On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    strongs aand , but upheld by the moral power of public opinion and veneration . Of the two first quoted examples it will be unnecessary to speak , the present loose hints being intended to apply to some of the prejudices brought daily under our observation . Of the third we need only instance the vindictive

    hatred mutually entertained , universally until very lately , and still partially , between the two mightiest nations in Europenations whose friendly co-operation might enlighten and liberate the world—England and France . Amongst the military of both kingdoms this detestable and inhuman feeling was rife .

    But by whom was that feeling implanted , by whom encouraged and supported ? By kings , and ministers , and their agents of every kind and denomination , lay and clerical—in a word by the rulers of men . Have not the passions of ignorant soldiers and sailors been inflamed , their avarice excited , their instinct

    and affections in their local attachments appealed to , and most falsely interested in feuds with which they have no more to do than with the Talmud 1 Have not the men been goaded into rage and enmity towards their fellow-creatures , as a reluctant dog is excited by his savage backer to the requisite fighting p itch by being pinched , shaken , and thrust into the face of his intended adversary ? Have not such means been resorted to ?

    They have , and well adapted for the object . Rulers of nations know that declamation fascinates the vulgar and ignorant , who mistake it for reason ; and the art of working upon the prejudices of man is an admirable quality in a statesman . Had the men appealed to , or forced to become warriors , been enlightened , had they been able to reflect , to exercise their reason

    the objects of governments would not have been effected . Were a nation truly educated , an army could never be raised , unless in case of invasion , or some rare cause obviously and indisputably national ; or unless from the very dregs ana rottenness of society . By persons of good sense ana education the lies of a recruiting : serieant would be laughed to scorn .

    To go bo further back than a few years : —thousands of EngiisJamen perished on the Peninsula , and thousands more rotted upon the vast savannahs of America . Why ? Because the French did not choose to be governed by the Bourbons , and oecauae George the Third was an ignorant and stubborn tyrant . Poor infatuated men ! they were deluded into the enthusiastic

    notion that they were defending the liberties of their native land and the safety of their hearths . They were unconscious that their arms were hired in the service of despotism- *—that their blood flowed in torrents , with that of their American brethren , to gratify the obstinacy oi an insane man whom it was ttieir curse to call king . What practised mendacity and unblushing effrontery must it require to tell a mass of human beings collected in such a cause as that just named , that they

    Untitled Article

    Cursory Remarks on Prejudice * 321

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1836, page 321, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2657/page/57/