we have organized a society similar to the one I have described above-A society for the diffusion of moral and political knowledge. By this society I have been, and am still to be, furnished with a variety of pamphlets on various political and moral subjects. These pamphlets I have undertaken to edite, and to publish at such times and in such manner as to me may seem advisable. The plan that I have determined to adopt is as follows: Each pamphlet will form a separate work; but, by whomsoever written, my name will appear on the title-page as editor; and by this mode they will be known to emanate from the Society. One of these, at least, will be published every week, though, if I see reason, they will be issued yet more frequently. By this means the leading matters of present political interest will be brought before the people, without any infringement of the existing atrocious law. As we do not take advantage of the benefits of being a periodical, as each pamphlet is a separate and distinct work, we are without the reach of the trash act. I could, indeed, bring all these works out at once, but this does not suit my convenience or my wishes. They must be published by degrees, and, as I wish to distinguish them from all others, I affix my own name as a distinctive mark. Agencies, extended over Great Britain and Ireland, will disseminate these publications over every part of the land. The price will place them within the reach of every man; and it is hoped that the subject matter will attract their attention, will conciliate their good will, while it affords them instruction. Here it may be asked of me, to what end are these publications directed-what are the principles they will attempt to propagate -by what right do you assume the character of popular instructors? I will answer these questions as plainly as I have put them. The object we have in view is to instruct the people in their relative duties as citizens; to point out to them the rights which they ought to seek to attain. We believe that no people can be well governed that does not govern itself; but also, that the mere possession of power by the people is not sufficient to insure a right employment of it. To this end knowledge, and a sound morality, are necessary: the people, if they be wise and moral, can govern themselves well. Their interests are all on the side of good government; and, if good government is to be hoped for on earth, it must be the offspring of democracy. The interests of any small fraction of the people possessing the power of ruling are powerfully opposed to good government. The more highly you instruct this fraction, the more necessarily do you make them an efficient instrument of despotism. We seek to increase and consolidate the power of the people, by increasing their knowledge both of the principles of government and morality. Take an ignorant and barbarous people and confer on them a completely democratic government—you will create nothing beyond a barbarous and ignorant government. The government, under the best system, can but be the reflexion of the people: if they be wise, by adopting a good system, you will produce a wise government; if they be ignorant, an ignorant one. A democracy, of itself, is not all-sufficient. It is necessary, indeed, to good government; but it is not good government itself. Our ultimate end, then, is to promote the attainment of good government; and we propose to do so by making the people understand what is meant by that oft-abused phrase. We desire to instruct them in their rights and their duties, well assured that, whenfonce the mass of the people shall really understand them, no power will prevent their attaining the one and performing the other. But the inquirer may say, can you not be somewhat more specific in your account of what you signify by good government? I hope we can; but I answer, completely to explain what we mean by this phrase is the very object of the whole of the works we intend to publish. This complete explanation will be a long business, and will, I hope, occupy us for many months to come. the mean time, however, even in this rapid sketch, I may be somewhat more particular and explicit. In A good government, I take to be that which-1, insures to every man against oppression, whether foreign or domestic, his personal safety, his property, and his reputation; and-2, which sagaciously employs the resources and powers of the whole people to perform such necessary labours as cannot so well be done by individual exertion. Before these ends can be attained, many and complicated are the matters that must be settled, and, if the people are to be the government, that by them must be understood. For example, what degree of personal safety every man ought to be deemed intitled to what ought to be considered property, what reputation: and, advancing to the second part of the duties of a government, what are those matters for the general benefit, which the government can with utility undertake for the people at large. This then is the end, mark how complicated are the means necessary to attain it, and how many things the people must really and thoroughly know before it can be attained. For example, let us glance at the varied duties that are imposed on every man, merely as one of a political society. It is clear that, although the people ought to govern, they cannot do so directly and by themselves. They must choose representatives to act for them. What an immense number of questions immediately arise, respecting this single matter of choosing representatives. The elector should have a clear conception first of the duties of a representative. He should understand what sort of qualities are necessary to constitute a good representative. Does any man in his senses believe that the electors of Great Britain generally possess this nowledge? Would they have returned such men as now constitute the greater part of the House of Commons if they had possessed only a tithe of this requisite information? Then again, the elector should know his own duties-he should understand the nature of the great duty he has to perform, and what should be the influ ences by which he should be guided while performing it. Let any man take part in an election, and he will quickly learn how very far the mass of the people are from knowing or obeying the right influences. Private pique, prejudice, passion, whim, conceit, vanity, and a hundred other such despicable influences now govern nine tenths of the votes that are given. The result the people know-it is the present House of Commons. The evil composition of this House is usually attributed to corruption and intimidation-not a little of it, however, is due to ignorauce. No man is a greater friend to democracy than I am ;-unless the people govern, good government is, in my opinion, unattainable. But I am not so blinded by this persuasion, as to believe that all the people do is wise-neither can I be persuaded to call the people wise, when I believe them to be ignorant. Many then, I say, whom the people (having the power to choose) have sent to that House as their friends, have proved themselves amongst the most mischievous of their enemies. They have been chosen under the influence often of passion, still more often of prejudice, and, not seldom in downright, total ignorance. We seek to obviate these evils, not as many advise, by depriving the people of power, but by conferring on them the knowledge requisite to enable them to use it to their own advantage. Day by day we see the people gaining power-day by day therefore the necessity increases for the possession of information by the people. We do not suppose indeed, that the mass of mankind can become legislators or ever acquire the knowledge which a legislator ought to possess. But we do hope and confidently trust, that the people generally may be so far instructed as to be able to judge accurately of the intellectual and moral worth of those whom they select as their representatives. A man may be ignorant of medicine, and of law, and yet from the general cultivation of his intellect be well capable of selecting with judgment his physician and his lawyer:-so a man may be ignorant of legislation, but yet be able to know whether a given candidate be fit for the difficult and responsible office of a legislator. This general training, and that sort of knowledge requisite to accurate judgment in such matters is becoming daily of infinite importance. The bill just proposed by Lord John Russell, by which the great body of the people in towns will be endowed with self-government in all matters relating to their town affairs, renders it absolutely necessary that the people should acquire the knowledge needed for the right exercise of this power. Is it not a lamentable thing that obstacles should be thrown in the way of those who seek to instruct the people in such matters-who many would attempt to rouse them by discussion, This however, is only one class of cases out of many, upon which knowledge is of immediate importance to the very being of the people. Great and deplorable is the misery which many of them are doomed to suffer. If their exertions to relieve this misery are directed to wrong objects, their efforts will necessarily be ineffectual-the misery will remain, and despair be added to misfortune. If it be possible to alleviate this wretchedness by knowledge, (and whether it be so has never yet been tried) how guilty is that government which condemns the people to ignorance. That instruction is the only cure for the many bitter pangs which the millions have hitherto been doomed to suffer, is my firm belief. So believing, I am impelled by a strong and paramount feeling of duty to direct my efforts, however humble, to improving the means by which instruction may reach the people, as well as to con tribute, as far as in me lies, to the instruction itself. It has long appeared to me that the more instructed and intelligent of the labouring classes have, for the most part, mistaken the causes of their misery; that their efforts to relieve themselves have been More worthy ends than these, we believe, that will unhesitatingly be brought against us, not merely without proof, but in spite of it. It will be said that we seek to destroy the influence of the richer and more respectable classes; that we are about to set up a mob dominion, and that all that is reverenced, all that is worthy, all that is ancient, all that is venerable, will, under our baneful touch, pass away and be heard of no more. This is the sort of language used when any real and straightforward attempt is made to teach the people. If we were to confine ourselves to giving descriptions of the habits and manners of insects-if we were to lay before our readers pictures of bears and tigers, or describe a plantain leaf on a cocoanut, then indeed we should, like Lord Brougham and his society, merely be laughed at. Ridicule would be thrown upon us, because we sought to give the people innocent and ennobling means of recreation. Of what use to the hard-working smith, we should contemptuously be asked, a knowledge of the history of a silk-worm-how can he be interested in the economy of the ant or the beaver? What beauty can the ruins of antiquity have in his uneducated, and unsentimental eyes? Is he not a smith, accustomed to the buzz and dust, roar and clang of a forge-is he not contented as he is, and are you not throwing away your labour, and pretending unworthily to be deemed popular instructors, by attempting to accustom his coarse and vulgar mind to delicate and refined enjoyment? Such is the language employed when the people are spoken of such the sympathy evinced with their feelings and their pleasures. Were ve about simply to provide more mental recreation for the people, triumphantly we could answer this base questioning, and laigh to scorn both the contempt and him why evinced it. But we have higher game before us. The language used to us will be of very different character-the same spiri indeed will still incite the opponents of popular instruction, but in our case fear will be added to hate. We seek to make the people participators in the business of government, and also to render them worthy of the office. Hitherto the ruling cry in England has been, "that those who think must govern those who toil." And thereupon it has been assumed, that all those who do not toil, necessarily, think. We deny the assumption and the conclusion drawn from it. They who toil may think, and be so instructed as to be capable of taking a useful as well as active part in politics. I do not mean by this, that the mechanic is to turn legislator, though I conceive him far better fitted for the task than the idle, ignorant, extravagant, demoralized, high-born, and self-constituted legislators, that have but too often been our rulers. But I seek to make him an instructed and careful witness of the legislator's proceedings: to give him, in the last resort, a control over the legislator's conduct, and, by instructing, render him capable of truly appreciating it-approving where the legis lator is right-blaming where he is wrong. It is because we seek this, that the cry will be raised against us. It is for this that we shall be called lovers of anarchy and confusion. We do indeed seek to destroybut what? Not that which is good, but that which is bad. Convinced of the evils of aristocratic domination, we wish Democracy to raise her front, and to frighten down the corrupt demon of a dominant aristocracy. But how do we seek to effect this? By making the people strong in knowledge-by teaching them-where and how the evils which now beset us are gene rated and nourished, and by making it impossible for the aristocracy to retain their mischievous dominion, because the people as one man shall demand that they relinquish it. If confusion should follow this reasonable and just demand, on whose head ought the consequence to be? When the discovered robber fights and creates disturbance, is the fault in the thief, or him who has discovered him. If the owner of the property be silent and pursue not, there will be quiet indeed; but there will not, therefore, be safety and confidence. The honest man will tremble and be afraid, while the depredator will walk the highway in safety. Such is the quiet of despotism—any confusion that may follow the discovery made by the people, that this despotism is an evil that ought to cease, is the noise and the confusion made by the robber, who is seized while plundering, condemned to restitution, and driven with ignominy from the society, which he disgraced as well as injured. But what is really intended by this talk about anarchy and confusion? Let us earn the steps by which it is supposed that we produce it. Writing on the subject of government, we enable the people to acquire a definite understanding of what ought to be the nature and the form of their own government. They perceive, for example, amongst other things, that the mass of the people having neglected to interfere or meddle with the subject, a small body has usurped the functions of government, and employed the powers thereof to their own especial benefit. They perceive moreover, that so long as they (the people) are thus inert and careless respecting government, this small body will be able to continue their power, and still to turn it to their private uses. The people also learn how immensely important to themselves is the exercise of this power of government-how numerous are the ways in which it affects their well-being. Whereupon they rouse themselves from their long lethargy, and determine to take a part in the business. They see that the law allows them a means of interfering, which if properly employed will go far to attain for them a right control. I mean the power of choosing representatives. They discover also, that if the law would fairly make them the depositaries of this power, they would be possessed of all the means which the necessity of the case demanded. In those cases, where they possessed the power of choosing representatives, they would use it wisely; where they had it not, they would rouse one another, and constantly, and steadfastly demand that the law should grant it to them. They have done this already, and signal has been the result. One grand step they made by the Reform Bill-they will make another by Corporation Reform; and they will continue thus till they have completely attained this desired end. They will do so, by employing the methods which they have hitherto adopted. They have hitherto been peaceable, and why should we anticipate confusion, in consequence of that diffusion of knowledge which will produce more steadfast and combined action among them? That same knowledge which will create steadfastness of purpose, and teach them the right and powerful means of action, will teach them also to estimate all that is worthy in our institutions, to love and to maintain it. It is not by simply telling a multitude, that they A fierce but fading fire"while the offspring of the other will be as enduring as it is strong, as useful as it is enlightened. But the man thus impelled and thus instructed is no wanton and cruel destroyer. Where age is beautiful, he will perceive and feel and respect its beautywhere useful, he will preserve its utility. What is truly venerable need not fear himhe will duly estimate the value of hoarded experience; and though not blindly wedded to any institution because it is old, he will esteem what our ancestors have left us worthy of our admiration, while he will see through and neglect the many errors and prejudices which has alloyed the good they have left us. But we are accused of wishing to destroy the influence of the rich. Now, as this influence is a thing which the rich very much delight in, they naturally endeavoured to find for it an agreeable name, so they christened it "the legitimate influence of property." Accepting this fine name, and placing it in the accusation against us, we find ourselves accused of desiring to destroy the legitimate influence of property. This charge we strenuously deny-and we demand of ou accusers an explanation of the thing to which they have given this fine-sounding name. What, we ask, is, in their opinion, egitimate influence of property? Is it, for example, the keeping the people in ignorance by means of stamp duties and trash acts? Is it the getting them to the National Schools, and trying to frighten them into a slavish obedience to their pastors and masters, and all that are set in authority over them? Is it driving them like sheep to the poll, and compelling the poor to vote against their wishes and their consciences? Is it the filling the gaols with offenders against |