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

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

      1 — " MAI ? TER 8 US MACHINE . Oh ! handles * man , thros * b hipleu age Condemned a n > with want to wage . Sneb vr » s the description given by aa ancient poet of » -wretched individual , who was left , like B ^™ Crusoe , npona aesert isl * n «\ and where he stm eon-Wved , with his bow sod arrows , as the other did witfi his gun , to prolong a miaeraMe existence . And Rich , too , la , strange to say , the description which ft modern philanthropic has applied to thousands of operatives , who , in a country that boasts of its religion , dvflizv-Hon , ' and science , have been compelled to endure all the horrors of hunger , and In a land rich with all the choicest Rifcs of creation , bnt from which the working man has been debarred by a forced competition with the Mammon-made machine ; that with its eternal thump , thornp , 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 , bas been crying

      oat—Fee , fan , fnm—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 fabries are reduced in priee , depend upon it the wages of the workmen will be dimished eventually like ¦ wise ; and unless ail the expences of the operatives are lessened equally , the efiect of the machinery will be to make the poor poorer , and the rich richer ; and as the latter will thus gain what the others lose , the invention of man will nnllify the injunctions of Sod ; by whem the rich , if they are believers in his ¦ words , have been taught to keep their hands from picking—at least the sockets 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 would 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 had ceased to have a place at Nature ' s table ? " Or . if they were fools enough , " says the Wedmixster Review , in iu last nnmber , " to compete With the steam engine , what man of sense would listen to their complaints ? Ab well might the jackass bray out its abuse of the blood-horse for carrying off the cup at Doncastes . "

      But though scarcely a Eingle ear was turned , ten years ago , to the heart-rending complaints of the bandloom weavers , ground to the dust by the machine—for , Jn the insolence of presumed power , the millownew told the working men to bow down to the steam idol or starve—yet now every ear has been stunned by the mailings of the millocrats themselves ; and even the H # use of Commons , that formally urofessed 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 gulled by the Impudent falsehood that trade has been ruined through the restrictiens imposed by the Corn Laws , and not the unlimited use of machinery ; for our , rulers wanted the Wit to see that when machinery Teaches a certain pitch , It cannot fail to make the supply greater than the demand , and thus 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 , [ he prophet , whose -words I have lived to see verified to the letter , was so conscious , as to predict that the pma would come , and quicker , too , than the millownen wouii like , when every market in the gl obe 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 -would , in torn , be diminished in valne ; and , as no manufactured article , after it has been once sold for a less sum , fm gyer realised its former price , no market , that had 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 the previous forced sales .

      " But , " said the man , from whose lips 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 tht supporters of the unlimited use of machinery , that the very power which the Solomons , as they call themselves , fancy will -shower upon the land all the blessings of cotton shirts and shifts , of silk stockings and gloves , and of linen and l&ce , at the cheapest rate , will give birth to evils frightful to contemplate , and which it wil l require no little patience to endure , and still greater resolution to correct In the meantime , however , " added the aeer , " princely fortunes will ba made and princely lost : nor will the truth burst upon the world , that when the Creator made m&n , be meant him to be the master and net the slave of the machine , until they who have set up . the Mammon machine . aj the Isralites did the golden calf , shall find that their idol , with its arms of iron but breath of steam , is utterly incompetent when called on to save its deluded -worshippers . "

      Of the moral evils to which the unlim . ted use of machinery may have given birth , the political economist Will , of course , take no account ; for he will assert that there is no necessary 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 al ! ude 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 thin practice ii carried on in other factories , where there are sleeping partners , I know not For the hoc our 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 farmed 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 Mscclesfleld ; where I heard that when a laiher , who had been thrown out of employ by the introduction of machinery , was going to correct his son for some misconduct , the little rogue , about thirteen yean old , said to his 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 sehding 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 increase as machinery did .

      He did not , however , even dream of the general displacement of male by female lab » ur , 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 the factories connected with cotton , silk , and woollen fabrics , but is spreading through our mines and collieries , and destroying at once the peace and the virtue of every hearth and home ; asd so complete is the separation of husband and wife , and of patents and

      children , that all the endearments of the family group will be shortly unknown , " Thousands , " adds his Lordship , " of yeung females are absorbed into the whirlpool of avarice and plunged into factories and mines , where every hour is given to toil ; and while not 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 close and constant « ontact with the other sex , has exhibited the pernicious remits of violating the- order of Providence t > y abstracting females from their peculiar calling . "

      Equally blind was the prophet to another violation of the law of nature to which' machinery has been foand to lead ; for It has not only prevented the parent from supporting his child , but compelled the child to support the parent ; a law that the supporters of machinery , who were all the supporters of the New Poor Law , have enacted , sot so nmch in ignorance of , ¦» In contempt to , the law of God , that the hen is to ezfttch for the ehUceaa , not tte chickens for the hen Had however , the idea cone into the mind of the prop&et , -he woaM ham aaid that even m Tory House of Coubom would throw the aUsM « C legal protection tme i ^ n / i *— ? not have permitted baUea just oat of their mother ' s ami to be carried in those of their t ^ tm ' a tram their beds , bnngry aad half asleep , to be tTBrnftTatfrfl ty a Moloch machine ; nor would be have believed that the Whiga , whoee polities he had always apported , would have damned themselves to

      everlasting infamy , by drawing , with the aid of the mighty majority of one , a temporary veil over the barbarities practised wifli impunity is factories , which were laid bin by the *" " « - ^ Sadler , when he stood forward as tKft npptmfit ^ tt fly *> f $ ) t ) fl- « r ««* ' < "g Tw ^ Viirm Still less would tie pxophat have believed that the icy touch of avjfcrio s would so freeaa the blood of tht once warmhearteimM feg-Tsannftrturea , as to lead them , without ft pang , to commit iufcHt **" * by wholesale , to enable them to add pennies to their pounds by the plunder of tte unprotected child ; for whose production th # ma-

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      chine itself has held out such a premium , by throwing the parents ont of employ , that when I was at Bradford , in 1836 , a partner in one of the largest factories told me that if 500 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 the time has been when some of our crack political economists presumed to ridicule the God-made man as an imperfect r " ** np ) compared with the man-made spinning-jenny and power-loom worked by the almighty steam-engine , yet one or twe of those , who in then * 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 tat 18 S 8 , theBentimentsfoUowing . an * penned by one whose handwriting is as visible as that which appeared on the wall : —

      n The application of the discoveries of the 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 attendants 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 rnin ; 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 fetal consequences—demoralisation . ''

      On Euch 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 the political evils to be traced to the same source of misery and crime , it may be safely asserted that if machinery , in its earliest stage , had not brought 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 frames by the 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 the rebellion of the belly has been put down by the strong arm of the law , or has fallen to pieces from the inherent weakness of such outbreaks , where the 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 , eren 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 all 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 ruin which has come upon 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 machine ground operatives heard from Mr . Bazley , that , though the turn-out has ceased , the shops of the retailers are still scanty of enstoners , while the warehouses of the manufacturers are groaning nnder 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 , the Stockbrokers in Change-alley , and the bankers of Lombard-street , in London , are going to curtail the hours of business ; because , says the 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 Bhall 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 '' the -witnesses had not been suborned , the jury packed , aad 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 he 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 tfee cry for the Charter , to benefit the mill-slaves ; nor would those who have stupidly substituted the cheap power 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 all the trade of the empire , so mismanage their own concerns as to exhibit to their hapless creditors the spectacle , at once piteous and laughable , of the bear in a boat , as detailed in the fables of Gay , who , doubtless , had an eye to the Sonth Sea bnbble of his day , the counterpart of those which have brought ruin and ridicule upon an age which calls itself " The March of Intellect Era . " HUNGBT HANDLESS .

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      Thirtt-Five Persons Killed and Wounded at Bolckrow a _ nd Vaughak ' s Iron Foundrt , Middlesbro ' . —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 wa 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 blorra into the river Tees , a distance of between one and two hundred yards , and the end of the boiler was completely blown oat . 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 absence 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 suffer derangement . This can scarcely have happened , in bo short a period as has yet elapsed , if the geaer&l 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 litre capacity hereafter . Their conduct has not , so far as we know , been publicly impeached , on that or any otber head ; and we do not see 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 overboard its present Executive , merely because the storm of persecution has overtaken them in its unjust career .

      True ; it is important that the functions of the Executive Bhould suffer no interruption in their coarse of exercise . The men of London saw this instantly , and , therefore , wisely and properly ftppointed 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 come for the nomination and election of & new Executive , accordant with our plan of general organization . la this the London men did ireH 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 callmg themselves Chartists whom nothing less will satisfy than that the Executive shall be deserted—abandoned by the people—thrown overboard in the hour 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 , bat 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 participated 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 such body , and if

      they authorised the sending of this paragraph , ) —enjoy an unenviable monopoly among the officers of our 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 Gteneral Council ol 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 so 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—' Stb , —I hereby nominate A . B . ( blacksmith , ) of ( 11 , 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 , CD ., 1 ( Carpenter , No . 6 , Tib-street ,

      ' Manchester , ) ' Member of the General Council , and sub-Secretary 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 Commutes , ol 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 circumstances may be thought to render the eleotion of a new Executive necessary , it is the duty 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 Executive ; 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 principle ; 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 donbt 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 public 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 the places of those who have not yet vacated office , and who are only precluded from its duties by the hand of unjust power , is monstrous .

      Our Correspondent—a Councillor of the Association and a good Chartist—calls warmly on the Chartist puWie not to elect Mr . Mohling 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 Flaxhan , Chairman . " William Flower , Treasurer . "

      Without inquiring why the Councillors of Brighton , in particular , deem Mr . Morlimg unfit for the office of Executive Committeeman , and without entering into , or even stating , the reasons alleged against bis election by our other correspondent , we say at once that if Mr . Mobxing was a consenting party to this most unfair , most irregular , and most indeoently 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 f 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 , ft 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 Harleeton , 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 l e to be on their guard , lest any such hoaxing should be attempted in earnest .

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      LORD ABINGER'S POPULARITY , AND

      THE POLICY OF THE PEOPLE . Few men have obtained a more unenviable notoriety than that which Lord Abingee has achieved for himself during his crusade against Chartism in the Special Assizes at Chester and Liverpool . The whole press of the whole country cries shame I 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 which is exhibited in the person of his Lordship . Even the Tory Morning 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 so degraded and . disgraced as daring these proceedings by this doting old man . To attempt anything like sober refutation of the rigmarole which 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 iu the grave enunciation of his stupid and malignant trash by the ermined functionary himself . We will give our readers a sample , and leave them from that to judge of the whole sack . Iu 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 Executive . Commenting to the Jury " in round set terms" upon

      the mischievous crime perpetrated m the publication of this placard , the Judge was pleased oracularty to lay down that Universal Suffrage must issue in the complete disorganization and overthrow of sooiety and all existing institutions , and he took , as an 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—au 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 Abingbb is a subject worthy of so much 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 , oan 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 erery man be a Hamilear—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 class dominance exists ; while they are regarded as so many sacred altars on which to dedicate our Hannibals to holy war against unrighteousness ; while they Bupply so many 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 hence 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 wear 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 much of this amongst us , or my Lord Abinger might have had less opportunity to show the teeth of faotion 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 Society 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 precincts 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 . "

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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 i nto 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 luat 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 pupe dispensation , and the old consummated church unler all its multit udinous forms and seotions , 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 famous 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 li ps * 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 Iooal journal , of a meeting in the Parochial School Room of that place , at whioh 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 speotaole to contemplate ! 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—^ foremost in tha fell van of an undiscriminating 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 injanotion " 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 ! 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 be 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 oan be restrained no longer , and the seoular 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 _ his oreation , but" to adopt means for rendering the police force more effi dent , " that the " stranger poor" may be prevented from begging ; that those whom the tyrannous 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' au 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 ia reported to have said iu support of his

      motion" That our policemen had all the appearance of very comfortable-looking gentlemen , walking about at their ease , and thought they might be rendered more effective in the way pointed out in his motion . " Had this "follower of Jesus" and preacher of hia word lived in the days of the { Lord ' s flesh , we ask what must , in the spirit of this motion , have been his conduct I 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 scribes , 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 o f 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 faot ; but we have no doubt that this same Rev . 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 purpose 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 wilfnlly 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 lot chapter of Isaiah , the 68 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 1 : — "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 1 when thou seest the naked that thou cover him , and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh J " 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 bide mine eyes from you : yea , when ye make many prayers I will not hear : your 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 of 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 whioh 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 Scripture—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 ia 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 , not in requesting the police L

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      to be more severe in their operations against the tt stranger poor , " but insearching ontj Mufchringing to the light , for their speedyjand permanent removal the causes by whose operationT ** Btraige * |« oi '' abound . '" ' - '¦ > :

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      fM ^^ AMMA ^^^ ft « M ^ AKA *>< V » W THE RESULTS OF THE " SPECIAL" CRUSADE AGAINST CHARTISM . Upon 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 wil j have learned , from judicial clemency , the value of Ministerial praise and Parliamentary sympathy . Who bat 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' Bake , demand for themselves exemptions from the support of doctrines 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 effect their purpose 1 Who ibut 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 tae magistrates to less thau one sixth % Who but must honour and obey his pastor and master , when he finds the employer the most deadly foe of his employee ? Who but must 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 f ? los 3 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 land tells him are fixed as Persian ediots , and based upon the " final will " of a Russell I Lord Abingee 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 effaot , they will have placed the respective privileged olasses in their proper characters before the unrepresented slaves . The people will have

      been confirmed in their just belief , that however , as seotions , classes may contend , all will unite when labour is to be coerced or intimidated . They have now had a happy illustration of this faot . They find liberal magistrates uniting aad aiding a Tory Government in political prosecutions . They find Churchmen and Dissenters equally thirsting for the blood of the accussd . They find " Free-traders 7 ' 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 is 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 tits 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 sh , oot 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 . Hois 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 . We trust that Mr . Cooper will reprint his speeoh 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 out down Chartism ! Where the bludgeon to break the head of Cooper ' s discourse i

      " 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 , justioe , and decency , to insure their destruction . With such au unconstitutional foe , then , as injustice , and such an unconquerable friend as right , what have the noble army of Chartists to dread ! " The friends we ' ve tried , Are by our side , The foe we hate before us . "

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      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 over 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 tht veracious scribes of faotion who are known adepts in whitewashing characters and deeds of the darkest hue , and blackening those wholly spotless , save from the blots received from the pens of time-serving and hireling scribblers who live by the defamation . ' of all who refuse to run in party harness . The Tories may prate about Whig deception , and

      the Whigs may fulminate againBt 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 ratepayers . No regard whatever has been paid to tba 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 extensire scale in Westminster .

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

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      4 THE NORTHERN STAR .

      The Northern Star. Saturday, October 22, 1842.

      THE NORTHERN STAR . SATURDAY , OCTOBER 22 , 1842 .

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      THE MODEL PRISON AT PENTONVILLE . We give elsewhere a letter from a Correspondent of the Morntn . 9 Chronicle , in reference to this modern Hell . To that letter we direct attention-We have not yet seen the ' embodyment of Devilism iu 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 .

  • 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-ncseproduct776/page/4/