Dowall , Secession Minister of Alloa . Our attention has been drawn to the report , in a local journal , of a meeting in the Parochial School Room of that place , at whioh this worthy figured * s the mover of a
resolution"That the Sheriff be respectfully requested to adopt means for rendering the police force more effective in preventing stranger poor from begging in the parish . " This resolution , we are told , was seconded and carried unanimously . Here is indeed a pretty spectacle to contemplate ! A minister of God's Word , of that Word which in almost every line and precept directs charity and alms-giving to the poor , and hospitable entertainment to the stranger— : foremost in the fell van of an undisoriminating attack upon the " Btranger poor !» A minister of that religion whose very essence is Benevolence and Charity , insolently presuming to
lay an embargo on the hospitable and charitable feelings of a whole parish ! determining that the Apostolio injunction " to do good and to communicate , " shall not be practised in his parish ; at all events , not towards any of the " stranger poor . " This motion , thus " unanimously adopted , " is a sentence of banishment upon all " stranger poor , " in as far as may regard the parish of Alloa . The time has boen when to a Christian people , and a Christian ministry , to be "poor" or to be a " stranger , " was accounted a sufficient passport to the arms of Christian love ; when either of these conditions would of itself have ensured charitable aid and hospitable kindness ,
and when their joint infliction would have been hold to be a strengthening of a brother ' s claim to " the communion of the saints . " But those were times of ignorance and darkness ! The " glorious Reformation" has shed its light and heat upon the Christian world , and " Christian pastors" now behold the poor and the stranger in an altogether different light . To be poor , in the estimation of the "lights of the world , " such as the Rev . Mr . M'Dowall , ie sufficiently heinous and Binful ; but . when to that crime is added the abomination of being a stranger also , pious horror can be restrained no longer , and the seoular arm of power is most "respeotfully" and religiously instructed—not to prevent distress and poverty from existing , and from foroing men , women , and ohildren to depend
on casual bounty for that subsistence which , at the board of nature , God has provided in abundance for every child of Jiis creation , but" to adapt means for rendering the police forte more efficient , "'that the " Btranger poor" may be prevented from begging ; that those whom the tyrannous edicts aud antichristian spirit and operation of class-made laws and usages have first made poor , and then driven from their homes , may be compelled to starve and die—to yield up their lives an uncomplaining sacrifice on the shrine of the fell demon of property and class distinction ; of whioh shrine this Reverend Mr . M'Dowall impiously constitutes himself a priest , and seems , by tho report referred to , to offer up his viotima with muoh satisfaction ; for he is reported to have said in support of his
motion" That our policemen had all the appearance of very comfortable-looking gentlemen , walking about at their ease , and thought they might be rendered more effective in the way pointed out in his motion . " Had this " follower of Jesus" and preacher of his word lived in the days of the ^ Lord ' s flesh , we ask what must , in the spirit of this motion , have been his conduct \ He would have spurned from him with contempt the " Stranger poor , " the Saviour and his apostles , travelling from plaoe to place , and depending for their food and lodging on the hospitality of
those to whom they came . Bad , however , as were the Jewish priests , pharisees , and soribes , we have no record of their having sought to dry up by force the streams of benevolence in otherB , which they themselves refused to cherish . We hear nothing o f their instructing the police to apprehend and punish " Stranger poor . " This was a refinement upon want of natural humanity reserved for the improved age , and more pure and high-toned morality of Reformed * Protestant , Dissenting , Evangelical , Christianity ; for the Secession Church in Scotland , and for the Rev . Mr . M'Dowall .
We do not know the fact ; but we have no doubt that this same Rev . Mr . M'Dowall would be a prominent actor in the farce of an appeal to Heaven ' s clemency on behalf of the poor , through the medium of national fasting and prayer . Let us not be misunderstood . We do not use these terms in reference to the solemn acts and duties of fasting and prayer . God forbid that we should do so . But when these are resorted to for the avowed purpose of moving Heaven for the alleviation of the sufferings of the poor , while the means of alleviation within our own power are at the same time wilfully
and strenuously withholden , and while we cherish the Bpirit which alone eould diotate this motion fox quickening the police iu reference to the "stranger poor , " we do think ourselves justified in pronouncing it , under such circumstances , a blasphemous farce ; and we believe that no man who thinks rationally , and who reads carefully the 1 st chapter of Isaiah , the 58 th of Isaiah , and the whole Epistle of the Apostle James , can think the assertion too strong . We have no doubt , we say , that this Mr . M'Dowall was an actor in the " national-fast" farce . Did he ever happen to read words like these J : —•
Is not this the fast that I have chosen ; to loose the bonds of wickedness , to undo the heavy burdens , and to let the oppressed go free , and that ye break every yoke ? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry , and that thou bring the poor that are cast out into thy house ? when thou seest the naked that thou cover him , and that thou hide not thyself from thine own fleBh !" Did this Reverend bounder of the police upon the " stranger poor , " ever happen in the course of his theological studies to stumble upon this
passage!" When ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you : yea , when ye make many prayers I will not hear : your hands are full of blood . Wash you ; make you clean ; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; learn to do well ; seek judgment ; relieve the oppressed ; judge the fatherless ; plead for the widow . " Perhaps it may be urged , iu excuse for this antichristian procedure , that the influx ef " strange " poor is so great as to interfere with the ability of the parishioners to support properly their own poor . If this be so , the spirit of Christianity should teach its
ministers to apply themselves not to the driving of them from the gates and doors of themselves and their neighbours , to " die in holes and corners ; " but to the discoverv and removal of the cursed root of mischief whence all this poverty arises . This would be an occupation worthy of their high calling , and whioh would justly entitle them to be styled , " ambassadors of peace" and "friends of the poor . " He must be a scribe badly instructed indeed in the learning of Holy Seriptur *—totally unfit to be entrusted with the expounding and application of its truths—who does not know that the
very existence of poverty on a large scale , extending over great masses of society , and involving in privation and physical want a large portion of the inhabitants of any country , is a fact directly in the teeth of all the principles and all the provisions of Revelation—a state of thiags nowhere contemplated , or recognised in Holy Writ , and which could not be at all , if the doctrines and precepts of Christianity were practically enforced . In all Christian charity , then , we hope that the next time we hear of this Reverend Gentleman we shall find him exerting his talent and his influence , hot in requesting the police
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to be more severe in their operations against tha " stranger poor , " but in searching out , and bringing to the light , for their spcedyland permanent remova ^ the causes by whose operation . ** stranger poor * abound .
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THE RESULTS OF THE " SPECIAL" CRUSADE AGAINST CHARTISM . Upon tbia subject we present our readers with the following from the Evening Star . — "The trials of the ' patient , ' the starving , ' the 1 enduring , ' and the exemplary working people are now over , and the sufferers and their friends will have learned , from judicial clemency , the value of Ministerial praise and Parliamentary sympathy Who but must have admired the harmony of Toryism , in contrasting the admission of great distress by her Majesty's Prime Minister , with the denial of its existence by her Majesty ' s Chief Baron ? Who but must have felt the sincerity of the Dissenting
body , who for conscience' sake , demand for themselves exemptions from the support of doctrines in which they cannot believe , while , as Jurors , they have pronounced ready verdicta of Guilty against their fellow-men , for the mere expression of opinion—aye , of honest opinion Who but must have gloried in our happy Constitution in Church and State , when they saw the shepherds swearing away the lives of their flocks , and hired policemen made the ready instruments to effect their purpose ! Who but must respect tha ancient office of justice of the peace , when he finds a Judge of no mild bearing reducing the amount of
bail required by the magistrates to less than one sixth 1 Who but must honour and obey his pastor and master , when he finds the employer the most deadly foe of his employee ? Who but must hold the Bar in reverence , when he finds the rolls open to swindlers and robber 3 , who have obtained money from pauper prisoners under false pretences , and who , to gloss the deed , only require to become an enrolled member of the liberal profossion ? Who but must bow down and worship the pious advocates of "free trade , " who give bullets and bludgeons to those from whom they ask for bread ? Who but must render willing and oheerful submission to those
laws , which a Judge of the land tells him are fixed as Persian edicts , and based upon the " final will " of a Russell ? Lord Abinger laid great stress , in his charge , upon Russell's assurance to his followers , that the Reform Bill was to be considered aa a final measure . Who but must lookup with admiraion to ou- guardian press , as the honest arbiter between innocence and despotism , between right and might , between the poor oppressed , and his rich oppressor ! If the Special Commissions shall have produced no other effeot , they will have placed the respective privileged classes in their proper characters before the unrepresented slaves . The people will have
been confirmed in their just belief , that however , as sections , classes may contend , all will unite when . labour is to be coerced or intimidated . They have uow had a happy illustration of this fact . They find liberal magistrates uniting aud aiding a Tory Government in political prosecutions . They find Churchmen and Dissenters equally thirsting for the blood of the accussd . They find " Free-traders' * and Monopolists ( as they are called ) uniting ia their determination to oppress the poor . They find overseers screened by a Coroner ' s jury for murder committed upon their order . They find the pulpit desecrated by a partisan demagogue preaching blood and
devastation , to . 'Judges and Jurors about to sit in judgment upon outlaws . They find the last door to mercy closed against them ; and in their tribulation ia it wonderful that they should turn from such a Babel , aud seek to build a sanctuary and a refuge for themselves ! No , it is not ; and however unjust power may rejoice in its triumph , yet is that building going on , course by course , until eventually the proud monument of despotism must fall beneath its influence . What ! stop Chartism by Special Commissions , by mocking its principles , and holding its advocates up to scorn ? "Go to "—Btop the rushing tide of ocean ; turn the sun from his course ; arrest
the decrees of the All-wise ; change nature s current ; tell the mind to stand still—invention to cease —genius to strive no more in its natural fieldopinion to go in swaddling clothes , and the tongue of man to hold its peace . Do these things , asd hope to succeed , when bayonets can wound sound opinions , bullets shoot just sentiments , or sabres out down approved principles . These principles are as the shadow , man is the substance of whose coming the shadow giveth warning . He is coming in his might , in his majesty , in his unconquerable power . In the robes of genius and moral grandeur , asserting his prerogative with a manly front , undaunted by the fate
of victims pent within the prison walls , as omens of his fate , should he still persevere . And yet , despite of all , he will persevere , 'knowing that at birth he was honoured with a commission , the duties of which are , while living , to comfort and assist the weak and the poor , and when dying , to leave the world , if possible , better than he found it . Lei those who would presumptuously attach a stigma to the principles of Chartism , and who yet hope to affright its advocates by tunl , read the proud avowal of those principles in the unanswerable Bpeech of
Mr . Thomas Cooper . We trust that Mr . Coopeb will reprint his speech whole ; and we have no doubt that it weuld be a mantel ornament for every poor man ' s cottage . Who felt lest , and who greatest , while those thrilling truths were issuing from the grated dock , a place for felons , not intended for philosophers ! Who was then the culprit—the man in the dock , or the wretch in the witness box 1 Where then was the yeoman ' s sword to cut down Chartism I Where the bludgeon to break the head of Cooper ' s discourse !
" Faction will find its triumph in the price it wl 1 1 have to pay for its whistle ; while Chartism will see its " victory in that dread in which the unjust hold its just principles , and the lengths to which those ia possession of power are prepared to go against law , justice , and decency , to insure their destruction . With such an unconstitutional foe , . then , as injustice , and such an unconquerable friend as right , what have the noble army of Chartists to dread " The friends we've tried , Are by our side , The foe we hate before us . "
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THE APPROACHING MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS . The annual dog-fi » ht is now approaching , during which we anticipate much ljing , but little truth ; much roguery , but little honesty ; much hypocrisy , but little sincerity . This has over been the casein this Borough since the passing of the Municipal Corporation Act ; and we see not the shadow of a reason to induce us to expect it will bd otherwise on the present occasion . In fact , it
would be the quint-essence of absurdity to expect anythisg but a repetition , of the old game , £ O long as the Property Qualification forms the chief ingredient in the corporate pudding . How « ever , the thing must be worked , at present , with all its imperfections , in the best possible manner , care being taken by the honeat portion of the Burgesses to avoid the snares into Which they have heretofore fallen , many of which are , no doubt , already set in every ward ; the many coy-birds now on the wing giving proof thereof
It is not our province to bepraise any of the pie * sent or ex-Councillors ; that we leave to thb veracious scribes of faction who are known adepts in white * washing characters and deeds of the darkest hue , and blackening those wholly spotless , save from tha blots received from the pens of time-serving and hire * ling scribblers who live by the defamation [ of all who refuse to run in party harness The Tories may prate about Whig deception , and
the Whiga may fulminate against Tory extravagance , but we unhesitatingly tell both factions that the ; have both attained the very acme ot hypocrisy and have vied with each other in a wanton and wasteful expenditure of the money of the rate * payers . No regard whatever has been paid to the exigences of those from whose pockets the money is drawn . Their only forte seems to be that of aping the plunderers who do business on a more extensive scale in Westminster .
These are not tunes to pander to tha appetites of place-hunting cormorants ; neither can the Burgesses , without being guilty of a
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Birmixghah . —Steelhocse Lane . —At the usual Tuesday evening meetiag Mr . Potts read two letters from F . O'Connor , Esq ., to Mr . Porter , enclosing a £ 5 note for the defence of Mr . George White . A list of weekly subscribers and donors was read , for the payment of a lecturer for Birmingham . Names and subscriptions are received by the Secretary , and when the amount in hand is sufficient to pay the lecturer for a month , the subscribers will be called upon to elect one . White ' s Defence Committee have received from Mr . John Markall , 54 , Charlott *> -street , 7 s . -td . ; from the friends of Coventry , £ 1 3 8 . The Sub-Secretary for Birmingham , is W . Talbert , 93 , Woodcock-it .
The Ivoethekn Stae. Saturday, October 22, 1842.
THE iVOETHEKN STAE . SATURDAY , OCTOBER 22 , 1842 .
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4 THE NORTHERN STAR .
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Citation
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Northern Star (1837-1852), Oct. 22, 1842, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/vm2-ncseproduct453/page/4/
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