Political Reform. They begin to see that it was because one thing was said and another thing meant, there could be no right understanding equal to the working out of any kind of useful reform. In this publication, it is purposed, to put the whole question of reform, on its proper footing, so as to make it lead to something practicable and efficient. Nothing has been done, in the way of reform, up to this time, but to give a progressing spirit to the management of the printing press, and with it a progressing instruction to the people. The shackles that fetter the press, still form matter of just complaint; but the worst part of them have been burst asunder, and discussion on all subjects has grown comparatively free. We shall endeavour to accomplish, on this head, all that yet remains to be done.

We summon the attention of the Politicians of the country to the new plan of reform which will be laid down in this publication. It will not be found to be a newly concocted project from the head of an ever-scheming projector; but a plan founded upon the aggregate experience of some of the best informed and most zealous Politicians that have lived. In all ages, there have been men, who have pursued a right train of ideas, who have thought and acted well as individuals; but the time was not until now, when such men could freely and fearlessly communicate such ideas to others. It is but now partially the case. Timidity may be seen sitting on the countenance of almost every Politician. He, as yet, but speaks and speculates with trembling. And what does he fear? Does he fear aught more than his own shadow? aught more than himself? To whom, but to himself, is he responsible for political speculations? yes, there is something more. His timidity generates a prejudice in others and creates its own tyrant. Were he bolder, were he honestly and fearlessly open, did he speak out as he thought on all matters, that prejudice, did it exist, would be powerless and innocuous. As it is the slave, in all cases, that makes the tyrant, and not the tyrant the slave; so timidity in the Politician generates the prejudice of its persecutor, and is not generated by persecution. It is the fault of the man and not of the system. Let us endeavour to remove it by good example.

Our plan of reform will be, to impugn fearlessly, but mildly, all the errors that we find in the country. We shall assail them individually, particularly, and in detail, and not pursue the easy murmur of general complaint without any specification. Our warfare will be mental, moral, and no further physical, than to force the light of better knowledge on the sight of our benighted opponents. We will deal with them so mildly, so gently, that they shall see, even if they be so blind as those who do not wish to see. When they see, or when they do not see, they may combat with us, if they please, we shall prefer that they do so, for whenever we inflict a defeat, we shall confer a benefit. He, who is defeated in an argument, is the victor; for he alone, who,

is ignorant, can gain by the dispute. Our reform will begin at home, or with individuals, and shew, that as society is but the aggregate of individuals, so a general reform must spring from, or arise out of the aggregate of individual reform.

We shall not set up any kind of system, as a substitute for any system now extant; but holding, that almost every system now among us, whether it be called political, theological, or municipal is loaded with error, we shall attack that error, and propose the preservation of whatever, in each, may be good. We shall not be found indiscriminate levellers; we are no advocates for the equality of rags, filth, and ruffianism; in some affairs, that are social and domestic, we shall advance propositions that are tyrannical. We would be tyrants to enforce an equality of cleanliness, of industry, where the means of living depend upon it, of modes of dwelling that are conducive to health, and the prevention of disease, and of that species of order and manners which is offensive to none, but to all agreeable. We would suppress drunkenness, or make it penal to the individual and profitable to a public revenue. A curse should not be publicly expressed with impunity. If emphatic language be pleasing, let it be the emphasis of intellect and benevolence and not of bad passion. We know that laws exist already applicable to these points; but they are badly administered, they are not sufficiently applied, and we would have their application vigorously restored. It is the very nature of man, in his present state of education, to stand in need of this kind of tyranny. This is the tyranny of sound liberty.

Rash and ill-informed political writers have produced much bad feeling through the country, by declaiming against taxation as the principal evil and as the first cause that regulates and reduces wages. Mr. Cobbett, by the want of proper attention to the subjects on which he treats, by his incapacity to think deeply on any subject, by his losing sight of the chief points and the connections of every question, by his political blunderings, his egotistical and imperative declamation, and his bad example in personal abuse, instead of unfolding to view the system by which the persons are regulated, has produced a great deal of, what may be properly termed, ruffianly political feeling, among some of the more ignorant men of the country. You may hear them exclaim against "taxation and the rich ruffians," without a knowledge of any one common political principle. A hatred has been produced against every man who has accumulated wealth, and that too in the bosoms of some of the veriest vagabonds that have infested the country. This sort of political feeling is an evil that can never lead to any kind of useful reform.

Taxation is an evil, where the revenue is applied to purposes that are not beneficial to the public. Taxation is a benefit, where the revenue is properly drawn from capital or surplus income, and applied to purposes useful to the community. These are the

points for consideration. All accumulations of wealth or capital that are honestly acquired, acquired without the infliction of injury on others, are public benefits. The real difference between the savage and the social state, is the accumulation of capital, Almost all the comforts and agreeable distinctions in society are produced by the accumulation of capital; and, in nine cases out of ten, such an accumulation is the best evidence of industry and virtuous conduct. There is no cure for pauperism, for vagabondage, for the present growth of crime, but in teaching the Jabouring-man the great advantages which accrue from the accumulation of capital, so as to make each aspire to an accumulation to some degree. While the possession of riches is held to be criminal, however honestly acquired, there is a feeling created which may be called the pride or insolence of poverty. This pride of poverty is the most detestable of all the degrees of pride; for it makes a man proud of his own degradation, proud of his rags, his filth, and his general bad habits. The writer has seen this pride carried to a boasting and pompous insolence, and views it as the most pernicious vice among the labouring people. It has been greatly increased by such writings as those of Mr. Cobbett. It has been greatly increased by our present system of poor laws, which has a tendency to encourage idleness, and a waste of present means, by the certainty of support, when an excuse can be shown for the demand. It encourages, it produces poverty. It makes that poverty a boast in the bad man. The insolence of the rich man is not so great a vice, by no means so hateful, as the insolence of the habitual pauper. The former might want a little good sense to make him bear his riches well, and to the pleasure of others as well as to his own pleasure; but the latter founds his insolence upon his own vicious self-degradation. The reform that we would propose to such characters is, to raise themselves above such self-degradation, so as not to make a boast of their poverty and their poor laws; but to pride themselves in being able to live without the one or the other.

We will not stoop to flatter the vices of a multitude, for the purpose of gaining its vicious applause; we scorn such applause. Our appeal shall be to the sensible, the thinking portion of the community, whether rich or poor. We shall be happy to be the means of affording instruction to those who may be below the standard of our minds; and receive instruction for ourselves and others, from those who may be above us. We shall make it plain to the labouring-man, that it is not taxation which regulates his wages, but that first principle in all matters of commerce-the relation of the supply to the demand. Labour is a marketable commodity. When the supply exceeds the demand, prices, or wages are reduced. When the demand exceeds the supply,prices or wages are advanced. When a number of workmen have a difficulty in finding an employer, they will compete, one with another, to the reduction

of the value of their labour. When a number of masters have to go in search of men, they will compete, one with another, to the advancement of wages. If Mr. Cobbett did not understand this general principle, he had cunning enough to take the benefit of it to himself, when, knowing the surplus of labour in the market, he proposed to employ men upon a gaol allowance for their wages. Mr. Cobbett had never made such a proposition to labourers, had their labour been in more request. How apt is man, even a pretended reformer, to let his interest overrule his profession of political principle!

All that taxation does, in the way of regulating wages, is to raise the nominal amount of the living means. A man requires a certain quantity of food for his subsistence; the nominal value of that food will vary with the weight of taxation. In a secondary point of view, or temporarily, it might affect the quantity of his food; but not as a general and lasting principle. The first and general principle is the value, which is regulated by the relation of the supply to the demand: and whenever the supply of labour exceeds the demand for it, the wages of the labourer will fall to the lowest amount that will support life. Hence may be seen the necessity, for the welfare of the working man, that there be not a superabundance of hands in any trade or occupation: and that, when there is a superabundance, it should be the study of every workman in that trade to prevent the accumulation or continuation of that superabundance. Though it be as simple as any rule in arithmetic, we know that this doctrine is oppugned, as every new doctrine is oppugned, by dull or ill-designing men; but though oppugned, it is as stable and impregnable as the doctrine of the earth's motion. Many of the disciples of Mr. Cobbett have their heads filled with imaginary evils, about "taxation, rich ruffians, and the currency," laying down these as the first principles of all the evils that afflict the country. In so doing, they lose sight of the real evils, and losing sight of them, they produce no effect by their cry for reform. They assail phantoms instead of substantial evils, and are laughed at for their pains, by the very men against whom they exclaim. We will endeavour, in the course of this publication, to put them in the right train to produce real and useful reforms.

The question of the currency, is not without interest; but by no means a matter of such importance as Mr. Cobbett attaches to it. In its worst shape, it can operate but as a partial tax; and in no shape can it affect the vital interests of the country. The part of it which paper represents is a representation of capital, or it is not. If a representation of capital, there is security; if not, it becomes a matter of credit, and in case of failure on the part of the issuers to meet their promises, a tax upon capitalists, a transfer of property from one to another, without value received in barter: in short, a new mode of robbery. The real evils which afflict this

country are not of this transitory character. They are old, permanent and rigid. They consist of old customs that have been rendered profitable, and that, being profitable, are not allowed quickly to yield before the new customs that society, in its progressive improvement, must necessarily introduce for its welfare. Let us take a political view of religion. There is not an instance on record of a permanent religion. Every Religion has been incessantly changing, both in its parts, and as a whole. Every former religion is regularly and systematically proved to have been an evil (we can do as much for the present); but how difficult is the task, if we attempt to hasten its departure, or to force it aside? Mankind is ever changing customs; but never prone to rapid change. Mental changes are individual and slow, and not made en masse.

Our reform will extend to form of government, when we see it practicable. We know no form of government that is best, in relation to administration. The mode of administration must constitute the degree of good, better, best; or bad, worse and worst. But if we know human nature, the best general regulation for legislation and government will be found in the simple representative, where there shall be no checks but in the periodical will of the electors.

RELIGION.

Is by far the most important political subject that now agitates the people of this country; not as to whether it shall be Catholic or Protestant, Trinitarian or Unitarian, founded on freedom of will or predestination; but as to whether any be necessary or useful. The disputes among the various sects are become futile and even a matter of ridicule, while unrepelled assaults show the rottenness of the whole fabric, and its bad foundation. In conjunction with, and in echo to, Robert Owen and Frances Wright, in the United States of North America, we pronounce whatever of superstition passes under the name of religion to be an error, an evil, a vice. We define our meaning of superstition to be, any kind of dogmatical speculation that exceeds a man's knowledge, any thing that is pretended to be a superhuman, written or oral revelation. The highest state of the argument on the subject of religion, now stands thus :—

In all that we see of the physical powers about us, in all that we see of the operations of matter, can we see any corresponding principle to that which we call design or intelligence, in the human being, or in the animal world?

Paley has argued, that, as man produces small effects, in his little arrangements of matter, by his power of design or intelli