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Reynolds Political Instructor

05/01/1850

Printer / Publisher: John Dicks 
Volume Number: 1    Issue Number: 9
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Reynolds Political Instructor

Date of Article: 05/01/1850
Printer / Publisher: John Dicks 
Address: Reynold's Miscellany, 7, Wellington Street North, Strand
Volume Number: 1    Issue Number: 9
No Pages: 8
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REYNOLDS'S POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR. EDITED BY GEORGE W. M. REYNOLDS, AUTHOR OF THE FIRST AND SECOND SERIES OF " THB MYSTERIES OF LONDON," " THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT OF TONDON," & C. & C. No 9— Vol. 1.] SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1850. [ PRICE, WITH A SUPPLEMENT, ONE PENNY. left her, at the very moment she quitted the convent, where she had been brought up, alone and friendless. Totally ignorant of the world, she allowed herself to be married to a rough, old soldier, who led a monotonous existence in an old country house, and was perfectly destitute of romance, sentiment, or love. This excuse is often urged by her admirers in extenuation of her conjugal infidelity. The origin of Madame Dudevant's subsequent popularity, and the manner by which she emerged from obscurity and obtained a field for her talent is singular and amusing, as described by herself. We ought here to state that the Baroness Dudevant had left her husband and was living under the protection of Jules Sandeau, a novelist of some reputation in France, half of whose name the lady appropriated to herself; and has since immortalised by her talent. The character of Watelct is meant to represent Sandeau, and Margaret Lecomte, the fair authoress herself. Some time after the July Revolution there appeared a book entitled " Rose and Blanche; or, the Actress and the Nun." This book, which at first passed unnaticed, fell by chance into a publisher's hands: he read it, and struck by the richness of certain descriptive passages, and by the novelty of the situations, he inquired the author's address. He was referred to a mean lodging- house, and on applying there was conducted to a small attic. There he saw a young man writing at a little table, and a young woman painting flowers by his side. These were Watelet and Margaret Lecomte. The publisher spoke of the work, and it appeared that Margaret, who could write books as well as Watelet, and even better, had written a good part, and the best part of this one. Encouraged by the publisher's approval, she took from adrawer a manuscript written entirely by herself: he bought it, and doubtless very cheap— it was " Indiana." Soon after this she left Watelet, and taking half his name, called herself George Sand. The authoress of " Indiana," is usually represented, particularly in the higher circles, as a woman of depraved and abandoned morals, of coarse appearance, and mascu- line habits. That she is eccentric we are not prepared to deny; but any little foibles that may serve the pur- poses of her detractors, are far— far counterbalanced by the many virtues she possesses. In the department of the Inde, where she resides, her charity is unbounded, and her pen as well as her purse is at the service of the unfortunate and oppressed. The following description given of this remarkable lady, by one who enjoyed the pleasures of a personal interview, will not be found un- interesting:—" I saw before me a woman of short stature, rather plump, and enveloped iu a dressing gown, a silk handkerchief was fastened loosely round her throat, her eyes were remarkable for their melancholy softness; her voice was sweet, and her mouth was singularly graceful: in her whole attitude there was a striking character of simplicity, nobility, and calm. In the ample temples and rich development of the brow, Gall would have dis- cerned a genius; the frankness of her glance, in the outline of her countenance, and in the features,— correct but worn,— Lavater would have read— it appears to me, past suffering and an extreme propensity to enthusiasm. Lavater might have read many other things, but he certainly could not have discovered either insincerity, bitterness, nor hatred; for there was not a trace of GEORGE SAND. GEOROE SAND, or to use a more correct appellation, Ma- dame Dudevant, has acquired for herself a reputation, that has spread into every corner of the civilized world. Her writings in no way resem > le the trashy productions of our own fashionable authoresses, but are in every re- spect above the general standard of popular modern romances. Instruction is carefully blended with enter- tainment, and a profound current of politico- philosophical sentiment and reasoning pervades every book to which the name of George Sand is affixed. Mawkish love- tales, with strained and uninteresting scenes of fashionable life, so much admired by aristocratic readers, are not to be found in the pages written by Madame Dudevant. Her language is powerful, eloqupnt, and enthusiastic; her ideas grand, philanthropic, and far in advance of the present age. Some of her descriptive scenes may, owing to their vivid colouring, be offensive to a very straight- laced reader; but those who are willing to appreciate depth of thought, humanity of - sentiment, and a tho- rough knowledge of the defects existing in the social and political relations of Europe, will read the works of George Sand with unfeigned delight and derive vast instruction from their perusal. Madame Dudevant was left an orphan at an early age, under the care of her grandfather, Receiver- Ge- neral of Taxes in the department of the Indre, a position of high consideration and emolument. Upon the death of this relation she was placed by her grandmother in a convent, and upon emerging from thence was married to the Baron Dudevant. The death of her grandmother 66 REYNOLDS'S POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR. 69 these on that sad, serene physiognomy. Before me was simply a good, gentle, melancholy, and intelligent ftice. Beneath the flowing sleeves of her gown, at the junction of the wrist with the white and delicate hand, I saw the glitter of two little gold bracelets of exquisite workmanship. These feminine trinkets, which became her much, greatly re- assured me touching the sombre tint, and the political and philosophical elevation of cer- tain of George Sand's writings. One of the hands which thus caught my attention concealed a ciga- rito, and con- cealed it badly, for a treacherous little eolumn of smoke ascended behind the back of the poetess." The Revolution of 1848 broke out, and Madame Du- deyant beheld with delight her true and noble friend, Xodru- Rollin, elevated to power. She knew the integrity of his principles, and the glorious sentiments of his mind; she beheld in him the regenerator of her country and of society; she was aware of his energy, and appreciated his talent;— in fine, she joined heart and soul in the stupendous republican efforts made by that great and enlightened man to extir- pate from France the rotten dogmas of royalism. It was the authoress of " Indiana" that penned Ledru- Rollin's circulars to the departments when he became Minister of the Interior; and had these instructions been acted up to, the wretched reactionists, at present governing the country, would have been humbled and crushed for ever. Madame Dudevant, it is almost superfluous to add, is a staunch and ardent republican. A WARNING TO THE NEEDLEWOMEN AND SLOPWORKERS. A TLAN has recently been concocted by certain aristocrats and parsons for inducing poor women to become volun- tary candidates for transportation. A more scandalous proceeding was never initiated by that patrician class which is so heartless in its oppression and so base in its duplicity towards the sons and daughters of toil. This gilded pill which a parcel of titled and reverend quacks are endeavouring to cram down the throats of starving Englishwomen, is entitled a " Fund for Promoting Fe- male Emigration;" and while the demand for contribu- tions is of course made upon the public generally, the special objects of the pseudo- philanthropic scheme are the poor needlewomen and the slopworkers. I have read the Prospectus— I have conned over the names of the Committee— I have reflected upon the matter in all its bearings— and I can come to no other conclusion than that the whole concern is " a delusion, a mockery, and a snare." Under this impression, I conjure the needle- women and slopworkers to put no faith in the promises held out: I warn them— emphatically, earnestly warn them against yielding to the representations set forth in such brilliant colours and in such an apparently Christian spirit by the concocters and promoters of this design. Miserable enough ye are in your own country, poor wo- men!— I know it well: but ten thousand times more miserable still would ye find yourselves on board the worthless old emigrant- ships in which it is proposed to pen you up like so many sheep,— ten thousand times more miserable when turned adriit in some colony at the end of the world, and with the harrowing conviction that you have been basely juggled into acceptinga change of condition only too well calculated to prove that even in the lowest depths of wretchedness there is a lower deep still! The scheme which Mr. Sidney Herbert has initiated, and which has received the sanction of many aristocratic ana reverend names, is one involving the most heartless cruelty. It proposes transportation ( under the genteel name of " Emigration") as a remedy for a certain amount of female pauperism at home. Without taking the trouble to reflect whether anything can be done to reach the grievances of the poor needlewomen in the land of their birth, the concoeters of the scheme under notice recom- mend a wholesale deportation. " Banish these poor in- digent wretches from the country," exclaim the pseudo- philanthropists: " tear them away from the places where they were born and where they wish to die. Separate thetn from their friends— drag them from the sc. mes so long familiar to their eyes— bundle them on board a ship — bear them away to the far- off islands of the southern seas— there turn them adrift— and at all events we shall have lessened the number of voices clamouring for bread at home! Nay, more— we shall perhaps be thanked as true friends to the working classes: and we shall peradventare gain popularity. The farce will serve our turn in many ways. While Aristocracies are perishing in every en- lightened State, in England our patrician order will sus- tain itself upon the strength and credit of an alleged philanthrophy and an asserted humanity. The Established Church will moreover benefit its tremendous monopoly; inasmuch as parsons are enlisted in this scheme. At all events, it will make the People think we are doing our best for them; snd such a belief will do us a great deal of good, in more ways than one." Upon these principles does the Fund for Promoting Female Emigration appear to be based. In the Com- mittee there is not a single name calculated to inspire the industrious classes with confidence. Timeo Danaos et donaferentes—" I fear the Greeks and those bringing presents:"— in other words, I always mistrust aristocrats when they voluntarily come forward with some alleged boon for the people. There is invariably a trick, a shuffle, or a subterfuge at the bottom of it,— either a selfish interest to serve, or an egotistical purpose to achieve. Politicians who deny the male adults of the kiugdom their natural rights, are no true friends to any section of the community: bishops who coolly pocket twenty or thirty thousand a- year to preach the doctrines of the lowly Jesus, cannot possibly care oue fig for starv- ing needlewomen or famishing slopworkers. For who are the upholders— who are the supporters— who are the advocates of that vitiated system which, by keeping all wealth in the hands of a few and consequently spreading pauperism among the masses, creates the very misery into which those needlewomen and those slopworkers are plunged?— who are the upholders of that diabolical sys- tem, I ask again? Why, you— all ye Right Honaurables, and Most Nobles, and Right Reverends, who have lent your names to the scheino which I am exposing : and you also, ye members of the middle- class — Knights, Reverends, and Esquires, whose names fill up the second column in the advertized list of the Committee! Now in that Committee we have four grades of per- sons. First, we have Peers of the Realm: secondly, we have Members of the House of Commons: thirdly, we have Clergymen;— and fourthly, we have eminent Mer- chants. All of these grades are not only interested in maintaining the present vicious, unnatural, and most unjust social system; but are also the very classes which cause, produce, and maintain all the misery, wretched- ness, and famine which they deplore. The Peers of the Realm belong to that Aristocracy which has monopolized all the honours and all the lands" of the State, and actu- ally made them hereditary in their own families. The Members of the House of Commons belong to that branch of the Legislature which boldly, insolently, and arrogantly denies the right of all the people to be repre- sented, and which has adopted the style and behaviour of the people's masters instead of the people's servants. The Clergymen belong to an Establishment which pos- sesses larger revenues than all the other State- Churches in the world put together, but which is nevertheless ever crying out for " more, more!" Aud the Merchants be- long to the class of employers who fatten on the labour of the employed, who thrive by that very competition which ruius the masses, and whose constant endeavour seems to be to screw up the human machine to do the greatest possible amount of work at the lowest possible remuneration. Now, then, it is from these four grades that the Committee of the Fund for Promoting Female Emigration is formed; and I ask whether sueh a Committee is calculated to inspire the working classes with confidence in the objects of the Society. There may be two or three well- meaning and conscientious individuals in that Committee: but the majority are not, either by their own personal ante- cedents or by their social position, at all adapted to satisfy the people at large of the policy of their proposed measures or the purity of their motives. To speak plainly, I regard it as a scandal, an iniquity ^ and a shame that any members of the community should be told there is no room for them in their own country and that they must consent to be transported to regions thousands of miles off. For it is a fact— and every pro- moter of the present scheme knows full well— that if the land- monopoly were abolished in these islands, the laws of primogeniture and entail repealed, the Crown lands properly managed, and the waste lands brought into culture, there would be a sufficiency of food for double the present population of Great Britain and Ireland. The doctrine of surplus- population is a base, wicked, wilful lie; and it is only preached in order to divert men's minds from the pursuit of an investigation into the real causes of the wide spread pauperism, distress, and misery apparent in this country. And let me tell my readers that in proportion as the land becomes the property of fewer owners,— in proportion as the fortunes of aristocrats, capitalists, and monopolists become more colossal,— in proportion, also, as population increases under the present vitiated systems of government and society,— in the same proportion, I say, will distress in- crease, misery spread more widely, and pauperism work its insidious way throughout those classes which are the basis of the community. Such will be the inevitable results of landlordism, money- mongering, monopoly, bad government, class legislation, the retention of privileged orders, and the continued serfdom of tho masses. Yes— these will be the tremendous results,— the favoured few becomin; more favoured, and the starving millions more wretched in circumstances and more extensive in numbers. Then, as these social phases come upon us, will patricians and churchmen stand forward year after year and propose emigration as the remedy ? If so, they will in due time drive two- thirds of the whole industrial population into a miserable exile. First it is to the needlewomen these political impostors and reverend quacks address them- selves. Oh ! the cowards— must they commence the hideous crusade by a campaign against defenceless women? But when they have got rid of these unfor- tunate workers with the needle, they will tell the tailors to be off. Then the shoemakers must bo expected to bundle: next the carpenters will be urged into ostracism amongst snakes and cannibals;— and thus will the clear- ance of human beings go on until only just sufficient labourers will be left as are necessary to supply the luxuries and elegancies of life for the favoured few, and I the whole country will be divided into the estates of some two or three hundred thousand landholders, with no more than the requisite number of serfs upon each estate to keep it in order. Now, then, do my readers comprehend the principle upon which I implore them to place no confidence in tills tremendous scheme of wholesale depopulation and multi- tudinous exile which has been introduced to public notice with such bland patrician smiles and sueh sanctimonious clerical approvals. Were such proceedings adopted in Russia, tho English would contemplate them with horror. " Behold," they would exclaim, " the infamy of that Czar! He wishes to pack off one- third of the industrial population into Siberia, that he and his nobility may have the Russian provinces as vast estates for them- selves!" And this is the course which the aristocracy appears to be desirous of adopting in England: the game is to send away to the colonies all who are not absolutely wanted as hewers of wood and drawers of water in the mother- country; and then there will be no pauper- 1 mouth: to feed— no grumblers to satisfy— no discontent no reforms to yield to clamorous multi- to encoaoter- tudes! It is, therefore, upon principle that I object in the first ilace to the scheme of the St » e » ety for Promoting Female Emigration. I also oppose it on other grounds: namely, that the inducements held out to the needlewomen to emigrate are immensely exaggerated, while the disad- vantages and perils are carefully kept in the background. The Society's Prospectus shows that in the Colonies there are more males than females: and this statement, which is true enough, is put forward as a delicate means of saying to the starving needlewomen of London, " Go out to Australia and you will get married the instant you land!" But of what class does a large proportion of the male population of Australia consist? Of the banished felonry from England! And this Society, with Lords, Bishops, Parsons, and Members of Parliament, at its head, actually recommends a respectable though im- poverished class of females to transport themselves to New South Wales that they may become the wives of men whom the law has already transported! I will not dwell longer upon the indelicacy of such a calculation; nor will I do more than just allude to the flagrant insult which it levels against the needlewomen and slopworkers. But I will proceed to explain that the calculation itself is full of delusion: for if the Australian settlements be deluged with females in the manner pro- posed by this Society, the unmarried male adults will speedily grow very particular in their choice of wives, their nicety and fastidiousness on this point rising in proportion to the increase of candidates from whom the selection may be made. Then, again, as the towns be- come well supplied with women, the surplus female im- migrants will have to turn out upon the tramp, and wander over vast districts in order to seek the rural settlers in the hope of finding husbands! God help those who shall be doomed to such crowning ignominy- such perilous wanderings— such heart- breaking alter- natives! Out of every hundred women transported by the So- ciety under notice, I will even suppose that thirty shall succeed in forming matrimonial connexions. Twenty more may obtain employment as domestic servants : but what is to become of the remaining fifty ? It is false to assert that any and every woman can succeed in obtain- ing a livelihood in the colonies. They cannot: the greatest demand is for domestic servants— and no class of persons are so little adapted, by previous habits or ex- perience, to undertake those situations as London needle- women. Let not these poor creatures, then, be deluded by the idea that emigration will prove a panacea for their wretchedness, and that the colonies are so many glorious Edens flowing with milk and honey. Emigra- tion will suit a few :— namely, the young, the strong, and the good- looking ;— but the great majority would find themselves miserably disappointed and grossly de- ceived. But if these Lords, and Bishops, and Clergymen, and Merchants be really sincere in tbeir professions of sym- pathy towards a large section of the industrious class, let them set to work to procure the adoption of une- quivocal measures and the accomplishment of unques- tionable reforms. Let them direct their energies and their influence towards an} alteration in the laws which make the millions poor, and keep thein poor too, in order that the few may be rich now and grow richer as time moves on. In the list of the Committee I see the names of two Cabinet Ministers— Lord John Russell and the Earl of Carlisle ( late Lord Morpeth). Why do not these two noblemen propose the reduction of the expenditure by ten or twelve millions? Mr. Cobden has shown how it may be done. The Prospectus before us says, " In the metropolis alone, 33,500 women are engaged in tho single business of apparel- making. It is estimated that 28,500 of them are under twenty years of age, and that of these a large portion are subsisting, or attempting to subsist, on sums varying from fourpence- halfpenny to twopence- halfpenny a day." How easily those 33,500 women might be made happy by the smallest parings from some of the incomes of pensioners, placemen, and sinecurists. The late Queen Adelaide's 100,0002. a- year would consti- tute a neat little item in a fund to be raised for their support, and to save them from transportation. Then there are about thirty or forty thousand a- year which the Dukes of St. Albans, Grafton, and Richmond, and some other noblemen, enjoy by virtue of their descent from the strumpets of Charles II: and then there is a sum of 21,000?. a- year to the highly respected and well- beloved King of Hanover— and 50,000i. a- year paid to the King of Belgium— and several more thou- sands annually bestowed upon German beggar- princes and pauper- dukes;— and then, again, there are about sixteen or seventeen thousand pounds which Prince Albert has contrived to suck annually from the nation's vitals, in addition to the 30,000Z. which the Parliament voted him. Surely these little amounts would form a fund to maintain the 33,500 needlewomen in comfort all their lives— and, as I before said, save them from that penalty which is inflicted upon the felons, scoundrels, and villains who are deemed too bad to be kept in the mother- country. If, then, Lord John Russell and the Earl of Carlisle really caree on farthing for those poor needlewomen, let them propose the conversion of the above- named resources to their assistance: and if the Right Honourables, Bishops, Parsons, and Merchants whose names likewise figure in tbe Committee- list, be also sincere, let them combine their influence to bring about an honest and humane appropriation of those large funds which are now so scandalously misapplied. But it is in vain to expect anything really useful or good from such quarters. The very establishment of this precious " Fund for Promoting Female Emigration," proves the justice of the impression which the poor en- tertain— that if they ask the rich and the great for bread, they will receive a stone. Day after day are the masses deluded by bubble schemes and pseudo- charities promul- gated by patricians and parsons;— and it is high time that this game of imposture and duplicity should cease. REYNOLDS'S POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR. 69 The grievances of the masses are not to be propitiated by mock benevolence on the part of aristocratic or ecclesiastical oligarchists:— nor is Pauperism to be met with a decree of banishment abroad instead of an ano- dyne to be adminstered at home. Beware, then, ye Eoor crushed and famishing workers with the needle,— eware how ye suffer yourselves to be deluded by the touter for the" emigrant ship and the advocate of trans- portation: take warning in time— and be counselled by the assurance that when the present emigration- humbug shall have proved a failure, the " sympathisers " will do something more real and more truly useful for you. GEORGE W. M. REYNOLDS. LETTER TO RICHARD COBDEN, ESQ. MR COBDEN'S SPEECH AT LEEDS- FREEHOLD LAND SOCIETIES AND THE SUFFRAGE. TREASON to your country would cast on your name and memory an eternal blot. You are sprung from the people, loot and branch of your family are plebeian, and we count the son of a yeoman one of ourselves. Your position and in- fluence are exalted, and the democracy of England have a right to demand much at your hands. We watch your acts narrowly, and look to your movements with the jealousy of a people who have on several occasions been grievously de- ceived by professing friends. Your speech at Leeds, as re- ported in the newspapers, is now before us, and it is for your interest as well as ours that we balance its meaning fairly, and judge what words of weighty import you have spoken. You cast the gauntlet down to your opponents with the air of a chieftain, defiant and sure of victory. You warn the pro- tectionist rent- loving landlords of your power, and in words that want no second reading, assure them that if you are forced to the contest, you will revolutionize the state. You assure your admiring hearers that at the meeting of parliament you are willing to accept the Chiltern Hundreds, and hazard your re- election on the risk of restoring one shilling of a corn law in any shape whatever, and that if you are not returned to parliament as a free trader, you will then give up the question ; you deny that the return of Protectionist candidates for the boroughs of Reading and Kidderminster is a sign of reaction, and you triumphantly dare the Protectionist leaders to prove their success in any of the metropolitan boroughs, or in Edin- burgh, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, or Leeds. Well spoken, Richard Cobden, and well shall your words be remembered. You, no doubt, had your eye on the list of registered voters for the West Riding, and remembered also that your party supported Sir Culling Eardley at the last election, Mr. Bainesand Alderman Carbut, whose names figure in the Leeds' meeting, being two of' his principal suppoiters; you also know that Mr. Beckitt Denison, Tory and Protectionist, was returned by a sweeping majority; and that the Protectionists hinted in their committee rooms that, at the next election, they would give you a hard run for it, with some hopes fur success. W e lony for the combat, and look to its coming with anxiety; and conquer who may we of tiie people shall not lose by the strife. You cast your eye across the Irish Channel, and say that you have it on good au. hority that niuety at least out of one hundred and nine Irish members, would come up pledged to restore the corn law, and you avow that if the whole of them unite, English and Irish, they could not do it. And on that threat rests the foreshadowed revolution. You are aware that a Protectionist majority in the House of Commons would restore the corn law. The wealth aud numbers of the boroughs of Kidder- minster and Reading may be comparatively trifling; but under our glorious constitution, intelligence and tiumbe. s are of no avail. Votes alone are powerful, and there are two fewer in tbe House of Counnous on tbe side of free trade. You know it all, aud exclaim,— " This rock shall fly from its firm base As soon as 1," It warmed our blood to read your hearty denunciation of the Irish landlords, that miserable body of cursed ingrates whom you justly called " bankrupt, beggarly, and degraded,"—" the very name of which stinks in the nostrils, not only of the people of England, but of the whole civilized world." What would not tiie banished John Mitchel give to read these words? His strongest expressions are mild as milk and honey compared to yours; his only premises were that," the life of one labour- ing man is exactly equal to the life of one nobleman, neither more nor less! That the property of the farmer is as sacred as that of a gentleman I— that men born in Ireland, have a light to live on the produce of Ireland,— and even to make laws for Ireland! — that no good thing could come from the English parliament or the English government,— that all men ought to possess arms, and know how to use them." And for the promulgation of these perfectly rational doctrines, not a bit more revolutionary, and not more denunciatory than your speech at Leeds,— the Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench in Ireland, honoured the United Irishman with the name of the Queens Bench Gazette, meaning thereby that if such doctrine was tolerated, there was an end of all law. Ex- Chancellor Brougham may say as much of you. The fate of Mitchel we know— your's is problematical: Mitchel was a high- minded and honourable mail. His political career won for hiin the praise of those who called him injudicious; they praised his sincerity; as yet yon have your's lo prove. You lift the axe with the hand of a woodman,— strike deep, we beg of you. Belter be crushed by the fall of the tree you slay, than live to be mistrusted and dishonoured. The words of John Mitchel applied to the Irish aud English members of the parliament. for it is notorious that the Irish members are always the most subservient and truculent to the ministry. It was useless to warn the Protectionist members against what you properly call an " unholy alliance." The alliance has long existed, and has long been unholy; it has been your lot often to see the minis- terial whipper- in bowing the Irish toadies into the ministerial lobby at the beck of the minister; and on more than one oc- casion you have followed them, to vote for the felony bill for example. But, in honest God's truth, if you can break this unholy alliance, do so, aud your country will bless you for tbe deed. You are positive in your assurance that the old mode of ogitation will uot be renewed. " Well, 1 tell them if they renew the struggle with the whole popu. ation uf this country, Whether fur tho resumption of the bread tax, or to transfer the burthens which in justice belong to them — to the shoulders of the rest of the community, they will have this question re- agitated in a very different spirit to what it was before. ( Applause.) Let them take my word for it, they will never have another league agitation carried on with that subserviency to strict logical argument which was observed in the last agitation." We cannot afford to parley and play, fast and loose, with public men, and therefore say at once and without doubt or hesitation, that the Anti- Corn Law agitation was carried on with a very careless regard to logic. A number of lecturers were hired to do a certain work; they did it, and said all sorts of things to all sorts of people. In a speech made by you at Winchester, in 1843, you said " The idea of a low priced foreign corn is all a delusion." At Bedford, in the same year : " My working people are eating provisions of all hinds, taking one with another, cheaper now ( that is lower priced) than they would do with perfect free trade in everything." At Penden Heath, " The argument for cheap bread was never mine." It is true as you affirm, that the country was inundated with tons of tracts, and these tracts did not always correspond. We have a distinct recollection of one in particular, drawn up with great care, and addressed as a memorial to his Grace the Duke of Wellington, in which it was stated that under a perfect free- trade in corn, wheat on an average could not be imported from America under fifty- five shillings per quar- ter. Your memory is too retentive to forget that you talked chaff of a very different kind to the audiences who listened to your unadorned eloquence in Stockport and Manchester. It was a well known part of your policy to avoid all discus- sion on the abstract principle on which free trade is based: your words were that " Adam Smith and others had clearly demonstrated its obvious truth;" discussion on its principle, you contended was, therefore, perfectly unnecessary. When Sir Robert Peel, who had on one occasion charged you with a design to procure his assassination, became your eulogist, and by his influence carried your pet measure, it was re- marked that he did not quote your arguments. Sir Robert is a practised and wily deoater, who knows every move on the board, and can, with wonderful blandness and dexterity, overlook an argument, and seize on the weak point of an opponent's speech, or, vice versa', he however wisely preferred a flattering eulogy in general terms to a citation of your oft repeated arguments. You succeeded nevertheless; the import duty on corn was removed, and we have no wish to see it re- imposed. You have been rewarded for your agitat- ing campaign after a very solid fashion ; we do not begrudge you of your very handsome fortune; you did the work of men who were well able to pay you, and you did right in re- ceiving their proffered gift. At home you have been feasted; abroad you have been honoured; princes and ambassadors have paid you homage ; you have been called the saviour of your country;— your gold we do not covet; your honour be- seem you well,— yet, sir, we who know England, as few have ever known her,— we who have been born aud lived amongst her people, we who have gazed on her proud palaces, and seen her humble labourers divide their scanty morsel with their infants; we who have marked her wc- alth increase as if a hidden Hercules carried the riches of the world on his shoulders to minister to her wants, assure you in sad humility, that you are the reputed saviour of a nation not yet saved. Having spoken at length on your favourite topics of re- trenchment and economy, you talk less loftily, and come to what you call practical means of reform. You praise the Birmingham Freehold Land Scheme; aud as others will read this letter as well as yourself, we quote your words: " The people want to make great: changes in the representation of the Country. I have calculated that there were one in eight of the adult males who are qualified to vote for the county; seven- eighths have no votes for counties. If you can only take one- eighth out of those seven- eighths, aud put them upon the oounty list, you will have more county voters added than the whole number of county voters now on the list. I do not think that is difficult to be done, and we are going on rapidly, and we are indebted to a working- man, Mr. James Taylor, of Birmingham, for making the greatest aud best system of reform 1 know of. Oh 1 if in the days of Burdett and Hunt, if they had had some gentleman like Mr. Taylor to preach to them, and say that for every threepence you drink you swallow a yard of land, we should have had a million of votes qualified. ( Applause.) The difference between Mr. Taylor's plan aud the old plan is this : formerly the leaders used to say, " Come to the House of Commons, make a noise, brawl out, and tell them you want to get in, aud ask them to let you iu." But Mr. Taylor tells you that, " you have got the key in your own pocket— make use of it— go to the door, uulock it, aud enter without asking anybody' permission." We cannot see anything to object to iu working men buying land more than iu buying houses or ships if they have the means; and if the best paid operatives of our country can buy a property qualification to enable them to vote for the enfranchisement of their poorer brethren, they will do well in doing so. Mr. Taylor's Freehold Land Scheme is a miniature picture of Mr. O'Connor's Laud Association. Mr O'Connor proposed buying land in the wholesale market, dividing it into small allotments, building cottages thereon, the laud to be cultivated by the occupiers. Mr. Taylor proposes buying laud in the wholesale market, dividing it into small allotments, to qualify the purchasers as county voters. Honour to whom honour is due; and the name of Mr. O'Connor in connexion with such a scheme could not be overlooked. You hope by the aid of Mr. Taylor's scheme to be able to add one- eighth out of seven- eighths now dis- qualified, to the list of county electors. The first fact tnat strikes us is, that you have the land to buy; the second is that tho landowners have land to sell. The breaking up of the small farm system, and the consequent centralization of farms into a few hands, has lessened the county consti- tuencies : the object gaiued were twofold: it facilitated the management of estates aud increased political influence. The creation of couuty voters is nothing new; the Anti- Corn Law League practised it successfully, aud the Tory press was loud in its denunciation of such proceedings. But once rouse our country gentry from their lethargy; let them know that the system is breaking up ; that the last plank of the old ship is all that remaius ; and for every freehold voter made by freehold land societies, they will make ten, and give the votes to those who will serve their interests politically with more subserviency than serf or helot ever did in the blackest days of feudalism. Your reference to the days of Hunt and Burdett we regard as unfortunate; for constituted as the parliament of England then was, with seats in parlia- ment iu the hands of the burgesses ami squirearchy, and these seals regularly bought and sold, which Mr. Ponsonby, Mr. Whitbread, and others declared to be as " notorious as the noon at noonday," Mr. Taylor might have agitated his land societies for a hundred years, if he had lived as long ; and saving the pints of beer to buy yards of land would have been but of little avail to the cause of parliamentary reform. The tactics of political agitation have been completely changed since the days of Burdett and Hunt. It was not buying yards of land that gave to Ireland Catholic Emancipation, the Reform Bill to England, or even carried free trade in corn. So- ciety instructed and directed is more powerful than govern- ment ; more society, and government must yield or cease to exist. You propose to enlighten the farmers of Bucks as to the true nature of the interests existing between them and their landlords. Why not enlighten them on the suffrage I You do not propose freehold land societies for them, who have the means of buying land more in their power than have the operatives of our large towns; you propose instruction* Why select the names of Hunt and Burdett, when they suggest those of Thompson and Walmsley to the mind of every readeri you can evade your difference with these men no longer: we all know about it, and it would be better to speak plainly at once. With all respect to you, sir, as a senator and a public man, we beg to state, that the majority of our operatives have not the means of buying land. What 1 ask the Nottingham and Leicester stockingers, the Spitalfields or Lancashire hand- loom weavers to buy land. It is well to ask them to save money when they have it, but to ask those to save money who have it not is an absurdity. Save their pints of beer to buy yards of land ; save their halfpence when they have them to buy coals to warm the hovels and cellars in which they live, and to buy calico to cover the nakedness of their wives and families. The freehold land society can at most enfranchise a small portion of the best paid operatives, and a few of the enterprising small tradesmen ; but as we have already hinted, it may raise an antagonism on the part of the landlord class, that may in the end more than out- balance its desired results, anl that too on the wrong side. You are remarkable for the. earnestness with which you ad- mire the policy and institutions of America. You assure us that the Republican Empire in the West, is pursuing a financial policy that will one day make her the mistress of the states of the old world, if they continue as heretofore to increase their armies and add to the weight of their taxation. It was but as yesterday in the progress of events and the march of civiliza- tion, since America was our dependant and enslaved colony. But when the English governrrient refused to listen to their complaints, and the aristrocratii peers and ministers treated Franklin as a pickpocket, insulted him in the presence of the assembled House of Peers, and oftener than once called him rebel and thiefi And when he wrote to his countrymen how he had been treated, did these great men, Jefferson, Washing- ton, and Paine, boast of their power when they discovered they could have no redress from parliament, without putting that power to the test. No, sir: they took council with their fellow citizens, and acted nobly for their country's good. History hath done them justice ; and their names are associated with those of Hampden, Sydney, and Tell. We do not ask you to call out a militia and march sword in hand to Buckingham Palace, or to the doors of parliament. Such a step is neither desirable nor necesssary ; we ask of you to use only the moral means at your command. You are aware of the defect of our constitution ; you say you are more powerful than the united land owners of England and Ireland. Why do you not, then, make common cause with the people for an extension of the suffrage ? The operative classes of Manchester, Leeds, and in fact all our large towns, are Chartists in principle, and require but an opportunity to prove their sincerity by an alLiance with all who think with them. Are you afraid you lose caste by joining their ranks; if so you are not the man who can serve your country. Do you merely wish to be the oracle of the mill owners, and to boast of what you can do, ever threaten- ing hut never striking the blow, and using the working classes as the leverage by which to bow the feudal lords betore " the millionaires of Manchester 2 If such be your object you will soon be undeceived; the leaders of the iudustrio usordershave but to sound the tocsin, and they will summon thousands to their standard for the hundreds that will follow you for any reform short of mahhooa suffrage. When you agitated for a repeal of the corn laws, many of the working men doubted your sincerity when you said you were as desirous of extending the suffrage as they were. In their own quaint way, they used to say—" If you are with us, why not give us tiie charter first; and'then, if to repeal th e corn- laws be your object, we will aid you." The writer of this letter told you, six years ago, that if the corn laws were re- pealed to- morrow, the battle would be but begun, and what you gained this year might be lost next. In doing so we were but the mouth- piece of thousands who thought with us. You now discover that we were right, and that fiscal without par- liamentary reform is a troubled sea of doubt. Here are your words at Leeds : " And last, I come to llie point of the greatest importance. I am anxious to see our representative system altered; I am anxious to see it, because it will put an end to tiis double trial of all public questions ; trying in the House of Commons, in the face of what are called representatives of the people, and then coming to the people and asking them to compel their so called representatives to carry out the policy which they wish them to carry out. I say it is a'clumsy ma- chine, and when you are wishful to have it self- acting, you find that the engine won't perform its work. When you have set up your forty- horse steam engine, you have to call forty horses to do its work.' 1 "" Who were the men that opposed the enactment of the corn laws in 1815? The working classes of England. Who were the first to give effect to the leaders in the Reform movement? The working classes of England. In a word, who have beeu in all ages the leading reformers, political and religious; the leading minds of all ages, and who have given to their thoughts— power, and to their words- effect. The more intelligent minds of all ages. The printing press hath scattered ideas among us with the force of . lightning itself As a people we are poor, but not ferocious. We desire to rob no man of his property, and we are more conservative of the lives of others than we are of our own ; but we cannot be for ever trifled with, and will never willingly be a reserved army to fight the battle of others. We recommend you to think well of your position; your character tor shame or fame has yet to be made: and what is of more value, your country demands the aid of every man who has the power to serve her. Tile strife between landowners and luiltowuers may increase in warmth, and perhaps in danger, but it will ill no way put the claims of the people to political power in abey- ance, nor weaken their demands for the sufl'rage. Their agita- tion is not born of yesterday ; it is no seedling tallen by cliai-. ce to flourish for a while and then to decay ; it takes but deeper hold amidst the whirlwinds and storms of party aud faction, and is rooted upon the . motto of which you have so often boasted, " FIAT JUSTITIA, RUAT COELUM."—( Let justice be done, though tbe heavens should fall.) It is impossible not to observe that the party called the moderate liberals ; that is in plain terms, the lree- trading Whigs, will charge you with ingratitude, if you are in any way instrumental in breaking up the present humbug and imbecile cabinet. The Whigs aided, you in your triumph, and afterwards offered you a p, ace in, the cabinet. You wisely preferred being an independent mem- ber of parliament; and the constituency of Manchester sent up a note of hand to your Iriend, Mtiuer Gibson, that he could REYNOLDS'S POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR. 69 make his choice, either resign his seat in the cabinet, or look • out tor another constituency. Such was the carte blanche of the Manchester school. On a recent occasion at Wakefield, you hinted that yourself and John Bright might one day become her majesty's advisers Your Wakefield speech, and your refusal to accept a place in tlie cabinet, won for you the good opinions of thousands. It now becomes you to act with decision; any compromise on your part to save the Whigs, may avert the day of reckoning for a short time, but when it does come, you and they will but have increased your liabilities to the nation, and lessened your means of paying your debts. With agricultural distress on the increase, and manufacturing reverses in prospect— which they assuredly are,— the people will be alive to their own interests. This despised, rejected, scorned, and hated chartism is, after all, only deeply- seated political programme of the working classes The strife " between millocrats and landowners, if used wisely by them for the advance of their own cause, the enfranchisement of the whole male adult population will prove to be of good ser- vice. Convinced that the interests of the many are paramount to the interests of the few, we recommend you to consider their claims, irrespective of the possession of wealth or political power, but with considerate respect to their industry and intel- ligence ! and the interests of England, as a nation, considered in her relation to the United States of America, and the more sdvsnced nations of Europe. GRACCHUS. THE ARISTOCRACY: ITS ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND DECAY. THE conduct of James during the reign of his brother had • hrojight upon him the dislike and odium of the nation; besites his scandalous and numerous amours, his courage • was exceedingly questionable, but his entire selfishness was universally admitted. This latter feeling was fully exemplified on his return to the North from London ; the • ship he was in struck upon a sand- bank when the duke and a few of his attendants were the only persons saved. ' When his own life was secured, the royal solicitude was entirely monopolised for his puppies and his priests: he cared nothing for the plebeian lives of the sailors, butall his attention was directed to the salvation of his dogs and con- fessor. On ascending the throne, as usual, the cringing Aris- tocracy thronged round the royal and tyrannical bigot; they worshipped the ground on which he trod; the whole nobi- lity were at his feet, and ready for any act of oppression lie might with safety commit. Addressing the people, they had the impudence to say, " You have now the word of a king, and a word never yet broken." It was noto- rious, and well known to them all the time, that the jting and his brother Charles were the two greatest liars in Christendom. The Earl of Rochester was created treasurer, his brother, Clarendon, was made cham- berlain ; Sunderland, Secretary of State ; the latter noble- man was the same treacherous scoundrel who bargained for the nefarious and infamous treaty that sold England to France in the last reign. By the counsel of these noblemen James adopted the policy of bullying the House of Commons ; for as Sunder- land told him, " they might be kicked, but not drawn on." All the Customs and the greater part of the Excise had & een settled on the late king during his life, and con- sequently the grant was now expired, nor had his suc- cessor the remotest right to levy this revenue. James hinted to his ministers that he would retain it in an arbi- trary manner without the required consent of the parlia- ment. " Your Majesty," replied the toadying Aristocrats, " is the lord of your subjects, therefore of their goods and estates, to do with them as best it seems fit to you." James instantly issued a proclamation ordering the Customs and Excise to be paid as before, thus robbing his people at the instigation of a base Aristocracy. In defiance of his oath, and in spite of the tbreatenings of his subjects, the bigotted old ass persisted in his public worship of the Romish reli- gion, and wished to cram it down the people's throat at the point of the sword; he went openly and with all the ensigns of dignity to mass, followed by a crowd of lick- spittle nobility, who had changed their creed in com- pliance with the wishes of their king, and to forward their own interests. The Spanish Ambassador deeming the tranquility of England necessary for the support of Spain, recommended the king not to fly thus openly and pub- licly in direct opposition to a nation's will. " Is it not the custom in Spain?" asked James, " for the king to consult his confessor ?"—" Yes," replied the ambassador, " and it is for that very reason our affairs succeed so ill." The king's address to his parliament was more threat ; ing than conciliatory; and he evidently intended to follow the advice given him by his nobility, in respect to kicking and not leading the people's representatives. He told them that he positively expected they would settle upon him his revenue during life, " for," said he, " I might use many arguments to enforce this demand. There is, indeed, one popular argument which may be urged against compliance with my demand men may think • that by feeding me from time to time with such supplies as they think convenient, they will better secure frequent meetings of parliament; but as this is the first time I speak to you from the throne, I must plainly tell you that such an expedient would be very improper to employ with me, and that the best way to meet me often is always to use me well." James's disposition was the perfect type of the general character of monarchs,— selfish in the ex- treme, only mindful of their own interests, and utterly aregardless of their subjects welfare. Catherine Sedley, a profligate, but witty courtezan, daughter of Sir Charles Sedley, had long been the favour- ite mistress of James, and he now pitch- forked her into the peerage, in imitation of the course pursued by his worthy brother Charles, as Countess of Dorchester, a title ditary legislators of our country. The priests, however, persuadsd James that, for his soul's salvation he must dis- miss the countess, and their representations being ear- nestly backed by the queen, Lady Dorchester was sent to Ireland, arid the people of England were called upon to pay an annual sum of five thousand pounds for the support of this royal courtezan. One of the king's bastards, by Arabella Churchill, he married to a man named Walde- grave, who was forthwith created Lord Waldegrave, and granted a large pension from the Treasury. This title is at present borne by some useless lumbering old naval officer in the House of Peers. Another bastard, by the same female, he created Duke of Berwick. His illegiti- mate child by the Countess of Dorchester he married to the Earl of Anglesey, and she, after being divorced from that nobleman, married the Duke of Buckingham. From what a pure and virtuous stock have most of our nobility sprung! Prostitution has been the great means by which they have attained their degraded elevation, and yet they have the impudent and ridiculous assurance to boast of their long and illustrious descent. Could they boast of their descent from plebeian patriots, or men famed in days gone by for noble or useful deeds, then we would willingly accord to those of the present day some consideration due for their ancestors' merits ; but when we are expected to reverence and humiliate ourselves before the bastard spawn of degraded prostitutes, apeing a superiority and calling themselves an Aristocracy, we spurn them with disgust, and treat their assumption with the most profound scorn and the most contemptuous indignation. James and his councillors renewed the infamous treaty made with the French king during the preceding reign, and their pensions were regularly paid by Louis. One clause in the agreement James was compelled to break, and he thus explained to Barillon, the French minister, his reasons for so doing. This was the summoning a par- liament, which was contrary to the agreement upon which he received his pension, and in the following terms did he humiliated himself and his people before a foreign minis- ter:—" Hereafter," said he, " it will be much more easy for me to put off the assembling of parliament, or to maintain myself by other means that may appear most convenient for me. 1 know the English ; you must not show them any fear in the beginning. I will take good care to hinder parliament from meddling with foreign affairs, and will put an end to the session as soon as I see the members show any ill will." The king then humbly begged Louis to render him independent of his people, and importunately solicited him for a large sum of money. The French king forthwith transmitted fivehundred thou- sand livres to his ambassador, Barillon. Then might have been seen the degrading and humiliating, but character- istic spectacle of a king and his Aristocratic ministry, rushing open- handed and ravenous to the abode of a foreign ambassador, anxious to grasp the wages of their treachery, and each with tears of gratitude in his eyes receiving the gold of France— the price of their country' shame. The Earls of Rochester, Sunderland, and Godol- pliin, shared in the spoil, and it was immediately agreed that no opposition should be made to Louis in his pur- posed plan of pouncing on the Spanish Netherlands. Monmouth's rebellion opened a fine field for the exer- cise of royal blood- letting. After its suppression blood was made to flow in torrents, and the most diabolical atro. cities were perpetrated by the tools of the king and his nobility. Monmouth would have been successful had it not been for the disgraceful cowardice displayed by the leader of his horse, Lord Gray, a disappointed Aristocrat. The Court ordered that no mercy should be shown to the vanquished, and the Earl of Faversham, in obedience to orders, instantly after the battle hanged up some score of prisoners, and was continuing his Jack Ketch- like pro- ceedings, when it was hinted to this blood- thirsty noble- man that the prisoners having surrendered were by law entitled to a trial. With much reluctance he ceased his gibbettings. This remonstrance, however, had no effect on his myrmidon, Kirke's, proceedings, who declared that " he knew the king's wishes and would execute them to the letter." At his first entry into Bridgewater he hanged nineteen [ prisoners without even the form of trial; and sporting with death he ordered a certain number to be executed, whilst he and the company drank the king's the queen's, and the court's health. Observing their feet quivering in the agonies of death he cried that he would give them music to their dancing, and instantly ordered the drums and trumpets to strike up. By way oi experiment he ordered one man to be hungup three times, questioning liim at each interval whether he repented of his crime; but the man persisting, that notwithstanding the past he would do tbe same, Kirke ordered him to be hung in chains. Another instance of barbarity in this ruffianly tool of the king and Aristocracy was character- istic of the employers and the employed. A young and beautiful maid pleaded for her brother's life and flung herself at Kirke's feet, the villain was inflamed by pas- sion and hypocritically assumed sympathy for his fate and for her sorrow. He promised to grant her request provided she would surrender her virtue to him. The poor girl yielded to these conditions, and the next morn- ing, after passing the night with him, the ruffian- scoun- drel pointed from the window and showed the horror- stricken girl her darling brother dangling from a gibbet. This fiend in human form was patronised and coun- tenanced by the king and his nobility; the country seats of the latter were placed at his disposal, and festivals pre- pared to welcome him. The Earl of Sunderland congra- tulated his majesty on having such a faithful and devoted servant, " one who knew his duty to his sovereign, and did it effectually." Jeffries, on his part, also pursued a career of blood and murder. The whole country was strewed by the heads and limbs of the people, and every village almost beheld the dead carcases of many inhabitants. Jeffries ravaged the provinces. He sentenced three hundred to they returned precipitate verdicts, htirsying man^ inno- cent persons to the scaffold. This sanguinary villain was richly recompensed by royalty for his services; lie was made Lord Chancellor and created Baron. Wem in reward for the blood he had caused to be shed. The king was determined that Popery should be restored in the land-, and many of his servile Aristocracy professed to adopt the Catholic Church for the purpose of ingratiating themselves with James. Sunderland changed his faith :—" He made the step to Popery," says Burnet, " all of a sudden, with- out any previous instruction or conference, so that the change he made looked too like a man who having no religion, took up one rather for to serve a turn, than that he was truly changed from one religion to another." Things were, however, rapidly drawing to a crisis ; for the day of the bishops' acquittal, James was reviewing his troops on Hounslow Heath, when, having retired into the tent of Lord Faversham, then General, lie was suddenly startled by a tumultuous shout of joy. FTe inquired the cause, and was answered by his lordship that " It was nothing but the rejoicing of the soldiers for the bishops' acquittal."—" Do you call that nothing 1 " replied James; " but so much the worse for them." The pig- headed bigot was determined to rush headlong into the abyss yawning at his feet; he determined to thrust Popery down the throats of his subjects, even by the force of arms. Although he saw the army would no longer sup- port him, he persisted in violating the constitution and continuing his obnoxious proceedings. The servile nobi- lity who had hitherto urged the royal fool on to dragoon his subjects into adopting the Catholic religion, now slunk away with characteristic treachery, seeing the game was a losing one. The Duke of Grafton, Charles's bastard,. Lords Churchill, Colchester, and Lovelace, were the first to fly and pay their court to the Dutch prince ; and even his oy/ n daughter, Anne, at last deserted him. To such a state of distress had the egregious folly and arrant bigotry of this foolish man led him, that finding every ad- herent and servitor deserting his standard, he was com- pelled to fly; the indignant and sovereign voice of the people— the nearest representative on earth to Divine Omnipotence — hurled the despot bigot from his throne and sent him into merited exile. The last of the accursed race of Stuart was thus kicked out of the kingdom; but a mighty drove of Dutch paupers were imported, to raise up a fresh race of cormorant Aristocracy. ALPHA. still existing in our immaculate Aristocracy. This woman | death at Dorchester ; at Exeter nearly the same amount; had only her wit, her impudence, and her want of chastity, J at Taunton, Wells, and every place he visited, conster to recommend her to the honours thus conferred upon a 1 nation and horror accompanied him. He menaced tin prostitute— a dignity intended to descend upon the here- ' juries with threats of death, and so frightened them that POLITICAL LITERATURE IN NAPLES The exterminat- ing war against literature and education which the Nea- politan Bourbon is now carrying on by every conceivable method, affords materials for reflection; since it is a sin- gular feature in the history of events which a short time since seemed to promise that much was to be done for the moral and intellectual condition of the people. The con- stitutional form of Government gave to the people of the kingdom of Naples, per saltwn, freedom of the press. For nearly thirty years that press had been sealed by the authority of the police — the printer being nothing better than a government official and his office a government establishment. It is scarcely necessary to remark that throughout Italy, but especially in Naples, the leading minds had no means of expression. No sooner, however, had the barrier been removed, than the press assumed an activity and met with a support which clearly proved that an appetite still existed though the food had been so long withheld. Some eight or ten journals immediately ao- peared,— and commanded a circulation singularly exten- sive considering the limited number of the reading popu- lation. Foreign and home politics naturally occupied the columns of those papers: but at the same time old local abuses were attached and the old system anatomised with a fearlessness which, had the liberty to print been con- tinued, must have produced important and valuable re- sults. Amongst the journals which enjoyed the largest circulation was La Liberta Italiana,— a paper which con- tained contributions from French and English writers, and was known throughout Italy as one of the most cre- ditable productions of the emancipated types of the pe- ninsula. But the paper which commanded universal admiration was a comic trifle entitled, VArlecchino, a sort of Punch, with illustrations. This political satirist actually sold 4,000 copies of his work daily:— a circula- tion which, I believe, far surpassed that of any other paper in Italy, however trifling it may appear in the eyes of one familiar with the state of English journalism. Both these papers have long since been suspended, together with all periodical literature; and nothing now remains but the Government journals, II Tempo and the official print,— both contemptible in a literary point of view, and worse as regards politics.— Athenasum. COMPARATIVE COST OF GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.— The local governments of the thirty States of the Union cost little more than 1,250,000!., and their population exceeds twenty millions. The population of our colonies is at most but five millions, and we govern them at a cost to ourselves of four millions and a half— a nearly equal amount being expended locally. On this point we cannot do better than quote from Maekay's " Western World:"— jEnglishmen pay four millions sterling for the government of from thirty to forty colonies-, Americans pay about a million and a quarter sterling for the local government of thirty states. Tlie colonies contain an aggregate population of five millions ; the States one of twenty millions. But the four millions paid by the imperial government is only half what it takes to sup- port the government of the colonies, the other half being defrayed by the colonists themselves. It thus takes eight millions sterling to govern five million of colonists; and, as England pays one- half of this sum, she may be said to pay four millions sterling for governing two millions and a half of colonists. She thus pays at the rate of 1/. Vis. for the govern- ment of each colonist— more than double what it costs her to govern a subject at home." " The last American appoint- ment," said Mr. Cobtlen, at the West Riding dinner, " was a Governor of California, at a salary ot' 600(. a- year, our last i Governor of Labuati, at a salary of 2,000?. a- year." Our live governors of our North American colonies receive 17,000?, a- year. The third governors of the United States, 11,300(. REYNOLDS'S POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR. 69 pulses, great human tenderness, all to be sacrificed, because the accursed avarice of the extortionate and the grasping have brought down the amount of price below the standard of positive capability of existence ! You who are so austure, and at the same time, so well off, as to permit you to be an example— a pattern of virtue, pause, ere you condemn these helpless children of labour and of misery! You, who can scowl grimly upon those who have wandered from the path of virtue, read the columns of the " Morning Chronicle," and mark the evidence which women, whose endurance has risen to the heroic, who have done more than you, and a thousand such as you, ever would or could do,— you, who can talk with immoderate latitude of censure on the vices of the age, cease to be one of those who warm their pockets and heap up riches by the blood and marrow of those wretched beings that fate has placed beneath your hands. One woman, speaking of this compulsory prostitution, says, " I was an honest woman up to the time of rr) 7 husband's death .... I never did him wrong .... Poverty and trouble has forced me^ o do what I never did before. . . . The money I got by my labour has not been sufficient to keep me. ... I can't get a ? ag to wear with- out flying to prostitution for it! .... 8 know a great many women situated in the same way as I am There's good and bad in all, but with the most of them I'm sure they're Sr- a- se to eS Sometimes I'm quite tired of my life!" Such is one outline of this awful picture. Another woman gives testimony which forms a tragie story in its elements of despairing terror. It would seem as if to live and to be virtuous were now and for ever become an utter impossibility ; and who is to gainsay— to dare to doubt tbe truth of this graphic mass of evidence ! What is society in the nineteenth century to think of itself when the appalling miseries of so many forms one grand feature of the whole. IVfabour, poverty, and pros- titution to become our characteristic, or is the time to come, now that the evil is known, for a total revolution to take place in labour and an equitable payment to be compelled from those infamous people who make their fortunes from the lives of the poor 1 Let us strongly hope so at the least. We shall watch the progress of this reform. LEDRU- ROLLIN. TIIE above portrait, with a biographical sketch of this great and illustrious republican, having already appeared in a number of REYNOLDS'S MISCELLANY, both will no doubt be familiar to the readers of the INSTRUCTOR. Many months have passed since we gave the likeness of a man, whom we then fervently trusted would attain an elevation in France, which would have proved a blessing to the whole world. The tyrannical government of the monkey Bonaparte, determined to crush republican prin- ciples, contrived, with the assistance of their butcher Changarnier. to cause a partial disturbance on tbe memorable Thirteenth of June, and they seized upon, tried and condemned, the true, upright, and staunch repub- licans of France. Events for a time have, however, frustrated the dearest hopes of the friends of freedom; corruption has for the moment triumphed,— tyranny is for a brief period victorious, and Ledru- Rollin is now in an honourable, but we sincerely trust, brief exile. HOW MUCH BETTER WE USE WOMEN IN ENGLAND THAN THEY DO IN RUSSIA OR AUSTRIA! WE are now become cognizant of the fact, that it is not at all uncommon in those countries where unlimited des- potism is the order of the day, and where the autocrat can surely " do as he likes with his own," that women, the grace and ornament of the human race, are stripped and scourged in the open squares at mid- morn; that horrors, which we believed belonged only to human beings turned into demons at the sacking of a town, are perpetrated with impunity; and that when women, that is to say, mothers and wives, are violated by the rude hands - of ruffians, they are afterwards scourged! — publicly scourged!— princes of the blood royal being among the spectators. The lenity of laws and human institution among us, revolt against such outrages. Absolute physical tyranny of this kind, would be likely to set the land on fire from one end to the other. An instance such as this, would be sufficient to make the men of England arise as one, and with a great cry that would make the very heavens above • our heads tremble, protest in word and act against such • diabolical cruelty. But as it seems to be, not a law of nature, hut a law of society, that there mtist be sufferers somewhere in every class, the greatest number among the poorest, so are there evils shared by a vast number of the women in England, which, in their harrowing detail, even exceed the prac- tised and familiar cruelties of the knout and the knotted scourge. These evils have existed for a long period of time in • the very heart of a Christian society, within reach of the sacred thunders of Exeter Hall, in every parish presided over by pastoral ministers, whose modesty will not allow them to enter into the habitations of the poor, and look with an eye of commiseration into their condition. Evils done by reputable, respectable, well- to- do tradesmen, east and west; by men who are overseers, churchwardens, and otherwise dignitaries in parochial matters ; by men ol polite demeanour andof consummate courtesy; men who have wives and daughters too, who would he shocked at the thought that either of these latter shall fall into this awful gulf of despair, where so many crawl between earth and'sky; and it is only lately, that a bold man, gifted with a mighty momentary idea, well carried out, has drawn asunder the impervious veil which had hid these atrocities, and exhibited these evils in all their frightful deformity, and showed them in all their hideous signi- ficance. We have before us now one of those awful descriptions, one of those simple, unmistakable, unvarnished chronicles of the horrors of poverty and unremunerated labour which cannot be exceeded in its shocking details by anything in the annals of humanity. The short and touching story is devoid of all artistic skill in its detail. The truth itself is as hideous as leprosy. It is here we find mothers tell us, that let them labour from the daybreak to the darkness, till the fingers are cramped, the eyes dim, the frame weak, debilitated and paralysed, that the wages of honest labour have been in- sufficient to bring them in bread for themselves and their children, and that they have been forced to outrage the decencies of the sex, violate the sanctities which ought ever to surround the mother, cast to the winds the decent scruples, the disgust, the dread, the shame, the corroding shame, and by the prostitution of their bodies and the soiling of their souls, from the wages of their dishonour obtain food for the hungry little ones at home! If there is anything, we repeat, in the annals of human agonies to go beyoncl this, we have yet to know it. We are not prepared to read the horrors of a siege in the midst of peace— in the midst of a thriving city— in the midst of luxury, plenty, wealth, and comfort: we are not prepared to know ( and the very fact of knowing it all at once has taken us by surprise) that the mother who yearns to clasp and nestle her nurseling to her breast, must leave it at home with its brother or its sister, and go forth into the inclement night in order to become a street- walker, and pollute herself in the embraces of some drunken scoundrel, who would not, perhaps, give a farthing to save her from famine, but who is prodigal in the prosecution of his own lusts. Never have we con- ceived it as compulsory on humanity to create a vice and give it a premium. To those young ladies who form so interesting a feature in " fashionable life," who are brought up in fine houses in the neighbourhood of the parks, and are dazzled daily by the parade of military splendours, who love those " dear ducks of uniforms" which the officers wear, we would say, " think for a moment that one of your own sex, as good, as lovely, though paler than you, which you may envy because it looks so ' genteel,' but which pallor also you may soon attain if you make a gay lancer's cloak in thirteen hours' time for three shillings; if you make two calico shirts in eighteen hours for ninepenee, and then sometimes run the risk of a capricious master throwing them back on your hands because there is a stitch here and there wrong!"— we say, " think on this!" It is a condition like this, which, with its unconquerable force, its invincible pertinacity, makes young girls look with the haggard eye of despair, upon the gigantic labour they perform for a clear profit of one and eightpence a week, in some cases; while in another five shillings a week is earned, by a girl of twenty, and her mother who is sixty- six years of age,— this it is, we say, which, in one of those moments of depressing anguish, when the sun of hope sets in darkness, makes the daughters of honest mothers yield up their virtue as the price of existence; Tbe only marvellous thing is, that suicides are not more common among this hapless class of unfortunates. Hor- rible to see one of these with pure feelings, noble im- A LADY OF QUALITY'S OPINION OF HIGH LIFE. LADY BULWER, the wife of the celebrated author- baronet, has just puhlished a new novel. In the course of her tale she incidentally launches forth into a few observations upon the moral and educational training of the sons of aristocratic and wealthy families. Her picture is perfectly true ; but God help the state of society where such loath- someness is tolerated ! Anything mere calculated to shock the pure- minded and unsophisticated working classes we cannot possibly fancy ; but it is intolerable that such a vile set of profligates and miscreants should hold any influ- ence over our social, moral, or political institutions. Now hear what Lady Bulwer says :— " From what has been, it is easy to conjecture what will be, and to foresee that in another century we shall make a vast pother about public morals, which will not in the least hinder the spread of private vice, but, on the con- trary, will render it more deadly and fatal in its conse- quences, from the tone of solemn hypocrisy it will assume, by exacting for its hollow and brazenly lacquered appear- ances, all the considerations and precedence of virtue. Yet after all, if hypocrisy were to die, modesty at least would have to go in mourning, so even it has its uses. And how should this be otherwise, as long as those barren wastes and sterile deserts of all moral training and social culture, public schools, which English popular fallacy has agreed to call education, exist? The affections, propen- sities, passions, and talents which God has given us, are the moral capital which every human being has received upon their entrance into life, to enable them to go through the world. If, then, these affections, pro- pensities, passions, and talents be totally neglected, on the one hand, or wrongly directed m the other, vice, crime, misery, and failure must be the result. A young gentle- man, after he has had his selfishness put into a hot- bed by the injudicious indulgence of his mamma, and his tem- per, which nature had merely made hasty, hardened into tyranny, by his constant and unchecked domineering over his sisters, in the tread- mill of his own nursery, is then drafted off to the educational gallies of a public school, where he runs the gauntlet of every embryo vice, till he is old enough to go to college, to perfectionize and confirm them. The result of this " system of vicious training and moral warping, now carried on for centuries, is thoroughly unprincipled characters and worthless members of society, corrupt in public life, contemptible in private, brutal hus- bands, unnatural and vicious fathers, trading politicians, and chuckling patriots. What else is to be expected but laxity and hypocrisy from a system whose choicest results are these; if the parents are living in nominal good in- telligence, and no flagrant breach of their marriage vows, they may hope to have a son who, at fourteen, will sacri- fice to cigars and cultivating moustaches, leaguing with ' tlie old girl,' namely his mother, upon all subjects of bis personal finance, against ' the governor,' to wit, his father! and who, at the age of nineteen, will delight his fond parents' hearts by looking out for a wife with ' lots of tin,' and being stoically unmoved by the attractions of a Venus, unless she appeared in the form of a Coryphee of the Opera. But this is the best side of the medal; here is the reverse:— If the classically educated father should. have thought fit to throw off his conjugal shackles, the boy will then be brought up, with his father's mistresses, to de- spise, to neglect, and insult his mother, to breafhe an at- mosphere of permitted and understood vice, till in fact he is incapable of knowing right from wrong, from looking on at bis father's undeprecated profligacy, uniil he is old enough to go and do likewise." 70 REYNOLDS'S POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR. 69 & NEW HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER VIIL HENRY II. HENRY II the son of John, was horn in 1207, and as- cended the throne in the year 1216, so that he was but nine years of age when he became a king among men. The long and dreary sterility which attended upon a reign of fifty seven years, might be argued from the commence- ment, for ten or a dozen years of such a reign must have belonged to the boyhood and juvenility of the man, and a weak and capricious nature such as Henry possessed, was not likely to be productive of any great results. The reader will bear in mind that the barons of England had found themselves necessitated to call in the aid of the Dauphin during the latter part of John's reign, but even while he and his party were for a short time at the head of the government, the nation itself had but an ill opinion of him. The Earl of Pembroke, then Maresclial of the kingdom, espoused Henry's cause, and caused the young king to be crowned at Gloucester. Into hands more capable of sup- porting the tottering throne, the destinies of England could not then have been trusted. During the civil war convulsions which followed, thisnobleman, undismayed by the number of his enemies, and after the coronation, which in spite of all obstacles took place on the 28th Oc- tober, and Henry had sworn fealty to the Pope, for the authority of the crown was so insecure that it required to have the church in its favour, Pembroke, after having been made protector during Henry's minority, made the young king grant a new Charter of liberties, and the great Charter of John was confirmed. It was also by tbe calm and temperate zeal of Pembroke that the malcontent barons were withdrawn from the standard of Louis, promising, that if they would return to their allegiance, all the past would be buried in oblivion. Pembroke was believed, as he had ever maintained a cha- racter for truth and honour, which, considering the tortuous paths in which statesmen wander, and the dark altars where they sacrifice truth and justice to a master- stroke of policy, reflects the greatest credit upon his name. His efforts, seconded by the prejudices of Louis, which militated against his own interests, were finally successful. Louis had refused to place the castle of Hertford in the hands of Robert Fitzwalter, who was the military chief of the insurgents, claiming it as his property, that the barons plainly saw what they were doomed to undergo the mo- ment that the power of Louis was consolidated in the kingdom. Langton had also issued his excommunication against the Dauphin; and though Louis went to France and returned with fresh succours, just before the period of John's death, he found that his cause was lost beyond all hopes of recovery. At the siege of Lincoln, where the Count of Perche had been received with his French army, the English attacked the city, took it by assault, routed the French, and pillaged tbe place. If we may credit the sarcasm which Hume launches upon the martial spirit of this age, three persons only on the French, the beaten side, were killed! It was, however, a battle that decided the fate of England. Louis now discovered that what with one disaster and another, and the loss of the French fleet under the strategy of Philip d'Alhiney, leader of the English armament, made a peace with Pembroke, and speedily evacuated the kingdom. He only stipulated for an indemnity to his adherence, a generous point in a cha- racter otherwise faulty. Pembroke became peacemaker between the barons and the young king; their possessions were restored to them, and all things might have gone on in a tractable and peaceable manner, had it not been for the clergy, who had offended the church by adherence to Louis, and it was not in Pembroke's power to make a- ny stipulations for them. Many were severely punished, some suspended, others banished, and those who were able to make peace with the legate Gaulo, did so at im- mense sacrifices of property and the payment of enor- mous prices. No one can fail to remark upon reading this portion of English history, which, however, has many parallels both before and afier, that what appears to be just and right during the reign of one king, appears to be as wrong in the following. The revolt of the barons against John, which every man will defend upon those fundamental principles of right and justice, takes an aspect of a some- what rebellious kind when we come to the reign of the late king's son. When the barons were headed by Fitz- walter, then like brave men undertaking a duty that would be likely to inflict a martyrdom upon them for the bene- fit of the people at large, they have our admiration and our sympathy; but when they became the adherents of Louis, by a process which they could not avoid without looking upon them as disloyal and treacherous, there is a certain obnoxious change in the relative aspect of things we do not love to dwell upon. The Earl of Pembroke, unfortunately for the king and his people, did not survive this peaceful interval suffi- ciently long to establish everything in the order he desired, and he was succeeded in his high office by De Roches, Bishop of Winchester, and Hubert de Burgh the justi- ciary. De Burgh appeared to be in every way worthy of his duties had lie possessed the confidence of the nation to the extent that Pembroke did; but many of the barons, either from real and fancied grievances, and despising the kings minority, retained the royal castles they had seized during the recent convulsions. Among the most violent of these titled brigands was the Earl" of Albemarle. Having assisted in the expul- sion of the French, he committed the grossest outrages in all the northern counties. Hubert de Burgh determined to put a stop to this, and getting possession of Rocking- ham Castle, then garrisoned by Albemarle's licentious crew, the latter, instead of submitting, allied himself to others quite, as turbulent, and the people suffered most severely in every way. They fortified the Castle of Biham. and surprised theCastle of Fotheringay. One Pandulf, then le- ttte, pronounced sentence of cxcominunication against the earl and his colleagues; an army was levied, and Albe- marle's associates frightened at these threatening prepara- tions, gradually abandoned him. He was compelled to sue for mercy, which the weak and vacillating nature of the king granted him. This levity of conduct, a common fault with Henry, no sooner made him overlook one fault, than other nobles became a source of trouble and annoyance. Fawkes de Breute, a man whom John had raised, set the king at de- fiance, and even when thirty- five verdicts were pro- nounced against him, so much had Henry weakened the arm of justice, that this ruffian entered the court with an armed force, seized the judge, and imprisoned him in Bedford Castle. He declared open war against the king, and was at last taken prisoner. His life was granted, but he was banished, and his estates, the results of plunder, confiscated. Another quarrel between the king and the barons, aris- ing from a fray which arose between the inhabitants of London and Westminster at a wrestling- match, took place, and the whole grew to such an extreme height as to threaten civil war, had not the archbishop and prelates held the thunders of the church over their heads. At this period it is stated that there were no fewer than eleven hundred and fifteen ccistles, all fortified and in good condition, in England ! In the meantime Henry carried on the war with France, which the French Monarch Philip complained of as being an aggressionary injustice, alleging that the armies levied by the Dauphin were done in his name, and in that of Blanche of Castile, and that he was not to be held responsible for such proceedings. The Dauphin, on the death of Philip, having become king, Louis VllI refused to admit Henry's claim to Normandy, the latter sent over his brother Richard Earl of Corn- wall, and his uncle the Earl of Salisbury, and the arms of Louis, who seemed determined to expel the English from the continent, were stayed in their progress. The character of Henry, now growing up to manhood, began to develop itself in all its weakness. Without being guilty of positive faults, his negative virtues were of such a nature as to make him commit the most egre- gious blunders, and make him guilty of many acts of misrule. His want of many qualifications proved him to be utterly unfit for his kingly office, and he was quite unable to grapple with the difficulties into which his numerous quarrels with the barons plunged him, and the feudal system offered obstacles to one who changed his purposes hourly which he could not overcome. He is said to have been " gentle, humane, and merciful to a fault;" but a mercy that overlooks a crime, which plunges the moiety of his subjects into an abyss of misery, is scarcely less censurable than the acts of an oppressor. Firmness of purpose is as necessary to a man who has the destinies of men to dispose of, as hu- manity is in the general. He lavished his affection upon the worthless and the parasitical; but his friendships were of no long continuance, while, on the other hand, his resentments, destitute of reason, were so violent for the time, that he estranged from him many who would have been serviceable to him. Inert and impassive in an age of warfare, he was deficient in every warlike capacity. Ignorant of policy, he was unable to main- tain peace, or to prosecute his undertakings. As an example of the manner in which he treated those who had been most useful to him, he, under the most absurd and childish pretext, dismissed from his councils, and displaced from his office, Hubert de Burgh, to whom he was so much indebted. The rebellious nobles whom Hubert offended by his firm demeanour, seeing that the king had turned his back upon him, and left him to their persecution were gratified. Having taken sanctuary, Henry ordered him to be dragged from thence, banished him, again took him in favour; but Hubert never after sought to obtain any favour with his ungrateful master. Hubert was succeeded by Peter, bishop of Winchester, but being a foreigner, and other offices and commands bestowed upon foreigners, another combination of the barons was formed against a ministry that was become utterly odious. This ministry was at last dissolved by the representations of Edmund, the primate, who came to court, compelled the king to dismiss his favourite, under a threat of excommunication if he refused. The imbecility of the king, and his attachment to foreigners increased. Henry, in 1230, married Eleanor, daughter of the Count of Provence. She was surrounded by a number of her countrymen, whom he enriched by a profuse and foolish prodigality. The Bishop of Valence, a Savoyard, and a brother of the same family, Peter of Savoy, appointed to the wardship of Earl War- rene's property, and Boniface of Savoy appointed to the see of Canterbury, formed a ministry, which drained the treasury of its contents. This audacious ministry obtained a bill from Rome, which permitted Henry to resume all past grants, absolving him from his oath to observe the term of these said grants; but the opposition that arose prevented the ill effects of this bill, which, had it taken place, would have plunged the kingdom into anarchy; but this favouritism again brought the barons in contact with a king, whose weakness made him guilty of absolute knaveries. The great charter was violated, and his exactions against the citizens of London in particular became so extor- tionate, while ecclesiastical grievances embroiled him with Rome, Henry having undertaken to give a great sum of money for the crown of Sicily, against which place the pope had preached a crusade; that in a full parliament Henry was openly reproached with break- ing his word, and infringing— nay, violating the charter, and asked whether he did not blush to demand aid from a people he despised and hated? In 1253, at a new council, the great charter was read, and the king, by a most awful oath, and in the midst of the most imposing solemnities, swore to keep it inviolate; but no sooner was the ceremonial over, than, with an impious disregard for the vows he hail taken, he returned to the same arbitrary administration. The bold and ambitious spirit of Simon de Mountfort, Earl of Leicester, seeing that there was an opportunity for a determined man to snatch the crown ami sceptre of the realm from the weak grasp of Henry, and pos- sessing a strong interest in the nation, lost no time in calling a secret meeting of the most powerful barons to whom he could dare to unfold a portion of his plot. Henry, intimidated by the aspect which the barons as- sumed, promised to summon a parliament at Oxford, afterwards called the Mad Parliament, and there enter into the grievances they alleged. Among those who swore to observe the " provisions of Oxford " was Prince Edward, who adhered to this oath even against his father, with unflinching fidelity. The civil wars that occurred led both parties to lay their cause before Louis IX of France, a man who was a singular compound of gentle- ness and magnanimity, and both promised to abide by his decision. This was done at Amiens, in 1264, and his award was in favour of the king; but the barons think- ing that justice was not done to them, and that the deci- sion was prejudiced in favour of monarchy, refused to abide by the judgment of Louis; and Leicester, together with his adherents, resumed their arms. The battle of Lewes placed Henry and his brother Richard, then called King of the Romans, prisoners in the hands of the victors, and not long after Prince Edward was taken. The Earl of Leicester, in the meantime, governed the kingdom; and though he greatly abused his power, it is to him that we are indebted for the framing of the first House of Commons. At a parliament assembled in 1265, deputies for the boroughs were sent, as well as knights of the shires. In the meantime, a convention ensued, called the Mise of Lewes, which provided for the further settlement of the government by arbitration; though it was pretty evident Simon de Mountfort intended to consolidate the power he had obtained. Prince Edward, however, ob- tained his release by stratagem, and raising an army, defeated Leicester's son, and at the battle of Evesham Leicester himself was slain. King Henry, who had been purposely placed by De Mountfort's party in the front of the battle, was wounded, and only saved himself by declaring his name; and Henry recovered his throne. We may add, as a remarkable occurrence, that no blood was shed on the scaffold for the late proceedings, and the attainder issued against many of the nobles was only carried into effect against Mouutfort's family. Dur- ing those turbulent times, five hundred Jews were massacred in the City of London. Prince Edward had, after these troubles and the resto- ration of his father, gone to the Crusades. He joined the French monarch Louis IX, who earned for himself the title of " Saint," at Tunis, and proceeded thence to the Holy Land. The old king, however, helpless and utterly unequal to the burthen of affairs, called for the return of his son, in order that the sceptre, which was fast falling out of his paralyzed hands, might be held the firmer by Ed- ward's assistance, but finally overcome with age and disappointment, he expired at St. Edmondsbury, in the sixty- fourth year of his age and the fifty- sixth of his reign. By the natural inactivity of his disposition he seemed one little fitted to play the part of a tyrant, though there are instances recorded against him which are fraught with cruelty, extortion, and inhumanity. He levied money in a manner both unconstitutional and capricious, and repeatedly perilled both his life and his crown in the infatuation of favouritism. Inordinately attached to the frivolous and weak- minded, he offended his subjects by utterly disregarding those who were popular with them. The utter absence of all lofty principle, the facility with which he made oaths and broke them, his piety, " which was an hypocritical jumble of bigotry and terror, all combineed to stamp him as utterly weak and worthless; and eminently marks him out as one of those to whom the old text, " Put not your trust in princes," would apply. His extortion and cruelty towards the Jews are almost unparalleled. He left two sons, Edward, who succeeded him; Ed- mund Earl of Lancaster; and two daughters, Margaret Queen of Scotland, and Beatrice Duchess of Brittany. Five other children died during their infancy. EDWIN ROBERTS DIRECT AND INDIRECT TAXATION.— Few of our readers require to have their attention called to what is in itself sufficiently prominent— the very large proportion of indirect to direct taxation. The net national revenue ( t. e., exclusive of local rates and the expenses of collection) for the year 1848 9 amounted to, in round numbers, fifty- three millions ; of which, only nine and a half millions were raised by the land, property, income, and assessed taxes ; the remainder ( with the exceptions before noticed, yielding nearly two millions), arising from the Customs and Excise duties. Spirits, wine, malt, hops, tobaceo, snuff, tea, coffee, sugar, molasses, butter, cheese, currants, raisens, bricks, timber, silks, paper, soap, tallow, and candles, are the principal subjects of these duties. Take, as an illustration of the proportionate produce of the two kiuds of taxation, the fact, that while the tan ; and property taxes combined yielded last year only 3,716,03 ® ., the single article of tobacco— to a large portion of the people an indulgence that has become a necessary from habit— rendered 4,350,7331. THE IRISH CHURCH.— It is impossible for any one who knows the feelings of human nature, to suppose that the Irish people can look upon the present state of the ecclesi- astical system in Ireland without the deepest dissatisfaction. It is not a mere question of money: it is one which concerns the feelings of a people. Though the question be beset with d ffieulty, I deny it to be a d ffieulty sufficient to deter a Minister of the Crown from dealing with it. On this sub- ject 1 certainly entertain very strong feelings. This I will say, nothing appears to me worse, nothing mare hazardous, than for Parliament to declare they will not entertain the question of the Irish Church because it is beset with diffi- culties. The union must lie maintained, but a complete union never coulti he effected so long as the E tahlished and Endowed Church or the minority exclusively existed,— Sir George Grey in 1844. REYNOLDS'S POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR. 69 LABOUR AND POLITICAL RIGHTS. THE social revolutions of strikes and combinations may be considered an unerring proof that the work- people are actuated by an uneasy feeling of injustice and wrong committed towards them by their employers. When- ever a strike occurs, circumstances are sure to be made public, that tend little to illustrate the humanity or kind- ness of a master. And it is not to be supposed that a body of men, more or less intelligent and enlightened, • would willingly plunge themselves into distress and misery merely for the sake of gratifying a passing caprice, or injuring the person who has been the means of supplying them with work,— and consequently with bread. . To prevent the work- people being the mere slave of the capitalist, and to hinder the price of pro- ductive labour suffering a reduction that would place it upon the same, if not a worse footing, than the compul- sory and useless employment carried on in gaols, strikes and combinations are often resolved upon. Immediately an outcry is raised, and the work people are denounced, persecuted, and immolated at the shrine of Mammon; the reason of the strike is only casually glanced upon, and its merits are overlooked in the sweeping encomium that Mr. , the master, gives employ to so many hundreds or thousand hands. The reflection is ge- nerally forgotten that the real sources of wealth— the • work- people themselves — suffer infinitely more by a cessation of labour, than can the wealthy employer who is housed, victualled, and prepared to meet any storm that may threaten him; whilst the needy workman, in throwing up his paltry wages relinquishes, for principle, the bread of life. But, unfortunately, there is no re- medy for the evil; it appears to be the last and only re- source of the labouring population of England, unani- mously striking from their work when oppression and avarice become insupportable and predominant. It seems to be the only engine in the hands of the working classes that can be opposed to the combined power of capital, influence, and prejudice. In cases of dispute between employers and employed to what arbitration, we ask, can the latter, with any de- gree of confidence, refer? The government and their officials, it is too well known, dare not offend the men of money; their existence depends upon the support of the latter; whilst under our present vile and circumscribed system of representation, a committee of the House of Commons would be composed entirely of that very class against whose tyranny an appeal is made. Should cases of dispute between master and man be referred to what is generally called competent and respectable per- sons, in ninety- nine cases out of a hundred, the in- dividuals selected would belong to the class of the masters, and their interests, prejudices, and natures be the same. We know full well that a clever man in fustian clothes, however able, is only second to the as. suming blockhead in cloth and fine linen; we know also that respectability consists in wealth,— that integrity • without gold, weighs not in the balance with riches and fraud— ask George Hudson? To what tribunal, then, can the oppressed work- people appeal for redress?— to • whom can they look for aid and support, if it be not from their own energy, will, and resolution ? i Strikes, then, are the natural consequences of a system of class legislation, of money classification, and of unjust assumption. Why, the people who sometimes themselves know to their bitter sorrow what it is to want employ, retaliate by the only means in their power, and let the capitalist on his part seek for labour without being able to find it, or at least without the possibility of procuring it on his own terms. Surprise is often expressed how the large masses of the humbler orders can consent to be governed and submit to what masters are pleased to term the monopoly of labour by the workmen themselves, as applied to the limitation of numbers and the fixing of hours,— these so called monopolies are termed unjust and evidenced by certain interested parties as proofs of the vague and confused notions of workmen themselves as to the " saeredness of the rights of labour." But to draw such a conclusion is wicked and false, because in those places and in those trades where a limit is placed upon work, the system adopted serves to employ the many, and distribute the quantity fairly between all; whereas, if a fixed time was not arranged, or the pro- portions of labour not curtailed, the consequence would be, that favouritism and servility would be encouraged and prosper. That which the employers denominate monopoly, is in fact a concession made by youth to age — to infirmity by strength,— a concession founded on liberality and equality, a Christian and humane feeling, that instead of being appreciated as it deserves, is re- " viled and abused. Having no tribunal before which they can appeal with any chance of success, being as it were branded as out- casts from political rights, and with only one or two sincere friends in the Commons House, whose efforts are totally unavailing against the selfishness and prejudices of the majority, screwed down to the very verge of destitution and famine by the avarice of their employers; is it, we ask, to be wondered at that recourse is so often had by the working population of England to the only attainable means of retaliation in their power— a strike? Manual labour is gradually disappearing from the land, and day by day greater difficulty is found in obtaining employment; machinery is everywhere used, and the consequences of its introduction, together with the want of a proper organization for labour, has spread misery and destitution amongst thousands. It has been proven that the mechanical power operating in England is equal to tha manual labour of more than eight hundred million of working adults, and the whole of this money- making machinery has been created within the last century— entirely to the advantage of the employer, and essen- tially to the detriment of the working man. Taking the population of the United Kingdom to be thirty- two millions, and supposing one- fourth of this population to be producers of wealth, it gives us eight millions of workmen producing as much wealth by aid of machinery, as eight hundred millions could have produced a century past. Thus the introduction of machinery causes a change in the production of the country, the same as if each workman had ninety- nine others toiling for him ; but his wages are diminished, although he produces one hundred times more than in former days. What does this fact demonstrate? Why, that one hundredth part of the wealth now produced, a century past afforded comforts, subsistence, and comparative ease to the la- bouring population of these islands; and now, with the aid of machinery, producing one hundred times more than they could at that period, the condition of the agri- cultural and the manufacturing labourer is one of ex- treme want, often destitution, aud a perpetual struggle against the Union. Such a state of things amply prove that our working classes are only suffered to enjoy a very miserable frac- tion of the wealth they produce; that out of one hun- dred parts one alone falls to the share of the producer, the remaining ninety- nine sorve to gorge the coffers of the men, who squander, dissipate, and abuse it in some way that is far from beneficial to the producers. Such a state of things cannot long endure; strikes are merely the forerunners of more terrible events— events which will assuredly come to pass on that day when the great, the difficult, and the neglected question of Labour can no longer be postponed, and when a crisis will arrive, whieh a proper organization of labour can alone prevent. To avoid such a total overthrow of social relation, first, the working classes should be fairly and properly repre- sented in the House of Parliament; able, active, and in- telligent men of their own order should be sent to ex- pound the views, and point out the remedies for the sufferings of the working population. Secondly, to accomplish this desirable object, the producers of wealth should enjoy a free, unshackled, and uncontrolled voice in sending members to the legislature. As a striking proof of how much such a privilege is desired, and would be appreciated, we quote the fol- lowing address from the coal miners of the north to Sir Joshua Walmsley, the Chairman of the National and Parliamentary Reform Association, and Mr. George Thompson, pointing out to them the evil of retaining rate- paying clause, even in a modified state, in the pro- gramme of the association;— Gentlemen,— As a deputation who have imposed upon your selves tbe task of giving an impetus and a standing to the new Reform movement, you are fairly entitled to the cordial co- operation of all classes of working men in this country; and which, I trust, will not be withheld either by those of Newcastle or any other large town you may visit. Gentlemen,— I have carefully considered the provisions of this new Reform Bill advocated by you, and observing that the Rate- paying clause of the last Reform Bill is retained, though in a modified form, which no doubt will operate advan- tageously in removing disqualification from the non- payment of Rates, & c. Gentlemen,— I offer none other apology but that I conceive it to be my public duty to apprise you that there is a very large and industrious class of men, whom this principle of the measure you advocate will not bring within the pale of the Constitution; and for whom, as their public officer, I venture to plead the necessity of some alteration or additional details, so arranged as to ensure to them equal privileges with their fellow countrymen. Gentlemen,— the class of men alluded to, are tlie miners of Northumberland and Durham, who pay no rates nor rents whereon to be rated,— the employers, in all cases, providing houses for their workmen, and on the express condition that such houses form part of their wages. The clause in the agreement being, " That such house shall constitute and form part of the wages of each workman." Gentlemen,— There cannot be less than 20,000 adult miners thus disfranchised, if some provision be not attached to the measure, so as to ensure a contrary result; aud I venture to hope that as a favourable notice was taken of this defect, with regard to the people of Scotland, when the deputation attended at Aberdeeu, that the same regard will be had to the case of the miners here; and that in framing a clause to suit Scotland, the Northumberland and Durham Miners will not be overlooked. Gentlemen,— The miners of this district, have, on all im- portant public occasions, taken a very prominent place. The Demonstration on Newcastle Town Moor, occasioned by the Manchester Massacre in 1819, was numerously attended by them: again, in 1831 aud 1832, during the agitation for the Reform Bill, they came iu their thousands to swell the cry for progress. Aud they would not be behind once more, if needeel, to assist iu so good a work; but surely the miners must have a clear perception that they will participate iu those rights in common with their fellow countrymen, for which they have so long and so keenly struggled. Gentlemen,— In conclusion, allow me to repeat, that when framing the clause to suit the people of Scotland, the miners here will not be forgot: but, that if necessary, a clause suitable to their peculiar case, will have the attention of those parties who have the drawing up of that measure of Reform now being brought before the country. I am, Gcutlemen, on behalf of the Miners of Northumberland and Durham, Yours, obediently, M. JuDE. We entertain great hopes that the request of the fore- going document will be complied with by the gentlemen forming the Council of the Association; should it, how- ever, be rejected, the miners may rest assured that it will not be unanimously, and that one voice at all events, will be loud in its support. Give political liberty to all classes of the population, defects will be pointed out by capable men, and remedies proposed; strikes will no more be heard of, and social reform will speedily follow. REVIEWS. " TRACTS ON THE NECESSITY OF LEGISLATIVE INTER- FERENCE IN PROTECTING THE LIVES AND HEALTH OF THE MINERS."— We are happy to find that the much neglected coal- miners of the north have at length started an organ for themselves, in the shape of periodical tracts, published at Newcastle. Their cause is a good one, and deserves support from every humane and thinking man. Perhaps there is no class of men that have bene- fitted less by the progress of science than the coal- miners, and there is certainly no species of labour so liable to sudden and fearful catastrophes as coal- mining. For several years the destruction of life by explosion has gradually been increasing, notwithstanding the rapid and almost superhuman progress of scientific knowledge. Aware of the fearful events that must undoubtedly occur, if farther measures of precaution in ventilating the coal- pits are not adopted, and finding their remon- strances unheeded, some judicious advisers of the coal- miners have started these periodical tracts, so that the public may not be left in entire ignorance of the hardships and unnecessary dangers to whieh the workmen are exposed. We copy the following extract from TRACT NO. 2:— " The chemical effects are the direct productions of the va- pours of water and carbonic acid, and the separation of azote. The physical effects, a violent dilution of gas and of the sur- rounding air, followed by a re- acdon through contraction. The workmen who are exposed to this explosive atmosphere are burned, and the fire is even communicated to the wood and to the coal. The force of the wind produced by the explosion is so great, that even at considerable distances from the site, the labourers are thrown down, or dashed against the sides of the excavations; the walls and the timbering are shaken, broken, and crushed— they fall in. And these effects extend even to the mouths of the pits, from which fragments of wood and stone are projected with a thick tempest of coal in the form of dust. But the evil does not rest there— vast quantities of carbonic acid and azote, produced by the combustion of the gas, become stationary in the works; and those who may have escaped the immediate action of the explosion perish by suffocation. The ventilating currents of the mine, suddenly arrested by this disturbance, are now much more difficult to re- establish, because the doors which served to regulate them are partly destroyed. The fires are extinguished; and often the partitions fixed at the mouths of the shafts to regulate the course of the air are damaged and displaced to such an extent, that it becomes impossible to convey any help to the bottom of the works." " CHOLERA, PLAGUE, PESTILENCE, AND FEVERS, MITI- GATED."— This is the name of a small pamphlet written by Mr. Rouler, a gentleman well qualified to handle the subject he has now again taken up. It is published by Watson, Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster Row, price sixpence. The author has already spent much money and attention in advocating effective sanitary measures; his proposals have been considered for the moment, and then allowed to sink into oblivion. The late fearful visitation has, however, convinced the people that great and comprehensive measures are necessary to ensure the public health. Alluding to the " Metropo- litan Water Supply Association," we find the following sensible remarks:— " According to the organization and habits of man, air, light, and water are indispensable to his existence and com- fort. It is therefore the duty of a government to legislate so that these may reach him in due amount and purity. Light and water are both heavily taxed; but by the * Health of Towns' Bill,' the parliamentary interference with air is in the laudable way of preventing and enforcing the removal of, such nuisances as contaminate the atmosphere to the detriment of the health of the community. The imperative necessity of a reform in the water service of this rapidly- increasing metropolis has become evident to every thinking mind; in- deed, mournfully demonstrated under the afflicted scourge of that mortal pestilence with which we are visited, to the in- crease of which, in its course of death and desolation, the im- pure water supplied to the metropolis has proved a most fear- ful— a most lamentable auxiliary. The formation of the Association has been effected with a view of forming a medium through which the free expression of public opinion may be brought to bear against the present control, the quality, high price, and intermittent method of the existing supply, aud against the power and vested influence which support these grievances, in direct antagonism to the social interests of the public. The whole water supply of London is under a com- bined system of management, so circumscribed - in its accom- modation, so oppressive and illiberal in its operations— in con- travention to the powers granted to the companies for the construction of their respective works— so contrary to the spirit of commercial freedom, and so evasive of legitimate enterprise, under the influence of which wholesome compe- tition is made to protect the public from imposition, as to peremptorily call for government interference." THE ARMY AND NAVY The army and navy literally swarm with lords and honourables the sons of lords. The Guards and horse regiments are overrun with officers, for whom these totally useless places are created. A cavalry regiment has ordinarily about 28 officers; but the fashionable and lucrative regiment of Grenadier Guards, with the Duke of Wellington at its head, has 120 officers 1 A regiment has gene- rally one lieutenant- colonel: that has 301 There are generally nine captains and lieutenants to a cavalry regiment: that has 381 Instead of half- a- dozen cornets, it has 311 The Scots Fusileers— another crack regiment, of which Prince Albert is colonel— has 72 officers, of whom 21 are lieutenant- colonels! In the cavalry regiments alone there are 131 lords, honourables, and baronets; besides an innumerable fry of the younger branches of these families. The whole immense army list seems one mass of Howards, Cavendishes, Fitzroys, Fitz- clarences, Fitzhardinges, Berkeley's, Bouveries, Hays, Greys, Alisons, Beauclerks, Beauchamps, Lygons, Stanhopes, Low- thers, Ponsonbys, Egertons, Foleys, Villiers; and, in fact, of every titled name in the nation. For all these the country has to pay,— Standard of Freedom. 72 REYNOLDS'S POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR. 69 MISCELLANEOUS. TBE NATIONAL FORESTS. — A blue- book has appeared, • which brings to light facts of the most astounding character respecting the depredations in some of tlie'royal, that is, the national forests. In 1827 a Mr. Kent was appointed deputy- surveyor of Salcey Forest, Northamptonshire. He had been a solicitor's clerk," and knew nothing of the management of timber: a fact of which the Commissioners who appointed him were cognizant Between that period and 1834-, he actu- ally cut down the whole forest, containing some thousands of trees, with the exception of 40 or 50 trees, and sold the timber for his own benefit! This wholesale embezzlement was going Oh during four years, the Commissioners at last discovering it by accident. No comment can be needed on such revelations as these. They are additions to the conclusive evidence which the people already possess, that the present system of Govern- ment is as miserably incompetent as it is oppressively expen- sive ; and that while it ruthlessly squeezes money out of the public with one hand, it shamelessly wastes it with the other. — Almanac. TAXES ON ARTICLES OF CONSUMPTION.— Taxation on articles of consumption imposes fetters upon foreign trade. We can only export to the amount to which we cau take goods in return for those we send. But we can only take in return the amount our people can consume. This is the law of foreign commerce. Now let the candid reader see what an incubus is the indirect system of taxes upon our power of consumption. Take tea, for instance. Its natural value here is from Is. to 2s. per lb. By this tax it is raised to four or five shillings, in retail; and in the ratio of the taxes upon it is its consumption checked. The result is, we do not send to China half the goods which we might send, because we cannot consume their tea in return to that amount, all owing to this tax. Thus this system, whilst it is paralysing home trade, is also limiting foreign trade. It crushes every thing and impedes everything ; denying the nation that relief from abroad which it effectually prevents its finding at home. Need we ask, how long, under our present circumstances, can such a system last?— Standard of Freedom. CLOTHINO FOR THE ARMY.— The following item appears among others, and is quoted in the Financial Reform Tracts: —" Allowances to colonels for providing clothing, 305,6421 15s. 6d.; special allowance to the colonel of the Grenadier Guards, in lieu of profits from clothing the regiment, 1,093/. 8s. lOd. j allowances to colonels for providing clothing for augmentation, 3,500?.; allowances to colonels for providing clothing for supernumaries, 3,000?.; allowances to certain cavalry regiments to cover deficiences in the allowances for providing clothing, 1,850?.; cost of patterns, marking great coats, & c., 400!. Total for clothing, 315,486?. 4s. 4d." They observe:—" This department of the army expenditure cannot be passed over by tne Financial Reform Association without remark. The colonels by whom the clothing is provided are, general officers, who obtain the head colonelcies of regiments to provide the clothing as a matter of trade and profit; they are, in the most literal sense of the expression, dealers in clothes. When a regiment goes abroad, becomes sickly, and is. thinned by death, the clothing colonel to whom it belongs, and who remains at home, pockets the money not required for dead or sick men as his own emolument. It is said to be a matter of considerable interest to the clothing colonel of a re- giment to know, when it is ordered abroad, whether it be going to a station where men live well or die fast. In cases where regiments seldom go abroad, the allowances are more liberal, to make up for loss of profit on deficient numbers. Also in. cases where the clothing must be of good quality, special allowances are made for absence of the profits arising front* the clothing of inferior quality. The clothing colonel of the Grenadier Guards, the Duke of Wellington, has 1,093?. al- lowed to provide superior clothing. This is in addition to his pay or profits for furnishing the Rifle Brigade with clothes. Both sources of income are in addition to 16?. 8s. 9d. per day, as Commander- in- Chief; in additfon to 750?. per annum for forage for his horses And all these sums are in addition to 7X. lis. lid. per day as Governor of the Tower of London, which is an office with no duty, and as Lord Warden of the Cinque ports, and Elder Brother of the Trinity House." engage tbe attention of such of the productive classes as may be at present indifferent to the great political question of the day, as we cannot hope to succeed without the aid of the mass of the people. This, we believe, will be most readily effected by showing all such persons that it is a social, as well as a political question, and by enlightening them upon the nature and value of those social rights which are their natural in- heritance; but of which, under, our present system, they are deprived ( mainly through the injustice of our land and money laws), and which they can hope to regain only by obtaining political power, and by knowing how to use it when obtained. By proving ( which we can easily do) that Universal Suf- frage, with the knowledge and fruition of man's social rights, would speedily banish all the poverty, misery, and crime, to which our defective institutions have given rise; and would do this without the sacrifice of one human life, or the confiscation of one shilling's worth of any man's property;— by proving this, we cannot fail to obtain the support of a vast majority of the productive classes. While, by showing them that the hor- rible oarnage and general confusion which have lately desolated the continent of Europe, are not to be ascribed ( as it is falsely asserted they are) to the friends of universal suffrage, but, on the contrary, to its enemies, we shall be able to prevent their being led away by the falsehoods continually circulated by the advocates of " things as they are." Nothing can be easier than to prove that, had the people of France, of many parts of Italy, of Berlin, Vienna, Baden, Dresden, and other places, understood their social as well as they did their political rights, no counter- revolution could possibly have been successful; and that Europe would have been spared the contemplation of horrors at which humanity shudders, perpetrated by the foes of democracy, in the name of those principles so dear to every democrat, Peace, Law, and Order!— Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity! While our principal efforts will be thus used to rouse tbe working classes from that fatal apathy, with respect to poli- tical rights, which is, perhaps, the very worst feature of the present aspect of affairs, we shall not the less endeavour to secure, as far as may be in our power, a proper understanding and appreciation of social questions among those who are already, like ourselves, professed Chartists; being convinced that political, without social rights, would be not only useless, but untenable ( for any length of time) by the poorer or de- pendent classes; a fact placed beyond dispute by late events on the continent. These are the objects of our organization; and for these purposes we invite the assistance of all friends to humanity and progress. We have already issued a detailed prospectus in which the principles of National Reform are fully explained, and towhich we invite the attention of Reformers of every de- nomination. It has already received considerable attention from the democratic press, as well as from various organized poli- tical bodies; and may be had on application to the Secretary, at the office. It is obvious that our only means of operating beneficially upon public opinion consists in a widely extended organiza- tion, and in the energy and devotion of the members compos- ing it. We, therefore, appeal for support to all who have given their assent to our doctrines of National Reform; of which the main points are— the nationalization of the land— the institution of a system of state credit for the people— the abrogation of a currency based ou a gold standard of value— and the foundation of public stores, for the equitable inter- change of all kinds of wealth. Trusting tli^ t tliey will not be deterred from enrolling themselves as liftmbers of the league by any misapprehension of its objects.. Many have said that we attempt too much, that, we agitate . for social re- form instead of the charter. This," we must, once for all, most emphatically deny. We demand the political enfran- chisement of the entire - population, before attempting to pro- cure any of the social reform we advocate; taking, however, all the pains we can to enlighten the people upon the too generally neglected subject of their social rights, both to sup- ply an incentive to exertion in the acquisition of the People's Charter, and to insure its preservation, as well as its bene- ficial operation, when acquired. By order of the Council, J. BRONTERRE O'BRIEN, President. JOHN ROGERS, Secretary. 72, Newman Street, Oxford Street. 19fft December, 1849. A PRESENT TO THE READERS OF REYNOLDS'S MISCELLANY,' With No. 81, Price One Penny, of REYNOLDS'S MISCELLANY, EDITED BY Cr. W. M. REYNOLDS, is issued and presented GRATIS, the First Number of THE DAYS OF HOGARTH? OR, THE MYSTERIES OF OLD LONDON. This work has been pronounced one of the best of Mr. Reynolds's tales, and is illustrated by faithful wood- cut repre- sentations of all Hogarth's best pictures. It is issued in Weekly Penny Numbers and Monthly Sixpenny Parts, uniform with " The Mysteries of the Court of London," & c. In " Reynolds's Miscellany" is now publishing a faithful translation of THE MYSTERIES OF THE PEOPLE ; OR, THE HISTORY OF A PROLETARIAN FAMILY. BY EUGENE SUE. Give your Orders early for No. 81 of the " MISCELLANY," to prevent disappointment. London: Published, for the Proprietor, by John Dicks, 7, Wellington Street, North, Strand. * ** With this Numbw of the " Instructor " a Supple- ment of four pages is presented GRATIS to the sub- scribers. THE TRIAL OF QUEEN CATHERINE. In consequence of the renewed demand for this splendid Wood Engraving, we have been induced to send it to press again: but as this proceeding entails upon us a very con- siderable expeuse, we are compelled to charge for this Re- print the sum of THREE- PENCE. The Reprint is however upon a very superior paper, so as to render the Magnificent Picture all the more suitable for framing. It is issued this Saturday, along with No. 76 of the MISCELLANY. A Few Proof Copies are printed on a very thick and superior paper, Price One Shilling. GIFTS WITH THE " NORTHERN STAR" NEWSPAPER. MESSRS. ROBINSON, Booksellers and News- Agents Greenside Street, Edinburgh, beg to give notice that every person subscribing at their Office for one quarter to the " NORTHERN STAR" newspaper, and paying the subscrip- tion of 5s. 6d. in advance, shall receive the following GIFTS :— 1. The Life and Trial of Robert Emmett, with his Celebrated Speech. 2. A Copy of the People's Charter. 3. A Ballot- Box. 4". The Words and Music of the Marseillaise Hymn. Upon every individual's quarterly subscription thus paid at Messrs. Robinsons' Office, Edinburgh, they will contribute sixpence . towards the liquidation of Mr. Macnamara's Claim upon Mr. Feargus O'Connor, M. P. By the above inducements the Messrs. Robinson hope to secure one thousand new Subscribers to the " NORTHERN STAR" newspaper for the first three months of 1850; and the result will be the payment of 25?. to the fund for the liquida- tion of Mr. Macnamara's claim. The Messrs. Robinson there- fore call upon the Radicals, Chartists, and Democrats gene- rally, of Scotland, to communicate with them at once respect- ing the measure now made public. Robinsons, 11, Greenside Street, Edinburgh. THE FUND FOR THE WIDOWS OF SHARPE AND WILLIAMS. subscriptions have been already i THE COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL RE- FORM LEAGUE TO THE PEOPLE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. IT is every day becoming more undeniable that some modifi- cation must shortly take place in the Constitution of this country. Our present Institutions are so manifestly insuf- ficient to meet the requirements of an increasing population, and an advancing public intelligence, that few will be bold enough to deny the expediency of adapting our Governmental System to the wants and circumstances of the time, by making the Parliament— what it ought always to have been— a full, fair, and iree Representation of the whole people. Under these circumstances, we think it a duty incumbent i upon every man to' examine into the merits of the various ! plans of Reform at present before the public, and to deter-! mine how far each may be calculated to advance the object above slated. Because we are of opinion that, in a highly artificial society like ours, a state of prolonged agitation is in- jurious to all, and more especially to the proletarian or labour- ing classes. And this aaitation can never cease till the de- mands of the People's Charter become the law of the land, it being futile to expect ihat a real representation of the whole people can be obtained by any other means. We maintain, then, that all attempts to engage the working men of this country in any Reform movement which would stop short of the above end, must be looked upon as, at least, injudicious ; because it is evident that nothing but a " pressure from without," will induce our present rulers to concede any Reform whatever. And we are convinced that the same ef- fort which must necessarily be made in order to obtain politi- ; cal freedom for a portion of the people, would suffice, if pro- : perly dictated, to emancipate the whole, and thus put an end to the necessity for further agitaiion. It becomes, then, a question of great importance hotv to rTHE DEMOCRATIC REVIEW OF BRITISH AND - 1- FOREIGN POLITICS, HISTORY AND LI- TERATURE. Edited by G. JULIAN HARNEY. Henceforth the Democratic Reviexo will be published by I Mr. JAMES WATSON, 3, Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster | Row, London. Arrangements have been made to ensure the publication of each number in ample time to reach all parts of the United Kindoin ( if ordered by the local booksellers) by , the first day of each month. i Improvements— both political and literary— are commenced I in the number for January, 1850. The contents of which in- ! elude the first of a series of HISTORICAL LECTURES from the pen of that matchless writer, LOUIS BLANC; also LETTERS FROM FRANCE AND GERMANY, re- viewing the progress of events in those countries and the Con- tinent generally, particularly as regards the movement for Democratic and Social Reform. No. 8, FOR JANUARY, 1850, WAS READY FOR PUBLICATION ON SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29th. The following ceived:— £ 5 5 5 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 0 17 0 10 d. O O 0 0 O 0 0 0 O O O 0 0 CONTENTS. 1. The Editor's Letter to the Working Classes.— Liberty of the Press. 2. Newspaper Stamp Abolition Committee. 3. The Infamous.— Times, i. The French Exiles. 5. Pictures of the Poor. 6. The History of Socalism.— A Course of Lectures by Louis Blanc. Lecture I. 7. The Hungarian Struggle. Part 4. 8. Poetry: " The Song of the Cossack."—'' Fallen Hungary." 9. Literature: The Works of Rabelais."—" Brand's Po- pular Antiquities." 10. Letter from France. 11. Letter from Germany. 12. Political Postscript. FORTY PAGES ( in a coloured wrapper), PRICE THREEPENCE. Baron Rothschild Mr. G. W. M. Reynolds Mr. Luke James Hansard The proceeds of a Concert in Edinburgh ... The Proprietors of the Weekly Dispatch Sir Johua Walmsley, M. P Lord Dudley Coutts Stuart Mr. William Williams Mr. Prout Mr. W. J. Hall Digby Arms Locality Public Meeting at Derby Proceeds of Ball in the Tower Hamlets The persons in Mr. G. W. M. Reynolds's em- ployment 0 10 0 Collected at the Meeting at Cowper Street ... 0 16 6 J. W., 2s. 64; per Mr. Illingworth, Is.; Mrs. and Miss Eagle, Is.; Anonymous Correspondent of REYNOLDS'S MISCELLANY, 6d.; Ditto, 64; G. W. 64; a Youth, 34; J. H. ( Shoreditch) 2s. 64 ; Mr. Iiuffey, 5s.; E. H. 2s. 64 ; one of Mr. Reynolds's Wood Engravers, 2s 64; William Trowsdale, Is.; A Shoemaker ( Liverpool), Is.; J. J. Mauby, Is.; a Labourer ( Leek), Is.; Mr. D. Forsyth, 6s.; Mr. Dennis ( Pickering), Is ; R. B. and J. A., 2s.; Harmonic Meeting in Foley Street, 5s ; C. H. R. ( Cardiff), 5s ; J. W. ( Leith). Is. ; James Davis, ,1s ; Henry Stubbs, 34; J. New- ton, 6s.;— Newton, 34; W. Pearson, 34 ; W. Bench, 64; Collected at the Whiitington and Car, 3s.; 34 ; B. 24 ; Mr. Drake, 6s.; Fox and Hounds, Is. 6^ t? ; J. 6d; Liptrot, 44; Seven Stocking- makers of Leicester, 3s. 64; G. J. N., 5s. ; Miss Mary Ami Campbell, Is. 6d.; Mr. Cook, Bookseller, Bristol, 64; Mr. E. F. Roberts, 5s ; Mr. Cook ( Second Donation), 64; T. E. G., Is.; Friends at Birmingham, 3s. 34; Mr. G. Hare, 5s. London: Published by Paternoster Row. J. WATSON, 3, Queen's Head Dec. 15th, 1849. WILLIAM DAVIS, Chairman. G. W. M. REYNOLDS, Treasurer. JOHN J. FERDINANDO, Secretary. LONDON : Printed and Published, for the PROPRIETOR, by JOHN DICKS, at the Office of REYNOLDS'S MISCELLANY, 7, Welliugton Street North, Strand.
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