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Untitled Article
am sick and pale with the shame , which every Englishman ought to feel , at the reception and result of Mr . Buckingham ' s motion . And less able am I to embody in words , or to sum up in conception , the bitter scorn and triumphant ridicule with which every
foreigner will quote the uttered sentiments ; repeat , echo and re-echo the black truths , which were on that evening divulged , ay , and defended too , by the law-givers of Britain ; the guardians of the vaunted freedom and trumpeted equality of laws , which bless this ' Swan ' s nest in a great pool , '
* This other Eden , demi-paradise ; This fortress built by nature for herself ; This happy breed of men ; this little world ; This precious stone set in the silver sea ; This blessed plot , this earth ; this realm of England ; This land of such dear souls ; this dear , dear
land—Dear for her reputation through the world . On Thursday Evening , August 15 th , 1833 , the seal was put to this death-bed voucher of John of Gaunt , and now the dear reputation of England will be attested by a hundred million of witnesses . A thousand tongues of eloquence , through as many years of toil , would not have proved so clearly , so satisfactorily , what Sir James Graham and his colleagues have proved in one short hour . Oh , the mighty influence of truth when it flows from
an orthodox source ! They have proved that England may be the rich man ' s paradise ; but it is the humble man ' s prison , the poor man ' s helh And let the unprincipled echoers of Sir James , and the wolf-hearted advocates of this legality , again bid those < who do not like England to leave it . * There is a deep diapason muttering in a thousand hearts the reply , ' No ; We will make it good for us ; we will make it worthy our stay in it , worthy our liking , worthy our defence , to the last drop in our veins ; and
rejection of , Mr . Buckingham's tnoiion on the subject of impressment . Some readers may , on that account , question the propriety of its insertion . I would remind thenl that it is desirable , even for those who are not in sympathy therewith , to have on record the emotions which particular proceedings of the Legislature excite in those to whom , present circumstances , or past experience or observation , may give peculiar interest in the subject . This i 9 especially to be desired when the parties concerned are of the poorer classes , and when the oppression is local in ita exercise , and thereby
removed from the general observation of the community ; and it might be added , when such a clas «* have bo qualified and eloquent an advocate as the victims of the pressgang possess in our correspondent . The strength of his expressions will not sturtle those who have ever witnessed any of the arbitrary and brutal proceedings which the House of Commons , on the instigation of the Government , has not merely refused to abolish , but even to inquire into the practicability of abolishing . I once resided in a
village a few miles from the coast , where a gang was permanently stationed , and know that in such localities the voice of our correspondent will have many echoes , nor should they stop their ears to them whose lot it has been , alike in peace or war , to * sit at home at ease . ' In fact , the question of impressment is one branch of the broader question of whether there should be one law for the rich man and another for the poor , the one affording perfect security , and the other sanctioning brutal coercion . It it * bo regarded \> y the writer . —Ed .
Untitled Article
Impressment . 653
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1833, page 653, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2622/page/69/
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