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Be vigilant; be prudent; act at once, and believe me

Your faithful friend,

and most obedient servant,
WM. COBBETT.

P. S. Look at the motto to this paper; look well at it; read it a dozen times over in such an hour, how precious will be a sovereign in gold!

ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN.

such union. The boroughmongers have long contrived to divide these two classes, for purposes much too obvious to mention. At last, the middle class begins to perceive that it must be totally sacrificed, unless it make a stand, and a stand it cannot make unsupported by the lower class. The declaration, or address, put forth by the leaders in this union, is evidently from the pen of Mr. THOMAS ATTWOOD: and, like every thing else that comes from his pen, exhibits a great deal of knowledge and a great deal of talent. The main obTHE last notice that I gave about this ject of the union is to obtain for these work, was, that the next Number would two classes their share of the represenbe published on the 10th of February. tation in Parliament. Were I disposed I then thought that I should be in town to be as ill-natured as some people have sooner than I shall be there. I must, been towards me, I might call this intherefore, put it off until the first of consistent in Mr. ATTWOOD, seeing that, March, when I shall continue it monthly only last year, he disapproved of my regularly until the work be completed. wishing for reform, until the grand Since I have been from home, scores of question of the currency should be persons have come to me to thank me for writing this book, especially young men; which is calculated to give me, and does give me, a great deal of pleasure and of pride. A very good-looking rather young man introduced himself to me at Leeds, with a request to shake me by the hand, and as he held my hand in his, he said, "I have to thank this hand for making me a sober man." And certainly I do believe that I have done more in this way than all the parsons in the kingdom; than all the teachers of all the sorts of religion put together. 1 write that which men will read, and remember as well as read; and my little books will be read with delight and advantage, when all the dull rubbish of all the lazy parsons, and all the mongrel teachers, will have been used for the singeing of fowls, or for purposes more vile.

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BIRMINGHAM

settled. I do not call this inconsistency in him: he has seen reason to change his mind; he has seen reason to convince him that the nation cannot be saved without admitting the people at large to a share in the representation. This now seems to be the opinion of all men of any sense and sincerity. Everywhere you hear men exclaim, that no effort is of any avail, or can be of any avail, as long as the House of Commons shall be constituted as it is. It is in vain to attempt to disguise this fact. Reform or convulsion is our choice. It is now twenty years since I contended in prin over and over again, that as long as the paper bubble could be kept up we should have no reform; and now that the bubble seems to be drawing towards the close of its destructive existence, reform appears to be approaching almost of its own accord.

There is an article in the QUARTERLY REVIEW that has excited a great deal of public attention. It calls for a reform POLITICAL UNION. of Parliament; it calls for an adjustment; it calls, in short, for what I have THIS is a very important matter. been calling for so many years. It calls' We see, at last, then, the middle class for those very things which it applauded uniting with the working classes. the Ministers for in 1817, for endeavourEverywhere where I have been, I have ing to stifle by their dungeon and gagendeavoured to show the necessity of ging bills. Strange change! But no

the next time to be paid in gold, or innels through which to send it; that a greater quantity of paper in proportion there was no open market for it; and to the depreciation of that paper. When that the people did not understand as I was in France, a little before the they now understand, the doctrine of reign of ROBESPierre, I used to send a depreciation, and the vast superiority of guinea to almost any shop in St. Omer's, gold over paper. Vain, therefore, is and receive about 120 or 130 francs for the hope that a legal tender paper it in paper. When I went into the mar- would not now lead to two prices. ket, which I always did to get the Who would venture to keep buying a butter, while I was at lodgings at St. parcel of paper-money, having no fixed Omer's, the market women used to say, value, liable to lose one-half of its when I asked the price of a piece of worth in the course of six months? butter, "Six francs, Sir; but if you pay Every one would be anxious to have in money, one franc," or thereabouts. some gold, and as much as possible. So will it be in England in a very short Every man who went abroad must take time, if horrible bankruptcy and legal some gold to pay his expenses. There tender make their appearance again. fore, men would seek to have gold; Six one-pound notes for a pig; but if and, in order to obtain it, they would you pay in money, a sovereign. This make their sales for gold. Whatever is TWO PRICES; and as PAINE said he might want to pay rent, to pay taxes, long ago, two prices are the passing to pay interest on mortgage, to pay bell of paper-money. annuities, he would be content to have in paper; but whatever he wanted to keep by him for any time at all, he would take care to have in gold. There would be a paper price and a gold price,

Then, look at the situation of the Government collecting its taxes in worthless rags; paying its soldiers twopence in reality, instead of thirteen-pence a day. No one will give the tax-gatherer as there was in the market of St. Omer's, a bit of hard money: all the hard and the Government would have to money will be kept hoarded, or will be receive the paper, and the gold would confined to the traffic between man and remain amongst the people. ROBESman. In short, the Government and PIERRE passed a law to put people to Parliament have, ever since the year death for making this distinction; he 1819, been attempting to accomplish would insist that assignats and gold that most impossible of all impossible should circulate side by side; and, after things; namely, the compelling of a nation to pay in real money debts contracted and appointments made in depreciated money.

having shed rivers of blood to accomplish his purpose, came the just guillo tine which put an end to his law and his

life.

if you

Some men imagine, that because the Thus, my friends, you are warned in nation experienced little distress during time: be sensible, be wise: turn into the war, while legal tender existed, it gold every thing that you can, and then would experience no distress now if we sleep soundly in the night, and in the were to return to the legal tender. day-time calmly view the progress of These men forget that the circumstances events. If you disregard my advice; have totally changed; that the com- if you treat it with suspicion; merce of all the world was then at our hesitate to act upon it; and if ruin fall command; that foreigners could not upon you, the fault will not be mine. come here except by special license; If you have any thing to sell, and can that England was the place of deposit obtain any thing near the value of it for for all the riches of Europe; that there ready money, sell it now, and turn the were no means of sending the gold out proceeds into gold, and keep this gold of the country; that the gold was, in until the end of the session of Parlia fact, not in circulation at all, the greater ment, which is now about to begin. I part having been sent away by the Go- tell you again, that if legal tender come, vernment; that individuals had no chan-it will come like a thief in the night.

Be vigilant; be prudent; act at once, such union. The boroughmongers have and believe me

Your faithful friend,

and most obedient servant,'
WM. COBBETT.

P. S. Look at the motto to this paper; look well at it; read it a dozen times over in such an hour, how precious will be a sovereign in gold!

ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN.

long contrived to divide these two classes, for purposes much too obvious to mention. At last, the middle class begins to perceive that it must be totally sacrificed, unless it make a stand, and a stand it cannot make unsupported by the lower class. The declaration, or address, put forth by the leaders in this union, is evidently from the pen of Mr. THOMAS ATTWOOD: and, like every thing else that comes from his pen, exhibits a great deal of knowledge and a great deal of talent. The main obThe last notice that I gave about this ject of the union is to obtain for these work, was, that the next Number would two classes their share of the represenbe published on the 10th of February. tation in Parliament. Were I disposed I then thought that I should be in town to be as ill-natured as some people have sooner than I shall be there. I must, been towards me, I might call this intherefore, put it off until the first of consistent in Mr. ATTWOOD, seeing that, March, when I shall continue it monthly only last year, he disapproved of my regularly until the work be completed. wishing for reform, until the grand Since I have been from home, scores of question of the currency should be persons have come to me to thank me settled. I do not call this inconsistency for writing this book, especially young in him: he has seen reason to change men; which is calculated to give me, and does give me, a great deal of pleasure and of pride. A very good-looking rather young man introduced himself to me at Leeds, with a request to shake me by the hand, and as he held my hand in his, he said, "I have to thank this hand for making me a sober man." And certainly I do believe that I have done more in this way than all the parsons in the kingdom; than all the teachers of all the sorts of religion put together. 1 write that which men will read, and remember as well as read; and my little books will be read with delight and advantage, when all the dull rubbisk of all the lazy parsons, and all the mongrel teachers, will have been used for the singeing of fowls, or for purposes more vile.

1

BIRMINGHAM

his mind; he has seen reason to convince him that the nation cannot be saved without admitting the people at large to a share in the representation. This now seems to be the opinion of all men of any sense and sincerity. Everywhere you hear men exclaim, that no effort is. of any avail, or can be of any avail, as long as the House of Commons shall be constituted as it is. It is in vain to attempt to disguise this fact. Reform' or convulsion is our choice. It is now twenty years since I contended in print over and over again, that as long as the paper bubble could be kept up we should have no reform; and now that the bubble seems to be drawing towards the close of its destructive existence, reform appears to be approaching almost of its own accord.

There is an article in the QUARTERLY REVIEW that has excited a great deal of public attention. It calls for a reform POLITICAL UNION. of Parliament; it calls for an adjustment; it calls, in short, for what I have This is a very important matter. been calling for so many years. It calls' We see, at last, then, the middle class for those very things which it applauded uniting with the working classes. the Ministers for in 1817, for endeavourEverywhere where I have been, I have ing to stifle by their dungeon and gagendeavoured to show the necessity of ging bills. Strange change! But no

saw.

;

or so much reduced, as no longer to afford the just and necessary inducements to the employment of labour. The working classes of the country have thus been thrown generally out of employment, or they have been compelled to endure more labour than nature can support, or their fair and reasonable earnings have been sacrificed, in order to prevent the ruin of their employers.

thing like the changes that we have yet to behold. We shall see such changes before three years are over our heads; or, at any rate, in a comparatively short space of time, as no nation ever yet The people everywhere are in full expectation of these changes: you meet with not a man who is not prepared for them; and it is very curious that every one seems to look forward to them as the only ground of hope. Iit ten times more unnatural still. The marlook upon this Birmingham address as a matter of great public importance, and as such, I insert it here, recommending my readers to go through it with the greatest attention.

BIRMINGHAM

POLITICAL UNION, FOR THE PROTECTION OF PUBLIC RIGHTS.

The experience of the last fifteen years, must certainly have convinced the most incredulous that the rights and interests of the middle and lower classes of the people, are not efficiently represented in the Commons House of Parliament. A very few observations will be sufficient to place this important subject beyond the possibility of doubt.

Strange and uunatural as this state of things evidently is, it has, more than once, been attended with anomalies which have rendered

kets have been glutted with food and clothing on the one hand, and with a hungry and naked population on the other. The most eminent parliamentary authorities have declared that the loaves have been too many for the mouths, and that the mouths have been too many for the loaves, at the very same time!

It is most certain, that if the rights and interests of the industrious classes of the community had been properly represented in Parliament, a general state of distress, attended with anomalies like these, would have commanded the instant attention of the House of Commons. The cause of the distress would have been ascertained, and the proper remedy would have been applied without delay. But, what has been the conduct of the House of Commons? To this very day, the cause of these strange and unnatural, and distressful anomalies, has never once been inquired into! At three different periods, when this vital subIn the year 1819, a bill was passed into a ject has been brought before the House of law, under the assumption that it would add Commons, they have literally refused to allow only four per cent. to the national taxes and its investigation! In the year 1822, Mr. Wesburdens. It is now very generally acknow- tern gave notice of a motion to inquire into ledged that the bill thus passed into a law, has the cause of the national distress. The House added cent. per cent. to the national burdens; of Commons refused to grant the inquiry! In instead of four per cent., that it is literally 1827, Mr. Edward Davenport gave notice doubled, or is in the undeniable process of of a similar motion. The House of Comdoubling, the real weight, and the real value mons refused to grant the inquiry! In of every tax, rent, and monied obligation, in the last year, Sir Richard Vyvyan gave the kingdom. Ten years have since elapsed: notice of a similar motion. And again the and yet, to this day, no adequate effort has House of Commons refused to grant the inbeen made by the representatives of the peo-quiry! Upon three different occasions, the ple to reduce the taxes in a degree correspond House of Commons has thus exposed itself to ing with the increase which has thus been the suspicion of either a total unwillingness, surreptitiously effected in their weight and or a total inability, to protect the most vital pressure! What further proof is required of interests of the country. the absolute necessity of reform?

Nor has any attempt been made by the legislature to retrace their steps, and to rectify the grievous oppression which has thus been occasioned. On the contrary, the fatal error is now coolly acknowledged, and the country is gravely assured, by the very men who benefit by the measure, that it is now too late to retreat!!

At three different periods, during the operation of this fatal measure, and now a fourth time, the industrious classes of the community generally, have been reduced to a state of distress which has heretofore been unexampled in its general extent and severity. At each of these periods, the profits of productive capital and industry have been destroyed,

Here, then, we have proof that the rights and interests of the great mass of the com munity are not properly represented in Parliament. A triple proof has been added to every argument which had previously been drawn from reason and experience, that an effectual representation of the industrious classes in the Commons' House of Parliament is alike necessary to the welfare of the people, and the safety of the throne.

Nor is this state of things much to be wondered at, when the present state and composi tion of the Commons' House of Parliament are considered. That honourable House, in its present state, is evidently too far removed in habits, wealth, and station, from the wants and interests of the lower and middle classes

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of the people, to have any just views respecting | real" Citizens and Burgesses," selected from them, or any close identity of feeling with among themselves, and having the same intethem. The great aristocratical interests of all rests as themselves, acquainted with the same kinds are well represented there. The landed wants, and modes, and means, and living under interest, the church, the law, the monied in- the same habits, influences, and impressions terest;-all these have engrossed, as it were, as themselves, then the rights and interests the House of Commons into their own hands, of the industrious classes would have been the members of that honourable House being properly guarded and secured. This was the all immediately and closely connected with practice in the better days of the constitution ; those great interests. But the interests of in- and it must become the practice again; or dustry and of trade have scarcely any repre- there can be no prosperity, no liberty, no sesentatives at all! These, the most vital inte- curity for this injured and degraded nation. rests of the nation, the sources of all its wealth and of all its strength, are comparatively unrepresented; whilst every interest connected in any way with the national burdens is represented in the fullest degree! If any few individual members of the House of Commons should happen to be concerned in trade, it may be truly said that such members are in general far more concerned in interests hostile to trade, than in trade itself. They are, too often, rich and retired capitalists, who have, perhaps, left one-tenth of their wealth in trade, and have withdrawn the other nine-tenths from active occupation. It is, therefore, of but little consequence to them whether trade flourishes or not. It is possible, indeed, that upon some occasions, these rich and retired capitalists may derive a jealous and morbid satisfaction from the sufferings of their competitors in trade; and after having availed themselves of the facilities of credit, to accumulate their own fortunes, they may possibly contemplate, with pleasure, the removal of those facilities from others, and their hopeless and unavailing struggles to follow in the same career.

But it is not merely of the want of a community of interest, of feeling, and of knowledge in the House of Commons, that the industrious classes have a right to complain. A majority of that honourable House is generally believed to be elected by a few hundred rich individuals only; and near one hundred of its members are exposed to the suspicion of having their judgments biassed by the influence of emoluments drawn from the public purse. The interests of the mass of the people are thus exposed to dangers on all sides, and protected on none. Ignorance, imbecility, and indifference, on the one hand; power, influence, and perhaps corruption, on the other; all these combine to render the cause of the industrious classes hopeless in Englaud, unless some measures can be devised for restoring to those important classes that legal control over the legislative functions, which the constitution has originally placed in their hands. Without this, it is probable that the reward of industry will be permanently destroyed; and that the merchants, manufacturers, farmers, and traders of the united kingdom will be reduced to a state of general poverty and degradation; whilst the working classes will be driven down in their wages, and deprived of employment generally, until they have no other resource but the overcrowded workhouse for their support.

From all these considerations, it follows, therefore, that an effectual reform in the Commons' House of Parliament is absolutely necessary for the welfare aud security of the

Undoubtedly, it is essential to the national welfare that this state of things should be changed. The "Citizens and Burgesses" of the House of Commons should, in general, be real "Citizens and Burgesses;" men engaged in trade, and actively concerned in it; and having their fortunes and their prospects in life committed in it. The present members of the House of Commons, although called "Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses," are practically all "Knights of the Shire;" inas-country. much as they are generally possessed of the same fortunes, and living under the same habits, influences, and impressions as "Knights of the Shire." It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that the members of the House of Commons should exhibit, generally, a total ignorance of trade, and of the wants and in-course to a vigour trenching upon the law? terests of the industrious classes of the com. munity; and too frequently an indisposition to inquire into the distresses of the trade, or to give themselves any great trouble in relieving them.

It is idle to blame this kind of conduct in them. It is in the nature of man to look principally to his own interest. It is the public themselves who are to blame, for having allowed ◄ state of things to grow up in which the public interests are entrusted into improper hands. If the public bad kept a proper guard over their own concerns; if they had sent to Parliament

But how is reform to be obtained? Is it reasonable to expect that the men whose ignorance and imbecility have caused the national injuries and distresses, should voluntarily reform themselves? The thing is not possible. What then must we do? Shall we have re

God forbid. Fortunately for us, and for our country, the constitution has yet preserved to us some conservatory principles, to which we may have recourse, and by means of which we may hope that this great and vital object may be accomplished in a just, legal, and peaceful way.

The exercise of those principles, however, is surrounded with many legal difficulties and dangers, which can only be counteracted by a general union and organization of the industrious classes, and which render counsel, caution, and direction, necessary at every step.

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