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out to them, that they almost lost their wits. They thought and talked of nothing but the scenes of luxury and grandeur, in which they were to move. Nor will the reflecting reader feel surprised at this credulity, however gross, when he considers the poor infants imagined there were no greater personages than the superiors, to whom they were, as paupers, subjected, and that, it was those identical persons, by whom their weak and feeble intellects had thus been imposed upon. Blincoe describes his own conduct to have been marked by peculiar extravagance. Such was his impatience, he could scarcely eat or sleep, so anxiously did he wait the hour of emancipation. The poor deluded young creatures were so inflated with pride and vanity, that they strutted about like so many dwarfish and silly kings and queens, in a mock tragedy. "We began" said Blincoe "to treat our old nurses with airs of insolence and disdain-refused to associate with children, who, from sickness, or being under age, had not been accepted; they were commanded to keep their distance; told to know their betters; forbidden to mingle in our exalted circle! Our little coterie was a complete epitome of the effects of prosperity in the great world. No sooner were our hearts cheered by a prospect of good fortune, than its influence produced the sad effects recited. The germ of those hateful vices, arrogance, selfishness and ingratitude, began to display themselves even before we had tasted the intoxicating cup. But our illusion soon vanished, and we were suddenly awakened from the flattering dream, which consigned the greater part of us to a fate more severe than that of the West Indian slaves, who have the good fortune to serve humane owners. Such were Blincoe's reflections in May

1822.

It appears that the interval was not long, which filled up the space between their examination, acceptance, and departure from St. Pancras workhouse, upon their way to Nottingham; but short as it was, it left room for dissension. The boys could not agree who should have the first ride on their masters' horses, and violent disputes arose amongst the girls, on subjects equally ludicrous. It was afterwards whispered at Lowdam Mill, that the elder girls, previous to leaving Pancras, began to feel scruples, whether their dignity would allow them to drop the usual bob-curtsey to the master or matron of the house, or to the governess by whom they had been instructed to read, or work by the needle. Supposing all these follies to have been displayed to the very letter, the poor children were still objects of pity; the guilt rests upon those by whom they had been so wickedly deceived!

Happy, no doubt, in the thought of transferring the burthen of the future support of fourscore young paupers to other parishes, the churchwardens and overseers distinguished the departure of this juvenile colony by acts of munificence. The children were completely new clothed, and each had two suits, one for their working, the other for their holiday dress— a shilling, in money, was given to each a new pocket handkerchief-and a large piece of gingerbread. As Blincoe had no relative of whom to take leave, all his anxiety was to get outside the door. According to his own account, he was the first at the gate, one of the foremost who mounted the waggon, and the loudest in his cheering. In how far the parents or relatives of the rest of the children consented to this migration; if they were at all consulted, or even apprised of its being in contemplation, formed no part of Blincoe's communications. All he stated was, that the whole of the party seemed to start in very high spirits. As to his own personal conduct, Blincoe asserts, he strutted along dressed in party-coloured parish clothing, on his way to the waggon, no less filled with vanity than with delusion: he imagined he was free, when he was in fact legally converted into a slave:

he exulted in the imaginary possession of personal liberty, when he was in reality a prisoner. The whole convoy were well guarded by the parish beadles on their way to the waggons; but those officers, bearing their staves, the children were taught to consider as a guard of honour. In addition to the beadles, there was an active young man or two, appointed to look after the passengers of the two large waggons, in their conveyance to Nottingham. Those vehicles, and very properly too, were so secured, that when once the grated doors were locked, no one could escape. Plenty of clean straw was strewed in the beds, and no sooner were the young fry safe lodged within, than they began throwing it over one another and seemed delighted with the commencement of their journey. A few hours progress considerably damped this exultation. The inequality of the road, and the heavy jolts of the waggon, occasioned them many a bruise. Although it was the middle of August, the children felt very uncomfortable. The motion of the heavy, clumsy vehicle, and so many children cooped up in so small a space, produced nausea and other results, such as sometimes occur in Margate hoys. Of the country they passed through, the young travellers saw very little.--Blincoe thinks the children were suffered to come out of the waggon to walk through St. Alban's. After having passed one night in the waggon, many of the children began to repent, and express a wish to return. They were told to have patience, till they arrived at Messrs. Lamberts, when, no doubt, those gentlemen would pay every attention to their wishes, and send back to St. Pancras, those who might wish to return. Blincoe, as might have been expected, was not one of those back-sliders-he remained steady to his purpose, exulting in the thought, that every step he advanced brought him nearer to the desired spot, where so many enviable enjoyments awaited him, and conveyed him farther and farther from the detested workhouse! The greater part of the children were much exhausted, and not a few of them seriously indisposed, before they arrived at Nottingham. When the waggons drew up near the dwelling and warehouse of their future master, a crowd collected to see the live stock that was just imported from the metropolis, who were pitied, admired, and compared to lambs, led by butchers to slaughter! Care was taken that they should not hear or understand much of this sort of discourse. The boys and girls were distributed, some in the kitchen, others in a large ware-room, washed, combed, and supplied with refreshments; but there were no plum-pudding,-no roast beef, no talk of the horses they were to ride, nor of the watches and fine clothing that they had been promised. Many looked very mournful; they had been four days travelling to Nottingham: at a more advanced period of their lives, a travel to the East Indies might not have been estimated as a much more important or hazardous undertaking. After having been well refreshed, the whole of the boys and girls were drawn up in rows, to be reviewed by their masters, their friends and neighbours. In Blincoe's estimation, their masters, Messrs. Lamberts', were "stately sort of men." They looked over the children and finding them all right, according to the invoice, exhorted them to behave with proper humility and decorum. To pay the most prompt and submissive respect to the orders of those who would be appointed to instruct and superintend them at Lowdam Mill, and to be diligent and careful, each one to execute his or her task, and thereby avoid the punishment and disgrace which awaited idleness, insolence, or disobedience. This harangue, which was delivered in a severe and dictatorial tone, increased their apprehensions, but not one durst open a mouth to complain. The masters and their servants talked of the various sorts of labor to which the children were to apply themselves, and to the consternation and dismay of Blincoe and his associates, not the least allusion was made to the many fine things which

had so positively been promised them whilst in London. The conversation which Blincoe heard, seemed to look forward to close, if not to unremitting toil, and the poor boy had been filled, with expectations, that he was to work only when it pleased him; to have abundance of money and fine clothes a watch in his pocket, to feast on roast beef, and plum-pudding, and to ride his masters horses. His hopes, however were, not wholly extinguished, because Nottingham was not Lowdam Mill, but his confidence was greatly reduced, and his tone of exultation much lowered.

The children rested one night at Nottingham in the warehouses of their new masters; the next day they were led out to see the castle, Mortimerhole and other local curiosities, in the forest of Sherwood, which are so celebrated by bards of ancient times. Many shoes, bonnets, and many other articles of clothing having been lost upon the journey, others were supplied; but withal Blincoe found himself treated as a parish orphan, and he calculated on being received and treated as if he had been a gentleman's son sent on a visit to the house of a friend or relative. By the concurring testimony of other persons who had been entrapped by similar artifices, it appears certain, that the purveyors of infant labourers to supply the masters of cotton and silk factories. with cheap labourers, adopted this vile, unmanly expedient, in most of their transactions. It will be seen, by the evidence of Sir Robert Peel, Baronet, David Owen, Esq. and other witnesses examined in 1816, that, when children were first wanted to attend machinery in cotton-factories, such was the aversion of parents and guardians to this noxious employment, that scarcely any would submit to consign their offspring to those mills, the owners of which, under the specious pretext of diminishing the burthens occasioned by poor-rates, prevailed on churchwardens and overseers, to put their infant paupers into their hands. Since then, by a gradual progress of poverty and depravity, in the county of Lancashire alone, there are some thousand fathers, mothers, and relatives, who live upon the produce of infant labor, though alloyed by the dreadful certainty, that their gain is acquired by the sacrifice of their children's health and morals, and too frequently of their lives, whereby the fable of Saturn devouring his children, seems realised in modern times. (To be continued.)

RELIGION OF MAHOMET.

The Arabian Lawgiver provides for the honorable marriage of Jewish and Christian women with Mahometans, but prohibits them as concubines. Have either Jews or Christians ever thought of making any reciprocal provision? His law of slavery is," If slaves come to you, you shall,"-not imprison and then sell them by public sale, though no claimant appears, as, in the 19th century is the law of Christians-but," redeem them; and it is forbidden to you to send them forth." And this was a man standing up in the wilds of Arabia in the 7th century.-New York Correspondent.

Printed and Published by RICHARD CARLILE, 62, Fleet Street, where all Communications, post paid, or free of expense, are requested to be left.

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No. 5. VOL. 1.] LONDON, Friday, February 1, 1828. [PRICE 6d.

CHANGE, STATE, AND PROSPECT OF THE
ADMINISTRATION.

THE King has done another kind act toward the country, in shewing, that his system of government requires not, in its management, the power of intellectual talent. In placing the chief soldier, at the head of the Treasury, and making him chief of the political affairs of the country, we have the naked admission, that the power of the sword, and not the power of the mind, is the essential wherewith to support the present system of things. We have long looked at all the royal and ministerial and parliamentary speeches, as balderdash, and meaning-less, compared with the army. We have seen that which others have seen, and that which others will see, that for any useful purpose to the country, the King, instead of with the whigs or tories, or his present prime minister, might as well have filled up an administration with the present officers of the Life Guards. The army is the last resource of the system, and the only enemy that is feared is the debt, and a decreasing revenue. We have gained enough of intellectual freedom, to write or talk freely; but we pay very dear for it; we have not abated one jot of our very mischievous and misspent taxation. It is now, as it has long been, screwed to the last turn, with the trading part of the community, or that which is commonly called the middle class, and with that class, cannot be carried higher. This taxation will be kept up to the highest possible pitch, so long as an army can be found to enforce its payment, and the statutes might as well be issued forth among the general orders of the army, as to have the expense of making them by another class of persons, who represent, in their majority, nothing but the army. Europe throughout, has its laws made by an army, and whatever other class might fail, that is preserved

Printed and Published by R. CARLILE, 62, Fleet Street, No. 5.-Vol I.

K

in splendour. All the battles that were fought, and all the lives that were lost, during the last war, were fought and lost to the disadvantage of the people throughout Europe. The success of the people would have been found in the success and permanency of the French Republic. That was a war between the armed monarchies of Europe, and the people of Europe. And such will be the character of all the future wars of Europe, until the mass of people can so far become masters, as to legislate for themselves.

Any other form of legislation is delusive, and a sort of tub thrown to the whale, this, that represents the army, is the real thing, and all the legislating parties know, that they would not be the persons allowed by the people to legislate, but for the existence of that army. We should always look at the first principles of a system. The first principles of the English system of government-that ridiculous constitution about which so much nonsense is put forth, and perhaps valued by the talkers, who read and hear, but do not think; the first principles of this constitution, are, that a certain number of rich and powerful families shall have certain incomes from the taxes, raised upon the labour of the people. This they receive, first, as ministers of religion; second, as ministers of the political affairs of the country; third, as military and naval chiefs; and fourth, as grantees, sinecurists, and pensioners under the crown, as an indescribable evil is called. So that, what cannot be gained in one shape, is given or granted in another, and an aristocracy perpetuated upon the strength of an excess of taxation. The crown is a mere nominality; there is no single individual associated with it, that has any real and directing power in the country. It is the name of a nondescript, that is used as a cloak to the grasping avarice of this ill-constituted aristocracy. The ministers of religion tax us in the name, and for the service of God; the ministers of politics tax us in the name, and for the service of the king and crown; and yet, this god, this king, or this crown, has nothing in reality of individually directing power. It is, in either case, a mere name, by and through which the people are taxed out of the sweets of their produce. The god, in whose name the ministers of religion tax us, is an idol which they set up for that purpose. It represents nothing that is useful to a people, nothing by which a country can be morally or physically benefited. The king is a man; and, for his health and individual comforts, can require no more meat, drink, or clothing, than another man: and this, supposing him to produce nothing, to be of no use to the country, would be but a trifling expense, nothing more than the keeping of a queen-bee in a hive. It is not, therefore, of the king, as a man, that we have to complain; but of the multitudinous evils and expenses that are accumulated by others in his name.

Even the changings and choppings in the King's administration

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