cate of the African still. He might learn to doubt to-morrow, whether it be rational to personify the Eternal Principle of the Universe; he would not doubt, that equality is the birthright of man, and reforming justice the duty of nations. He might become a Sceptic in religion; he would not be a Sceptic in morality; in the wisdom of temperance, in the beauty of charity, in the excellence of kindness, in the pleasure of good works. He wrongs his own heart, if he believes he would. Strange! that men should so lightly appreciate, and so little comprehend, even their own better nature. Strange! that, at theology's bidding, they should doubt whether they respect themselves or love virtue; or whether, but for the constant fear of hell before their eyes, they would not give a loose rein to their vilest passions, and wallow in the most vicious excess. Strange and unfortunate! that vice should have been painted to us in form so attractive that force only restrains us from her embrace, and virtue so repulsive that we must be coaxed or commanded to love her. "Give but your children" said the wise Franklin, "a relish for the madeira of knowledge, and they will not take to the odious small beer of vice." an advocate of the new System of Society. With me, accountable for his actions." To me, the very sentence above. and the result of causes; just as any other compound Experience teaches us, that man is compound matter matter is the result of causes; that he is like all matter, made to be what he is; and not made to be what he would wish to be. as This is the proper, this is the true tone, in which to sponsibility," contend "that man is not compound matDoes Mr. Carpenter or any other advocate for "respeak of vice and virtue. When we tell children that ter," however modified and acted upon just as much vice is beautiful but deceitful, we tell them an untruth; all other compound matter is acted upon, and proand a very immoral one, too. There is nothing beautiful about vice, and it is clothing her with borrowed there is not a stick, or a stone, a tree, or a flower, a ducing by being acted upon, inevitable results. Why, attractions to say there is. To any mind not already bird, or a beast, or, in fact, any compound matter in debased by vitiating habits-to any commonly culti-the universe that may not produce effects, when acted vated heart, entering the world with its young nature still uncorrupted, the roar of the convivial table is "pon, as determinate in their results, as the compound being man produces, when acted upon; and it would disgusting; the mercenary blandishment of the poor be just as wise to make a stick or a stone responsible wauton is disgusting; the gambler's haggard coun- for results, (produced by being acted upon) and to tenance is disgusting. To him the pride of the tyrant punish them for producing such results; as it would and the meanness of the slave; the vanity of the rich be to puni h and make responsible the compound or man and the servility of the poor one; the envy of the ganized matter man, for being the effect of causes, and envious; the anger of the passionate; the selfishness of the hardhearted; the ill-humour of the petulant-producing results by being acted upon. to him each and all of the vices and excesses which transform our fair earth into a Pandemonium, are unseemly, are revolting. He may be deceived by their adventious and dazzling accompaniments: in the true character of the vices themselves, if he be only encouraged to examine them carefully, and strictly to note their phenomena and effects, he cannot be de ceived. Let him but see them plainly, from the first, R. D. O. and he will avoid them. ANSWER TO MR. CARPENTER ON "RESPON- Gentlemen,-As there are some remarks of Mr. Carpenter, in last week's Crisis, in opposition to the "principles" of the" New System" (as a disciple of it, and one of the "sect" Mr. C. hopes there are so few of,) I feel desirous of answering his remarks; especially as he has been called a " Co-operator," and a cooperator is now understood by many persons, to be deduction from it, and I think the analization will Again, let us analyze the following passage; and the prove, that though Mr. Carpenter may be acquainted with a fact, he is so organized as not to possess the power of comparing cause and effect in such a manner that sound deductions may ensue. Mr. C. says, that "by the very frame and texture of our bodies and minds, we are subject to be actuated by pleasure and pain, joy and grief, hope and fear; and by the order and constitution of the objects and elements by which we are surrounded and penetrated, some one or other of these sensations and emotions is continually operating upon us." Now, what is proved by this passage? Why, that man is compelled to possess a peculiar organization, or frame and texture of body and mind, and likewise compelled by the objects and the elements around him, acting upon this organization, to feel pleasure and pain. I will simplify the above ideas. Man is possessed of a certain quality or qualities of matter, which, if acted upon by objects and elements in unison with man's own peculiar quality of matter produce pleasure; and give rise to actions in unison with the sensation of pleasure. And when acted upon by objects and elements opposed to its peculiar natural affinity, produce pain, and give rise to actions in unison with the sensation of pain. Now, all the actions of a man arise from one or both of these two sensations, pleasure and pain. The sensations are vivid or otherwise, according to the quality of his organization, and the quality of the objects, elements, &c., acting upon his organization. Now what are men made responsible for? is it not for these very actions? actions which from the very nature of man are effects of such a nature that he cannot justly be made responsible for them, having no control over the producing causes. To sum up all in a few words. Actions ensue from sensations of pleasure, or pain;-pleasure and pain arise from organization, acted upon by circumstances, which circumstances, man did not himself create, neither had he any choice in the creation of them. Man is consequently not responsible for effects produced by them. that a state of society is highly desirable in which every man shall be happy in the absence of want, and virtuous from the lack of any temptation to be vicious, it is necessary that we should not suffer our imagination to be taken prisoner by a mere day dream of the poets;it is necessary, while tracking the vast ocean of truth, that we should not abandon our settled course to touch at every visionary isle of the deep, or we may ultimately find, if we escape the lurking sand and the sunken rock, that we have sailed far, very far, and yet made little progress after all, in the great voyage of discovery. We will not then suffer our reason to be lulled into security by the poetry of co-operation, but we will analyse its propositions, examine its results, and decide accordingly. Robert Owen having settled, to his own perfect satis faction, the question of human responsibility, proceeds to depict the evils of the present system of society; and first, production, under that system, he considers to be a positive evil, His words are, "Under a system adopted without design, and pursued by mere accident, this country has acquired powers of production unknown in any country at any former period; powers much greater than the government or the people know how to wield advantageously for them. selves or foreign nations. It possesses powers to create a superfluity of all things useful or rationally desirable for the whole population; powers more than abundant to satisfy the wishes of all, if those powers were properly combined and rightly directed; but for the want of these It were easy to answer in a similar manner, every passage and objection of Mr. Carpenter: the above remarks however, I think sufficient to prove the fallacy of Mr. C's. reasonings; and though they may not prove that he is not a Co-operator," I think they will clearly show that he is not a Philosopher," and that he and all who think that man forms his own character, and act upon such a supposition are perpe-powers being directed under a knowledge of the Science tuating the misery, oppression, and degradation of the of Society, they are so irrationally applied, that instead human race: and that misery oppression and degra- of producing abundance of wealth for all the populadation will only cease when Man is universally tion, and wealth, too, of the most valuable description, convinced, and consistently practices Mr. Owen's they are actually often directed to destroy more value Fundamental Fact "That the Character of Man is in manual labour,than to create of value in productions." formed for him and not by him." J. H. From the Quarterly Magazine and Review. THE CO-OPERATIVE SYSTEM. (Continued from our last) We now come to what may be termed more directly the philosophy of co-operation. The professed object of the supporters of the "new state of society" is the wellbeing of all its members;-they propose to sacrifice the individual benefit, which accrues to some under the competitive system, to the general good of the whole community, in order that all, instead of a few, may enjoy the happiness which arises from a full supply, to answer all the demands of nature, apart from the anxiety, the toil, and the wretchedness, which now, in too many instances, accompanies hard and ill-requited labour. As the philosophy of the co-operators professes to be the direct opposite of self-love; the motto they have adopted, while it is eininently characteristic of their opinions, is in remarkable contrast to that of the advocates of the competitive system :-it is, "every man for every man,-himself included." There is something in the abstract of all this which is apt to captivate a benevolent mind, but while we subscribe to the fact The meaning of this, is not in the latter portion of the paragraph, very clearly expressed. We understand it thus: Production being the result, in a great measure, not of manual labour, can have no other tendency in its increase than that of throwing manual labour out of employ; and the state of society being such, that all its members have not the privilege of consuming to an equal extent, over production can only tend to give the wealthy the opportunity of purchasing at a less expence; therefore, as Robert Owen would logically deduce it, increased production, under the present system, is an evil rather than a benefit to the community. It is a part of Robert Owen's belief that one of the greatest evils of society, and one of the worst of its practices, is that of electing the precious metals into mediums of barter; upon this point he remarks, to "Whenever man shall be trained, from infancy, become a rational being, the intellectual power of the human race will never be put in comparison with these metals and stones, which derive almost all their value from the past and present irrationality of mankind. Hitherto men, through ignorance, have been made slaves to inanimate things of little or no intrinsic worth, and which, in a rational state of human existence, would be formed into implements and instruments of common utility, and applied for the general benefit of all. At present, however, these intellectual powers, the high value of which no one has yet been trained duly to appreciate, are rendered abject slaves to these trifles or similai baubles; for in the degraded state in which the moral faculties of men now are, it is wealth, or title, or honour of some kind, that is worshipped, and not the man, or any physical, or mental. or moral quality, he may possess. A PRAIRIE.-The first view of a prairie will probably excite more surprise in the mind of a traveller in the United States, than the grandest objects of nature. Riding day after day through forests, in which the cleared land is not of sufficient extent to interrupt the general aspect of wood, he breaks at once upon the view of a fine open country--he beholds extensive plains of the most soft and beautiful verdure, covered with flowers of every scent and hue. Occasionally on the prairie, and often in their centre, are clumps of fine trees, especially of the oak and black walnut, so charmingly disposed, that the traveller can hardly believe that they have not been placed by the hand of man. The views of tracts of country of this description are in many places far more extensive than are to be niet wlth in any country, where land has been laid out in this way artificially, with a view to its beauty, and to increase its value to its possessor. The prospect from the high grounds that often surround the prairies, comprehending verdant lawns, large forests, through which vast rivers are rolling their mighty masses of water, and fine hills in the distance, with cottages, cattle, horses, and deer, is altogether as fine as can be conceived anywhere. TO OUR FRIENDS IN THE COUNTRY. J. Eamonson wishes to have agents for the Crisis, in every Town and Village in the Kingdom, to whom a most liberal allowance is made. A country edition leaves London on Thursday evening. Persons wishing to become Agents, can do so, by notifying through what means it is to be forwarded to them. The first Vol. of the Crisis can now be had complete with the Title page and Index, in numbers or put in boards, plain or ornamented, at a very small charge, for half cash and half notes. LECTURES NEXT WEEK, In my father's absence, I will deliver the evening lecture to-morrow. I will also lecture in the morning as usual. Next Wednesday evening, at eight o'clock, instead of Robert Owen's usual lecture, the Missionary Society will hold a meeting at the Surrey Institution, to which they invite our friends generally. R. D. O. N. B. The Theatre not being so large as what our friends have been used to, and constantly new faces Description of Model, from a design by Stedman Whitwell, Esq., Pestalozzi's Letters on early Education, Discussion on the existence of God and the authenti- Moral Physiology, American edition, in bds. do. in parts, each part, Beauties of Shelley with life, third edition ew Views of Mr. Owen of Lanark, by Macnab, Holy Koran, Principle of population, by Place, Analysis of the Influence of Natural Religion, by Good Sense, from the French of Baron Holbach, 3 6 2 A few copies still remaining of the London Congress, 1 Liverpool do. &c., &c., &c., To be continued. and half notes for others. N. B. Mr. Owen's notes taken for some works, and half cash ***Bookbinding neatly executed, on moderate terms, for half cash and half notes. Also printing and engraving on the same terms. Place, Gray's Inn Road. OR THE CHANGE FROM ERROR & MISERY, TO TRUTH & HAPPINESS Design of a Community of 2,000 Persons, founded upon a principle, commended by Plato, Lord Bacon, Sir T. More, & R. Owen IT IS OF ALL TRUTHS THE MOST IMPORTANT, THAT THE CHARACTER OF MAN IS FORMED FOR-NOT BY HIMSELF. VOL. II. No. 11.] SATURDAY MARCH 23, 1833.-EDITED BY ROBERT OWEN AND ROBERT DALE OWEN. TO OUR FRIENDS IN THE COUNTRY. J. Eamonson wishes to have agents for the Crisis, in every Town and Village in the United Kingdom, to whom a most liberal allowance is made. A co untry edition leaves London on Thursday evening. Persons wishing to become agents, can do so, by notifying through what means it is to be forwarded to them. The first Vol. of the Crisis can now be had complete, with the Title page and Index, in numbers or put in boards, plain or ornamented, at a very small charge, for half cash and half notes. WEEKLY PROCEEDINGS. SUNDAY EVENING, March, 17, 1833. The times stirring. Change of feelings and opinions. Violent and peaceful changes. Great Revolution commenced in 1776 and still in progress. Its first second and third Acts. Spirit of freedom alive over the world. Popular measures of reform. Bulwarks and the Citadel. Importance of disseminating just knowledge, Lecture by ROBERT Dale OWEN. The Lecturer remarked that though there are a thousand things on which men differ, there are also a few, and those frequently the most important, on which they are agreed. People are very generally now agreed, for example, that this is a stirring time, an era of crisis; that old things and old opinions are rapidly passing away and all things becoming new. At such a moment, it is useful and important, espeeially for those who look forward with hope and confidence to a better state of things, to cast a glance back through the past history of reform, and take note of the general features that characterize our present situation. [Price 1d. The most marked of these, perhaps, is the dying away of that baseless veneration with which the self styled Great Ones, and Holy Ones of the earth used to b regarded. Kings and Nobles are now spoken of and judged as freely as other men. Ancient doctrines are tested without fear, and ancient usages taken only for what they are worth. The two great pillars of the present system, Church and State, have their foundation on veneration. That foundation is giving way; and if the Sampson of public opinion once lay hold of these pillars, great will be the fall of the ancient edifice. and sudden, or peaceful and gradual. He (Mr. O,) It is a question whether the change shall be violent greatly preferred the latter. I fear not," he said, "to pay the penalty of a speedy cure. I fear not the operation, however painful, if I had but full faith in the skilfulness of the operator, and in the recovery of the patient. But I fear the military mania. I fear the blinding enthusiasm of warlike exploits. I call to mind the close of the French Revolution, the years 1801, 2, 3, and how the Corsican first Consul blinded the eyes and dazzled the imaginations of his countrymen, until, in 1804, the revolutionary spirit crouched to an Emperor. I hope, then, for peaceful changes. In peace men have time to reflect, to examine, to ask themselves calmly what they have gained and what they have still to gain. They cannot be bustled out of their liberties, nor made to barter glory for happiness." National revolutions, Mr. O. remarked, had their causes far deeper than at first appeared, not in any petty grievance, but in the great spirit of progressive improvement. The first great Revolution-that which was ultimately ta change the world-which had already reformed a hemisphere, was the American. The year 1776 seemed to him (Mr. O.) the great turning point in the political history of mankind. Up to that period, with exceptions too trifling to merit notice, legitimacy had been almost universally acknowledged over the earth. Then, for the first time, were the principles set up and carried into national practice which can alone produce national prosperity; the principles, to employ the words of the noblest of legislative documents, the American declaration of independence, that "all men are born free and equal;" that they "possess certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness;" that "to secure these rights governments were instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;" that "when any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter and abolish it." That revolution seemed to him (Mr. O.) the commencement of the mighty drama of reform which is still in progress. Its first act passed in America, commencing in 1776; its second, thirteen years after, in France; its third, not three years since, also in the French Metropolis; its fourth-no one may say when or where its scene shall be laid; perhaps ere very long, perhaps in this very country. The first act terminated nobly; the second in blood and disappointment. This was chiefly to be attributed to the machinations of foreign courts. In proof of this Mr. O. read extracts from an original letter, now in his possession, and written by an agent of Pitt to the president of a revolutionary committee in France, at the commencement of the reign of terror.* After Buonaparte had for some fifteen years, made of France one great military workshop, succeeded fifteen other dispiriting years of apparently tame submission to the imbecile Bourbons. But these last fifteen years had been most usefully employed by the nation; had been employed in obtaining political knowledge and learning the habit of constitutional resistence. Did they ask proof of this? It was to be found in the spirit displayed during the memorable three days; in the bloodless and generous character of the revolution of 1830. And then, how was that spirit responded to, both here and on the European Continent! how did the spirit of freedom stir in Italy, in Spain, in Belgium, in poor Poland! True, the liberators were unsuccessful. True, Poland's very name is blotted out from the list of nations. Be it so! The spirit yet lives. The Castilian, the peasant of Tuscany, of Piedmont, even the degraded vassal of the Church, have all heard of the rights of man and the liberties of nations; and from the wastes of Siberia a voice has gone forth that may yet awake as much freedom as did the Polish They shall be given, with some observations suggested by the document, next week, or the week after. struggle itself. Throughout Europe's Colleges the great question-the question of light or darkness, of liberty or slavery,-has been freely discussed. The spirit is born. It lives; even though like the new born infant, it shall slumber in helplessness. It will grow to manhood under the genial influence of the Press. Nay, it has already grown, and its efforts are visible around us. "You will tell me," pursued Mr. Owen, "that the people are not yet enlightened; that they do not yet clearly see what must be done to reform the world: they do not yet perceive that National Employment and National Education can alone effect this. "But patience! we cannot do every thing at once. Observe how radical are many of the changes compared to what they used to be." There was universal suffrage, vote by ballot, total separation of Church and State, substitution for the present most unfair system of taxation of an equitable property tax. All these are now openly canvassed and most seriously proposed; and not by violent reformers only. He (Mr. O.) might be told, that universal suffrage, without National Education, was of little real use; seeing that any rights are but a dead letter to those who have not knowledge to use them aright. True; but the attainment of universal suffrage would bring about the attainment of Universal Education; it would both show its necessity and give the power to carry it. As regards the taxes, he conceived that the replacing of the present most unjust system, by a property tax would be no small reform. He entered into a calculation* in proof, that the present taxes bore most unfairly on industry, and very lightly indeed on luxury. From these reforms," Mr. O. proceeded, "I do not expect half what many political reformers do; but I expect something from them. And I conceive them the necessary fore-runners of others more effective. They are but the outworks, and when they are all gained, the citadel of reform will yet remain to be. taken. Very well, but let us not consider it nothing that an outwork is carried, merely because it is an outwork only. "How, then, do I expect progress to be made. By free conversation, by free publications, by free discussions; by-yes by-AGITATION. But agitation, not in the violent sense of the term; by an agitation of those stagnant pools which want cleansing, and have been too long left undisturbed. "What have we to do, then? To disseminate in our respective circles, all the true knowledge we can, We are thus doing quite as much good as we could by making long speeches in the House of Commons. That House, indeed, governs the country, but publie opinion governs that House." The Address was received throughout, and especially at its termination, with unanimous expressions of approval. It shall be given next week. |