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Leader (1850-1860), 16th August 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 783, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      are driven into the opposite extreme of speaking for nothing . By this mistake or artifice of the enemy , every organization is paralyzed , reformation reduced to a charity , and every man able and willing to instruct the poor in political or social knowledge , is starved with his own approbation , and amid the applause of the public . Mr . Ernest Jones has published a letter , in which he owns with manly candour that he " is poor—very pooT , for when was a soldier of Democracy otherwise ? " but he declines some " assistance proferred him , feeling convinced that nothing is more injurious to the People ' s cause , in the eyes of the worldthan that its advocates should be pensioned on

      , its charity . " The whole of this language proceeds from a false pride , can only tend to strengthen a pernicious delusion , and perpetuate Chartist impotence . I deny that when a man works till he is both poor and ill , that assistance proffered him by those for whom he has worked , is either a " pension , " ' charity . " It is only rightful support , yielded by tardy justice . I might multiply the instances of persons who hold this language , and take this course ; a course which has no dignity , and no utility . Surely there can be a line of demarcaand mode

      tion drawn between avarice or venality , - rate subsistence for actual work performed . On the present system of giving public instruction for nothing , none but the very rich or knaves can take the side of the People ; and , as the rich are too indolent , and the knaves unscrupulous , nothing is done , and nothing can be done . Social and political advocacy is , in these days , an onerous and disagreeable thing . The Government suspect you , the wealthy mistrust you , the poor , for whom you speak , starve you , and you may think yourself very lucky if they do not denounce you . With npathy everywhere , and confidence nowhere , it requires both courage and

      obstinacy to go among people uninformed and uninterested , and awaken them to some sense of public duty on these questions . I say , that such an advocacy ought to be well paid ; let it at least be elevated to the dignity of a humble trade , which keeps " body and soul together . " Canting , puffing , and shopkeeping are paying professions ; and why should not public instruction be one ? It should not be made a means of riches , it should have no tincture of venality about it , for that would endanger its influence and its integrity ; but it should have an honest price for its hearty work . If this plan were pursued there would not be half so much public

      speaking as there now is—but this would be no harm , I am sure ; but the said speaking would be much better and much more to the purpose than it now is—and this would be a great benefit , I am sure . If working-people were trained to pay for the discourses made to them , they would come to expect something for their money . Now they hardly expect anything of the kind ; and I am sorry to add they are seldom disappointed . Whatever the honour of the poor m ^ y be , and it is very great , it cannot at present direct them how to remunerate those who are the teachers , because they have always been taught that teaching should be gratuitous , or else it cannot bo

      patriotic . A man to speak to any purpose should have time to think before he speaks , and if he hasn ' t any instruction he will be all the better if he get it first ; but a man who has no private means must first look after his wants and those of his family , and then his speaking and teaching have to take eare of themselves ; and he rushes to the platform and delivers himself on anything that comes first , without trouble and without thought , naturally thinking anything good enough for people who begin themselves by thinking it good for nothing , since they do not

      intend to give anything for it . lhe charity system has this disadvantage—it entitles every man to infest a platform and occupy public attention who happens to have the accidental faculty of being able to speak gratuitously . Patriotism has the vice of slopselling about it . Reformers think fo much about the cheapness of the article that they forget to attend to its quality . Chartist speakers will never be improved , nor Chartist assemblages elevated , nor Chaitist organizations rendered vital , nor Chartist executives a power , till this system is reformed altogether . Iov .

      Untitled Article

      National Ciiautkk Association . —At the usual meeting of the Executive , a report was read from Mr . limest Jones , giving a satisfactory account of his progress in the "NVvst . He has been to Torquay , Plymouth , Devonport , and lliistol , meeting with capital autlicnccH , and finding " a genuine Democratic spirit at work . " Mr . Reynolds will write the next tract for the monthly circular . Aft * r concluding the business of the Association , a meeting of

      Metropolitan agents was held . These agents made verbal reports from their localities . Mr . Shepherd found ignorance the worst foe of Chartism in Limehouse . Mr . Nichols gave some cheering accounts of the Hoxton locality , where the members have established a tract propaganda , with fitting sections of " distributors . " Mr . Osborne found Ch « rtinm in a " position" in Finsbury ; but the members have a hall , and he was authorized to state that the free uso thereof would be given to the Executive every Tuesday evenlug ; imd to suggest that « monthly conference of tho

      whole of the metropolitan members be held , and that the Metropolitan Delegate Council be reorganized . Mr . Newsome added that they were printing addresses and tracts for distribution . Mr . Cooper found " great prejudice against Chartism at Greenwich ; " but they were about to commence a distribution of tracts , and they had a regular meeting place . Messrs . Delaforce , Farrah , Pilteret , Smith , and Highley , briefly reported from their localities , to the effect that , although they could not boast of what they were doing at the present time , still they hoped that ere long their localities would be in a more flourishing position . The majority were in favour of tracts as the best means of spreading Democracy . The Executive will next meet at the Crown and Anchor , Bermondsey , on the 20 th of August .

      Untitled Article

      THE REDEMPTION SOCIETY . A public discussion took place on Wednesday evening , July 30 , in the Music hall , Leeds , on the merits of the Redemption Society . Dr . F . R . Lres appeared on behalf of the society , his opponent being Mr . Joah Mallinson , Wesleyan Association preacher . The discussion originated in some remarks which Mr . Mallinson made at a camp meeting on Holbeck-moor on the previous Sunday , in which he repeatedly denounced the society as the " redemption bubble . " and stated hi 3 willingness to meet any member of the society , at any time , and in any place , and there prove that the society was a delusion . Mr . Councillor Caitcr was called to the chair , and introduced Mr . Mallinson to open the debate .

      Mr . Mallinson read a portion of the bill calling the meeting , and complained that hi . s convenience as to time , &c , had not been consulted . He stated that he had called the Redemption Society the " redemption bubble , " and he was there to prove it by figures . The bill stated " that the experiment of the society presented grave probabilities of success . " Now , probability meant likely to take place ; but he was prepared to show that the objects of the society could not be accomplished . He stated that his main objection to the society was " The inefficiency of the means to accomplish the end proposed . " He then proceeded to show that it would

      take 370 members five years to raise £ 450 , each paying Id . per week , and receiving compound interest ; and that the expenses of paper , pens , ink , postage , placards , &c , would swallow up nearly all that sum , leaving little or nothing to purchase land for allotments to the members . He also showed that eijjht collectors would in that time spend , in collecting this sum , time worth £ 104 . He knew that the collectors did not charge anything for their time thus spent , which was very generous on their part . He proceeded to explain to the meeting that no member could touch an acre of land as his own allotment until lie had

      paid for it ; and in case ( if death there was no provision made in the rules for his widow or children ; they might be turned off the land which the husband and father had paid for . This was the pith of his argument , that by subscribing one penny per week , the working classes could not raise capital enough to buy land , build houses , workshops , &c , which were the declared objects of the society . He stated that if they would place the scheme on the footing of charity , and honestly tell the working . men when they paid their pennies not to expect any thing in return , he would have no objection to it ; but if any gave their pence to the society in expectation of getting something in return , they would be disappointed . He then went on t' > show that the members would only be labourerd on , and not proprietors of the land

      purchased by the society ; that the expectation of being proprietors was a delusion . That if they expected any provision to be made for them in sickness or age , or any provision for the education of their chil dren , it was also a delusion . Ho stated that the directors declined giving information on these points from prudential motives , to act upon the gullibility of John Bull ; be also stated that the tract issued by the society a few years ago , called the Redemption Tract , was calculated to beguile the unwary ; and concluded his nddrchs by stating that its principle of collecting pence for such purposes on the Sabbath was a principle of rank infidelity , and that he was justified in asserting that the Redemption bubble was inefficient in its means , unjust in its principles , and infidel in its tendency .

      Dr . F . R . Lees complained of Mr . Mallinson imputing evil motives to the promoters of the society , by charging them with refusing to give certain necessary information in order " to act upon the gullnbility of John Bull , " and also by charging them with issuing a ttact to " beguile the unwary . " lie said it ill became a preacher of that Gospel which advocates achurity which thinkelh no evil to impute evil motivcH to men , who , accurdu g to Mr . Mallinson ' a own showing , were devoting both their time and their money to the promotion of what they believed a good cause ; fur it must be remembered that those collectors and directors were prohibited by law from receiving a single penny for the services which they rendered to the society . He anked if his opponent , could try the hearts of if

      men ; or nun sacrificing their time and money week after week for six years , as some had ( lone , could be a proof of guile . He proceed * d to reply to the charges of infidelity and Sabbath-breaking . He was no friend to working on Sundays . He supported the elaiiuH of this society , because be believed that by carrying out the principle of concert in the production and diutribution of weulth , the labourer would be enabled to have two sabbaths in the week instead of one . lie showed that if it wna lawful to relieve an a « n on Sunday , it wns surely M iii < 1 (> KOO < I to mcn- -A K '" . he contended that Mr . Mallinaon and the whole fraternity of preachers were guilty of the very charge which he brought against the society , yiz ., collecting money on tho Lord ' s d » y :

      they collected money on that day to send missionaries to uttermost parts of the earth , to improve the condition of the heathen , and he ( Dr . Lees ) had nothing to say against it ; but if it was right to collect pence on Sunday for foreign charity , where was the harm in collecting pence for works of benevolence at home ? The Christ himself was charged with Sabbath-breaking by the Pharisees of his day , and with apparently more reason than we are charged with it by the Pharisees of ours . We collect pence on Sundays , because that is the only day on which we can find the labourer at home ; and the only day on which the collectors have time to do it . He then showed that Mr . Mallinson had confounded two things which were entirely different , namely , the main objects

      of the society—which were the establishment of communities , of which concert in labour and community of property should be the' basis ; and the allotment fund which was merely a side path for persons who wished to walk alone , and not the great highway of the society , on which the fraternal band progressed to happiness . That all the figures of hi 3 opponent proved nothing , because the penny per week was not paid for allotments of land , but the gift of the members to carry on the experiment of organized labour and common property , which was now being made in Wales . That the only privilege which the subscribers had for their pence was , that by these payments they were eligible to be elected to go to the

      Welsh community . That the allotment fund was a different affair , as he would ahow by the rules cf the society . He then read the 8 th rule , which is as follows : — " Any member of this society who has paid up all his contributions , &c , to the common stock or fund of this society , and being desirous to have a small allotment of land for his own uses and purposes , shall have the privilege of purchasing of the trustees such an allotment of land as shall consist of one or more shares , of half an acre each share , for which he shall pay the same price in proportion as the society- gave for the whole , subject to the following conditions : —The society shall have the fiist choice of the land purchased . No member shall be allowed to have more than ten shares .

      Each member shall pay the whole of his purchasemoney before he shall be entitled to select and take possession of his allotment . And in case of the death of any member , the whole of the money shall be paid to his widow , or to whom he may direct by will , without any pajment whatever , " &c . Now , this shows that my opponent ' s gteat objection is groundless , for there is nothing to prevent us giving a man his allotment when he has paid the full price of it . Again , Mr . Mallinson had no great objection to the scheme if it was one of charity , now it is in the first instance a work of benevolence . We see what an amount of poverty and crime has resulted from

      competition , and we will not blaspheme and say that poverty , the great tempter to vice , is inevitable ; we say it can be done away ; and as the competitive system of society has created it , and cannot destroy it , and as there is only another system of society possible , namely , concert or cooperation , we are now conducting an experiment to prove that poverty and all its pestiferous consequences can be destroyed by our system . Some of the members are already located , and free from poverty and the murdering cares of competitive strife . A gentleman now on this platform has just returned from our estates in Wales ; and when I asked him the other day what he thought of the place and the people , his answer was : —

      " I have been there , and still would go ; ' T is like a little heaven below . " If we arc well supported we may soon place a great number of our members in the same position . It is not true that the located members are merely labourers ; they are the joint proprietors of the place , they have the use of it , which is all the property that men should have in , the soil : they cannot will it to their children , that is another matter . If a member of the community dies , his widow and children are provided with food , education , and all things necessary to comfort , the same as if the husband wua alive . Contrast this with the provision made by that system supported by my opponent . In ours there is tho same food for the widow and orphan as we eat ourselves ; the same clothing ; house accommodation , &c . ; the same education for the orphan as we give to our own children . In his the Bastille or Union workhouse .

      Mr . Malhn 8 on only occupied a few minutes in his second speech . He utated that he could not understand the speech of Dr . Leea ; spoke of the failure of the land plan of Mr . F . O'Connor , &c , and advititd emigration us a remedy for otir social evils . This was received by a about of disapprobation from the meciing . After the Chairman had order , Dr . Lees replied at considerable length , nhowing that it was possible that Mr . Mallinson did not understand hi « speech , on account of his inability to explain the objects of the but it

      society ; was also potmiblc that it wan on account of Mr . Maliinson ' ti want of comprehension . The plan of Mr . 1 «" . O'Connor was as different from that of the Redemption Society as possible . He gave a lengthy description of ancient and modem communities —the Kh-Beneij — the early ChrintiaiiB—the Monks—the JeauitH , ami the modern coinmuniticH of America , to hIiow thai pure community had never failed . He con * hided by showing the inefficiency of emigration , pointing to Ireland us hiH proof , and advised the audience to stick to the old ship and improve it .

      Untitled Article

      Aw * . 16 , 1861 J . «»* ¦*»«»«* . 783

      Untitled Article

      VISIT TO A NOILT 1 I AMKRICAN PHALANSTERY . Clontarf , AiifjtiHt 10 , 1851 . Sin , —The following ex true t from a letter of an Kngliuh lady just returned from a twelvemonths ' tour in tho United Stutcs , and wheni uhe him visited several cooperative coinniuuiticu , will , I think , be intcrcBting to inuny of your rcadcra . Youra rospeotfully Wiluam Paoiu

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 16, 1851, page 783, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1896/page/19/