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Northern Star (1837-1852), 13th November 1852, Edition 1 of 2, Page 10, Untitled Article

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    • DEMOCRATIC I€OYESIE¥TS
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      Untitled Article

      as a delusive scheme which would only mislead working-men to waste their time and throw away their money in abortive efforts . That Bill having passed , it became desirable to settle the details of rules which miijht be adopted by all co-operative associations , and that subject " naturally engaged attention , though without eading to any very definite result . Another point of great moment was the establishment of some rule for setting apart a portion of the profits , for a reserve fund , and upon this point various opinions were expressed , the general impression seeming to be , that at least one third should be saved ; but finally , a resolution was passed enabling each association to

      act according to its own peculiar circumstances . A debate arose which leads to an inference that co-operators are not quite free from the sins of commercialists , in using deception as to the quality of articles they sell , and an earnest recommendation was adopted , to avoid deceit , and represent things to be precisely what in truth they are . No institution is complete without a press to chronicle its doings , and to disseminate information among its adherents , The possibility of having a journal to advocate their prineiples was brought upon the carpet . Upon this point they had some experience to guide them . The promoters had tried hard to sustain the Christian Socialist ,

      afterwards the Journal of Association , and , after incurring large loss , had given up the attempt . The conclusion—and a wise one tooarrived at was , that periodicals devoted solely to one object , and necessarily addressing a very limited class " do not pay . " It was felt that a regular newspaper was wanted , and the conference determined that steps should be taken to ascertain what amount of support would be given to such an undertaking . The most dangerous obstacle to an effort at journalism , appears , however , to

      have escaped notice . The differing politics of those who are banded together for social objects would prevent unity of design or action , and their organ must either do violence to the feelings of some among them , or lack the qualities necessary to ensure attention and respect . If the aid of the press is wanted , by far the best plan would be to secure the services of some independant paper , the conductors of which , while advocating their own political doctrines , and bearing the responsibility of them , would lend a vigorous assistance to those who labour to advance

      association . We have noticed the natural division of the movement into two portions—one forwarding production , the other organizing supply . Another department is still wanting , the original of which is to be found among commercial institutions—Credit and Banking , standing between the manufacturer and the dealer , facilitates the operations of both * The want of this is felt by co-operators , and that want must be satisfied before Association can do its work . To

      supply this desideratum , an Investment Society , to be registered as a joint-stock company , has been projected , and the scheme was made thesubject of remark . Here the weak point of the promoters , and their want of commercial adaptibility showed itself . The money power was regarded as a thing to be dreaded—like fire " a good servant , but a bad master . " It was feared by one of the ablest of the Council that it might , unless carefully watched ,

      become a tyrant . This is , no doubt , true , but the gentlemen must remember the adage of " nothing venture , nothing have . " All that we gain , worth acquiring , comes with risk . The same germ mostly contains the elements of either successor defeat ; and while the nettle stings those who touch it timidly , it hurts not the bold who grasp it firmly . Co-operation must have money power , or in the present state of the world it will either fail in doing great things , or be confined to small ones .. The risk must be

      incurred , because in braving it alone lies the possibility of triumph ; and while the promoters should keenly and anxiously watch the development of the new feature , it will be well for them to consider whether it must not , as in the case of the store , be managed by other ? , leaving to them what seems to be their special province , the watching over and promoting working associations . We see it stated that the managers of the store will , for the time being , perform the functions of bankers , but we are convinced that such an addition to their already onerous duties must be merely temporary , and that they will find it impossible advantageously to blend the two departments in the same hands .

      Our space will not now allow us to notice any more particulars of the effort , in the success of which we take deep interest . We believe that social and political efforts—now one , now the other in advance , help each other—and we are certain that while an enfranchised people would ameliorate their social condition , those who have won comfort and independence for themselves , will not belong before fhey see the necessity of defending the benefits they have gained , by the acquisition of political power .

      Untitled Article

      THE LAND . ' " For as a young man may , I will redress so great a wrong . " There are many millions of believers in the divine authority of that book in which is written , " God made man , and gave him the earth for his inheritance . " It is needless to say that man is not now in possession . His inheritance has been filched or seized with the strong hand , and he acquiesces with only a solitary protest here and there from some independent thinker . It has often been said that land is not absolutely private property , that it owes duties to the state , which , if unfulfilled , deprives the holders of land of the riffht of possession . It has been

      said , that if the land was absolutely private property , the landlords might legally order the English People to depart , serve a notice of ejectment on the nation , and call on the law authorities to enforce it . What the English People would say to such a notice is easily guessed , and needs no comment . This argument is intended to show by its absurdity that absolute private property in Land is ridiculous and impos-SmLbtS */ J 7 faCtS ? ^ replyis ' ^ at wh oledistricts have been depopulated at the command of callous landlords , and that no wild crv oi vengeance has rent the air , asthe aged mother or the widow

      , were turned out shelterless on the bleak hill or unsheltered plain Those who sit m hi gh places would have the poor religious , and outlaw those who would make them otherwise . But what use to SRI man of the priceless worth of -his soul , if you treat him as a mere rent payer , as a troublesome kind of animal that the law by some mistake does not permit to be killed off hi the most convenient wTyThen hfe ceases to be a profitable investment for Noble Lords and Landed Gentlemen . If religion is no restraint to lust of power or lust of wealth in tliose to whom nnsifinTi anri nA-. ™* : 1 . _ _ . ¦ , ... , .. those to whom position and education have

      , given the title of superiors what value will attach to religion in the eyes of those who not only see , but fee its practica devoidance of influence for good . Who can read facts like the following and believe that the perpetrators 'of such & ™ Ztt ^ \^ r ^ tunate tena » ts * 4 Kng more Snlt k of £° 1 ^ P amly ln ? cate ttat the welfare of human S ^^ toSK t ! & ~ * £ ^™> fctafioxd , all thir villages were pulled down or burnt , airt Mr fields

      Untitled Article

      turned into pasturage . A like process was carried on about the same time by seven or eight neighbouring Lords . The human inhabitants were thus ejected , in order that sheep might take their place ; because some one had persuaded the great land holders that sheep would pay better than human beings . " * We need not stop to ask by what right such things are done . The law countenances them , and public opinion is indifferent and scared at any hint of trenching on the-sacr a ? rights of property . Some may be anxious to know what became of these 1 , 500 human beings turned out of home by these legal maurau-. ders as so much vermin hunted out of their holes . Let the hint given by an English Catholic of what has become of Irishmen in the like case serve as an indication of what has become of the others .

      That we may not be supposed to be raking up those crimes of five and twenty years back , because there are none of to-day diabolical enough for our-purpose , we call attention to the following from the letter of " An English Catholic" in the Times of Thursday , Oct . 28 , 1852 : — " The county of Mayo is at this moment in a transition state , it is progressing from the cottier state of society , in which the land was thickly peopled , and held by tenants in very small holdings , at very high rents , to the grazing system , in which it is occupied merely by a very few herds and caretakers , and held either by the landlord , or by one or two great capitalist tenants .

      " The change is effected by a very simple process . The whole population of a district many miles in extent are simply turned out into the roads to go where they please , and live or die as they can . Of course there are among them many old people , hardly ahle to get along , many sick persons , many little children , many woman in an advanced state of pregnancy—out they all go together . " On enquiring where they all went to , he was told by an agent that " soine had gone to America ; that many were in the union workhouse ; that some were in the lower parts of the great towns of England , Scotland , and Ireland , but that , in his opinion , tlie greater part of them were dead . "

      The most noble the Lord Marquis of Sligo is building a wall between the road and his land . The people being expelled without remorse . Their cottages are pulled down and used to build the wall . Then there is the territory of Sir Rodger Palmer , and then , that of the Right Hon . the Earl of l ^ ucan . " Here things are more advanced . All will very soon bear the appearance of a district which man has never peopled . The district operated upon begins three or four miles from Westport , and extends almost to the town of Ballinrobe , a distance of perhaps 25 miles . The Earl of Lucan , alone , lias lately laid down on grass about 20 , 000 acres of densely inhabited land . "

      Is not all this horrible , inhuman , impossible of belief ? That wealthy , educated , and refined men can cast out upon the cold earth amid the piteless elements his unfortunate fellow mortals , men , women , and children . To bid them live or die , and living care not how . Is this a result of the civilization of the nineteenth century , that the human animal not paying so well as sheep or oxen , may be driven off the land to make room for the more manageable cattle ? What says public opinion to this , little or nothing . The Times draws a comparison between the Irish landlords and the American slave-holder , and roundly declares that the iniquity of the landlords is many shades darker than that

      of the slave-holder . But nothing can be done . The dense population , ejected , marches off as best it may , dying on the road-side , some pushing their way into the squalor and fever of the large towns . Thousands of sheep take the place of the human population , and all looks well . Nature smiles as blandly oh the crops and herds , as if no change had taken place , as if crime , and sin , and outrage had not desecrated the spot . As if the lust for gold had not caiously trodden under foot the Tights , the lives , the homes of thousands ; under the pretence of law and right of ownership . Is not England the land of the English ? Some day , O Landlords , we shall ask for your title deeds . The oracle of

      Printing House Square admits the horrors , and fixes the crimes on the right shoulders ; but " what would you have us to do , asks the Times ? nothing can be done . " It is sad that a people should be so incapable as to leave an injury such as this , a misfortune so great unredressed , to be able to do—nothing . It is too true , notW ' g is almost the sum of what can be done . The time is not yet come . The work necessary for redemption from such evils is too stern , too thorough , too earnest for either the times or the people . Suffer , and wait , and work patiently , must be the motto of Great Britain as of France , Italy , Hungary , and of Poland .

      One word to you , philanthropists , who seek to clothe the nemo , and win him to the Gospel of Christ . To you , Abolitionists , whose indignation is ever ready to burst upon the American nation for its backslidings , could you not expend some of your philanthropy , some of your indignation on home-grown misery , and vent some of your just wrath on crime that is indigenous and is devoid of the romance of distance . My suggestion is , try your hands on the landlords , that would be useful work and practical , and quite enough for the hardest worker among you . And to you , peace-men , who aim at world-wide pacification , can you not become less- ambitious and try your hands at the inauguration of a peace at home that shall be no deception , whicb shall in no wise need a veil to conceal the internicene war waged under the of

      guise peace , and in the name of law . I would ask you , peace-men , whether these thousands of human beings would have been ejected by the Marchioness of Stafford , and the 20 , 000 acres depopulated by the Earl of Lucan , if the people ( every man of them ) had a vote to deposit air aally in the ballot-box , and a weapon over their mantle shelf to protect their vote . To you who are friends of Italy , of Poland or aught else , do not forget to be friends of your home country , and to speak the manful word for the oppressed , though unadorned by the romance of foreign strife . It is true that nothing can be done at once That as a people we acquiesce in these brutal displays of landlord power and callous greed for gold , but the time will come , and has made many a stride towards its advent , when the people shall sit in judgment and ask yon , " O , Landlords , to produce your title deeds . "

      C F N P . S .-Since writing the above , I have heard that the Marquis ' of bngo has denied the above facts in respect to himself in the Times . * P . Newman ' s Political Economy .

      Untitled Article

      LETTER TO THE FRENCH PEOPLK . ( Continued from last Saturday ' s Star oi ? Freedom . ) MEANS OF THE REVOLUTION . ^ But itsuffices not to proclaim principles ; it is necessary to know how to realise , apply , and practise them . For eighteen hundred years the Testament has been saying to men , " Love one another and still man battles with man . More than fifty years since our fathers proclaimed liberty , equality , and fraternity , " and man is still the slave of man . The principle of the sovereignty of the people promulgated than

      was more fifty years since , yet the people are still the subjects of one man , in the name of their own sovereignty Principles merely , then , are insufficient , since they may be turned against themselves , and betray those who invoke them There is needed the union of the principle with the fact , as that of the soul and the body . The logic of thought to action is the character of men m general and of the French people in particular . France is the head that thinks and the arm that acts . To the work then for us and for all ! For our political unity , daughter oFoir mSia logic makes our strength , and strength compels : We must act we must do what at present it is possible to do . Withou waiting longer , without longer losing ourselves in the depths of the dea In

      Untitled Article

      the search of the absolute , of the philosophic good , which is n found , we must , enter immediately , resolutely , on the field of acf The ground of principle is vast , immense , immeasurable- b ' utv ' brought within our reach by practice enlarged b y science . But tl 1 S are already enough ideas common to all , acquired and accent ed ^ allow of their immediate application . Those who would temno would always wait for the perfecting of systems , forget that JtT perfects the idea ; that the idea never will be perfect ; that the id i is not terrestrial ; that the absolute is not human . Finite and tingent beings , we can only approach nearer and nearer to the J ^ " ciple , without reaching it . It appertains not to any man toI a people , or to any epoch , to have the integral , infinite , eternal trot ? A part may not be the whole . Only the ensemble of generation

      times and worlds , may entirely incarnate God . Our right and duty is to do our part for our timo , within the limits of our strenrrT according to our power and our knowledge . Others will do the rest Behold , then , what is realisable , capable of being effected bv i ' for the revolution . Eh bien , the counter-revolution itself teacliP it to us . It boasts of having the support of the army , the clercv ih magistracy , and the Bank . It thus shows to us our task the me-u and the end . With four good decrees , all that is necessary \ u r evolutionary people will demolish these four pillars of the cavern a iid the monster -will be overwhelmed beneath the ruins

      THE AKMY . Until now society has organised its forces only for destruction Man , destined for . peace and labour , has begun by war and conquest ' Before having science , he had recourse to strength ; before knowing that he ought to Jive , to combat nature and conquer matter he spt about fighting and conquering his fellows . But the time of Hercules and of Cffisar has passed . Civilisation by means of arms is no longer possible . The uniting of peoples by victory is finished con slraint should give place to liberty . ;

      The standing army of France , which has been the perfected in strument of war , and which is now the evil par excellence , has borne its last fruit—servitude and nsisery . It costs five hundred million francs a year ; and it keeps five hundred thousand able-bodied men from working . One-fourth of it is composed of mercenaries who have sold themselves , body and soul ; " one-half of helots whom poverty compels to pay the tax of Mood in kind , and ignorance reduces to

      a mere mechanism . It is an infernal machine of five hundred thousand guns that may be fired five times a minute in the hands of one man . It is contrary to the three principles—Liberty Equality , Fraternity . With its barrack-life , its infatuation for chiefs ^ its passive obedience , its barbarous code and inhuman disciplme , it is but an engine of tyranny , made to serve and enslave- it ruins and oppresses under the pretext of defending ; it is a body of armed slaves to keep down the slaves that are armless

      The standing army of France is the best army of conquest—is and always will be , the best army of oppression ; for conquest k unjust , immoral , contrary to the principle of human liberty it is oppression abroad , the sister of tyranny at home . Have not these African generals treated Frenchmen just like Arabs ? That standing army , the absolute instrument of external and internal violence should therefore no longer exist . It is irremediably condemned It should not have survived the 24 th of February : it killed itself the 2 nd

      on of December .. The murder it committed has been its suicide . Had it not been for the 2 nd of December it might perhaps have been still preserved , as it was recalled to Paris after the 24 th of February . There might again have been talk of the honour of arms , ot the glory of the banner , of services rendered , of heads whitened beneath the helmet , of old military dress . But it for ever drowned itself in the blood of December ; it must be dissolved Us banners burned , and its principal chiefs degraded ; an example is needed . It must understand the enormity of its crime by the Solemnity of its punishment . But . in order that that great national lesson may be moral and profitable , there must bo reward for the

      meritorious as well as punishment for the guilty ; the popular ovation must be decreed to the republican soldiers of Africa to the exiled democratic sub-officers sent to the desert for their republicanism ; they must receive the ' civic honours iendered by the first revolution to the soldiers of Chateau-Vieux condemned to the king ' s galleys ; there must be recreated that nursery of patriot heroes of unconquered generals , named Kleber , Hoclie , and Marceau ! But

      , it will be said , to disband the army is to disarm the revolution m presence ot tyranny , and the defence of the country and the deliverance of Europe ? France should establish the universal republic , or submit to the universal royalty . An army , then ? Yes , but a republican one . Therefore , the actual armv should be dissolved , absorbed m the entire nation , there to lose for ever that praetorian spirit that military ambitionthat royal and imperial — 4

      , * J f » I'll * ** ---w-. j x *^ u * vyjnn unu HWVJVlUVk trade of man-killing , always powerless to defend the country , and nnally vanquished by two invasions . The grand army fell at Leipsick ; the old guard at Waterloo . The army should be founded in a iwte en masse , in order that it may possess that general , generous , disinterested , and invincible desire for the common safety which twice drove the enemy from the soil of the republic , with the volunteers ot Fleurs and Valmy .

      Without doubt , life being divine and war inhuman , every military regime , whatever its character , is , and always will be , anti-natural and anti-dernocratic . But , so long as monarchy exists menacing 7 rL r ? i n f ~~ S 0 lon § as the universal republic shall not have ZITn v * pG ( ! ples one PeoP le France having strength , must preserve it andemploy it against the common enemy . It is a choice between two evils , and the least must be chosen . The army must oe ; made the defender , of the country and of liberty , by means of liberty and equality . J J

      ti , p w " e i 6 Ctl 0 n reestablisheQ > conscription and replacing abolished , tlie blood-tax , now , like other taxes , paid by the poor alone , due irom all , would be paid by all ; the standing army transformed into a national militia ;; every soldier made a citizen , and every c tizen a soldier . As the Roman quiritus measured and defended flto , held with his lance , each French citizen will defend with his ^ l * ™^ and his W «« 7- He has righ t and power , the lm dele te his his

      m ^ 8 5 n ° more § a arms than vote , his power than his right . He is his own soldier , as he is his own legislator . He compromises himself as much in confiding to others his aeience as in so confiding his sovereignty . He may not commit ThP mn- ° / ? tecUou of tllose who will become his oppressors . 1 he military function is a right which admits of no representation , W Vl a y h dmitS of no sub 3 titute . Then , no more stand-SFiJSF T A ° m tlle " ation > ^ t the entire nation in arms , naming of 1 ' - ? ac . . ordin S t 0 il S 5 having military exercise in time ouitfinf h m i CIt ' ^ con » nunes , by instructing officers , J home onl * tow of war , and no longer making but one SniV rfV ' - ™ P rinci P ' le ^ mst fact , of right against force , liberty against tyranny , of the peoples against the kings . ( To be continued . )

      Untitled Article

      '"»* mini 1 'i . ViU . ir riTiiiiiiiiiii in MJ | THE FRENCH REPUBLICANS AND THE COMING EMPIRE n riii ? 6 ^ P ^ 1 ^ 11 society La Revolution has issued the following address to the Republicans of France : Aw ^ IZEN / T ^ lle ? 0 Ul > falllers < neavl y mty years since > allowed «» soIdier of Aicoia and Toulon to mount the throne , in one single vote they concentrated « v « y crime—a crime against the country , afterwards defiled bT two invasions a crime against humanity , on whom they brought misery and bloodshed-a crime against free thought , which they delivered up to insolent iorce-alcrime

      Democratic I€Oyesie¥Ts

      DEMOCRATIC I € OYESIE ¥ TS

      Untitled Article

      2 i 8 THE STAR OF FREEDOM . [ November is .

  • Citation
    • Northern Star (1837-1852), Nov. 13, 1852, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1704/page/10/