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MONTHLY RETROSPECT of PUBLIC AFFAIRS; OR, The Christian's Survey of the Political World.
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Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
\( 341 s )
Monthly Retrospect Of Public Affairs; Or, The Christian's Survey Of The Political World.
MONTHLY RETROSPECT of PUBLIC AFFAIRS ; OR , The Christian ' s Survey of the Political World .
Untitled Article
THE debates in parliament have been « f a very interesting nature , and it is not the division mere \ y that must be attended to , but the argument which the subject brought on . The nature of the votes in the House of Commons is well
understood throughout the country ; and it is as easy , in general , to determine beforehand the result of a motion , as it was for a member to name all the persons that should be elected by ballot . Still the discussion of various subjects brings things to light , which shame at least the perpetrators
of ttiem > and public opinion is still a great restraint against many enormities . - It may be < loubted , therefore , whether the sentiment of a popular member was correct ., that the government of a monarch is better than that of an oligarchy , as exists now in
this country ; for , from the nature of the latter hody the press is in less danger , and a liberty of speech will , for their own sakes , be allowed in the legislature , which , in the cast of absolute monarchy , would be entirely put down .
But certain questions have been debated , which characterize in strong colours the mode of rhiuking * of the times . Petitions upon petitions have been presented to the House from those who have suffered grievously in their persons and property under the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act .
The case of two men , who had been put in irons and conveyed like felons to a prison ., on pretext of having sold libellous pamphlets , wais laid before the House . Little impression was made , and the gibes and jeers of Mr . Canning , on the sufferings of an old and injured man , will not easily be forgotten . It did not , however , suit the
views of certain persona , that a full investigation of all these cases should be entered into ; and therefore , it remains uncontradicted , that subjects of Great Britain have been exposed to a very great degree of unnecessary violence , in carrying' them to places of confinement , and have been confined in such a manner , as nothing but extreme danger to the state could justify .
A cas « , however , comes front the west Indies , and humanity takes the alarm . Its horrors are not lessened by a voyage of three thousand miles . It is described in glowing" colours , and it represents the eruelty of a master towards his slaves , tl » at master being" of black and not white origin . The slaves are represented as having had unjustly inflicted an them twenty-five lasfces
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with a cart whip ; and there are circumstances besides , which we should be the last persons in the world to justify . Let th « black case be told in all its horrors ; but lea it not tbence be inferred , that all planters are guilty of inhumanity . They , that is a
very great majority of them , view with as much horror as we do , the conduct that was the cause of complaint before the House 5 and it may be said of many of them , that they are move attentive to their slaves for their comfort in sickness and old
age , than persons of similar situation- in life , in Great Britain , are to the poor on their estates" * . In fact , if a comparison were made between this country and the West India islands , and the sufferings arising from the Game Laws contrasted with those of Slavery , it might turti out , that , in this boasted land of liberty , there would not fee so great a difference as people are apt to imagine . The lashes inflicted on a slave
do not produce the same sensation as they do on the back of a freeman ; and inaprisonmeni may be to the latter a far greater punishment than what , when suffered by the former , excites so much of our compassion ; and besides , the snaring * of a hare , however criminal in the eve of the
country squire , is not considered as such a guilty action by the peasant . He uses his reason in the same manner with respect to the laws of his country as the higher classes . The latter do not scruple , though it is equally against the laws of God and the laws of the laud , to go out into the field , and in a case of falsely-called honour , to aim a deadly blow against their adversary ; the former finds it contrarv to the laws of
the land to kill a hate or a partridge , but he does not discover any prohibition in the law of God . They , then , who are so kind as to overlook in their class the violation of the law of God , ought not to be rery violent in their censures upon the poor ignorant peasant , for doings that , which would not be a bad fiction unless tna < fce to
by the laws Which is the worst action , to go into a field to snare a hare or to kill a man ? Let this question be fairly answered ; and then let the penalties exacted for these two different crimes be compared
together . The game laws have hern a subject of discussion ; but not to take into consideration the quantity of immorality produced by them ; the number of persons reduced to parish allowance * , in consequence of
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1818, page 341, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2476/page/53/
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