Labour's Wrongs and Labour's Remedy

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8 LABOUR'S WRONGS ANDvades alilie the bosoms of both the rich and the poorthetramplers and the trampled upon.Whatever may be the condition in which society nowis, it could not, from the very nature of its componentparts, and the circumstances which have for ages operatedUIIOII and influenced those parts, be different from what itis; and ho~vever alarming the present state of thingsmay appear to the unjust man and tlie extortioner, thereIS in the prospect nothing that can terrify the honest andthe industrious, wherever thcy may be.The productive classes arc bewildered amidst the multiplicityof remedies offered for their consideration. Theyhave as many remedies as wrongs-one contradictinganother, and most of them equally vulueless ; for thcy arealilcc based merely on passing events, instead of rcsting onthe broad foundation of some great principle. Thatwhich appears to be a remedy in one year, turns out, inthe next year, to be no remedy n,hatever; for the particularevil which s~lclt remedy applied to, is fonnd to haveshifted its locality, or clianged to some secondary evil.There is wanted, not a mere governmental or particularremedy, but a general remedy-one which will apply toall social wrongs and evils, great and small. The productiveclasses want a remedy for their incessant toil-theywant a remedy for their comp~~lsory idleness-they wanta renledy for their poverty-they ~vant a remedy for themisery, and ignorance, and vice, which such toil, suchidleness, and such poverty produce.Altl~ough it may appear dificult to obtain such a~eemedy, it will be seen, hereafter, that it is anything butimpossible. All sciences are more or less imperfect; butof all sciences, politics, or the science of human government,is the least understootl, altl~ough its great boolc hasbeen open to the illspection of man for four thousandyears. Man has made so little progress, because it is in thenatrlre of good or bad forms of government, and institutions,and states of society, to perpetuate themselves, andlceep successive generations in one continuo~ls mode ofthinking and of acting. Men, in general, go not to thefirst principles of things ; they take the world as they findit, antl look only to the state of society, the form ofgovernment, or the religion of their country, for the timebeing. But the nonage of intellect is piissing away, andthe minil of man will soon take a wider and a bolder flightthan any it has yet dared to contemplate. IIad the lantlnlarksof Europe alrvays been kept in ~igllt, Americawould still have been unknown to us; and, unless weboldly overleap the boundaries ~vllicl~ custom and precedentlias placed around us-boundaries which shut mallout from all but the lorrer and baser portions of intellectualand pl~ysical esistence-lve shall never behold norpossess that vast and beautiful region of human felicity,which, from the nature of things, cannot but hareexistence.A11 other sciences arc but as steps to the science ofgovelmment. They all add something to man's knowledgeof himself, his capabilities, ant1 his true position in referenceto estern:~l objects. What is it that the mi~~tl ofman, if properly tlirected, cn~lnot :icco~nplisli? Whatother finite being has attributes so mighty-and yet, whatotl~er tiling csisting is so I~elpless and so \\~retcl~etl ? Wecan roan1 through the universe with the astronomer, andloolc on solar systems, and behold planets and their sntellitesrolling in ponderous ma.iesty through the illimitableocean of space : we can, with the geologist, go back totimes when history mas not-when our earth, occupying;I different position in space, and peop!ed by widely differentmodifications of being to any now existing, knew notman, nor his crimes, nor his follies : we can progress, wit11the historian, from as far baclc :ts human records extend,up to the present time, and survey man under the innumerablesystems of religion and forms of governmentvl~ich have cursed him from his creation-malting theearth one vast slaughter-yard, and defiling it \\,itiiesecr:ible pollntion : we can, wit11 the chemist, dissolvethe chains wl~ich hin(1 together the elenlents of existi~lgforms of matter, and, from their ~vreck, protluce a ne\r.creation, and bestow on t11i11gs new properties and appeitrances: we can, with the anatomist and the metaphysicia~~,study the nature of our own corporeal antl mental being,and observe the inseparable depentlency of mind on matter,and the influence of estcrnal circumsL~ncesupou botl~ : \recan view every variety of human action, and can tliscoverthe various incentives to sucll action : \re can, :is it I\-ere,live over again the tin~cs that are past-ourselres committingthe crime, and judging the offender, and meti~~g out
the award. And thus, having the accumulated knowledgeand experience of all past ages to guide him, and theaccumulated errors and miseries of all past ages to warnhim-imbued with the spirit, as ~vell as acquainted withthe letter, of history-nrhat is man not prepared tonchie~*e ?The untiring mint1 of man is ever in search of what ithas never yet found-I~appiness; hut hecause this ultimateend of all human exertion has not hitherto 1)een attained,it does not follow th:~t man should give up his search, ant1die. His physical organization is as perfect as that ofany other being with nvhich he is acq~laintcd, while hismental powers far cxccctl thosc of any other known ihtclligcnce.It. \r.oultl, then, bc: :tn unsccrnly gap in theharmonious adaptatiotr antl continuous pcrfcction whichruns through all creation, if the powers ant1 nttribntesposscssetI by man cor~ltl (lo rtotl~ing ton;rrcls removing thatmiscry and clissatisf:ictiorl \r~hiclr has for so nlally agesbeen the portion of his race. To assert that, amiclst auniverse of joy, marl alone is born to sorrow and to trorthle,is to commit a foul libel upon the Almighty antl perfectdisposer of all thin~s !Were m:in a stat~onary being, like the beasts and birdsby which 11e is surro~~ntlerl-1r::tl Ite a fixed and unc11;lngcableinstinct, instead of a progressive and improvablereason-any change ill his social ir~stitutions arould beunnecessarf. Society nfould have been the sailne at thebeginning as it is at present; ant1 it rnoul(1 continue ir~one uniform state as long as man s11011ltl csist. But manis not thus stationary ; 11e is a reasoning, anti therefore u.progressing, 1)cing. The linonlctlge and experience ofone generation can be transmittetl to the next ; and, as ;Lman ;tt forty years of age must possess more I;i~o\r,letlgcthan he did at t\iFenty, so also n~ust. the world at largepossess a greater nccumulation of Iillo\vledge at the end offour thousand years from the creation of man, tlrau waspossessed at the end of four l~rtndred. ICno\rletlge ismerely an accun~ulation of facts; and ~risdom is the art ofapplying such koowledge to its true purpose-the promotionof human happiness. Altl~ough nien may llavcmuch kno~rletlge, and no wistlom, there can only be littlewistlom where tllere is hut little Itnowledge. The presentgeneration have the :iccumulated Itnowledge and experienceof four tllousand years to \~ork upon ; and tllerefore the)'have it in their power to act wiser, ill respect to thecstablisllment of ant1 political i~lstitutiolls, tllan allygeneration that has precedetl them.Such being tile nature of Inan, and such his pomers, thecol~sideratioll of a sociitl cllangc need excite no more surpriseor apprehension than a simple political movement.If a cl~angc be :t gipntic orle, so, liLc\risc, are theevils mighty \rlrich rcqulre to I)e removed. Throughouttlle \vl~ole l~uiverse, from the most str~pertdous planet tothe individual atom, C ~ ~ R I I ;tre ~ ~ S 1)crpetnsl-there isilotl~ing ;it rest-r~otlri~lg st:ltionary; to :tftir~n, tl~creforc,tl~at governn~c~~tnl instrtr~tio~~s rccl~~irc no rcfornlntiont11:ttsocial apste~ns nccd I I ~ ;tltcrntio~~--is jr~kt ;IS abs!~rtli~s to s;ty tl~;~t tl~c innll sl1:111 wear the s\r,;ltltlli~~g rlotl~c.;\rl~icl~ befitted Iris infancy ; ant1 be pleiisetl, in ~naturit!.,wit11 tlre rattle \r.l~icl~ cIr;~rmctl his cl~iltll~uod.Stiltcs of society ;tnd forms of govcrnt~~c~~t 1:avc aln.a!.sbeen Sorcctl up011 mcn by the colnmon marc11 of events ;and that state of society or form of govcr~lment \r.llicl~existetl at one l~criotl of :t n;itioo's I~istory, :tnd 11 as s~~flicientfor ;ill its n.ants, \rill never be tolerntetl at n Interpried. Who, at the present day, \r.ould wish to returnto ;i state of society, n.ith its accon~l>;lnyi~~g nianncrs, andform of gnverument, and religio~~s institutions, such asesisted in Great I3rit;~in in the timc of the llruitls, or theRomans, or the Sasr~ns, or the Normans ? How Inan:;Protestants n-otlltl lrisli to revive the (laps nllen Catho!icismnras in its glory :tnd its po\trer, and tl~e br;intl of persecution(Irietl up the blootl of the martyrs? All thesecl~nngcs were but manifestations of the common 1,rogres.sof things ; and they nil I~apl)cr~ed nntur:tlly ant1 t~nar.oitlably,i~~tle~~cndent of thc control of govcr~~lncnts orindividuals. C;ttholicism succeedctl P,~ga~~is~n, then Protestantismc:ume irftcr Catholicism, and both are nonr beingsuperseded by Dissent ; and all the evils ehich thesechanges brought 11j)on the people of other days, as ~rcll asall tl~e n~iseries tl~at have bef~~llen nations in our olrntimes, are solely attributable to the insane antl blasl111cn1ou.iendeavotirs of 11uman rulers to set up their authority;lgininst the fitt of the Almipl~ty, nntl tell Innn 11c shallgo no further. And 11a:c all the treasures \\ ;lstcd, ai~iithc blood spilled-all tl~c pcrsecutio~js, and punishn~cnts
Page 1 and 2: LABOUR'S WRONGSAND LABOUB'S REMEDY;
Page 3: and tlie eternity of existing usage
Page 8 and 9: LABOUR'S REMEDY. 17they complain of
Page 10 and 11: from the common course of events, t
Page 12 and 13: on inequality of bodily and ~nental
Page 14 and 15: as firmly as if they had been fette
Page 16 and 17: tion from labour which the latter e
Page 18 and 19: eligious observances on a stated da
Page 20 and 21: proceed,-not from the nature of man
Page 22 and 23: een an actual curse--only because m
Page 24 and 25: 48 LABOUR'S WRONGS ANDbenefited; co
Page 26 and 27: emedy for their wrongs; but it has
Page 28 and 29: This latter condition alorle condem
Page 30: LXUDUR'~ REMEDY.6 1produce tllere i
Page 33 and 34: LABOUR'S WRONGS A ~ DCHAPTER V.THE
Page 35 and 36: 70 LABOUR'S WRONGS ANDthis vast sum
Page 37 and 38: e ascribed to the existence of the
Page 39 and 40: 78 LABOUR'S TVRONGS ANDand therefor
Page 41 and 42: 62 LAI~OUR'S WRONGS ANDfor thousall
Page 43 and 44: LABOCIL'S REMEDY. 67ready seen, fro
Page 45 and 46: he diminished. As for the labour, i
Page 47 and 48: lessness of all such cllanges, eith
Page 49 and 50: another Itas been abandoned, antl e
Page 51 and 52: 102 LAIIOUR'S WRONGS ANDwages to th
Page 53 and 54: LABOUR'S REMEDY. ! 07ploycc! neighh
Page 55 and 56:
LABOUR'S REMEDY. 111their labour \v
Page 57 and 58:
or make it independent of external
Page 59 and 60:
ation, or the union and direction o
Page 61 and 62:
u11ior1 csccl)t where 1;ibour is un
Page 63 and 64:
LXUOUII'S REMEDY. 127man feelings a
Page 65 and 66:
tl~inh-, feel, or act precisely tli
Page 67 and 68:
134 I,?\ ROUR'S I\'ROTi\'GS ANDmany
Page 69 and 70:
may easily be conceivctl of; for it
Page 71:
vessels of various descriptions, an
Page 74 and 75:
connection with the established gor
Page 76 and 77:
atocks of metal in the banks decrea
Page 78 and 79:
156 LABOUR'S WRONGS IXDpower of suc
Page 80 and 81:
The opinion entertained of a man by
Page 82 and 83:
tastes and ignorant appliances of t
Page 84 and 85:
then wlll the unknown and now unapp
Page 86 and 87:
the protluctive classes must still
Page 88 and 89:
176 LABOUR'S WRONGS ANDgalling fett
Page 91 and 92:
character of these arrangements in
Page 93 and 94:
duction of lnacliinery and the cons
Page 95 and 96:
L.~BOUIZ'S REMEDY. 191to the existi
Page 97 and 98:
all these companies, and estenlls t
Page 99 and 100:
plished under the joint-stoclc syst
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exchanges. " 1\11 evidence," also,
Page 103 and 104:
206 LABOUR'S JI1I'ICONGS ANDmills i
Page 105 and 106:
2 10 LACOUR'S WRONGS ANDup1)er clas
Page 107 and 108:
In regarding any nntf every ren~edy
show all

Labour's Wrongs and Labour's Remedy

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