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Untitled Article
to be a , generaland permanent benefit to society , and their introduction a temporary and limited evil , ' have not those unfortunate persons who have been brought up to trades , which are affected by new machinery , claims on society for suitable support , without being treated as paupers?—it would be but fair that a certain proportion of such persons Were pensioned until they had adjusted themselves , or during life , as is often the case with persons in office when new arrangements take place . I conceive persons have often had the plea of vested right admitted , who had not " so just a claim on the country as the Nottingham net-weavers and the hand-loom weavers of Manchester .
With respect to the poor-laws , much may be said for and against , but to Ireland I think they would be a benefit , and might be recommended erf these pleas . That a great portion of the people of Ireland depend for their subsistence on a produce which is not like corn that allows of being stored , and the abundance of on ^ year come s in aid of a y ear of scarcity , but it is always consumed within the year ; consequently , Ireland must be more subject to scarcity and famine than this country . Had they poor-laws , the poor could not then be driven from the place of their nativity to perish in ditches and cellars ,
on men of great landed estates introducing new systems of agriculture among them *—That poor-laws would oblige men of property to engage in public works in their own defence , and be the best absentee tax . —That it- must raise the standard of living among them generally , I think . —That it would accustom all orders to the use of law , as poor-laws would introduce new rights and new duties . fc . There has been , if we judge from the conduct and reasoning of the Duke of Newcastle , a lost truth : he said a man had a right to do as he pleased
with his own . In that he mistook right for power : right we have not , nor can have , to influence men's consciences ; and the man that turns out a tenant for giving a conscientious vote must answer at a higher tribunal than himself . There have been honourable exceptions to such conduct;—men who seem not to have lost sight of the duty of doing to others as they would wish others to do unto them . There is , I believe , the Earl of Northampton , Lord Bridport , a Mr . Hallet , and Rev . Mr . Hallet , and the Marguis of Tavistock . Would not a general vote of congratulation from the Unions be becoming to men who act the ingenuous part of telling their tenants they do
not wish to tamper with their consciences ? You know our religion commands us to be temperate , and the virtue is generally inculcated from the pulpit ; yet , by benevolent persons coming forward for the specific purpose of urging that virtue , as the Temperance Societies have done , mighty effects have been produced . Now , as the bane of election is intimidation and corruption , why not give persons in the same way an opportunity of bearing their testimony against those evils , and I think they would not be few , which might be done by signing a public paper to this effect : — ' Deprecating , we hope in common with a great proportion of all ranks , all sects , and all parties in this country , the evil that is produced in society , by intimidation and corruption , we think it right individually to bear testimony against such practices , by signing the following declaration : —
When the country would know that no candidates could well be their friends if they refused to sign such a declaration , it would place them , in a most awkward dilemma , as the question would be continually asked them if they were declarationi 8 tiu " C . W .
• We , the undersigned , inhabitants of the , understanding that unjustifiable means have frequently been resorted to , to influence electors in the disposal of their votes for candidates for their representation in Parliament , do make this declaration—That we acknowledge the obligation of the Christian dvity of doing to others tis we would have others do unto us ; conr sequently disavow the right , though we may have the power , to control any man ' s vote contrary to his conscientious conviction ; and we do further declare , if there be any religion , or moral distinction ; between the person that bribes and the person that receives the bribe , the corrupter appears to us the most criminal / .. .. . .
Untitled Article
% 56 . . Correspondence .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1832, page 856, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1826/page/62/
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