REYNOLDS'S POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR. EDITED BY GEORGE W. M. REYNOLDS, AUTHOR OF THE FIRST AND SECOND SERIES OF " THE MYSTERIES OF LONDON," " THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT OF LONDON," & C. & E. No. 22.— Vol. 1.] SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1850. [ PRICE ONE PENNY. JOHN MITCHEL, THE GLORIOUS IRISH PATRIOT. AT a short distance from the row of houses named Ontario Terrace, three years ago, in one of those houses, John Mitchel resided. He had a comfortable and happy home — books, friends, a noble and attached family. Young as he was, he had won fame, and its shadow, envy— and deep love. He wielded a vast power; for his thoughts had penetrated into many circles— the words written in his solitary study were read by thousands of anxious eyes. He was known to be a just and fearless man, a scholar and patriot, an acute and daring thinker, a bold vigorous writer, a keen watchful politician. He was then the editor of the Nation newspaper— a pub- lication which the Irish people will not easily forget. Any evening you might have seen him return from his office— his daily labour for Ireland done. Though you meet him casually and know him not, you will turn and observe him as he passes; for God has marked him with the lineaments of the great. He is tall and well- formed, though his figure has that slight stoop which we may designate the scholastic bend. He walks heavily but firmly; with the tread of a man who has serious busi- ness on hand; no loitering tread, but regular and dis- tinct. His face is the perfection of manly beauty. It speaks a cultured mind and a full developed character. His rich brown hair clusters round a forehead massive, compact, and almost transparent in its clearness. The nose is straight and finely chiselled. The mouth is that of Apollo; full, firm lips, which could only utter the eloquence of fearless truth. The eyes are calm but piercing, sometimes radiating genial smiles, sometimes half closed, as if the eyelids were compressed to shoot the kean glance through your soul. You feel that he could literally read your heart. The complexion is pale and delicate, as . of a man who thinks too much. If you follow him home you will find him among his books and manuscripts, studying some chronicle of his country, communing with annalist, bard, and senachie; or piercing some ministerial plan or currency conun- drum; or dreaming for awhile in the midst of German melophic fog— for he, the man of facts and figures, can visit cloud- land when it pleases him; or outlining, pen in hand, some wrong or right of the people; or mayhap skimming over the pages of old Rabelais, for he relishes the merry old churchman, aud laughing over the achievements of Pantagruel; or you may find him be- side his noble young wife, in the centre of his brave, beautiful family. Truly, you would say that he was a happy man! Well, such was the position of John Mitchel then— but a short time ago! Soon afterwards we find him putting forth every energy for his native land : his patriotism reaps that which is too often the patriot's fate. He is persecuted by the Government— deserted by his fellow- countrymen— and sent into exile. May God Almighty's blessings be upon thee, thou great, and good, and glorious John Mitchel! They who have never succeeded in anything but win- ning the reputation of renegades— they who have no higher life- Gospel than Iago's " put money in thy purse"— they presume to speak slightingly of Mitchel's " failure!" He has not failed; the victory is with him. Failed! His so- called failure has insured his triumph. His creed has gained ground— his circle of followers is daily extending. In Protestant Trinity College, in the scholars' room, his portrait hang's— in Protestant Ulster his thoughts are shooting into action. In Catholic May- nooth, the student places his works btfside the Bible— in Catholic Munster, he is regarded as a patron saint. The peasant blesses him in his cottage, and prays for him at his mass. The artizan mutters his prophecies at his toil, and dreams over their realisation at his hearth. The youth of Ireland draws inspiration from his prison, and advances towards the future as a missionary of his truth. Failed! He has scattered to the four winds of Heaven tho false teachings of the Agitator; he has braved the " patience," of starvation, and the perseverance of cowardice, as deep as the famine- victims; he has thrown down the Juggernauts in worship whereof the people forgot the truth, and trampled them under foot. The old Shibboleth is not value for fifteen pounds a- week to Mr. John O'Connell. The hopes of Ireland dwell amid the hills of Tipperary, and in the golden valley of the Loir. The little- great authors of programmes and petitions— the hereditary bondsmen of a slavish faith— the men of cunning brain and callous heart— the super- fine kid- glove patriots, who condescend to pocket the money of the poor— the knaves, the tricksters, and the bigots, are deserted and alone: the " grey coats," th © tillers of the soil, the real diggers of a country's gold, have learned that to eat the crops they sow— to eat them in despite of the agent, the landlord, and the law— to 170 REYNOLDS'S POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR, eat them though it be in secret places, anil at the risk of limb and life, is better work for Ireland than to swell the rent of rogues, or cheer the harangues of selfish Agitators. Failed! Why, the Government of the great Republic of the Western World has received his brother, and con- secrated in his person the felon's crime. Beneath the Stars and stripes blossom his principles, from whose prison the union jack isflying; and the free Republican of America hails the chained rebel of Ireland as his brother and his friend. " Failed! His principles have crossed tha ocean before him, and meet him at the Cape. The ship which bore him to the harbour cannot land its ponviet burden; - for the colonist of England has foresworn allegiance to hei- rule. From the deck of the vessel he can decry the flag of insurrection, and catch the shouts of an uprising people. And, as the disappointed crew make sail again, and the pennant of Britain sinks before the banner of " disaffection," he bids adieu to the scholars who have come to visit their teacher, with " Bravo! men of the Cape!" No, he has not failed. He sacrificed himself as he in- tended: but, praised be God! before he fell, he left his mark on his enemies. He has laid the axe at the root of the old tyranny, and made yawning gashes therein. It is falling, it is falling; and the world looks on with hope. Around it is hate; within it is discontent, eating its way like a dry- rot; and it will tumble, even in our time, amid the cheers and curses of the universe. THE DESPOT- APE OF FRANCE. TnE infamous Times is constantly expatiating upon what it is pleased to call the anarchical condition of French society: but however unsettled that society may be at the present moment, the cause is to be looked for ill the treacherous and diabolical policy pursued by M. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte and the base reactionaries by whom he has surrounded himself. When a man in high office sacrifices a country to his own personal ambition, and selects as his advisers the avowed enemies of the popu- lar cause, what other result can ensue than a wide- spread dissatisfaction? If the French people were to submit tamely to the tyranny of that ape who is now perform- ing his antics on the summit of the governmental tree to which he has managed to climb, they would deserve to wear the most galling chains that a vile despotism could possibly rivet upon their limbs;— and if they do not rise in rebellion again, they will merit the denomi- nation of cowards. But such an opprobrious name will never be merited by the great and glorious French peo- ple. They are watching their opportunity — they are measuring their strength— they are taking breath after the fatigues of recent conflicts— and they are studying all the weak points of the enemy. Every day that now passes in tranquillity, adds to the strength of the pa- triots, and diminishes the power of their tyrants. Louis Napoleor. Bonaparte, plunging efch hour more deeply into pecuniary embarrassments as well asinto political perplex- ities, becomes an object of increasing scorn, mistrust, and hatred. His position is now desperate in the extreme. If he were to resign the Presidency with a viewto appeal to the nation and stand as the candidate for re- election, he would instantaneously divest himself of the official immunity which saves him from a debtor's gaol;— and, in addition thereto, he has been assured by his advisers that he stands not the slightest chance of re- election. His debts are goading him on to the maddest experi- ments; and his destiny trembles between two alternatives, the one representing the sublime, and the other the ridi- culous. In plain terms, he must either mount a throne or go to quod! In every way is Mister Bonaparte ruined. He has become an object of contempt, as well as of hatred; and a man who has made himself ridiculous, stands a worse chance of accomplishing his aims in France than a man who is only hated. For the French are the most sensi- tive people in Europe on that score: they might consent to be ruled by a lion, but never by an ape. A witty sarcasm cuts more deeply amongst the French than the sword. A stern, solemn, and imposing despotism, such as that of Louis Philippe, is calculated to stand on a far firmer foundation in France, than the fantastic and mountebank oppression of a contemptible zany. The day that the President's cousin, M. Napoleon Bonaparte, denounced him as " a kite in the eagle's nest," knocked down as much of his original popularity as his own base treachery had already destroyed. ' For a Frenchman would sooner be lacerated by the claws of a noble lion, than pelted with cocoa- nuts by a grimacing monkey leaping from bough to bough in a lofty tree. The results of the recent elections have not been fairly dealt with by the Times and other English news- papers. It is true that out of those elections, the Mo- derates have gained ten of the twenty- eight seats previously occupied by Red Republicans. But the fact is that the elections furnished the occasion for the country to pronounce a verdict upon the character and policy of M. Bonaparte, and that verdict has been given against him by an enormous majority. It is quite clear that the nation is two- thirds Red Republican and Socialist. This truth is established beyond all possibility of doubt. Now, a year and a half ago, the Times tauntingly said of France, " Behold a Republic without a single Republican in it." Well, granting for a mo- ment that such was the fact, what tremendous progress Red Republicanism and Socialism must have made in order that two- thirds of the entire population should have embraced those doctrines in so short a time! Of a surety, there must be something gloriously vital and irresistibly convincing in Red Republicanism and So- cialism, to enable the principles to dessie initiate themselves at such a wild- fire rate. And if such has been their progress, what immense hope is there for the future! At the same rate, even according to the very showing of the Times itself, all France will become proselytised in another six months;— and then what hope can M. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte entertain of saving hi3 car- case from a cell in the debtor's prison of tha Rue de Clichy, by donning the imperial purple? The recent elections, I said, were a verdict pronounced by the particular constituencies acting on the occasion, and must be regarded as the test of the sentiments en- tertained by the great majority of the nation. I will explain wherefore. If twenty- eight elections were to take place in England, under the present laws, the results would afford no indication of the national opinion: for two reasons— 1. Because constituencies of only a few hundreds each ( such as Horsham, Thetford, Evesham, Harwich, & e.) might be included in the number; and 2. because no one constituency in any county or borough now represents the true feeling of the whole mass of inhabitants in such county or borough. But in France the case is very different. There ail the constituencies are now equal, and every adult gives his vote. Con- sequently, if twenty constituencies, taken at random in different parts of the country, pronounce all in favour of certain principles, the inevitable and irresistible in- ference is that the whole national sentiments have un- dergone a test. It is quite clear, then, that there is nothing dangerous nor terrible, nor anarchical in Red Republicanism: otherwise those doctrines would never have been stamped with the approval of many millions of men of all grades of society. The middle- classes would have voted against Red Republicanism and Socialism if these principles had been really pernicious: but it is evident from the results of the elections, that in the great ma- jority of instances the middle joined the working- classes in voting for those principles, the opponents of which were only the indolent drones who fatten vampyre- like upon the blood, sinew, and sweat of the industrial mil- lions. It is ridiculous for a miserable minority of men to set themselves up as the only Solons in a nation, and declare that the great majority are all wrong,— espe- cially when the former are interested in maintaining the abuses upon whieh they grow fat, while the latter are endeavouring to destroy the political infamies and the social wrongs by which they arc made to starve. Self- interest constitutes the basis of the policy of the favoured few: intelligence, enlightenment, and justice are the principles which actuate the conduct of the latter. I know perfectly well that Red Republicanism is sub- versive — yes, very subversive: aye, and also very destructive. The " Party of Order" in France and the Times in England are quite right when they say so. But of what is Red Republicanism subversive? and how is it destructive? It is subversive of the mighty colos- sus of political tyrannies which France's forty Kings had In succession piled up : it is destructive of the whole net- work of social wrongs which ages of oppression had spread over the greatest and most gallant nation of Continental Europe. Yes— Red Republicanism is a ter- rible destroyer of the cumulative abuses which centuries of misrule heap up,— a remorseless annihilator of the million injuries, which demon- hearted enslavers have inflicted upon the enslaved. And it is because Red Republicanism crushed the accursed throne of Louis Philippe, and wilf not allow Louis Napoleon to rebuild it,— it is because Red Republicanism swept away the titled Aristocracy, and will not permit a few base poli- ticians to restore it,— it is because Red Republicanism gave the nation universal suffrage, and now watches over that right with a jealous- eye,— it is because Red Republicanism is conducting the French mind along the broad and open pathways of truth, and opposes : all endeavours to lead it back into the tortuous and obscure bye- lanes of ignorance, — it is for these reasons that Louis Napoleon dreads it, the tyrant few hate it, and the servile portion of the Press denounce it. But Mrs. Partington attempting with her broom to keep back the advancing waters of the Atlantic, is not a more ludicrous spectacle than the French President endeavouring to resist the onward- rolling flood of de- mocracy. Mind is always progressing ; and therefore no institutions that are influenced by Mind, can ever remain stationary. The Mind of France is now essen- tially Red Republican; and the institutions cannot do otherwise than fall into a plastic compatibility there- with. The Party of Order may gather all its forces—• may band all its adherents in a serried phalanx— may subsidise the venal portion of the Press in France and England both— may introduce coercive measures— may denounce, gag, persecute, imprison, banish, and eveu slay,— all this may Louis Napoleon Bonaparte and his creatures do— but the spirit of the French people is as elastic as the steel weapon whieh will flash forth from the scabbard in vindication of right against wrong, and justice against tyranny. There never was so contemptible a spectacle in all the world as the figure whieh the Times has cut with regard to the recent elections. For weeks before they took plaee, the Times' Correspondent was incessant and triumphant in its assurances that not a Red Republican would be chosen. Then, as the elections approached, the Times began to admit that the Reds were making immense efforts. Next, on the eve of the elections, when all the world could pretty well anticipate the re- sult, the Times dropped a hint that one or two Red Republicans might be returned— but not more than one or two. Even while tha elections were taking place, the French Correspondent of the Times was still blatant with his windy assurances in favour of the so- called " cause of order." But, behold! two- thirds of the Reds are returned in triumph;-* and for a moment the Times admits that it is astounded. A pretty con- ductor of the public mind is this journal, which could not see, even at the last moment, that course of events the actual direction of whieh was weeks previously within the range of prophecy! And this is called the " best- informed newspaper in Europe "— the " leading journal!" Well, but '- when the result of the elections became an established fact, the poor Times manifested all the ludicrous excruciations invariably attendant upon the endeavour to explain away disagreeable oc- currences, and invent excuses for unpalatable incidents. Could anything be more ridiculous than to behold the Times' Correspondent assorting that the middle- classes only wanted to give the Government a gentle lesson, but did not mean it to be so severe?— could anything bo more preposterous than the reiterated declaration made by that self- same wretched scribe, to the effect that the middle- classes repented of the votes they had given the moment the result was known? AU this shows how miserable are the subterfuges to which the Times is re- duced in its endeavours to distort the truth. And what is the truth? Why, that the middle- classes of Franca voted deliberately, and not rashly,— with a straightfor- ward intention, and not a sinister one,—' for the purpose of recording their settled convictions in favour of Red Republicanism, and not with a mere view to frighten some very silly persons with a temporary bugbear. It is the Times which is supremely silly in this case, to be- lieve ( or appear to believe) that millions of rational, enlightened, intelligent men could possibly make use of their votes in so idle, reckless, and inconsiderate a fashion. v However, the Red Republicans and Socialists have carried the great majority of the elections; and let the Times make the best of the result. Yes— and let M. Bonaparte and the whole Party of Order make the best of it likewise. And let them all ponder upon the one grand fact which those elections have established: namely, that the French Army is Red Republican and Socialist. Without an army at his back, a tyrant is powerless: for all tyranny is based upon brute force. It is physical power endeavouring to subdue the in- fluence of Mind. But that power is now wanting to the despot- ape of France: the Army has thrown him off with disgust, contempt, and scorn;— and he will not even fall with the solemnity of the crash which over- whelmed the throne of Louis Philippe— but he will some fine morning quit the ambrosial bowers of the Elysee Palace in the ignominious custody of a sheriffs- officer. GEORGE W. M. REYNOLDS. THE ARISTOCRACY: ITS ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND DECAY. THOSE instances of rapacity on the part of the Aris- tocracy already quoted, form but a very small portion of the lengthy catalogue of noble spoliators that quar- tered themselves upon the national estate. Every forest which ought, if properly managed, to have produced a handsome revenue to the country, was so infested by placemen and greedy sinecuriats, that, instead of being made a source of profit, they actually, for a number of years, occasioned a considerable loss to the' country. We have already related how the former Duke of Grafton, ranger of Whittlebury Forest, refused the nation a supply of its own timber, and how he professed a right, by reason of letters patent granted by Charles II, to exercise the power of a possessor over this splendid estate appertaining to the ration. Besides Whittlebury, his grace of Grafton enjoyed the rangership of Salcey Forest. Now, the forest of Whittlebury had but five thousand four hundred and odd acres, but the ducal ranger, thinking the revenues sufficient to maintain a host of his own followers, found that between seventy and eighty officers were required to manage this forest. Whittlebury is a magnificent domain, and upon it is the princely residence of Wakefield Lodge; of course, forming one of the country seats of the present slug of Grafton, whose hereditary privileges have been duly protected. Besides Wakefield there are other magni- ficent residences upon the estate, with ten keepers' lodges. Salcey Forest contains one thousand eight hun- dred and fifty acres, with two or three handsome houses upon the domain. But besides these residences and other advantages arising from the free enjoyment of a magnificent estate, his grace of Grafton's salary, as ranger of Whittlebury Forest, Buckinghamshire, was fixed at two hundred and thirty- six pounds per annum, an insignificant sum cer- tainly, but everything is fish that comes to Grafton's net. Besides being deprived of their property in this scandalous manner, the people for many years were called upon to pay a large annual sum to supply the de- ficiency of the Whittlebury Forest revenue, the expen- diture as a matter of course in the hands of a Grafton considerably exceeding the receipts. In a like manner has tbe whole of that property of the country exchanged by the sovereign for a settled allowance, and which the people of England are compelled by their rulers to pay, been pillaged and devastated by a horde of locust Aris- tocrats. During the disastrous reign of the third George, a crop of five hundred and thirty coronetted spoliators were cast like a pestilential infliction upon the nation; most of them were quartered in some shape upon the national resources; others obtained the dignity of a " lord " for the purpose of entrapping some rich heiress whose sense was subservient to her vanity. Figuring in this lengthy list of George's peers, we find between the years 1780 and 1800 a great number of Irish titles; these were the renegades and dastards that, bribed by the vile Castlereagh, sold their country, fettered and subdued, to the English crown. Amongst this branded list we find the names of Waterford and Donegal; the first, some years past, acquired for himself an unenviable police notoriety, whilst the family of the latter, although of questionable breed, was legitimised by Aot of Par- liament. The family of Beresford's ( Waterford) have for centuries been conspicuous in Ireland for the fear- ful extent of their plunder; their rapaciousness has been ' Wi- REYNOLDS'S POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR. a scandal to the unfortunate country that is cursed | withsucn a hungry and destructive brood. Tue church . has been their great spoil. Eight of this lucky family received from the church! of Ireland, during the period of thirty years, one mil- I lion of money, or in round numbers, thirty- three thou- ' sand pounds annually. Eighteen Beresfords were in the army for the same period, and received over two hundred and twenty thousand pounds, several enjoying commissions and pay whilst in their cradje, and rising to the rank of captain when boys at school! The fol- lowing laughable anecdote, illustrative of the precocious heroism supposed to be hereditary in the house of Beres- ford, is related, and vouched for as true: On one oc- casion when a cabinet minister was visiting the Marquis of Waterford, some thirty years baek, at Curraghmore, he inquired after his lordship's infant family, and ex- pressed a wish to see them. The nurse was sent for and desired to fetch the children. The good old lady demurred, remarking that, " the ensign was ill, teeth- ing, and the lieutenant fast asleep in his cradle." Sir Jonah Barrington, when speaking of this cormorant family, remarks, " Lord Clare at that period ( 1799) had covered the surface of the nation with the partisans of the Beresfords and himself, and no family ever pos- sessed so many high and lucrative employments; they had no talent, no public services, no political honesty which should have entitled them to the authority they exercised over their sovereign and country." The Marquis of Donegal is another renegade Irish title, and the present; peer who fills the high post in the queen's household, arrived at his title, dignities, and estates in the following singular and roundabout manner. The late Marquis of Donegal married a daughter of Sir Edward May; Lady May, the mother of the young lady, had chosen to commit bigamy, and whilst her first husband was alive in the East Indies, taken unto herself another in the person of Sir Edward. This discovery rendered the second marriage void, and bastardised the children. The marchioness had wedded in a wrong name, having no title to that of her father; the law was immediately resorted to, and of course where the Aristocracy is concerned, was, as usual, extremely complaisant; an act of parliament was procured, legitimising and purify- ing the whole breed. The sanguinary career ef George III, when near its conclusion, was wound up by a deed of blood marvel- lously in accordance with the many that had previously distinguished his disastrous reign. We allude to tbe Man- chester massacre of 1819, demoniacally planned by the Aristocracy to subdue and slaughter the people. At the bottom of this infernal and cunningly- contrived scheme of bloodshed were the Lords Sidmouth and Castlereagh, the Earl of Derby, and many other noblemen, with the Duke of York, who arranged the military details of this despotic butchcry. Pious Sidmouth was prime mover in this murderous carnage, and employed for his purposes a certain. I- Ie. liaU, at tUevt time tilling a confidential situation in the capacity of genealogist, under the immediate control of Lord Sidmouth. This man was to proceed to Manchester in company with two other persons, for the avowed purpose of inflaming the people's minds and exciting them, under pretence of procuring a reform in the representation, to summon a large meeting for the object of petitioning parliament. He went, and the result of his mission was satisfactory to his base employers. Bell and his associates repre- sented to the people that if they were to assemble in an orderly and p'eaeeable manner, unarmed, to petition parliament for reform, they need no longer remain in their starving and helpless condition. These tools of the Home- office1 told the famishing multitudes that if they wished to enjoy plenty, thev had it in their power to accomplish their every wish by moral means, but that symptoms of armed demonstration would spoil all. Under their influence, and guided by their treacherous councils, clubs and unions were formed, and a public meeting was announced for the 16th of August, at which Henry Hunt was to prdside. pell was in daily correspondence with Lords Sidmouth and Castlereagh; the military massacre was prepared; the Duke of York, being a prince of the blood, was counselled to get out of the way whilst the odious and tragical plot was being carried out, and the Aristocracy in genei'al were on the texiter- hooks of expectation and anxiety. The villain Castlereagh wrote as: follows to a certain timid duke, who, whilst advocating the measure, threw out some doubts as to its being effectually carried out, " Your grace need be under no apprehensions. Sid- mouth's plans are perfect, and those who will be called upon to execute them trustworthy and energetic ser- vants. B ' s last report has come safe to hand, our measures are taken, and the eanaille clamouring for reform, will be surprised front, flank, and rear by steel and powder.". A copy of this vile epistle was found in the- duke's papers after his death; and although the rela- tions of Castlereagh strived to suppress it, still much publicity was given to the document from certain quar- ters. The 16th of August arrived, and the memorable meeting took place. A hundred thousand persons con- ducting themselves orderly and peaceably, unarmed, and acting up to the counsel offered by their treacher- ous advisers, Bell and his associates, were hurrying in immense and dense masses to the place of meeting. The barbarous measures of the sanguinary Aristocracy were effectually carried out. The assembled multitude was suddenly surprised by the arrival of the Manchester yeomanry cavalry, which was speedily joined by the Cheshire yeomanry, and the fifteenth regiment of hussars. The orders had been given, a charge took place, and tbe oppressed, unarmed multitude, driven one upon another, utterly defenceless, were sabred, ridden over, cut down, men, women, and children, killed and wounded indiscriminately. Tbe Itiot Act was not read previously to this scene of carnage; for if it had been the vile plaus of the Aristocracy to crush with one terrible effort a people claiming its rights, might have proved less bloody. Felicitations poured in from royalty and nobility to Sidmouth; h « was considered as the saviour of their orders, and the pious miscreant gloated with satisfac- tion over the accounts he received relating to the san- guinary results of his foul and murderous plot. Sid- mouth, however, was scarcely satisfied; he had hoped that more would have fallen by the sword, and that some show of resistance being offered,, the infuriated soldiery would have fallen upon the ynarmed people and nearly exterminated them; he had also anticipated that the leaders and many more mig| it have so compro- mised themselves as to suffer the extreme penalty of the law, thus affording a fearful example to future genera- tions, and deter them from questioning the excellency of the institutions under which they live, or the wisdom and justice of their rulers. Bell, when remonstrated with at having lent himself to such vile purposes, re- plied, " My only dependence was upon my obedience in strictly fulfilling my engagements." Sidmouth's scoun- drel confederate, Lord Castlereagh, just three vears after this terrible event, put an end to a life marked by dis- honesty, perfidy, cruelty, and the blackest crimes. Cob- bettthus describes this monster idol of the Aristocracy: " This man, this despiser of the people, this bringer- in of gagging and dungeoning bills; this man, who laughed at the people when it was alleged that he had sold a seat in parliament; this man, who, observe, had been what is called ' the leader of the House of Commons ' for several years, up to the 6th of August; this man, who had for the better part of thirty years been revel- ling in unbridled power, in inflicting severities almost at his pleasure, who had no more idea of ever meeting with control than if he had been possessed of almighty power; this man cut his own throat and killed himself at the village of North Cray, in Kent. His end was striking, and ought fo be recorded. He was the fa- vourite minister of ' the sovereign.' Ha had been Pitt's chief agent in tbe transactions relating to the Union with Ireland; he had been the chief agent in the affairs at Paris in 1814, 1815; he had brought in the gagging and dungeoning bills of 1817; he had brought into the House of Commons the charges against- the queen; he had brought in the Corn Bill, which he said ho would pass because the people clamoured against it; he had called the people, who upheld the queen ( Caroline) ' the basest populace;' and he had uuiformly showed so com- plete a want of feeling for them, that their feeling to- wards him was more hostile than can be described. There appeared to be a mutual and unquenchable hatred between them." Such was the character of the favourite minister of the sovereign and of the Aristocracy. His body was brought from North Cray to the family residence in London with the strictest privacy at night time, to avoid any demonstration of popular antipathy. But when the corpse was removed to Westminster Abbey, an immense multitude were collected, and'gave vent to ttreir sentiments of delight at witnessing an end to the oppression, tyranny, and crime so long perpetrated by this favourite minister of the sovereign, by one loud unanimous burst of exultation as the liearse was pass- ing by. The successor to the estates and dignities of this monster is the present Marquis of Londonderry, a military nincompoop too contemptible f* r notice. Tlie Aristocracy, by the part they took in the bloody tragedy of Manchester, declared that they had renewed the war of sauguinary despotism with the people. ALPHA, ( To be cojitimed- in our next.) COST OF THE WHOLE AMERICAN EXECUTIVE. President . Vice- President Secretary of State " War . " Navy Postmaster- General Attorney- General Secretary to the Senate . Commissioner of Patents Paymaster- General 5,266 1,052 1,825 1,82.5 1,825 1,825 911 918 918 526 £ 16,891 THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND PHASES OF HUMAN SLAVERY: HOW IT CAME INTO THE WORLD, AND HOW IT SHALL BE MADE TO GO OUT. LETTEB XVII. HAVING seen how human slavery originated in parental despotism — how it expanded by war, commerce, in- debtedness, marriage, & c.— how it continued to be direct or c/ iaffeZ- slavery all over the world till the advent of Christianity— how it, in consequence of the workings of the gospel, gradually assumed the form of wages- slavery, aud generated modern proletarianism throughout Western Europe and America'— having also seen bow the system of chattel- slavery worked in the ancient world, and in the existing slave- states of America, and compared, or rather contrasted, that system with its more hideous successor, wages- slavery— having, lastly, passed in review before us the nefarious workings of the African slave- trade as carried on at the present day by the combined Machiavalisms of com- merce, war, and diplomacy,— let us now inquire what are the forms and conditions of human slavery, as it exists under modern civilization, and by what meaus and appliances it may be effectually and for ever banished from the world. As already stated, direct or chattel'slavery is still the ndrmal condition of the labouring classes in most Eastern countries, and ef the black population in the Southern States of America. In Russia and other countries a species of serfdom obtains, which partakes of the nature of both chattel and wages- slavery, but which is probably, on the whole, less objectionable than either. The serfs of such countries correspond with our villains of the Anglo- Saxon and Norman times, and are clearly a remnant of the old feudal system which grew up in most parts of Europe upon the dissolution of the old Roman Empire. Wherever this serfdom prevails, pro- letarianism is confined to the cities and towns; the serfs being like chattel- slaves, provided for out of the lands to which they are. attached. In the principal state? of Etirope and America— in our colonies generally — ami indeed in most modern countries called " civilized," wages- slavery is the normal condition of the labouring classes. This latter kind of slavery is cceteris paribus, more or less intensely severe according to the degree of perfection to which civiliza- tion is carried. Thus, in our united kingdom, which is accounted the most civilized country in the world, wages- slavery is attended with greater hardships and subject to more privations and casualties than any where else. Nowhere else do we find employment so pre- carious: nowhere else such multitudes of people over- worked at one time, and totally destitute of employment at other times: nowhere else do we see such masses of the population subsisting upon pittances wholly inade- quate to sustain humar. beings in health and' strength: nowhere else do we find gaols and workhouses so over- crowded: nowhere else do we hear of whole districts depopulated by famine— nor of upwards of a million and a half out of eight millions of people being out off by actual starvation and forced expatriation in the course of twelve months, as has happened in Ireland within the last few years. All this, too, we find to be contem- poraneous and in juxta- position with granaries, ware- houses, and shops teeming with a superabundance of the choicest produce of all climes — with cries of over- production and glutted markets ringing in our ears wherever we pass — and with the most opulent and numerous aristocracy, territorial and commercial, that was ever known to be congregated in any country of seven times the extent; to say nothing of a still more numerous middle class, in whose ranks may be found some thousands far surpassing German counts, or Ger- man princes in the command of wealth and luxury. Hence no doubt it was that Sir Robert Peel, not long ago, accounted in parliament. for our distress, by assur- ing the House that " the occasional distress and desti- tution of great numbers of people was a necessary con- sequence of our advanced civilization, and was therefore a thing naturally to be expected iii such a country as England." We remember, some years ago, when an addt- ess'was presented to this same Sir R. Peel, by some 6,000 or 7.000 of the merchants, bankers, shipowners, & c. of the. City of London, to tonsole him for liis temporary expul- sion from office by the Whigs— we remember how the Times ( which was then ratting from the Whigs) boasted, by way of demonstrating the respectability of the ad- dressers, that the list contained the names of 1,500 citizens, whose aggregate wealth would suffice to redeem the national debt, and still. leave enough to support the owners in opulence. We remember having seen. i(; stated, about the, same period, in a city article of the said Times, that so prosperous was t<- ade that Ironmasters in Staffordshire and Wales were known to have realized £ 200,000 in one year. We remember hearing, on the best authority, of the house of Baring and Co. clearing £ 650,000 by the speculations of a single year. We know a banker died last year, in Liverpool, whose estate was computed at. from. £ 5,000,000 to £ 7,000,000. Peel's father is said to have died worth £ 3,000,000; and old Arkwright worth twice that much. Soames, the late shipowner was worth several millions. Rentals varying from £ 20,000 to upwards of. £ 200,000 a, year are nume- rous in England. The Marquis of Westminster's pro- perty will, it is said, be soon worth half a million per annum of income. London, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, and other towns, abound in millionaires worth from a plum to twenty, thirty, and even fifty plums. A year's rental of some of our dukes would pay the wages Of some 20,000 Irish labourers for a whole twelvemonth, at six- pence per day each, which is more than thousands of them can earn by a hard day's work. A single bargain on the Stock Exchange will realise for a Rothschild, a Baring, a Gurney, or a Goldsmid, more than 30,000 needlewomen in London could possibly earh ih two years at present wages. Were a few of our great landowners and millionaire- capitalists so inclined, they might, by clubbing together, keep an army of 100,000 fighting men about them, whose maintenance, at their present wages, would actually not be missed out of their enor- mous revenues. At £ 15 per man, the annual cost would be only a million and a half; which divided amongst Sir R. Peel's 1,500 City addressers, would weigh less heavily upon them than a penny a- week subscription upon a poor Chartist weaver. And while this monstrous hell- begotten opulence stares us in the face wherever we go, what find we to be the condition of the men to whom we owe the very bread we eat, and without whom England would be a bowling vv ilderness— the agricultural labourers ? We find them, in order to escape death from starvation, driven to the very brink of rebellion, as may be collected from paragraphs like the following, which may be seen in almost every agricultural journal we may chance to take up. Wa quote fiom a Wiltshire paper:— " RIOTS IN THE AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS.— The farm- labourers of the district round West Lavington, Devizes, have been resisting an attempt to reduce wages from seven to six shillings a- week, by forc'bly stopping farm operations. The men having got a hint of the contem- plated reduction, a number of them wailed upon the steward of Lord Churchill ( the owner of the principal ' Wi- REYNOLDS'S POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR. farms), with a view of inducing him to intercede in their behalf. This led to no beneficial results, and the men finding that their masters were determined on reduction, about 150 of them assembled on Monday se'nnight, in front of the house of Mr. Spencer, and stopped men, horses, and agricultural implements that were proceed- ing to work by that road. Having persuaded other labourers to join them, they went round to all the farms, and completely stopped all operations. They took horses from ploughs, opened sheep- pens, and prevented all labour being proceeded with. On the following day some of them returned to work, but warrants being issued for the ringleaders, more than one hundred men formed themselves into a band and paraded the streets, armed with staves. The assistance of the constabulary was then obtained, and something like order was re- stored on Wednesday. On Thursday, a man named Kite was taken before the magistrates, and conveyed to prison. He had not been long in custody before a large body of his fellow- labourers, armed with sticks, came into the town for the purpose of rescuing him, but were de- terred by the presence of a strong military detachment. Here we find soldiers and policemen ( whose keep costs for each man more than double the labourer's pay) employed to force Englishmen to choose between star- vation and toiling all the week round for six shillings. Supposing these unfortunate labourers to work every day in the year ( Sundays excepted), their wages, at six shillings a- week, would be just 151. 12s. for the whole year. There's a sum wherewith to keep a wife and, mayhap, five or six young children ! Mr. Edward Smith has told us how common it is to see nigger- slaves in America making and spending from 50 to 150 dollars per annum by the labour of their leisure hours— that is to say, exclusively of the maintenance provided for them by their masters in exchange for their regular work. Take the mean 100 dollars. This, at four shillings and twopence per dollar, is just 201.16s. 8d. If he saves or spends 150 dollars, it is upwards of 302. Here, then, we find a nigger bondsman so far superior in condition to the free- born Englishman, that he can actually afford to throw away upon luxuries ( by the earnings of his leisure hours) one- third more, or even twice the entire sum, that a Wiltshire labourer is paid for the whole of his time, though he drudge all the year round, and is never sick a single day. If facts like these do not make the blood of Englishmen rush to their cheeks, and the very cravenest of them take the field for the Charter and their social rights, they are past redemption. Sir Robert Peel calls all this " civilization;" and the House of Commons cried " hear 1" " hear!" and cheered, and supported him, when he declared that the remedy for such a state of things lay not within the compass of legislation,— that Parliament depended, itself, upon the people, and not the people on parliament,— and that the only and proper remedy for the distressed classes was for them " to take their affairs into their own hands!" Well, in the foregoing paragraph ( from the Devizes paper) we see them essay to take their affairs into their own hands, and we see also, that no sooner do they at- tempt to do so,— no sooner do they proceed to act upon Sir Robert's advice, than soldiers and police are brought down upon them, and warrants issued for their apprehension. If this be not the perfection of human slavery, as well as the perfection of inhumanity and injustice, we really know not what is. But is it true that no parliamentary cure is findable for the disease? that the evil is one beyond the reach of legislative control? that, after all, the boasted " om- nipotence of parliament" ( which, Blaekstone tells us, can do anything and everything not naturally impos- sible)— is it true, that this boasted omnipotence cannot secure for an Englishman the food he has raised,— the bread he has earned,— nay, doubly, trebly, quintuply, deeuply earned? Is this true ? No! no! a thousand times, no! What parliament has done, it can undo; what parliament ought to do, and can do, it ought to be made to do, or else to abdicate. There is not a member in either House of Parliament that does not know as well as we know that our land and money laws are at the bottom of all the distress in the country, and that the repeal of bad laws and the enactment of good ones is all that is wanted to make England a paradise. There is not a member in either House that does not know that all the slavery in the world, or that has ever been in the world, is, or has been, the work of landlords and money- lords, and that consequently the only true and proper way to put an end to slavery is to make laws to deprive landlords and money- lords of the power to enslave and rob their fel- low- creatures. If it be said this cannot be done with- out interfering with the rights of private property, we answer emphatically that it is laws against robbery, and not against property, that are wanted. We assert em- phatically ( because we know we can prove satisfactorily) that the repeal of unjust laws and the enactment of a few just and salutary ones upon land, credit, and equit- able exchange ( the latter including currency) is all that is needed to terminate poverty and slavery for ever, and that it is perfectly within the compass of Parlia- ment to enact such laws without violating the rights of private property, or confiscating to the value of one shilling of any man's estate, or otherwise dealing with it than in the legitimate way of taxation and commu- tation, which the laws of all countries recognise and practise, and none more than our own. But before going a step farther in this inquiry we beg to submit here the following resolutions which were proposed to a crowded meeting on Saturday night last at the theatre of the Western Literary Institution, Leicester Square, by the writer of these letters, and carried by acclamations without a single dissentient, although the meeting was composed of reformers and philanthropists of all shades and sects. RESOLUTIONS. " This Meeting is of opinion that in addition to a full, fair, and free representation of the whole people in the Commons House of Parliament upon principles the same, or similar to those laid down in the People's Charter ( great applause) the following measures, — some of a provisonal, the others of a permanent nature, are necessary to ensure real political and social justice to the oppressed and suffering population of the United Kingdom, and to protect society from violent revolu- tionary changes." " 1. A repeal of our present wasteful and degrading system of poor laws, and the substitution ot a just and effioient poor law ( based upon the original Act of Eli- zabeth) which shall centralise the rates, and dispense them equitably and economically for tho beneficial em- ployment and relief of the destitute poor. The rates to be levied only upon the owners of every description of realized property. The employment to be of a healthy, useful, and reproductive kind, so as to render the poor self- sustaining and self- respecting. Till such employ- ment be procured, the relief of the poor to be, in all cases, promptly and liberally administered, as a right, and not grudgingly doled out, as a boon. The relief not to be accompanied with obduracy, insult, imprison- ment in workhouses, separation of married couples, the breaking- up of families, or any such other harsh and degrading conditions as, under the present system, con- vert relief into punishment, and treat the unhappy appli- cant rather as a convicted criminal than as ( what he really is) the victim of an unjust and vitiated state of society." " 2. In order to lighten the pressure of rates, and, at the same time, gradually to diminish, and finally to absorb, the growing mass of pauperism and surplus popu- lation, it is the duty of the Government to appropriate its present surplus revenue, and the proceeds of Na- tional or public property, to the purchasing of lands, and the location thereon of the unemployed poor. The rents accruing from these lands to be applied to further purchases of land, till all who desired to occupy land, either as individual- holders or industrial communities, might be enabled to do so. All such lands, and the rents payable thereupon, to be ever after the inalienable property of the State, and to be appropriated ( in lieu of the present taxes) to defray the expenses of the pub- lic service, the construction of public works, the edu- cation of the population, and all other such useful purposes and public functions as are now provided for out of the revenues annually raised by taxation. A general law empowering parishes to raise loans upon the security of their rates, would greatly facilitate and expedite the operations of Government towards this desirable end." " 3. Pending the operations of these measures, it is desirable to mitigate the burdens of taxation and of public and private indebtedness upon all classes who suffer thereby,— the more especially as these burdens have been vastly aggravated by the recent monetary and free trade measures of Sir Robert Peel. To this end, the Public Debt and all private indebtedness affected by the fall of prices should be equitably adjusted in favour of the debtor and productive classes, and the charges of Government should be reduced upon a scale corresponding with the general fall of prices, and of wages. And, as what is improperly called the " National Debt," has been admitted, in both Houses of Parliament to be in the nature of a bona fide mortgage upon the realized property of the Country, it is but strict justice that the owners of this property, and they only, should be henceforward held responsible for both capital and interest. At all events, the industrious classes should not be held answerable for it, seeing the debt was not borrowed by them, nor for them, nor with their consent; and that, even had it been so, they have had no assets left them for the payment of it. Moreover, the realized property of this country, being estimated at eight times the amount of the debt, the owners or mortgagors have no valid exeuso or plea to offer on the score of inability, for refusing to meet the claims of their mortgagees." " 4. The gradual resumption by the State ( on the acknowledged principles of equitable compensation to existing holders, or their heirs) of its ancient, undoubted, inalienable dominion, and sole proprietorship over all the lands, mines, turbaries, fisheries, & c., of the United Kingdom and our Colonies; the same to be held by the State as trustee, in perpetuity, for the entire people, and rented out to them in such quantities, aud on such terms as the law and local circumstances shall deter- mine ;— because the land, being the gift of the Creator of ALL, it can never become the exclusive property of individuals— because the monopoly of the land, in private hands, is a palpable invasion of the rights of the ex- cluded parties, rendering them, more or less, the slaves of landlords and capitalists, and tending to circumscribe, or annul, their other rights and liberties— because a monopoly of the earth by a portion of mankind is no more justifiable than would be the monopoly of air, light, heat, or water— and because the rental of the land ( which justly belongs to the whole people) would form a national fund adequate to defray all charges of the public service, execute all needful public works, and educate the population, without the necessity for any taxation." " 5. That, as it is the recognised duty of the State to support all those of its subjects who, from incapacity or misfortune, are unable to procure their own subsis- tence ; and as the nationalization of landed property would open up new sources of occupation for the now surplus industry of the people ( a surplus which is daily augmented by the accumulation of machinery in the hands of the capitalists), the same principle which now sanctions a public provision for the destitute poor, should be extended to the providing a sound system of National Credit, through which any man might ( under certain conditions) procure an advance from the national funds arising out of the proceeds of public property, and thereby be enabled to rent and cultivate land on his own account instead of being subjected, as now, to the in justice and tyranny of wages- slavery ( through whicli capitalists and profitists are enabled to defraud hiin of his fair recompense), or being induced to become a hired slaughterer of his fellow- creatures at the bidding of godless diplomatists; enabling them to foment and prosecute international wars, and trample on popular rights, for the exclusive advantage of aristocratic and " vested interests." The same privilege of obtaining a share in the national credit to be applicable to the re- quirements of individuals, companies, and communities in all other branches of useful industry as well as agricul- ture."' " 6. That the National Currency should be based on real, consumeable wealth, or on the bona fide credit of the State and not upon the variable and uncertain amount of scarce metal; because a currency depending on such a basis, however suitable in past times, or as a measure of value in present international commerce,, has now become, by the increase of population and wealth, wholly inadequate to perform the functions of equitably representing and distributing that wealth; thereby rendering all commodities liable to perpetual fluctuation in price, as those metals happen to be more or less plentiful in any country; increasing to an enormous extent the evils inherent in monopoly and usury, and in the banking and funding systems ( in sup- port of which a legitimate function of the law— the pro- tection of property — is distorted into an instrument for the creation of property to a large amount for the benefit of a small portion of society, belonging to what are called vested interests); because, from its liability to become locally or nationally scarce, or in excess, that equilibrium which should be maintained between the production and consumption of wealth is destroyed ; because, being of intrinsic value in itself, it fosters a vicious trade in money, and a ruinous practice of com- mercial gambling and speculation; and, finally, because, under the present system of society, it has become con- fessedly the ' root of all evil,' and the main support of that unholy worship of Mammon which now so exten- sively prevails, to the supplanting of all true religion— natural and revealed." " 7. That in order to facilitate the transfer of property or service, and the mutual interchange of wealth among the people; to equalise the demand and supply of com- modities; to encourage consumption as well as production,, and to render it as easy to sell as to buy, it is an important duty of the State to institute, in every town and city, public marts or stores, for the reception of all kinds of ex- changeable goods, to be valued by disinterested officers appointed for the purpose, either upon a corn or a labour standard: the depositors to receive symbolic notes repre- senting the value of their deposits; such notes to be made legal currency throughout the country, enabling their owners to draw from the public stores to an equi- valent amount, thereby gradually displacing the present reckless system of competitive trading and shop- keeping — a system which, however necessary or unavoidable in the past, now produces a monstrous amount of evil, by maintaining a large class living on the profits made by the mere sale of goods, on the demoralising principle of buying cheap and selling dear, totally regardless of the ulterior effects of that policy upon society at large, and the true interests of humanity." " It is not assumed that the foregoing Propositions comprise all the reforms needed in society. Doubtless, there are many other reforms required besides those alluded to; doubtless, we want a sound system of na- tional education for youth, made compulsory upon all parents and guardians; doubtless, we require a far less expensive system of military and naval defence than now obtains; doubtless, we require the expropriation of railways, canals, bridges, docks, gas- works, water- works, & e.; and, doubtless, we require a juster and more humane code of civil and penal law than we now possess. But these and all other needful reforms will be easy of accomplishment when those comprised in the foregoing propositions shall have been effected. Without these, indeed, justice cannot be done to humanity; society can- not be placed in the true path of improvement, never again to be turned aside or thrown back; nor can those natural checks and counterchecks be instituted, without which the conflicting passions and propensities of man fail to produce a harmonic whole; but with which, as in the material world, all things are made to work together for good, reconciling man to his position in the universe, and exalting his hopes of future destiny." We shall resume the subject of these resolutions in our next, and meanwhile the reader will please to ob- serve that similar resolutions have already received the sanction of numerous meetings, large and small, throughout the country. [ N. B.— It is requested by the Council of the National Re- form League that the foregoing resolutions be submitted, and elucidated by members of the body, at all public meetings in town and country wherever they may, without impropriety, be introduced.] A NATIONAL REFORMER. { To be continued in our next) CRIME AND IGNORANCE.— The felon is more frequently the slave of circumstances — of hereditary moral disease, of vicious association, or of non- education, than of corrupt will; often the victim of circumstances from whose thraldom lie would gladly escape if the way were open and escape pos- sible. Many of the causes which tend to perpetuate a criminal population are certainly within the reach of remedial influ- ences :— the paramount and most powerful of which must be Education. Starting from sound principles, recognizing in all cases the possibility of improvement and proceeding by a well- igested method of instruction, the work of prevention might, we are convinced, be carried out to an extent now hardly con- ceived. Schools are cheaper machinery than prisons and penitentiaries: and it is more consonant to human ideas of morality and justice to arrest the weak on their downward path s hail to lie In wait for their commission of an actual breach of the law— that terrible first step which lacerates and then ossi- fies the heart, that fatal initiation which blunts the sharp edge of conscience.— Athenceum. ' Wi- REYNOLDS'S POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR. A NEW HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER XIX. HENRY VIII. WE have now arrived at a name which is suggestive of everything that is horrible, polluted, depraved, and san- guinary. A man regarding whom the least that is said of him the better ; the most monstrous beast that was ever invested with a human form. In the reign of Henry VIII the abject servility of a people, calling themselves free, was a spectacle most humiliating for the whole world to behold. Never in the days of extremest absolute des- potism was a man so much the master of the lives, the property, the will of his subjects as this " bluff' Hal, who is so detestable— who is such a tun of diseases, whose memory is loathed, detested, and accursed. He was the son of Henry VII, was born in 1491, and crowned in 1509. The avaricious disposition of his father left him overflowing coffers, but as if there were a retribution in the system of things which works its ab- stract way from the inner to the outer, the money which a father ill- gains is spent in a manner still worse, still more profligate and profuse, in the extremes of compari- son, by the son. The first thing he did was to bait the public with the deaths of two detestable rascals, Empson and Dudley, and making the Earl of Surrey his favourite, began a career of dissipation which was momentarily checked by his marriage with the Infanta Catherine, daughter of Ferdinand of Arragon. At her instigation he formed a league against Louis XI of France, by which he was a loser, but quarreling with the King of Scotland, James IV, he gained, through Surrey, the battle of Flodden Field, in which the monarch, James IV, was'slain. Cardinal Wolsey now began to grow into repute, and to find favour with the king. A man of low birth and un- rivalled talents, his ambition was equal to his genius, and he soon rose to a height of power that, had he lived in Rome, would have soon placed him in the pontifical chair, upon which he bent his daring eye. The crowned heads of Europe sought his favour in preference to that of his master. By his means a reconciliation took place between Henry and Francis I of France, and the two kings met at a spot near Calais with such show of profuse magnificence, that, in commemoration of it, the place received the name of " The field of the cloth of gold." " That good cometh out of evil," is one of those axioms which receive constant confirmation by every accident which, so to speak, befalls society. The most criminal kings are remarkable for having been the most devout, and the irascible temper of Henry plunged him at first into polemics with Martin Luther, ( then agitating Ger- many) in defence of the Catholic faith, which this hardy monk attacked with so much skill, zeal, and with so little mercy. Henry wrote a book, for which he in return re- ceived from the Pope the title of " Defender of the Faith," but no sooner did the canons of the church oppose his re- sistless passions, than Henry flung from off his shoulders the yoke of Rome. He began his dark career of crime by divorcing him- self from Catherine, so as to marry Anne Boleyn, in order that she should die on a scaffold and hear the bridal bells of the king's marriage with Jane Seymour almost mingle with the sullen sounds of her own muffled dirge. He married Anne Boleyn in 1532, even before the sentence of divorce between him and Catherine was read by Cranmer. It was this which brought on the dispute with the papal court, which nullifying the sentence of Archbishop Cranmer, threatened Henry with excom- munication unless he put away Anne, and took back Catherine: finally the sentence was launched— Henry was cursed, but in round English only cursed in turn and declared himself supreme head of the English church. It was, however, the authority and not the tenets of the Romish church that he now derided. Having already executed the Duke of Buckingham who had offended Wolsey, Bishop Fisher, and that talented humorist, his chancellor Sir Thomas More, and played with the lives of some of the early reformers like a tiger who has lapped blood, and while lapping, still continues to excite his appetite, the horrible and mon- strous cruelty of his nature was thoroughly aroused, and till the day of his death, he became moated with human blood. It is no hyperbole to say that any man who would approach the throne must walk over the shoe tops in the ensanguined stream which for ever now surrounded him. Previous to 1538 when the dissolution of the monas- teries and religious houses took place, his sullen nature had been brooding upon a retaliation which should make the haughty brow of Rome quail and shrink from him, by some severe and overwhelming blow. The country at the time was full of religious houses, all of them wealthy in lands and gold, and out of their plentiful revenues they fed the poor of their several parishes daily, and doled out to them things needful for all their wants. This charity, which so well became the church, as one of its three leading virtues, prevented such appalling spectacles from being seen, as we at this day are familiar with. There was no pauperism. There was neither union workhouse, nor evictions, nor dying in the ditches— nor famine in the midst of plenty. Many dangerous insurrections took place in conse- quence of Henry's decrees, but immoveable as a rock, Henry sent forth power after power which crushed with the most frightful punishment all attempts made to resist his command. Henry began his gigantic series of shameless robberies with stripping the shrine of Thomas a'Beckett, at Can- terbury, which, as it was regarded with such superstitious reverence, was likely if the people passed over it in silence to exhibit an unparalleled abasement of national spirit. They did look on in silence; they shuddered with horror at the impious act, but they did not make the slightest effort to protect the bones of the saint from being burnt, and in open court the canonized martyr was denominated a traitor and sentenced accordingly! The death of Lambert, a poor schoolmaster, who was condemned for heresy, was the prelude to atrocities which are not even equalled by the horrors of St. Bartholomew. A committee of the House of Commons drew up six articles of " uniformity," which constituted what from its results was aptly termed the " bloody bill." Cromwell, now in favour, aided the king to a new wife. Jane Seymour was no exception to the rule; and he married Anne of Cieves, a protestant princess, which gave fresh vigour to the Reformation. Ann of Cieves was accused as a harlot, and laid her head on the block in 1542, two years after her marriage, being preceded in her death by Cromwell himself. The most dangerous position in the kingdom was that of being Henry's friend or his wife. Peer and peasant were alike sent to the scaffold, and day after day the spoils of monasteries were brought into his Exchequer; but day by day also did misery and poverty increase and men became lawless and desperate by the very necessity which reduced them to the verge of famine. Catherine Howard, niece to the Duke of Norfolk, now became the wife of this unblushing and undaunted Blue- Beard. This brought him under the influence of a Catho- lic party, and a frightful persecution of Protestants followed. We must do Henry the justice to say, however, that he was very unprejudiced in his choice of victims. Sometimes Catholic and sometimes Protestant, and often both together. The only necessity with him was that of having some one to kill; and no parliament could possibly be more obsequious. All semblance of shame, dignity, or resistance, was annihilated. Never was king more hated, never was man more feared. The latter part of his reign is remarkable for its trans- actions with Scotland. James V's alliance with France brought on a war in 1542, in which the Scottish army was defeated at the Solway Frith, an event that broke the heart of James. Henry then sought to marry his son Edward to James's only daughter, the unfortunate Mary. This project being defeated by Francis I, brought on a new war with Scotland and France, which was not ended till 1546, when a peace was entered into with both countries. In 1543, Henry had married a sixth wife, one Catherine Parr, the widow of Lord Latimer, and the next year had the succession to the throne secured to his son Edward, and after him to the princesses Mary and Elizabeth. Disease, a bloated obesity which rendered him almost unapproachable, had redoubled his ferocity, and his best general, the Duke of Norfolk, and his son the Earl of Surrey, were both put in the Tower. The latter, who was tried first, was condemned upon an accusation of high treason and executed. The duke was proceeded against with a vindictiveness the more strongly contrasted with the favour in which he had formerly stood, and the king seemed more concerned lest Norfolk should escape than he did for his own death, which happened exactly the day before that appointed for the duke's execution, His end had been rapidly ap- proaching, but no one dared to tell him of it until Sir Anthony Denny, the physician, ventured to do so, and the king is said to have heard this news with resigna- tion. He instantly desired Cranmer to be sent for, but was speechless when he came, and the only token he gave of departing consciousness was that of pressing the arch- bishop's hand. He expired on the 28th of January, 1547, in the thirty- eighth year of his reign, and in the fifty- sixth of his age, leaving behind him a reputa- tion, in which, by those who look most favourably upon him, the lust of power was predominant. Obstinate, un- yielding, attached with a tenacity of belief, which is only equalled by James I and his son, to that solemn absur- dity, the divine right of kings, he built upon this theory a despotism that has never been paralleled, and, we may venture to say, that never will. As depraved as Tiberius, as merciless as Caligula, as ruffianly as Maximin the Thracian, as wantonly cruel as Domitian, Henry combined in his own person all the tur- pitude and the atrocity which darkens the names of ancient history. He was an epitome of the deadly sins, an incarnation of crime, an apostate, a robber, and a motiveless murderer. Thirty- eight years of unexampled horror stains the pages of the people's history, and the crimes of one man filled the nation with a terror of the basest kind. For such a tyrant there was no Gerard, no Ravaillac, no avenging agent who could rid the land of a monster. He was permitted to live, to complete the full measure of his crimes, in order that a spectacle might be exhibited to the world how much of the nature of the devil is leavened with the soul of man. In this reign intellect was dqrmant, and the mind bru- tified by its abject slavery. The only man deserving mention is Sir Thomas More, a quaint and agreeable writer; the rest is darkness and ignorance of the pro- foundest kind, even though the scriptures were trans- lated, and Oxford was noted for its polemical skill. It is a relief to have done with such a wretch, and the only satisfaction we feel is that of assisting to perpetuate and cherish the abhorrence men must feel when reading of such crowned ruffians. CHAPTER XX. EDWARD VI. EDWARD VI, the son of Henry VIII and Jane Sey- mour, was born in 1538, and at his father's death was only nine years of age. At the age of eighteen he was to have attained his majority, but as he did not live to reach that age, his reign may be termed a regency. Sixteen executors were elected by the late king's will to conduct the government of the kingdom. In addition to this there were appointed twelve counseliers whocould only be available by their advice. The Earl of Hertford, made Duke of Somerset, was the protector, and the prin- ciples of protestantism were firmly established in the young king's mind, from which he never swerved. His capacity for learning was great: his attainments were considerable, and, considering the ignorance of the time his scholarship was of a most respectable kind. The struggle for supremacy now commenced between the Catholic and the Protestant parties. It was thought that now the sanguinary tyrant was dead, under the reign of a young, timorous, and incapacitated king, they might either by compulsion or appeal recover their lost power; but as those immediately surrounding Edward had em- braced Protestant doctrines, and, aided by Cranmer, it was only the determined opposition of Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, who still adhered to the Church of Rome, that the triumph of the Reformation was retarded, for finally, without any severity being used against the ad- herents of the Romish ritual, the Reformation progressed, and was the law of the land. One event of great public importance was a renewal of the old quarrel with Scotland, which was caused princi- pally by the progress which the Reformation made there, and during which the assassination of Cardinal Beatuon took place. This occurrence caused a very great sensa- tion, and as an appeal to arms was the only way by which the fury of either side could explode, the virulence of tha hostility on either side was very great. The Protector Somerset made his preparations ac- cordingly, and determined, if possible, upon uniting the kingdom by the tie of marriage between Edward and the young Princess Mary, to both of whom the nation itself was very much averse. In the manifesto which Somerset published, he gave what he considered to be very cogent reasons for the necessity there existed of uniting the two kingdoms under one head, the principal of which was that nature her- self had evidently intended such a thing, as being islanded from all other states and nations, the same manners, cus- toms, laws, and language should prevail, though inreality it would be difficult to find people more diametrically op- posed in the above than the people who populated England, Wales, and Scotland. The attachment of the Scottish court to that of France' and to catholicism was no doubt increased by the memory of the many attacks and injuries the nation had received for a course of ages at the hands of England; and there- fore, however striking the protector's reasons may have been for cementing the proposed union, it was plainly perceivable that reasons alone would never bring this to pass. He therefore levied an army, passed the border of Berwick, advanced towards Edinburgh, and met the Scottish army at Faside, where a severe skirmish took place. Somerset, though he had the best of this, still dreaded the stern desperation which the attitude of the Scottish camp exhibited, he offered to evacuate the king- dom ( in a letter to Arran, the governor), provided only that they would promise not to contract the queen to any foreign prince, but detain her at home till she had reached an age when she might choose for herself. The' very moderation of this demand was the cause of its re- fusal ; and the battle of Pinki followed immediately after, in which the Scotch were totally defeated, and the queen- dowager and Arran compelled to fly to Stirling. The purpose of the victory was however lost, for the Princess Mary was sent over to France and there con- tracted to the Dauphin. Somerset, on his return, summoned a parliament, where, among other things, he drew from his nephew, Edward, the privilege of being seated on the right hand of the king, and assumed all the honour and privilege which had ever been enjoyed by the princes of the blood; but this reprehensive affectation of state gave great offence and doubled the number of his enemies. Many advances were made and carried out which tended to the further progress of the Reformation, and to the total destruction of catholicism out of the land. Ceremonies were abolished, images banished the churches, masses were compelled to give way to a new communion service; and auricular confession, that powerful element in trammelling the mind and keeping it in subjection to a creed that had such plenary powers of absolution, was so severely attacked as to become spoken of indifferently. Somerset the protector, and Lord Seymour, the high admiral, both brothers and uncles to the young king, began to be discontented at the lofty position they enjoyed in the country. Ambition when satiated becomes weary- ing, and disgust at possession soon follows the absorbing thirst for acquiring. Seymour, poud, arrogant, and implacable, began in concert with Dudley, Earl of Warwick, a discontented noble, to plot, and cabal, and threaten the internal peace of the nation in such a manner that the protector was compelled to arrest his brother and send him to the Tower, It is, however, very apparent that the severity with which Somerset proceeded afterwards against his brother was unwarrantably severe and quite unjustifiable. In 1549, Seymour was formally tried by a bill of attainder, was sentenced to death by an overwhelming majority, and was soon after beheaded on Tower Hill. He seems to have threatened many domestic calamities by seeking to marry the Princess Elizabeth, and probably of being in a con- dition to usurp the throne from the weak grasp of Edward. The country, from various causes, began to exhibit symptoms of distress; and the effects of Henry's tyranny developed itself, as an internal disease that breaks forth in eruptions. The rude and truly sacreligious hands which Henry laid upon abbey land and monastic wealth, that is to say, upon the patrimony of the poor, left the. poor thus destitute of protectors and protection. As this is one of those evils which time does not cure, but on the contrary aggravates as it grows and increases daily, so also at last was the desperate condition of the people arrived to such a pitch that nothing but insurrection was left them, and disorder filled the land. They began in Wiltshire and spread thence to Oxford and Gloucestershire. Hampshire, Kent, and Sussex, were also full of discord, and in Devonshire matters assumed an aspect far more serious. In Norfolk the insurrection was like a revolt, and the greatest severity was compelled to be used before peace was restored. The war with Scotland and the war with France, were still continued. ' Wi- REYNOLDS'S POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR. but the maimer in which Somerset met the - difficulties that beset him, while they betrayed skill and capacity were likely to lose him that popularity he so much courted. Factions in the nation terminated in conspiracies against him, and he who had condemned his own brother to the block was himself about to follow by the same dark and bloody path. He resigned his office of protec- tor in dissu- it at the very moment when he found him- self unable to command- a single arm— all England had turned against him, and the grim gates of the Tower were closed upon him at last. Warwick, who now swayed the council in 1550, found himself compelled to follow the course which Somerset bad adopted in making a peace with France. Boulogne was surrendered, and Warwick was made Duke of Nor- humberland. The trial of Somerset now occupied the attention both of his friends and of his enemies, and on the 22nd January, 1552, he was executed on Tower Hill. It, therefore, fell to the lot of the young king, whose dis- position was as humane as his father's was inhuman, to sign the death warrants of two uncles, and a man was lost to the nation who was eminently fitted for the office he held, and to the discharge of the responsibilities devolving upon him. Northumberland's path was now tolerably clear, but he adopted the weaknesses of his predecessor, and imitated his style without possessing the necessary strength ot mind to bear his honours with dignity, and as it was necessary that he should do something, he so worked upon the mind of the young king as to induce him, from religious motives, to set aside his sister's rights in the succession, and to settle the crown upon- Lady jane Grey, a piece of service which cost that unhappy lady her life. It was evident that the seeds of that dire evil consump- tion were deeply implanted in the youthful monarch. The relics of the small- pox and measles, perhaps under unskilful hands, had fastened upon his lungs, and a gradual wasting away took place. Everything within the resources of art was tried and vainly. He died in July, 1563, in the sixteenth year of his age, and in the seventh of his reign. It is said that the qualities of his mind were such that had he lived to manhood, a mild, wise, and benign rule might have been looked for at his hands. As a king he was a cypher, as the promise of a man he is to be regretted. CHAPTER XXI, LADY JANE GREY. THIS unfortunate lady, who was at- the least proclaimed Queen of England, may be looked upon as a victim offered rip unresistingly to the ambition of Dudley, Earl of Nor- thumberland, whose politic ambition had previously caused her to be married to his own son Guildford Dudley, and after this was done, he worked upon the religious sen- timents of King Edward, until the young monarch excluded his two sisters from the succession, and nominated Lady Grey in their place. She was the daughter of Henry Grey Marquis of Dorset, and Mary Queen Dowager of France, sister to Henry VIII was her grandmother. She was born in 1537, and at an early age displayed a most extraordinary aptitude for learning. Her tutor was Mr. Ayhner, afterwards Bishop of London, and her proficiency in languages as well as her attainments in all the learning and acquire- ments of her time testify to the assiduity of the teacher as much as to the industry and capabilities of the pupil. She appears to have been of an amiable and gentle dis- position, and her love for study does not seem to have left her personally much room for ambition. Had she possessed less of a disposition to be tractable to the wishes of others, and had she insisted more upon the exercise of some little self- will and self- reliance, she would not have been the blind and unresisting agent ot the ambition of a knavish father and a calculating son— the two Northumberlands. We feel a deep sentiment of pity for lier; good, talented, and happy, she cared nothing for the crown; the country had charms for her, which the town failed to offer; but a complaisant nature led her to the block, and whether rightly or wrongly we do not know, all we regret is that instead of her we do not read of the two complotters, the chiefs of this infelicitous plan being strung together to grace the same " patibulary fork" instead. Four days after king Edward's death, Lady Jane's father, accompanied by the Duke of Northumberland, went to Durham House, and acquainted the astonished lady in what manner she had been made heiress to the crown. It is stated that she made the most forcible, reason- able, and lucid objections to the. folly, the danger, almost the impracticability of this plan. It required argument upon argument, entreaty uppn entreaty, and. lie upon lie, to make her assent to the plan already proposed and sketched out. " If," concluded the Earl of Northum- berland, white with rage at the probability of being liaffled in his favourite scheme, " If you refuse to accede to that which the late king has willed, and reject an honour which places you at the head of a mighty realm, I call upon your husband to exert liis authority, either from affection, or by command." This remarkable style of moulding her will to suit their own plans succeeded, for through weariness and disgust, more than from any wish or hope, she consented to be called queen. According to the ancient custom with those elected rulers of England, she was conveyed to the royal chamber in the Tower ar. d ordered to be proclaimed throughout the realm with all due solemnities; but the coldness, the apathy with which this was received throughout the country, struck a dismay to the heart of the elder Northumberland. There were many of the nobility, who, being carried along by the current of things, being more inclined to adhere to Mary, found themselves, while forming the courtofthe " twelfth- day queen," as she has been termed, prisoners in the Tower of London. Northumberland saw, but too late, that he had over- reached himself. He beheld his popularity gone, and much as he may have despised it, he was convinced that without it he was of even less significance than a cypher. The manner in which he had implicated himself in this business, by playing with the crown and bringing it into his own family, routed the indignation of the nobility, who, full of jealousy, do not love to behold the aggrandizement of one of their number to an extent which makes him their master. The nobility, the inhabitants of Suffolk, and several other counties flocked on the other hand to Mary, and Northumberland began to levy forces, for he saw that the indifference of men would give way to a feeling somewhat stronger, and he did not dare to trust too far. He arrived at St. Edmondsbury to take command of the troops, and found that he had only six thousand men, and writing to the council at the Tower for fresh reinforcements they took the advantage offered them of escaping, of holding a conference, of declaring for Mary, and the governor of the Tower followed their example. The bloodless revolution Was accomplished, and Lady Jane, at the announcement of her father, returned'to private life- with a joy she did not wish to conceal. It was, however, found necessary to make an example for an act of such unparalleled treason as Northumberland had attempted to carry out. He was arrested by Arundel, and after him the Duke of Suffolk, Lady Jane Grey, and her husband Guildford Dudley. Suffolk was, however, released almost immediately; Northumberland as quickly executed. On Lady Grey and her husband sentence of death was passed, though everything was hoped from the clemency which Mary had already exhibited towards those whose lives, by law and custom, were forfeited. They were both treated with much indulgence, and more than hopes were entertained that their lives would be spared them; and we have not the slightest doubt but that such would have been the case, had it not been for an unhappy attempt at a " rising," made in Kent and elsewhere by Sir Thomas Wyatt, in which he was joined by Suffolk, Sir Peter Carew, and others. This revolt was suppressed with a loss of four hundred lives, and the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey was by impli- cation entangled in the sad catastrophe. It was thought inadvisable to allow a woman to exist who was likely to continually disturb the peace of the kingdom. She was accordingly condemned to death, and word was sent to her to prepare for her execution. She received the intimation with tranquillity,, and accordingly became resigned to her fate. Mary, who was strongly attached to the Catholic religion, desired that her helpless rival should die in that faith, and sent priests to visit her in order that she should be converted from protestantism. The mild firmness with which she rejected all their en- deavours left no alternative. On the morning of her ex- ecution her husband sent a message imploring to see her before they were finally parted, as his death was only to precede hers, but thinking that human emotions might distract them both from the solemn considerations that ought then to employ them, she declined it, but from the window beheld him led to execution, and beheld also his mutilated remains brought back. It was now her turn, and with a wonderful composure she proceeded to the scaffsld, regretting to the bystanders that she had not with sufficient strength of mind rejected a crown to which she had not the remotest claim. Thus on the 12th of February, 1551, she laid her head upon the block, and the world had to deplore the loss of a woman whose qualities of mind and heart were of the most amiable kind. It is a sufficient testimony to her worth that she was universally lamented. CHAPTER XXI. MARY. MARY has earned a name in the page of history for cruelty, bigotry, and u'ter coldness of heart which makes it at this day an almost hopeless thing to attempt her justi- fication. Yet with all deference to past authorities and confirmed opinions, we cannot think that justice has been done to her character. Deeply impressed with thatprofound religious sentiment which has made the Catholic creed intact to the assaults of centuries and opinions, she be- held her father trample every principle in the dust, and in becoming an apostate to the belief he was educated in, she beheld him as a necessary consequence commit crimes that consigned him to everlasting infamy. She beheld herself neglected at court, her brother with his dying breath expressing his detestation in making ber the off- spring of a harlot; her heritage given to another, the altars of her church defiled, their priests persecuted and slain, and with the. intensity of a strong mind she must have clung with a tenacity all the greater, because the very effept of the persecution, gave her faith additional value in her eyes. That she had a heart capable of loving and cherishing those she loved, that she had large womanly sympathies, and was attached to the happiness of the domestic hearth, may, we think, be assured from the fact that she loved her gloomy and ferocious husband, Philip of Spain, with a fervour allied to adoration. She beheld her love neg- lected, and her affection disregarded. She shrank be- neath the cold contempt of the intolerant bigot, and a heavy despair surrounded her, and killed every impulse of humanity within. Her love thus thrown back with such withering contempt made the reaction all the more fearful. Reigning over a Protestant people, whose errors she, as a Catholic queen, wished to retrieve, opposition added to unkindness completely destroyed her sympathies with her kind. We behold her cold, unsmiling, and un- amiable in every respect, but we do not know of the many bitter throes of anguish which wrung her proud, stricken soul. She beheld the monasteries destroyed, and the property of the poor given to licentious courtiers, disloyal nobles, and to unchaste women. This evil she determined to remedy; but in restoring the monastic power to its pris- tine condition, she outraged the prejudices of a people who had in truth but little reason to love the Court of Rome, however much they might admire the principle of those antique and honoured institutions, where the poor were housed and fed, and where a hospitality that closed its doors against none was the daily rule. Persecution always embitters the reprisal, and the last power in the ascendant always multiplies its debt of hate, adding a compound interest in its revenges. It is thus that her reign is full of burnings and of slaughter. It is this which makes Smithfield a field of blood and fire, and groans of torture arise from square and prison up to heaven crying aloud for some avenging power to punish the bigot. As in the next reign, protestantism was in the ascendant, so was the ink with which the annals of Mary's life was written blacker than ordinary, and everything was magnified to such an extent that we imagine we are looking upon the incarnation of a female devil rather than upon a woman who was very unhappy and much re- viled. She was the daughter of Henry VIII by Catherine of Arragon, and born in 1515. Her mother was divorced upon a plea of adultery, and her succession to the crown was founded upon a plea of illegitimacy. Being a zealou3 Catholic, she subscribed with reluctance to her father's supremacy over the See- of Rome; and when in Edward's reign the ritual of the Reformation was introduced into the English church, she refused all attendance and compliance. If we complain of her intolerance, we must at the least remember that she was taught and exampled in it, by what she herself and those around her suffered. Her chaplains were imprisoned, and continual remonstraHces, entreaties, and threats, were addressed to her. She still persisted in nonconformity. On the death of her brother, the Lady Jane Grey was made to usurp her throne, but the favour with which she was regarded by the mass of the people, and the bloodless revolution by which she was placed on the throne, prove, at least, an extent of popularity not often seen. On her ascension she instantly reinstated in their offices those bishops who had been deprived of their responsi- bilities in the preceding reign, while Cromwell was pro- secuted for high treason, and several protestant ecclesiastics thrown into prison. We think she had little right to regard the opinions of a brother who had behaved to her with such little of brotherly love. She then soon married Philip of Spain, son of Charles V, a man whose soul seemed to be of the most saturnine and leaden com- plexion ; and a complete restoration of the Catholic religion took place throughout the entire kingdom ; and little ceremony was used in ejecting from their benefices those clergymen who refused compliance to her demand. It is on these grounds that the memory of the queen is so strongly assaulted. Doubtless those who suffer have a right to complain; but it is also a lesson to those in power to be lenient in the day of their prosperity, and they had given little toleration to those of the Catholic faith. It is, however, nothing to say in favour of cruelty; that it is a return for cruelty already experienced. In 1- 554 she was married, but Philip soon grew disgusted at the limit that was put to her ambitious views. His powers as consort were strictly limited, but she was willing to please him to the utmost. The laws against heresy were revived with all the fierce- ness of intolerant zeal, and the faggot and the pile of Smithfield were in active operation. It was truly a period of unutterable horror. In" Fox's book of Martyrs," so widely celebrated and so much patronized by Protestants, ourselves among the number, one may see in an unctuous and delightful detail the atrocities and infernal cruelties practised by " bloody" Mary during her short reign. William Cobbett, however, insists that Fox is a scandalous liar; and William Cobbett was a man who had a sturdy regard for truth, and habitu- ated himself to calling things by their right names. We may regret that these two shrewd and gifted writers should differ so much, but we certainly have had, and con- tinue to have, great faith in what Cobbett said. We add, in addition, that the reader will gain much knowledge and derive instruction and amusement from reading " Cobbett's History of the Reformation in Eng- land," which is not so bulky as Burton's, but which contains quite as many truths. Her peevishness of disposition, which was aggravated by so many disappointments— her hopes of a progeny destroyed— the coldness, the faithlessness of her hus- band, and the suppressed murmur of discontent which ran through the kingdom at the cruelties of which she was certainly the head— contributed to indurate her heart, and henceforth she seemed to be deaf to the voice of nature. In this she was instigated by Gardiner, and supported by the Cardinals. In three or four years no less than two hundred and seventy seven persons were committed to the flames. Philip, who is about as detestable a wretch as ever disgraced his kind, insisted that she should enter upon a war with France, as they had interfered with his sanguinary despotism in the Low Countries, and threat- ened, in case of refusal, that he would desert her,— leave her chargeable, we presume, to all the parishes in England,— but the regal ruffian was quite capable of any such act of infamy, seeing that he was guilty of many deeds which abandoned men even shrink from. In 1557 the war was declared, and the English troops, in conjunction with the soldiery of Philip, obtained a victory over the French at St. Quintin; but, in compensation for this, the Duke of Guise took Calais ill the winter of 1558, after it had remained in the hands of the English for upwards of two hundred years. The loss of this stronghold and key of France, by possession of which England had it in her power at any time to land an army on its shores, was the bit- terest blow the queen experienced. It sank deep to her heart; and there may have been truth in lier moan, that, when dead, they would find Calais engraven upon it. The chagrin she felt, incidental to this disgraceful loss, in addition to other misfortunes, aggravated a se ' Wi- REYNOLDS'S POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR. ere illness . under which she had laboured for some time. The dread she felt at Elizabeth being her successor, arose from the very integrity of her mind, for how could she contemplate the idea that having re- established catholicism, within another week, perhaps, the present order of things would be subverted, and anarchy again, with every sanguinary retaliation, usurp the place of existing peace? Hated by her subjects, deserted by her " base and black- souled husband, devoured by the most poignant griefs for the loss of Calais, and in dread for the utter destruction of that religion she had waded through so much blood to establish, her last moments were of the most sombre and melancholy kind. She died on the 17th of November, 1558, in the forty- second year of her age, and in the sixth year of her reign, after having endured more individual wretchedness, perhaps, than tbe unfortunate lady she condemned to the scaffold. EDWIN ROBERTS. STATE OF THE NATION: EVIDENCE OF SIR CHARLES WOOD. " A government may endure for several ages, tho' the balance of power and the balance of property do not agree." " But where the original constitution allows any share of power; tho' small, to an order of men who pusjess a large share of the property, ' tis easyforthem graduallyto stretch their authority, and bring the balance of power to coincide with that of property. This has been the case with the House of Commons in England." HUME. TRUE enough, philosopher Hume, and power and property are closely leagued in the English House of Commons. Whom does the English parliament represent but the owners and holders of property ? The balance of power and the balance of property quite agree, and are both on the same side, and England, though a monarchy in name, is an aristo- cracy in fact. It suits the purpose of honourable members and ministers of the crown to talk about their regard for the people, but when they venture to speak on the possession and power of property, on the progress of wealth and its distribution, the influenee of such a combination of power and property stand out in unmistakable relief. Sir Charles Wood will certainly be accepted as a competent witness. On the evening of Fri- day the 15th, the Chancellor of the Exchequer on introduc- ing the budget to parliament, said:— " Sir, I remember a speech of Mr. Huskisson, in 1830, re- marking on the enormous accumulation of wealth among the richer classes, and constrasting it with the lower state of the working classes, pointing out what appears to me a sound prin- ciple, that in our taxes we should remove the burden, as much as possible, from the lower, and place it on the higher classes. From that time we have been carrying out that principle in the commercial policy of the country. We have repealed duties and removed restrictions imposed, not to benefit the Exchequer, but to favour a particular class; and have repealed many taxes imposed on articles consumed by the great body of the people, or raw materials of manufacture; and we have since then repealed or reduced duties to the amount of £ 7,600,000, to which are to be added the recent re- ductions on sugar, and other articles— not less than £ 1,000,000 more— altogether, upwards of £ 8,600,000. ( Hear, hear). But this does not give anything like an- adequate idea of the effect of the reductions ( Hear, hear). For example, as to sugar, the prohibitory duty on foreign sugar was repealed by the act of 1847, from 63s. to 23s., a reduction of 40s. per cwt., on the average cousumption, £ 1,600,000; so with coflee and other commodities; so that altogether the reduction may be estimated at least at £ 10,000,000, all of which have been carried by large majorities in this house. Then, has the state of affairs pointed out by Mr. Huskisson at all altered since that time ? Sir, he referred to various proofs of the accumu- lation of capital, and let us look at the increased returns of the income- tax, and the vast augmentation of all our large towns, especially Londoa. Since Mr. Huskisson's death, at the opening of the first railroad, £ 220,000,000 have been in- vested in railways; and last year no less than £ 148,000.000 were invested in the same enterprises ( Hear, hear). Now, let us turn to the condition of the working man, and it is a marked feature of the present time that attention is paid to his condition; but looking at the reports of factory com- missioners, or sanitary commissioners, or at the last report of the Settlement Law Commissioners, I fear we cannot say that the condition of the poorer classes has improved at all in the same proportion as the richer. The argument, then, of Mr. Huskisson is at least as applicable now as then it was." During the past nineteen years the time elapsing between the delivery of the speeches of Mr. Huskisson and Sir Charles Wood, the wealth of England has increased immensely. In railroads alone, we have expended the sum of £ 220,000,000, Our shipping has been more than doubled, and house and other property have been immensely increased, and the disparity between the comforts of the rich and the poor have continued unaltered— the language of Mr. Huskisson is as applicable as it was in 1830. And despite of the boast of Sir Charles about the adoption of sound principles, a reduction of £ 10,000,000, and removing the burthen of taxation " from the lower and placing it on the higher classess," we are in a posi- tion to prove beyond cavil that instead of the comforts of the poor increasing proportionate to the increase of nalional wealth and consequent comforts of the rich, that the results are just the reverse. We have before us arranged in order the following evidence on the condition of the poor, extracted from the letters of the Morning Chronicle Commissioner, and though we select the tailors and shoemakers as being the most numerous bodies of our workmen, their condition is only a part of the same great table of human suffering and deterio- ration that exists throughout our whole internal industry. THE TAILORS. There are about 23,500 persons employed in this important trade in the metropolis. And these are divided by themselves into two classes. One class they call " the honourable trade;' in this there are only 3,000 persons engaged. The other class they call " the dishonourable trade ;" in this all the rest are ranged, or about 20,000 persons: and all these either keep, or work for, show- shops or slop- shops, which are the great maga- zines of cheap clothes; marts for the poor, not unfrequented by the rich. Here, it appears, by force of home competition, and, since the revision of ihe tariffin 1842, foreign competition also, the selling price of clothes of all kinds made by tailors has been gradually reduced to an extraordinary lowness: and " the whole community no doubt benefited," as far as clothing is concerned, even making allowance for deterioration of qua- lity. But let us see at what a cost to these 23,500 tailors. " Our Commissioner" ( Morn. Chron. Let. No. 16, Supple- ment, January 25th, 1850) writes thus ;— " From 1834 up to tiie present time,' sweaters' ( or middle- men— the great artificers of cheapness) and underpaid work- men have increased, until the state of trade, as regards the operative tailors, appears to be approaching desperation." The operative tailors themselves are more conclusive autho- rities. . V A COAT HAND IN THE " HONOURABLE TRADE." " The workman has to work now a day and a half for a day's wages." " Women compete with men, and take wages too low to live upon, - making up their subsistence- money by prostitution; the men are thrown out of employ- ment." A WAISTCOAT HAND. " When I first began waistcoat making I earned 36s. a- week; now I and my wife together can only earn 32s." " Wages began to decline in 1843, and the waistcoat business has been getting worse and worse every year." " Women have been introduced into the trade: an idea which would have been scouted before then. The wages of men were first re duced to those of the full- grown woman, and then to those of the young girl." " Before 1844 I could keep my wife and five children by my own labour comfortably, and my wife at- tended exclusively to her domestic duties; now, she, as well as I, must work. She has become* sickly from overwork. She is not the same woman she was; her constitution is ruined." " The waistcoat- makers are now unable to support themselves and families by their unassisted labour." STATEMENT OF A WORKMAN IN TIIE " HONOURABLE TRADE." " Men, wives, daughters, sons, all work now ' long days,'— that is, from sixteen to eighteen hours a day— Sundays and all." " And the trade is not over- stocked with workmen. If the work were confined to the men, or the masters' pre- mises, there would not be sufficient hands to do the whole." " Chronicle," Letter XVII? Supplement, 29th Jan., 1850. A WORKMAN IN THE " DISHONOURABLE," OR SLOP TRADE. " My average clear earnings are 10s. a- week, ' and I am em- ployed all the year round, and never lose a day." " I am obliged to keep my wife continually at work helping me to make the garments, in order to live. I am in a far worse condition now than when I first began the trade. At first I could earn near upon 36s. My wife then attended to her home; but now, though we both work, and longer hours, I cannot malts more than one- third what I did then. I am quite satisfied that the low wages do not arise from too many English hands ; but there is a wholesale importation of cheap labour every year. Germans, Polish Jews, Prussians, Aus- trians, Belgians, and Hungarians, come over like Italian boys. And women have been set to work." " Our Commissioner" adds, " This slop system is ex- tending all over Eiigiaud, especially in the manufacturing districts." Art hrri: Ttroii WORKMAN IN THE SLOP TRADE. " I make on an average 5s. or 6s. a- week clear. Occasion- ally I can make from 8s. to 9s. clear; but for that I must begin work at six in the morning, and sit close at it till eleven at night, or seventeen hours a- day, and work on Sun- day." " I used to keep my wife in comfort by the produce of ray labour. She did no work then. Now she slaves night and day as 1 do. Seven years ago, I alone could get, by working twelve hours a- ' ay for six days in the week one- fourth more than she and 1 can get now by slaving day and night and all the Sunday long. And I believe mine to be almost an average of the condition and earning of the male hands engaged in the slop trade. Many are much worse off. I attribute this to the introduction of cheap Irish, foreign, and female labour. My comforts have not increased in any way with the decrease in the price of provisions. Bread, tea, meat, and sugar are all cheaper, and yet I can safely say I am twice as badly off as I was then. And so, 1 know, are all the people in my trade. Our wages have gone down more than provisions; that is to say, we work more than twice as hard as we did, and our wives too, and we get less food and less comfort." A SICK WORKMAN IN THE SLOP TRADE. '" Our Commissioner' went to see him. He was in bed. The wet dripping through the ceiling. A tailor, who had asked leave to use his room and his tools during his illness, was stitching away on the floor. He could not go to the hospital, for his clothes were all pledged; and also some of the clothes he had received to finish were pledged. While the Commissioner was in the house, a person eaine from the slop- shop to inquire for these clothes. At hearing his voice the tailor trembled like a leaf, and the perspiration started in large drops upon his forehead. He said he used to make three times what he does now; and then was very comfort- able. ' Not so now, God knows,' said his wife. The man said working long hours had made him bad. ' There are many men,' he added, ' working at this business who have not been outside the doors and smelt the fresh air for months together. Six of us keep a coat between us, for going out to fetch and take home work. I have come down to my very last now. What I shall do in a little while is more thau I can say,' " There were in London, in 1841, according to the census, 28,574 shoemakers, 23,500 tailors. In Great Britain, 214,780 shoemakers, 126,137 tailors. And there were only 280,889 persons engaged in all branches of the cotton manu facture. " Now let us learn from ' Our Commissioner' how the shoe- makers have profited by the cheapness which has so pau- perised their fellow workmeu." " Morning Chronicle," 4th February, 1850. A FIRST- RATE WEST. END WORKMAN. " We have less pay now than we used to have, and less work. The chief causes of this are— the importation of foreign goods, the increase of slop goods, and competition. It is impossible for an English workman to compete with Frenchman. Immediately the duty on French boots was reduced, which was, 1 think, by Sir Robert Peel's tariff of 1842, our wages were reduced fiueen per cent.; and, besides ttiat, the quantity of our work has been reduced most ma- terially. But the slop boots have done us as much injury as the French. Both the French and slop boots are made by other; and in order to sell cheap boots they knock down our wages. The trade i3 being ruined as fast as it can. A man's own children will soon drive him from the market. He must sink down to their rate of wages; and almost as soon as tha children can move they will be put to hard labour, and be- come stunted in mind and body. The next generation will be totally demoralized. In 1845, 1843, ami 1847, I was better off than I am now. The cheap provisions have done me no good whatever. I have been making less since food has been becoming cheaper, and I am sure that our com- forts have been decreasing. The workhouse stares us in the face." " Morning Chronicle," 11th February, 1850. A GENERAL WORKMAN. " To meet the demand for cheap goods, boys have come to be employed, and apprentices, for both of which the masters go to the jails aud the workhouses, and the men's wages are screwed down to the level of theirs. The intro- duction of French goods, also, has brought our wages down, especially since the alteration of the tariff in 1842. We have no export work now. I am positive we cannot under- sell the French in any market in the world at a better kind of work. They send out dreadful trash to the colonies. All the capitalist thinks about is to obtain a sightly article at the lowest possible figure. It would make your blood boil to know how little is paid for this cheap work. Shoes are now got up at prices which must starve all the workmen. The cheapness of provisions has not made so much differ- ence to me as the reduction of my labour has." " Morning Chronicle." 14 February, 1850. A WIDOW" SHOEMAKER. " When I first began I could earn 2s. a- day or 12s. a- week, working twelve hours a- day. Now I work longer hours. I have regular employment, and yet can only earn 3s. Ihl. a- week. I often have not been in bed for three nights together; and yet with all that, I could not get enough to keep me. While doing the hardest work I was being fairly starved to death." " This unfortunate creature was good, honest, and sober. A man and his wife, scarcely better provided than she, gave her the joint use of their room, and a third- part of their bed, rent free. If she had had to pay rent she must have A WORKMAN IN THE SUBI) BBS OF LONDON. " Seventeen years ago, my wife and I could earn 20s. a- week: we cannot now make 12s. The masters lowered the wages in order to sell cheap and command business. My daughters have to work fifteen hours a- day. They have no soul in them. They have no time to eDjoy their youth." The condition of the metropolitan tailors asd shoemakers, as detailed in mournful correctness, proves but too unmis- takably that the condition of the working classes, generally, has not improved during the past nineteen years, and that the great majority of the producing classes lnve gained no advantage ( viewing their position as a whole) by the rapid accumulation of property to which the Chancellor of tha Exchequer hears witness. The fall in the wages of the workmen explains satisfactorily the apparent anomaly, not rendered plain iu the speech of Sir Charles Wood. Why has the reduction of taxation to the amount of 10,000,000 not yielded a proportionate increase of comfort to the pro- ducers of wealth ? Answer. Because the decrease of their wages has been greater than the decrease of taxation. Secondly,— Why has the great accumulation of wealth not yielded a relative increase of property to the poor? Answer. Because they give more of their labour in ex- change for the necessaries of life than they formerly gave. What then has been the tendency of this increase of wealth on the community ? Answer. To make the few rich richer, the many poor poorer. Proof: the wholesale list of prices of manufactured goods for the years 1830 and 1849, show that nearly every necessary and luxury consumed by the rich and produced by the poor has fallen one- third in price, whieh practically means an increase of one- third iu the in- comes of annuitants and recipients of fixed salaries; or in other words 5,0002. will buy as many of the produets of industry as 6,666 would have bought in the year 1830. The wages paid for labour is the chief cost in the production of all commodities, therefore cheapened productions and low- ered wages are inseparable. When Sir Charles Wood fully understands this question of labour and capital he will be better able to legislate for England. Meantime we solicit special attention to the facts stated by him to parliament as we will in our next letter review the proposed measures of the ministry as the programme of the future proving if we mistake not that property and power are strongly knit together to oppress industry and rob the labourer. - GRACCHUS. MISCELLANEOUS. THE CHARTER.— The Charter stands as the opposite'of feudalism; as civil liberty in opposition to serfdom; man versus mammon. Popular sympathy has generally been on the right side, and increased intelligence only tends to in- sure its aid on behalf of useful and necessary reforms. Pro- perty has nothing to fear from- the enfranchisement of in- telligence, but much to gain. Who are opposed to large salaries, granted without adequate services ?— the people. Who are interested in peace and opposed to war?— the people. Who prefer retrenchment and economy to extra- vagance and wasteful expenditure?— the people. Who pre- fer Direct Taxation, or honest payments, to Indirect Taxa- tion, or dishonest frauds?— the people. Who support the present- system,! of which all shades of reformers complain? — a minority, of the - adult males, who possess the elective franchise. Who would change the present system, retaining what was was good and necessary, abjuring what was evil and unneces- ary ?— the majority of the entire adult population. Wisely do the Liverpool Economists write, " Why should labour be driven to tho wall?" The answer is at hand,— it is, because realized proverty has had the making of the laws, and had it thus in'its power to relieve itself. There is the simple solution of the question, and we but waste time iu- offering refinements on the subject.— Samuel Kydd. THE ROYAL LAMPLIGHTERS.— The First and Second Lamplighters, aud the seven Assi tants, have to attend, ex- clusively, to thfe lamps in the Queeu's residences. Suit e ihe introduction of gas in most of the passages and entrances of the Palaces, their labours have been much curtailed; tha number of oil lamps having been reduced nearly one h ilf. The First Lamplighter's salary is about lOOi. a- year, besides an allowance for board- wages and lodging- money ! The children. But the competition, of out1 masters has done us | others live iu the house, and dine in the Servant's Hall.— the most mischief. They are all trying to undersell one an- I Jasper Judge. ' Wi- REYNOLDS'S POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR. ENGLISH SLAVERY.— The industrious classes in England are slaves, in the blackest of all degradations, a willing slavery. There is manhood.' in the spirit that gnashes against the fetter and grinds the chaip. Is is a proud boast to say the soul is still unbound, and to bid the flashing eye and the indignant glance Hurl defiance at the oppressor, and ' tell him that, though the hand is shackled, and the feet are tied, still, still the heart rebels. But the contented idiot that drags along his yoke, and either wants the sense to see, or else the soul to dash it from him, what is he fit for, but his present lot ? The latter has been the histery of Englishmen. They have actually knelt before the deity of Parliament— Lords and Commons have been their household gods; and they have worshipped with devotion, and obeyed with alacrity, the mandates of a landed and monied aristocracy, whose treatment of them was worse than that of brutes.— Irishman. THE HEREDITARY ARISTOCRACY.— Within the last few years the evils generated in this, our beloved country, through the existence of a corrupt and self- degraded aristocracy, have become apparent to the understanding of all who are ac- cessible to truth. They now begin to ask themselves where that so much vaunted liberty is to be found ? where freedom of speech is to be sought after? and last, though not least, when and where their just complaints against the despotism of an overbearing aristocracy ate to be heard and appreciated ? By what right or for what benefits received are we, nominally free- born Englishmen, to cringe like lashed hounds beneath the feet of these lordly tyrants, and look upon them with the awe and humility due only to our Maker ? If a man ( we make no distinction between the peer of the realm and the sweeper of the crossing, for they are both men) if a man, we say, benefit his country or fellow- countrymen by his genius or self- devotion, that man has a right to claim some acknow- ledgment of his services at their hands; but no exclusive title should be conferred upon him ; nor is it just to entail his reward upon his posterity and establish it as a heritage,— thus allowing men, who not only have deserved nothing of their country, but have in many cases abused the power reposed in them, to lord and ride rough- shod over the descendants of those who raised their ancestors to power. Again, ought one man to revel in luxury and sensuality whilst another starves ? Is the haughty, purse proud nobleman, maintaining an almost regal state through the aid of an unearned, and consequently undeserved income, more worthy of our esteem than the poor heart- broken mechanic who strives in vain to benefit himself and his country by earning an honest livelihood? If the merit of each be even equal in the eyes of the world, ought the oppression of the weaker to be sanctioned, or even tolerated ? Jhe world says " no," but lacks energy and determination to boldly proclaim its sentiments. A time, however, will come, and we prophesy it is not far distant, when the haughty aris- tocrat shall be humbled, and the poor, though honest labourer placed on a level with his lordly oppressor: then indeed men's minds may be linked together in the bonds of peace and bro- therly love j— but aslong as the aristocrat usurps the rights of the peasant, and the rich mar, tyrannise over his poorer neighbour, peace can exist but in name, and the holy command " Love thy neighbour as thyself," will be often violated, and, alas! but seldom obeyed.— From G. M., a Correspondent. REVIEWS. " REPLY TO THE LIBELS OF CHENU AND DELA- HODDE." BY CITIZEN MIOT, Representative of the People. — The government of M. Bonaparte, wishing on the eve of the last triumphant elections for Paris and other un- Tepresented places, to influence the votes of millions by the circulation of scandalous libels defamatory of Re- publicans and the Republic, employed a couple of Louis Philippe's police spies to write a series of infamous false- hoods against the heroes of February, more especially M. Caussidiere. The good sense of the nation frustrated the malicious intent of ihe government. The French corre- spondent of the Times, the most lying twaddler in Europe, has seized upon the falsehoods published by Messrs. Chenu and Delahodde, and circulated them in the columns of that journal. Amongst other vile inven- tions contained in Chenu's book, injurious to the reputa- tion of M. Caussidiere, we find one stating, that he on first taking possession of the Prefecture of Police, " instantly commenced ransacking the drawers, in hopes of finding money, but being disappointed, he exclaimed, giving vent to his chagrin, ' Zero! not so much as a Monaco* sous."' The whole of this story originates in the fertile brain of Chenu, or was more probably invented by those who concocted his memoirs, for, be it known, the author himself is ignorant of the art of writing, and likewise unable to read. M. Miot thus contradicts the above libellous falsehood :— " M. Chenu asserts that Caussidiere, after taking possession of the Prefecture of Police, hastened to turn out the contents of the drawers, and that on finding them empty, exclaimed, • Zero! not so much as a Monaco sous!' This anecdote is entirely false; for M. Core, treasurer to the Prefecture, intro- duced himself to the new Prefect, and informed him that there was still a sum of two hundred thousand francs ( 8,000i.) in hand, and placed it at his disposal. Caussidiere replied that he had no need for money, but no sums were to be disbursed without an order from him. Caussidiere, whom Chenu repre- sents as ransacking the Prefecture from top to bottom, carried his delicacy so far that he refused to enter those apartments formerly occupied by his predecessor, in which, having quitted them with precipitation, many things were left behind. Caus- sidiere ordered all these rooms on the second floor to be locked, and did not take possession of them until eight days after his installation, and only when M. Delessert's servants had removed all their master's property. To confirm the truth of this statement, which redounds to the honour of M. Caussidiere, the steward and servants of his predecessor will bear testimony." The following letter, addressed to him some time after, is the best proof of the courtesy aud delicacy displayed upon that occasion: " London, 2nd April, 1848. " MONSIEUR THE PREFECTS,— I have learnt from my Paris friends the kind feeling expressed by you on the sub- • An almost worthless piece of money circulated in the principality of that name. ject of Madame Delessert's short stay at Passy, and the regret you felt that she did not apply to you personally. Allow me to off r you my thanks. I do so with more plea- sure as it affords me an opportunity of telling you how sensible I am of the kindly sentiments evinced towards us, by allowing, so readily, the personal property belonging to myself and wife to he removed from the Prefecture. I am delighted, M. the Prefect, at finding this occasion to express my deep and cordial gratitude; and I beg to express my sentiments of the highest esteem towards you. " GABRIEL DELESSERT." M. Chenu's malicious lie is thus flatly contradicted, not alone by men of honour and credit, but likewise by the political, and from circumstances, most probably the bitterest adversaries of M. Caussidiere. Chenu himself had been sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for theft. Citizen Miot thus contradicts Chenu's story, that Caussidiere proposetf a forced loan upon the banker Rothschild of Paris. " Chenu asserts that citizen Caussidiere, being in want of money, intended to raise a forced loan from M. de Roths- child of 500,000 francs ( 20,000?.) Falsehood has never dis- played itself more impudently or clumsily than in this instance. If those gentlemen who dictated such a libel had any knowledge of the events of February, they would never have connected the name of Rothschild with that of Citizen Caussidiere. Only suoh persons as Clienu have forgotten the praises lavished from all quarters upon the new prefect of police owing to his noble behaviour with respect to the opulent banker. For instead of levying any contribution on M. de Rothschild, the citizen Caussidiere offered to station a guard at his door, in case there was danger to be dreaded." In fine, from the commencement to its conclusion, the work of M. Chenu is proven by M. Miot to be nothing more than a tissue of malicious falsehoods, caused by the dismissal of their author from the confidential post occu- pied by him during the prefectoral reign of M. Caussi- diese, on that gentleman discovering undeniable evidence of Chenu's treachery. We regret that the English press has become so degraded as to lend itself for party purposes to the circulation of scandalous lies invented by acknowledged spies, convicted thieves, and unmasked traitors, to the injury of an upright and conscientious exiled foreigner. " THE APPEAL OF THE DISTRESSED OPERATIVE TAILORS."— The late startling revelations made in the columns of a daily newspaper have demonstrated that there is no class of the population suffering more acutely under the fearful pressure of the times, occasioned by un- due influence of capital, than operative tailors. Notwith- standing the examples set by a prince nearly allied to the crown, and by the wealthiest noble in the land, both of whom purchase their attire from the slopseller's den, the operative tailors appeal to ' the public and implore all classes, to be at tbe trouble of discriminating tbe kind of shops they will support. The appeal, well worthy of perusal, is printed for J. Goodfellow, and we extract the following sensible and feeling observations from its pages : " The fine shops they have exceed gin- palaces in splendour, and they, like the gin- palaces, are supported by the necessitous and oppressed poor. " The principal show and slop- shop at the east- end now occupies the ground of several houses. The windows are of rich plate glass— oue window, indeed, is nearly thirty feet high— and it is said that at the time of the attack upon the house by the mob, the damage done by breaking two of the windows, amounted to 150(. The business is not confined to tailors' work. The proprietors are furriers, hatters, and bootmakers, hosiers, cutlers, trunk- sellers, and milliners. They keep six horses and carts constantly employed iu their business, and, I am told, pay above 1000Z. a- year for gas The show- rooms are lighted by large ormolu chandeliers, having thirty- six burners each. " This slop- shop alone expends between 8,0002. and 10,000z a- year in advertisements. Where does it come from? How are such enormous profits made to afford such surplus outlay? It is much to say— but the truth warrants it— that these great profits are made by the cupidity of capital taking advantage of the necessities of poverty. Political economy has generally held that our impoverished condition arises through our workmen competing with each other; but the cont ary is the fact. It is owing to men of capital under- selling each other, and owing to the wealthy public— the court and the aristocracy— not looking below the surface, countenancing those houses which cheapen their goods through having first cheapened the labour by which they are produced. And this patronage by the nobility being bestowed on such establishments will compel those employers who pay fair wages, aud who desire to do so, and strive to do so, to resort to the same course and lower the respect- ability of trade by a like system of social extortion. We think that if it was well known to the wealthy classes to what a state of misery and degradation those are rendered who make their clothes, they would anxiously do what lies in them to correct the evil. And this is practicable by sup- porting a class who stand between the aristocracy and the people— who intervene between them and the wretchedness of the lower— who not only preserve the equilibrium of the State, but would gladly be dispensers of aid by remunerative employment, to those whose destitution cannot, if un- assuaged, but end in despair and insubordination." NOTICE.— Mr. W. J. Vernon's Letter on " PRISON DISCI- PLINE," is unavoidably postponed until our next. NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.— 4s we cannot undertake to give Notices to Correspondents in the INSTRUCTOR, all letters requiring information of any nature are duly answered in the MISCELLANY. THE ASSOCIATIVE TAILORS. - We accidentally omitted to stale, on publishing the Address of this body, in last iveek's INSTRUCTOR, that their place of business is at No. 34, Castle Street, Oxford Street. We have visited the esta- blishment, where we received the most courteous attention from that enthusiastic and talented young democrat, Mr. GERALD MASSEY; and we were highly delighted by the arrangements and general appearance of the institution. TO THE PEOPLE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. THE Provisional Committee of the National Charter Asso- ciation, appeal to you for support and encouragement, in their endeavours to obtain every point specified in the People's Charter. They rely, with confidence, upon your patriotism, your desire for freedom, and your consequent adherence to the Chartist cause. Be assured, that no measure of good will ever be obtained from any Government so long as the people remain dormant and apathetic to their own interests. The Prime Minister, himself, tells you that he is unable to discern any wish amongst the people for farther reform, that he sees no symptoms of agitation indicative of discontent; and makes this assertion an excuse for denying an extension of the suffrage, and other measures calculated to relieve the people from their thraldom. The masses of this country, living, as they do, by manual labour, have no time for prolonged agi- tation, or perpetual demonstrations. Lord John Russell, fully aware of this fact, turns it to his own purpose, and triumphs in his antagonistic policy. He appears to entertain an opinion, that the working population of England, are not only unworthy the rights of citizens, but also of the name— for this reason, we suppose, that the agi- tation, so long and so unweariedly continued by the immense numbers constituting the Chartist body— being materially a demonstration of labouring men— counts for nothing, in Lord John Russell's estimation. Convinced, that if the sense of the nation were taken, a vast majority would be found advocates of those doctrines contained in the People's Charter, we, the Provisional Committee of the National Charter Association, call upon the people to exert themselves, to shake off the enslaving domination of a factious minority, and to accomplish this desirable object, join with the Association in making the utmost use of those limited means the law has yet left within their reach. But, let each person also act, as though the success of the cause depended upon his individual exertions; for it is unity, energy, perseverance, and zeal, that can alone conquer. These have been the weapons so effectually wielded by the Repub- lican Socialists of France; these are the weapons that have triumphed over the brutal force at the command of tyrants, and have nearly achieved their immense purpose. Let the people of England rally round the banner of Char- tism, and support it with the same fervour as the Red flag of freedom has been upheld in France— it will speedily wave victorious, and a termination will be put to those grievances of which we so justly complain. You are compelled to pay for institutions over which you exercise no control; you have no voice in framing those laws you are called upon to obey; you are taxed, but unrepresented; your persons, your labour, and your lives, are at the mercy and disposal of those who arrogate to themselves the monopoly of government, and will continue to do so as long as the nation remains indifferent to its own interests. The present condition of England is a scandal to the world ; but it is only such a condition as can be expected, when the government of a country is vested in the hands of a few. To the people of Ireland, the Provisional Committee of the National Charter Association address themselves, imploring them to join the Chartist ranks, as the only effectual method of obtaining by moral force, those rights to which they are so justly entitled, and which are so cunningly and cruelly with- liolden from them. Let them not be led away, and deluded by a miserable extension of franchise, promised by the En- glish Government. It is never contemplated to ameliorate their condition, but only to swell the parliamentary ranks of their oppressors. The visits of Royalty— from which the Irish people were taught to expect so much— were mere idle pa- geants, contrived and calculated to divert the attention from wrongs of a tremendous magnitude. Until the Charter be- comes the law of the land, Ireland must continue in its present debased, unhappy condition. Finally, it is the intention of the Provisional Committee of the National Charter Association, so long as their functions continue, and calculating upon the people's support, to main- tain an energetic and unceasing agitation, until they convince our rulers that the sentiments of a nation cannot be scorned with impunity. Their policy is to remain within the bounds of the law, and not infringe that law, as it at present stands, but they denounce its injustice, repudiate its absurdities, and protest against its flagrant inequality. EDMUND STALLWOOD, EDWARD MILES. G. JULIAN HARNEY, JAMES GRASSBY, GEORGE W M, REYNOLDS, THOMAS BROWN, WILLIAM DAVIS, JOHN MILNE, Chairman; JOHN ARNOTT, General Sec. Office of the National Charter Association, No. 14, Southampton Street, Strand. March 20th, 1850. Now READY, with the Magazines for April, No. XI. OF rnHE DEMOCRATIC REVIEW of BRITISH and 1 FOREIGN POLITICS, HISTORY, aud LITERA- TURE. Edited by G. JULIAN HARNEY. CONTENTS:— 1. The Stamp Tax on Newspapers. 2. March of the Red Republic. 3. Revelations of the Building Trades, Part II. 4. A Glance at History, Part III. 5. The His- tory of Socialism. By Louis Blanc, Lecture II. 6. Democracy Defended, in reply to the " Latter- Day " ravings of Thomas Carlisle. 7. Two Years of a Revolution— 1848— 1849. 8. Letter from France. 9. Letter from America. 10. Political Postscript, See. FORTY PAGES ( in a coloured wrapper), PRICE THREEPENCE. London: Published by J. WATSON, 3, Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster Row. PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT. APUBLIC MEETliNG convened by the Provisional Committee ot the National Charter Association will be held in the Hall of the Literary aud Scientific Institution, John Street, Tottenham Court Road, on Tuesday Evening next, April 2nd, for the purpose of reviewing tile proceed- ings in Parliament during the pasL week. Chair taken at Eight o'Clock. Admission Free. LONDON : Printed and Published, for the PROPRIETOR, by JOHN DICKS, at the Office of REYNOLDS'S MISCELLANY, 7, Wellington Street North, Strand.