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    lighted as it was with the sweet humility of having made a favourable hit , to catch the approving and rewarding regard of the upper classes . But he forgot to tell his humbler hearers that , by the laws of England , their brothers , sons , and husbands might be kidnapped , and sent away for ever—to be scourged , to endure a thousand hardships , to encounter a thousand perils , and . to perish in the encounter . He told them of the horrible French conscription : —not a word did he speak of that which says-

    —* Lawfully , by this , the state may claim A pound of flesh , to be by it cut off Nearest the poor man ' s heart . ' No- —not this was heard in his homily , it was too near the truth for him to speak ; for him and his , the laws were beautifulenough for him and his . Or , was there a mother grief-bowed for her son , a pale wife withering in sadness for a husband so torn

    from her , he spoke to her so kindly , so blandly , so charitably of resignation to the will of the folks in the velvet-lined pews ; for such is the version pf the text now ; this expounding of their phrase , Heaven , was promulgated on the 15 th August , 1833 . Contractors for beef , butter , and biscuits ; purveyors of candles and cheese for his Majesty ' s troops and navy ; gaugers and commissioners , excisemen and inspectors , judges and Jack Ketches , &c . &c . &c . with all their trains of hopefuls * pickers-up of scraps and crumbs , the multitudinous ramifications by which

    need or cupidity taught honesty to succumb to . imposition , and industrious plaindealing to shake hands with fraud ; all—all have chorussed when the glow of magnanimous patriotism burst forth in the words , * Oh , the glorious laws of England—the free and happy land , where equal right prevails , and wheat is a hundred and twenty shillings per quarter ; where justice ever holds the scales , and beef is eighteen-nence a pound ; the home of genuine

    liberty , the hope of the enthralled , where tyranny fears to set his foot ; where I can knock any man down . with impunity if he have not four shillings to pay for a warrant ; where slavery dies on breathing its free air , and free-born Englishmen starve in a cellar for want of food : the envy of nations—the admiration of the world ! ' So it is the admiration : the 15 th August starts up now , and with its giant voice , sends forth the words to the furthest

    corners of the earthj and in a thundering crescendo adds , — ' 'Tis true—' tis true ! I have sworn to it—I have sealed it—I , the 15 th of August , 1833 / Can the whole earth , besides produce a parallel to this ( law ?

    Mick or Nick , I defy either of you to match it . Is there one petty province on the face of the earth in which a similar law exists ? England is alone in the glory . * Yes , there are many * —* and the many will be triumphantly quoted in which ,, not only the liberty , but the life of the subject is permissive at the will of

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    Impressment . 855

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1833, page 655, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2622/page/71/