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Sept. 21, 1850.] ®t> * ti*&&£*? 613
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[In this department, as all opinions, ho...
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There is no learned man tut! will confes...
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MISS MARTINEAU'S EXPERIMENT. Sept. 17, 1...
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COPY OF A LETTER ON "THE LYTTELTON TIMES...
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SABBATH BREAKING BY SABBATH FORCING. Snn...
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ROBERT OWEN'S FIRST PRINCIPLE. Eversley,...
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Social Reform. Epistoue Obscuboeum Viror...
ribands , bobbinets , knives and other hardware , stationery , —knicknacks without end . But these are not essential : he is " clem" with cold and hunger , and knives or paper will not serve his turn : he cannot live on them . Besides , the verymen that made those knives and that paper are in his predicament . Trade has filled the shops with cutlery and haberdashery to satiate a continent , and all of the most wonderful quality ; but the producers are on short commons : there is not enough of primary products .
And glad are the producers to live only on short commons , glad if they only have " not enough " : for by the blessing of God they are endowed with perseverance to work on , and they do keep within the circle of existence—as yet . But , if this process continue , more and more of us may bestow our labour on the non-essential and secondary produce , which is so precarious of exchange for the primary produce ; and then we shall see a caricature of our present flourishing state—the golden sunflower of wealth flourishing in a soil manured with the flesh of the poor .
Another incident of this division of employments under favour of trade is , that all industry has to submit its produce before it can obtain the available return to the precarious measurement of exchangeable value . Now , exchangeable value depends upon the amount of wealth circulating in the market ; and in the exchange , trade , perfectly impartial , makes no distinction between the vital necessity , or the mere convenience , or the merest luxury of an article : in a highly commercial
market , convenience will possess a higher value than necessity ; in a wealthy market , the luxury will possess the highest value : hence , labour and trade bestowed on the articles of primary necessity do not " pay " so well as labour and trade bestowed on conveniences and luxuries , and trade will be far more assiduous in supplying the wants of commerce and luxury than the vital necessities of bare humanity . But this incident will be better understood when I have pointed out some of the social effects of enormously accumulated capital .
Meanwhile , have these suggestions began to direct your thoughts to the practical reasons why , in the midst of wealth , want remains unsatisfied ; why , in the midst of industry , labour does not attain its return ; why , in the midst of the most active commerce , trade , perfectly " free , " fails to fulfil the promise made for it by political oeconomy ; why , in the midst of a civilization , held by many to be as near perfection as it can be , misery and crime deplore the freedom of savagery and hunger for the free labour of the wilderness , where human appetite and human hands can once more fasten on the faithful bosom of mother Earth ? Ever your affectionate , Thornton Hunt .
Sept. 21, 1850.] ®T> * Ti*&&£*? 613
Sept . 21 , 1850 . ] ® t > * ti *&& £ *? 613
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[In This Department, As All Opinions, Ho...
[ In this department , as all opinions , howevek rxtreme , ahe allowed an expression , the editolt necessarily holds himself responsible for none . ]
There Is No Learned Man Tut! Will Confes...
There is no learned man tut ! will confess he hath much profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for turn to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversary to write , —Wilton .
Miss Martineau's Experiment. Sept. 17, 1...
MISS MARTINEAU'S EXPERIMENT . Sept . 17 , 18 . 00 . Sir , —Allow me to point out to Mr . Barton ' s agricultural friend the opening sentences of my letter , which he has evidently overlooked . " I am happy to furnish the account you wish Mr . Bowyer to huve of my small attempt at farming . I should have desired to defer it for a year or two , if it had boon Mr . Bowyer ' s object or mine to ascertain what is tho pecuniary profit or loss of cow-keeping on my plan ; for this plan has been in full operation little more than half a year . But I understand Mr .
Bowyer ' s object to be to see how a certain amount of labour , waiting for employment , can be best made available . " Further on I said , " I do not yet affirm that the experiment will answer ; but I believe that it will . " Mr . Bowyer is an Assistant Poor-law Commissioner , anxious to promote the best schemes for the employment of labour in "workhouses and industrial schools . He asked me how much I got out of an acre and a quarter of land , and how I got it . I told him in this letter . The letter was copied and circulated , and somebody ( I do not know who ) sent it to the Morning Chronicle , I am glad it so happened , if the statement has been as useful as I am told it has been . But it was never intended as a lecture to
farmers . The facts as they stand are these : —Here was a piece of land , provided as at present with fences , gates , & c , and paying the same rates and taxes as at present , which was more expense than profit , though somewhat more than an acre of it let for £ 4 10 s . This same piece of ground now yields , as a pure creation , and -without cost to me , the comfortable subsistence of two persons , besides a large amount of comfort to my little household . This is the case I have to state . It ' is for others to settle whether such a fact is worth looking into .
The letter was written in January last . In February I took in another half acre on lease . When our autumn crops are in and weighed , I mean to report progress . Meantime , I may just say that the gentleman ' s vision of our field is much too grand . A . horse on our little plots of tillage would be as dreadful as an elephant in « a corn-field . We have nothing for blacksmith or carpenter to do , and our tools are a spade and a rake , and a fork and a dibble , and a scythe and a currycomb . I think that is all . Ours is not a show piece of amateur farming , done with costly tools and natty devices ; but simply some digging and weeding , done under the guidance of earnest thought and a hearty will . —I am , Sir , yours respectfully , Haiuuet Mabtineau .
Copy Of A Letter On "The Lyttelton Times...
COPY OF A LETTER ON " THE LYTTELTON TIMES . " Bath , September 11 , 1850 . Sir , —This morning I have received your circular , announcing a weekly newspaper entitled The Lyitclton Times , to be edited in New Zealand . Whatever is undertaken by so exemplary a man , and so accomplished a gentleman , as Mr . J . E . Fitzgerald , is deserving of success ; but whatever is under the control or influence of the Colonial Office is sure of failure . Wrongs and revolutions have marked it in every quarter of the globe since I .. ord Grey , the most ignorant and most arrogant of officials , has presided over it . Hence , it is easy to foresee that if ever The Lyttelton Times is published , which , indeed , is extremely doubtful , one of the earliest numbers "will announce the rise of discontent and discord in a colony of the most industrious , intelligent , and quiet settlers . A restless fool has shaken the torch until it flamed above the clouds of the Cape . Encouragement has been given to another Haynau ( but one who never had a blade to his hilt ) in his hangings , and shootings , and floggings , at Corfu . Similar pranks will receive from Whig ministers , wherever their domination extends , a similar countenance and applause . If , contrary to every expectation and every experience , the journal is permitted to proceed , I shall be happy in adding my name to the subscription . I am , Sir , & c , Waltek Savage Landor . Mr . Ingram Shrimpton , Printer , Oxford .
Sabbath Breaking By Sabbath Forcing. Snn...
SABBATH BREAKING BY SABBATH FORCING . Snndon Bay , September 17 , 1850 . Sir , —Now that the civil law has begun to pronounce once more in favour of those members of the community who have exerted themselves to procure the free distribution and receipt of letters on the Sunday , all who regard the result of the contest in the light of a party victory will probably deem it a superfluous task to persevere in exposing the sophistries of those who contend for the peculiar sanctity of that particular day , or for the necessity of setting apart one day in the week for religious duties . While those that revere truth for its own sake , who feel how vain it is to search for it , unless we can rise superior
to all considerations of triumph or defeat , unless we can behold it with equanimity , nay , with pleasure , unfolded to our sight even by an antagonistic hand , will agree with mo in desiring to see the question pursued further , as being one of groat importance und as forming , in its popular misconception , a faithful link in the bondage chain of superstition . The assertion of tho advisability and necessity of religious repose from constant and . engro ssing toil , with which , in some cases , the contenders for tho observance of a Sabbath have attempted to fortify their lino of argument , is of course indisputable ; but their construction , that this necessity aunctionu the conjunction of the leisure of the week into ono appointed day , hallowed for pious purposes , is as inadmissible
as the preliminary was undeniable , unless the appropriation of that day can be proved to be decreed by an infinitely higher authority than that of the ordinances of priestly conclaves , or the hoary examples of sacerdotal ages ! Indeed , I conceive there would be many advantages result from the division of the hours of relaxation : suppose we we re to allow two hours for each day , might not theseintervalsbe far more profitably employed in cultivating the mind and seeking out religious truth , than when , united into one long day , detached from the rest , as at present ? besides that they would afford to the labourer and
artizan opportunities for the performance of many little useful tasks that would be greatly conducive to home-comfort . This arrangement , it appears to me , would also prevent religion from being so exclusively the duty of one day in the week , for its tendency would be to diffuse it over all . Then the allegation of the temptation which the extreme regarders of the Sabbath would be exposed to by the total enfranchisement from civil law of those who acknowledge no allegiance to the abrogated Mosaic code , or the self-imposed restrictions of superstition or craft , embodies a confession of feeling puerile , undignified ,
and utterly at variance with the lofty self-sacrificing spirit of religion , and as perfectly consonant with that of intense selfishness , which ever requires that others should be debarred from advantages , even , though they might enjoy them with unwarped and unviolated consciences , which it has not the moral courage to avail itself of , or the fortitude , the magnanimity voluntarily to resign at the altars of principle . But , as incontrovertably baseless as the last plea is unworthy is the assertion , -which I trust but few comparatively believe , that the Old Testament is the exponent of the New—for all who are capable of comprehending the spiritual beauty and superiority
of the latter , of reverently appreciating the Divine design for human progression , and of marking its exemplification in the history of the Jews , in the adaptability of the Mosaic law for the early unenlightened condition of the children of Israel—all those , in fact , who have earnestly studied both records will be sensible at once of the absurdity of the affirmation , as the new dispensation so decidedly rescinds the burdensome laws and ceaseless ceremonials of the old ; therefore , unless it can be demonstrated that a Sabbath -was instituted by the divinely-commissioned teachers of the new covenant , its establishment can only be regarded as the extrinsic addition of unauthorized individuals . But the Sabbatarians themselves
have furnished us with , a strong argument against their own superstition or intolerance in their declaration that pious and charitable works may be undertaken on the Sunday , for -when in truth are we licensed to be engaged in other than pious works ? Is not true religion a dedication of our whole powers , physical and mental , to the service of the Deity , and is not every action hallowed that is thus made subservient to the great scheme of individual and reciprocal improvement ! The decree of the Jewish Sabbath admitte'd of no misinterpretation or evasion . —mistake was then impossible , every neglect wilful ; —its requirements are lucid and positive ; let those who disbelieve its abrogation reverence and obey them . While those who adhere to the belief in a Christian
Sabbath must bring forth such a preponderating weight of divinely authorized testimony as shall prove the exhortations of the Apostle Paul to be interpolated when he earnestly exclaims , in his Epistle to tho Galatians , chap . iv . verses 10 and 11—•* Ye observe days , and months , and times , and years . I am afraid of yout lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain . " I remain , Sir , yours obediently , Clara Walmey .
Robert Owen's First Principle. Eversley,...
ROBERT OWEN'S FIRST PRINCIPLE . Eversley , Sept . 17 , 1800 . Snt , —I sco in your last number a letter headed " Mr . Owen's First Principle , " and signed F . G ., which asserts ' that man is not a free agent , " and " that his character is formed for him , and not by him ; " and challenges 4 < the opponents of Socialism to refute his logic . " Now , how far I am an opponent to Socialism the public has already means of judging ; and as for the writer ' s logic , I certainly shall not
attempt to refute it , for there is none to refute , the principal methods of argument in the letter being ** ignoratio clenchi , " " ambiguous middle terms , " " petitio principii , " and a most complicated form of confusion which I presume should bo defined as sophisma universi per hypothesin individui " —as if a man should attempt to prove that all horses are green by assuming that one horse may be green—for this , if anything , is tho form of argument in such a sentence as this : — " If circumstances are ever so
strong as to compel a man , it follows that just in proportion to compulsion , thero is no frco agency »"this , I say , or tho truism , that when a man is compelled ho is compelled—a conclusion not peculiar to Socialists . But the question , at the present crisis of the Associative movement , is too important to bo special-pleaded . Mr . Owen ' s " first principle " might be true , even though F . G . defend it illogically . I will , therefore , by your leave say ft few words thereon ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 21, 1850, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21091850/page/13/
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