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Untitled Article
men only as machines made for their will and pleasure , and the many as existing only for the benefit of the few . Another generation , and this species of the class we are viewing will be no more , or , at least , the advanced knowledge of the community will shame them into silence . That this hope is not
illfounded , we may be assured by the wonderful efforts which , the middle classes have made during * the last ten years to shake from them the fetters of prejudice ; when we reflect how much unmeaning words have lost their influence with them ; how much their reason has prevailed over their imaginations , and , consequently , how the bait which greedy cunning formerly set for ignorance lias now lost most of its attractions .
Turn we to the third and last grand division of society . The working classes exhibit the same phenomena as those we have just contemplated . They also are beginning , as it were , to live—to live for all purposes beyond those of mere animal existence . They have a mind , and it is a great step gained that they know it . That mind is assuming a character , pleasing to the philanthropist , terrifying to the tyrant , and to
those who have luxuriated in the spoils of nations . Individually , the working people are of little importance ; collectively , they are a grand and imposing spectacle . Edward IV . addressed them when in rebellion , as " simple people who know nothing of state affairs , "— their bitterest enemy would not now presume thus to speak of them . They also have learned the secret of their strength , that they are something
in the state . They have discovered , that they also have rights as men , rights as citizens ; that without them society could not exist , and therefore that they deserve the respect and regard of society ; that they are not the slaves of their employers ; that service is a mutual agreement for a mutual advantage ; that the obligation is reciprocal ; that both are men , and in the eye of the law should have equal respect , equal protection , and equal privileges . The mental character of this class is peculiar . It has taken its tone and hue from
the circumstances amid which it has been called into existence . It is coaree , but vigorous ; energetic , but plain spoken ; resolute , but generous ; erring often , but open to conviction . It has none of the affectation of the highest , none of the half refinement of the middle class ; its thoughts , its opinions , its feelings , its wishes , are expressed in plain and forcible
language , without disguise , —without even a consciousness of offence . The protest from the working men of Sheffield against the doctrines of the benevolent but mistaken Owen , the addresses of the Trades' Unions , sufficiently prove the cor * rectness of this estimate . It has more of nature than the mind of the other classes ; it is more honest , more generous . It certainly forms an opinion hastily , but it does not cling to it
Untitled Article
The Signs of the Times . * £ &
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1836, page 223, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2656/page/31/
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