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sign of a general strike throughout the whole country."

If further proof be required, take the following extract from the declaration of one of those societies:

All human

"SOCIAL REFORMERS. beings are good by nature. Ignorance is the only Devil that exists, or ever did exist. Vice is nothing else but ignorance. Truth leads to virtue and happiness. The character of every human being is formed for him, and not by him. If the above be true, all those that examine for themselves will find every religion taught in the world by the different Priests, is founded on error and in direct opposition to truth and nature; hence have followed priestcraft, war, law or injustice, aristocracy, and every drone that exists on the labour of the industrious many," &c. &c.

The design then is evident; and as a specimen of the extent to which it has already been adopted, we will quote one or two of the resolutions of a combination formed in Manchester, and called "The Society for Promoting National Regeneration."

"1. That it is desirable that all who wish to see society improved, and confusion avoided, should endeavour to assist the working classes to obtain for eight hours' work the present full day's wages,' such eight hours to be performed between the hours of six in the morning and six in the evening; and that this new regulation should commence on the first day of March next. 3. That persons be immediately appointed from among the workmen to visit their fellow-workmen in each trade, manufacture, and employment, in every district of the kingdom, for the purpose of communicating with them on the subject of the above resolutions, and

of inducing them to determine upon their adoption. 9. That the workmen and their friends use their utmost efforts to obtain further subscriptions, and that all well-disposed females be respectfully requested cordially to co-operate in this undertaking."

These men are fully aware of their own power. In illustration of this, we subjoin the following quotation from the Trades' Union Gazette of Glasgow, Feb. 1, 1834.

"POWER OF THE TRADES' UNIONS.

"Their's will not be insurrection; it will be simply passive resistance. The men may remain at leisure; there is, and can be, no law to compel them to work against their will. They may walk the streets or fields with their arms fold

ed, they will wear no swords, carry no muskets, assemble no train of artillery, seize upon no fortified places. They will present no column for an army to attack, no multitude for the riot-ar to disperse. They merely abstain, when their funds are sufficient, from going to work for one week, or one month, through the three kingdoms; and what happens in consequence? Bills are dishonoured, the Gazette teems with bankruptcies-capital is destroyed the revenue fails-the system of government falls into confusion, and every link in the chain which binds society together is broken in a moment by this inert conspiracy of the poor against the rich."

What their religious principles are may be judged of from the following passages in the Prospectus of a new Paper about to be set up in Glasgow, to be entitled "THE FREEthinker."

"The objects which the projectors have in view, are, chiefly, the establishment of an organ for the expression of free, unfettered opinions-opinions ranging to the utmost latitude of thought; the vin. dication of such of the opinions referred to as are founded in Reason and Philosophy, from the false charges and aspersions of bigotry and self-interest; and the application of an unerring test to the most approved and vaunted arguments in favour of Theology.

"Discussions and disquisitions, however, are not to preclude less weighty matters. The lighter arms of satire and ridicule must not be allowed to remain

inactive, while follies and absurdities call for their employment, although the shafts should occasionally be borrowed from the quiver of a Taylor, a Byron, or a Vol.

taire.

"Shares, Five Shillings each. Price of each Number, l'd."

Let no one be so deluded as to suppose that these resolutions are likely to prove a dead letter, or that the utmost danger is not to be anticipated from the combinations in furtherance of these objects which have now sprung up in all the manufacturing districts of the country. Their organization is complete; their numbers are prodigious; the talent which directs them is considerable; the devotion which generally prevails to the cause is unbounded. It is well observed, in a recent number of an able and intelligent provincial paper, the Stirling Journal

"Not only is the machinery well adapted, but its effects are fearfully powerful.

In Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Paisley, Bolton, and almost every other manufacturing town, there is hardly a manufacturer who is allowed to say what he will pay for the work done for him; and there is hardly a manufactory to be found into which a workman can dare enter, who has not previously become a member of the Combination. The state of things is a frightful one, and it is rendered doubly hideous from the fact, that it has arisen out of the vile misconduct of the faction now nominally holding the reins of Government. Lord Grey, Lord Althorp, and Lord Brougham, the correspondents of the Birmingham Political Unions, can have no right to find fault with Regenerators of their Country. John Fielden and Robert Owen, and their colleagues, are only acting precisely upon the plan laid down by Lord Brougham and the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The Crisis and Penny Magazine are of a family; and the London University, as originally conceived, destitute of Christianity, is a fit precursor of the doctrines of the Social Reformers."Stirling Journal, Jan. 17, 1834.

The enormous danger and perilous consequences of these Trades' Unions, have now attracted the attention of the steadiest advocates of the Movement; of those who were loudest in their outcry against the former system of government, and the most vehement supporters of the Reform Bill. Sir Daniel Sandford, whose eloquent declamations in favour of the Bill are still ringing in our ears-whose name is indelibly associated in our minds with the words "Oligarchy-Oligarchy-Oligarchy," which he so liberally poured forth to an admiring operative audience two years ago, has addressed the following admirable observations to the Liberator Journal of Glasgow, the great organ of the Trades' Unions in the West of Scotland; and thus illustrates the effect of the Constitutional Revolution which he so warmly advocated.

"I do not presume to condemn the general principle of combinations among workmen for the sake of mutual protection. No liberal man will assert that

they should not, on the contrary, be encouraged to consult together for their own interest, and to maintain associations for the promotion of their common welfare. I approved of the repeal of the law formerly directed against such combinations, and would oppose its re-enactment. But,

conceding this wise and wholesome principle, the Unions must not be surprised if disinterested persons should see much to blame in some of their avowed objects, and in the means of attaining them, which they openly or tacitly countenance. I esteem it, for example, a most unreasonable object to propose a universal reduction of the time of labour to eight hours a-day. This is a portion of time decidedly below the physical powers of man, and the period of his daily toil in the freest regions of the earth; it is below the average of the exhausting labours of the learned professions; and it is inadequate to maintain the manufactures and commerce of the country. I call it an attempt equally illegal and immoral, when force or insult is employed to swell the ranks of the Unions, by the coercion of those who do not already belong to them. The Liberator will not deny, that in some quarters frightful acts of violence have been committed; and I have looked in vain for any strong mark of disapprobation of these acts on the part of the united workmen. Far from perceiving such evidence of true manly feeling, I find in the Liberator itself, (a great organ of the Unions,) bitter expressions of scorn and resentment levelled at those

who, in the exercise of an undoubted privilege, have abstained from joining them, or have thought fit to leave them. This I cannot avoid designating as the tyranny of the multitude; and that man is ill versed in history and in morals, who does not hold the tyranny of the many to be equally hateful with the tyranny of the few."

Let us not deceive ourselves; the great contest between the working classes and their employers, between capital and numbers, which Sir Daniel now so eloquently deplores, is approaching, and cannot be averted. His darling Reform Bill has rendered it inevitable. The operative workmen feel that they have been deceived; that the Whigs have merely used them as a ladder to raise themselves, and that, having gained, by their aid, the command of the Legislature, they are now quite willing to let their valued associates grovel in the dust. It is the sense, the bitter and universal sense of this deception of which they have been the victims, which has produced the present general spread of Trades' Unions; in other words, of immense associations of working men, to obtain, by a simultaneous strike over all parts of

the country, and the terror which the display of physical strength can hardly fail to produce, those extraordinary practical advantages which the general condition of the labour market will not permit them to obtain, but which were falsely held out to them as the immense boon which they would certainly obtain by the change in the Constitution of Parliament.

If any one doubts that this has been the real cause of the present frightful schism which has split society asunder, let him take up any of the newspapers or periodical journals which advocated the cause of Reform three years ago. He will there find, that the whole evils of the country, theoretical and practical, were constantly laid on the shoulders of the Boroughmongers; that it was uniformly and invariably maintained, that the resources of the nation were unbounded, and the career of prosperity which opened before it unlimited, if it could only shake off the monstrous load of the Aristocracy; that Relief from Taxation, Increase of Wages, Fall of Prices, and Diminution of Poor's Rates, were held out as the immediate and necessary effect of a Reform in the Legislature, and that all persons who presumed to doubt these exhilarating prospects were forthwith stigmatized as the tools of the Boroughmongers, as influenced by no other feeling but a desire to fatten on the spoils of the nation, and fit to be dealt with in no other way, but with the brickbat and the bludgeon, to be plastered with mud, or ducked in horseponds. It was this infernal cry, issuing from ninetenths of the Press, and re-echoed by nineteen-twentieths of the popular orators, which procured the return of the Parliament of May, 1881, which extinguished the British Constitution. It was the same false and delusive cry which roused the labouring classes in such multitudes to overawe the House of Peers, when they nobly clung to the ark of their forefathers, in May, 1832. What else enabled Mr Attwood to assemble 70,000 workmen in the neighbourhood of Birmingham, when the Bill was under deliberation in the House of Peers; and wrought them up to such a pitch of exasperation, that it is now admitted they were ready

to have risen in rebellion against the Duke of Wellington if he had retained the seals of office, after the resignation of Earl Grey, and were on the point of shaking society to atoms by a run, got up for political purposes, on the Bank? Was it to elevate the Whig Aristocracy at the expense of the Tory; to create close boroughs in the North, while it extinguished them in the South; to secure Calne and destroy Old Sarum; to create North Shields, while it gave the death-blow to Gatton; to give an hundred thousand a-year to the Greylings, and take it from the partisans of the former administration, that all this was done? No: it was the prospect of substantial relief from distress; the belief that the hidden cause of the universal suffering, which every one felt, but no one could explain, was now brought to light; the promises everywhere repeated, the assurances constantly given, the prospect invariably held forth of a real and important amelioration of circumstances from the proposed measure, which produced the general, the otherwise inexplicable delusion in its favour.

Now that the experiment has been made, and the reality of the promises uniformly held forth put to the test, it is universally seen how deplorably all classes have been duped by their deceivers. The agriculturists, who were told, that all their distresses were owing to the Boroughmongers, and that high prices, low rents, and plentiful employment would to a certainty follow the passing of the Bill, now find themselves plunged deeper than ever in distress, with wheat down at 50s. the quarter, and the prospect of a speedy Repeal of the Corn Laws, which will retain it permanently on an average even below that ruinously low standard. The manufacturers, who were universally assured that high wages, steady employment, and low prices, would certainly follow the overthrow of the Boroughmongers, now find themselves worse off than ever; with low prices, indeed, but still lower wages, and with a less command of the necessaries and conveniences of life than they had under any former period of their history. Hear what the Editor of the Liberator, and the organ of the Glasgow ope

ratives, says of their present condi. tion, nearly two years after the passing of Maxima Charta. We do not vouch for the accuracy of the statement, we merely give it as we find it, to illustrate the sense entertained by the operatives of the working of the great healing measure.

“There are upwards of fifty thousand families in the West of Scotland, at this moment, whose average income does not exceed seven shillings weekly for each! Parcel out that miserable pittance into food, clothing, and rent, without any provision for the contingencies of sickness and death; and such is the fluctuation experienced in the majority of trades' -the accidents that many are liable to, and the insecurity of maintaining a place -that there are few at the head of a family who lay their heads on a pillow at night, know whether or not the bread of their little ones will be baken on the morrow. With the extreme distress of thousands, and the insecurity of all the working classes, can you, Sir Danieldisinterested as you say you are-lay your hand upon your heart and repeat, that workmen have no plea for taking some decided steps in their own behalf?"Answer to Sir Daniel Sandford, Jan. 8,

1834.

If any farther evidence were wanting, it would be found in the statement of Mr Attwood, as to the condition of the Birmingham iron work

ers, after they had experienced a full year of the benefits of the Re form Parliament.

"I live in the neighbourhood of perhaps 50,000 honest nailers. I have ascertained from their own mouths, and from their masters' books, that during the war

they could gain 16s. per week with the same labour as it now took them to gain 8s. per week. But they still paid 3s. per week rent for their cottage and shop, the same as they did during the war. Now take 3s. from 16s., and it leaves 13s. Take 3s. from 8s., and it leaves 5s. Did any one think that 5s. would go as far in supporting a working man's family now, as 13s. did during the war? The thing was absurd; 5s. would perhaps go as far as 6s., or possibly as 7s. But here was a clear injury of one-half in the situation of these honest, poor men."

When results such as these have followed the highly wrought up feelings and extravagant expectations, formed by the delusions universally and artfully spread to procure the passing of the Reform Bill, it is no wonder that the working classes have become generally and alarmingly distrustful of all public men, and that throwing overboard altogether the pilots whom they have placed at the helm, they propose to take the management of the vessel at once into their own hands.*

The following doggrel verses, taken from the Glasgow Trades' Union Gazette of September 14, 1833, will shew how bitterly the people feel the imposition which has been practised on them, and how completely the present approach to anarchy is owing to the false and deceitful promises by which they were deluded into the support of that fatal measure, the Reform in Parliament:

"Tis twelve months past, just yesterday, since earth, and sky, and sea,
And rock, and glen, and horse, and men, rang loud the jubilee;
The beacons blazed-the cannons fired, and war'd each plain and hill,
With the Bill-the glorious Bill, you rogues, and nothing but the Bill.

Our Ministers, so pop'lar then, presided o'er the fray,

On whisky jugs, and cans and mugs, secure sat Earl Grey,
And then as o'er our gladdened throats the stuff we stout did swill,
Our toast was still the Bill, you rogues, and nothing but the Bill.

Lord Brougham the mighty Chancellor, who Eldon's chain did take,
With plans of nice economy, made all the windows shake;
Abuses vile, and such like things, that made our nerves to thrill,
Were all to fly with, ah, you rogues, the Bill, aye, just the Bill.

Lord Althorp high, and Littlejohn, of all the Russels he,

Were then with us-at every fuss-prize gods of liberty;

Like Sidney grave, or Hampden brave, whom despots dire did kill,
We lauded to the firmament-the drawers of the Bill.

Our taxes, by this glorious Bill, were all to sink or fade,

Our shipping was to prosper then, and think, oh, what a trade!
Our agriculture, and our looms, our pockets were to fill,

By, ah, you rogues, the Bill, the Bill, and nought but by the Bill,

But this is not all. Not only do the working classes see that they have gained nothing whatever by the Bill, but the woeful fact is now beginning to open to their eyes, that they have been made a great deal worse than they were before; that they have been placed at the mercy of a body of men, who have little or no sympathy with their industry; and that the prevailing interest which now rules the determination of Parliament, is not only not theirs, but is actually an adverse interest.

With all their professions of patriotism, liberality, and a regard for the poor, there is no Parliament in 'the memory of man, which has done so little for the interest of the working classes, as that which was borne into St Stephen's on the transports of the Reform Bill. This is a fact, the existence and universal perception of which is completely demonstrated by the votes of the Legislature, and the simultaneous growth of Political Unions in all parts of the country. They have thrown out, by a majority of nearly 200, the proposal of Mr Attwood for an extension of the currency; the only measure which can put a stop to the incessant and increasing distress of the last ten years, and without a speedy adoption of which all attempts to revive industry, or avert ultimate national insolvency, will prove utterly nugatory. They have done nothing towards extend. ing the Poor's Laws to Ireland, a measure imperatively called for, not less by the wide-spread and heartrending suffering of the working classes in that unhappy and deluded country, but by the privations to which the British house-owners are exposed, by the enormous mass of Irish mendicity thrown upon them for relief. They have resisted and thrown out Mr Sadler's factory bill, and substituted a weak and nu

gatory act in its stead; thereby perpetuating, without intending it, in the heart of Britain, a system of infantine slavery, and sexual demoralization, a bondage of body and prostitution of mind, unparalleled in the annals of Christian oppression, and unexampled in the history of Mahometan slavery. They have thrown out all attempts to restore protection to British shipowners and manufacturers, adhered steadily to the reciprocity system, and the dogmas of free trade, when every nation on earth is loading with additional duties the import of our manufacturers. They have retained the assessed taxes, the most ruinous tax on the industry of the poor, next to the income-tax, which ever was invented, because it is a direct burden on the funds from which alone labour can be maintained, and a duty, not on the comforts or luxuries of the working classes, but their necessaries; not on their spirits and tobacco, but their bread and their beef. They have adhered to the low duties on beer and spirits, thereby perpetuating the growth of drunkenness and demoralization, multiplying, at a fearful rate, the progress of vice and profligacy, and literally realizing a revenue out of the wages of prostitution, and the brutality of intoxication. They have, at one blow, inflicted an irreparable wound on eight hundred thousand comparatively happy and contented labourers in the West Indies, deluding them by the name of a liberty which they are incapable of enjoying, and depriving them of a protection, and a state of rural comfort, which they have themselves confessed was "unprecedented in any civilized state.' They are now strongly urged by the interest in the State which has obtained an ascendency in the Reformed Parliament, to repeal the Corn Laws, thereby giving the finish.

But now, ali mark the circumstance, attend, my friends-the mob,
Our jubilee, like Sir John Key, has ended in a job;

Our Ministers, and patriots, have gilded each their pill,
And purged their friends, the Radicals, with nothing but the Bill.

Each one holds up his hands at last, in horror and disgust,

At this same time precious document, once termed the people's trust;
That last and first, was to bring grist to fill the nation's mill,
Ab, curse the Bill, ye rogues, the Bill, and nothing but the Bill.",
• Reform Ministry and Parliament, p. 6.

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