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pursuit of some immediate advantage to self . They have suffered themselves to be misled by personal intrigues , to adopt petty manoeuvres , to profess base and paltry principles . A multitudinous people cannot diplomatize , cannot vie with the wealthy classes in subscribings for moneyed agitation , cannot wage war by covert manoeuvres . Openness , boldness , trust in the force of numbers and of manly motives , are the onl y true reliances of any people . If the working classes had been true in their allegiance to a generous faith—if they had been prepared each to risk loss and even destruction in standing up for the rights of
allif they had been truly resolved to stand or fall together , we should not see all Paisley a pauper warren , the men of Sheffield petitioning for more statutes to prevent them from working themselves to death , nor woolcombers of Bradford consenting to transportation under the revilings of those whose class they have enriched . But it is not yet too late to mend ; if the working-classes , whether of Yorkshire or Dorsetshire , of Renfrewshire or Worcestershire , will adopt the true policy whieii will always make working men strong—if they will trust in generous manly principles , be united in action , and bold , they may yet dictate their own terms .
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THE THREE POACHERS OF WORKINGTON . Odious in themselves , the Game Laws are rendered doubly so by any harsh administration ; and one would suppose that magistrates would be especially cautious in applying those laws to very young people . On these grounds we can hardly believe a story which has been sent to us by a correspondent ; not because it comes to us without the tokens of an honest narrative , but because the fact stated seems to be nearly impossible . One evening , but while it was still daylight , during the late warm weather , Joseph JNichol , Bichard Sanderson , and Richard Hetlierington , were seen in a mill-race near Carlisle , dabbling
in the water , turning the stones , and endeavouring to catch fish ; boyishly trespassing . On the following day they were summoned before the Workington magistrates , and charged with breaking the Game Laws . They told no lie , but admitted the facts alleged , and pleaded " guilty . " Our correspondent says , " they were too honest to tell a lie , as they would have been to steal a farthing . " Those formidable statutes , the Game Laws , were not explained to the lads , with a reprimand , and a remand home ; but the culprits were sentenced to one month ' s imprisonment in the county gaol .
_ Now what are the ages of these dreadful offenders P Hethcrington is thirteen years old , Sanderson , twelve , and Nichol eleven ! " These same magistrates , " says our correspondent , " parents—talk of the value of Sunday Schools and itagged Schools , and have abundance of opportunities of witnessing the progress of juvenile offenders when they have once entered the great seminary of vice . " By what ri g ht then did they consign those young boys to ruin P Tt would not have been so if the lads had been
young gentlemen : they would then have boon " pulled through . " The Game Laws are odious ; not so much because they are logically inconsistent with the principles of law , but because , from tho nature of things , they must always operate as class laws , oppressing the poor . Plebeians , writes our correspondent , with a just expression of the general feeling , " must be taught that fishes that sport , wildly in God ' s water—tho fleet hare that skims the moors and tho wild bird that owns no domain in the air—an ? for aristocratic- palates only . When they Hecuro these to themselves , and the
land , even to the enclosure of the commons , is it not a mercy to the human family that they e ; m devise no statute to bottle up the air for their exclusive useP" Such is the general feeling niiiiHt the laws ; but when fathers boo them enred against their young sons—when they see -msn protected by the ( Jaino Ijiiwb revenging > aeh of their privilege by consigning more en to tho school of a , life ' s ruin , arc not the s raised dangerous , even to society , as it is y Hueh magistrates ! hall no doubt hoar more of this ca « o .
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NATIONAL AND COLONIAL J'OSTACIK . ybody explain upon what principle it ih ic iWt-oflice authorities carry newspapers imrts of our colonial empire for nothing than tho penny Btum ]> , and yot charge u
shilling for carrying the smallest letter a similar distance ? No one would wish to see the circulation * of newspapers restricted in any way , but if six ounces of printed paper can be carried to New Zealand or Australia for a penny , what valid reason can there be for charging twelve times that sum for carrying , a sheet which , does not weigh more than half an ounce ? Chancellors of the Exchequer always insist that luxuries ought to be highly taxed , and unquestionably , a letter from a distant friend is one of the most exquisite ; but then Chancellors of the Exchequer
ought to remember that it is frequently the poor man ' s luxury , and that , as he cannot pay so heavy a tax as the Post-office charges upon it , he must forego the enjoyment . Measured by weight , the charge for sending a newspaper to Port Phillip , as compared with the postage of a letter to the same place , is as 1 to 144 ! And this is done by a Government which professes to entertain , the most anxious desire to place the colonies on terms of equality with the mother country ! In a speech delivered by Mr . Sidney Herbert , a few weeks ago , to a party of poor needlewomen
about to embark for Australia , he insisted strongly upon their not forgetting to write home to those friends who had assisted them to exchange shirtmaking in London at threepence a piece , with squalor and starvation , ending in the workhouse or the hospital , or worse , for health , comfort , and independence in that colony . This is advice which has been frequently given , but to very little purpose . Of the many thousands who have been sent to Australia during the last two or three years , comparatively few ever think of writing home ; and Mr . Sidney Herbert and his friends
cannot but " know the reason why . " If they wish emigrants to maintain a frequent correspondence with friends at home , they ought instantly to join the Association to promote a cheap and uniform system of colonial and international postage . That society was formed in the summer of last year by some of the most active members of the various committees of the Exhibition , but it is only within the last month or two that it has began to move . It already includes among its members Earl Granville , Lord Ashburton , Mr . William Brown , M . P ., Mr . Charles Villiers , M . P ., Mr . Mihier Gibson , M . P ., Sir
Roderick Murchison , Sir William Reid , Sir John Burgoyne , Dr . Lyon Playfair , Mr . Dilke , Mr . Cole , and a number of influential foreigners . The Association has only to act with vigour and perseverance in order to accomplish the very important measure which ifc has taken in hand . Among the A'arious circulars it has published , there is one which contains tho basis of a proposed arrangement , b y which the postal revenue shall bo fairly divided between the contracting parties ; each country being allowed to use its own coins , weights , and measures , in the collection of that revenue .
" To satisfy these conditions , " says the circular , " the following plan is proposed . Let a postal union be formed between as many countries as possible , on the following simple- grounds : — " I . — K « ch country shall fix a rate of foreign postage nt its own discretion , provided that rate be uniform to every country in the projnwed postal union , and every part , of that country ; and that rate shall be prepaid in all cases . " II . —ICaeh country shall engage to receive , transmit , or deliver to its address , free of any ehargo whatever , any letter passing to it free from the post-offices of the other subscribing countries . " In other words , each country shall levy a revenue on letters outwards , none on letters inwards .
" Tims , each country would collect its own revenue in its own coin , subject to its own regulations ; uniformity and simplicity would be secured as far as they arc . practically useful to the inhabitants of a country , and clionpnens would come of itself . Jiidccd , no Government would ( inter into Mich an arrangement that did not recognise the advantage of cheap postage , and no country would very long charge its citizens much more for the carriage of a letter than a stranger would have to pay for the reply to that letter , when the service ! rendered is precisely tho same . "
So far as England is concerned , the whole question of cheap international postage resolvea itself into the single service of the transportation of letters b y sea ; and tho cost of that is so very trilling , an hardly to form an item worthy of consideration . A barrel of ( lour , which weigliH l ' . Xilhs ., is brought from New York to Liverpool for Iohh than half-a-crown . Lot a packugo of letters bo carried at the waino rate , and tho ocean
postage charge woldd fee only about ^ th of « penny . But let us be liberal , and allow a pennv for the transportation of a letter from Ampni to England . Surely that would defray all ex penses of collection , and leave a handsome profif to Government . As regards our own colonies the adoption of cheap postage might be effected at once , and Sir John Pakington ought to bo asked , what hinders it from being done P
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THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT IV . " That system of laws is alone calculated to maintain oiVii liberty which leares the subject entire master of his own conduct , except in those points wherein the public good reaui « r some direction or restraint . "—Blackstosb . H > "reB " A rational Government will attend solely to the hannino . of the governed . " —Owbbt . " ¦ ppmesa ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sir , —In the early part of the fourteenth century the revival of the arts , the development of commerce and manufactures , and the faint indications of improvement in . the system of government had awakened a desire in the minds of the people to elevate their condition , and to emancipate themselves from a state of villenage which had become more intolerable than slavery . The general rising of the incorporated trades in Flanders and in . Paris , headed by Artevelde and Marcel , and the insurrection of the French peasantry , or Jacques , were but the natural consequences of this growing spirit of discontent . iteports of these events were speedily circulated
throughout England , where personal slavery , according to Froissart , was more general than in any other country in Europe , and prepared the people for action . Doctrines of the most revolutionary character were actively propagated by itinerant preachers , who travelled about the country inculcating on their auditors the tenets of the primitive Christians , the common origin and social equality of mankind , the community of goods , and the abolition of all artificial distinctions , and proclaiming that the degradation and sufferings of the Commons arose from the corruption and tyranny of their rulers . Doctrines
so popular and so conformable to the ideas of natural equality engraven in the breast of every man , were greedily accepted by the multitude ; and the imposition of an additional poll-tax produced a sudden and violent outbreak . The insurgents , headed by leaders under the assumed names of Wat Tyler , Tom Miller , Hob Carter , and Jack Straw , demanded not only a general amnesty , but the abolition of slavery , freedom of commerce in market towns without toll or impost ,
and a fixed rent on lands instead of the Bervices due by villenage . These demands were at oncecomplied with , and charters of enfranchisement and pardon were granted' , but revoked soon afterwards , by Parliament . The insurrection of W at Tyler and his followers , unsuccessful as it was with regard to its immediate objects , nevertheless gave a death-blow to villenage , and impressed upon the rest of the community an abiding conviction and a salutary dread of the popular strength . When the Commons again rose , in the rebellion headed by Jack Cade , some seventy years later , the difference in the nature of tneir demands is very remarkable , and throws a strong lwlit imon tho nroarress achieved in the inw- ™
by the " labouring cWs . In 1380 , their pn » - pil demand was the abolition of villenago or am very ; they made no claim to "nm ^ E cal rights or privileges . In 1450 , the question of villenage had been already settled , and tiie Commons demanded not only the redress ot van oub public grievances , but one of their complainamounted to a distinct assertion of V °¥ »\ ar } fc ' al —namely , their remonstrance aganiBt WW / J interference of the nobility in elections oj kny ' ^ the shire , and they required that the ch » c cot their representatives in Parliament should uo
in tho hands of the people . . ,, ii . About this time tho Lollards , especial \ y « Fratres vita : communis , who were dl 8 . !' «« ink for their mysticinm and practical usofumew . erousod rapidly in tho Netherlands /} lld ! " " many ; one of their chief objects being t hea < van ^ _ montof tho religious education of tlio I » , and their activity , and the respect in W ' brethren were held , excited tho hostility ^ oi Mendicant orders . It was not , however , ^ tho sixteenth century that the reviving sun ^ ancient literature furnished moans ioj w invocation of tho state of tho Church ana labours of tho Italian and Gorman human »^ l 0 Ueuchlin and ErasmuB , prepared tue w Y . „ great lioibrmation . Luther bjin » clf , nunou * ,
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826 * ' THE LEADER . [ Satprday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 28, 1852, page 826, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1949/page/14/
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