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Leader (1850-1860), 25th January 1851, Edition Country of 2, Page 20

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      Toe Rorula/Rion Question. Due .1(),|18f)...

      without deeming it necessary to adduce any " proof . Mr . Mill observes that " the power of multiplication in all organic life is infinite , " and that " any vegetable or animal would , unrestricted , in a short tune cover the globe . " If the facts be admitted , and I see not how they can be denied , that the land and the fertility of the land are limited , and that population is continually encreasing (& s is evident from comparing the present population of England , for inttance , with what it was a hundred years ago ) , the inference is irresistible that population , unchecked , must eventually exceed the subsistence that the earth ' s surface can furnish . A statement involving facts " proves" itself . If water be poured into a vessel faster than it escapes , it . surely requires no " proof" or argument to show that the water must at length fill the vessel and run over .

      Even supposing the means of subsistence to be greatly encreased and more generally diffused , as the population would encrease with an accelerated ratio , I believe we should soon be in the same position as to poverty and suffering as we were before . On this point , Dr . Chalmers observes , " In the midst of all the minuter criticism to which the doctrine has been exposed , the great historical fact remains unshakenthat , let the means of subsistence be encreased , however largely and suddenly , this is sure to be followed by a corresponding encrease of population . Every

      state and country in the world bears evidence to this truth—whether in the steady augmentation of Europe , or in the gigantic strides that are now making in the population of America . The invariable connection as of antecedent and consequent between a great extent of fertile and unoccupied land , and a great multiplication of families when once it is entered upon , is too palpable to be obscured by any sophistry , or by the allegation of any mystic principle whatever . " Certainly , the earth is adapted to support a « ' large portion " of mankind , but not an indefinitely encreasing number .

      I cannot but suspect that Mr . Search , like many other opponents of Malthus , has not read his work , or he would not treat the geometrical ratio with so much ridicule , leaving entirely out of the question the checks "' from war , famine , disease , and misery , which Malthus considers have hitherto prevented that excess of population which would otherwise have taken place . The question really is not in what ratio population encreases beyond production , but ¦ whether it encreases in any degree at all . The result must ultimately be the same ; it is only a question of time .

      I do not care to reconcile the benevolence or justice of the Creator with the facts or laws of Nature . Theologians have striven hard upon this point , but not at all to my satisfaction . A fact is not to yield to a speculation or an idea . It may seem unjust that " a creature should be punished for coming into the world , " but we see it everyday when children are born to poverty or to vicious circumstances ; and hence , are doomed to misery or civil punishment , or inherit a diseased constitution ; and hence suffer protracted pain , or premature death . Doubtless , had there been the will and the power , the world might have presented a very different scene from that which it has exhibited in all ages and countries . I . B . Barton .

      92 «$* N Ratter. [Satorpat ^

      92 « $ * n ratter . [ Satorpat ^

      An Equitable Exchange Medium. January 17...

      AN EQUITABLE EXCHANGE MEDIUM . January 17 , 18- ) l . Sin , —I beg permission to address to you a few remarks on the currency in reference to the labour question . The employment , or want of employment , of the working classes has always depended on the state of trade . Now , inherent in the competitive system of buying and selling , is the rising nn < i falling of price * When prices are low many workmen are out of

      employment , and a greater number work at reduced wages . As prices advance , wages , perhaps , also somewhat improve , at all events employment becomes more general . But prices cannot always continue to advance , and their eucrease , beyond a certain point , of itself checks demand , and things again recede to their former position . This is , and alwnya has been , the course of trade . No mere alteration of the currency can cure thin evil of the fluctuation of prices . It may aggravate or alleviate , but cannot cure it .

      A currency continually ( increasing in amount is , with reference to the working chinnes , undoubtedly preferable to one continually on the decrease : for , when prices arc advancing , employment becomes more general and remunerative . But such advance could not under any currency long continue unchecked , ns speculation in well known always to di « - count the future market by immediate enhancement . I think if your correspondent , M , whose letter appeared in fiiHt week ' s number , refers carefully to the period between the years 1 S 01 and 1 H 1 f » he will find that , although an enereuso was continually taking place in the amount , of the circulating medium , prices did not advance unchecked during that period . And also , hh you observe , M must not set anide as nought the effect on prices of the growth of our marvellous manufacturing system during those

      years , and which likewise considerably assisted in maintaining a prolonged period of comparative ease for the working classes . The return to cash payments and subsequent continual enhancement of the value of money in gradually cheapening everything appears to me undoubtedly to have brought great distress on . the many , and to have benefitted few save those havirtg fixed incomes . The appreciation of money has not

      only cheapened labour , but has dispensed with it . When prices decline debts due are more difficult to discharge , and trade having constantly a tendency to be unremunerative , some labourers receive less wages , and others are deprived of employment altogether . Therefore , it appears to me that what , in effect , is required by some , viz ., a continual slight depreciation of the currency is preferable to that constant appreciation of it which has been taking place during the

      last thirty years . But , looking at the currency in another and far more interesting point of view—as to what it can do to aid the emancipation of labour , we must go at once to the enquiry—What is and has been the object of money , and what should it be ? Historically viewed it has been but a mere medium of exchange . Futurity will require something more—that it shall not only be medium of exchange , * but equitable medium also . Money has hitherto represented wealth ; it should wealth

      in the future represent labour , the source of all . Production has engrossed the past attention of men ; equitable distribution will engage their future ; and how to effect this equitable distribution is even now fast becoming the problem of the day . It is an impossibility , without the direct and equal or nearly equal payment for labour of all kinds ; and it is the departure from , or rather I should say the absence of this principle which permits the unhappy spectacle of ill-fed , ill-clothed , ill-lodged , but hard-worked industry in juxtaposition with luxurious idleness .

      No Californian Accident , " as the auriferous discovery has been termed , no mere paper-extension act , will ever give the labourer the fruits of his industry . Rent , interest , and , above all , profit , cannot exist and labour receive its due reward . But it will be said these are exactions which the workman cannot escape . As regards the first two named , this is , perhaps , immediately true ( though not so remotely ) , but to avoid the exaction of profit is perfectly practicable even without accepting association based on absolute Communism . Suppose , for instance , an association managed as a joint stock company , commencing with agricultural operations , and adding afterwards trades

      and manufactures ; suppose the members of such association paid for their work in labour-notes of their own making , and the produce of their labour priced according to its labour cost , and retailed to them at a general store , would not some such society as this afford an approach to an equitable distribution , and at the same time preserve intact the individual independence of its members ? In conclusion , I would remark , that I have little faith in the success of any Communal attempt that does not guarantee to the individual at least an equal amount of independence to that he enjoys under the present competitive system .

      Hoping that I have written intelligibly though hastily , and that these ideas , if false , may speedily be proved ho by some of your clever correspondents , I am , Sir , yours in sincerity , A Communist .

      Complete Protestantism. 8, Ilemsworth-St...

      COMPLETE PROTESTANTISM . 8 , Ilemsworth-street , Hoxton , Jan . 2 , 1851 . Sir , —Though the ltoman Catholic agitation has not ceased , we may , at any rate , conclude that men are growing calmer , therefore more capable of seriously reflecting on some of its probable results . Protestantism , by its divisions , has made the Bible an open question ( though Protestants do not ia general acknowledge it ) . Numerous sects base their belief and practice on the Bible , and ( though Christ promised , " when two or three were gathered together in liia name , there would he be in the midst ') their belief and practice differ materially from each other . This in plain , there can be but one correct interpretation of the Bible . As each sect interprets for itHclf , and interprets differently from other sects .

      would it not be better , more miinful , more consistent , to openly proclaim the Bible to be un open question , than for each sect to arrogantly assume its open interpretation to be the only correct one ? One of the probable results of the agitation may be the propelling of Protestantism to the fulfilment of its misBion , by the Protestant religious world asserting and enforcing the HucredneHb of private judgment . This would be a death-blow to dogmatism and persecution . The incongruities and inconsistencies of Protestantism are the vitality of Catholicism . Make Protestantism consistent , then Catholicism will in time bi ; left a lumbering carcase , without the power to act or the hone of resuscitation .

      Another probable result appears to me to be that , when earnest , thoughtful men perceive Chriutiau Churches denouncing each other ; showing , in language neither meek nor mild , the follies , the errors , and BupciHtitionH of each other , they may awk , What

      is Christianity ? "What is religion ? We know that the population of the world is about 900 , 000 , 000 ; that Christians , -whose religion is said to have been promulgated by the Son of God , number , after 1800 years' existence , no more than 261 , 006 , 000—theBe figures including Freethinkers , Atheistsi and Unitarians . We know that Mahomedism sprang up after it—a great success ; , that it has its inspired book , the Koran , as devoutly believed in as the Bible . Brahminism has also its sacred writings ( the Vedas and Shastras ) , of undoubted antiquity . Bopdism , whose devotees number half the inhabitants of the world , have their "bedagat , " the morality of which will bear

      comparison with the Bible . While a a > much larger por tion of our fellow creatures disbelievfe Christianity , believing some other religion , is it not a preposterous assumption to assume that ours is the only true religion ? that we are the only peoples to whom God , the Creator , has chosen to manifest Jiimself . Better that religion should be an open question than that we should be so presumptive . Is it I not better thus , than in fear of everlasting damnation , to waste our strength in efforts to save ourseive * from the shoals and quicksands of doubt , overcomirjg one difficulty to encounter a greater , till we stand > till or surrender our reason ?

      " Fearing to slide from bad to fvorse . ' " And that in seeking to undo One riddle , and to find the true . We knit a hundred others new . " I conclude these remarks by asking freethinkers and Protestants if they give the Catholics credit for more devotion , more enthusiasm , a ^ . d a higher notion of duty to his convictions than they have ? If this is not the case , would they not , instead of attempting to crush by outcry and persecution , welcome an open

      encounter with the great and persistent foe of private judgment . They seem to forget the opportunities that would offer of exposing the " nummeries " and " tomfooleries . " To those who are in earnest and expectant of the future , this agitadon is hopeful . Let every advocate of private judgment exert himself as he ought , or hide his head whenever a Catholic ( whose mummeries he despises ) crosses his path . The year 1851 is portentous . There is a harvest , if the reapers are prepared . We all may help to " Ring out a slowly dying : cause . And ancient forms of part ; strife : King in the nobler modes of life , ¦ With sweeter manners , purer laws . " C . F . NlCHOLLS .

      Taxes On Knowledge. Jan. 20, 1851. Dear ...

      TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE . Jan . 20 , 1851 . Dear Sir , —As " The Father of the unstamped Press , " as Tail has been pleased to designate me , I rejoice to see the renewed efforts , in which you are taking so prominent and able a part , to * get rid . of all the taxes on knowledge . " If you can turn to the report of my trial in May , 1831 , you will eee that I at great length pointed out and urged upon the consideration of the court and jury , the unfair licence given by the ( then ) Commissioners of Stamps and Taxes to the proprietors of sundry publications ^ while prosecuting me for breach of the law . You

      complain of the same thing now . and with justice . We should all be placed on a level . But what I want to call your attention to is this . The Board of Inland Revenue , I Bee , denies that such publications as Punch , the Atherucum , and the Housefiold Narrative are newspapers ; upon what authority this dictum rents I know not ; but this I do know , that on my trial , and in the course of my defence . Lord Lyndhurst stopped me and said , that a eing lc paragraph of news , however old , introduced into a paper , made such paper a " newspaper" ; which the law defined to be " any paper containing newe , intelligence , © r occurrences , " and that the fact of the commissioners

      permitting some such papers to be published without stamps was an immaterial one , as they were " not the authorized expounders of the law . " Now , I had some months of imprisonment for violating a lftvr which others were permitted to violate with impU ' nity , and were , in fact , encouraged , to do » o by & supply of stamps for that portion of their impression they wished to transmit by pout . The l & me thing obtains now ; and you would be gerv « d « e I was vert you to attempt to do what Punch and other * » re permitted to do . This is really too bad ; anil I hop « you will bring the matter before the Uouse of Commons , and see whether the thing it to be justified . Truly yourn , WihhiAU Cauvkxtkh *

      Chartist Leaders. 4, Navarino-Frrove, Du...

      CHARTIST LEADERS . 4 , Navarino-frrove , Dulnton , Jan . tD , 1 H 5 X . [ Notr . —The writer of this letter has forgotten our severe rule of not allowing personalities . We havt therefore abridged the latter part of his letter , giving the substance without the illustrations . —Ep . J Siu , —I entertain a vory high respect for your valued correspondent , Mr . Ilolyouke . I alw » y » ° - giu-d his letters an worthy of tho utmout attention from your readers , and it i » on thin account that i cannot allow a sentence in his last epistle ( written * tut I conceive it to be , vury unadvisedly ) tp jmm » un" * noticed . Ho says : — .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 25, 1851, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25011851/page/20/