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Northern Star (1837-1852), 2nd October 1852, Edition 1 of 2, Page 11, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      irwnie opened its concert with the patriotic strains of the The President proposed to place on the committee a citizen of Fleuras , the patriotic city from whence came , in Sen temp er , 1830 , the first company of volunteers . This citizen W ould represent on the committee Ms tow and the other v alliant communes that nmtated it . The proposal was received with acclamation . Citizen Louis Kanz , cabinet-maker having sung the national anthem , the assembly joining in the chorus , the orators whose names were inscribed for the toasts and patriotic songs , successively spoke . ,-nmm opened its concert with the patriotic strains nf ^^

      The President spoke as follows : Citizens , — "We are about to drink to the four grand days of September . In a few words we will explain wherefore our first toast should be to the Belgian revolution of i 830 . And first of all , salutation to you who are called martyrs , notwithstanding you are shrouded in the country ' s laurels , and to all of you combatants of September who are seated amongst us ! Salutation , also , to you who sleep beneath the Column of July , and to the cemetary where Polandlies ! Salutationto all the soldiers of liberty , whatever be the banner of the country which armed you : ye dead who have done your duty ; exiles aiding in the last combat TrenchItalians

      Belgians , , , Sicilians , Hungarians , Germans and Spaniards ; sons of the same country—free Europe : solders of the same banner—the banner of humanity I And toyou , | also , salutation , wives of our Belgian brothers , who , 22 years since , sent or accompanied our volunteers to the combat ! Salutation , French exiles ! Italians , Germans , Hungarians , widows , daughters , wives flogged by the executioners , hail ! three times hail ! And to you , also , Belgian women , who have branded the woman-flogger ! ( Cheers . ) The revolutions are sisters ; you know it ; and whoever has fought for liberty before or since the days we celebrate , has fought for us . Soldier of our cause may he be our brotherwhether in

      , the tomb where the heroes repose , or in exile , where the brave men are waiting ! This is why we salute in the same toast the glorious revolution of this little country , with its soldiers , the representatives of the foreign revolutions . We do so ; it is needful to proclaim it solemnly , with the enthusiasm of national pride ; for , whatever . be our strength , whatever be our destiny , now that liberty has succumbed with those whom we have accompanied or followed in the struggle ; it is the Belgian Revolution which , hoisting the banner of solidarity , is become a rampart for the liberty of Europe . Behold wherefore , also , we who have celebrated it not in the

      anniversaries goneby , celebrate it now , when , in its turn , it is menaced , because its power has become greater ! . We celebrated it when betrayed by incompetent sons it alienated the national sovereignty to give up to the stranger a bleeding portion of the territory . We celebrate it now , when calling under the banner of the solidarity of the peoples all the sons of liberty . We , who have wept over it in the days of weakness that delivered it to despotism , come this time to cry to it , " Glory to thee ! " For the banner torn by the diplomatists , the valliant hand of the sons of our fathers at this moment

      proudly waves over the heads of the enemies of the future . Then the stain which defiled it made us blush . In the excess of the national shame , we had come to seek oblivion of past victories . To-day , it is the stain itself which we would forget , for the future will efface it . For the banner which , mutilated as it was , could no longer give a place to all , behold it hoisted now , immense enough to float over every head , and to display our colours even at the frontier ! It is useless to recall the character of that patriotic fete . The thoughts that our

      words feebly express palpitated ardently and enthusiastically in every soul . We have been brought together here by a common thought , to whatever shade of politics each may appertain . Jvow become the standard of liberty , the Belgian flag is great enough to be a complete political banner . Now become powerful enough to everywhere reanimate expiring liberty , the Belgian Eevolution is sufficiently menaced by the enemy of thepeoples forwe should fraternally clasp each other by the hand . That which is the safety of the country is the

      safety of liberty . Circumstances sinister for friendly peoples have given to our country this glorious destiny . When a bandit presents a knife to the throat of French liberty , it is to Belgian liberty that falls the heritage of the struggle in the foremost rank . Yielding France transfers to Belgium her immortal banner . Belgium has received it , and our little country has proved that her hand is strongenoughto acceptthe glorious burden ( u Oui , oui ! Bravo !) Already she has gained a battle . Think of Belgian liberty branding the assassin of

      French freedom , avenging France , bearing the sentence of Europe , and that sentence rendered by your writers and ratified by the justice of the country , saying to the enemy of the peoples , "Thou hast done nothing so long as a foot of Belgian soil remains free . The pen of the lowest citizen of the country is more powerful than thy imperial sword . " ( Loud cheers . ) Remember , the cry of resistance escaping from indimant bosoms at each signal of war coming from

      this Napoleon of th& tarjff . Yes , citizens , our glory has become greater with our task and our courage . The secular glory of the Belgian name has greatly increased , for this has come to pass-: beaten in a great country , liberty has taken refuge on our soil , and there she finds an impregnable rampart . France vanquished , a last citadel remains to liberty , and that citadel is Belgium . Citizens , will we not guard it ? ( Fes !) Will we not be worthy of . the past bequeathed to us

      hy our fathers , and of the future , to which we bequeath the circumstances ? Will it not be , that so long as the Belgian name shall be pronounced , liberty shall live in this land , and that so long as a Belgian is left , there will be a free man in Europe , and human liberty shall not have perished ? ( Thunders of ax ) plause . ) This toast to the Eevolution of 1830 ^ e should , citizens , regard as an oath to defend it as long as a drop of Belgian blood circulates in our veins . The eve of new combats has arrived . It is for that that we call this

      banquet a patriotic one ; because every thought expressed here will be a thought of resistance to the enemy . Will we be worthy to fete the victory of the dead , if we would live on the tomb of the stifled revolution ? Here a toast to the past becomes a toast to the future . To drink to the revolution is to drink to its safety , though our blood gush forth like that of our brothers of 1830 . To fete the memory of the heroes of &e national battle is to swear before our country that their heritage has not fallen into the hands of degenerate bastards .

      Untitled Article

      You celebrate the days when our people in 1830 rose as one Sv in ? ?! I ? i Tf . ° f the , r Alliance - What is that to say if not that the Belgium of 1852 will defend the conquest of 22 years ago ? Citizen-soldiers before whom M . Chazal , a d ^ ^^^^ W ^ - ^^^ PP ^^ to liWv ? f ? i ™ tU \ ^ \ the ^ mortality of Belgian beity I Soldiers of 1830 , seated amongst us , is it not to take yo to witness of the patriotism with which we will continue with you your work ? Belgians who repose in the Place des ^ laityrs , is it not to swear before God-that we will not for-=

      swear your ashes where the tree of Belgian liberty took root ? Free men of France , Italy , Sicily , Hungary , Germany , Poland , and of Spam , be as you may , dead or in exile , is it not to proclaim before you that that Belgmm , which , for centuries , inarched at the head of Europe to the conquest of freedom lias produced sons who now on the 24 th of September 1852 declare themselves infamous in history if they do not die at the post which God and the enemies of the people have assigned to them , rather than abandon that last citadelle Mi ^ o ° Pf libert y-tnc Belgian Revolution ? to the 23 d , 24 th , 25 th , and 26 th of September 1830 !»

      , Citizen Henri Samuel then rose , and thus addressed the assemblage : " To the martyrs of 1830 ! to the memory of all the citizens who died fighting for liberty . Twenty-two years since the Belgian people was , as now , met . in arms ; only the arms were charged ; . the cannon of the foreigner thundered in the midst of our cities , and vomited death amidst the improvised combatants who died to the cry of vive la liberty ! BeMnm free

      was . ( Cheers . ) The blood of the martyrs has borne its fruits ; let it never be forgotten by us who enjoy the liberty conquered at the price of that blood so precious , and so generously shed for the fatherland ; let us never forget that in dying for us , these martyrs have bequeathed to us the duty of defending the conquest of 1830 , and their example to follow if our national independence was menaced ; let us never forget that our liberty and our independence issued from barricades , and , if others think no more of that elorimis rrom barricades , and , it others think no more of that glorious

      origin , may the gratitude of the people , at least , remember not only those who repose under the monuments of Sainte-Walburge ; and of the Place des Martyrs , but all the citizens who have died for liberty . ( Applause" !) For liberty is not the lot of one man , of a caste , or of a privileged people , it is the destiny of humanity , and whoever has struggled and died for the freedom of his country , has merited well of entire humanity . ( Renewed applause . ) This is wherefore the sun of liberty may , like the sun of day , for an instant veil its light , but it is only to reappear immediately in all its splendour

      , and to shine with a new and greater brightness . Bemcmber that one day , an evil day for liberty , on the very place where we celebrate at this momant the triumph of the people , the Duke of Alba , the executioner of Phillip II , the holy sword of the epoch , caused to fall the heads of Horn and Egmont , in order , said he , to stifle the revolt in the blood of its chiefs , and to establish the reign of order . The ambassador of France witnessed that decapitation , and when he' had seen die the conqueror of Gravilines and Saint-Quentin , ho wrote to his master : " I have seen fall the head of the Belgian who has twice put France at the point of destruction . " The reaction

      triumphed ; it believed the peoples for ever reduced beneath the yoke of the sabre and the holy-water- sprinkler . But the blood of the martyrs raised a popular tempest , which drove out the Spaniards , and two centuries after France crushed with a hand so powerful the throne of her King , that the whole of Europe was shaken . The reaction since then has vainly endeavoured to tear from the people their conquests

      but we will conserve ours , we will defend them if need be ; besides , these trying times are but temporary , and soon the sun of liberty will invite all the peoples of the earth to form a holy and indissoluable alliance . While waiting for the time when liberated humanity shall honour all the martyrs fallen during her long martyrology , let us anticipate that solemn hour in drinking to the memory of the martyrs of all the people who have died while fighting for liberty !"•

      This appeal having been enthusiastically responded to , Citizen Samuel resumed his seat amidst great applause . Citizen Desire Brismee ; a working printer , then addressed the

      company : " Citizens , I have to propose a toast to our valourous elders , whose pure blood , in September , 1830 , reddened our streets and our public * , places , in order that they might expel tyranny , conquer a nationality ,- and save liberty . Honour , and glory to those patriots ! I propose a second toast to the Belgians of 1852 , who will preserve in tact those liberties so dearly acquired , and who , I am convinced , will fly in a body to the frontier , if a tyrant dares to put a foot upon our soil to deprive

      us of that which is dearest to us on earth , —liberty ! The timid ever speak of number ; what signifies number when we have right ? Do we not know that , like a feeble machine driven by means of oil , the soldier-slave is moved by gold , wine , and pillage ? And have we not the example recently given us by the valliant and noble Hungary , which , also wishing to conquer its nationality , made head against two empires ,

      and was overcome only by the act of a traitor ? Should our country one day find itself in one of those solemn combats , and a Georgey glide into our ranks , the Brabancon will know how to punish at once traitors and oppressors ! I drink to the immortality of our fathers , and I wish it may one day be said of us , like fathers , like sons ! ( Loud and continued applause . ) A J . ' 11 ni > i » ^ . \ it wN-imAi-v A , 1 J . 1- _ / " 1 ?_ '_ /» i ¦»/¦»« / I »• flinr vnxTA _ the Civic Guard" that

      An artilleryman proposed , revolutionary institution of 1830 ; " and the President gave " the wounded and the combattants of September present at the banquet , as well as the citizens who had come to represent the provinces insurgent in 1830 . " A working tailor sung the Marseillaise , and the company separated , each bearing with him the souvenir of a reunion , where had been expressed all the enthusiasm whfch fills . the hearts of the Belgians in

      presence of the ^ angefs of & $$ fete $ and of liberty .

      Untitled Article

      A NATIONAL PARTY . To the Editor of the " Star of Freedom . ' Sir , —It is pleasing to see the dead leaves shaking and the stagnant water put in motion . A National Party , as the name implies must be a party of the nation , comprising England , Scotland , and Ireland , and would , I presume , comprise all who may think proper to join its ranks , for the one great object-Universal Manhood Suffrage—whether of the working , middle , or so-called upper classes ; in fine , the great and good of all classesof all who recognise man as a brother . Of course , Universal

      Suffrage—alone or with the other " points" annexed—simply implies the means to an end , that end being beyond all question the social amelioration of the wealth producers . And here Mrs . Grlasse ' s aphorism presses on me most forcibly , " first catch your hare ; " and , therefore , in reply to some well meant allusions of your correspondents , as to what the association , or party , should do , and how it should do it , I say , first let us form the association , and fov this purpose a sufficiency of opinions have been expressed . . I would , therefore , humbly suggest , that as Mr . Newton first threw out the suggestion , he should take the

      initiative in action , that he should call together some of the friends of the plan , form a preliminary or provisional committee , receive such contributions in aid of the object as friends might feel disposed to give , and for which agents in the several parts of the queendom might be appointed , and a mighty machine set in motion ; of course , such preliminary or provisional committee would then call the public meeting or take such other steps as it might deem necessary . Let the party be formed , personalities eschewed , the one great object kept in continual veiw , and success cannot long be problematical .

      EDMUND STALLWOOD September 27 th , 1852 . 2 , Little Vale-place , Hammersmith-road

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      A NATIONAL PAETY . TO THE EDITOR OF THE " STAR OP FREEDOM . " Sir , —In reference to Mr . Newton ' s plan for a new Party , I consider that it is of the utmost importance that every one professing Reform Principles should give an opinion . I think the plan laid down hy Mr . Newton is the right one , and ought to be put into operation as soon as pdssible ; for although I hear of other plans , there is none so simple , and' on that one . account it is the best ; morever , it is the right of man . "What can be of so much importance as the suffrage ? If you want to erect a column to the memory of a great man as a matter of course

      Untitled Article

      A NATIONAL PARTY . < U& ^ To the Editor of the Star of FiiEED $ « Wfc Sir , —I have read the letter of Mr . -Newton on feMrWon of a . " National Party , " It is-to me the most hopeful sig ^ that the English Democracy has fluide ' for a very long time . Mr . Nev / ton is a representative man , and what lie says must be

      Untitled Article

      . , W making it a sectional war cry , and the antagonising or classes , by mixing the wrongs and injuries resulting from our system of industrial and social anarchy with those resulting from political serfdom . The first class of injuries are the inevitable results of our present industrial and social system -a system winch is the growth of centuries , and for which no one class is answerable . All are injured by it , save perhaps a few huge capitalists . Without entering any further on this Peart of the subject , which would not bo to the point now , per mit me to say , that , agreeing perfectly with what Mr . Newton

      n " 11 ' —« w » *^ inui . 1 WVjuh UliU Ctll tCtii VlilOHlil Xji tne principle what many others are thinking . I can assure you it ig so among those with whom I am acquainted . As great an error as any perhaps that the Chartists ever committed was , that wmlst attempting to redress a national wrong—to acquire for the ' . nation a national representation—they seemed not to care to form a national party . The result of Chartist agitation , inhtead of being the formation of a National Party out of the six millions of unenfranchised men , has been the antagonising of

      uoposes it appear * to me that such proposition will be entirely futile unless the political action that is to enforce the said proposition be based upon a wider , more generous and statesmanlike policy than has hitherto been the case with Chartist action 1 am not supposing that a sound policy would not he in-ui ' gurated , but only doing my little towards inaugurating a sound policy . Not attempting , in any way , to assert what must be , but as one of the humble workers in a great cause , putting forward my thought for consideration and discussion . In doin ° - this I think I am doing what all ought do . &

      Some seem hurt at reference to past failures and mistakes , is it not necessary to keep a steady and unprejudiced gaze oii the past , if we would gain experience from it to guide us in the future ? It would be strange indeed if mistakes had not been made . Every great party and good cause has made mistakes , committed errors and blunders enough . Failure ! why , what is in failure to dishearten ? Every good cause that lias won success has marched over failuke to victory . We look to the past to learn wisdom for the future . And strange indeed it would be if the Chartist party is to he tho only party that cau learn no lesson from experience , and require no change under changed circumstances . fa

      I he following suggestions I offer for your consideration , Sir and ior the consideration of your readers . It appears to me that all reform , whether industrial , commercial , or political is achieved gradually , piece b y piece ; in a word , that all permanent progress is a compromise , until we gradually arrive at the ultimate principle . I am , of course , speaking of peaceful reform , not revolution . I am quite ready for a physical force revolution ( as a few personal friends and myself were in ' 48 ) when it can be shown that the three millions and a half of

      unenfranchised working men are also ready . Until then , 1 am a moral force politician . Enunciate a principle , unencumbered by anything else that may direct discussion from the principle , as proposed by Mr . Newton . This would force men to take sides . " We should know our opponents ; and to know them without mistake is to already half defeat them . Enunciate a principle—Manhood Suffrage ; take every opportunity of enforcing that principle , accept every partial admission , work

      through and by every party that is going in the same direction . This is to be done without coalescing with any party . Keep the national party intact , and bring its forces to bear upon any passing questions ; let it lead an active life ; and , as it makes itself felt , so will it make itself respected . It seems to me that no considerable party can exist for long unless it makes itself important , and keeps up its importance by continuous successes , even though only minor successes . What , for instance , might not an organised people ' s party do at the elections ? What a

      national feeling it might evoke against a foreign minister who permits Englishmen to he sabred and ' insulted abroad without remonstrance ! Such activity would , I think , all help to de ~ velope the resources and increase the power of a political party , and aid ultimate success . I will not now write anything further ; but should these hints attract sufficient interest ° as to need any further statement , I shall be happy to develope my views more fully and methodically in another letter , under the title of " Principle , Policy , and Expediency , considered in relation to Political Reform . "—Yours truly , C . F . NlCHOLL . 10 , Great Winchester-street , Sept . 28 , 1852 .

      Untitled Article

      ^ BE ^ 185 i _ _____ _ THE STAR OF FREEDOM .. m Z 77 " " ' ~ " — ============= ^^ — __

  • Citation
    • Northern Star (1837-1852), Oct. 2, 1852, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1698/page/11/