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Leader (1850-1860), 11th May 1850, Edition Country of 1, Page 12

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      who talk so fluently of Christianity , explicitly telling us without equivoque what Religion you wish to see controlling society . For my part I cannot see hope for society till the appetite for the marvellous finds some other food . Men who reject all the evidences of Christianity—historical and theologicalstill call themselves Christians , and talkof Christianity as the Religion . Will any of these gentlemen tell me what Christianity is—what they mean by it ? I have done little but string questions together in this letter , but I hope they are not altogether unnecessary questions ; as I want information , I do not argue , I ask . Print my letter and I will believe in your sincerity to let every opinion , however opposed to vour own , find a place in your Open Council . 3 W . Thomas .

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      156 ©!) * 2 L $ a $ l $ V . [ Saturday ,

      The Common Labour Principle. Edinburgh, ...

      THE COMMON LABOUR PRINCIPLE . Edinburgh , May 3 , 1850 . Sib , —I find your articles on the New Reformation " and the conduct of the *' public educationists " very much to my mind . It is not yet clear to me that you are a socialist . If so , either you and I understand different things by this term , or we differ . My creed is very simple . In uneducated men the animal propensities are naturally the most active ; and they are all in their nature selfish . The human being becomes social only in proportion to the cultivation of his moral and intellectual faculties ; and the

      animal propensities become virtuous in their action and beneficent in their results , in proportion to the extent to which they submit to direction from the higher powers . Now , the mass of the people are not adequately educated ; they are , therefore , not in a high condition of social development . One ignorant and selfish man is not a fit person to govern a great community , and no multiples of ignorance and selfishness constitute intelligence and virtue . I love and respect the people , because they are human beings endowed with all the feelings and intellectual

      faculties which I possess ; but experience tells me that I never became useful or happy until , by education and moral training , I had been enabled to subject the propensities to the higher powers . In seeking to benefit the people , therefore , I desire to do for them what I have found by experience to be the greatest benefit ever done to me , namely , to educate and train them ; and in proportion to their advance in knowledge and in moral self-directing and selfcontrolling power , I should give them political influence . C .

      Present State And Prospects Of Society. ...

      PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS OF SOCIETY . May 10 . 1850 . Sir , —May I be allowed to occupy a portion of your columns with an explanation of my views of the present state and prospects of society ? There is so little correct knowledge in the public mind on this subject , that I desire to avail myself of every opportunity for its explanation . This subject includes that which is the most interesting not only to each individual , but to the whole population of the world now and for ever . The past has produced the present , and the present will produce the future .

      The question , then , is , What Jias been the past twhat is the present , —and what will be the future f History , imperfect as it is , informs us sufficiently what the past has been ; existing facts , of what is ; and these , with a knowledge of the first principles of human nature and of the true science of society , will enable us to deduce and foresee what will be . And in thus foretelling the future from the past and present , we but pursue the laws of nature , by tracing natural causes to their natural consequences .

      What has been the past ? and what is the present ? The past and present comprise the inexperienced or irrational period of human existence ; the period of ignorance , of poverty , of degradation , of disunion , of crime , and of suffering , physical , intellectual , and moral ; the period of the infancy of the human race ; the period also of discoveries , physical and mental , which , when they shall be wisely applied to practice , will remove the causes of ignorance , of poverty , of degradation , of disunion , of crime , and of misery , physical and mental . This first , or irrational , period of human existence is fast approaching to its termination ; and the second , or rational , period of human life is now at hand .

      The great and stirring circumstances now prevalent throughout all countries strongly indicate the coining of this change ; the approach of the second birth of the human race . All men are deeply interested in this change ; and , as it will greatly better the condition of every one , all will , when they understand their own interest , actively assist to promote this regeneration of mankind . The change will bo from ignorance , or inexperience , to intelligence , or a knowledge of facts ; from poverty , or" the fear of 4 t f t > tp affluence for all beyond the desire of any ; from uncharitableness on account of differences in opinions or feelings , and from disunion of every kind , to perfect charity and unlimited kind-.. »

      ness ; from crime and bodily and mental suffering , to the absence of both . This is the great change which nature , in her own time , is about to effect for the human race . If you inquire why has nature decreed this first inferior , degraded , irrational infant state for mankind , I can no more inform you than I can tell you why all animals should have their early stages of existence , or vegetables their growth from the seed to maturity ; why the oak should pass from the acorn through all its preliminary stages , and not become the full-grown tree at the instant of its first existence ; or why the elephant should not possess its full strength when it commences life ;

      It is a fact , obvious to our senses , that gradations from the seed and infancy to maturity , take place in all we know that has life , and our knowledge extends no farther than facts , which are the everlasting works of the Great First Cause in nature , revealed alike to all nations and people in one and the same language . And these facts , these uncontaminated words or works of the universal power which pervades all nature , declare that man has hitherto lived in ignorance of its works ; that he has been governed by his imagination in opposition to facts ; and thus has he been led into all manner of error , and to experience all kind of misery .

      This infancy of the human race is , no doubt , in the regular order of nature ; and now it appears to be in the same order in the succession of events that this infancy should cease , that the imagination should become subordinate to the knowledge of facts derived from experience ; and that thus the full excellence and happiness of the human character should be drawn out and secured through futurity . Having hastily sketched the outline of the course of nature with respect to mankind , we now have to examine the past more in detail , and to trace the cause of the present condition of the human race . Our early ancestors perceived they were upon the earth , surrounded by what they called the heavens . To them the earth seemed to be the centre of the

      universe , flat and fixed ; and the heavens to move around them . They imagined that each human being has a free will to form his convictions and his feelings , and that he could change both of them at his pleasure . The first error our ancestors , after unnumbered ages , detected ; but not without much personal danger to the discoverers of it . The second , however , is the error of great magnitude . The error which has perverted the whole thoughts and feelings of the human race , leading them to endless evil , as long as they shall believe it , or act as though they believe it . This is the error which has entered into the

      associations of all human thoughts and feelings , upon all subjects ;—the error which has taught the language of falsehood , and instigated men to commit , without pity or remorse , all manner of violence and acts of oppression and injustice . This errjr has raised the hand of man against man ; created the divisions and separations among families , nations , and people ; and sown universal discord , made man fool and knave , and forced him to act the part of an irrational being only , and to call such conduct profound wisdom .

      And at this hour , Grave Folly , founded on this error , stalks through the earth , demanding reverence for its antic tricks , deference for its imposing absurdities , threatening truth with vengeance whenever it shall attempt publicly to expose this error which inflicts so much misery on the human race . It is true the conscientious lovers of truth cannot now , as in time past , be burned for their integrity ; but every means , short of immediate death , are still in practice among the defenders of this error , with the view to sacrifice all the worldly interests of those who will teach the people impoitant truths , and especially those who have the temerity to withdraw the veil of mystery with which this great fundamental error has been so long concealed from the mass of mankind .

      But the time is come when this veil must be withdrawn , and when all the nakedness , deformity , and vice of this gross error must be exposed to public view ;—exposed in order that no one hereafter shall attempt to support that which is opposed to all facts , to all honesty and sincerity , and to the happiness of the present and of all future generations . As a more full explanation of this now all-important subject , I am writing a •* Catechism of the Rational System of Society , ' of which I will forward you a Copy . IlOHKRT OWEN .

      The Education Of The People. Silt,—Amid ...

      THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE . Silt , —Amid the turmoil of polemics and politics , it is somewhat strange that this subject should , hitherto , have received so little attention . Set forth always as the first necessity of the age , yet has it remained in a strange obscurity . The people receive no beneficial education . The gallows and the hulks are their only teachers . Some few may acquire the mechanical part of learning , but the minds of these arc seldom developed . It Bhall remain a shame to our country so long as with truth wo can exclaim : —

      " How many a rustic Milton has past by , Stifling the speechless longings of his heart In unremitting drudgery and care ? How many a Kewton to whose passive ken , Those mighty spheres that gem infinity Were only specks of tinsel fixed in Heaven , To light the midnights of his native town ? " Yet so it is , we can make the hangman ' s office profitable , can deal out vengeance in the guise of justice , but knowledge seems to be a demon of such fearful attributes , monster of such frightful mien , "

      as to demand all our ingenuity to conceal it from the people . Yet this useless . We must not pander to man ' s prejudice nor wink at his folly . The dogma of a party must not be allowed to keep the people in ignorance . Men are , or should be , of more value than opinions ; yet we have a class who think differently . It has been the philosophy of the past to keep men in total ignorance ; the progress of society now renders this impossible . The press has broken the shroud of darkness and given some light to the people . They " ask for more , " and they must have it . There are questions in agitation which require a people ' s wisdom for their solution , and they must have it , or wo unto the future .

      Yet some of our Solons have established schools . And for what purpose ? Verily , as "Victor Hugo said , not to educate the people . No ! But to drill them with a , b , c , pothooks , and " twice two makes four , " for all eternity . To call this education is , as the satirist says , " Nothing but a screen , A trick , a subterfuge , a sophist cavil , To make vice virtue , and to cheat the devil . "

      What then is to be our destiny ? How long are our rulers to mock us with seeming ? Are the portentous warnings of the present so mystical as even to be misunderstood ? Do Babylon , and Nineveh , and Athens , speak not ? Is there nothing flexible in the iron philosophy of the past ? Is steel to govern us to the same purpose as it did Laced semon ? I hope not ; and yet the ramifications of might-ruling are so prevailing and extensive as almost to counsel despair . We must choose : education or oblivion ; a paradise or a desert ; which say ye , then , ye Solons of the people ? Decide ! and hold , not the fate of the future in bondage . Prometheus .

      Education. Shall It Derive Support From ...

      EDUCATION . SHALL IT DERIVE SUPPORT FROM NATIONAL OR VOLUNTARY SOURCES ?— " THAT IS THE QUESTION ! " Robert Owen declares " that the character of man is formed for him , and not by him . " Scripture admonishes us to " train up a child in the way he should go , and when he is old he will not depart from it . " Mr . Rushton , the stipendiary magistrate of

      Liverpool , in a recent letter to the corporation of that city ( which has been published ) , gives an account of a whole family who have , under the guidance of a depraved parent ( perhaps brought up himself under similar influences ) , though all of tender age , been several times punished for the commission of theft ; proving , beyond a doubt , the importance of " training " or education" with reference to the formation of character .

      Bad training has made these children criminals . They have offended against society , and society unites to punish them . For them , and others such , society keeps in its pay , at a great expence , a large body of men , who are called " police , " whose duties are to keep a strict watch over the movements of the " dangerous classes , " to detect offenders , and bring them to justice ( justice is salaried , too ) ; and then , if convicted , they are handed over to another class of paid officers , and are lodged in prison ( erected at the public expence ) , where they are worse than useless ( being contaminated by communion with hardened

      criminals ) ; or arc placed in ships ( built and manned with the public money ) , and taken to some distant country , where they are placed under the control of another class of paid officials . Society submits to all this taxation without grumbling . I never yet heard of even the staunchest ** voluntary" objecting to pay a police-rate . " These people deserve punishment , and it may act a * a warning to others ; it is , therefore , to the interest of society to pay for it . " Such is the manner in which they argue . But an education-rate—shocking ! But is it not really more to the interest of society to provide education for the children of the poor ? Is it not more expedient , and far more humane , for society to educate the child

      than to punish the criminal ( if it would be even jttst ) whose character , in consequence of neglect , has been formed in a bad or dangerous sense ? Has not experience proclaimed that " prevention is bettor than cure" ? Let , then , society unite to prevent the progress of crime . Surround the child with circumstances active for good ; place him under the benign influence of the schoolmaster ; let the intellectual and moral faculties be fully developed ; and society will be improved and strengthened by the change of systems . Far better that we erect schools instead of prisons—that we substitute the schoolmaster for the policeman and the gaoler—that we be taxed for education instead of punishment . The change will , by

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 11, 1850, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11051850/page/12/