On this page
-
Text (1)
-
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
gpoken tnuch longer than five minutes , had not disposed of hMf of it ; 6 fr Robert endeavoured to suppl y the remaining half by a speech in which all which was not truism was irrelevancy . Though Mr . Roebuck said , and said truly , that what is relevant to the question might be stated in five minutes , he could not have meant that so short a time would suffice for answering all the fallacies which may be accumulated round this or any other subject by ingenuity or folly . Sir Robert Peel ' s first argument was that of the peculiar burthens pressing upon the land ; a consideration which no one who ever spoke or wrote against the corn laws has overlooked : but which is a reason for equalizing taxation , not for compensating a class supposed to be peculiarly overtaxed , by another and the worst of taxes—a tax on the people ' s food . The remainder of the speech may be thus summed up : — That the corn laws could not be termed a monopoly , because , if the landlords have a protecting duty , so have all classes of manufacturers . It would take nearly five minutes to enumerate all the mistaken assumptions included in this argument . Whoever agrees with Sir Robert Peel must think
the following things : —1 . That if there are many monopolies instead of one , they cease to be monopolies . 2 . That it is a legislative business not to do justice , but to establish an equal balance of injustice . 3 . That if A gains sixpence by making B lose a shilling , the way to set all right is for B to treat A in the same manner : while in the meantime C , D , andE are robbed by both . 4 . That duties on the importation of manufactures are a benefit to the manufacturer , in the same sense as duties on the importation of corn are a benefit to the landlord ; whereas , in truth , the landlord obtains a higher rent , but the manufacturer does not obtain a higher profit , the protected
trade being no better off as to profits than those which are not protected . 5 . That an equal benefit is conferred on two persons , by protecting the one against a cheaper article than his own , the other against a dearer : . that it is the same thing , in fact , to shut the door against the food which would come , and against the cottons and hardware that would not . When propositions which contain in a nutshell a whole Iliad of error , are put forth with an air of authority , and by a person of authority , as if they were the dernier mot of some great question , it is lamentable that there is
no one , even of those who understand the subject , ready to start up at the instant and present the simple truth in the point of view in which it most vividly illuminates the fallacy , and makes its character visible . But the union of energy and ardour with knowledge and dialectical skill , is a combination too rare in our days to be soon hoped for . 26 th March . TF The Ministry and the Dissenters . —The principal interest of the session , thus far , has been the question of the Church and the
Dissenters . Even Church Reform , so prominent a tonic for the last two years , has almost ceased to be talked of ; and the subject now pressed upon the Legislature i % ihe entire abolition of the Establishment . This is a fearful truth to Conservatives of all denominations ; and even to considerate Radicals , there is matter for very serious reflection in so striking an instance of the artificial celerity given to the natural progress of change , by the very conduct which is expected to check it .
If Ministers can profit by experience , they must surely by this time see how utterly the course which they have not adopted , but fallen into , is at variance with their own purposes . Those who most agree with them in their ends , have most cause to complain of their means . It is not as friends of the Movement that we lament the deficiencies of Ministers ; in that character we ought much rather to rejoice at them ; for the tide of change sets m far more violently through this passive resistance to it . But we wish the
current to be gentle as well as rapid . We dread lest the violence of the struggle which is so needlessly made the sole means ol obtaining reform * , > hould leave neither the leisure nor the frame of mind for choosing the most considerate mode of accomplishing them . One half the good , moreover .
Untitled Article
The Mbiirtry end the Dissenters . £ 11
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1834, page 311, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2632/page/83/
-