Labour's Wrongs and Labour's Remedy

pressors, and Iciss the hand that smites them, the sametheir order did three thousand years since.The world at large have not chosen the present socialsystem, and the particular mode of tlii~~liing and actingconnected with it, because it was good, nor have theyrejected another hecauso it was bad ; but men llare blindlytaken both goor1 and bad, as they happened to tllrn up,without lcnorr7ing the one from tlle other. We of the presentday, in like manner, tnlce principles and institutions,and act upon them, simply because they were so taken andacted upon by those who have gone before us. Altllougha gradual movement is evcr going forward, yet society, asa whole, has Iiitl~crto 11ad no more inl~crent power withinitself to changc at once tI~c direction of its actions ant1opinions, ~!IIII have tile plat~ets of our sol;v systcm a powerto change their courses. JVl~cnevcr a new direction isgiven to the opinions and pursuits of men, t11c motiorl isoccasioned by tlie accurnulatior~ of disturbing forces, or bvthe unlr~elcomc pou~lcc of some conletary spirit on whomno continuity of every-day circumstance has acted,-butwhose course, directctl by peculiarity of position and singolarityof circun~stance, lies directly across or against thatof the whole of which he forms a part. And when thecurrent of human events is thus broken in upon, it takesnecessarily, mhetller good or bad, the new direction whichis given ; and this course is maintained until again changedby new influences and new disturbances.There always have been, in all countries ant1 under allforms of government, indivitluals in mental advance of,and apparently in opposition to, the main body of a people.Tliey are the pioneers to the march of niind-the tilast togive battle to prejudice, and tlle first to fall before it-and,altllougli they make the road to knowledge, to freeilom,and to happiness, practicable and easy, they do so only bypaving it wit11 their own bones. The vocation of theselnraders of the dark empire of ignorance and tyrannyrenders them the especial dread of despots, and all otherupholtlers of ~isurped pnwer and unjustly-acquired wealth ;and they are therefore alrvays persecuted wit11 a horribleinalignancy which no other being but Inan can feel andexercise.When we talie into consideration the various circu~nsta~~cesnll~icl~ liave rctarclecl 11umai1 atlvancclr~e~~t, we can-'not be rurp&ed that the disentl~ralment of man from manhas not yet been acliieveh Under despotism~and theof governments are little else t1i;in despotismstileknowledge of truth and liberty progresses slosly ; fortile gibbet and the dungeon are of too elsy access to beneglected by the Forernors, especially where custom hasthe immolnt~on of a victim a matter of b ~ little tmoment. Should the ruling few think fit to give a reasonfor their bloody acts, they fabricate some black and odiouslie, calculated to misled the multitude, and \vorli upontlleir r~ld their prejll~lices ; and tlle unllappy i~nd' enSlavell are made to gloat upon the suf~erix~gs anddecry tile principles of him \rho ~voald linve made then1enligllteI~ed and 11?l,py : tliey arc t;a~gl~t to reg~rd 11im asone of tile dea(l11est enemies OF the llnmall race, and,believing him to be such, tlley endt at his diS~01rfitllr~and in his clo~vnfall. The gorerllors cry "Cr~~cifgllim !" and the deluded gorernecl loudly echo " Crucifyi n Should the fearless cliampion of trutl~ escape fora time with life, it makes but little difference in favour ofhis cause. Everything is against him. The great bodyof those who are oppressed, and who stand most in need ofdeliverance, are perhaps unable to read ; and the oralcomnlunication of political .knowledge, even in countriesprofessing to enjoy tlie liberty of tilought and speech, isalmost as slow and unsafe a method as that adopted bymeans of boolcs. Wherever the body is enslaved, the mindis still more tyrannized over ; for the anathema of thepriest is ever at the call of the despot ; and the hereafterof the first is always more dreaded, by an ignorant people,than the present tyranny of the 1;st. The minds alike ofthe oppresse(1 and the oppressor are warped and confinedfrom infancy to maahood; and thus, benighted andenslaved, does generatio11 follorv generation ; and thosesimple trntlis and principles wliicl~, under certain circumstances,might have become universally known and actedupon dnring tlie passing of one generation, are, underother circumstances, almost unknown and unregarded atthe end of centuries.It is time that man went to first ~rinciples-it is timethat he broke through those conventioual cobtvebs which,spun by his own ignorance, atrd fastened ~lpoll him by hisown hands, have for ages bound his body and his soul