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Untitled Article
and join , and alter , and divide , and differ in opinion , and after exciting a mingled feeling of disgust , and hatred , and contempt , they end by making the matter worse than it was before . In quick succession are thrust upon them , the revision of taxation , the ballot , retrenchment , free trade , extension of the suffrage , the
India question , the Irish question , the Bank charter , the tithes , the taxes on knowledge , national education , church reform , and the question of the abolition of slavery . Even a wise man might ponder how to reply to so many demands poured upon him at once , but the effect upon the imbecile Whigs is to cause absolute inanity . In their despair they bethink themselves of the universal Whig maxim , as set forth in the * Edinburgh Review / in the article on ' Lord Mahon ' s War of the Succession . ' * For a
public life to be useful , it must be one of compromises . ' In this sentence is the secret of Whig policy , but it must be added , that the * utility , ' according to Whig definition , means only making the public their c oyster , ' as ancient Pistol hath it . Taking expediency for their guide , in the present stage of their affairs , they shuffle off every question they can , and amongst others the most important of all , that of national education , and proceed to tinker
all that is forced on them . I will take as an example , the question of the abolition of negro slavery , first remarking , that I have reason to believe it a fixed principle with the Aristocracy , to resist the education of the people , from the conviction , that with national education their sway must instantly cease . The remark of a leading man amongst the Whigs has been , * that it would be a much happier condition for the people , if they could be again brought back to the ignorance of the last century . '
The public mind in England has definitively determined that negro slavery must be abolished , and that without much latitude of time , save so far as it can be made out to be for the benefit of the slaves themselves . This resolution is not the consequence of any interested feeling , but merely a matter of principle , a perception which has gradually gained ground , of the injustice wherewith a large number of black men were treated by a number of
white men , numerically inferior , but possessed of greater power by reason of 4 heir superior intellect . Various evil motives have been attributed to the chief men amongst the abolitionists who have pushed on the cause in and out of parliament , and retorts have been made in the same spirit . It is very possible that there may be individuals of bad character on both sides of the question ,
but this makes nothing either for or against it . It is nothing new for ambitious men to fasten themselves on to any cause which may reflect importance on them , without feeling any further interest in the cause . But it is quite as customary for malignant envy to select as the objects of attack , those who stand out from the crowd , and are distinguished from their fellows by superior intellect or humanity . The Athenian hated Aristides because he was called
Untitled Article
456 O 71 the Ministerial Plan for the
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1833, page 456, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2618/page/16/
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