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    September 25,1852. THE STAR 0F FfiEE]X)M...

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    NEGRO SLAVERY IN AMERICA. Slavery still ...

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    SHALL BRITAIN BE CONQUERED? The present ...

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    Saturday, September 25, 1852. Apathy Or ...

    Ijjcy will laud the rule of thumb known as political economy ; they will glorify the law of " supply and demand , " which justifies the making men worse than beasts , by degrading them into me * money-making machines , to be set at work or stopped as the market rules , high or low ; they will talk of fjie hones of their ancestors—their devotion to their faith the green hills and bright streams of the " gem of the sea "the bygone deeds of their race , —but they will ignore the People . There will be enough of ponderous argument , of

    paltry huckstering , of fiery invective , of fierce opposition , and but little , if any , of true patriotism . In truth , our legislature will be in the new parliament what it has been too lon « - —not ' a gathering of earnest , conscientious men , striving to elevate a nation by wise provisions and just laws—but an assemblage , for the most part , of political quacks , specious charlatans , pompous wiseacres , and self-seeking schemers , who prostitute the pretence of representation by making it the instrument of party elevation , personal interest , or , at best , the aggrandizement of a class already too powerful .

    This is a free country—the freest in all Europe . That is tlie flattering boast which the masses are forced to hear from platforms ticketed " liberal . " It is a traditional boast , too , almost respectable from its antiquity . " Britons never shall he slaves" used to be chorused as heartily in the days of the third George , of " pious and blessed memory , " as it is now , and with about as much reason . It is no new custom to " singto slaves the songs of freemen , " but as old as the hills—as old , at least , as despotism . True , that we are not bound in the same way as the people of other countries . Our land is not exactly a camp . Bayonets do not bristle nor sabres

    gleam as thickly here as elsewhere . Citizens are not lured into the streets to be massacred by the soldiery . Police spies do not sit by every other man ' s fire side . —We may meet and speak and write and think freely—except , indeed , at such tunes as " open and advised" expression is thought to be dangerous , and then the gag is ready . But , for all that , are we free ? Is it anything moi'e than slavery in another and a subtler form?—the slavery of a manufacturing and commercial , instead of a military tyranny .

    Our freedom , what there is of it , is apparent , rather than real . It is a negative freedom , permitting us to do what we are unable to eftect . A personal freedom which does not put fetters on the body , but paralyses the will and smothers up the mind . The Times has called it , and pretty truly , " material freedom , " which may be translated for the benefit of the iminiated , as political atheism . Let any man , whose ability to work is his only inheritance , ask himself how free he is , and he will become aware of chains around him which mock him

    while thev bind him . The ancient serf wore a collar round his neck , the modern one carries it round his heart . A keen file could sever the one , but yet the instrument has not been used potent enough to cut through the other . Our modern English freedom is a gaily dressed spectre , a skeleton in new clothes ; take off the cap of liberty which is stuck upon its head , and the skull of old serfdom grins at you from beneath it . A man without property is free to work if any one chooses to give him work to do ; he is free to earn money if

    anybody will let him , free to live in a palace if he can pay the rent , free to eat dainties if he he can get them , free to change his master and take the chance of finding another , free to go to the gold diggings if he can muster up his passage monev , free to marry and have children and support them , if he is fortunate , free to go to the workhouse when all his other freedom vanishes . The honourable company of paupers is really the only one to whose livery he has any right . Hodden gray is his family color , and a porridge bowl and wooden spoon his

    crest . Even that is only a qualified freedom ; he must not choose his workhouse , " for he belongs to his parish ; he must not see those he holds dear , who have twined themselves round his affections , and become part of his heart , for poor law doctrine is of the Malthusian order , regarding wives as unnecessary luxuries , and children as expensive ones . He mustwork , too , not for himself , but for the parish which has become his owner , and which says the latest poor law ukase is to recompense him , not according to his labour or his deserts , but according to his " wants '—' that is , give him

    just enough to keep life in him . Examine our freedom minutely , and that is just the sum total of it . Freedom to live as prisoners , without social ties , comforts , or hope ; to live in such a condition as few , even of the ultra-democrats , woidd endow with the rights of citizenship . That is , the glorious fate to which every labourer may look forward as the only one of which he is certain , that the magnificent inheritance which ages of labour and centuries of civilization have bequeathed to the producers of the world . And yet we have no tyrants . Henry the Eighth , the holy pillar upon which rests the established church , is a historical character onl A-tender woman occupies the throne . We

    y . have no Wolsey ' s or Walpole ' s , nor Castlereagh ' s , now-a-days . "The Iron Duke" has just been gathered to his fathers . Divine right is an exploded mockery . * Our judges are of different stuff from those ' who were but minions of a court , Ine House of Commons is filled with men who , at certain times , at all events , bow respectfully before " a mob , " lay their hands upon their hearts , or the places where hearts should behind propitiate the " many-headed monster" with honeyed nothings . AH is changed except our own condition ; we are still slaves , slaves not in word , perhaps , but in deed ; slaves of that potent despot " necessitv" made for us by our rulers , and which

    rides us worse than a nightmare , by day and night also . No matter how it may be glossed over by logic or sophism —no matter how many comforts we may have around us , the men are slaves , mere slaves who aie bound to obey laws which others make for them , without their consent . There are degrees of slavery as of everything else . They seem to range between the extremes represented by the American negro and tlie English labourer . "We can mark every point between the two as upon a graduated scale . —

    Slaves who may be bought and sold unconditionally—slaves who are attached to the land as our forefathers were—slaves who may not be bought and sold , but whose industry avowedly Hongs to their m asters—slaves , who are free to work for others . or to starve for themselves . They are . all children ot the same sfock- ^ cousins but a few Agrees , removed . " - Nigger" feudal-serf , wages paid labourer ,., pauper ; may allsha £ e tads tog ether . XJijder ^ ei ^ tcbMtions and ckimffi & taBc ^

    Saturday, September 25, 1852. Apathy Or ...

    they all labour under the same defect which is the essence of slavery , powerlessness over their own destiny . They may sink under their burdens and know why the load is so heavy ; but they may not remove an atom of the weight , nor prevent the last straw from being piled upon the heap . They may know where the shoo pinches as only those who wear it can

    , but they may not alter it . They may suffer and know whence the suffering flows , but may not dam up the source . The only privilege of all alike is obedience . The names of their rulers change from Despotic Constitutional Monarch , from owner to master , from landlord to manufacturer , from aristocrat to money-monger ; but they remain in the same slough in which we now find ourselves .

    The usurped right of property to make laws is at the very bottom of all serfdom , and taxation tests are among the work of its features . Till there is a chance of thatbeing abolished , there is no hope for the progress of humanity . "What chance is there of it now ? "What are we doing to throw it down ? Absolutely nothing . The power of property is rampant in parliament and out of it . It monopolizes the representation and holds in its hands commerce . It dictates terms to

    an ancient aristocracy and refuses to negotiate with the peasant . It measures everything by its own standard , and subordinates virtue , intelligence , industry , to . possession . It has organisation and money and it buys talent . It is our real , almost our only foe . While the Earl of Derby only talks of staying democracy property has built up its barriers against it , and we stand face to face with this power inactive , apathetic , unprepared . We see it ready not to strike one blow ,

    but to follow stroke up with stroke , and do not even stir in our own defence . How , at this moment , when a new policy must be inaugurated , and change present another phase , we forbear to play our part . Men of England , workers , slaves , have you made up your minds to hug your chains , are you resolved to submit to another century of degradation under your new masters ? We cannot believe that you are . If you are not , let us rise in earnest for another effort , taking for our rallying cry the right of all men to share in the government of their common countrv .

    September 25,1852. The Star 0f Ffiee]X)M...

    September 25 , 1852 . THE STAR 0 F FfiEE ] X ) M > | Q

    Negro Slavery In America. Slavery Still ...

    NEGRO SLAVERY IN AMERICA . Slavery still exists in England in many a terrible form . The modern Egypt of bondage in which labour is held subject to the Pharoah of capital , has its taskmasters and tortures , almost as inhuman as those of the most brutal barbarism . The slavery of labour in the aggregate , to capital , is almost as prolific of human misery as the bondage of the negro in the slave-states of America . The money despotism of England is as unscruplous , as inexorably selfish , and as utterly heedless of the death and desolation it creates , as the blood-hounds

    who subjugate and murder the blacks . It is as deaf to hear the groans of little children whose tender lives arc used up in pestilent factories , and suffocating mines , as are the slavedealers and slave-holders . It is as reckless of human life , and suffering , as the fiendish slave-driver " Lcgree , " in Uncle Tom s Cabin . But there is one essential difference between Negro slavery , and slavery in England ; although our system of tyranny is as powerful and crushes us as certainly , in its warfare with the creators of wealth , it is only as a system , and conquers only in the gross mass .

    The tyranny is not so personal , and the slavery is not so individual . In England there is not that free scope for the passions of the master class , for , after all , the capitalist is not the personal proprietor of his slaves , and although society permits him to use their labour , and pit bones aud sinews against iron shaft and wheels , set father sgainst son , and children against their parents , in unlimited competition , he cannot use the whip , the branding-iron , and the blood-hound , with none to say to him nay . He cannot tear the mother from husband and family , and send her a thousand miles away to end her

    dark destiny in the fatal swamps , nor say to the tathcr" want four of your children to make up a lot which I have just sold to go ' down south . ' Other terrible distinctions might be drawn , sadly and grimly reflecting upon Republican America , with its boasted freedom and superior institutions . Ah , America is not all we have been led to think she is ! Fast and fatally are the roots of old world evils ramniiying her young soil That apportioning of the land , the common inheritance of humanity , as private property , that lust , of gain , and greed of gold , and worship of the almighty dollar , that setting up of shams and hypocricies , in the place of simple ,

    noble manhood—that perpetuation of the proletariat or speculation in man by man , the wages-slavery—these are evils to be denounced , and things to mourn oyer . But oi all the foul sores and deadly diseases that afflict her , that Negro slavery is the most deplorable ; and , as we are democrats naturally , and not merely by profession , as our sympathies are universal , we cry shame on the pretended democracy that tolerates a cause like slavery . Wherever Humanity is yearning to cast off the execrable tyranny that crushes it—wherever there is a people groaning beneath the lash of despotism—wherever there is a wrong crying for redress—there is our cause ; and whether they be white " or black slaves it matters not , the colour of our

    Democracy is not that of skin-distinction , it is that of the warm , rich , human heart . Shame , burning shame ^ say we , on the democracv or Democratic " Convention" which , like that at Baltimore " , would make the bondage of the Negro its steppingstone to power , and seek the suffrages of a nation by pandering to the slave-holders and defending a fatal iniquity . What shall America be looked to as the land of liberty and refuge of the world , and shall she make the banner of freedom symbolize + > « mnnL-iW wnvh ] nf t . vTflnts . ii . nd n . oTfuminff world of slaves to mocking world of tyrantsaud a groaning world ot slaves

    , , a , , nothino- save bloodv stripes and bitter tears ? Shall this dark and deadlv curse be still permitted toblight American and Republican life ? Shall Democracy and Christianity countenance the tearing asunder of . nature ' s divinest ties ? Shall these look calmly on the blood that runs beneath the lash * and sprinkles that sod on which the stern old fore-fathers of the Republic poured out their life-blood to render free ? Out upon such " Democracy" as would sell the image of God , though in ebony , in the market-place , and permit humanity to be . trampled upon at the will of soulless and- tearless tyrants . A pretty crew , you heroes of . whip ; aa 4 chajn ,.. to ' talk of setting the & ld world fresfros * the thraldom of king-craft and priest-

    Negro Slavery In America. Slavery Still ...

    craft , and of aiding Europe to burst the bonds of Kaiser , Pope , and Czar , while you revel in the price of human blood , and drive that horrible traffic in human flesh ! Down to the dust of repentance , or talk no more of Democracy and Liberty , for ye take their holy names in vain . America Young Republic of the West S Child of our own mother-land , which was rocked in the brave hearts and nursed in the

    sturdy arms of our common fathers ! Arouse thee , and wipe away this blot from thy scutcheon . Let thy manhood Mil the glorious promise of thy infancy . No longer perpetuate this dark and terrible wrong , or a wild retribution awaits thee . The Nemises of historv is just . Remember Hayti and St . Dominique ! Look to it in time , or some Spartacus of the west may yet arise , to avenge the long oppressions and countless injuries of his trampled race ; and the morning of the coming day of the

    slave ' s deliverance , for which he prays , and weeps , and lifts the longing eyes , may be ushered in wet with crimson dews . All honour to the men of noble heart and lofty mind , who are carrying on the good light against the atrocious system , and who scatter their words of flame , which are more fatal than tho old Greek fire in the camp of the slave-holders . We are with you in your proud struggle , and though we cannot lift the arm of strength in your cause , yet our hearts do battle with you , and all our sympathies fight for you , and the Emancipation of the Negro Slave .

    Shall Britain Be Conquered? The Present ...

    SHALL BRITAIN BE CONQUERED ? The present position of Europe is a strange and unprecedented one ; one which all feel is but temporary , that it can not long last , and that a change cannot peaceably take place but proceed only from revolution or from war . It would seem that , for the moment , any rcvolutionar \ movement on the part of the people is impossible . Throughout the continent of Europe , the people lie unarmed , exhausted , and powerless , the bayonets of the soldiers of despotism pointed at their breasts , liable to be exterminated ai

    any moment by the loaded cannon commanding every town and every street . In such circumstances it is physically impossible for them to move , any attempt to do so would only be to provoke a renewal of the remorseless butchery by which has already been spilt the best blood of the European nations No , we fear it is not by any popular movement that the

    immediate position is to be changed , but by a struggle between the ruling powers themselves . But by which power is the war to be begun , and between what powers is it to be carried on ? To the first part of the question many will instantly answer Louis Bonaparte ; but to the latter portion it will not be so easy to find a reply . But however the quarrel may begin , it is probable that all the great powers will ultimately be dragged into the war to which it will give rise . That this war will owe its origin to some agression on the mat tins war mil owe its origin to some aggression on the

    part of Louis Bonaparte is a question which admits of but little doubt . An aggressive war is an absolute necessity oi * the position which he now occupies . A military despotism cannot continue without military glories , and there can be no military glory without war . War upon some one Bonaparte must make , either previously or subsequently to the proclamation of the Empire . His idea of flattering the pride of the French nation by restoring the Rhine frontier , is well known . But the determination of the great European powers to resist any attempt to do so has been too unequivocably expressed to allow its existence to be doubted . Here

    is Bonaparte ' s dilemma . To invade and annex Belgium would be to bring at once upon him the great powers of the European continent , and the immense naval forces of England . To do so , with a population that , instead of supporting him , would look upon his conquerors as deliverers , would be madness . Bonaparte has too much cunning to thus rush upon destruction . Yet war is indispensable , and must be made . This fact , and the pressing necessity of a solution of the difficulty in which he is placed—standing as he docs between the danger of beinff crushed bv foreien fens , and thnf . nf hmW the danger of being crushed by foreign foesand that of being

    , overwhelmed by a popular insurrection , makes far less improbable than would otherwise be , an attempted Bonapartist invasion of England , the existence of a plan to effect which was spoken of in our Paris correspondence last week . Were such an invasion to be successful , were London to be reached by a first or second invading army , the governmental organization broken up , and England conquered , the successful bandit might then pour his armies into Belgium with hopes of success ; for , having destroyed the British power that threatened his rear , he might have some reason to calculate on his being able to withstand the shock of the coalesed armies of the

    continent . The question for the consideration of the British nation is , would an invasion be successful ? ' It is this " alone that is worthy of discussion , and not the improbability of the attempt in a time of profound peace , and without the slightest warning , or the aggressor having received any provocation . It would most assuredly be a piratical expedition , but with a man of Louis Bonaparte ' s stamp , is it not all the more likely for that ? Yet men in England have the stupidity or the rascality to talk of the honour

    of Bonaparte as sufficient guarantee against any such attempt ! In what has he evinced any honourable feeling ? In destroying that liberty which he had sworn to respect and protect , or in butchering the people who had conferred wealth and dignity upon him , in order that he might affirm his usurpation ? And now he is evidently pursuing the same game as he played previous to the coup d ' etat . Articles in the official journals , which may be readily construed into threats , are put forth as feelers of what would result from the accomplishment of the deed , and when they have had the intended effect , they

    are denied , and protestations of intentions tlie very opposite are denied , and protestations of intentions tlie very opposite are made to lull suspicions . But John Bull is not suspicious ; it is so much trouble to be suspicious , he could not eat his dinner comfortably , and be so ; oh , no ! John cannot be made the victim of distrust or anxiety now ! And a peace-at-any price journalist sings a song of triumph at the extinction of the " war spiriV amongst the mass of the people , evidenced by their smairdesire to go ''' soldiering , " and indignantlydenies that we are really defenceless . We have 192 , 508 land forces at home ; so our contemporary thinks' that W are fully entitled to refuse to become . men , to continue in our present

• Citation
  • Northern Star (1837-1852), Sept. 25, 1852, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/ns2_25091852/page/9/