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Untitled Article
which they were assembled , the singleness of direction which their efforts took , leading the universal cry of the country for the restoration of Earl Grey , the plainness and decision with which they gave such expression as the law allows to the determination of commencing a passive resistance to any other administration , showed them the apt and ready organs of that resistless national
power , which has been described at the commencement of this article . It is to be hoped that the nature and advantages of these societies may now become better understood . They have done much good , and they might have done much more , but for the uninquiring prejudice , which has , to so large an extent , deprived them of the co-operation of the middle classes . We could specify some signal instances of their beneficial influence on the
spirit , opinions , and desires of those poorer classes who have constituted their chief numerical strength . We know that they have done much in abating the mutually hostile feelings which had sprung up between the middle and the lower classes of society . They have afforded facilities for * the diffusion of sound moral and political information , ' to an unexampled extent . They have done that practically , about which too many Christian congregations only theorize—they have brought together the high and the
low , the rich and the poor , those who think and those who toil , with mutual confidence , to teach and to be taught , to inquire , discuss , resolve , and act , on the ground of common equality and fraternal union . It may yet appear that they have even a greater merit than that of strengthening the people to obtain the Reform Bill ; the merit of preparing and qualifying the people to avail themselves of that bill when obtained , so as to derive from it those advantages of good government , without which it is only so much wasted parchment .
But the great inference of all , from these occurrences , is the immense importance , the absolute and urgent necessity of providing for universal public instruction . Not instruction in reading , writing , and arithmetic merely , not that of Sunday Schools , and Mechanics ' Institutes , but political instruction , that is to say , the principles of social morality . This is the instruction for which millions are
craving , and to withhold or impede the supply is most perilous . Every topic on which we have hitherto dwelt , the magnitude of the power which the people have discovered that they possess , the quietness , promptness , and determination with which they were about to avail themselves of that power , the feelings which have been
excited and the questions which have been raised , by the blind selfishness and pride of the aristocracy , and the habit which , in selfdefence has been generated of political association , —all are so many cogent arguments for carrying the general information of the people to the highest attainable point . The wisest thing which can be done , is the instant repeal of the taxes on knowledge . The
Untitled Article
400 The Recent Political Crisis .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1832, page 400, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1814/page/40/
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