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Northern Star (1837-1852), 14th August 1852, Edition 1 of 2, Page 10

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      LETTERS FOR WORKING MEN . No . XVII . —Why it is so . TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR OE FHEEDOM . SiR , ~ in your last paper you call attention to the terrible increase of outrages against women . You do well . But is it not also worth while to look into some of the causes of the fearful state of society of which these thing's are an indication ? I will endeavour to do so in this letter .

      ^ First , theiij I deny that it is to be attributed to any particular doctrine of Church-of-Enghndisni , Popery , or the like . I may perhaps anger some of our " free-thinking " friends by this assertion , but I cannot help that . Religionsuperstition , as the aforesaid freethinkers would call it—no , nor religions , the sectarian forms of one great truth—these are not answerable for * the low state of morals in this country . Superstitions worse than now , and the same poor sectarian

      forms , were equally in vogue in days when it was not an English custom for gangs of " men / ' to outrage any woman that might fall into their hands . To give the devil his due , priestcraft has not so much degraded mankind , at least by doctrine as it has stood in the way of man ' s elevation and enlightenment ; and some who pride themselves on being emancipated from the priests are just as fax as they from serving the cause of enlightenment . For instance , " ! find that the priests , whatever the lives of some of them may be ,

      are in their teachings rather on the side of inventing what Milton would call scarecrow sins than of letting sins pass unrebuked ; err rather in inculcating too slavish reverence than in sapping ( again I say , as far as doctrine is concerned ) the springs of reverence . Our freethinkers , on the other hand ( and I speak especially of the present generation ) , have fallen into the very opposite extreme ; and , while they thought they were only overthrowing the superstition of religion , have , more than it was possible for any one else to do , undermined religion itself , and so left morality nothing- else to depend on ,

      except at best some vague ungrammiitical dogma of some self-accredited high-priest of some " new" system of negations . I am certainly not about to connect the teachers of speculative atheism with the practises of late brutalities ; but , setting aside all questions of persons , I have to connect atheism ( or mm-theismy if any quibbler likes ) with indifference to morality ; I have to connect ( hard as it may seem to say so ) the whole course of theological and political criticism with the debasement of the popular standard of morals . I know I tread

      upon dangerous ground , and I . wish to guard myself completely against any accusation of imputing immorality or immoral intentions to our politicians and priest-haters ' . I wish also cheerfully to acknowledge the good services we owe to these men the lasting good of their work in many respects . But none the less I see one vicious tendency in their work and in the manner thereof , a vice to some extent

      impossible to avoid , but which at the present time is indulged in to a terrible degree . That vicious tendency has lain in their reactionary spirit . They have destroyed / as far as they were able , the spirit of reverence ; that spirit which is tlie first step out of the mere animal into the human , the divine . In some measure , I repeat , they could not avoid this . It is the curse attendant upon all reformers that their necessary antagonism to the false helps to weaken faith even in the true . But our English reformers , " secular" or not , have rather gloried in and desired this curse , as if it was a blessing ,

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      To break all the bonds of reverence seems to have been considered by them as the very primest part of their vocation and it is in consequence of this that they have so seldom been anything but mere pullers-down . It is mainly in consequence of this that in political matters we have sunk into the present state of beastly apathy , that the tone of national feeling' has become so low , and that it has grown next to impossible to discover any thing * like faith between man and man . And the brutal state of our population , in all that

      relates to the sexes , is one concomitant of the same . What else can you expect 1 Yoiir crack reformers cannot rise to the height of a principle 5 but must make human freedom a mere result of some property or other qualification . They have no faith in humanity , no reverence for a man ' s life ; and for woman , you are sneered at if you mention her . What is she but an inferior—a sort of property—something' to be used by men and abused by monsters \ for the irreverent

      argument holds good for all , from tile highest to the lowest . It is the same plea for the reforming legislator and the brutal violator , —carelessness of humanity , want of reverence for the divinity of human life . The difference is in practice , in degree , let it be as wide as you will : there is no difference in principle . None . From the democratic candidate for the American presidency—Mr . Pierce—who holds to the slavery

      compromise , or from the household or educational suffrage reformer , who sneers at votes for women , to the last of those who violate in gangs , there is only a difference of degree , no difference of principle . Each asserts in some fashion the supremacy of a brutal selfishness ; each utterly denies the reverence that is due to life . Sophisms may be found perhaps for any thing . Here is that of the Times of this August 0 , in favour of slavery in America ( a defence of the democraticcandidate , because he is a free-trader ) : —

      ^ * Under the auspices of American slavery , in spite of all that fanatics have said , the African race has been rapidly improving : from their ancestral degradation . The African cannot come in contact with the Anglo-Saxon without feelingthe beneficent influence of ( a plahitsh ) ' a higher and noMer betng . And thus American slavery has proved a beneficent

      agency during a period of transition for the African savage from *¦ ••! - \ m gold coasts , to a knowledge of the true God and enlightened principles of government . * * If Heaven m its inscrutable , &c . &c . * * May there not even be found room for that kind of faith that Christian men profess to entertain 111 the unrevealed purposes of God ? The precipitate manner in which slavery was terminated in the -britisli islands ought to teach us a lesson of wisdom . "

      And so on . Does not the reader ' s blood boil at this brutal scribe of the Times ? Yet apply the same argument to the suffrage for either men or women—that suffrage which is to be their beginning of freedom , their first step out of slavery into the divine life of humanity—and will it not read very like the words of the Rev . Mr . -- , the extreme Radical , or his friend on this point , the Whii * freethinker ? And would not Sir Fitzroy Kelly find as good a plea if the next mass , of miscreants should be able to hire his services f ' "

      I say that all these thing's betoken a lamentable want of faith , of . reverence . I say that teaching men to disbelieve in God is not the way to make them believe in each other . I say that when men lose reverence for the Eternal they soon lose respectful decency toward the Present . I say that the levity , the irreverence , the apathy , the brutal selfishness , the care only for the personal , —in a word , the practical atheism of the day , —is owing in a great measure to the speculative atheism which , whether in politics , morals , or relip-ion has been all that our popular reformers have had to inculcate ! Andl say , further , that though it may be of little use to blame individuals for this , yet that it is the duty of

      individuals to help to remedy it ; and that we had al l" better be teaching , for some time to come the necessity and nature of faith , than be following- up the old track of a mere negative system , which , if much longer persevered in , will really deserve its nickname of infidelity . I have no love for despots or priests ; but our chief danger at present lies not from them but from ourselves . Let us become men ao-ain , faithful and reverent , not loyal to thrones or obedient to " the shabby altars of priestcraft , but faithful to God , by everywhere reverencing the spirit of God , dwelling in the life of humanity . Let iS have done with the sillinesses of atheism and the dirtinesses of expediency , and endeavour to learn some principles for human life , and rule our lives accordingly . Spaiktacus .

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      The M Visit to BBMnuai .-The Queen departed on her visit to Belgium on Tuesday mornin * . She was expected to return on Saturday . ' Death prom OvER-ExciTEMEOT . -While Elizabeth Ford a married woman at Tunstall , in Staffordshire , was chas S 7 / l \ ° 1 Chll i ' f ? w ^ Since ' toned BudeSmeiit ^ immedi atel 7 > from the effects of over-J ^^ -U a the report of the Ana

      ^ ^ - 1 . 1 tl ? lf ^ mmiSS 1 ° > P olished in the Lancet last week , tl atthe pub he cannot be too cautious in the purchase of their bottled fruits , preserves , &c , inasmuch as manuL IZhV ^ ° f pleaSe ° taste ml ^ tliat of sisH are « the habit of using a preparation of copper in oixler to improve (?) the colour of the articles they sell , and tL saSl nees flavour , qualit y , and even safety . ;

      Death of Two America Bishops . -The Ajnerican TO& ? K ? i if °$ that C 0 Unt 1 ^ namelv > Dr . Henshaw , Sa 5 and Dr - Gadsden > ^ P Souti ; to ^ rr ° + i ° Plt 0 TI f ' ^ LY .-The Jesuits intend KS + 1 ? ? ° of aU Protestant places of worship ffi ^ $ w . Italian cities ; t ° P ™ Italians ftom ™ ZXZ pI ! ' eigners > especially English ; to enrol m ZL , 3 E S ote 8 tMlt 8 k ^ e le gions whSh support Italian £ ? w ¦ 1 ? ° education to Protestant youth throughout &W& 2 ^^ books whioh even **<*

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      INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION .

      There are at least two different modes of action by which the people may seek to reach power—the one political teaching , agitation , and organization , with a view to obtaining political rights ; the other , commercial and industrial Co-operation , leading on to social advancement , and necessarily to political influence . A

      great number of persons able and willing to help their fellows on the road to real amelioration recognize and use the one or the other of these means ; few thoroughly appreciate both * This is a great misfortune , for it practically divides those on whom rest the realization of our hopes , and who , instead of uniting to combat the common difficulty , are too often distrustful of , and bickering with each other .

      There may not be any open quarrel between social and political reformers , but there is a want of mutual confidence ^ a suspicion and a jealousy producing results almost as disastrous ; and , in supporting their particular opinions ^ each of them appears to us too often to argue in a vicious circle . The politician , for

      examplej tells Us that it is useless , just a sheer waste of time , to Seek to better our industrial condition without the possession of political power , because the law and the law-makers are against us , and can and will render all Our efforts of no avail . The co-operator , on the other hand , as forcibly assorts that political power without social amelioration would be a worthless boon ,

      and even if it were not , a people poor and ignorant cannot hope to emancipate themselves . The result of these opposing opinions is that those who look to legislative changes as the only hope of the future , look with no good will upon those who would aid the masses in the pursuit of wealth , and those who base all the future upon social changes , are apt to regard political missionaries as men who excite their followers to neglect the substance for the pursuit of the shadow .

      Which of these two opposing parties do we side with ? "With neither in their distrust and opposition , with both in their efforts for emancipating the many . "We desire both political and social reform . We believe that they are , in this country , incapable of being separated ; that a step forward in the one path necessitates a corresponding advance in the other ; that progress , to be complete or beneficial , must embrace both . We see no reason why the man who requires the suffrage for himself and his fellows should not be a member of a

      cooperative society j or an associate in a co-operative factory . We see , on the contrary , every reason why that should be the case , and we believe it to be possible to induce the great majority of those who desire legislative power , to mingle with and aid those who believe social improvement to be the great good . We are all the more anxious to see this effected , because we think that the next great step in the history of the people will be a

      social one . We do not dogmatize or theorize upon the matter , but only state what a careful review of the circumstances which surround us forces upon our minds . Why have not the people yet won political power ? Not for want of agitation , or excitement , or enthusiasm , nor yet because they lacked numbers , but simply because they were destitute of that social standing—of that independent hold upon the world which gives

      power to opinion . The history of every class which has risen into freedom supports us in this idea . Each has crept up—now by a social , now by a political step , till it gained the summit , but in every case the last triumph has been the political one . It was not their power over the votes of the kingdom which gave the middle class that measure of reform known as the

      Reform Bill , but the fact that they held in their hands a large share of the wealth of the every day business of the empire—because they had taken a firm ' hold upon the world and upon the things of the world—had acquired as much consideration as the then ruling classes , and were incited by their position in society to demand a corresponding influence in the legislature .

      Beyond this there is something in commercial and industrial co-operation , which should attract the attention of politicians , and that is the chance they afford for permanent union . Most political associations have been , perhaps must be , more or less evanescent in their character . It may be the reason is that they appear to many minds to strive for the realization of an idea , rather than for the attainment of a fact , and it is not

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      every man who can so embody an idea and give it reality as to make it the guiding star of his life . Spite of all the political education the masses have received , where there' is one who appreciates a vote arid the privileges of a free man / at their proper value , there are a hundred who hoicl in higher estimation good wages , comfortable lodging , decent apparel , and a plentiful supply of food . Those are things which all can under-1

      stand . They appeal chiefly tothat sense of the practical and real which is so characteristic of our countrymen . Rightly or wrongly they are in the great majority of instances put first , aiid this fact gives to associations which promise those advantages an aspect of desirability and a chance of stability , which political organizations ' do not possess . It . seems absurd to say that the attainment of those objects would blunt the desire of men to be politically free . Apart from a knowledge of the truth

      that their possession must be secured by power , the elevation of mind and thoughtr—the conscious jjridethe sense of independence and ability to do , would make men only the more earnest in their endeavours to place themselves upon an equality 111 all respects with other classes in society , and organized , thoughtful , with business-like habits , and greater opportunities for education , there is no power which could keep them beyond the barrier of the constitution .

      We do not suppose that airf one will doubt our earnest desire to see every man emancipated—made in reality a free man , with the last link of the chain of serfdom struck from him , and cast back forgotten into the abyss of the past . We would not check political agitation , nor say nor do aught to hinder the education of the people as to their rights . We would give the energies of our best years to aid in so holy a work , but

      for the reasons we have given we would not allow the cry for political reform to smother the prayer for that social improvement which may prove so valuable an auxiliary . We , therefore , shall constantly endeavour to promote that spirit of co-operation which is beginning to be felt among the workers , and we earnestly entreat our political fellow labourers to help us in the effort .

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      take up this case of Peter Smith and demand his liberation . Here is work to test the present vitality of trades' Unions . Let working- men do more—let them resolve that they will , for the first time , calmly , earnestly , resolutely , set themselves to the work of radically reforming * that fountain of all iniquity , the Legislature , by making- it amenable to the votes , and consequently the representative of the interests and the reilex of the will , of the entire people .

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      10 THfi STAfe OF FREEDOM . August 14 , 1851

  • Citation
    • Northern Star (1837-1852), Aug. 14, 1852, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1691/page/10/