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Untitled Article
tion of poor laws ; and not of poor laws only , but of charity in every shape—of anything , in short , which can stand for an instant of time ( mark that , for an instant oftime . /) between the poor and that utter destitution , which this gentle philosopher expects to teach them / ( and will it * iot teach them ? or , are they not to be taught ?) * to keep their numbers within the demand for their labour , and which , at all
events , would' ( say rather will ) kill them off down to the desirable limit . ' ( Quarterly Review , page 144 . ) It is the Quarterly Reviewer that fixes the ne plus ultra limit of the poor laws , utter destitution / as the desirable limit oF population ; aad it is the follower of Malthus , and not the Quarterly Reviewer , that desires a limit of population very far short of the utter destitution which is the certi denique fines , the
sure and unavoidable limit of poor laws . We are weary of following up the sophist through all his doublings , and will go at once straight to his earth . * Charity in every shape , ' forsooth ! Yes—the charity of taking from the capitalist , of taking from the farmer , * of taking from the manufacturer , of ^ taking from the labourer , of taking , indeed , from every body ; and for whatp ' urpose ? This question leads us from Political Economy , to what another 4
Tory reviewer has denominated Politics Proper ; ' and the answer , in few and plain words , is—to put down free institutions , i . e . the responsibility of the few to the many in every part of the world , most obviously indeed in France , but principally in England . When our country-gentlemen politicians betrayed this nation into a murderous and wasting war with a gallant people driven to extremities ^ by a treacherous aristocracy and a threatening enemy ,
they forced us into a gratuitous contest , from which we have come forth with all the honours of war , but at the loss of almost all the blessings of peace . One thing indeed worth winning we won in that protracted struggle—bitter experience . Aided by a large knowledge of the records of this experience , a woman , it must be confessed of no ordinary talents , is able in these latter days to write political lessons , full of the most important truths , set forth in a very striking manner , for the reverend seigniors , who , as appears by the bitterness of the Quarterly Review , are still not only
* We expect Miss Martineau ' s Illustration * of Free Trade and the Corn Laws with deep interest , not only in the subject , but in the writer ' s mode of treating it . f In reading the history of the French Revolution , the attention is too often diverted from great political princi p les to mere diplomatieal questions . The real question about the French Re-volution , is , * Had the French people great political evils to reform ? was the French aristocracy opposed to an effectual reform ? and
were the aristocracies of England , Prussia , and Austria resolved to resist reform ?' These are the real questions to be considered by the reader , and not Whether the French people committed error * ? whether theFrench aristocracy suffered punishments ? whether the aristocracies of Kngland , Prussia , and Austria diplomatized so as to make out a case ? ' Readers of history eh facto , and not de jnre , often attach huge importance to the latter trifling question . But he must be a wretched advocate who cannot make up a case for any client , he must be a still more wretched judge , who allows himself to be deceived by tuch a made-up case .
Untitled Article
8 £ 2 Miss Martineau and the Quarterly Review . . „
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1833, page 322, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2614/page/34/
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