Page images
PDF
EPUB

Its temple. This suburbs of hell, where Satan's seat is, this re gion of death and more than brutal degradation, so long beclouded by the pestiferous smoke from the bottomless pit, thus receives a ray from the glorious & blessed Sun of righte ousness which has begun to shine in this dark place of the earth that is full of the habitations of horrid cruelty.

But to give any thing like an adequate idea of the hardened vil lainy, the barbarity and turpitude in crime of the British aristocracy would fill volumes. They make a mighty outcry about a number of their soldiers being confined in a prison called the black hole at Calcutta; but their own cruelties in India, in Ireland, in America, and even in their own country, beggar all description. Indeed if all the innocent blood shed to pamper the pride, the ambition, the avarice and luxury of these aristocratic lordlings was collected into one reservoir, every aristocrat in England might swim in it!!!

Let us now see what aristocracy has reduced her own people to; and we shall give it in the words of some of her own best writers. The annexed is the leading article in the London Morning Journal of the 7th of August, 1829. It gives a gloomy picture of the state of distress in England.

"Our correspondence from all parts of the country abounds with details of continued and increasing distress. From Manchester we learn that there is no reasonable prospect of a speedy adjustment of the matters in dispute, between the operatives and their late employers, even after a contest of seventeen weeks' duration. From Paisly the accounts are equally discouraging; nor in the intermediate towns, do we know a single spot where we can rest with satisfaction. Misery and starvation, indeed like twin angels of desolation, stalk over the land thwarting, crushing and withering the exertions of every man dependant upon commercial relations, from the poorest shuttle driver to the most eminent merchant. If the Great Disposer of events ever allowed a nation to rush headlong upon destruc tion-not by the hidden mysterious workings of Providence, but

by a palpable fatality attending a few individuals sitting in high places-it is pre-eminently the case of Great Britain at this mo ment. The blindness of the Cabinet (is it wilful?) and the blindness of the people, in putting confidence in that cabinet warrant our assertion. To enter into a detail of the various measures introdced by the ministers, and of which the country has a right so loudly and indignantly to complain, would be merely retracing our steps. One thing is evident to all. Our working population are now paupers! No murmurs are heard; though they are not receiving sufficient food to retain sentient existence. They absolutely have one foot in the grave! How long, observes one of our correspondents, this will be continued we know not; but the present tranquility appears to us to resemble the dead calm which precedes an earthquake."

Now here is a sample of what aristocracy has done for the best mechanics, artizans and manufacturers, and the most diligent and industrious people under the sun. Such is the lust of power, of wealth, of ease, of show and splendor, and the unbounded extravagance & folly of aristocracy, that there is not one of the proud and bloated task-masters of that suffering and oppressed people, that would not be sufficient to destroy the revenue of that great empire, and the product of all the labor and industry of the nation. But when the political hive is almost filled with such drones, what but inevitable ruin could be expected!

Our happy lot when contrasted with that country of palaces and poor-houses, cannot be better exemplified than in taxation. The Lady of the Lord lieutenant of Ireland once observed, to Dean Swift "The air is fine in your country." "For God's sake, Madam," said the Dean, "don't tell them so in England or they will certainly tax it."

The editors of the Edinburgh Review, have given us a true picture in the following: "Taxes upon every article that enters into the mouth, or that covers, the back, or is placed under foot -taxes upon every thing that is pleasant to see, hear, taste, or

smell-taxes upon warmth, light, or locomotion-taxes upon every thing on the earth, on every thing in the water under the earth,on every thing that comes from abroad or is grown at home -taxes on the raw material-taxes on every fresh value given to it by the industry of man-taxes on the cause which pampers man's appetite, and the drug which restores him to health-on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope that hangs the criminal-on the poor man's salt & the rich man's spice-on the brass nails of the coffin, and on the ribbons of the bride-the school-boy whips his taxed top, the youth manages his taxed horse, with a taxed bridle, on a taxed road; and the dying Englishman pouring his medicine, which has paid seven per cent., into a spoon which has paid fifteen per cent, flings himself back upon his chintz bed, which has paid twenty-two per cent.,makes his will on an eight pound stamp, and expires in the arms of an apothecary, who has paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death, his whole property is immediately taxed, from two to nineteen per cent. Beside, the probate, large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel, his virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble, and he is then gathered home to his fathers, to be taxed

no more."

The whole system of aristocracy is one entire tissue of fraud, injustice and wickedness, in all its modifications of civil,military and ecclesiastic. Observe the starving millions of the wealth producing class, pining to death, amidst the overflowing plenty which their own labor and industry have created, while one of their Bishops is wasting one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds a year in riot, debauchery and sin. Their church establishment is ranting on thirty-four millions of dollars yearly; a sum almost incredible, and which would be in silver dollars, loading for one hundred and two of our best road wagons and teams. How is this enormous sum of money expended?Truth must say, with some honorable exceptions, it is worse than wasted-on hounds and horses and bad women.

1

The manufacturing establishments and the labor saving machinery of England, are really astonishing. It is com puted that 200,000 human arms, with the aid of machinery, now manufacture as much as 20,000,000 of arms were able to manufacture without machines, 40 years ago; and that the cotton manufactured, in the course of one year, would require, without machines, 16,000,000 of workmen, with simple wheels. That the quantity of all sorts, at present, produced by British workmen, with the aid of machines, is so great, that it would require, without the aid of machinery, the labor of 400,000,000 of workmen, The following curious and interesting facts (says the Albion,) were stated by Mr. Webster in lecture on steam engines, delivered at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, London. "It has been acertained, with some degree of certainty, that there are 15'000 steam engines at work, some of almost incredible power. Taking it for granted, that on an average, these engines are each of 25 horse power, this would be equal to 375.000 horses; according to Watt's calculations, five and a half men, are equal to the power of a horse. England has thus, it appears, a power through the medium of steam engines, equal to 2,000,000 of men. Each horse for his keep per year, requires the produce of two acres of land; and thus, 75,000 acres are at the disposal of the inhabitants of Britain, more, than if the same work, which is now done by steam, had to be performed by horses." And says the New England Galaxy, "Against the wind, against the tide,

Still steadies with an upright keel."

Steam is on the rivers,and the boatman may repose on his cars It is on the highways, and begins to act on the courses of land conveyance. It is a thousand feet beneath the earth's surface, in mines. It pumps, it digs, it paddles, it carries,it draws, it lifts, it hammers, it weaves, it prints, it rolls, it slits, it saws, it grinds. It seems to say to the class of artizans, give over your manual labor, your bodily toil, bestow on the direction of my power, your skill and reason, and I will do all the labor, and bear all

the toil. With no muscle to grow weary, no nerve to relax, no breast to feel faintness. We cannot know what further improvement may yet be made in the use of this extraordinary power. We do know, however, that it has essentially al tered the condition of the world, and no limit yet appears, which must arrest its progress. "What centuries of improvement," says Mr. Webster, "has this wonderful power achieved. The steam engine, like the trunk of an Elephant, can rend the mightiest oak,or pick up the finest needle. We have seen it in one place, crushing a solid cube of iron, into a thin plate, as though it were so much wax; and in another, tamboring the finest needle work, more accurately than the neatest housewife; and stopping upon the breaking ofa thread, until it should be reconnected. There is no combination probably, of human ingenuity,where science,applied to the daily purposes of life,has achieved greater triumphs, than in the steam engine; and these are still progressive."

Strange and unaccountable as it may well appear, all the fine writers, and certainly there are many, on political economy have without exception, mistaken the real cause of the distresses of the operatives the working and wealth producing class! Some attribute it to competition, some to over production, and some to the introduction of labor saving machinery, while the real cause is either not known, or carefully kept out of sight. But none of those reasons will satisfy the mind that is in search of truth. The alone cause, is nothing more nor less than the insatiable avarice, coveteousness, extravagance, & wickedness of aristocracy. If there were any thing like justice done to the working class, every man would be placed in comfort and plenty; and the task-master have more than heart could wish; and the labor saving machinery,(which is really a blessing) would enable the operatives to produce enough for the demand, and have leisure to cultivate their minds, and educate their children. But no, says the unfeeling, the cruel aristocrat, we must have all that is produced. They

« PreviousContinue »