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COBBETT CLUB OF LONDON. ■ ■':ff:^-'-'':^immA No. I. ■ ■ ^ ■ ^ ^^^K.»^m 'k r^^r - ADDRESSED TO TNE ^l^KE Ortlf 1 UNITED KlNODOM. •Vl^;-' .jfl-ft'tt* nth /t-f.-.-j'-'r'''^''*''* TO BE REPEATED OCCASIONALLY. -■■v*.?/r 1 I LONDON : J. CLEAVE, 1, airOE L4NE, FLEET STREET, AND ALL BOOKeELLBRS. 1839. , i.''. ^juSm /«■ *"•« '"^•■/i CONTENTS. Paga. Introductory Address .... 3 Oil the Stamp Duties .... 10 Irish Poor Laws ..... 13 Irish Coercion Bill .... l8 Com Laws ...... ig Canadian Rebellion .... 27 Parliamentary Reform .... 35 Universal Suffrage • . ... 35 Is Education (" Heddicaiion** ) necessary to qualify men to exercise the Elective Pranchisc ? • 42 Vote by Ballot 44 Annual Parliaments and Payment of Members - 45 Property Qualification for Members • . 48 Physical Force ..... 49 Right of having Arms and Right of Resistance 51 Juhustuu, Printer, I.oveU'b Court, tit. Paurs. .■ .fc-.^ A POLITICAL TRACT. INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. The Political writings of the late Mr. Cobbett, were the best that ever came from the press, for their clearness, simplicity and power ; they were from the pen of a man who had a quick and nice perception of all the parts of a question, no matter how difficult or abstruse ; whose force of argument, admirable illustra- tions and perspicuity were truly inimitable ; added to which, his energy of character, his great integrity and undoubted sincerity, all combined to stamp him as the maater-apmt of his day. The writings of this wonderfully gifted man, we had the happiness of reading for many years, and we always found them calculated to better the condition of his fellow-country- men : we always found his exertions directed to assist the feeble — to defend the oppressed, in short (in his own words), " to protect defenceless innocence against the attacks of potverfitl ffuilt." For the possession of his gigantic talent we honoured him — for his exertions in the cause of true liberty we admired him — for his patriotism we revered him — for his virtues we loved him ; and, now that he is dead, we are desirous to keep alive the remembrance of him, and to do all that we can to give currency to his numerous useful works. His death created a void, which we have long been hoping, or, rather wishing, to see filled. But, alas ! week after week, month after month, and year after year, have we waited in vain ! London, we thought would, surely, produce some organ through which we, his disciples, should hear his senti- ments; but, in that, we have been deceived, and are, now, almost in despair of ever seeing his vacant chair filled, and the example that he furnishes us widely imitated ; the necessity for which is, every day, more apparent as the public affairs of our country approach their great crisis. Newcastle-on-Tyne, the place that contains, as we have often heard Mr. Cobbett say, some of the best and most talented of his disciples, has sent' forth its " Northern Liberator" which fully comes up to the standard of Cobbettism ; most heartily do we thank its clever conductors for their exertions, and most highly do we honour them for those productions of theirs, that cause us to feel less keenly the loss that we have sustained by the death of our great apostle ; but, those exertions and those productions of theirs, make ns blush to the very bone, at the disgrace to the city where we are domiciled, from whence so f ;n ■ 4 INTRODUCTORY ADDRSSS. many of the glorious JRegistera darted their rays over oor benighted country, when we reflect on the fact, that, in the very temple where he so long ministered, no voice should he heard to proclaim those principles that had been inculcated by him : no proper effort should have been made to extend the se principles which we, his disciples, know are identified with the true interests of our country. These things have, at last, become ir supportable, and have made us resolve to endeavour to wipe away the foul reproach ; and, although we know that we are at an immeasurable distance below him in powers of mind, we are determined to do our best to advocate those principles that he has taught us : — although we well know that not the tenth part of a tithe of his wondrous talent is possessed by us, we hope to imitate his sterling integrity : — although tyranny will not, in us, have such powerful opponents, yet will we, to the utmost of our abilities, be its opponents -.—although the servile slaves, who crouch at the foot of power, and are obsequiously doing its bidding, will not find us so able to give vent to loathing, to scorn,, to withering indignation and bitter contempt of them, yet we hope to give proof that we " hate them with a perfect hatred," and that we are anxious to follow his example towards them> At the commencement of works of this kind, it is proper that the readers should be informed, in the plainest and most un- equivocal manner, what are the principles that will be advo- cated in them, and that a clear statement should be given,^ of the manner in which they will be conducted, so that there may be nothing of a doubtful or uncertain character about them '^ and so that, if there be the smallest departure from the path in which we originally started, immediate detection may follow. We especially desire to avoid adding to the number of those publications, which have, from time to time, been announced to the world under descriptions that have grossly deceived us, as we have found when the works themselves have made their appearance. Many have been the times when we have been delighted to hear that an " vrjlinching advocafe of the Just rights " of the people," was about to unsheath the pen in political strife : — when a " bold and indefatigable denouncer of aU abuses" was about to pour out the " vials of his wrath** on base public plunderers: — when an " uncompromising champion of reform in " Parliament" was about to enter the list, to break a lance, in political warfare ; and, at length, when these advocates, denoun- cers, and uncompromising champions, have made their appear- ance, we have found them to be, in fact, " advocates" of things as they are : "denouncers" of all those who were for remedy- ing all abuses, and " uncompromising champions" of the enemies of real reform. Now, these things not only have been of no good, but they have been of real injury to the people. Of more injury than have been any of the candid, open, plain-spoken, Tory publications that have ever appeared ; and most desirous are we not to do, or to say, anything that will consign us to the category of such weak and wicked tricksters ; our deslire being, that, whatever might be said of us, no one shall be able to say that our IMTBODyCTORT APPRBSS. 5 prineiplei are mimnderstood, nor that our sincerity, in the advo> caoy of those princi|jles, can fairly be doubted. About a year ago, a society was formed in London under the designation of "Thb Cobbett Club ;" which consists, for the greater part, of men who were, for many years, the personal frienda of the late Mr. Cobbett, and who have united for the purpose of promoting the principles of which that great and good man was the teacher ; amongst which, the following are the more prominent ones, and are, on that account, adopted as the TESTS by which candidates for admission into the Cqbbjbtt Club are tried. " First. That it is necessary to the well being and good " government of the people of this kingdom, that Parlia- '* ments should be elected annually: — That every man of " mature age, of sound mind, and unstained by indelible " crime, should have a vote in the choosing of Members ** of Parliament ; — and, that they should vote for such " Members by means of the Ballot. " Secondly. That every individual if in want, has prescriptive " and legal right to demand from the State, a sufficiency *• of every thing necessary to the maintenance of life ana •' health. « " Thirdly. That there should be an " equitable adjust- ment" of the so-called "National Debt," and of (( « all olhen burdens on the National industry. These, then, are the principles on which our occasional publications will take their stand ; and never will we be found flinching from our duty in endeavouring to cause them to be extended ; the best guarantee for which pledge is, that they are put forth by the Cobbett Club itself, and will be entirely under the management of that body. The reader may, there- fore, be sure that in this holy cause we shall zealously devote the best of our abilities ; and never shall we own that man as a Radical, who falls short in his firm adherence to those principles. We have not the vanity to imagine that we can bring a large stock of talent in aid of our resolution to do as much as we are able in this cause ; nor have we the intolerable vanity to suppose that w« can produce any thing that will not be at an immense and fearful distance from the excellence of the writings of the late Member for Oldham. If the whole of the political writers of the present day were melted down into one, we believe that the writings of that one would fall far shoii; of those that have been produced by his gigantic mind; but, nevertheless, it is our duty to do the best we can, and that will we fearlessly do. We will endeavour to walk in the same path that he formed for himself, turning neither to the right hand, nor to the left hand : he shall be our guide, our polar star, our pillar of fire, to direct us in our way, and then we may be sure of having the cheering approbation of all those who were so long delighted and instructed by him : they will look with an indul- gent eye on our efforts in the cause of truth and justice, and give us credit (whatever of feebleness they observe in us), for the desire to aid our fellow countrymen in effecting the effecting B ^ -'/^ i'- -illiiiOy*-" ^ 6 INTBODUCTORY ADDRESS. «< •I restoration of those rights that have been so long withheld from them, and in the doing of which wo are not weak enough to expect to escape the consequences that usually attend the zealous performance of the duty of combating powerful corrup- tion. Our great teacher has told us that, " every man who *' attacks corruption, who makes war upon the vile herd that •' live upon the people's labour, every such man must lay his ** account Avith being calumniated ; he must expect to be the object of the bitterest and most persevering malice ; and, unless ho has made up his mind to the enduring of this, he had better at once quit the field. One of the weapons which corruption employs against her adversaries is calumny, secret " as well as open. It is truly surprising to see how many ways '* she has of annoying her foes, and the artifices to which she " stoops to arrive at her end. No sooner does a man become in " any degree formidable to her, than she sets to work against ** him in all the relationships of life. In his profession, his *' trade, his family ; amongst his friends, the companions of his " sports, his neighbours and his servants. She eyes him all •' round, she feels him all over, and if he has a vulnerable point, if " he has a speck, however small, she is ready with her stab. How " many hundreds of men have been ruined by her without being •• hardly able to perceive, much less name, the cause ; and how ** many thousands, seeing the fate of these hundreds, have with- *' drawn from the struggle, or have been deterred from taking a •• part in it !" Those who will have to conduct these works, are plain un-" hed- dicated" working men, who, therefore, will not make any very brilltant display of literary talent ; nor will they have any pre- tensions to rank with those sublime geniuses, belonging to the " race that write ;" but, they will, to the best of their capability, give plain and honest statements of their opinions on the various political subjects that may arise, and present them to their readers divested of all that mystery and sublimity with which interested knaves always contrive to disguise them. They are quite prepared for the sneers and revilings of those who will think them guilty of sacrilege for daring to approach the hal- lowed precincts of the press : — quite prepared for the voUies of dull jests and pointless sarcasms that will be let fly at their devoted heads ; — perfectly ready even for the ludicrous compari- sons that will be made at their expense (and here there is good room for their talent at joking,) between them and that great man in whose steps they are enUTIBS. 11 cofild say would tend to make that matter more plain ! it is so good, so complete, so perfect in all its parts, that it would be a work of down-right supererogation to explain it. Whatever people may say about the difficulty o( understanding the meaning of those who pass acts of parliament, there is no niisundei stand- ing the intentions, at any rate, of the ^^ pretty gentlemen** who, in a reformed parliament passed this act. To say any thing more on this muzzling and gagging and hand-cujffing law would indeed bd to " gild refined gold" and therefore we respectfully take our leave of it for the present. But there is, in connexion with this law, the subject of the stamp duties, which was brought before the notice of the House of Commons, by Mr. Cobbett, in 1633. On which Mr. Spring Rice, who had come reeling into the house at a late hour, (having been to a public dinner) and, being inspired by BacckuSy declared, that, whenever the Honourable member for Oldham brought forward his resolutions on the subject of the stamp-taxeSy he would fight him ''fut to fut and shouldtker to shouldther "! Let us now see how the fight "came otf". Mu. Cobbett brought forward his resolutions at the appointed time, in which he complained that " the various duties on legacies, and on pro- " perty coming by intestate succession, are imposed applicable to " diffeient degrees of relationship between the legatees and the " successors and the deceased, beginning at one per cent, and " going on to ten percent ; but, that freehold property is wholly " exempt from this tax, and that, of course the large estates of the " Nobility and landed gentry (including advowsons and " lay-tithes) are exempted ! while if a deceased leave a thou- " sand pounds to a distant relation, that relation will have to pay " one tmndred pounds*'. He also went on to show that in con- " veyances the duty on any thing of five pounds value is ten *' shillings (or ten per cent) whilst if the property conveyed be " of five hundred thousand pounds value, the duty would be only " one thousand pounds (only three-sixteenths per cent !) and in " such a case the poor man would pay more, in proportion, than " FORTY times OS »nwcAa« //le rich man on the same sort of " property. — That, in the case of mortgages, bonds and securi- " ties of every description, if the amount of the mortgage, for " instance, be twenty-five pounds, the amount of the stamp is one *' pound, or four pounds per cent ; but, if the amount of the " mortgage be twenty thousand pounds, the amount of the stamp is " twenty pounds, or two shillings per cent I and that in this " case, the poor man pays forty times as much as the rich man! *' and that the stamp is not more if the amount of the mortgage " be one hundret: thousand pouiuls ; so that, in a case like this, " the poor man pays two hundred times as much tax as the " rich man ; and that, in this case also, the tax goes on increasing " in weight as the taxed person becomes poor.** After showing that in the case of appraisen.ents the stamp duty is made to be, in many cases, heavier on the poor man, by two-hundred and fifty times than it is on the WcA man; and that, in the case of receipts, the duty is, in some cases, ten TIMES Vnaviur on the poor man than it is on the rich man, and n STAUP DUTIES. M 1: f t| :■ -f - u in other cases thai it is ten hundred times heavier; but that, with regard to apprentices, wherein the nobility, clergy and LANDED GENTRY are not concerned, the stamp duty, where there are premiums given, goes on gradually and fairly from thirty pounds to a thousand pounds, a premium tmder thirty pomids paying one pound stamp, and a thousand pounds paying sixty pounds stamp ; but, that while ihe poor boys' parents are thus taxed, the duties on settlements by the rich, pay only .a TWENTY-FIVE SHILLING Stamp ou a thousond pounds ; he con- cluded by moving the following resolution : — •' That this house will, with as little delay as possible, make " such an alteration in the several acts, imposing duties ou *' stamps and on sales at auctions, as shall cause the Peers, " Nobles, Baronets and other Great Landowners to pay, in pro- •' portion to the amount of their property, as great an amoimt, " in those duties, as is paid by the fund-holders, annuitants, " tradesmen, manufacturers, farmers, mechanics and the rest of " the industrious classes of the kingdom ; and shall cause, in all cases, the rich to pay the said duties in tlie same propor-< tion as the poor." This resolution could only get the support of twenty-six per- sons out of the three hundred members that were present. During Mr. Spring Rice's speech in opposition to the motion of Mr. Cobbett, he reproached that gentleman for not knowing thai there was a bill already on the table (holding up a roll of papers tied up with red tape and declaring that that was the bill) to 7'evise the stamp duties. Mr. Cobbett did not dream that this was a cool, premeditated, lie! He could not believe that any gentleman could be found to commit so degrading an fCct in the presence qf three hundred persons! Now, whether it were a lie, or not, we will not give an opinion; but, one thing is incontrovertible, namely, that it was not vmtil four days after- 4vards that, Mr. Bernal, Lord Althorp and Mb. Spring Rice (!!!) were ordered to bring in a bill on the subject, and which bill went only to the repeal of the Two-penny receipt stamp : to repeal the duty of Stamps on advertisements, and, instead thereof, to fix a charge upon all advertisements in newspapers and periodicals of all kinds ; and also that duties shall be paid on certain sea insurances, instead of those that had been hitherto paid on other ■insurances of the like kind in Great Britain and Ireland. Thus was the matter got over, and thus does it remain without any of its monstrous inequalities being smoothed down, and thus will it remain until the people are represented in parliament; for until that time arrive, no man in his senses can reasonably hope that the Lords and other great owners of estates, who make all the laws, will voluntarily take upon themselves 9.\ fair share of the Stamp taxes, which amount annually to seven millions, exclusive of collection, and of the Soirerset house expense, besides law suits, informations, fines. Exchequer processes and all the other attendants, amounting, most probably, to another million I from all which we can have no reasonable grounds of hope of being freed while the Debt remains at its present amount, and to re- duce that to its proper dimensions requires a very dLOferent se^, rl POOR LAWS FOR IBKLAN©; 13 of men to those who now exercise the rule over us ; ftnd, to have different men to rule, there must be a very different constituency ; such a constituency as there would be if the constitution were faithfully adhered to, for, as judge Blackatone says, " upon the " true theory and genuine principles of liberty, every member " of the COMMUNITY, however pooT, should have a vote in electing " those delegates, to whose charge is committed the disposal of hi$ " property, his liberty and his life." POOR LAWS FOR IRELAND. Another of the prominent matters that have called the public attention since Mr. Cobbett's death, is the subject of Poor laws for Ireland A great obstacle to the giving poor laws to the people of that country has been Mr. O'Connell's inexplicable objection to them. This objection existed in his mind many years age, but, was removed by Mr. Cobbett, as described by himself at one of the meetings of the Catholic Association where he said . — " I know Mr. Cobbett, personally, and I am proud of "it. He has convinced me of the necessity of establishing poor' "laws for Ireland, though I have been of a different opinion.'* This conviction on the mind of Mr. O'Connell was soon ob- literated. Mr. Cobbett appears not to have made a very deep impression, or the nature of the stuff upon which he wrought Avas such as to allow of its being easily f^aced ; for we find him shortly afterwards saying " / cannot but start back with horror at " the proposal of poor laws for Ireland. ♦ » « " I have thought upon this subject by rfcy—I have mused upon " it by night^ii has been the last thought that visited my pillow *' before I closed my eyes to sleep — and it has had the benefit of " my morning meditations; and the result to which I have come '* is this, that it would be impossible to introduce the poor- " laws here without enslaving and degrading the poor. The " poor themselves, I think, would suffer most from a poor law." What think you, readers, of a poor law being likely to '* degrade** the poor of Ireland, where, according to a speech, made some years ago, in the House of Commons, by Colonel French, when speaking of the females in some of the rural districts, we were told that, — " they are perfectly naked as to clothing, and perfectly " helpless, without any convenience or comfort, or cmy possible ** way of gaining th'eir livelihood i and unfortunately the gentry " are so used to see that kind of distress that it does not shock them ; " they see people naked, and with nothing in the world but a " blanket to sleep on, without a bed to lie on : and they are not " aware that it is not the usual and proper way for them to exists ** they are so used to see iff What do you think of the possibility of a poor-law causing the *' degradation" of the people whose state is thus pourtrayed by Mr. Cobbett ; in his letters to one of his own labourers (Charles Marshall), he says:—" Having seen the people in " the cities, I went, yesterday, to see them in the coutUry; and m iir-'. i i \ 14 POOR LAWS FOR IRELAND. ' ''^^ '^ •' I saw the state of both labourers and farmers. Theie was " one village with about as many houses as there are in the " village of Ash, about seventy or eighty perhaps, the scattered " onej> and all. The places, which I call houses, were, in *' general, from ten to twelve feet square ; the walls made of " rough stone and mud, whited over, and about nine feet high ; " no ceiUng ; rough rafters covered with old rotten black " thatch ; in some a glass window the size of your hat, in two " or four little panes ; in others no window at all , but a hole, or •* two holes, in the wall, about a foot long, and four or five " inches wide ; the floor nothing but the bare earth ; no chimney, " but a hole at one end of the roof to let out the smoke, arising " from a fire made against the wall of that end of this miserable ** shed ; this hole is sometimes surrounded by a few sto!ies put ** on that part of the roof a foot or two high ; generally it is not, " and in cold weather the poor, ragged, half-naked creatures ** Stop up the hole to keep in the smoke to keep them from perishing " with cold / * * ♦ « One of these places costs *' the landowner about four pounds to build it, and the poor " creatures pay from thirty shillings to two pounds a year rent for " them, without any garden, without an inch of land, without " any place for even a privy, women, as well as men, must go " to the duttg-heap before the door, and the former are exposed to "^that which your wife, or any Avoman of Normandy, would die " at the thought of ! * * * Every hole has a pig ; " the pig eats with the family ; and generally sleeps in the same *' place. The potatoes are taken up and turned cut into a " great dish, which dish is a shallow basket made of osiers, with " the bark on. The ftimily squat round this basket and take out " the potatoes with their hands ; the pig stands and is helped by " some one, and sometimes he eats out of the pot. He goes in " and out and about the hole like one of the family ; the family " sleep, huddled up together, on dead weeds or a little straw iu **,one corner of the hole, and the pig, on a similar bed, in '* another comer. *««*♦«♦ " The farmer and his family are all in half-nakedness or rags ; " their lot is little better than the mere labourers. Potatoes are *• their sole food. I wish the farmers of our parish could see " one that I saw in the fme county of Kilkenny. His dress " was a mere bundle of rags, tied round his body with a band of " straw ; his legs and feet bare, no shirt, and his head covered " with a rag, such as you would rip out of the Inside of an old " cart-saddle. ♦ * Their wives have no hats, bcnnets, " or caps ; but, in wet weather, have a wad of straw tied upon ''their heads! Mrs. West and Mrs. Faggotten and Mrs. " Heatuorn would look so nice, naked up to the knees, some " rags tied round their middle, no smock, and their heads " covered with a wad of straw i • ♦ « " In one street in the outskirts of the city of Limerick (which " is made Sifine city by the trade of sending away meat and butter " and com out of Ireland), I saw more misery than any man " could have believed existed in the whole world. Men sleeping POOR LAWS OV IRELAND. 15 " in the same wisp of dirty straw, or weeds, with their mothers, " sisters, and aunts ; and compelled to do this or perish ; two •' or three families in one room, that is to say, a miserable hole, " ten feet, by eiffkt or nine ; and husbands, wives, sons, daughters, " all huddled \ogether, paying sixpence, or eightpence or ten- " pence a week for the room ; and the rent paid to a " tiobleman'* " hi England ! Here I saw one woman with a baby in her " arms, buth nearly naked. The poor mother's body was naked *' from the middle of the thighs downwards ; and to hide her " bosom, she caught up a dirty piece of old sack ; she hung " down her face (naturally very pretty) ; when she lifted it up, " the tears were streaming down her cheeks. She had two " other children quite naked, and covered up in some dirty hay, " in one comer of the room ! At a place in the country, I went " to the dwelling of a widower, who is sixty years of age, and " who has five children, all very nearly stark naked. The eldest ** girl, who is fifteen years of aye, had on a sort of apron to hide " the middle part of her body before; and that was all she had, " She hid herself, as avcU as she could, behind, or at the end of, " an old broken cupboard ; and she held up her two arms and " hands to hide her breasts!" Such is the state of the poor wretches who labour upon the land in Ireland, and whom Mr. O'Connell thought it would enslave and degrade to put under the protection of poor-laws ! What slavery and degradation mean, in Mr. O'Connell's vocabulary, it is hard to say; but, if they mean something worse than this, then has the world never yet witnessed such things. Mr. O'Connell himself complained that nine-tenths of the amount of the rent-rolls were spent out of Ireland, and yet he objected to have overseers in the parishes to stop a part of the money and to cause it to be applied for the relief of the poor; although a great portion of such money is the produce of the titbes of Ireland, one-third part of which, he Avell knows, belongs to the poor by prescriptive and legal right, but which is coolly claimed and pocketed by wealthy persons who luxuriate upon it, either in England or on the Continent, whilst those whose right it is, and who till the land, are left in the slate which has just been described, in which state they are to remain rather than receive their own portion of the tithes which ar<; pocketed by the gentry and nobles of Ireland; amongst whom there is the Eaul of Shannon, who takes the lay tithes of clevai parishes — The Earl of Cork takes those of seventeen pa)'ishes- '"'he Duke of Devonshire takes those of twenty-six parishes — and the Marquis of Drogheda takes those of twenty-eight parishes, thus are the rights of the poor set at nought, and Mi. O'Connell objected to a poor-law, fearuig, that, if tliat which belongs to the poor were restored to them, the poor themselves would suffer most by the change! How curiously constituted is the mind that could have given birth to such an opinion! But Mr. O'Connell says that, " the destitute poor " of Ireland, instead of being shut up in the gloomy poor-houses, " may range their native mountains and vallies ; where, shaded " from the heat of the summer sun, by the beautiful foliage ^1 ■ te POOa LAWS OF IRELAND. f;:*' !('(■ ^' i "of the trees, and fanned by the balmy breeze of heaven, " they can repose themselves on the green carpet of nature " and listen to the ripple of the bubbling brook." This is not verbatim, as delivered by Mr. O'Coknbll as we quote from memory here, but perfectly correct as to meaning^ and very nearly correct in its wording. Now let us have a winter version of this state of freedom ; it would be something like this : — " The destitute poor of Ireland, instead of being " lodged in a comfortable poor-house (not a hostile), may " stretch their naked limbs on the frozen snow, with nothing to *' shelter them from the * pelting of the pitiless storm,* and from " the cutting of the keen and bitter blast, except the leafless ** branches of the forest trees, whilst listening to the hail-storm " as it beats and rattles around them" ! Oh ! Eloquence ! " intense" eloquence, how fascinating art thou ! that canst make those, who worship at thy shrine, for- get, in the *'• intensity" of their adoration, the wailings of the wretched, the starvation and nakedness and misery of the poor! When shall we learn to despise thee, whenever thou showest thyself unaccompanied by common sense and right feeling, even as we despise the mere gaudy tinsel and frippery that decorate the clowns and jack-puddings of the stage 7 We have known the time when whole parishes in Ireland have had " extreme unction" administered to them, owing to the dreadful sufferings caused by want of food ! and Mr O'Con- nell thinks that poor-laws would degrade these poor creatures ; he thinks that the poor themselves, would st{ffer most hy the change which poor-laws would produce ! Why, at that very time, money was being raised by subscription, in England, to be given as charity to the suffering people of Ireland (for which Mr. O'Con- NELL has expressed great gratitude), and yet he thinks the re- ceipt of alms less degrading than the receiving of poor's-rates, which are as much the property of the poor, as the estate of the rich man is his property. One would almost suspect that Mr. O' Con NELL has an " itching palm" for alms, seeing that he says that the receipt of that, which is really a man's own, would be more degrading to him than receiving alms (reni, we believe, is the modern name for the thing). Alas ! poor naked and starving people of Ireland ! when do you think you will be de- livered from your state of deep degradation if the work be left to the performance of persons like Mr. O'Connell? who thinks that your living almost wholly on " lumpers," and on sea-weed is preferable to your being relieved by laws which make it imperative on your richer neighbours to take such means for the relief of your necessities as will secure you from pinching want and destitution ? Notwithstanding Mr. O'Connell's opposition to poor laws for Ireland, the parliament has acknowledged the necessity for them, and lias passed a measure for granting relief to a feu of the poor of that country. I'he Commissioners who were ap- {>ointed to inquire into, and report upon, the necessity of poor aws for Ireland, according to the recommendation contained in the king's speech, delivered on opening the parliament in 1836, POOR LAWa IN IRELAND. IT recommended that poor houses should be built for the reception of the helpless poor, but that no relief whatever should be givea to the able bodied, under any circumstances, and that a law should be passed making it transi-ortation (^ they were caughL begging!!! This horrible recommendation, even the "reformed" parliament had not the conscience to adopt, to the extent laid down by the commissioners, but they contented themselves with passing a law to cause poor-houses to be erected capable or affording shelter to eighty ^itousand destitute persons, while re- ports, then lying before the house, clearly showed that there were at that very time not less than two millions three hundred thousand persons in Ireland suffering the most horrible priva- tions, many of whom were living on one meal of potatoes, with, salt- water, in twenty- four hours, while others were dragging out a miserable existence upon boiled sea-weeds! Such is the re- medial measure adopted by the parliament to remove the dis- tresses of Ireland ; such a miserable mockery never was made before of the distress of the poor ! Instead of a measure ap- plicable to the whole of Ireland, and as liberal as the Act of the 43rd of Elizabeth, there is a poor, paltry, partial law making a most niggardly provision for only about one-thirtieth part of the- destitute poor of Ireland, and that is only afforded them in a state of complete seclusion from their friends and relatives. Why not pass a measure that shall compel the landowners, and other wealthy persons of Ireland, to support their poor, instead of permitting them to carry the whole of the produce of their estates out of the country, to be squandered in luxury and de- bauchery of every kind, whilst those who produce all, are fedi upon spare and wretched messes of lumpers and salt-water, and boiled seaweed. Ah! but the representatives of Mr. O'Con- nell's will, and who are appropriately denominated his " tail," are sufficiently numerous to turn the scale against ministers on which side soever they are thrown, and therefore they, or rather their master, must be humoured at all hazards ; and^ seeing that he is opposed to poor laws, and that other powerful parties are in favour of poor laws, the ministers, truckling ta both, manage things so as to cause the adoption of such a system of poor laws as, while it is wholly inefficient for any good pur- pose, is such as to leave nearly the same quantity 0f distress existing which serves the purpose of agitators, and thereby pre- vents that profitable profession from being broken up. This we are sure weighs not with Mr. O'Connbll; although he ha* his hand in every poor man's dish throughout Ireland; it is not from any craving for filthy lucre, except as the means of assisting him in the regeneration of his country ! No, no ; the man who* (though he is the greatest boroughmonger that ever lived) we- know has proved himself so virtuous as to refuse a bribe of a thousand pounds for one solitary vote in the case of the Factory- Children, and who refused Mr. Raphael's two thousand pounds^ as the market price of oue of his seats in parliament : who re- fused to be sole legatee to poor Ruthven (late a joint of hit tail) for procuring him a seat in Parliament: and who invariably refuses to accept from his various "joints" sums of money that IS IRISH COBRCIOM BILL. '■Ij ir.'i are usually offered him, varying from one to three thoueand pounds, fur the privilege of occupying seats for his numerous "rotten boroughs." Such a man we may be sure is incorruptiblef and therefore, cannot have been swayed in his opposition to poor-laws for Ireland by any base motive ; but, then, we are puzzled how to account for it, as it appears wholly inexplicable ; we will, therefore, leave the accounting for it to those philoso- phers who are fond of muddling and poking about in dark, deep and abstruse matters ; and, for ourselves, we will be con- tent to remain stout believers in his political integrity, notwith- standing our inability to produce clear and convincing reasons for our belief ; and we will continue to watch and admire, and marvel at his rapid and tortuous pursuit of that ignis fatuus, of which no man knows the nature, but which he, himself, de- nominates "Justice for Ireland." IRISH COERCION BILL. Tub Irish Coercion bill is a subject to which we will just allude now that we are contemplating Mr. O'Connell's policy. This bill was introduced to thej house of Commons by the Ministry when Lord Grey was premier, and when Mr. Cob- BETT^had a seat in that house. When the motion, " that this " bill be read a third time," was put, Mr. Cobbett rose and proposed the following resolution. *' That this house, seeing in " this bill the substitution of Military Courts, for Courts'consist- " ing of Judges and Jurors — seeing in it the abrogation of all " the most precious institutions of the Country— seeing clearly " that its main purpose is to keep, in the hands of the present " Aristocracy, the plunder of the ancient church and the poor, " which the ancestors of that Aristocracy obtained by^apostacy, " and which has been retained by the crtiel penal laws and by " the shedding of innocent blood — and suspecting, moreover, " that this bill is intended as a prelude to the adoption of " similar measures in Great Britain, this house will read this " bill this day six months." This stinging resolution was, of course, lost on a division ; but we insert it here, because, first : Mr. Cobbett did not think proper to publish it in his Register, and because we think it too good to be lost. Secondly, because it clearly defines the principle on which the Coercion-bill was founded. Mr. Cobbett was most ably supported by Mr. O'Connell, who was very strenuous in his opposition to the bill that this resolution was intended to defeat; indeed, when the king's speech, which recommended coercion for Ireland, was debated in the house of Commons Mr. O'Connell denounced that speech, in these words, " Oh ! what will be the cry when this " brutal and bloody speech shall be read in Ireland ?" And in a letter addressed to the Radicals of Hull, respecting the conduct of one of the members for that place, he says, " Mr. Hill approves " qf the vnitiCiT LiL of the Irish Coercion-bili. Whg, is he not more nerous uptibte^ tion to we are icablo ; jhiloso- L dark, be con- otwith" reasons ire, and fatuus, elf, de- irill just } policy, by the E. CoB- that this rose and eeing in "consist- m of ail clearly present he poor, postacy, 5 and by oreover, ption of ^ad this division ; (did not re think les the )NNELL, that this king's [debated led that len this ind in a [conduct [approves tot more IRISH COERCION BILL. \^ ** fit for the region of Algiers than of England, if this be hia politi- " cal opinion f ♦ ♦ • Of a truths it is the approver " of such a PRINCIPLE who is suited to invent an atrocious charge " against honest men." At Lambeth and at various other places has he often denounced the coercion bill as being, in its prin- ciple, a gro.48, unjustifiable and daring violation of the rights of the people of Ireland. All vrhich is most true ; but, it is also true that this atrocious measure increased Mr. O'Con- nell's power over his countrymen a hundred fold; it doubled the number of the i&tnte of his magnificent tail, and perhaps he thinks, that, if that cause (the coercion bill, for though it is not now the identical bill that the Grey ministry passed, its principle is the same) which has so greatly extended the length of his tail, be removed, a considerable docking may take place, which we can easily believe to be a most uncomfortable operation, and is therefore to be avoided at all risks. This we conceive may have been the reason why Mr. O'Connell, in 1837, looked upon the coercion of the people of Ireland as not being so " brutal and bloody" as it was in 1833, and that induced him, when Mr. Sharman Crawford moved, in the House of Commons, for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the Irish Coercion act, to say that " the Act is one for prevention and not for punishment. I am " ready to take my share of the odium which might attach to the con- '' TiNUANCE of it, and I shall be sorry if the government " ACCEDE TO THE PROPOSITION OF THE HONOURABLE MEMBER "for Dundalk." 'VYiB ** government," accordingly, did not accede to the proposition, and the Coercion bill is the law of the land to this day, and Mr. O'Connell is still most actively and patriotically engaged in getting "justice for Ireland," in which he will succeed quite as soon as he wishes, and we most respect- fully beg of him to believe that we trust, that he himself will finally receive his own full share of that "justice." We will also just remind Mr. O'Connell and his "tail," for they seem to have forgotten it, but of which thoy ought to be reminded, especially as they so frequently iSiX back upon the threat, of a " repeal of the Union ;" as if that would ruin England ! as if that would make Englishmen fall into fits — as if England would be as much alarmed on that subject as a contented comuto would be, on hearing his wife threaten that she would leave him and live entirely with her paramour ! the facts, that we wish to remind these gentlemen of, are these, that it was an Irish parliament that passed all the horrible acts under which the Catholics lived so long ; that Mr. Grattan drew up the " Sun-set and Sun-rise bill;" and that it was an Irish Catholic, of the name of DANIEL O'CONNELL, who drew up the bill for disfranchising the FORTY-SHILLING FREEHOLDERS OF IRELAND ! " CORN LAWS. »> i ■'•if. -I it The Corn Laws are at this time exciting a great share of public attention, especially amongst the big manufacturers of th* 9 20 COmN LAWS. 9' North, and a most horrible howling have they set up on account of the rise in the price of wheat ; forgetting, or choosing not to remember that their own produce has risen as well as that of th« farmers, and that the main cause of the rise had been the quiet and gradual pushing into circulation of a large quantity of paper Money by the Joint Stock Banks, which has at length caused the prices to rise so high that the English manufacturers can get no profit on their foreign trade. They want to continue to supply the foreign markets with their goods, but cannot do so now, on account, as they say, of the deamess of provisions ; and, to make provisions lower m price, these honest gentry wish for a/rce trade in com so as to compel the English farmer to sell his higMy taxed produce at as low a price as the foreigners can sell their Uno taxed produce^ The honesty, the faimesSy and the liberality of these ineflfable villains were once compared by "Gaffer" GoocH, in the House of Commons, to the unfairness, of compel- ing one of two men, in other respects equal, who were about to run a race, to carry a heavy load on his back. This is precisely the case with the manufacturers who clamour for the repeal of the corn-laws ; they wish the English farmers, who have a distressing load on their backs, to contend in a race with the un- loaded foreigners, in order that they themselves may be able un- justly to secure an advantage from the result — they are the black-legs of the political turf. They well know that neither the farmer, nor themselves can gain a livelihood while the pre- sent amount of taxes continue to be raised, unless they be pro- tected against the introduction of the produce of the compara- tively untaxed foreigners, and they know, too, that the present amount of taxes is necessary, until there be an " equitable adjustment" qf the Debt, and, yet, about this, none of these grasping gentry, the manufacturers, ever open their lips ; they only bawl about themselves being protected against the un- taxed foreigner, and at the same moment bawl still more loudly against protection for the growers of corn, in order that they, the protected manufacturers, may cat cheap corn at the expense of the unprotected farmers ! precious scoundrels ! These wise and honest gentry seem to forget that the corn-laws are as necessary to the treasury (against whose graspings they never open their lips) as they are to the corn-growers and land- owners ; for, unless the produce of the land be high priced, how is sufficient money to find its way into the treasury to be given to the numerous swarms that live upon the taxes ? And how is the interest of the Debt to be paid if those who depend on the land (and they are nearly fifteen twentieths of the whole popu- lation) be not able to produce their various articles without a loss ? Come then, you hypocrites, or fools, or both ; you greedy and cormorant-like wretches, do a sensible act for once in your lives, and ioin the Radicals in endeavouring to get rid of the debt : reducing the army : cutting away all unmerited pensions and all sinecures, and then lower the taxes from about fifty millions a year to about ten millions a year ; and never more will you liave to complain of corn-laws, nor utter another word of com' plaint about foreign cotnpetition. But this we well know you CO&N LAWS. 21 iv'ill not do, for you love the ^vhole nffdir of dobt, and Ainding, and paper money, and high taxes, which latter you will endeavour to avoid your own share of, although you partake so largely of the benefits of the funding and paper system, which will eventually, blessed be God, blow you all to the devil together! But let us look a little more closely at this question of the re- peal of the corn-laws. — The Manitfacturers want the cmm-lawa abolished in England, so that they may have bread as cheap as foreigners have it. The Com-growera wont the com-laufs kept on, in order to enable them to keep up their prices. The manufacturers are able to compete in price with foreigners by means of their superior steam tnachinery, which also enable? them to beat down the price of labour, and thus, by giving very low wages, they become rich and their workmen poor, while the latter are forced to cat dear corn, owing to the com laws and other heavy taxes. This makes the working people, as well as the miistcTS, in the manufacturing districts, cry out fur a repeal of the Corn-Laws, The Corn-growers, not being able to invent any macMnery to cause the production of three or four wheat-harvests in one year, cannot compete with foreigners in the price of wheat, be- cause of the enormous amount of taxes that they have to pay, owing to the one ihcMsand millions of National debt, and a conse- qtiently expensive government. Therefore the farmers wish for the cem-laws not to be repealed. The machinery of the manufacturers, and the consequent boating down of the wages of their men, enable the master manufacturers to compete with the foreign markets, notwith- standing the national debt and the amount of taxation— while the farmers must have the protection of corn-laws to prevent Foreigners from sending their untaxed com into the English market, to beat down their price; unless m^ans be used to enable farmers in England to grow their corn as cheaply as the foreign farmers can : and the only means to do that effectually would be to ANNIHILATE THE ALL-DEVouEiNO DEBT, and bring the cost of government within reasonable limits. Will, there- fore, those who cry out for the abolition of the corn-laws, recom- mend the sweeping away of the dehtf If they will not they are either knaves, ox fools ; but whether the knavery or the folly pre- ponderate is not so easy to determine, for the debt cannot be fairly tackled without such a reform in parliament as would give to every man a vote, and this the master Manufacturers will never consent to do, 1 heir pride being too great to allow of their consenting to their own workmen enjoying equal rights with themselves ; so far their knavery and pride push them ; and they cannot, for the lives of them, see the folly of thus withholding the franchise from the people, who may, by and bye, be induced to treat them as robbers, and either thmst them aside, or trample them down in the struggle for the possession of their political rights. Whether the Corn laws be kept on, or taken off, is a question c 2 ■t;( M V?' 22 CORN LAWS. I INS to be settled between the " Lords of the Land," of the " Loom" and of the Funds, and which we Radicals need care but little aboTit, knowing that neither of the parties cares one pincli of snuff about our interest, — they are, and always have been, the real enemies of the working people, and of their freedom ; and, therefore, as far as we are concerned, we say let the three mon- sters worry each other and fight it out, and in the mean time we may step in and take our rights, and thus put it out of the power of either of them ever to rob us again and treat us as mere beasts of burthen. Notwithstanding the reasons that may be adduced to prove that we may fold our arms and stand quiet spectators of the fight, we nevertheless will " roll our tub" in the general bustle, and be prepared to take our own rights which these three all-grasping parties liave so long conspired to keep out of our possession. We had written thus far when that excellent paper the " Northern Liberator" which treads exactly in the footsteps of the late Mr. Cobbett (and higher praise cannot be given to a paper,) was brought to us ; in which we read as follows, " To those ignorant and senseless persons, who maintain that the corn-laws may be repealed and that wheat mi^ht be reduced to thirty-five or forty shillings a quarter, and yet the nation pay the fifty millions a year of taxes, we have not one word to say. Such men are worse than the beasts that perish; and it is a profanation of any thing like reason to address a single word to them. They are like Milton's devils, placed beyond the pale of hope. The whole matter lies in a nut-shell. If you have heavy taxes you must have dear com ; if you have dear com the Cotton Lords cannot make their goods to sell, with a profit, to other countries which are comparatively not taxed at all. If artificial means with paper money be adopted to endeavour to make both prosperous, first revulsion and then con- vulsion must follow. One of these parties must, therefore, devour the other. We own we feel delight in tlie conflict. Our hearts thrill Avithin us when we sec the deep and bloody gashes, the ferocious encounters, and the death-like determi- nation of the combatants, When one of them is destroyed the people may rejoice, for the day of their deliverance must then be near at hand." The anti-com-law thief makes no complaint of the fund holder receiving his interest in gold for a debt contracted in paper, and thus adding to the real amount of the taxes. He, tender soul ! cannot bear the thought of touching the/wwrfs, they are one of the " institutions of the Country" — he cannot bear the thought of paying exactly what was bargained for, he musi even go beyond that, and insist upon paying in hard gold the same nominal amount that was agreed to be paid in paper, fearing that he would, otherwise, violate " national faith," while he is at the same moment trying to take away the interest of the landlords, which is their r&tt, entirely I "Verily a most upright and honest desire ! And to do the Land-Lords justice they are not behind the Cotton Lords in this stupid Subserviency to the Fund Lords, who make their way to CORN hkVf», 3$ Ihcir hearts by the soft blandishments uf bits of paper, which they kindly furnish them, and thus cause that rise of prices that sots the Land Lords and the Cotton Lords at loggerheads, and which will, by and bye, destroy them both, unless the money monster itself be destroyed, and then, and not till then, will tlie people be delivered from these periodical struggles. It is s( me- thing worse than madness to imagine that the country is to be relieved from its distress unless the fund-monster be destroyed ; and it is sheer idiocy to suppose that the abolition of tuo corn- laws can tend to give relief; for that abolition would reduce the price of wheat to five shillings, or even four shillings a bushel, and that, as Mr. Cobbett has a hundred times said, is such a terrific devil that the government dare not face it I It would totally ruin both the Landlord and the farmer; and. where the devil, then, is the poor chancellor of the Exchequer to get tiie malt-tax, the beer-tax, the hop-tax, the leather-tax, &c. f Will he coutuiue these taxes then, think you, my equally sagaci- ous and honest Cotton Lords ? and, if he do not continue these, what will be the amount of the income from the taxes on tea» coffee, sugar, spirits and wine ? and then what is to become of the fmidholders, the dead-weight, the swarms of pensioners male and female ? Poh, it is all nonsense ! The '* thing" is so per- fect in all its parts, there is in it such an exemplification of the " eternal fitness of things" that we are sure that it must remain very nearly as it is, or drop to pieces all at once ; and then, if the deep resentment of the people, the robbed and insulted peo- ple, should cause the ver' frame of the government to be de- stroyed, it will be a consummation rather to be lamented than wondered at ; and such as has been foretold a thousand times, and which foretelling has been received with sneering and con- tempt such as steel our bosoms against any feelings of sorrow for the victims, be their fate whatever it may. It might be asked of us, if we, as Radicals, can be partial to the Landlords and Farmers as a body ? We answer that we . like them just as well as we do the Cotton Lords, and not a jot better ; but, that it is merely from a love of Justice and fair play that we defend them m this case : .hey have both proved themselves to be inveterate enemies of the working people, and, now that they have began quarrelling with each othei^ we would leave them to settle the matter as best they may, only that our iimate sense of justice compels us to denounce the foul play of the Cotton Lords. Oh, no ; we are not partial to the Landlords and "Jolterheads," nor ever shall be, until they heartily join us in the struggle for our rights ; and we can assure them that, until the maui body of the people have the power of sending members to parliament, they never will be secure in the posses- sion of their lands, -nor for any length of time will they get re- munerating prices for the produce of their farms. We well remember all the efforts used by the *' Jolterheads" to awe the reformers whenever they have been called upon to come forth. We well recollect seeing them at the very first political meeting that we ever attended ; Lhat meeting, so often alluded to by the late Mr. Cobbett, which was held on Portsdown-hill, ia Hamp- ^^^Hp^^^^^^S BSS^^C n COBN LAWS. m 0^ - ill t . shire, in 1817, AvhtTc we saw the brave Yeomanry Cavalry, ** the body-guard of the boroughmonyers" as the late Major Cartwrigiit used to call them, drawn up at the foot of the Hill, on their half-bred horses, with such bright swords, and fierce looks, and a bearuig so altogether en militaire. We re- collect them gallantly conspiring in 182'^ at Meriden, to insist on the landlord of an Inn, in that plae., turning Mr. Cobbett out of his house, although he was an invalid at the time, and was there for the benefit of his health ; and we well recollect that the reason that the gallant rascals gave for their brutality was their ^^ hatred of the principles of Cobbett." — We do not forget that, in their petitions for protection against foreign com- petition, they not only did not say a word against heavy tax- ation, but that they said they were willing " to hear heavy taxes " in the time of peace ij the parliament would pass an act to raise *' and keep up the price of corn." — We also recollect all their doings with regard to the game; how many men they have caused to be put to death for offences against those laws, passed entirely to secure to themselves the possession of "wild ANIMALS." — We remember, too, and we hope never to forget, the passing of the most infamous measure that ever was called law in any part of the world, or in any age, namely, the damnable "Poor-Law Amendment Act" which we have already alluded to : that act was passed expressly to " save the estates" of these very men from being swaliuived up, and it had their almost universal support, for which we hope to live to see them duly rewarded ; and we are greatly mistaken if that very law itself will not be the means of bringing upon them that re- ward ; and, seeing that the Cotton Lords johied them in this cruel and murderous affair, we earnestly hope to see them par- ticipate in the punishment which it is so well calculated to pro- duce. Having thus stated our ophiion of the Jolterheads we will resume the subject of the Corn-laws. It is, somehow or other, got into the heads of the anti-corn -law gentry, that England is altogether a manufacturing country ; one twaddling, self-deluded, person, whose attention has been directed to this subject until his brain seems {ibsolutely bewildered with the humming of the spiiming-jenny, has compared the manufacturing part of the country to the town of Manchester, and the agricultural part of it to the garden-pots at the wmdows of that same Manchester ! Now, to say one word to a gcnlleman who is so far gone, vvould be absolutely ridiculous, and, therefore, we will not do so ; but, for the benefit of those who are not quite so deep in delusion, we would beg to tell them that the number of those (including their families) who work in the factories in Great Britain, amounts to but two millions four hundred thousand per- sons, while the number of those who are employed on the land amounts to six millions three hundred thousand persons. Thus, out of a population of sixteen millions five hundred thou- sand persons, there are no less than six millions three Imndrcd thousand whose living 's derived immediately from the land, be- sidts, at the very lowest computation, three millions five hundred -.,■•.-.• _^- -■..-:, ..^^-.v CORN LAWSw ' ■ , '■'-^'f^ thousand of persons of the various trades, in the agricultural iowns and villages, whose living is dependent on those who till the soil; a tolerably large ** garden-pot" to give employment to so many persons 1 We would also remind them that the value of the capital employed in producing the fruits of the earth, t^\at is to say the value of the "garden-pof* and the stock employed upon it, amounts to two thousand nine hundred and seventy- one MILLIONS, SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX THOUSAND, SIX HUNDRED AND SEVENTY POUNDS, whilc the value of pro- perty ui manufacture amounts to no more than two hundred and one million pounds. The annual return of the produce of the "garden-pot" is four hundred and seventy-fouh MILLIONS, TWENTY-NINE THOUSAND, SIX HUNDRED AND EIGHTY- KioHT POUNDS, and the annual return of the produce of manu- facture is TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY-TWO MILLIONS, EIOHTY- FIVE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-FIVE POUNDS (according to the imcontradicted statement of Mr Macqueen). This is suihcient to show that the agricultural, or farming, part ' f the country is not quite such a small and contemptible thing as the manufacturers, mounted on the backs of those supreme asses the doctrinaires and the sublime philosophers of the trans- f /idental-school, would have us believe. There is another thing to be observed here, too, and that is, that those grasping villains of manufacturers, who call out so lustily for a repeal of the Com -laws, are getting, on their capital, a profit of one hun- dred and twenty per cent, while the profit on the capital of the Landowners and Farmers amounts to but little more than three per cent. ! and these are the men who have the unconscionable insolence to wish to lower the price of the produce of the land wholly at the cost of the owners and occupiers, in order that they and their woik-people may eat cheap bread! And for what purpose is it that they want to have cheap food ? Why, to enable them to manufacture their goods cheaper than foreigners can manufacture them. But, how would cheap food enable them to do that? Why the moment that, say, twenty per cent., is taken off the pvice of the food that their work-people consume, they would, most likely, take off forty or fifty per cent, from the pay that they now give them, and this they would be the better able to do by the rain, which the repeal of the Com law would bring amongst those who labour on the land, driving the unemployed labourers from the Jields to the factories, and causing such a " mrplus population'" in the manufacturing towns lis would be sure to perpetuate the misery thus brought upon the present race of manufacturing labourers by their grasping and gruiding employers. We hope that the honest hardworking chaps in the manufacturing districts will think on this matter, and they will Ihen clearly perceive that it is not to their interest to have choap com, unless that cheapness be brought about by a reduction of taxation. By way of parenthesis we would here ask, why the English manufacturers should care so murh about the foreign market, and seem to disregard the English market ? They must know, if they have paid any attention to the matter; that comparca with the home trade, the foreign trade w a mere I !: ?i ^SSBaBOB^ESiB ^^iTnBSISEir^ ^^ CORN LAWS* 1l'¥ ?6 trifle! that ucar.y fourteeii-sixteeuths of all the goods manU' factured in the kingdom is 8uld for the home consumption. They appear to be influenced by a desire to destroy their best cus- tomers ; to cherish the foreigners who purchase about two-six- teenths of the goods manufactured by them, and to cripple the means of those who purchase the remaining fourteen-six- teenths ! ! ! There was a howl set up on the repeal of the Com Law in 1825 which was thus replied to by the late Mr. Codbett who so well vmderstood the subject : — " The petitioners, like a great many other people that do ** not very well understand what they are about, begin at " the wrong end. There is something else to be done before ** you invite foreigners to bring com into the country. What " man in his senses would not try first to cause com to bo " raised in England sufficient to be sold at a reasonable price, " before he endeavoured to cause it to be brought from abroad? " Can these petitioners' doubt that it would be better for us to " eat English wheat at four shillings a bushel, than French ** wheat, or Polish wheat, or Dutch wheat, at four shillings a " bushel ? Well, then, take off the taxes that load the land. " Take off the malt-tax, the soap-tax, the candle-tax, the tax " on all the implements of husbandry. Take off" this immense " load ; enable the labourer to live upon his wages by paying " more of his money for food and drink, and less of it into the " hands of the tax gatherer; take the labourer thus from the poor- '* house, or from the poor-book, and English farmers will gladly •* sell you their wheat at four shillings a bushel ; the petitioners " should begin by praying for a removal of these taxes ; and ** they should end by praying for a total abolition of the Corn *' Laws ; or they should begin by praying for a due and full •* execution of Peel's bill, and then the Corn- laws would be- " come nearly a dead letter, as they were in 1822. *' Oh ! exclaims some furious rag-man : What ! you want, •' like a true Jacobin as you are, to destroy the foundations of ur ** prosperity and of our greatness ! Yes, 1 do, mdeed; and if '* the petitioners against the Corn-bill do not also wish to destroy " the foundations of your prosperity and your greatness, they " would act a much wiser part to let the thing remain quietly " as it is. It is a very ticklish thuig ; it rests upon very thin " bits of dirty paper, such as no pen but a butcher's can make " a mark upon. It is a thing to be let alone ; not to be stirred •* up, rummaged and canvassed." Thus it is clear that, if you take oft* the taxes, the farmers will be able to grow their wheat us cheaply as foreigners can : they will be able to pay their rent to their landlords, the tithe to the parsons v^-Js preserving to us tne enjoyment of the " blessed comforts of our holy religion" )^ and we shall see an end put to the fightings that so often arise between them and the manufacturers; but it must be such a reduction as will destroy the "Debt," par excellence; the Waterloo-debt, or dead weight : the standing army in time of i)eace ; it must be such a reduction as will not keep fa;itejied upon our bucks three or four immense CORN LAWS. ; S-i " ^ hundred Generals and a corresponding number of Adfniral8;^ a reduction that will relieve us from a swarm of pensioners as numerous as the locusts that plagued the Egyptians ; which re- duction no sane man expects to see efifected by a parliament, a majority of whom are returned by one hiuidred and fifty thou- sand electors; by a parliament that can boast of having amongst them one hundred and sixty-seven officers of the Army and Navy, and not less than fifty-one placemen, all of whom are dependent upon the taxes for their daily food ! by a parliament that is graced by the presence of one hundred of the sons, brothers and other relations of the peers ; of those very peers who, with their families, have places and pensions amongst tliem amoimting to more than the whole of the poor's-rates of thirty- eight, out of the fifty-two, counties of England and Wales! or, in other words, who have amongst them, annually, more by five hundred thousand pounds, than the whole of the ijovemment taxes of Scotland and Wales', which places and pensions must be abolished altogether if the English Farmer be enabled to sell his produce as cheaply as the foreign farmer can ; which, we again say, is a reduction that no sane man ex-; pccts to see, w ile there exists all these causes that we have enumerated, and that must, of necessity, be opposed to any re- duction ; and these opposing causes will not be removed but by a Radical Reform in the House of Commons ; a thing that all these parties dread as much as, for the weight and number of llieir sins, they ought to dread the day of judgment ! All these things make us see clearly that the Corn laws are more requisite for the government than for the farmers, for the former, wholly composed as it is of tax-eaters, could not be in existence but for the taxes, which attract them just as a putrid carcass attracts the kites and the ravens ; whereas the farmers would be benefitted by the destruction of taxation, and by that alone ; for nothing else, that human ingenuity can devise, can l)rotect them against the violent struggles of the cotton-people and the Fimd people, which struggles ill become more and more violent and deadly until the contest will end in a panic (a thing at no great distance) which will shake the whole con- cern to pieces ; one of the great blessings of which wouid be that we should hear no more of the senseless prating of the jtolitical economists, nor witness any more of the violent and disreputable struggles between the productive classes of the land and the loom! : 'I « i CANADIAN REBELLION. i The subject of the revolt of the Canadians against the "baleful domination" of this government, has occupied the public mind for some time past. And although our Whig rulers would fain have us believe that the outbreak was occasioned by the liabitans, or French inhabitants, endeavouring to gain the su- premacy over the English settlers, mc were not so blind as not on '. : rtl. r. 28 CANADIAN REBEIiLION. i i |i I i| I' .1 m to see that far different causes were at work to induce the in- habitants, both French and English, to attempt to throw off the galling yoke that our liberal government seemed determined to rivet around their necks. The short history of the matter is this: — In 1791, or 1792 "(for we speak merely from recollection) a Charter was granted by England to Canada, by which the Sovereign of England was recognized as Governor, and who, of course, had a Lieutenant Governor to act for him. — This Charter also gave them a Legislative Council, or House of Lords; and a Legislative Asaemhly, or House of Commons ; there was, in addition to these, an Executive Council, somewhat like the ministry, or, rather, the Privy Council of this country, whose duty it was to assist the Lieutenant Governor with their advice. Thus there were a Governor : — a Lieutenant Govo'nor : — an Executive Coun- 4)il: — a Legislative Council, and a Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Assembly, or House of Commons, was chosen by those of the people who were freeholders ; and, like its proto- type in England, it had the power of voting, or withholding the supplies, as no money could be paid without its consent. The larger portion of the inhabitants arc of French origin and of course they are fairly represented in \\ie Legislative Assembly ; but, as the country is a British Colony, the Lieutenant Governor is British; and nearly every man composing the Legislative Council, or House of Lords, and the Executive (or Prity) Council, is British. Thus there are two Houses, or Chambers, besides the Lieutenant Governor, to oppose the representatives of the people ; and, in addition to these, there are the favourites both of the colonial government, and of the government in England, (comprising legitimate, and illegitimate, sprigs of nobility, for whose special benefit all the colonics are kept) to receive all the appointments to offices of various sorts, and to «hare in jobbing and peculation of all kinds, for which good things the colonies have been so long proverbial. These things very naturally gave great umbrage to the French portion (who are the most numerous) of the inhabitants, who are completely shut out from offices and places of emolument of every kind, according to the usual and approved method of the English government in all such cases, who always treat the people over whom they rule, as if they were created merely to mhiister to their comfort and convenience, and therel'ore must be subject to the most capricious and unjust treatment if it tend to mcrease tlie wealth and power of those their rulers. To put a stop to those g-rievances, the people of Canada, backed by their Legislative Assembly, finding that they could produce no eft'ect on the Legislative Council, began in 1820, to send petitions to the British Parliament, complaining of their grievances. This they continued to do, without any notice being taken of them, until the Session of 1828, when a committee was appointed to inquire into their complaints, which committee reported that they were well founded ; but, nothing was done to redress them. They now began to sec the necessity there was for an amendment in their Constitution, and CANADIAN REBELLION. 29 they accordingly prayed for such a cliauge as would give them un Elective Cuimcil instead of such an one as they then had, ■which was the mere nomination of the government. Tliey continued petitioning for this, until the year 1833 without any more attention being paid to them than if they had been so many jack-asses ! This, as we can easily imagine, caused great discontent ; but, if a government can treat those who are living aromid them with supercilious contempt of their prayers, we cannot expect that a distant colony will have much better treatment at their hands ; and thus it invariably happened to the Canadians whenever they petitioned the British Parliament. In 1833 the Legislative Assembly, tired of petitioning and im- patient of the continual thwarting which they received frcm the Legislative Council, resolved, at length, to withhold the supplies from which the means of paying the Judges and other functionaries were derived. This, after a time, caused much consternation amongst the officials of various sorts, and made them, in their turn, complain very loudly ; their complahiings were soon heard in England, and in 1835 a Commission, with Lord Gosford at its head, was sent out to inquire into the (omplaints; but this was soon denounced by the Legislative Assembly as an unconstitutional interference, and nothing wliatovcr was done to allay the discontent. In the session of 1837 a number of resolutions were proposed by Ministers in the House of Conmions, refusing the demands of the Legislative Assembly for the forming of an Elective Council, and empower- ing the Colonial government to seize on the money in the Canadian Exchequer, without the sanction of the Legislative Assembly, and iu violation of the Constitution, and out of it to pay the Judges, and other public Officers, their arrears. This caused great indignation in the Legislative Assembly, and amongst the people of Canada; who immediately determined to prevent a continuance of these violations of their rights even by force of arms. They accordingly had recourse to training, to acquire a knowledge of the use of arms, in order to be able to resist, by ** physical force " any attempt to carry into effect the resolutions, thus passed in the British legislature, openly violat- ing their constitution. Another means, too, they used to assist in the same cause, namely " moral force," (a very good thing if well seconded and backed by 2}^i/sical force, but, without that, not of half the value of one siJigle rifle-ball. J This moral force was to prevent any money behig collected to be sent to replenish the coffers of the treasury. These coffers were filled principally from a duty levied on Brandy and rum ; the former bore a duty of one shilluig a gallon, and the latter one shilling and sixpence a gallon. These spirits the people now resolved to discontinue the use of, and in their stead they drank whiskey and beer ; and as there was an income derived from the duty on tea, they ceased usmg that, and, instead of it, they made a beverage from roasted barley, beam, or bread crust, and maple- sugar. This exhibition oi moral force, so backed up by physical force, soon taught the English Government that, unless great " vigour," Hs Old Grey used to say, were used, Canada was lost to us ! ^4 v»4 m 41 30 CASIADUIf REBELLION. N i Vigour was consequently had recourse to, and for the last two years there hrs been open revolt, with continual fightings going on, and in addition to these fightings, the English army has been performing in the character of " Swing," throughout the whole contest ; just as it acted in the last American war, earn- ing for itself the unenviable character of being (if not the most barbarous, cold-blooded and atrocious band of mercenaries that ever disgraced the world) certainly not the most feeling, generous and high-minded of men. Lord John ItusscU has stated in the House of Commons, that the insurrection was wholly confined to the Habitans, or French part of the inhabitants of Lower Canada; but, he added, if a similar feeling should manifest itself in the other North American provinces, he should hesitate as to the line of conduct that the Government ought to pursue. But, since thai declaration. Upper Canada has revolted (and even Newfoundland has, owing to the oppressions mflictcd upon her, stopped the supplies : — The New Brunswick House of Assembly has shown its opposition to the government — And the House of Assembly of Prince Edward's Island has even adopted the very identical declaration of grievances that M. Papineau moved in the Legislative assembly of Lower Canada) ; and how does this square with my Lord John's Declaration that it was only the hdbitans that were discontented ? Out of a population of six hundred thousand in Lower Canada, four hundred and fifty thousand or three-fourths, are French, but in the lists of persons engaged in the rebellion, and that have been published, we find that there are as many English, Irish and Scotch names as there are French names, which shows clearly enough that it is not a French outbreak any more than it is an English one. In Upper Canada the population is four hundred thousand almost entirely British and Irish. Is this revolt in Upper Canada, then, a French affair too, my Lord ? Poh ! Poh ! no one knows better than Lord John Russell, that it is a struggle on the part of the people of these Colonies to throw off" the " hale/ul domination" of the tyrannical British Government, and throw it off they will as surely as did the United States, and as surely as they are within Gun-shot of the United States, which afford such a convenient retreat for the hundreds upon hundreds ^ deserters from the British army, that has been sent to Canada to put down the rebellion ; many of whom, it is well known, enlisted into that army for the sole purpose of getting a free passage to the United States ; where, they -svell knew, they could manage to provide themselves with those comforts that the " thing," as our friend Cobbett tised to call it, prevented their enjoying at home. This state of things not being likely to terminate, the Whig Government sent out Lord Durham^ armed with the most despotic power, even to the extent of permitting him to entirely suspend the constitution: awd to the establishing a military despotism of the most arbitrary kind : to the substituting courts martial for the trial of civil offenders, instead of the trial by jury in the regular courts of law. This power he exercised in the most reckless manner, and carried it so far as to banish ciTs!&b¥kif ' i^ E^l't li b». f people without even the form of a trial of any kind ; but, all was of no avail in the putting an end to the rebellion, seeing that nothing was done to remove the original cause of the discontent that had induced the people to fly to the use of arms against their oppressors. The arbitrary conduct of Lord Durham was arraigned by many members of the Parliament at home, and even the Whig ministers, who had caused this imconstitutional power to be lodged in his hands, did not attempt to defend him ! Proving to all the world, that, which all close observers of their conduct had long known, that they had induced him to accept the disgraceftil office merely to get rid of him from the neighbourhood of the Court, he being likely to stand in the way of this dirty, mean, shabby and tricky crew, in their violent efforts to retain their places and pocket their pay ; and having, on account of the danger to those their dearest desires, succeeded in removing him out of the country and into an odious service, they were glad of any means to ruin his reputation so as to rendcT him powerless whenever he should return. This, the poor, inane, but ludicrously proud, lordling, discovered too late ; and, like a disappointed child, he immediately threw up his Loni High Cummissionership in a pet : left Canada, in a state of greater turmoil than he found it, and came away amidst the jeers of the people ; and, on reaching England, endeavoured to cause meetings of condolence to be held so as to heal his wounded spirit and to enable him to put a good face on the matter and hold up his head once more ! But, alas ! all would not do ; the malignant and intriguing ministry, who had induced him to get into the dirty mess, finding that he had stumbled, instead of lending him a helping hand, absolutely rolled him over in the filth and left him to scramble out as he best could : — " Slow rose his fo'rm in majesty of mud !" and, since that sad mishap, he has been wandering about, in the hope of rubbing off some of the slime, amidst crowds of decent persons, who, on their part, avoid coming in contact with him as they would avoid the pestilence, and leave him, in solitude, to bemoan his fallen greatness. To return to Canada: — The same determined resistance to the British domination has continued to be manifested by the people ; and the same determination to maintain or restore the same state of things that caused the rebellion, is shown by the Government party ; and this horrible state of things is constantly bringing both parties into collision, with alternate success and defeat; but still the ^'rebels" are by no means put down, nor are they likely to be ; they have, indeed, declared their in» dependence of this country, and will now doubtless achieve that independence at the point of the bayonet, and compel their tyrant oppressors to acknowledge it. And that is a thing that the people of this country ought to desire, viewing it merely as a matter oi pounds, shillings and pence, and leaving out of their view all considerations about the love of freedom and the hatred of oppression that ought to animate them ; for what '^ mam 32 CANADIAN REBELLION. ■i J ^; t 1 the cost of Canada to this country ? Why Sir Henry Pab- NELL tells us that, on that country, ^ty, or sixty millions have been expended by England already, and that she is an annual charge of six hundred thousand pounds ; besides which, there is a plan of fortification there, which has been in progress for several years, which will cost about three millions of money, and which she will use against us to help her shake off the " baleful domination." Will the reader exclaim against the want of gratitude in the people of Canada in having thus rebelled against those who have so lavished their riches on them ? Oh, no ! the reader will not do that : he will be sure to bear in mind that this money goes to reward those who hold power in Canada, and these fortifications and fortresses are for the accommodation of gay and glittering officers and soldiers sent out from England to keep Canada iii subjection, as a Colony, where the Nobility, and wealthy and powerful persons of England may send their younger sons and bastards (as to a Foundling hospitalj so that ihey may be kept at the national charge — that is to say, they are sent abroad, to be out of the sight of the people of England, so that there might be a supposition here, that they are usefully employed, and thus cause the money to be given ungrudgingly, while they are doing no earthly thing, except kindly consuming our earnings, and swaggering over the people whose country is so unfortunate as to be infested with their presence. There is, then, no proof of a want of gratitude on the part of the Canadians in this their rebellion ; nor is there any reason why the certainty of the final success of the rebels should cause the people of England to die of grief ! It ought also to be noticed that the inhabitants of the United States, deeply sympathizing in the wrongs and insuUs under which the Canadians have so long suffered, render them all the aid in their power, not only by supplying them with arms, but by going in person and fighting side by side with them ! The President of the United States uses all the means that the Constitution has armed him with, to stop the people of that country from fighting in the ranks of the rebels C' Patriots" we believe is the word usually employed to designate them, but *' rebels" is the move proper word, for their rising is a rebellion against tyranny, and there is nothing disgraceful in being a *' rebel' in such a case), and from rendering them any aid whatsoever. This he does by the means of proclamations^ waming thru imder pain of suffering the pimishment that the law awards to persons found fighting against a country with which their own country is at peace ; but these proclamations do not prevent the American people from still lending all the assistance in their power to the Canadians. This excites the patriotic indignation of the Times newspaper, which says, that, " if the Government of the United States is not able to keep its " people from violating the laws of nations by invading our *' Canadian possessions, we otight to do it for them." That is very just ; but, no one knows better than the Times, that, that is exactly what England cannot do if she would ; unless she could support an addition to her annual expenditure, of some twenty or CANADIAN REBELLION. 33 atriots" we thirty millions qf pounds sterling^ which could not be done wiiliout rt'turning to small paper-money, and that would speedily bring us back to that state ol' things from which our sapient governors have so often told us we were delivered for ever. But, wkjf should the President (supposing him to have the power), prevent the Yankees from assisting the Canadians? The English government did not prevent Colonel Evans and his " Legion" of Englishmen from assisting the " rebels" in Spain,^ (for the Queen's party there are real *^ rebels" they being engaged in openly supporting her in her attempt to retain the throne for her daughter, in opposition to, and in direct defiance of, the Spanish Constitution, which directs the Saligue law to regulate the succession to the throne, which law, as every body knows, says that a woman shall not reign over that country where such law exists) the English government, so far from interfering with Colonel Evans and his "legion," publicly and openly abetted them in the enterprise ; and, still more, they rewarded the Colonel, for his services in this pretty affair, by investing him with the order of knighthood, on his return to this country ! And is the government that has acted thus, to compel the people of the United States to refrain from assisting the Canadians in their rebellion against such a kind and paternal government as that which has so long ruled over them ? It is useless to complain either of the interference of the people of the United States, or of the supineness of the Government there^ in not preventing that interference, as we must be certain that the people who sympathize with the oppressed Canadians will Itiud them a helping hand ; and we must, also, be certain that, although the Government of the United States will not openly; interfere in fovour of the Canadians, that government must secretly rejoice in the difficulty that such rebellion brings upon such a government as ours : they must see that the affair will cost England nearly as much as a war, while it lasts, and that it weakens England, whilst it must ultimately add strength to America. One of the reasons why it would be injurious ta England to have the government of the Canadas forcibly wrested from her, is this, the people there would always look upon the English as baffled and beaten tyrants, and would prefer the friendship and alliance of the United States to an union, even upon an equality, with this Country. Why not give up the contest then at once ? Because you then destroy those tilings for which it is now forcibly kept ; you cut off an outlet to the English Lieutenant Governors ; — English Legislative Council : English Executive Council : English Judges, English placemen of all sorts, and an English army, which affords so many of the sons, brothers and bastards of those belonging to the " thing" at home, the opportunity of serving their Country. Are these thing* to be put an end to merely to stop the killings that are going on in Canada ? What are those killings, compared to the taking place and pay from these worthies ? Why that would be robberyt und murder too ! the thought of which would be more distress- ing to their benevolent and feeling hearts than all the swing fires of the British army : than the setting on tire, and tumbling BMi Wll II iBia^ffiiiaiaUiBil ■iS? ^■'^=1; 34 CANADIAN RBBSLLIdN. over the Niagara, of all tha vessels, and the killing of nineteen- twentieths of the men vromen and children of the whole colony ! It would be wise if the independence of the Canadas were accorded immediately, for to suppose, that, with the republic of America within gim-shot of them, and with the cause of their present excitement left rankling in their minds, and considering that they have taken the first step against this government and gone so far as to declare their independence, to suppose that, with all these reasons against any reconciliation, the Canadas will ever be peaceable under the English yoke, is to wilfully blind ourselves to all experience — to be self-deluders, and to deny all that history declares, or that reason points out. Our sapient government would do well to inquire whether this affair might not eventually embroil us with the United States: and whether they think that we, who really cannot support a peace, can afford to (td to war, especially with a coun- try like America? A war which would require, as we have already said, an addition of twenty millions, or even thirty millions, a-year to our taxation; which would immediately cause the re-issuing of small paper money, which would cause the disappearance of all the gold from our circulation i and which would place our government in that wretche:! state of degradation that they were in before the currency measures of 1819 ; that state which left them to the mercy of any person, foreigner or native, of hlowiug up the whole system of funding, of paper, and of, most probably, destroying the government itself. If we were, or rather they were, for the mass of the people need not care two straws about it, except, perhaps, that thoy may in the end gain by it, to be again brought back to this delightful state of national greatness, would they endeavour to prevent a "ptiff-aut," as Mr. Cobbett used to call it, by em- ploying engravers of inimitable bank notes ? And, if so, would they send to America for those engravers as they did before ? Another thing for their consideration is this — seeing that a war would make paper-money necessary, and seeing, too, that paper- money would rob every working man of nearly half his present miserable wages; would they, seeing that these must be the consequences, ever put the working people of England into this wretched plight. Or would any set of men, calling themselves the government, be bold enough to venture on a war while the abominable new poor-law is in existence f You would, perhaps, put your dependence in a rural police composed of Irishmen, that the greatest public scoundrel that ever lived, has offered to send you I What use would they be against the forgeries of your paper money that would take place in America, to a certainty, and be strewed about the streets of a few of the principal cities and towns in England (which, by the bye, would ruin, at a blow, all those poor deluded fools, who have deposited their hard earnings in the savings' banks). Unless you have some contrivance to prevent this, you are as weak and powerless as a litter of blind puppies, and as completely at the mercy of your enemies as if you were bound hand and foot at their feet! That is as well known, not only in America, but in every nation of REFORM ItH PARLlAMjiNT. 33 lincteen* i colony ! las were public of of their nsidering ncnt and ose that, Canadas ) wilfuily rs, and to whether e United ly cannot h a coun- we have en thirty mediately uld cause Uons and 1 state of Basures of ly person, f funding, >yemment Iss of the liaps, that ick to this [earour to t, by em- 80, would d before? lat a war [lat paper- lis present st be the I into this iselves the while the , perhaps, hmen, that id to send IS of your certainty, ipal cities ruin, at a lited their lave some «rerless as jy of your lieir feet! ery nation in Europe, as it is to yourselves ; and the proof, that it is well known to yourselves, is the fact of your patient forbearance under insults innumerable that you have received from every one of those nations; thus showing that all your pluck is gone — that you have lost all real power, and instead of being either feared, or respected, you only inspire contempt and scorn. REFORM IN PARLIAMENT. The next subject, on which we shall make a few remarks, is that of a Reform in the Commons' House of Parliament. This subject has for a long time excited very great interest through- out England, Scotland, and Wales ; and doubtless would excite an equal degree of interest in Ireland, were it not for the great influence of a man, who is as great an enemy to reform as ever lived, and who is doing all he possibly can to keep the Irish people in bondage, but whose influence is derived solely from his vehement expressions of the sincerity of his desires for the welfare of that people, who have given implicit belief to every word that he has uttered about his sincerity in their cause, and who have yielded up to his guidance the whole of their political affairs, even to the extent of permitting him, in all public matters, to think for them, until he has acquired an influence over them perhaps as great as any man ever acquired over a people ; a fearful state of things for a people, even when their confidence is bestowed on a good man; but dangerous in the extreme when it is blindly bestowed on perhaps the most un- principled and profligate man in Ireland ! Such being the slate of things there, we lose the exertions of the people of that country in the cause of reform, seeing that they have boimd themselves to the supporting any thing, or every thing, that O'ConneP, in the pursuit of his darling object, money, might think fit to declare necessary. We must, therefore not calcu- late upon any aid from that quarter, but put our own shoulders to the wheel, and by our exertions we may by and bye arouse the attention of that ill used and humbugged people and gain their assistance. The Reform that has been the subject of so many hundreds uf public meetings within the last twelve months, is that of Universal Suffrage. Vote by Ballot. Annual Parliaments. Payment of Members. No Property Qvialification for Memjbers. On these subjects we shall make some remarks taking them separately and in the order in which they are here i)laced. UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. We shall endeavour to show that every man, who is of mature age^ of sound mind, and unstained by indelible crime u i l\ 26 USIVSBSAL SUFVRAQE. Hi ought to possess the elective franchise. And then we uhuil show, that, according to the ancient practice, the suivuage was universal: that the people have been robbed of the power to exercise it, and that, therefore, it is right for the peosed by his own consent, or that of his representatives in " Parliament". Well, then, does not the labouring man pay taxes upon every thing that he eats, drinks and wears, and upon every one of the implements of his trade ? Why should the man who pays direct taxes be considered a tax-payer any more than he who pays indirectly ? He who pays direct taxes, does, in fact, only pay them for the man who has to hand them over to him in the prices of the goods that the direct payer sells, to the consumer of those taxed articles ; and, therefore, the con- sumer is the real tax payer, only that he hands the amount of his share of the taxes to the tax gatherer, through the person from whom he buys the various articles that he requires. It is useless to multiply arguments on this point for no man is so brutally stupid as not to see that the labouring man, not only is a tax-payer, but that, in proportion to his means, he is com- pelled to pay iufmiloly more tax than the wealthy man. And as regards the possession of property the working man has his labour; Avhich, not only is projicrty, hvX, is the foundation of all property, and this property is that wlucii is taxed to nearly the amount of seventy-live per cent, ao has been so clearly shown by Mr. Pueston the Chancery Barrister and late an M.P. and also by the late Mr. Cobbett. How often has the latter gentleman, in advocatmg the rights of the labourmg man, dwelt upon this species of property and proved the real supe- riority of it, to that of the mere dog-kennel of a house of forty shillings a year. Enough on the subject of labourers being payers of taxes and real owners of property. Now what says Blackstone on the subject of the franchise being extended to these men. He, who, we ought not to forget, was a Tory, and pretty much of a courtier, says, in the first Book of his Com- "yo " sei "ev << ..' " sh: "ph "ye 'Mn " ah ex I " Oil " thf " thvn governor ; and, there- " fore, a branch, at least, of the legislative power should rcsitie " in the whole body of the people." Mr. Copbett has also so well and so wisely given his opinion on this subject, that it would savour of the most contemptible affectation, or dirty plagiarism, were we to attempt to give our own reasons in sup- port of it, in preference to those of such a man. He says at Vol. 70 of his Register. Page 559. " But upon what principle^ " upon what show of reason or of justice, are you to call upon '' a man to come out and serve in the militia ; to come forth in •' the defence of his coimtry and of the laws ; to assume the " military garb, to submit to military discipline, to be punished " for desertion or disobedience of orders; upon what joriwcipfe " are you to call a man forth, compel him to quit his aged " parents, his wife and his children, and to risk his life, when, " but the day before, you have refused to let him vote at an " election upon the gromid that he has no stake in the country ? " This is monstrous impudence ; the bare thought must fill " every young man with indignation ! He is old enough and " wise enough to fight for your stake in the country ; but too " young and too thoughtless to be deemed to have a stake him- " seff to be fought for. If you will have it to bo property^ " every man has a property in his labour, which is the basis of " •'' properly. What! is a house, the rent of which is fifty " shillings a year, to give a man a right to vote, and is the " ploughman, for instance, who has seven or eight pounds a " year of wages, over and above his keep, not to have a vote ? " In short, every objection to this universal suffrage is so full of " absurdities ; it is so repulsive to reason, and so offensive ta " the conscious worth of man, that it can never be sustained " except by a tyranny that can be supported by the sword. " One objection that has been stated to universal suffrage is " this; that, if labourers and journeymen were left to choose " the representatives in parliament, they, beuig the greatest *' number would choose men of their own description ; would " choose ploughmen and shoemakers and tinkers and the like. " They who urge this objection by no means believe what they " say : they know that when poor men are going to law, they " do not employ miserable pettifoggers if they can avoid it; " these objectors know, that, when a poor man breaks his leg, " he gets the surgeon, and not the horse-doctor, to set it; they " also know, from experience in private life, that, whenever the " working people have to choose some one to manage the affairs " of any considerable number of them, they always choose the " man of the most talent and hitcgrity that they can find ; and V 2 r'il msvamm 38 UNIVERSAL SUFFBAOB. " tliis is so natural, that it '.vould be perfectly monstrous to sup- *' pose that the contrary .vould ever be the case ; and when " every man felt that he was deeply interested in what would be *' done in Parliament, would he not choose, to represent him, the " man whom he thought most likely, . ni his ability as well as " his integrity, to watch over his interests there ?" It has been denied thai, universal suffrage was ever the ancient practice in England, and what of that, we would ask ? Are there no new things introduced to beat down the main body of the people and thus make it absolutely necessary to their pre- servation that they should have imiversal suffrage to use in their own defence ? It was no longer ago than the " Glorious Revolu- " tian" that the landholders had to liear the whole of the taxation of the country, from which, at *hat time, they became relieved, and the burden was throwr almost wholly on the mdustrious part of the people. That was a new thing, which never would have taken place had the pcopxO possessed the. pover to choose their own representatives. This made the people regret the loss of the sovereign that the glorious revolution had dethroned, and this led the newly ir .ported king to go to war to keep him off the throne ; and to carry on th : war, the system of horraiving money, in anticipation of the taxes, began, and that produced paper-money, and all its attendent evils, even down to the beggary and starvation of the people, which never would have been permitted, had the people themselves tlie power of making the laws. The Riot-Act : the Septennial-Act, and a thousand other acts, have all proceeded from the determination of those who govern the people, ,o cause such acts to be passed as shall effectually prevent them froin having any voice in the choosing of those who shall make the la%vs, and thus leave them at the mercy of the most rapacious band of plunderers that ever were entrusted with power; who know that this power would immediately become feebleness, and the plunder cease, ana an investigation into the various depositaries of the former plunderings, and a restitution made, as far as the estates of the plunderers will go towards that restitution, the very moment that the people themselves have the power to return repvesenta- iives to parliament. Scores of circumstances may be enume- rated that show the absolute necessity of instituting uvwersal siiffrage, even if it could be proved that it never had been the practice in this kingdom. Prove to us, not that it never has been known in this country, but, that it woul(^ be injurious to the main body of the people; and then, even, with all the proofs we have that i; was formerly possessed, we will give up all desire for it, and never more utter a word in its favour ; but, until you do that, until you can prove to us, not that it never has been the custom, but that it would be an injury to the peo- ple, we, most certainly, shall leavr no stone unturned to endea« vour t(» cause it to become the lav; of the land " That every " member of the community, hovever poor, shaU ha"^ a vote in " electing those delegates to whos<3 charge is committed the Itsposal " qf his property, his liberty and his life." But, we c«mtend that, formerly it was the law : that it w.9 UNIVSKSAL SUFFRAGE. 39 taken from the people by the Conquest, and the subseqent es- tablishment of the Feodal System : but, thot, on the destruction of that system (the existence of which was, perhaps, the only thing that could give the colour of justice to the withholding of the suffrage) those people who had been the villains or vassals, or serfs, under that system, did not regain that independence which their Saxon forefathers had poc^essed ^,revious to the ('onquest ; which independence was manifested by the right to share in the power to make the laws, and all historians agree in acknowledging they possessed such right. We will give what Uapin says on this subject; whose authority musj; be impartial, he being a foreigner, and as that authority is founded on ancient records it must be decisive. He says " After the union of the " seven kingdoms (Heptarchy), when the exercise of the legislative ** power, in the person of every individual, became impracticable, " by reason of their remoteness, some change in the outward " form was necessary in order to preserve the common- wealth " upon the same principles, upon which it was first established; " and as the whole kingdom was now divided into so many " i-iTTLE REPUBLICS, or tytliings, some person out of every ty- '* thing, or borough, came to the Wittena-gemotc, to take care of " the society which he belonged to." But the villains, or serfs, on the establishment of i\ie feodal system, had no votes allowed them, seeing, that they were not, by law, considered o.^ freemen; but, now that that system is no longer in existence, the ancient right of voting ought to be restored. Instead of which the statute of the 10 of Henry "VI., cap 4, disfranchised nine-tenths of this nation, by limiting the right of voting, for knights of the shire, to persons possessing a certain amount of freehold pro- perty ; whilst the septennial act disfranchises the whole people six years xi of every seven years. Thus, then, have the people been cheated out of this right, and have, even in that musty and jtrecedental (as Jerry Bentham would express it) mode of discuss- ing the question, a clear right to its restoration ; although, to a man of i?ense, it matters not one riingle rush, whether i^ has ever . been possessed by the people: — that which a whole people think fit to adopt mtist and will be adopted ; and if no precedent exist to favour its adoption, why, then, that people must make ore. For Ihe lovers of precedent wo will say a word or two on the pr tctice oi our ancestors in choosing their representatives. — We find that, upwards of twelve hundred years ago (a distance back, quite long enough to satisfy any reasonable man), the Saxons, after having subdued the Ancient Britons, or compelled tliem to take shelter in the fastnesses of the Welsh Mountains, establisheu their own laws and customs here ; one of these was the having no standing army, a thing, Blackstone tells us, that is contrary to the constitution of England : — another was, that it was imperative on every man to have arms in his possession, the defence of the country being equally the business of the whole ; this, too, Blackstone declares to be part and parcel of the con- stitution. Historians tell us that our Saxon forefathers, (the Saxons were our forefat/ters, at least so says Mr. O'Connell, and fie never errs) elected their own Magistrates, and made their own i ■*JJ 40 UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGB. laws ; for which purpojc they were occasionally assembled : those meetings were called the wittena gemot, which means, strictly, a meeting of the common people, (as wittena geheate, means a meeting of the high people,) and the clashing of weapons was their mode of expressing their approval of the proposed law; these meetings were held annually, and even monthly. Thus it continued during the Heptarchy; but, on that heptarchy being destroyed, and the whole lornicd into one kingdom, the kepre- SENTATivE SYSTEM was adopted, it being impossible for the whole people to assemble in one meeting. Under the representa- tive system their magistrates were frequently their ' representa- tives, and as we know that these were chosen by the voice of the whole people, .we cannot doubt but that their other repre- sentatives were so chosen ; for it would be to set reason at defiance, to pretend to suppose it possible for men, who had, hitherto, been accustomed to make the laws in their own per- sons, and who were remarkably tenacious of their liberty, to yield up that right to those whom they, themselves, did not appoint and over whom they had no control. Under this new system those who were elected to the comicil of the nation assembled at stated times and always came armed, as an evidence of their independence. Those who were best qualified, whether from age, or great knowledge, or whose valour had earned for them great reputation, were allowed to speak before others ; but, in all other respects there was the most perfect equality amongst them : no distinction of place, or rank, except that which was awarded them on account of great mental mA physical qualities. These assemblies elected the Kings and Generals, and decided all questions of peace and war. Great respect was, as our his- torians tell us, showir towards the royal family ; and if the deceased king left a son, or sons, who had no marked disqualifi,- eation, one of them was generally chosen to succeed ; if not, some other branch of the family ; or any man of title, or in- fluence, arising from his great abilities, was elected. But, who- ever succeeded, he neither claimed nor considered it as a matter of right ; ihe free sivffrages of the people, or of their /ree/y chosen representatives, were the grounds and only rule by which he reigned. Hence it was that, as we find, the succession was frequently broken ; and the smallest de^'iation from ancient usage, on the part of the king-*, or the suiallest violation, on their part, of the rights of the people, was always dangerous, and often fata' to them. — Whilst speaking on the subject of this elective power, wo may remark, that William the Conqueror, even he who had had the power to make a fresh distribution of all the lands of the kingdom, when he came near to his end, acknowledged that he owed his crown to the election of the people of England, and, therefore, had no right to bequeath it to any one; but, he expressed a wish that his son might enjoy it afto'' him. The formality of the election of Sovereign, indeed, is observed oven down to our own day; for, at the Coronation of the Kings of England the Archbishop of Canterbury, who oiliciates, asks of the people on the cast side whether they are UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. 41 willmff to do Jiomaye unto the king ? The same question is asked of the people assembled on the south, on the west and on the north sides, and, on their replying " God save the king" tho ceremony of crowning commences. Thus, then, there is " Uni- " versal Suffrage" in the election of Sovereign — the highest estate of the realm, that part in which is lodged the whole executive power of the state; and, yet, forsooth, in our en- liyhtencd days, there is required the possession of a certain por- tion of dirt, or Iricks and mortar, to quahfy a person to vote for members of the house of commons ! — But, to return to our subject:—* The invasions of the Danes caused a suspension of these things until the coming of that really famous man Alfred, who revived the wittcna-gemote ; and, now that the Heptarchy no longer existed, but that the whole were united into one nati(Hi^ it being again fouad to be impracticable for thj whole people to be assembled for the purpose of making the laws, and for other public business, he caused the re-introduction of the representa- tive system ; and thus tything or free burghs (which did not consist of precisely ten families, but of, generally, as many as lived in one town and a surroimding district) were formed, wh ^ representatives were to be sent to the national council; •' mg, and after, the time of Alfred, we fmd in the pre- umliles of the laws, that the Grefa-byrghs, or borough representa- tives, are mentioned as attending the ivittena-gemote instead of ealle theode, or the whole people, or every body. And when, after the expulsion of the Danes, Alfred was collecting and arranging the old laws, we find him consulting with the wittena- getheat (or, literally, the wise among the high folk) only ; but, for making new laws, the grefa-byrghs (cr, representatives of the common folk) were ahvaws summoned to assemble ; these men, in their collective capacity, or when assembled as the *' collective wisdom of the ".ai/ow," were called o. wittena-gemotCy or meeting of the common people, or, as the phrase now is, a meeting of the commons, William the Conqueror, who began his reigii about 150 years after Alfred, destroyed as many of the ^'axon records as he could lay his hands on, in order that the pr- ■ • 'U'y ccaae to have any knowledge of the rights of their anc v. I'i. and thus cease to be an obstacle to the esta- blishment oi sV: c solute despotism; but, from the, necessarily imperfect, reco^ 1 which wo yet possess, we find that the Saxon parliaments were cuinposcd of persons elected by the whole peo- ple ; for every free man, that is, every man who was not a real slave, had a vote for a representative. This is amply shown in the collections of the laws of Edward the Confessor and of William the conqueror which are to be fovmd in the Red book and in the MSS. rolls of the Exchequer, from which we will give one quotation, for which we are indebted to the writer of some n^ >t valuable lettcis under the signature of " Revoli- tionist," uaich have appearerl in the " Charter" newspaper. — It is from r'.a. 35 rnDlUution oi Edward the Confessor* s collection, and is as ioUows : — " It is therefore enacted that aLl the peo- " ple, and the whole of the County ought without fail there to meet 42 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. •• (viz. at the Folckmote) each year, to wit, in the beginning of " the Calends of May, and faithfully and with unbroken oaths, " CONFEDERATE THEMSELVES, AND STRENGTHEN THEM- " SELVES, as su'orn brothers." It then goes on to say that then the head-men, and sent-men by show of hands, and the county militia, and the *' free-men universally of the whole kingdom," Avere to be sworn to their fealty ; and, that, there " faithful " men shall be elected in full folckmote to the common council " CyfiitensL-gemote), for the general good of the kingdom through' " out all the provinces and counties, and by each separate county in " full Folckmote." So likewise the Sherifl's, Magistrates, and Lord-lieutenants (Heretoch, or commander of the County Mi- litia), were to be elected, at a decond meeting, held in October, " therefore," says the institution " the Folckmots ought always to " be holdcn twice in each year, throughout all the Counties uni- " versally, and throughout all the provinces and places of the whole *' kingdom, for the peace and stability and confirmation of tfie king- " dom, as is aforesaid." And thus we think (albeit we care not about prccedem in Buch case) we have shown that Universal Siiffrage was anciently e / \ i by the people of England, and that too, let it never be for^ , at that period of our history which is thus described by Di. Johnson. " A single jail, in Alfred's golden reign, "Could half the nation's criminals contain ; " Fair justice then, without constraint adored, " Held high th« steady scale, but sheathed the sword ; " No S^pies were paid, no special juries known ; "Blest age ! but, ab ! /*(*» different from our own!" IS EDUCATION, OR " HEDDICATION", NECESSARY TO QUALIFY MEN TO EX- ERCISE THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE? There is a considerable number of persons who object to Uni- versal suffrage because, they say, the working people are not possessed of wisdom sufficient to guide them in the choice of a representative. This we freqiiently hear from the lips of per- sons Avho affect to feel sorrow for the necessity, that, they are pleased to say exists, for withholding this undoubted right from the great body of the people ; we say they (ffect to feel sorrow, for no man of sense believes in the existence of this want of wisdom, and therefore if such a man profess to believe it, he is a hypocrite and a r jal enemy to liberty and to justice ; but if a man be found to really believe this, we can only say that he is so great a dullard, so totally destitute of any thing that can be called common sense, that we should place him as the exception to the rule, as the living witness of the tnith of the rule, that the whole people are sufficiently enlightened to exercise the elective franchise. However, it is, generally speaking, the real enemies of freedom who say that the working people are not sufficiently educated (*^ heddicated" is the word that the late Mr. Cobbett always put into the mouths of the priggish knaves), lo be en- THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. 43 Inistcd with the elective franchise. Wu have already said that all who say this are either /oo/s or knaves : — Nevertheless let us look at it a little. First of all, those who argiie for the affirmative of the propo- sition, ought to tell us what they mean by the word " education", and the quantity of the commodity which they think necessary for persons to possess before they exercise the right to vote for fhose who havt to make the laws. They do not tell us whe- tlier it should be a knowledge of reading and WTnting, of cypher' ing, o{ languages, of music, oi dancing, oi astronomy, oi navigation, oi chemistry, or oi what the ^^ education" ought to consist. If chemistry be their standard.of what use would the knowledge of tliat be to the shoemaker — or navigation to the tailor — or, astrO' tiomy to the tinker — or, music to the coppersmith — or, dancing to the carpenter — or languages to the labourer f All very fine things to possess, but of no more utility to each, than is a bunch of gold seals; or a diamond brooch; era gold ring, things that partake much more of the ornamental than of the useful; and although we will not go so far as to say tliat the knowledge of these things would be positively injurious to these several par- ties, yet we never hear the necessity of them urged, but wc call to mind the saying of Cicero's father, who used to say, when speaking of the Syrian slaves, " the more Greek they know, " the greater knaves they are." If it be none of these, it must be reading and writing. But, agaiii, as to the quantity, the sort, the degree in which these are to be possessed. Are the voters to be required to read like the Clergy of the Church of England ? No, that will not do as a standard, for, amongst them, the had readers far outnumber the good! Where then is the standard to be found ? — And if the art of writing be to be a part of the necessary qualification, in what branch of that are they to be adepts — german-text ? engrossing hand ? — round hand, or running hand ? and where is the standard for testing the quality of such writing ? Not, certainly, among the rich and noble ; for, many of them can neither write a plain hand, nor even spell their words correctly ; nor can one in a score of them write gramatically. No, no ! none of these can be meant by the tooting asses, who, tossing back their heads and pricking up their ears, are constantly prating about the necessity there is for " heddication amongst the lower clases !" Our oppressors ta^ us up to our very teeth, so that we are not able to get what they call 2)roperty, nor afford time to acquire ivhat they call education, and then they iiupudently tell us that we are not qualified to exercise the elective franchise, because of our poverty and ignorance ! On the subject of real education these gentry never deign to open their lips ; that is quite im worthy of their notice : ii is per- fectly vulgar and unpolite to have a knowledge of any thing be- sides book learning ! They advocate the acquiring of that r^ned and intellectual sort of knowledge that can never be available for the putting of food into the bellies, clothes upon the backs, and houses over the heads of the possessors of it. — They look with pity and, even with contempt upon the men who can plough the 44 VOTE BY BALLOT. iiclds, and who have a perfect practical knowledge of the whole of the affairs of a farm ; — and upon those who produce the cloth- ing and the houses, unless they be able to read the trashy writ- ings of a set of the most despicable fribbles, and the most useless creatures that swarm about the public press and who have the insolence to style themselves " public instructors" ; a knoAvledge of whose sickening and puke-creating writings, forsooth, is to be acquired before a man shall be allowed to have the elective fran- chise, notwithstanding he may be able to produce things of real, solid and acknowledged utility to society ! If the promulgators of this doctrine believe in it they are fools, — stark, staring fools, — if they do not believe in it, but press it upon public attention merely to retard the progress of Universal Suffrage^ and its certain result, cheap and good government (which is the object of nine out of every ten of them), then they are, not merely knaves, but the falsest and most dastardly of hypocrites, and the blackest of tyrants, from whom we ought to turn with disgust, unless we be prepared to smite them on the mouth whenever they presume to pester us with their villanous doctrines. As some of the sticklers for the necessity of greater " heddication ", often (in order to show us how deeply read they are) refer us to the ancients, let us see what some of those ancients thought of that which is now considered by these heddication-mongers as being the great proof of learning, viz, rhetoric; or, as the botheration O'Connell has it, " INTENSB ELOQUENCE." Comelius Agrippa says: — "In " like r inner did Cicero provoke Anthony, to the great mischief " of thu Empire ; and Demosthenes incensed Philip, to the ruin " of the Athenians ; and there is no State or Government but has " been highly injured by this wicked art : no society of men that " ever lent their ears to the charms of eloquence, that has not " been extremely mischief ed thereby : wherefore Socrates thinks " rhetoricians worthy of no respect, and will not allow them any *' power in a well ordered commonwealth. And Plato excludes *' them from his commonwealth, with the same contcmj^t that he "rejects Players and Poets, and not without reason; for, " there is nothing more dangerous, in civil affairs, than this " deluding mystery, as from thence all prevaricators, juggling ■" shufflers, backbiters, sycoj^hants, and all other lewd and vile ^' tongued persons derive their malice and knavery." VOTE BY BALLOT. On this subject we shall offer but a veiy few words ; first, because the subject is, in i*self, so simple ; and; secondly, be- cause it is, on the face of it, so just, that, when the suffrage shall be unive7'sal, the people should be protected in the exercise of that right. But, imtil that be the case, if only a small part of the community hold the vote, and thnreby virtually represent the great mass of the people, then the multitude ought to know how those, who hold the power of voting, exercise that power, in order that they may know how they are represented. And as ANNUAL PARLIAMENTS AND PAYMENT OF MEMBERS. 45 regards the ballot when universal suffrage, is the law of the land, the electors will then hold the vote in their own right, and not as a trust for others, and consequently ought to be protected in its exercise, seeing that it is not a matter about which any other persons have any right to inquire, any more then they have any right to exercise any control over any other matter relating to the conscience of man. Another good that the ballot will tend to produce is the peaceful, quiet, and orderly mode of managing elections, and that, of itself, will be no little good ; for, \mder the system that has long been practised at contested elections, such noise, tormoil and riot have hitherto been produced as to cause the utmost disgust in the minds of all decent and orderly persons ; Rousseau or Voltaire (we know not which of them,) speaking of English Elections, remarked that " Englishmen have but forty " days of freedom in seven years, and they use those forty days " in such a way as proves that they ought to be slaves for the *' rest of the seven years.*' ANNUAL PARLIAMENTS AND PAY- MENT OF MEMBERS. These two matters will not require much notice, particularly as it is undoubted that they were both, in by-gone days, the prac- tice of this country, therefore the gentlemen of precedents will not have a word to say against them, and then we shall have but an easy task in showing that they are both just and reasonable in themselves, and likely to be of great benefit to the people. We have already seen, that, in the days of our Saxon forefathers, several centuries before the Conquest, the meetings of the law- makers (wittena-gemote) were held, at the farthest, once a year^ and often at the new and full moon; but, after the Conquest, when William had destroyed as many of the Saxon in.stitu- tions as prudence would permit, it almost ceased to be the cus- tom, he, himself, having assembled a general council but a few times, and that only in times of difficulty and danger, and in order to conciliate the minds of the people ; and it was not until the Reign of Edivard the Third that the parliament rose into greater consideration and acquired more authority than at any period since the Conquest; this, we must recollect, was caused by an act which provided that " a parliament should be holden every year once, and oftener, if need be," as until this time parlia- ments were called together only when the crown wanted some favour. Thus, then, there was a revival of part of tlie old, Saxin, institutions. It has been contended by some, that it was not a new parliament, that was thus holden every year ; but we think that ancient records show that it was a fresh elected parliament : that the same persons were never called together again, without having undergone tJie ordeal of an election; the same thhig is borne out by Rapin the historian, who says that, *'i« " those days parliaments never sat for more than one Session, mw- i ^ 1. i i '. 46 ANNUAL PARLIAMENTS AND PAYMENT OF MEMBERS. " less business required a short prorogation." Blackstone contra- dicts this by saying " not that he (the king) is, or ever was, *' obliged by these statutes to call a new parliament evciy year ; ** but only to permit a parliament to sit annually for the redress " of grievances, and dispatch of business, if need be." But the records that we are about to give, show that the practice was contrary to what Blackstone says. The proofs that wc shall adduce of this, will be also our proofs that it was the law, and the practice, of our forefathers to pay their representatives for their services ; which was enacted by statute of Edward the Third, by which it was provided that four shillings a day should be the amount of pay for a knight of the shire; and that two shillings a day should be the pay for the representative of a City or Borough : that is to say, limiting their claims for their services, to those specific sums. These proofs we take from " Lee's History of Lewes;" and from extracts from the court books of Ipswich. The first-named work contains a list of Members of Parliament for Lewes, for a period of one hun- dred and seventy-five years ; that is, from the year 1298, in the reign of Edward the First, to the year 1473, in the reign of Edward the Fourth, which shows that parliaments were (even before the reign of Edward the Third), not merely annual, but that they were chosen for the Sessions only, as the reader will perceive that there is one instance recorded, in the Lewes list of members, of there having been two parliaments chosen in one year. The History also shows that there was no property qua'i- fwation, but that mere simple citizens were sent, and it proves, as we have already said, that the representatives were paid for their services, for it says, that, in the year 1401, which was in the second year of the reign of Henry the Fourth, John Mamyott and John Mason were elected, and ten pounds sixteen shillings were paid to them for fifty -four days attendance in Parliament (that is two shillings each, per day). We will here extract from Lee's History, a short list of persons chosen for Lewes. A.D. 1360. — Godfrey Wolfenpope, and Walter Nynge, were elected. 1361. — Thomas Linfield, and William Brochere, were elected. 1361. — Richard Feniour, and Thomas Linfield, were elected. (Two Parliaments to this year.) 1362. — Richard Fernour, and Thomas Linfield, were elected. 1363. — Robert York, and William Darnell, were elected. 1364.— -William Spicer, and Thomas Morreys, were elected. The list taken from the extracts from the court books of Ipsivich is curious, respecting the payment, merely, of the mem- bers ; it is as follows. 1448.— Jolm Smith and William Weathereld were paid £3 3s. 6d. each for the Session 1460. — William Worsop and John River, 13d. per day each. 1462. — William Worsop and John Lopham ; the former to have 20d. aday at York ; at any nearer place, 16d. ; at London, 12d, ; and Lopham, 12d. per day everywhere. 1469 —John Timperley, Jun,, and John Alfray, of Hendley ; ANNUAL PARLIAMENTS AND PAYMENT OF MEMBERS. 47 A.D. Timperly, at 8d. per day. Alfray served gratis, in consideration of his being made a free burgess. 1472. — William Worsop and John Wallworth ; Worsop, at 5s. per week ; Wallworth to have 3s. 4d, per week. 1477. — James Hobart and John Temperley, at 20s. 8d., or two marcs each. 1483.— Thomas Baldry and John Wallworth; Baldry, at 2s. a-day ; Wallworth, at Is. 1494.— John Fastolf and Ed. Becking, at £1 6s. 8d. each, if at Westminster. If further oflT, to be ordered by the Great Court. The Great Court ordered Fastolf £4 ; to Booking, £3. 1509. — William Spencer and Thomas Hall. Spencer to have 40s. It appears, however, that he was paid £2 6s. 8d. 1559 — Thomas Seckford, jun., Esq. ; and Robert Barker. Barker had £31 4s. 1592. — Robert Barker and Zach. Lock, Esq. ; Lock had £5. 1620. — Robert Snelling and William Cage, Gent. ; £50 each. 1640. — John Gurdon and William Cage, Gent; Cage had £100 on the 5th of December, 1643, Gurdon had £100 ; and Cage £50 additional. 1680. — John Wright and Gilbert Linficld ; Wright received £60 ; and Liufield £20. While upon this subject we may as well state here, that Prynne discovered, in the White Tower of London, copies of the original writs to the Sheriffs, directing a new election for almost every year after the regulation in the reign of Edward the Third ; and he informs us, that there were but two or three disputed electiims, and not one double return for above two hundred years from that time. We will say a few words about ministers sitting and voting in parliament ; these things, we think, would, under a radically re- formed parliament, be quickly put an end to ; and that the admirable system which is followed in America, would be adopted here. In that country there are no chancellors of exchequer, no secretaries of state, or of war, or of the home department, or of the Admiralty, admitted to seats in either house of Congress ; there is no Treasury bench, nor any ministers in either house ; nor can any man be a member of Congress who receives one single six-pence of public money under the Executive ; nor can any man be allowed to fill any office within two years of the time when he ceases to be a member of either house, if such office shall have been created, or the emoluments of such office shall have been augmented, during the time that he was a member of either of those houses. These things, we think, are amongst the very best fruits that Universal Sujffrage would be sure to produce in this country. We will close this part of our work with a quotation from the writings of the late Mr. Cobbett, at page 802 of Vol. 13. dated May, 1808. He says " We have so long been accustomed " to look upon seats in parliament as a benefit to the holder; " we have so long seen men struggle for this sort of possession ** with more eagerness and greater risk than they struggle for --^k *5 ■T»:.l, ■^ l! 48 ON PRCPSni'Y QUALIFICATION FOR MEMBERS. 4( tt (( «( <( (< C( {( 4f « *( << (( 4< (( (( <( (< C( <( << (( j»«TtTk 50 ON PHYSICAL FORCE. half-frightcncd govcmmont. "What? do you intend, if we •' refuse your petition, to take them by violence f" " Oh ! no." say the deniandera, " God forbid ! wo mean no such thing as '^jiyhtinff ; and if even one of our best and most faithful friends " were to hint at the lawfulness of being armed, we would im- " mediately dcnoimce him as an enemy, if not a traitor, and " half invito the government to stop him. Wo mean to succeed " by argument and by assuming a great and imposing moral " ATTITUDE. — We mean to persuade the wolf that it is for its " own benefit that he give up the lamb into whose body he has " just driven his murdcious teeth." " Oh I aye, persuade away " then," says the " Thing", "and," thanking you for the ''wolf* and the " iamb," depend upon it we shall not feel alarmed at " your petitioning, or at your moral force, but will quietly finish ** our repast" For our parts, we think, that, while very big and swaggering talk about fightings and violence, will not inspire much fear ou the part of the oppressors, the expression of a resolute deter- mination not to fight, " come what may" will give them pleasure, — they will consider that it is fear that prompts the determi- nation, and they will act accordingly. That the people have a right to resist oppression, or to resist an abrogation of any part of the constitution, we [have abim- dant proof; our queen, herself, is a living proof, fjr had it not been for resistance on the part of the people, she v/ould certainly not have been on the throne of this kingdom at this moment ; but would, possibly have been in Germany, quietly engaged in the manufacture of " prooms", or in the cultivating of sour krout. The Whigs, whose habit it long has been to refer us to the time of the "glorious revolution," at that time carried the doctrine of the right of resistance to such an extent as even to cause a man, named Anderton, to be hanged, for having denied the existence of this right ; and we are sure that the ever-consistent Whigs, of the present day, will not gainsay what their progenitors said, nor act in opposition to their doings. The Tories too, from Blackstone to our time, have acknowledged the right of resist- ance in case of a departure from the constitution. Even the late Lord Elpon, when he was Attorney General, at the trial of Hardy, Horne Tooke and others, said, that the King of England ought to die, and that he trusted he would die, if he at- tempted to alter the constitution as it then existed, and which he had sworn to uphold and defend. Locke tells us, that, " Whenever the legislators endeavour to reduce the people to " slaveiy under arbitrary power, they put themselves in a state " of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any " further obedience, and are left to the common refuge which " God hath provided for all men against force and violence. '* Whensoever, therefore, the legislature shall, either by ambi- " tion, fear, folly, or corruption, endeavour to grasp to them- " selves, or put into the hands of another, an absolute power '• over the lives, liberties and estates of the people, by this " breach of trust they forfeit the power that the people had put " into their hands for quite contrary ends, and it devolves to dii « ON BIGHT OF RESISTANCE. 51 " the people, Mho have a right to resume their original liberty, " ;md, by the »'atublishm»;iit of a new lepi-^lutive (such as they " shall think fit), provide for tl'eir owu sal'ety and security, •' which ifj the end *'or which they arc in society." ON THE RIGHT OF HAVING ARMS, AND RIGHT OF RESISTANCE. The right of resisting oppression is closely connected with the right to have arms ; and on this subject we are told in the writ* iugs of Matthew of Wcstmimter, '* that by the Code of Alfred, " every maix was constituted a freeholder, and compelled to per- " form military service according to his lands " By the 13th of Edward the First we are told that "constables " were elected, who were bound to inspect the arms of the people " twice a year, and present defaulters ;** for by a previous statute uduct, said " the people of England know " how to preserve their liberty, or to vindicate the violation of " it; and the more patient they have been, the more inflexible " will they bo when they resolve to be so no longer. These " who are so foolish as to put them upon such courses, do to " their cost find tliat theve is a difference between lions and " asses, and he is a fool who knows not that swords were gi\>en ' to men that none miaht he slaves hut such as know not how to use " them r Thus far for these eminent authorities: but we will prodv.'o a little more evidence, which, if it does not prove that wo modems, in England, have the right to resist oppression dnd tyranny, yet will serve to show what the ancients thought on that subject, and how they acted to put an cud to tyranny. This evidence we have in a wnik that was published in 1802, by Cox and Baylis, London, and was translated into t''^ French 6n the right of resistance. 53 langua[,o that same year by M. Bouvet, who was employed, by the English Government, on that translation, for the purpose of circulating the work in France, hoping that some Hero some real PclHot might be induced from reading it, to free tnai country from the rule of Napoleon ! ! ! The devil is in it, then, if this be not good evidence in this case ; but, however, good, or bad, here are the extracts : — Cicero tells ns that "the Greeks attributed the honours of " gods to thos') who killed tyrants — they were consecrated to " immortality and almost deified !" Solon's law decreed " death to a tyrant who oppressed the " State, ar ' all those who held any office under the govem- " mcnt while the tyranny existed." PiATO informs us that the Greeks, '* if they could not expel a " tyrant by accusing him to the citizens, would dispatch him by " secret means." Xenophon tells us that the Greeks " would not let murderers "enter their temples; but, nevertheless, they woulc^ in those " very temples erect statues in honour of those who killed " tyrants, th nking them worthy of being ranked amongst their " gods." In Rome the Valerian law decreed that "if any man took " magistracy upon himself, without the command of the people, '' it was lawful for any one to kill him." Plutarch, says that it " was lawful, before any judgment " passed, to kill any one who but aspired to tyranny." By the Consular law it was lawful to kill any man that went about to " create magistrates, without reference and ap- " peal io the people." PoL\Biu says : " those who conspire against tyrants are not " the worst and meanest of citizens, but the most generous and ' those of the greatest virtue.*' Cicero, spoaknig of the assassination of Julius Caesar, ex- claims : — " What act more glorious, more worthy of eternal " memory hath been done in the world." Seneca says, "a tyrant could receive no injustice but to be " allowed to live, and that the most lawful way to destroy liim " is the readiest, whether hy force ov by fraud; for against beasts " of prey men use the toil and the net as well as the spear and " the lance." Tkrtullian says "all remedy, therefore, against a tyrant, " is Ehud's dagger, •'vitliout which all laws were fruitless and " we helpless. This is the most Jiigh court of justice whither " Moses brought the Egyptian: — whither Euud brought Eglo\: " — whither Sampson brought the I'hilistines: — whither Samuel " tiought ^^a^; — whither Jehoida brtught //<^a//o^: — whither " Jael brought Sisera:—Q,nA whither Jeuu brought the ahe- " tyrant Jezebel who had caused Naijoth to be murdered on a " false charge of blasphemy. Devotion and action go well to- " getlicr, for a tyrant i^ not that kind of Devil that is to be cast •* (Hit hy fasting i nd prayer." '.'is * \.-.5 j " 1- ! I'l' i 1. 1 '4 ■ II < '1 1 t mm 54 ON THE RIGHT OF RESISTANCE. i - In drawing this little wurk to a close, we cannot avoid remark- ing that the great stumbling block that stands in our way to attain salutary reforms in the practice ef conducting our public affairs, is that very faction who glory in being descended from those who drove the tyrant James the Second from the throne, and who have contrived to fasten themselves, like leeches, on the plundered people, from that time down to the present day ; and who, because the Radicals are opposed to being plun- dered, whether by Whigs or Tories, and complain in loud and indignant terms at the base Whigs, who, when out of office, used to be 80 indignant against Tory plunderers, not only do not re- dress the evils of which they themselves complained, but, now that they are in power, actually increase them ; because, we say, the Radicals complain of such conduct, the Whigs have en- deavoured in many ways to silence them ; amongst other means, they have tried to effect it by nick-naming them " Tory-Radi- cals ;" as if a man who does not like villany in a whig, must therefore be a Tory! This is too barefaced : too flimsy a trick ! The stupid dolls imagine that it is not seen through! Why every man, who is not a natural fool, knows that the nick- ftame, Tory-Radical, is given to a man who is so sincere in his Radical principles as to blame the whigs, because of their strong leaning towards Tory tricks : — or, who blames those, who, pro- fessing themselves Radicals, lean towards whigism: — or, who will not vote contrary to his principles, that is to say, with Mr. Hume, that " black is white," for the mere purpose of keeping the base Whigs in office :— or who, having detected the Whigs in some base and nefarious trick, has the manliness to denounce them : — or, who would accept the restoration of his rights from any government, whether Whig or Tory, if such a miracle could be worked as to incline the hearts of either faction towards justice ! — or, who is as ready to hurl the Whigs from power, as he would the Tories, if they stand between him and his rights : — or, who does not think that the sun would fail to rise to- morrow, if the Whigs were turned out of power to-day : — or, who thinks that the whigs are as false and treacherous, as the Tories are insolent and tyrannical. Every man, in short, knows that it is a name that whig insolence has invented in order to frighten honest Radicals from exposing the villany of the Whigs, and, thereby, prevent their retaining place and power, unless they do those things for the people, which, when they were out of oiffice, they were the loudest to clamour for. The great object of true Radicals, is the restoration of the ancient Saxon constitution of England, and to get rid of all the innovations that powerful villany, whether Whig or Tory, has made upon it. It was the object of Alfred, who was the wisest and best king that ever reigned, to let the government of England be carried on amongst, and by, the people in the various Cities, Wards, Hundreds, and Tythings ; whilst the object of the new fangled Borough-mongering, Malthusian, tyrannical and murder producing "thing," that now rules with a worse than Egyptian despotism, is to cause what little of po^ in the the am nei . moi Str ON THE RIGHT OF RBSISTANCK. 55 power yet remains in the hands of the people, to be engulfeJ in their centralizing vortex here in London. The foiraer of these systems was Republican, the latter is Despotism ; we desixti the restoration of the former in all its purity, and the total annihilation of the latter ; and these things, please God, we will never cease to struggle for until they be obtained. .;-s FINIS. I The CoBBETT Club meet on he first Wednesday of every month, at the Da. Johnson Tavern, Bolt Court, Fleet Street. ( ^ Particulars may be had of Mr. B. Tilly, Hon. Sec. 92, Fleet Street. 4 1 i L is' IX m Johu^tot), Pdiiter, Lovt'll'b Cuurt, St. Paiil't.