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Northern Star (1837-1852), 22nd October 1842, Edition 1 of 5, Page 4, Untitled Article

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    • THE NORTHEEN STAR. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1842.
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      Untitled Article

      MAW YEKSUS MACHINE . Oh ! handiest it mi , through hapleu age Condemned a to with want to wage . Snch w » b the description given try an » nd « rt poet of a -wretched individual , who waa left , I 0 » S ^*™ Crusoe , upona aesertislan * , ana vrherebe rtm « m-Wved , with hla bow and arrows , as the other did with feii gnn , to prolong a xniaeraMe existence . And such , too , is , Htnnge to aay . the description wfaiefa a modern philanthropist has applied to thousands of operative , who , in a country that boasts of its religion , dvflizv-Bon , and science , have been compelled to entoe all the horrors of hunger , and In a land rich with all the choicest Rifts of creation , but from which the working man has been debarred by a forced competition with the Mammon-made machine ; that with it * eternal thump , thump , thump , has been reducing , under the piston of the steam-engine , the poor to powder , and like the giant of whom we hare read in our nursery tales , baa been crying

      out—Fee , fan , firm—I smell the blood of a working man ; Be hs alive , or be half d"ad , I'll grind hi * bones to make my bread . That such would be the effects of the unlimited use of machinery , was predicted in my hearing by a Lancashire cotton-manufacturer , in 1810 ; and who , when be was told that the Luddites were smashing the newly-invented frames at Nottingham , stated that they were knocking the right nail on the head . " For , " said he , ' if fabrics are reduced in price , depend upon it the wages ol the workmen will be dimished eventually like Wise ; and unless ail the expences of the operatives are lessened equally , the efiect of tbe machinery will be to make the poor poorer , and tbe rich richer ; and as the latter will thus gain what tbe others lose , the invention of man will nullify the injunctions of God ; by whem the rich , if they are believers in his words , have been taught to keep their bands from picking—at least the pockets of the poor .

      So , too , in 1816 , when the power-loom first began to show its teeth , the same keen-eyed seer stated that the machine would be as mighty , but far less merciful , than the Destroying Angel ; for that scourge , of the Almighty did its work of destruction at once ; whereas the machine wonld coolly cut off the hands merely of its victims , and leave the body to perish by inches . And richly have they deserved their fate , say the flendlike political economists ; for after the invention of the power-loom , what right had the band-loom weavers to live , when they bad ceased to have a place at Nature ' s table ? " Or . if they were fools enough , " rays tbe Westminster Review , in its last number , " to compete with the steam engine , what man of sense would listen lo their complaints ? As well might the jackass bray out its abuse of the blood-horse for carrying off the cup at Doncaster . "

      Bat though scarcely a single ear was turned , ten years ago , to the heart-rending complaints of the handloom weavera , ground to the dust by the machine—for , In the insolence of presumed power , the Hiillowners told the working men to bow down to the steam idol or starve—yet now every ear has been stunned by the wailings of the millocrats themselves ; and even the H # use of Commons , that formally yrofessed its inability to legislate for the protection of the poor , has Btepped forward to reliere the rich ; and , melted by the tales and tears of the millowners , has been gnlled by the impudent falsehood that trade has been ruined through the Testrictiens imposed fey the Corn Laws , an& not ' the nnlimited use of machinery ; for our , rulers wanted the wit to see that when machinery reaches a certain pitch , it cannot fail to make the supply greater than the demand , and tons to destroy the very source of profit ,

      ¦ which arises from keeping the supply less than the demand , which must always be the case where machinery Is employed only partially . Of these facts , however , tbe prophet , whose words I have lived to see verifled to tbe letter , was so conscious , as to predict that the pma would come , and quicker , too , than the millowners would like , when every market in the globe Would be glutted with English goods ; and that , as this glut would force sales on the part of the more needy adventurers , every article made by machinery weuld , in turn , be diminished in value ; and , as no manufactured article , after it has been once sold for a less sum , fig * ever realised its formsr price , no market , that hsd been once glutted , would ever recover itself , except for a limited period , when the stocks in hand should ba redueed to the lowest point in consequence of tbe pre-Tious forced sales .

      " But , " said the man , from whose bps I learnt more truths than the whole race of political economists could teach me ,, were they to scribble till doomsday , " it will take about thirty years to convince the supporters of the unlimited use of machinery , that tbe very power whiih the Solomons , as they call themselves , fancy will -shower upon tbe land all the blessings of cotton shirts and shifts , of silk stockings and gloves , and of linen and lace , at tbe cheapest rate , will give birth to evils frightful to contemplate , and which it will require no little patience to endure , and still greater resolution to correct In the meantime , however , " added the seer , " princely fortunes will ba made and princely lost : nor will the truth burst upon the world , that when tbe Creator made man , he meant him to be the master and net the slave of the machine , until they who have set Tip the M " TnnT ' m&cnine , a * the Isralites did the golden calf , «* "fli find that their idol , with its arms of iron but breath of steam , is utterly incompetent when called on to save its delnded worshippers . "

      Of the mor » l evils to which the unlim . ted use of machinery may have given birth , the political economist wCl , of course , take no account ; for he will assert that there is no necetsary connection between machinery and immorality . But if it be shown that the introduction of machinery has produced a state of society where the worst passions of our nature are called most readily into play , and , with the greatest opportunity for indulgence , are controlled by the fewest and weakest of checks , in a moral point of view machinery may be fairly considered a curse of no common kind . I allude particularly to the story I heard when travelling through the manufacturing districts , in 1836 , from a person of whose veracity I had no reason to donbt . In a factory , about twelve miles from Manchester , there were two partners , one of whom rarely visited the Works , except for the purpose of seeing what young and handsome females had lately entered it , when , like the Sultan at Constantinople , he selected the one most to his taste to be the partner of his bed , until satiety

      required the stimulant of a fresher face ; To what extent this practice is carried on in other factories , Where there are sleeping partners , I know not For the tumour ef one ' s species and country , it is to be hoped that the case is a solitary one . But whether the instances of such cold-blooded . villany in the owners of factories be many or few , they formed no part of the prophet's predictions relating to the moral mischiefs of machinery . Still less did the seer anticipate the destruction of all the bonds of filial duty which machinery was destined to produce , as exhibited in a case at Hacclesfield ; where I heard that when a father , who had been thrown out of employ by the introduction of machinery , was going to correct bis son for some misconduct , the little rogue , about thirteen yean old , said to bis parent , who depended on hia children alone for support— " If you dare lift your little finger against your feeder , I'll stop your grub , old boy , next Sunday ; and , instead of your sending me to bed without a supper , I will make yon pass the whole day without a meal "

      Of the other moral mischiefs to which machinery would give birth , the prophet had , however , a correct anticipation ; for he stated , that as machinery could never be worked successfully , except by bringing together large masses of men and "women , population or prostitution would increase according as high wages enabled parties to marry or low . ones prevented them ; and ) as continued improvements in machinery would throw persons out of employ , without being able to set aside the command of God to increase and multiply , it was quite evident that prostitution would incrmse as machinery did .

      He did not , however , even dream of the general displacement of male by female labour , to which that real nobleman . Lord Ashley , has alluded in his recent answer to the address of tbo Short Time Committee ; where his Lordship says , that the moral pestilence , which machinery has introduced , is not confined to tbe factories connected with cotton , silk , - and woollen fabrics , but is spreading through our mines and collieries , and destroying at onoe the peace and the virtue of every hearth and home ; and so complete is the separation of husband and wife , and of pnents and

      children , that all tbe endearments of the family group will be shortly unknown . " Thousands , " adds his Jjordship , " of veong females are absorbed into the whirlpool of avarice and plunged into factories and mines , where every hour is given to toil ; and while sot a few become mothers before they have well ceased to be children , the licentiousness of others , whose evil passions have been called out by their dose and constant eontaet with tbe other sex , has exhibited the pernicious waits of violating the- order of Providence by abstracting females from their peculiar calling . "

      Equally bund was tbe prophet to another violation of the law of nature to which' machinery has been foBBi to lead ; for it has not only prevented tbe parent from « up > orttng his child , bat compelled the child to support tbe parent ; a law that the supporters of machinery , who were all tbe supporters of the New Poor Law , have enacted , sot so much in ignorance of , a « in contempt for , tbe law of God , that tbe hen is to yratrh tot ft * * Wi * -n »« not the chickens for the hen Had , however , tbe idea eome into tbe Bind of tbe prop&et , be weald bam add that even a Tory House of Cowdom would throw the * leld « f legal protection tntr ifr" **—«; not have permitted baMet just out of tbeit mother * ama to be carried in those of their htt ^ s from tbeir beds , hungry and half asleep , to be trrnrlatftii by a Mf ^ reft »» m » M » n > « nor w ould be have believed that tbe Whig * , whose polities he bad always supported , would have damned themselves to

      everlaiting infamy , by drawisg , with the aid of the mighty majority of one , a temporary veil over tbe barbarities practised with impunity in factories , which were laid baa fay the lampinted Sadler , when he stood forward as the opponent of tbe cbBd-amabisg th «/»> i ? t >» still lesa would tfeapropbatbave believed that tbe ley touch of avjfcrloB would eofreeas tbe blood of tt » once warmbhartedmastar-TBanuTtrt area , as to lead them , without a pang , to commit t **«« n » Mft by wholesale , to enable them to add pennies to their pounds by the plunder of tbnujmtoctedehM ; for whose production ttw ma-

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      chine itself has held out sccb a premium , by throwing the parents out of employ , that when I was at Bradford , is 1836 , a partner In one of the largest factories told me that if 600 children were dropped , like cherubs , from the clouds , they copld be all absorbed by different concerns , but that fifty of their parents weuld with difficulty find food by the sweat of their brow . Although tbe time has been when some of our crack political economists presumed to ridicule the God-made man as an imperfect nm'W'w , compared with the man-made spinning-jenny and power-loom worked by the almighty steam-engine , yet one or twe of those , who in their youth fancied themselves to be Solomons , have lived to discover they were only fools . At least , I infer as much from finding in the British and Foreign Quarterly for 1838 , the sentiments following , and penned by one whose handwriting is as visible as that which appeared on the wall -.

      —n The application of the discoveries of tbe laws of matter amongst a people , whose god is gold , has been injurious to the community ; for it has festered one of the lowest propensities of our nature—the inordinate love of gain . Its attendant have been a forced ' and undue production of manufactured commodities , and a reckless speculation , veiled under the flimsy name of enterprise , which has been the precursor of a sudden depreciation of goods , followed by anxiety , engendered by disappointment , and ending frequently in ruin ; to say nothing of temporary cessations of a demand for labour , producing in the operatives discontent and mistrust , together with abject poverty and its fearful and fatal consequences—demoralisation . "'

      On such testimony , coming from such a quarter , the opponents of the unlimited use of machinery might almost rest their crse , as regards the moral evils of a system which has fostered inanimate power at the expense of animate . While , as regards tbe political evils to be traced to the aame source of misery and crime , it may be safely asserted that if machinery , in itB earliest stags , had not brooght together masses of human beings to meet a temporary demand for labour , and then turned them adrift , or offered them starvation wages , when their labour was diminished in value by subsequent improvements in machinery , there would have been no mrnmhSng of the frame ! by tile Luddites , nor of thrashing machines by farming men : no burning of ricks by Swing ; nor , lastly , should we have witnessed the appalling spectacle of a simultaneous turn-out of nearly every

      trade through the whole length and breadth of the manufacturing districts . For , although tbe rebellion of the belly has been put down by the strong arm of the law , or baa fallen to pieces from the inherent weakness of such outbreaks , where tbe parties are bound together by a rope of sand , it may justly be called appalling ; as it has shown , what was never seen before , that the operatives of almost all kinds , have discovered that they have been all attacked in turn fey the same power ; and though they have been unable , eyen when united , to offer a successful resistance , they have still the conviction at once , and consolation that the time is not far off when their very masters , who

      have grown rich by despoiling the poor , will suffer aU the evils of incessant and ruinous competition , which the unlimited use of machinery cannot fail to produce . Nor is it with little delight they have heard the lamentations of Mr . Cobden ; who , at a recent meeting of the Anti-Corn Law League , at Manchester , wept over the rnin which has come npon Stockport ; where £ 7 , 000 a-week is now spent less than used to be three years ago ; and who asserted that the prospects for the ensuing winter were more gloomy than ever ; while the manufacturing districts in general have been suffering for the last six years , by a decline of trade , more widely extended , and continued for a longer period than the oldest person ever remembered .

      Nor with less joyous feelings have the maohineground operatives heard from Mr . Bazley , that , though the turn-out has ceased , tbe shops of tbe retailers are still scanty of customers , -while the warehouses of the manufacturers are groaning under the weight of unsaleable goods ; that houses are occupied by tenants who can pay no rent , and docks filled with vessels that can obtain no freight ; and to complete the climax of commercial distress , wkile the farmers in Devon , said Mr . Bright , mean to reduce the wages of their labourers to . eightpence a day , tbe Stockbrokers in Change-alley , and the bankers of Lombard-street , in London , are going to curtail the hours of business ; because , says tbe Morning Chronicle , the clerks have now nothing to do after four o ' clock , but to pick their teeth , mend their pens , and to calculate how much the firm are loosing daily by the gas-lights .

      That Euch would be the ultimate effects of the unlimited use of machinery was shown by the prophet to whom I have before alluded ; and though the reasons on which he based his predictions were published by myself some nine years ago , yet I shall reprint them in my next letter , and accompany them with such confirmations as subsequent events have furnished , For the present I will merely state , that , if in the cause of " Man versus Machine '' tbe -witnesses bad not been suborned , the jury packed , and the judges prejudiced against the plaintiff , the law of the land would have confirmed instead of annulling the precept of Christ , — " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself ;'' nor would the philanthropist have had reason to smile at the stupidity of the millocrats , who be saw were cutting their own throats , when they fancied they were cutting the throats of their rivals in trade . Still less would the operatives , had they received a fair day's wage for a fair day ' s work ,

      have been found to answer the cry for free trade , to benefit the mill-masters , by tke cry for the Charter , to benefit the mill-slaves ; nor would those who have stupidly substituted the cheap pewer of the machine for the dear power of man have discovered , to their cost , that they are now playing a losing game , whether they work their steam-engines or stop them ; nor , lastly , would the joint-stock banks of Manchester , where manufacturers fancied that their Chamber of Commerce could manage ill the trade of the empire , so mismanage their own concerns as to exhibit to their hapless creditors tbe spectacle , at once piteous and laughable , of the bear in a boat , as detailed in the fables of Gay , who , doubtless , hsd an eye to the South Sea babble ot his day , the counterpart of those which have brought ruin and ridicule upon an age which calls itself "TbeMarch of Intellect Era . " Hr / NGEr Handless .

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      Thirty-Five Persons Killed and Wounded at Bolckrow a » o > Vatjgham ' s Iron Foundry , Middlesbeo ' . —On Tuesday morning , about nine o ' clock , a most alarming and awful occurrence took plaoe here . The large boiler belonging to the above parties , owing , it is stated , to more pressure being put upon it than it w& 3 calculated to bear , burst , and hurried five human beings to a premature grave . Thirty more are maimed and wonnded ; the most of them are very severely hurt . One part of the building was blown into the river Tees , a distance of between one and two hundred yards , and the end of the boiler was complstely blown out . Medical aid went , via special train from Stockton , as soon as this awful affair was known ; and every possible assistance was rendered to the unfortunate sufferers .

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      THE EXECUTIVE . Thb incarceration of the President and Secretary , and the compulsory abBenoe from their duties of two other members of the Exeontive Committee are circumstances well calculated to beget a spirit of uneasiness in the minds of all true lovers of our national organization ; lest , in the temporary paralysis of the Executive , the general affairs of the association should Buffer derangement . This can scarcely have happened , in so short a period as has yet elapsed , if the general scheme of organisation have been adhered to and enforced by the

      Executive—while they yet had the power—with that carefulness which should recommend them to the people as trust-worthy and deserving servants in a like capacity hereafter . Their conduct has not , so far as we know , been publicly impeached , on that or any other head ; and we do not Bee therefore that any Chartist , or body of Chartists , can have the right to assume and take for granted that the Chartist public is prepared to cast over board its present Executive , merely because the storm of persecution has overtaken them ia its unjust career .

      True ; it is important thai the functions of the Executive should suffer no interruption in their coarse of exercise . The men of London saw this instantly , and , therefore , wisely and properly appointed an unpaid Provisional Executive , to advise with and aid the one member of the present board , who is yet unscathed , until the real Executive should again be able to resume their duties or the time should eome for the nomination and election of a new Executive , accordant with our plan of general organization . In this the London men did well and wisely . They deserve the thanks of the country for their promptness , and we are glad to see , by the resolutions Bent us , that they have them . Bat some people are not thus easily contented . There are , it

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      seems , parties calling themselves Chartists whom nothing less will satisfy than that the Executive shall be deserted—abandoned by the people—thrown overboard in the hoar of their difficulty , —and a new Executive appointed . And this , too , though there has been no impeachment of their conduct , and no pretence , publicly urged , of their being guilty of any crime , save that of having fallen into the fangs of power ! A correspondent draws our attention to the following paragraph , which he says he has seen in the Evening Star : — " Harleston , Norfolk . —Mr . Nathaniel Morling , of Brighton , was nominated for the ensuing Executive at a general meeting of the Council of the above place . "

      We have not personally noticed this paragraph in the Evening Star , but we have perfeot faith in our correspondent ' s veracity ; and we must say that , if it be there , it betokens on the part of those who sent it a recklessness of common decency , which we sincerely hope is not p ? rticipated by any other parties claiming to be Chartists , and an ignorance of the constitution of the National Charter Association , of which we trust " The Council of the above place "—( if there be any Bach body , and if

      they authorised the sending of this paragraph , ) —enjoy an unenviable monopoly among the officers of oar National Association . Perfectly approving the appointment of a Provisional Executive to supply the forced lack of functionary operation in the Executive , we yet think the whole country will agree with us that if the present members of the Executive Committee are to be turned out before their time , there ought to be some reason assigned for their expulsion ; and that the expulsion itself ought to be effected in an orderly and regular

      way . The Executive are not the servants of the Counci l of Harleston—a body of whom we suppose nobody ever heard before—but of the National Charter Association . They were appointed by its members as a whole ; subject to the regulations of the plan of organization . That plan specifies that : — " 14 . The General Council of the Association shall choose five members of their own body to sit as an Executive Committee , in manner as herein follows : Every Sub-Secretary shall be at liberty to nominate one candidate , on the 1 st day of February in each year , and five persons from among these bo nominated shall be elected by all the Members on the 1 st day of March following .

      "MODE OF ELECTIN * THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE " 15 . —The nomination of candidates of the Executive Committee , by the several Sub-Secretaries , shall be in accordance with the following form : — To the General Secretary of the National Charter Association of Great Britain . 1 February 1 , 18—' Sib , —I hereby nominate A . B . ( blacksmith , ) of ( 14 , High-street , Bath , ) a member of the General Council of the National Charter Association of Great Britain , as a fit and proper person to be elected a member of the Executive Committee , on the 1 st day of March next . Signed , c . D ., 1 Carpenter , No . 6 , Tib-street ,

      ' Manchester , ) ' Member of the General Council , and snb-SecreUry of ' the National Charter Association of Great Britain . " A list of all the candidates bo nominated , shall be transmitted , per post , by the General Secretary , to every sub-Secretary , on or before the 10 th day of February ; the election shall be taken on the 1 st day of March following ; and the number of votes shall be immediately forwarded to the General Secretary , who shall lay the same before the outgoing Executive Committee for examination , and by their order publish , within one week of receiving them , the whole of such returns ; together with the declaiation of the outgoing Executive Committee , of the persens duly elected . "

      The constitution of the sooiety gives no power to the Council at Harleston or anywhere else , nor to any officer or member of the association to nominate persons for the ensuing Executive until the proper time . If any extraordinary ciroumstances may be thought to render the eleotion of a new Exeoutive necessary , it is theduty of the parties who so think , not to presume to nominate candidates , but to communicate with the members of the Association generally , and take the opinion of the majority , first , upon the question of whether candidates shall be nominated .

      There are two ways in which this may be done . The first way is to communicate 'through the Seoretary , with the Provisional and Acting Exeoutive ; to lay before them the reasons upon which the opinion that a new permanent Exeoutive should be elected is entertained ; and to require them to take the proper steps for ascertaining the sense of the people upon the subject . The other way is to address the people through the press , mooting the question , and leaving it fairly open to discussion among the members in their several localities .

      Either of these courses would be likely to bring the question fairly before the people ; to give fair play to democratic prinoiple ; and to do something like justice to the suffering members of the present Executive ; and if goed reasons could be shewn why a new Executive should be now appointed , no doubt the country would acquiesce in it , and probably none would more cheerfully acquiesce in it than the members of the Exeoutive themselves . But for any Councillor , or for any two or three Councillors , living together in a little village , to presume ,

      without regard to the plan of organization—without regard to the spirit of democracy , which requires that the people should be consulted , and that their voice should determine upon all publio measuresand without regard to the inferences which must be drawn from such a step in reference to tha present Executive—at such a time as this to proceed to the nomination of particular individuals to fill ( he places of those who have not yet vacated office , and who ate only precluded from its duties by the hand of UDiust power , is monstrous .

      Our Correspondent—a Councillor of the Association and a good Chartist—calls warmly on the Chartist publie not to elect Mr . Morling whom he knows well and whom he -describes as a most improper person . We have also received , in reference thereto , the following resolution from the Councillors at Brighton : — " Brighton , October 16 th , 1842 . "At a meeting of the members of the General Council of the National Charter Association residing in

      Brighton , it was unanimously resolved , that Mr . Nathaniel Morling , of this town , having been nominated by the Council of Harleston , in Norfolk , as a member of the proposed Executive Council , we are of opinion that Mr . Morling is net a fit and proper person to be elected to such an important office , and hereby call upon our brother Chartists not to sanction the election of that gentleman . •« James Flaxman , Chairman . " William Flower , Treasurer . "

      Without inquiring why the Councillors of Brighton , in particular , deem Mr . Morling unfit for the office of Exeoutive Committeeman , and without entering into , or even stating , the reasons alleged against his election by our other correspondent , we say at once that if Mr . Morung was a consenting party to this most unfair , most irregular , and most indecently presumptuous nomination , that act alone proves him to be utterly unfit for the important and responsible office to which he aspires .

      Having said thus much about this extraordinary Nomination , may we now be permitted to inquire from whom it comes 1 Who are " the Council of Harleston ! " How many are there of them ! How many inhabitants are there in Harleston ! and of these how many are members of the National Charter Association ! We nevei yet heard of there being more than one person at Harleston claiming to be a Chartist . Whether that person is , or ever was , a member of the Association we don't

      knowbut we have seen in a defunct print some rigmarole letters signed by a person who dates from Harleston , and who calls himself a Chartist ; but we never heard of his having any associates there . We were so much amused , therefore , with the idea of " A general meeting of the Council" at Harletton , that we had some difficulty in believing the whole thing to be any other than a hoax . Be this as it may , it may be as well for the peop ' e to be on their guard , lest any such hoaxing should be attempted in earnest .

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      CLERICAL SYMPATHY FOR THE POOR . To whatever point on the wide field of observation the eye may be directed , it encounters the appalling evidence of an invincible and deadly animosity entertained by the whole complex of the wealthy against poverty . This spirit is usually manifested with the greatest virulence by those who have most of the oil of pharisaic "liberalism" on their lips , and by none more fully than the canting hypocrites who in the guise of dissenting parsons " creep into widows' houses , and for a pretence make long prayers . " We intend not , of course , to apply this censure to the whole body of dissenting

      ministers . There are among them good and pions men ; men who , as far as their knowledge and opportunities afford the means , do honour to their holy calling by " reproving sin with boldness" whether clothed in rags or in broad cloth ; and by maintaining , in all honesty and sincerity , the cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor . But the bulk of them are dependant on the "Green Pews" and their broad cloth occupants for their subsistence—and are also full of the spirit of self-importance and desire of distinction —and hence pander to that hint of " respectability "

      which is so ably and so eloquently reproved by the Apostle James . We know no distinction of sect in this matter ; for our painful observation has assured us that all sects are alike deeply tinctured with this cursed leaven . The professors of Divine Truth , under its new and more puce dispensation , and the old consummated church unW all its multitudino us forms and sections , alike manifest a betrayal of the interests and doctrines of true religion , in their neglect of , or contempt for , the rights and liberties of the poor . The greater part of these gentry , however , do , like their famouB predecessor in the days of the Lord ' s

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      flesh , carry the bag . " They have generally an abundance of sympathy for the poor upon their llpst however muoh their " talk" may be belied by their practical upholding of the hands of the oppressor . ( And we believe many of them to be theoretically sincere , and that their support of faction ' s dominance is the result rather of ignorance than design . ) Now and then , however , we find one who is bold enough to throw off the mask , and proclaim open-war against the principles of his religion ; amongst whom we now find it to be our duty to accord a prominent position to a Reverend Mr . M'Dowall , Secession Minister of Alloa . Our attention has been drawn to the report , in a local journal , of a meeting in the Parochial Sohool Boom ot that place , at which this worthy figured as the mover of a

      resolution" That the Sheriff be respectfully requested to adopt means for rendering the police force more effective in preventing stranger poor from begging in the parish . " This resolution , we are told , was seconded and carried unanimously . Here is indeed a pretty spectaole to oontemplate ! A minister of God ' s Word , of that Word whioh in almost every line and precept directs charity and alms-giving to the poor , and hospitable entertainment to the stranger—/ oremosi in tha fell van of an nndiscriminating attack upon the "stranger poor !' ' A minister of . that religion whose [ very essence is Benevolence and Charity , insolently presuming to lay an embargo on the hospitable and charitable

      feelings of a whole parish ! determining that the Apostolio injunction " to do good and to communicate , " shall not be practised in his parish ; at all events , not towards any of the " stranger poor . '' This motion , thus " unanimously adopted , " is a sentence of banishment upon all " stranger poor , " in as far as may regard the parish of Alloa . The time has been when to a Christian people , and a Christian ministry , to be "poor" or to be a " stranger , " wasao . counted a sufficient passport to the arms of Christian love ; when either of these conditions would of itself have ensured charitable aid and hospitable kindness , and when their joint infliction would have been held to be a strengthening of a brother ' s claim to "the communion of the saints . " But those were times

      of ignorance and darkness I The "glorious Reformation" has shed its light and heat upon the Christian world , and "Christian pastors" now behold the poor and the stranger in an altogether different light . To ba poor , in the estimation of the " lights of tho world , " such as the Rev . Mr . M'Dowall , is sufficiently heinous and sinful ; but when to that crime is added the abomination of being a stranger also , pious horror can be restrained no longer , and the secular arm of power is most " respeotfully" and religiously instructed—not to prevent distress and poverty from existing , and from foroing men , women , and children to depend on casual bounty for that subsistence whioh , at the

      board of nature , God has provided in abundance for every child of Jris oreation , but" to adopt means for rendering the police force more efficient , " that the " stranger poor" may be prevented from begging j that those whom the tyranaouB ediots and antiohristian spirit and operation of class-made laws and usages have first made poor , and then driven from their homes , may be compelled to starve and die—to yield up their lives an uncomplaining sacrifice on the shrine of the fell demon of property and class distinction ; of whioh shrine this Reverend Mr . M'Dowall impiously constitutes himself a priest , and seems , by the report referred to , to offer up his victims with much satisfaction ; for he is reported to have said in support of his

      motion—That our policemen had all theappearance of very comfortable-looking gentlemen , walking about at their ease , and thought they might be rendered more effective in the way pointed out in bis motion . " Had this "follower of Jesus" and preacher of his word lived in the days of the { Lord ' s flesh , we ask what must , in the spirit of this motion , have been his conduct ? He would have spurned from him with contempt the " Stranger poor , " the Saviour and his apostles , travelling from place to place , and depending for their food and lodging on the hospitality of

      those to whom they came . Bad , however , as were the Jewish priests , pharisees , and soribes , we have no record of their having sought to dry up by force the streams of benevolence in others , which they themselves refused to cherish . We hear nothing of their instructing the police to apprehend and punish " Stranger poor . " This was a refinement upon want of natural humanity reserved for the improved age , and more pure and high-toned morality of Reformed 1 Protestant , Dissenting , Evangelical , Christianity ; for the Secession Church in Scotland , and for the Rev . Mr . M'Dowall .

      We do not know the fact ; but we have no doubt that this same Rer . Mr . M'Dowall would be a prominent actor in the farce of an appeal to Heaven ' s clemency on behalf of the poor , through the medium of national fasting and prayer . Let us not be misunderstood . We do not use these terms in reference to the solemn acts and duties of fasting and prayer . God forbid that we should do so . But when these are resorted to for the avowed purpos e of moving Heaven for the alleviation of the sufferings of the poor , while the means of alleviation

      within our own power are at the same time wilfully and strenuously withholden , and while we cherish the spirit whioh alone could diotate this motion for quickening the police in reference to the "stranger poor , " we do think ourselves justified in pronouncing it , under such circumstances , a blasphemous farce ; and we believe that no man who thinks rationally , and who reads carefully the 1 st chapter of Isaiah , the 58 th of Isaiah , and the whole Epistle of the Apostle James , can think the assertion too strong . We have no doubt , we say , that this Mr . M'Dowall was an actor in the " national-fast" farce . Did he

      ever happen to read words like these ? : — "Is not this the fast that I have chosen ; to loose the bonds of wickedness , to undo the heavy burdens , and to let the oppressed go free , and that ye break every yokel Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry , and that thou bring the poor that are cast out into thy house ? when thou seest the naked that thou cover him , and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh !" Did this Reverend bounder of the police upon the "stranger poor , " ever happen in the course of his theological studies to stumble upon this passage ?—

      " When ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you : yea , when ye make many prayers I will not heat : yoar hands are full of blood . Wash you ; make you clean : put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; learn to do well ; seek judgment ; relieve the oppressed ; judge the fatherless ; plead for the widow . " Perhaps it may be urged , in excuse for this antichristian procedure , that the influx ef " strange " poor is so great as to interfere with the ability of the parishioners to support properly their own poor . If this be so , the spirit ot Christianity should teach its ministers to apply themselves not to the driving of them from the gates and doors of themselves and their neighbours , to " die in holes and corners ; " but to the discoverv and removal of the cursed root of

      mischief whence all this poverty arises . This would be an occupation worthy of their high calling , and which would justly entitle them to be styled , "ambassadors of peace" and " friends of the poor . " He must be a scribe badly instructed indeed in the learning of Holy Scriptnre—totally unfit to be entrusted with the expounding and application of its -truths—who does not know that the very existence of poverty on a large scale , extending over great masses of sooiety , and involving in

      privation and physical want a large portion of the inhabitants of any country , is a fact directly in the teeth of all the principles and all the provisions of Revelation—a state of things nowhere contemplated , or , recognised in Holy Writ , and which could not be at all , if the doctrines and precepts of Christianity were practically enforced . In all Christian charity , then , we hope that the next time we hear of this Reverend Gentleman we shall find him exerting his talent and his influence , sot in requesting the police

      Untitled Article

      THE RESULTS OF THE " SPECIAL" CRUSADE AGAINST CHARTISM . Up on this Bubject we present our readers with the following from the EveningStar : — ..-..-. " The trials of the patient , ' the ' starving , ' the 1 enduring , \ and the exemplary working people are now over , and the sufferers and their friends wilj have learned , from judicial clemency , the value of Ministerial praise and Parliamentary sympathy . Who but must have admired the harmony of Toryism , in contrasting the admission of great distress by her Majesty ' s Prime Minister , with the denial of its existence by her Majesty ' s Chief Baron ? Who but must have felt the sincerity of the Dissenting

      body , who for conscience' sake , demand for themselves exemptions from the support of doctrinea in whioh they cannot believe , while , as Jurors , they have pronounced ready verdicts of Guilty , against their fellow-men , for the mere expression of opinion—aye , of honest opinion { Who but must have gloried in our happy Constitution in Church and State , when they saw the shepherds swearing away the lives of their flocks , and hired policemen made the ready instruments to effaot their purpose 1 Who tbut must respeot the ancient offioe of justice of the peace , when he finds a Judge of no mild bearing reducing the amount of

      bail required by the magistrates to less than one sixth 1 Who but must honour and obey his pastor and master , when he finds the employer the most deadly toe of his employee ? Who but mnst hold the Bar in reverence , when he finds the rolls open to swindlers and robbers , who have obtained money from pauper prisoners under false pretences , and who , to (? lo 33 the deed , only require to become an enrolled member of the liberal profession ! Who but must bow down and worship the pious advocates of " free trade , " who give bullets and bludgeons to those from whom they ask for bread ! Who but must render willing and cheerful submission to those

      laws , which a Judge of the laud tells him are fixed as Persian ediots , and based upon the " final will " of a Russell \ Lord Abisgeb laid great stress , in his charge , upon Russell ' s assurance to his followers , that the Reform Bill was to be considered as a final measure . Who but must look up with admiraion to our guardian press , as the honest arbiter between innocence and despotism , between right and might , between the poor oppressed , and his rich oppressor ! If the Speoial Commissions shall have produced no other effect , they will have placed the respective privileged ola 3363 in their proper characters before the unrepresented slaves . The people will have

      been confirmed in their just belief , that however , as sections , classes may contend , all will unite when labour is to be coerced or intimidated . They have now had a happy illustration of this fact . They find liberal magistrates uniting and aiding a Tory Government in political prosecutions . They find Churchmen and Dissenters equally thirsting for the blood of the accussd . They find " Free-traderB '» and Monopolists ( as they are called ) uniting in their determination to oppress the poor . They find overseers screened by a Coroner ' s jury for murder committed upon their order . They find the pulpit desecrated by a partisan demagogue preaching blood and

      devastation , to'Judges and Jurors about to sit in judgment upon outlaws . They find the last door to mercy closed against them ; and in their tribulation ia it wonderful that they should turn from such a Babel , and seek to build a sanctuary and a refuge for themselves ! No , it is not ; and however unjust power may rejoice in its triumph , yet is that building going on , course by course , until eventually the proud monument of despotism must fall beneath its influence . What ! stop Chartism by Special Commissions , by mocking its principles , and holding fits advocates up to scorn 1 " Go to "—stop the rushing tide of ocean ; turn the sun from his course ; arrest

      the decrees of the All-wise ; change nature s current ; tell the mind to stand still—invention to oease —genius to strive no more in its natural fieldopinion to go in swaddling clothes , and the tongue of man to hold its peace . Do these things , and hope to succeed , when bayonets can wound sound opinions , bullets shoot just sentiments , or sabres out down approved principles . These principles are as the shadow , man is the substance of whose coming the shadow giveth warning . He is coming in his might , in his majesty , in his unconquerable power . In the robes of genius and moral grandeur , asserting his prerogative with a manly front , undaunted by the fate

      of victims pent within the prison walls , as omens of his fate , should he still persevere . And yet , despite of all , he will persevere , ( knowing that at birth he was honoured with a commission , the duties of whioh are , while living , to comfort and assist the weak and the poor , and when dying , to leave the world , if possible , better than he found it . Let those who would presumptuously attach a stigma to the principles of Chartism , and who yet hope to affright its advocates by tunt , read the proud avowal of those principles in the unanswerable speech of

      Mr . Thomas Cooper . Wo trust that Mr . Cooper will reprint his speech whole ; and we have no doubt that it would be a mantel ornament for every poor man ' s cottage . Who felt lest , and who greatest , while those thrilling truths were issuing from the grated dock , a place for felons , not intended for philosophers ? Who was then the culprit—the man in the dock , or the wretch in the witness box 1 Where then was the yeoman's sword to cut down Chartism ! Where the bludgeon to break the head of Cooper ' s discoursei

      " Faction will find its triumph in f he price it will have to pay for i ts . Whistle ; while Chartism will see its victory in that dread in which the unjust hold its just principles , and the lengths to which those in possession of power are prepared to go against law , justice , and decency , to insure their destruction . With such an unconstitutional foe , then , as injustice , and such an unconquerable friend as right , what have the noble army of Chartists to dread 1 " The friends we ' ve tried , Are by our side , The foe we hate before us . "

      Untitled Article

      THE APPROACHING MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS . The annual dog-fight is now approaching , during which we anticipate much lying , but little truth ; much roguery , but little honesty ; much hypocrisy , but little sincerity . This has ever been the case in this Borough since the passing of the Municipal Corporation Act ; and we see not the shadow of a reason to induce us to expect it will be otherwise on the present occasion . In fact , it

      would be the quint-essence of absurdity to expect anything but a repetition of the old game , so long as the Property Qualification forms the chief ingredient in the corporate pudding . However , the thing must be worked , at present , with all its imperfections , in the best possible manner , care being taken by the honest portion of the Burgesses to avoid the snares into which they have heretofore fallen , many of which are , no doubt , already set in every ward ; the many coy-birds now on the wing giving proof thereof .

      "It is not our province to bepraise any of the present or ex-Councillors ; that we leave to thb veracious scribes of faction who are known adepts in whitewashiog characters and deeds ot tbe darkest hoe , and blackening those wholly spotless , save from the blots received from the pens of time-serving and hireling scribblers who live by tbe defamation . ' of all who refuse to run in party harness . The Tories may prate about Whig deception , and

      the Whigs may fulminate against Tory extravagance , but we unhesitatingly tell both factions that they have both attained the very acme of hypocrisy and have vied with each other in a wanton and wasteful expenditure of the money of the fatepayers . No regard whatever has been paid to tha exigences of those from whose pockets the money is drawn . Their only forte seems to be that of aping the plunderers who do business oa a more extensive scale in Westminster .

      These are not times to pander to the appetites of place-hunting cormorants ; neither can the Burgeases , without being guilty of a

      The Northeen Star. Saturday, October 22, 1842.

      THE NORTHEEN STAR . SATURDAY , OCTOBER 22 , 1842 .

      Untitled Article

      THE MODEL PRISON AT PENTONVILLE . We give elsewhere a letter from a Correspondent of the Morning Chronicle , in reference to this modern Hell . To that letter we direct attention-We have not yet seen the ' embodyment of Devilism in the shape of an Act of Parliament to which it refers , but intend to buy and read it , for the purpose of exhibiting to our readers the animus and the philosophy (!) of the mild spirit of liberalism in the nineteenth century .

      Untitled Article

      LORD ABINGER'S POPULARITY , AND THE POLICY OF THE PEOPLE . Few men have obtained a more unenviable notoriety than that whioh Lord Abinger has achieved for himself daring his crusade against Chartism in the Speoial Assizes at Chester and Liverpool . The whole press of the whole country cries shame ! Even the Tory press , almost without exception , joins in the common language of reproof , and grieves to see the judgment-seat thus foully desecrated . Several of our contemporaries boldly put the question whether it is fit that the ermine should be longer suffered to encompass the bloated

      form of ignorant and dishonest partisanship whioh is exhibited in the person of his Lordship . Even the Tory Merning Herald affirms that any of the Chartist prisoners would have a fair right to protest against being tried by him , and to demand that his trial should take place before a less prejudiced Judge . Certain it is , that , within the compass of our memory , never was the British Benoh bo degraded and ^ disgraced as during these proceedings by this doting old man . To attempt anything like sober refutation of the rigmarole whioh with our own ears we heard him deliver not merely to the

      Grand Jury but the petit Juries of Liverpool , would be an insult to the understandings of our readers , little short of that perpetrated in the grave eaunoiation of his stupid and malignant trash by the ermined functionary himself . We will giro our readers a sample , and leave them from that to judge of the whole sack . In the oase of Warwick , a small shopkeeper at Oldham , whose offence consisted in having exhibited on a board at the door of his shop the placard alleged to have been issued by the Exeoutive . Commenting to the Jury " in round set terms" upon

      the mischievous crime perpetrated in the publication of this plaoard , the Judge was pleased oracularly to lay down that Universal Suffrage must issue in the complete disorganization and overthrow of society and all existing institutions , and he took , as au illustration of his assumed position , military discipline ; demanding how it could reasonably be expected that an army could be kept in proper order if the common soldiers were to have equal power with their officers . Here was a Judge and a lawyer—an English Judge and lawyer ! actually holding up the perfect despotism of military

      discipline as the most perfect model of oivil government , and denouncing every effort to procure for the great mass of the people one jot more of freedom than is enjoyed by the great mass of the soldiery as an atrocious crime which deserved heavy punishment ! Why do we again call attention to this sickening exhibition ! . Is ' it because Judge Abinobb is a subject worthy of so muoh notice 1 By no means . But we think this with every passing circumstance worth noting by the people as evidence whioh grows in every instance stronger of the remorseless character and unchangeable nature of class domination . Let them not imagine for an instant that the spots of the beast , however they may

      change their form , can be obliterated . While ever the usurped power of oreating and administering the law is suffered to remain in the hands of those by whom it has been usurped , judgment will be a mockery , justice an airy shadow of a name , and religion a vile covering for oppressive cruelty . Let , then , all these things infuse fresh determination into the people's minds . Let them , as they successively behold them , look upon them as so many sacred shrines on which to swear eternal hatred to class tyranny , and unceasing warfare with it . Let every man be a Hamilcar—let him rear his children ia just hatred to unrighteousness in all its forms , and make them vow unceasing opposition to its rule .

      But while these lamentable exhibitions of partizanship on the judgment seat are regarded by the people as evidence of the utter futility of any hope to obtain justice while the system of olasB dominance exists ; while they are regarded as so many sacred altars on which to dedicate our Hannibais to holy war against unrighteousness ; while they Bupply so maiiy additional incentives to cling firmly and adhere closely to our agitation and demand for the whole Charter , unmixed and unmitigated , let them be also that which they are not intended for , the beacon light of warning—the remembrance of the

      power against which we have to contend , and the sort of hands by which that power is wielded ; and let the people henoe learn the lesson we have so long laboured to inculcate , that their resistance to oppression to be successful must be prudently and cautiously , as well as boldly and manfully , conducted . God forbid that we should ever recommend a trimming policy ; a coquetting with the rampant enemy , even though disposed to near the appearance of a smile . We know his heart too well ! But while we have ever set our faces against that smirking cowardice whioh to conciliate the

      enemy would sacrifice a tittle of the cause , we have been ever equally opposed to that greater cowardice which in its blustering zeal would peril every thing for fear of being thought oowardly . We have had too muoh of this amongst us , or my Lord Abinger might have had less opportunity to show the teeth of faction than has been afforded him . Let the time past serve for a lesson . While the people redouble their vigilance and determinanation , let them redouble also their caution . Let every new step be well weighed before taken . Examine in all its bearings , in all its aspects , and in all its probable consequences , every great question ; and proceed not hastily to act before you

      have well looked at the end to which it may conduct you . Let the organization of our National Sooiety be strictly looked to . In itself it is perfectly legal ; but it is in the power of a few fools , by inattention to its details , to invalidate all that has been done to throw round us the safe mantle of protection . Remember that we have again , and again , and again , pressed this point upon the attention of the country ; let it not be neglected . Present not unnecessarily any weapon to the adversary's hand . Do all peacefully , all quietly , all within the preoincts of the law , but all with determined energy and persevering vigilance ; and God , who abhors injustice , " will maintain the cause of the afflicted and uphold the right of the poor . "

      Untitled Article

      to be more severe in their operations-against the a stranger poor , " but in searching omtj ancfeibraiging to the light , for their speedyjand permanent removal . the causes by whose operation ' -p * BtrangfflP poor * abound . ' i ' ¦ :

      Untitled Article

      4 THE NORTHERNS T A R .

  • Citation
    • Northern Star (1837-1852), Oct. 22, 1842, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1183/page/4/