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useful , and blessed work . The supposed interests and real vindictiveness of some classes , the prejudices and the profits of the legal profession , and the habitual phrases ( which they mistake for mental convictions ) of peers and judges , who dread any deviation :
from that to which they are accustomed , will doubtless oppose formidable obstacles to the consistent advocates of reason , justice , and humanity . It is only the more important , that the men whom we send into the House of Commons should be among the most enlightened and determined of those advocates .
III . Hostility to all Monopolies . —The first and foremost of these—the great trunk , as it were , out of which the rest sprout —• is the corn laws—laws which benefit not the laborious cultivator , while they are the worst of injuries on the industrious consumer ; laws which are the standing excuse of any class which wants the community to be taxed in order to keep up the price of whatever
article that class may bring into the market ; laws which are a tax upon bread ; that is to say , upon human labour , health , and life . The free interchange of commodities with foreign countries , the free application at home of capital and labour to whatever will yield a profitable result , must , as the ultimate object , be the best interest of the community ; and therefore , eventually , the interest of those classes and individuals who , from considerations alike selfish
and short-sighted , obstruct the national good . The spirit of monopoly pervades this country to a frightful extent . It is found in every thing , from the government of colonial empires to the regulations of trades . The consumer pays for all ; and men too often forget that they are plundered of much more as consumers than they can , as monopolists , plunder from others . It is the monkey system , rob and let rob ; we want men who will revert to the old and better maxim , live and let live .
IV . Church Reform . —The members of the church ought to possess the power of revision over its creeds , articles , services , and offices , and not be driven to the necessity of dissent when they are dissatisfied with any of these as not accordant with the wants and improvement of the present age . Means should be taken to prevent the abuse of spiritual functions to political purposes * None should be taxed for the support of a form of religion which
they do not approve . The clergy should be held responsible for the discharge of the duties for which they are paid . A better mode of payment than by making them the collectors of the national property of tithe should be adopted , and out of the ample revenues which are at present of such little avail for the moral and religious purposes to which they are professedly devoted , the foundation might be laid of an universal and efficient system of national education .
V . Parliamentary Responsibility . —Every candidate should pledge himself , if elected , to render an account , from time , to
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On Parliamentary Pledged 441
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No . 67 . 2 K
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1832, page 441, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1816/page/9/
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