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| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-01-22 19:15:07 -0800 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..93332ca --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #66031 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66031) diff --git a/old/66031-0.txt b/old/66031-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8f233d0..0000000 --- a/old/66031-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7833 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The rise, progress, and phases of human -slavery: how it came into the world and how it shall be made to go out, -by James Bronterre O'Brien - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The rise, progress, and phases of human slavery: how it came - into the world and how it shall be made to go out - -Author: James Bronterre O'Brien - -Release Date: August 10, 2021 [eBook #66031] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Turgut Dincer, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by The Internet - Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND PHASES OF -HUMAN SLAVERY: HOW IT CAME INTO THE WORLD AND HOW IT SHALL BE MADE TO GO -OUT *** - -+-------------------------------------------------+ -|Transcriber’s note: | -| | -|Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | -| | -+-------------------------------------------------+ - - -[Illustration: Decoration] - -[Illustration: J Bronterre] - - - A man who lived for truth, and truth alone-- - Brave as the bravest--generous as brave; - A man whose heart was rent by every moan - That burst from every trodden, tortured slave; - A man prepared to fight, prepared to die, - To lighten, banish, human misery. - - The mighty scorned him, vilified, oppressed; - The bitter cup of poverty and pain - Forced him to drink. He was misfortune’s guest - Through weary, weary years; his anguish’d brain - Shed tears of pity--wrath--for Mankind’s woe; - For his own sorrows tears could never flow. - - He loved the people with a brother’s love; - He hated tyrants with a tyrant’s hate. - He turned from kings below, to God above-- - The King of kings, who smites the wicked great. - The shame, the scourge, the terror of their race, - Those demons in earth’s holy dwelling-place. - - Thou noble soul!--around thee gathered those - Who, poor and trampled patriots, were like thee. - Thou art not dead!--thy martyred spirit glows - In us, a band devoted of the free; - We best can celebrate thy natal day, - By virtues, valours, such as marked thy way. - - WILLIAM MACCALL. - - - - -THE - -RISE, PROGRESS, AND PHASES - -OF - -HUMAN SLAVERY: - -HOW IT CAME INTO THE WORLD, -AND HOW IT SHALL BE MADE TO GO OUT. - - -BY -JAMES BRONTERRE O’BRIEN. - -[Illustration: Decoration] - -LONDON: -WILLIAM REEVES, 185, FLEET STREET, E.C. -G. STANDRING, 8 AND 9, FINSBURY STREET; -MARTIN BOON, 170, FARRINGDON ROAD, W.C. -SOUTH AFRICA: HAY BROS., WHOLESALE AGENTS, KING WILLIAM’S TOWN. - -1885 - - - - -TO THE PEOPLE! - - -This little Work, by an eloquent denunciator of the manifold evils of -Profitmongering and Landlordism, whose entire life was devoted to the -advocacy of Social Rights, as distinguished from Socialistic theories, -is now given to the world for the first time in a complete form. - -The Author, in his lifetime, was frustrated in his design of finishing -his History through the ceaseless machinations of working-class -exploiters and landlords. This has been at length achieved by the aid -of his various writings preserved in print. The object steadily kept in -view has been to give the _ipsissima verba_ of the Author, so that no -foreign pen may garble or mislead. - -In order to provide room for so much additional matter as was essential -to the elucidation of the great reforms needed in the subjects of Land -Nationalisation, Credit, Currency, and Exchange, it has been found -expedient to omit from this edition some disquisitions on subjects of -ephemeral and passing interest, not closely connected with the scope of -the Work. Ample compensation, however, has been given in the additions -which have been made for the elucidation and enforcement of the saving -truths herein contained. - -“SPARTACUS.” - - - - -CONTENTS. - - -CHAPTER I. - -PROLETARIANISM SPRUNG FROM CHATTEL SLAVERY. - -Importance of Social Reform--Universality of covert or open -Slavery--Partial Prevalence of Working Class--Origin in -Proletarianism--Advent of Christianity--its Effects on Slavery--Middle -and Working Classes the product of Emancipations--Classification of the -_Proletariat_ 1 - - -CHAPTER II. - -ORIGIN OF SLAVERY IN PATERNAL AUTHORITY. - -Antiquity of Slavery--anterior to Legal Institution--Examples cited -from Ancient History--Arose from Patriarchal Government--despotic -Power of Head of Family--Marriage Custom of Purchase--Aristocratic -Governments favourable to Development--Decadence under Republics 8 - - -CHAPTER III. - -CAUSES OF PARENTAL DESPOTISM. - -Evidences from Egypt and Persia--Supreme Authority of Family -Head--First Legal Limitation under Roman Empire--Necessity for gradual -Growth of Slavery--Source of Paternal Riches--Importance of Chief of -Family 13 - - -CHAPTER IV. - -INCREASE AND CONSOLIDATION OF SLAVERY. - -Sanction given by Law and Public Opinion--Various Causes of -Enslavement--Practices of Ancient Germans--Analogy in Modern Commercial -and Funding Systems and Expatriation of Irish Peasantry--Slavery among -the Jews 19 - - -CHAPTER V. - -OPINION OF THE ANCIENT WORLD ON SLAVERY. - -Permanence of Slavery under all Revolutions--Ignorance of principle of -Human Equality--Theory and Personal Experience of Plato--Contentment -of Slaves with their Condition--Occasional Comfort and Happiness of -Slaves--Absence of Revolts against Slavery--Social and Political Rights -ignored by Greeks and Romans 26 - - -CHAPTER VI. - -UNIVERSALITY OF PUBLIC OPINION AS TO MASTER AND SLAVES. - -System acquiesced in by Slave-Class--Insurrections and Rebellions from -other causes than Hatred of Slavery--Rising under Spartacus--conditions -wanting for Success--Contrast of Modern Aspirations after -Freedom--Example from enslaved Roman Citizens--Preference of Slaves for -their Condition 33 - - -CHAPTER VII. - -COMPARISON OF ANCIENT AND MODERN SLAVERY. - -Forces which overthrew Chattel Slavery--Advantages of Chattel Slaves -over Freedmen and Wages-slaves--Natural Fecundity esteemed a Blessing, -not a Curse--Condition of American Slaves under Slavery 40 - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -EXPLOITATION-VALUE OF SLAVE AND FREE LABOUR. - -Contrast of Plantation-Servants with British Workpeople--Affluence of -former American Slaves--Misery of Free Labourers and Artisans--Value of -Irish Peasants and English Workers--Free and Slave Children -in America 47 - - -CHAPTER IX. - -HISTORY OF EARLY SOCIAL REFORMERS. - -Intention of foregoing Contrast--Difficulties of Christian -Revolution, and comparative Facility of coming Ones--Essenes as Early -Reformers--Difficulties in the way of Christian innovations on Pagan -Slavery 54 - - -CHAPTER X. - -PROGRESS OF EARLY CHRISTIAN PROPAGANDA. - -Opposition from corrupt Slave-Caste--Detestation of Christian -Doctrines by Slave-owners--Incomprehensibility of the new Doctrine -of Equality--Absence of a destitute Free People a Drawback on -Reform--Spread of the New Teachings--Alarm, and Persecution of the New -Faith 61 - - -CHAPTER XI. - -THE FOUR GREAT PERSECUTIONS. - -Obscurity and Insignificance of Early Reformers their best -Protection--Christians the great Levellers--Nero’s Persecution--The -Blood of the Martyrs the Seed of the Church--Persecution of -Domitian--Martyrdoms under Trajan--Tortures under Antonius 68 - - -CHAPTER XII. - -PROGRESS OF PROPAGANDA TO THE TENTH PERSECUTION. - -Seven Years’ Persecution of Equalitarian Innovators--Seventh -Great Persecution--Christians charged with Sorcery in Eighth -Persecution--Tortures of Ninth and Tenth Persecutions--Pretended -Conversion of Constantine--Lives of Early Christian exemplars to the -Pagan World 75 - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -DEBASEMENT OF THE NEW POWER WHEN SEIZED BY RULERS. - -Cost of making the New Ideas triumphant--Change in Character in the -hands of Kings, Courtiers, and Profitmongers--Emancipations become a -matter of Policy and Profit--Repudiation of principles of Fraternity -and Equality--Horrors of introduction of Proletarianism 82 - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -SERVICE OF CHRISTIANITY IN BREAKING CASTE-BONDS. - -Division of Emancipated Slaves into two Classes of -Proletarians--Equality and Fraternity gave the desire for -Liberty--Inveteracy of Caste-prejudice--Perversion of Christianity -under Constantine--Antagonism of Wages-Slavery and Christianity 89 - - -CHAPTER XV. - -FORM OF SLAVERY UNDER MODERN CIVILIZATION. - -Persistence of Chattel-Slavery in Eastern Countries--Assumption of form -of Wages-Slavery under Modern Civilization--Creation of Millionaire -Capitalists by present System--Result in Ruin and Starvation of the -Labouring Class--Necessity of repressive Armies and Police--Measures -necessary to secure Social Reform 96 - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -REFORMS AS MUCH NEEDED IN AMERICA AND IN COLONIES AS IN EUROPE. - -Answer to question, “How is Human Slavery to go out?”--Insufficiency of -mere Political Freedom--Accessibility of Public Lands in new Countries -their chief Advantage--Inadequacy of Universal Suffrage without a -Knowledge of Social Rights--America falling into -same Abyss as Europe 104 - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -RELIEF TO UNEMPLOYED OR DESTITUTE A RIGHT--NOT A CHARITY. - -Inability of a People ignorant of Social Rights to choose -Representatives--Duties of a wise Democracy--Omnipotency of a Knowledge -of Social Rights--Facility of Application of Social Reforms--Exposition -of the three Provisional Measures necessary 109 - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -GRADUAL RESUMPTION OF PUBLIC LANDS BY THE STATE. - -Necessity of Agrarian Reform--Crown Lands, Church Lands, and Corporation -Lands to be immediately resumed, and their Rent applied to the relief of -Taxation--The Rich have no right to meddle with them--Needed by the -exploited Millions, as a Fulcrum to raise them from the Earth 115 - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -NATIONAL DEBT A MORTGAGE ON REALISED PROPERTY. - -Necessity for Adjustment of Public and Private Debts--Their -overwhelming Burden must result in Civil War--Third Resolution the -only Remedy--Opinion of Cobbett--Enormous Increase of Debt through -Improvements in Manufactures--Only just Claims of Public and Private -Creditors 120 - - -CHAPTER XX. - -NATIONAL LANDS AND CREDIT FOR THE USE OF THE PEOPLE. - -Unjust Laws to enable the Few to deprive the Working Class of their -Earnings--Private Property in Land the Basis of Wages-Slavery--Raw -Materials of Wealth belong to all--Land and Money Lords govern the -World--Right of Working Class to the Use of Credit--Surplus of Earnings -of Working Class beyond Consumption the Source of all Capital 126 - - -CHAPTER XXI. - -NATIONAL SYSTEM OF CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE REQUIRED. - -Inadequacy and Absurdity of present Medium of Exchange--Necessity of -new National Currency for the Home Trade--Example from Iron Currency of -Sparta--Labour Notes of Guernsey--Gold and Silver mere Commodities--All -four Reforms must be combined 134 - - -CHAPTER XXII. - -EVIL OF MONOPOLIES AND EXPLOITATION OF INDUSTRIES. - -False principle of Law-made Property--Absurdity of Funding System -and Borrowing from Investors--Evil of Public Works in hands of -Profitmongers and Speculators--Rapacity of Predatory Classes--Efforts -of Robespierre to abolish their nefarious System--his legal -Assassination in consequence--All the evils of Society the work of -Landlords and Profitmongers 143 - - - - -THE - -RISE, PROGRESS, AND PHASES - -OF - -HUMAN SLAVERY. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -PROLETARIANISM SPRUNG FROM CHATTEL SLAVERY. - - Importance of Social Reform--Universality of Covert or - Open Slavery--Partial Prevalence of Working Class--Origin - in Proletarianism--Advent of Christianity--Its Effects - on Slavery--Middle and Working Classes the Produce of - Emancipations--Classification of the _Proletariat_. - - -At this critical period of the world’s history, when either the whole -of society must undergo a peaceful Social Reformation that shall -strike at the root of abuses, or else be incessantly menaced with -revolutionary violence and anarchy, it becomes a subject of grave -interest to ascertain how Human Slavery came into the world; how it -has been propagated; wherefore it has been endured so long; the varied -phases it has assumed in modern times; and, finally, how it may be -successfully grappled with and extinguished, so that henceforth it may -exist only in the history of the past. - -Glancing over the world’s map, we find nearly all the inhabited -parts parcelled out into various nations and races--some called -civilized, some savage, and the rest, forming the greater part, in some -intermediate state of semi-barbarism. One sad feature, however, is -found, with hardly an exception, to belong to all. It is Slavery, in -one form or another;--it is the subjection of man to his fellow-man by -force or fraud. Yes, disguise it as we may, human slavery is everywhere -to be found--as rife in countries called Christian and civilized as -in those called barbarous and pagan--as rife in the western as in the -eastern hemisphere--as rife in the middle of the nineteenth century -as in the pagan days of the Ptolemies and the Pharaohs. The only -difference is, it is in the one case slavery direct and avowed; in the -other, slavery hypocritically masked under legal forms. The latter is -the phase slavery has assumed in countries calling themselves Christian -and civilized; but it is a slavery not the less galling and unbearable -because it is indirect and disguised. - -What are called the “Working Classes” are the slave populations of -civilized countries. These classes constitute the basis of European -society in particular and of all civilized societies in general. We -make this restriction, because there are societies in which there is -found nothing to correspond with what in England and France are called -the working classes. For example, they are unknown in Arabia, amongst -the Nomad tribes of Africa, the Red-Indians of America, and the hunter -tribes of Tartary; and, although in process of development, they are -comparatively “few and far between” in Russia, Turkey, Greece and, -indeed, throughout the nations of the East in general. - -Amongst those who write books and deliver speeches about the working -classes, few concern themselves to note this peculiarity in their -history, namely, the fact that they exist in some countries and not in -others; and the no less startling fact, that it is only at particular -epochs of history, and only under certain peculiar circumstances of -society, that they have been known to spring into social existence as -a distinctive class. Books, journals, pamphlets, essays, speeches, -sermons, Acts of Parliament, all are alike silent upon this notable -fact. Nobody dreams of inquiring whether the working classes do, or do -not, constitute a separate and distinct race in the countries they are -found in; or of asking themselves what cause or causes produced them -at particular epochs and in certain climes, while they continue to be -unknown at other epochs and in other climes; and why we find them, as -it were, sown broadcast in one country, while they appear but emerging -into doubtful existence in other countries. In truth, the history of -the middle and working classes has still to be written; and though it -is far from our present purpose to undertake any such task, we shall, -nevertheless, of necessity have to draw largely upon history for the -elucidation of the facts and arguments by which we shall support our -views upon the subject of slavery. - -Not to encumber the question with details which, however interesting -to antiquarians and scholars, would be out of place here, let us -briefly observe at once, that the working classes, however general -and extensive an element they constitute in modern society, are, -nevertheless, but an emanation from another element, much more -extensive and general, bequeathed to us by the ancient world under the -name of Proletarians. By the term Proletarians is to be understood, -not merely that class of citizens to which the electoral census of the -Romans gave the name, but every description of persons of both sexes -who, having no masters to own them as slaves, and consequently to be -chargeable with their maintenance, and who, being without fortune -or friends, were obliged to procure their subsistence as they best -could--by labour, by mendicity, by theft, or by prostitution. The -Romans used the term to denote the lowest, or lowest but one, class of -voters--those who, being without property, had only their offspring -(_proles_) to offer as hostages to the State for their good behavior, -or rather as guarantees for not abusing their rights of citizenship. We -use the term in the more enlarged sense of its modern acceptation, to -denote every description of persons who are dependent upon others for -the means of earning their daily bread, without being actual slaves. - -In the early periods of history, and, indeed, until some time after -the introduction of Christianity, the Proletarians constituted a very -small fraction of society. The reason is obvious. Actual slaves and -their owners formed the bulk of every community. The few Proletarians -of the old Pagan world were either decayed families who had lost the -patrimonies of their fathers, or else the descendants of manumitted -slaves, who, in succeeding to the condition of freemen (acquired for -them by their enfranchised forefathers), succeeded also to their -poverty and precarious tenure of life, by inheriting the disadvantage -of having no patrons bound to protect them, no masters answerable for -their maintenance, no market for their labour. But as such manumissions -were, before the establishment of Christianity, comparatively of rare -occurrence, and as the offspring of them were as likely to be absorbed -in time by the slave-owning class as to sink into and swell the -Proletarian, the result was, that until the times of Augustus Cæsar, -and indeed for a considerable period after, the Proletarians were by -no means a numerous class. In other words, there were comparatively -few upon whom the necessity was imposed of obtaining a precarious -subsistence by hired labour, mendicity, theft, or prostitution. Almost -all kinds of labour, agricultural and mechanical, were performed -by slaves; masters had, therefore, little or no occasion to hire -“free labourers.” Prostitution was followed as a profession only by -courtesans who were freed-women or the offspring of freed-women. The -slave class who were devoted to that degradation were either the -property of masters (of whose households they formed part) or else of -mangones, or slave-merchants, who openly sold them or let them out on -hire for that purpose. Of beggars and thieves there could have been -comparatively few, for the same reasons the conditions of society, as -then constituted, did not make place for them. As already observed, -almost every one was either an actual slave or an owner of slaves. -If a slave-owner, he lived upon the revenues of his estates--upon -his possessions, of which his slaves constituted a part, often the -greater part. If a slave, his wants were supplied, and his necessities -provided for, by those to whom he belonged. If a predial slave, he was -kept out of the produce of his master’s farms, just as the herds and -flocks were kept, both being regarded alike in the light of chattel -property. If a domestic slave, his keep was a necessary part of his -master’s household expenses. If let out for hire (an ordinary condition -of ancient slavery), a portion of his gains was of necessity applied -to his own maintenance. In any case--in all cases--he was exempt from -want, and from the fear of want, as well as from all care and anxiety -about providing for his subsistence. He could not, it is true, earn -wages or acquire property for himself without his master’s leave; but -neither, on the other hand, was he liable to starvation or privation -because there might happen to be no work for him to do. Work or no -work, he was always sure to be well fed, well housed, well clothed, -and well cared for, as long as his master had enough and was satisfied -with him. If he was incapable of acquiring property, so was he also -exempt from its cares, and sure to participate in the use of his -master’s, at least to the extent requisite for keeping him in bodily -health and in good condition. Nor were slaves always debarred from the -acquisition of property. There are instances recorded of slaves having -been permitted to amass considerable fortunes, though this was rarely -the case till after their masters manumitted them. Some also became -celebrated as grammarians, poets, and teachers of _belles lettres_ and -philosophy. Indeed, when they happened to have good, kind masters their -lot was by no means a hard one;--it was an enviable one in comparison -with that of a modern “free-born Briton,” rejoicing in the status -of an “independent labourer.” Of this we shall adduce proofs enough -by-and-by. Suffice it, for the present, to observe, that so well must -slaves have been used to fare under the old pagan system, that terms -corresponding with our “wanton,” “saucy,” “pampered,” are of frequent -occurrence in the old Greek and Roman classics as applied to slaves, -particularly domestic or menial. At all events, destitution, in the -modern sense, was unknown to them; and, with it, were also unknown -its inevitable consequences--mendicity, robbery, theft, prostitution, -and crime--_as characteristic of a class or of a system_. Individual -or isolated cases there might be, and these chiefly amongst the -manumitted; but there was no large class of persons subsisting by such -means--no outlawed class compelled, as it were, by the very first law -of nature--self-preservation--to erect such means into a system in -order to preserve life. - -Social evils there were--frightful evils--under the old pagan system. -Slavery itself was an evil--an appalling evil--under even its most -favourable conditions. But fearful as those evils were--hateful as -direct slavery must ever be while man is man--the ancient pagan -world has exhibited nothing so revolting and truly abominable as the -development and progress of Proletarianism, which was consequent upon -the breaking up of the old system of slavery, and which has ever since -gained more and more strength in every age, till, in our times, it has -made Proletarians of three-fourths of the people of every civilized -country, and threatens society itself with actual dissolution. - -Strange that what God designed to be man’s greatest blessing should -be made man’s greatest curse by man’s own perversity! Yet so it is -with almost every good thing designed or invented to perfect man in -wisdom and civilization. It is so with science and machinery, it is -so with money; it is so with public credit; it is so with mercantile -enterprise; it is so with the institution of private property; and so, -also, it has hitherto been with the divine institution of Christianity -itself. - -Christianity was introduced into the world at a period when the cup of -human wickedness was full to overflowing. The inequalities of human -condition were then greater than at any antecedent epoch. Wars the most -bloody and brutal, and on the most extensive scale, had just ravaged -the whole civilized world, ending with the destruction of the Roman -Republic and with the erection of a military empire which threatened -all nations and all future generations with irredeemable bondage. The -long internecine struggles of Marius and Sylla, of Julius Cæsar and -Pompey, and afterwards of Anthony and Augustus, had crimsoned three -parts of the globe with human blood, and let loose such a universal -torrent of rapine, lust, proscriptions, conspiracy, and crime of every -sort throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa, that hardly any nation or -people escaped the general demoralization. Direct human slavery--the -personal subjection of man to man as property--was at its height as a -social institution. Thousands and hundreds of thousands who had been -free citizens were taken prisoners and sold as slaves during those -horrid wars. To escape similar disasters, whole nations and races -without number placed themselves under the protectorate of Rome, -paid tribute to the imperial exchequer, and basely bartered their -independence and the rights and liberties of their subjects to win the -smiles or to court the pleasure of Augustus and his successors. Rome -herself was a mass of incarnadined corruption. To reconcile the Romans -to their newly forged fetters it became the policy of their government -to brutalize their minds with gladiatorial shows, or with the familiar -sight of human beings torn to pieces by wild beasts, or by shedding -each other’s blood with a ferocity unknown to wild beasts, and to -corrupt their hearts and manners with importations of all that was most -debasing in the systematized lewdness and debaucheries of the Grecian -stage. - -It was at this peculiar crisis of human affairs that Christianity -made its appearance in the world. Need we say the divine mission of -its Author was to rescue humanity from the scourges we have been -describing, to bind up its bleeding wounds, and to infuse into it -a spirit the opposite of what had produced the appalling vices and -evils so rife at the time of His advent? Need we expatiate upon the -marvellous successes which attended the labours of Himself and his -apostles in the early propagation of the Gospel, or upon the amazing -revolution which His followers wrought in the minds of men during the -three first centuries? It is quite unnecessary to do so: history has -made the world familiar with the prodigies of those days. Suffice it to -say that anything like so extraordinary and so universal a revolution -in the opinions and manners of men had never before been conceived, -much less operated. Upon this point, at least, all historians of credit -and all true philosophers are agreed. - -Amongst the greatest of these marvels was the gradual but rapid -extinction of direct human slavery, which took place throughout -the greater part of the Roman empire during the three first ages. -Antecedently to the preaching of the Gospel, the emancipation of slaves -was but of rare and casual occurrence: it happened only on those -unusual occasions when a slave could purchase his freedom, or get -somebody to purchase it for him; or when a benevolent owner conferred -it upon him as the reward of long and faithful services; or when he -broke loose from his owner, to become a pirate or bandit; or when -some ambitious chieftain or conspirator conferred it illegally, by -draughting him into his insurgent battalions. But how few the aggregate -of these emancipations were, even in the early days of the empire, we -may infer from a passage in Seneca, where he tells us that, upon the -occasion of a discussion in the senate upon sumptuary laws, a certain -senator, having proposed that all slaves should be forced to wear a -certain uniform, was immediately reminded of the danger there would be -in furnishing the slaves with so ready a means of contrasting their own -numbers with the paucity of their masters. Indeed, Tacitus also informs -us, that when the quæstor, Curtius Lupus, was dispersing a revolt of -slaves which took place in Italy about the twenty-fourth year of the -vulgar era, “Rome trembled at the frightful number of the slaves,” -as compared with the small number of free citizens--a number which, -Tacitus further states, was diminishing every day. It would be easy to -multiply proofs of this kind, but it is unnecessary, seeing that all -historians admit that no emancipation of slaves upon a large scale--no -systematic emancipations upon principle--took place antecedently to -the introduction of Christianity; but that from the moment when the -Gospel began to take root in Rome and in its tributary provinces--from -that moment the manumissions of slaves began to take place frequently -and systematically, till at last, upon the complete establishment of -Christianity, direct personal slavery was entirely abolished. - -Here, however, the perversity of man stepped in, to undo all that -Christianity had done. The very emancipations it operated, and which -it intended for the happiness of the emancipated, and to serve as -the foundation of a new social edifice, in which all should enjoy -equal rights and equal laws--these very emancipations were made a -curse instead of a blessing to the emancipated, and to serve for the -foundation of a worse system of slavery than any that was known under -the Cæsars or the Pharaohs, or than any that existed in the Southern -States of America or under any Oriental despotism. - -Yes, the perverse ingenuity of man has turned the systematic and -benevolent emancipations operated by Christianity into an evil greater -than the evil it sought to redress--into an indirect and masked system -of slavery more hideous and unbearable than the direct and undisguised -slavery it warred against. For what did these Christian emancipations -operate; and what have been their consequences to humanity? They -turned well-fed, well-housed, comfortable slaves into ragged, starving -paupers; and their consequences have been to fill Europe with a race of -Proletarians by far more numerous and miserable than the human chattels -of the ancients, whose place they occupy in modern civilization. -Out of the systematic emancipations (the progressive and ultimately -universal manumission of slaves) operated by Christianity have sprung -what are now called the middle and working classes. The more fortunate -of the manumitted and of their posterity have become our modern -Bourgeois; the less fortunate and more numerous have become our modern -Proletarians. These latter are what the French call _le Prolétariat -de l’Europe_; and this _Prolétariat_ their Guizots and doctrinaires -now divide into the four following classes, which we pray all true -democrats to mark, learn, and inwardly digest:--1, les Ouvriers; 2, -les Mendians; 3, les Voleurs; and 4, les Filles Publiques: that is -to say, 1, Workmen; 2, Beggars; 3, Robbers; and 4, Prostitutes!--a -classification which must be highly flattering to the operative class, -and enamour them vastly of royal and doctrinaire governments. - -These several divisions of the _Prolétariat_ are thus defined by the -doctrinaires:-- - - - “A workman is a Proletarian who works for wages in order to live. - - “A beggar is a Proletarian who will not or cannot work, and who - begs in order to live. - - “A robber is a Proletarian who will neither work nor beg, but who - robs or steals in order to live. - - “A public woman is a Proletarian who will neither work nor beg nor - steal, but who prostitutes herself in order to live.” - - -Such is the classification by which the vast majority of civilized -society is nowadays distinguished by writers of the first eminence! -Such is the classification they justify and would uphold! Nay, as -we shall show, they offer it to us as the legitimate development of -civilization, and as a just and righteous inheritance purchased for us -by the blood of our Redeemer, and bequeathed to us through eighteen -centuries of Gospel propagandism!!! - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -ORIGIN OF SLAVERY IN PATERNAL AUTHORITY. - - Antiquity of Slavery--Anterior to Legal Institution--Examples - cited from Ancient History--Arose from Patriarchal - Government--Despotic Power of Head of Family--Marriage - Custom of Purchase--Aristocratic Governments favourable to - Development--Decadence under Republics. - - -In the preceding chapter we have shown how the modern working classes -sprang from the ancient Proletarians; how the Proletarians arose out -of the downfall of the ancient system of _direct_ slavery; and how -Christianity was mainly instrumental in bringing about the manumission -of slaves in the Roman empire, and thence throughout western Europe. -The Proletarians, past and present, are but the descendants and -successors of the manumitted slaves, and of decayed families of the -ancient master-class; and, as observed in our last chapter, the modern -classification of them by writers of the Guizot school is--WORKPEOPLE, -ROBBERS, BEGGARS, and PROSTITUTES. - -All who have escaped this classification are such descendants or -successors of the ancient freedmen as have found their way into -the class of burgesses, consisting of merchants, manufacturers, -professionals, and money-dealers of all sorts. Of the remainder, by -far the greater number fall within the description of work-people: -these are the wages-slaves of modern civilization. Direct slavery was, -then, the parent of Proletarianism; and Proletarianism the parent -of wages-slavery. But how did direct slavery itself originate--the -personal slavery of man to man? Was it instituted? Was it the creature -of law, or of conventional compact? Upon this point the concurrent -testimony of history and of philosophy is unanimous: it goes to show -that slavery was not a public institution originally framed by human -laws, but that it was what the Americans call a _domestic_ institution -originating in the despotic authority of parents over their offspring -in the very infancy of society. This origin necessarily supposes -slavery to have been amongst the earliest, if not the very earliest, -of human institutions--to have been coeval with the institution of -society itself. In point of fact, it appears to have been so. Tracing -history back to its fountain-heads, before systems came to disturb -them, we discover a countless variety of unmistakable signs to show -that two distinct classes, not to say races, made up the aggregate of -souls in every ancient community of which history makes mention. One -is the master-class; the other, the slave-class. The first possesses; -the second is possessed. This aboriginal condition of humanity appears, -as an historical fact, universal. There is no ancient tradition, there -is no authentic record purporting to be history, that does not make -mention of masters and slaves. - -There were masters and slaves amongst the ancient Hebrews, the proofs -of which are abundantly scattered throughout the Old Testament and -in Josephus’s “History of the Antiquities of the Jews.” There were -masters and slaves amongst the Greeks in the remotest periods of -their annals. This is shown by numerous passages in Homer’s “Iliad” -and “Odyssey;”--as, for instance, in book xxi. of the “Iliad,” where -Achilles boasts to Lycaon of the captives he had taken, and sold into -slavery; and in book xxii. of the “Odyssey,” where Euryclea, the -governess of Ulysses’ household, says to him, “You have in your house -fifty female slaves, whom I have taught to work in wool-spinning, and -to support their servitude.” That masters and slaves existed at every -epoch of the Roman republic and empire is evident from the testimony of -every ancient classic whose writings or recorded sayings are extant. -The Institutes of Justinian make slavery expressly a subject of -legislation. That the relation of master and slave obtained in ancient -Gaul and in ancient Germany we have abundant evidences in Cæsar’s -Commentaries and in several passages to be found in Tacitus’s treatise -“De Moribus Germanorum.” Indeed, masters and slaves are known to have -existed in France as late as the twelfth century, and in Prussia as -late as one hundred years ago, as may be seen by the General Code of -the Prussian States, published in 1794. Masters and slaves are still -to be found in all Mahomedan countries, throughout the kingdoms of the -East generally, and (tell it not in Gath!), until lately, in several of -the republics of the United States of America. - -But it is superfluous to insist upon the existence of a fact, the -proofs of which are to be found in all ages and countries--in the -oldest codes as well as in the oldest books, in the most ancient -legends of poets as well as in the best accredited traditions of -history. Indeed, the institution of direct or personal slavery is so -ancient, that its origin is lost in the night of ages, and is nowhere -accounted for. It appears to have been coeval with the origin of -society itself. Wherever we find the beginning of civil institutions -recorded, there we find slavery already established. Moses founded the -institutions of the Jews; and slavery is found in the books of Moses. -Homer is prior, by many ages, to the historic times of Greece; and -slavery is found in the books of Homer. The “Twelve Tables” are the -basis of Roman institutions; and Romulus, long anterior to the “Twelve -Tables,” opened an asylum at Rome to receive the runaway slaves of -Laticum. At later epochs, the Salic law, the feudal and forest laws, -the common or traditionary law of the Saxons, Thuringians, Germans, -and Anglo-Saxons, are the starting points of the institutions of -most modern nations; and slavery is found in all the codes of the -invaders--it is expressly mentioned or tacitly assumed in all. Let us -note it here as an important consideration, that in all these monuments -of legislation, whether poetic or historic, slavery is not treated -as a thing instituted for the first time; it is only made incidental -mention of as a pre-existing thing, already acknowledged, accepted, -established; it was what the French call _un fait accompli_--a settled -fact. Moses, Homer, the “Twelve Tables,” the mediæval laws of -invasion, do not institute or found slavery; they but bear testimony -to its existence, either by incidental mention of it, or by imposing -new conditions to regulate the relation of master and slaves; in short, -they only go to show that slavery _was_ before they _were_, or, in -other words, that slavery was not (to use the language of jurists) the -work of positive law, but a “great fact” anterior to all law, and as -old as the origin of society itself. - -The aboriginal character of slavery admitted, it remains to be -shown, wherefore did society, in its infancy, establish slavery; or, -rather, by what _modus operandi_ was slavery made to develop itself -in aboriginal society. History, reason, our very instincts, tell us -there is but one satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon. It arose -from the unbounded power which fathers, or the heads of families, -exercised, in early days, over their households--wives, concubines, -and children. All history is unanimous as to the fact that fathers -exercised a supreme authority over their offspring in the early ages -of the world. The same fact is found still to obtain amongst races -retaining primitive customs. Evidences to this effect are to be -abundantly met with in the Bible, in the Greek tragedians, in the -legislation of the Romans, in Asiatic traditions. All go to prove -that parental authority was bounded only by parental will,--that it -extended even to the power of life and death over their offspring. The -old pagans, in order to give the highest idea of the power of Jupiter, -call him the “father of the gods.” For no other reason have Jews and -Christians, in like manner, named God the All-Powerful Father. Paternal -authority was so absolute and extensive in primitive times, that it -suffered no other, co-ordinate or paramount: it completely absorbed -the rights and the very existence of wife and children. Out of this -absolute paternal authority did personal slavery first arise. Sons, -daughters, and even wives were but slaves of the head of the family; -they were amongst his chattels--a part of his estate. Aristotle calls -children the “animated tools or instruments of their parents.” In the -days of the patriarchs, paternal authority over children was absolute -amongst the Jews. Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac is one of many proofs -that might be cited. It is evident God would not have ordered a thing -contrary to the positive law--a law ordained by God himself. Moreover, -divers passages in Josephus show in the clearest and most explicit -terms that the absolute authority of fathers over their children -continued undisputed, and to be held sacred, down to the time of Herod -the Great, who was contemporary with the Emperor Augustus of Rome. The -strongest evidence of this is the prosecution of his own two sons, -Alexander and Aristobulus, before Augustus, wherein Herod took great -credit to himself for his moderation in referring the matter to the -emperor, “seeing that, in virtue of his rights as a father, he might -put them to death without any other warrant or authority.” The elder -son, Alexander, in his reply, frankly admitted his father’s right -to give him death as he had given him life. Some years later, this -same Herod exemplified the paternal power of the Jews in a still more -impressive manner. In a speech which he delivered against these same -rebellious sons before an assembly of the notables of his province, -he reminded them that, independently of the law of nature, which gave -him an absolute power of life and death over his offspring, there was -an express law of his nation on the subject, which ordained that when -a father and mother should accuse their children, and lay hands upon -their heads, all parties present should be held bound to _stone_ them; -and that, accordingly, he might, without consulting them, have put -his sons to death without any form of trial whatever, in virtue of -his parental rights. These facts are decisive enough as respects the -Jews. It is to be understood, however, that it was only aristocratic -fathers--fathers amongst the higher orders--that ordinarily exercised -this atrocious despotism over their own families. - -The power of fathers over their children was quite as absolute -amongst the early Greeks and Romans as amongst the Jews; and if it -did not descend to so late a period of their annals, it is only -because aristocratic forms gave place sooner to democratic, under -their government, than amongst the Jews. That it existed in full -force at the time of the Trojan war is forcibly demonstrated by the -sacrifice of Iphigenia, which, as an historical fact, is a tradition -corresponding exactly with the sacrifice by Abraham. In Sparta it -prevailed as completely, in the days of Lycurgus, as it did in Judæa -in the patriarchal times. Plutarch relates that, at that epoch, a -sort of family council was usually held upon the birth of a child, to -deliberate whether the newly born should be allowed to live or die. -Even at Athens, where the democratic element prevailed more than at -Sparta, and where humanity and refinement, the offspring of arts and -letters, had made greater progress, the absolute power of parents -was such that, even as late as the age of Solon, the Athenians were -in the habit of selling their children for slaves--a practice which, -Plutarch informs us, there was no law to prohibit. Let us here observe -generally, that it was in the Homeric period that the absoluteness of -parental authority displayed itself with the most vigour in Greece, -and that this period corresponds exactly, in the history of their -comparative legislation, with the patriarchal epoch of the Jews. For -example, daughters were so completely identified with the chattels -or property of their fathers, that their suitors had always to pay a -certain price for marrying and taking them away. Thus, Jacob served -Laban for seven years to obtain his daughter Rachel; and thus, among -the Greeks, Othryon engaged to serve Priam during the siege of Troy, to -obtain his daughter Cassandra without paying a dowry--that is, without -buying her otherwise than by his services. Instances of this kind might -be multiplied; but enough has been said to illustrate our position. -Let us observe, however, as a general rule, that paternal authority -was always greatest in the states most aristocratically constituted, -and always least in those most democratically constituted; and that -the period through which the absoluteness of paternal power prevailed -was longer or shorter, in different countries, just according to the -later or earlier development given to the democratic principle in their -institutions. Such a barbarous power being utterly irreconcilable with -liberty and justice, it could flourish only in times of ignorance and -brute force. As democracy arose, and civilization spread, the parental -despotism declined. It lasted longer in Judæa than in Sparta, and -longer in Sparta than in Athens; because the barbarism of oligarchy -pervaded longer in Judæa than in Sparta, and longer in Sparta than in -Athens. - -Amongst the Romans paternal despotism was carried to a fearful height. -Roman legislation abounds in records of it; and her chronicles -confirm all that is revealed to us by her legislatures. Dionysius -of Halicarnassus tells us of an old law of the Papyrian Code which -authorised fathers to kill and to sell their children. The Code of -Justinian also makes mention of it. But the despotic authority of -Roman fathers over their children is an historical fact, sufficiently -familiar to most readers to dispense with the necessity of further -proofs. It was one of the darkest traits of their legislation and -national character, and it doubtless had no small share in imparting -to their republic those harsh and overbearing qualities which involved -them in perpetual broils amongst themselves and in endless wars of -aggression against their neighbours. - -To this barbarous and despotic power of parents over their offspring--a -power extending over their whole lifetime--a power which applied to -both sexes, and which appears to be coeval with the first existence of -society itself--to this brutal, irrational, and inhuman power are we -doubtless indebted for the origin of all human slavery. In what manner -this despotic power manifested itself, and how the past and present -order of things grew out of it, we shall endeavour to show in future -chapters. - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -CAUSES OF PARENTAL DESPOTISM. - - Evidences from Egypt and Persia--Supreme Authority of Family - Head--First Legal Limitation under Roman Empire--Necessity for - gradual Growth of Slavery--Source of Paternal Riches--Importance - of Chief of the Family. - - -We stated, in our last chapter, that human slavery, according to the -concurrent testimony of history and philosophy, originated in the -unbounded power which fathers or heads of families exercised, in the -infancy of society, over their household--over wives, concubines, and -children. Of the existence of this power amongst the ancient Jews, -Greeks, and Romans we adduced some remarkable evidences. Similar -evidences abound with respect to Egypt, Persia, Media, Asia Minor, -and, indeed, of every other ancient people of which any traditions -are preserved. The records of the various tribes and nations which -inhabited Asia Minor go to show that the authority of fathers over -their offspring continued to be supreme and absolute even down to a -period not far removed from the Christian era. For example, Xenophon -relates, in his “Anabasis,” how a certain Thracian king, named -Teutes, offered to give him his daughter, and to purchase one of -his (Xenophon’s), if he had any, “according to the law of Thrace.” -Plutarch, in his Life of Lucullus, furnishes similar evidences. He -relates, that during the distress in which the proprietors of Asia -Minor found themselves after the defeat of King Tigranes, those fathers -of families who, upon the arrival of Lucullus, had not wherewith to -satisfy the demands of the Roman tax-collectors, sold their little -children and marriageable daughters. That such things should prevail -under pure despotisms like those of ancient Asia Minor, Egypt, Persia, -&c., or under the patriarchal _régime_ of the Jews, when manners were -primitive and the government a theocracy, is what we might expect in -the natural order of things; but that they should occur under the more -democratic and polished governments of Greece and Rome is what appears -astonishing to our modern notions; yet so it was. The authority of -paternity was no less supreme in the later than in the older countries. -The early annals of Rome exhibit some glaring but curious instances of -it, which, taken in connection with the revelations of later times, -not only render the fact undoubted, but will account for many of the -harsher qualities of the Romans, and, at the same time, strengthen -our theory of human slavery. Going back to the very cradle of the -Romans, we find that, when Rhea was delivered of Romulus and Remus, -Amulius, her uncle, ordered the immediate exposure of the infants. -This Roman fact corresponds with the exposure of Moses in Egypt, and -with the Greek legend which describes Œdipus as having been similarly -exposed and found suspended from a tree by the feet. Dionysius of -Halicarnassus, in relating the well-known story of the Horatii, tells -us that the elder Horatius, assuming the defence of his son, the -murderer of his sister, claimed the right of solely taking cognizance -of the affair, inasmuch as his paternal quality constituted him a -born judge of his own children. If we remember aright, Racine, in -his tragedy of the Horatii and Curiatii, follows up the same idea. -Plutarch, in the Life of Publicola, relating the conspiracy of the -Aquilians in favour of the Tarquins, tells us that Junius Brutus in -like manner arrogated the right of jurisdiction in the affair of his -own son, and that he judged, condemned, and caused him to be executed -in virtue of his paternal authority, without any of those judiciary -observances which were adhered to in respect of the other conspirators. -Titus Livius, an earlier and higher authority in such matters than -Plutarch, gives a similar account of this affair. - -Down to the times of Sylla, there does not appear to have been any -considerable check or restraint imposed upon paternal power. The -absolute authority of fathers was in some slight degree moderated by -a law of that dictator, known to jurisconsults under the title of -“Lex Cornelia de Sicariis”--a law aimed not so much at the domestic -jurisdiction of fathers, as at the abuse of such jurisdiction for -the purposes of private vengeance. But, that and similar laws -notwithstanding, we find, even under the emperor, examples of domestic -jurisdiction which go to prove that the sovereign authority of -fathers was carried out through every epoch of the civil law. The -philosopher, Seneca, reports the particulars of a process by a great -personage, named Titus Arrius, instituted of his own authority, at his -own domestic tribunal, against his own son. At this process or trial -Augustus himself assisted as a simple witness. Seneca’s account of -this affair, which is brief and to the purpose, is worthy of notice. -“Titus Arrius,” he says, “wishing to judge his son, invited Augustus -to his domestic council. The emperor repaired to this citizen’s -home, took his seat, and gave his presence simply as a witness of an -affair in which he was not concerned. Augustus does not say: ‘Let the -accused be brought before me at my palace;’ that would have been to -arrogate to himself jurisdiction in the matter, and to deprive the -father of his rights. After the cause had been heard--the accusation -and defence--Titus Arrius demanded of each of the council to write -down his judgment.” Tacitus, in like manner, relates that a senator, -named Plautius, sat in judgment upon his own wife, Pomponia Græcina, -who was accused of addicting herself to superstitions. She was tried -before the assembled household, and according to ancient usage. -This happened in the reign of Nero. To these pagan we might add the -Christian authority of Tertullian, who makes mention, at the opening -of his “Apologetica,” of domestic judgments which had just recently -taken place at Rome, and which, like that of Plautius, would seem -to have been directed against the Christians, whose religion, till -the reign of Constantine, was looked upon (to use the language of -Tacitus) as “a deplorable and destructive superstition.” In short, -the despotism of paternal authority appears to have prevailed in Rome -at every epoch of her history, down to the period when paganism lost -its hold upon the population. It is inferred from divers documents -still extant, that the absolute authority of fathers did not disappear -before the end of the third century; and the first law which positively -prohibited fathers from giving, selling, or contracting away their -children is said to be a law of Dioclesian and of Maximian. These laws -are recited in the fourth book of the Justinian Code. Nevertheless, -there is a law of Constantine, whereby the sale of children, in cases -of great poverty or destitution, was made legally permissible. In -truth, paternal despotism, like its offspring, direct slavery, perished -little by little, or by slow degrees. Like direct slavery itself, it -paled and sank before the rising light of the Gospel. The three first -centuries witnessed one continuous struggle of Christianity against -the establishments of paganism. Amongst the worst of these were -parental despotism and personal slavery. As the Gospel gained ground -upon paganism, parental despotism and slavery went down. Towards the -close of the third century, the majority of the better classes of the -Romans had embraced the new faith. Parental despotism and the servile -subjection of man to man being incompatible with that faith, these two -relics of primeval barbarism began rapidly to disappear; and after -the legal establishment of the Christian religion by Constantine, the -relation of master and servant (though, as we shall see by-and-by, by -no means improved) became altogether a new and different relation. - -These preliminary remarks upon the history of fathers of families and -of the ancient paternal authority must not be considered irrelevant, -or otherwise than essential to our design. Without them, we could not -account for the origin of human slavery; and, without knowing its -origin, we could not well develop its progress and the various phases -it has assumed up to the present time. No ancient record or tradition -in existence goes to show that human slavery originated in positive -laws or in coercive ordinances enforced by the sword. Reason and -experience naturally coincide with history in this matter. That any -portion of society, after living on terms of equality with the rest, -should suddenly allow all its rights to be extinguished by brute force, -or consent to have its liberties and independence voted away, when it -had arms and instincts to defend them, is contrary to common sense and -to all experience. Much less is it probable that the great majority -would have everywhere suffered a contemptible minority to usurp the -rights and powers of the whole. The ancient slave-class were everywhere -a majority. Nothing but the force of early habit and traditional -example could have made the majority the willing bondsmen of the -minority. But as the relation must have commenced at some period before -such habits and such traditional example could take effect, and as some -sort of authority was absolutely necessary to establish the relation, -it follows that, in the absence of all other competent authority, it -must have been the natural authority of parents over their offspring -that first established slavery. Such slavery must, of course, in the -first instance have been direct; for, in a rude and primitive society, -no other would be intelligible or possible. - -If we be right in these antecedents, our conclusions from them must be, -that the first fathers were the first masters, and the first children -were the first slaves. To determine the history of the first masters -is,therefore, virtually to suggest the history of the first slaves. -Yes, the unbounded power of paternity in the first ages of the world -was the origin of all human slavery; and therefore is slavery a thing -anterior to all written constitutions, to all human laws, traditional -or imposed. - -Now come the questions, Why did our first parents make slaves of -their children? and how came the domestic institution, established by -parental despotism, to become a social institution diffused throughout -the whole of society? Our natural instincts, undeveloped by reason -and undisciplined by knowledge and experience, would, methinks, lead -us to account satisfactorily for both facts. It was natural that the -head of the family should govern the family. It was not unnatural that -the parent, who had given life to the child, and who had preserved -that life when the child was unable to take care of itself, should -in some measure regard that life as his own; and as the maintenance -of his offspring must have been a burden on the parent, and kept him -comparatively poor in the days of early manhood, it is no more than -what we should expect from the selfishness of old age--especially in -a rude social state--that he should seek to indemnify himself, by the -future labour of his children, for his cost and pains in bringing them -up. Let us also bear in mind, that we are treating of those primitive -times when man’s animal instincts interpreted polygamy and the law of -nature to be one and the same--times which Dryden describes as - - - “Those ancient times, e’er priestcraft did begin-- - ’Twas e’er polygamy was deemed a sin.” - - -In those days, the larger the family, the greater the wealth and power -of the head of the household. In infancy, the offspring might be a -charge and a source of poverty; but, as they grew up, they more than -repaid the cost of maintenance,--they became, in fact, a source of -wealth and power and aggrandisement to the parent. Now, according to -all known traditions, the ancient fathers of families gloried in a -numerous progeny. In the history of the Jews, families of fifty and -upwards are frequently spoken of. Josephus informs us, that Gedeon had -seventy sons; Jair, thirty; Apsan, thirty sons and thirty daughters; -Abdon, forty sons--all of them living at the time of his death--besides -thirty grandsons. Indeed, the Old Testament abounds in examples showing -the multitudinous progeny ascribed to the old patriarchs--most of -them, too, born of concubines, under what the modern world would call -_disparaging_ circumstances. - -The traditions of early Greece harmonise, in this respect, with those -of the Jews. Who has not read of the fifty daughters of Danaüs? In -Homer, we find old Priam appealing to his numerous progeny, as the -best means of exciting pity and respect in the vindictive breast of -Achilles. We find him telling of his fifty children--of nineteen born -of the same mother, Hecuba; and all the rest, of concubines. Livy -and Plutarch tell us of the three hundred Fabians--all of the same -family--who perished in a great battle against the Tuscans, fought in -the early wars of the Republic; and Plutarch also makes mention, in his -Life of Theseus, of a certain personage, Pallas, who had fifty children. - -From these and innumerable testimonies of a similar kind, we may -readily conceive that these numerous wives and concubines kept by the -heads of families in early times made fathers vastly more important -personages than they are nowadays, and gave them progenies which, in -comparison with modern ones, might be considered clans or tribes. What -with wives, concubines, children, and grandchildren, every such father -was veritably the head of a community; and inasmuch as his power was -absolute over each and all, he had every motive that selfishness could -dictate to make them, and keep them, slaves for his aggrandisement and -pleasure. In fact, the more numerous his progeny and household, the -greater was his source of wealth, the higher his status, and the better -his security against personal violence in lawless times. That slavery -should originate and grow up in this way appears to us perfectly -natural. At all events, in no other way has it ever been, or can it -ever be, satisfactorily accounted for. - -What happened in the case of one father of a family would as naturally -happen in respect of others. In the progress of time, some of the -younger branches would naturally stray from the paternal home, and -emigrate to other lands, where they would settle down and, in time, -become the heads of families--the founders of new races of slaves. -Indeed, we have but to imagine the case of one to apply to thousands -similarly circumstanced, and we shall see the origin of human slavery -at once satisfactorily explained. Those early fathers, or heads of -families, would naturally love some of their children better than -others; at least, they would have more confidence in some one than in -the rest. To those so loved, or so favoured, would naturally devolve -the headship of the family, or such portions of the patrimonial estate -as might enable them to found new families elsewhere. These families, -like the parent one, would as naturally resolve themselves into little -communities of masters and slaves; so that in course of time, by the -natural operation of one and the same first cause, the whole of society -would find itself, what we find it to have been in all early history, -an aggregation of souls divided everywhere into two great classes--a -master-class possessing, and a slave-class possessed. - -Let us not imagine, however, that a social order which appears to us -so inhuman and so unnatural was viewed in this light, or inspired -_our_ feelings, in the ancient world; it would be a great mistake to -suppose this. Nothing was further from the contemplation of the men of -antiquity than our notions and theories about the equality of human -rights. The idea of what man ought to be, or is capable of being made, -was an idea unknown to the ancient world. The division of the human -race into masters and slaves appeared to them a perfectly natural -division: they saw no other; they never heard of any other; they -appear never to have conceived the possibility of any other. Even the -slaves themselves never complained of slavery _as an institution_; -they never demanded liberty in the sense we demand it. When they did -complain, it was not because they thought that one class ought not to -be a master-class and the other a slave-class: that was an idea quite -beyond them. When they complained--and they often _did_ complain, and -sometimes rebel too--it was either because they found their masters -harsh and cruel, and wished to exchange them for new and better ones, -or because they hoped, by breaking their fetters and becoming soldiers, -pirates, or adventurers of some kind, to exchange their condition as -slaves for the more enviable one of slave-owners. History records -several insurrections of slaves that took place in ancient times; but -in no one instance does it appear that the insurgents took up arms for -the principle of equality, or for any cause common to other slaves -as well as to themselves. Of this fact we shall adduce some notable -evidences in the progress of this inquiry. For the present, we shall -content ourselves with the assertion that, as a general rule, the -religious doctrine of men’s equality before God, and the political and -social doctrine of man’s equality before the law, or as a member of -society, were doctrines utterly unknown to, or uncared for amongst, the -old pagan world. In hazarding this assertion, we would be understood -as applying it to all classes and callings of the ancients alike--to -philosophers, poets, orators, and statesmen, as well as to mechanics, -labourers, house-servants, even the very lowest description of menial -slaves. That one or two philosophers and poets, here and there, may be -found to have uttered sentiments prophetic of “the good time coming,” -or indicative of a tacit belief that man was made for a higher and -brighter destiny than was his then lot, we pretend not to deny. But -that any class or calling of men existed in the old pagan world who -believed in, much less contended for, the political and social rights -of man _as man_ is what, we fearlessly assert, cannot be proved from -any historical authority extant. With the exception of the Essenes of -Judæa and the Therapeutæ of Egypt, we know of no attempt having been -made in ancient times to realise the social views latterly so prevalent -amongst the working classes in France, Germany, and, indeed, in most -parts of Central and Western Europe, England included. The Essenes -and Therapeutæ, however, can hardly be considered an exception to the -general rule, seeing that the latter was a Christian sect, and that -the Essenes, being Jews, believed in the same God that all Christians -professed to worship. Besides, the Essenes were but a very small sect, -hardly exceeding 4,000 souls in all; and though they held and practised -the theory of human equality, and proscribed slavery from amongst them, -yet, like the Shakers of America, they so mixed up absolute celibacy, -and other ascetic doctrines and practices, with their community-system -that, in the very nature of things, they could never be more than a -small, isolated sect, utterly incapable of influencing, by creed or -example, the destinies of the human race. - -But how the cause of human liberty came to be hopeless under the old -pagan systems, and how Christianity itself has hitherto failed in its -divine mission, must be the subject of future chapters. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -INCREASE AND CONSOLIDATION OF SLAVERY. - - Sanction given by Law and Public Opinion--Various Causes of - Enslavement--Practices of Ancient Germans--Analogy in Modern - Commercial and Funding Systems, and Expatriation of Irish - Peasantry--Slavery among the Jews. - - -Having shown how human slavery originated in parental despotism, let us -now inquire how positive laws came to consolidate and regulate it, and -public opinion to consecrate and perpetuate it, till it had become the -normal condition of some three-fourths of the human race antecedently -to the period of Christ’s advent. Here we shall again find history our -safest guide. If the oldest traditions show, on the one hand, that -slavery did not originate in human laws, but was the spontaneous growth -of the natural subjection of children to parents, there is equally -ample authority, on the other hand, to show that, once introduced, all -the forces of law and opinion known to the ancients were unsparingly -applied to propagate and maintain slavery in every pagan country. - -While families remained apart from each other, without intercourse, -without social relationship, slavery knew no other law than the will or -pleasure of the head of each household. But when, in the progress of -early civilization, the families congregated in any particular locality -or country came to find it necessary to constitute themselves into one -great society for the purposes of exchange or commerce, intermarrying, -mutual defence against aggression, &c., the despotic will of -individuals gave place, of necessity, to a general law of the heads -of families composing the society. It was then, and not till then, -that slavery became a _legal_ institution. The general law not only -sanctioned and enforced it, but also greatly enlarged its bounds by -creating new sources of slavery. For example, to be taken prisoner in -war, to take refuge in the house of another, to be unable to pay one’s -debts, or, if a girl, being married out of her family or tribe,--these -were so many new sources of slavery created by the general law. The -rights of war were made to confer upon the vanquisher the same rights -over the vanquished that belonged to their own fathers. Indeed, amongst -the ancients the vanquished were considered as “men without gods,” -that is to say, men without ancestors of rank or dignity (for, in the -language of the primitive poets, the gods and the ancestors of great -families are one and the same thing); and they were treated as mere -chattels, as appears from the very name given, viz., _mancipia_, which, -though the ordinary term applied to slaves taken in battle, is, in -its etymological sense, applicable only to things inanimate. Whether -it was from a religious scruple, or for the purpose of divesting the -vanquished of what prestige might attach to them from the possession -of their gods or ancestral images, we find that the taking or keeping -possession of these gods was always a vital consideration in the -sieges and battles of antiquity. Once taken by the enemy, the capture -and enslavement of their possessors was deemed inevitable. Those -left without gods, in this sense, were regarded as outlaws by their -fellow-citizens, and their future slavery was considered a _mere -matter of course_ by themselves, as well as by their conquerors. We -may readily imagine what a prolific source of slavery this must have -been in lawless times, when _might_ alone conferred _right_. We may -also conceive how greatly it must have aggravated and embittered the -aboriginal relations between master and slave. - -Asylums, or houses of refuge, were another means of extending slavery -under the positive law. The man who took sanctuary in one of these -places became the slave or chattel of the protector who had given -him safety. These asylums, of which we find mention made in the -primitive traditions of almost every old country, drew together not -only maltreated slaves from other quarters, but malefactors and -vagabonds of all sorts, and, in general, that restless and turbulent -class of people who love action for its own sake, and cannot live out -of broils and adventure. History testifies to the opening of such -asylums by rulers, and founders of cities, as an essential feature -of their policy. Thus, Moses determined six certain cities in which -manslayers might take refuge from the avenger. Theseus opened a refuge -at Athens, the remembrance of which was so fresh in Plutarch’s time, -that that biographer thinks the phrase of the common criers in his day, -“All peoples, come hither!” were the identical words used by Theseus -himself. Romulus, as before observed, opened an asylum at Rome for the -fugitive slaves of Latium, which, it is said, remained open for upwards -of 750 years. Indeed, if we are to believe Suetonius, it and similar -places of refuge were to be found in Rome, and in the provinces, till -Tiberius formally abolished “the law and custom” of them by an edict. -It may be observed, generally, of these asylums that, originally or -primitively, the parties who fled for refuge to them became the slaves, -or subjects, or clients of their protectors, yielding to the latter -their personal liberty and service in exchange for their preservation; -but at later epochs the character both of asylums and of those who -fled to them changed altogether. When opened by free cities within the -boundaries of their liberties, or by priests in their temples, they -were sacred to freedom, and not to slavery. There is no doubt, however, -that in the early ages of the world both law and custom turned them -largely to account in extending the domain of slavery. - -Next to war, indebtedness, or the relation of debtor to creditor, was -probably the most odious and prolific source of slavery under the -positive law. Such appears to have been the case, at least, amongst -Greeks and Romans, with whose histories the moderns are better -acquainted than with those of other ancient countries. Plutarch tells -us, in his Life of Solon, that that legislator, on his arriving at -power, found a large proportion of the citizens in a state of actual -slavery to their creditors, and that one of his greatest difficulties -and triumphs was the adjustment of their conflicting claims. - -Certain writers and commentators speak of an old Athenian law which -gave money-lenders, as security for their money lent, the personal -liberty of the borrowers--otherwise, a power to make them slaves. -Others say the law in question extended the creditor’s power to one of -life or death--that he might expose or kill his defaulting debtor. The -Roman laws of the Twelve Tables were, we know, borrowed from Greece; -and Aulus Gellius cites the express terms of the law of the Third Table -to show that it armed Roman creditors with similar power over their -unfortunate debtors. The rigour of this law was such, that in case -there were several creditors, they had the option either to sell the -debtor’s person to strangers or to dissever his body and divide the -pieces amongst them. Shocked and disgusted at the barbarity of this -law, Aulus Gellius asks, “What can be conceived more savage, what more -foreign to man’s natural disposition, than that the members and limbs -of a destitute debtor should be drawn asunder by a mangling process -of ever so short duration?” Tertullian, one of the early Christian -fathers, bears testimony to the existence of that and similar laws -under the pagan system. As he uses the plural word _leges_ instead of -the singular _lex_, it is clear there must have been more than one -law of the kind. The murderous part of such laws was, however, too -revolting to be carried into effect; so the enslavement of the debtor’s -person was the course usually adopted by vindictive creditors. Indeed, -Quintilian tells us expressly that public morals rejected the law of -the Twelve Tables--at least, that portion of it which gave creditors -the power to cut up the bodies of insolvent debtors. To imprison or -enslave them was, therefore, their only practicable course; and as the -latter was the more profitable, it became the one usually resorted to. -The sale of unfortunate debtors as slaves became, therefore, a part and -parcel of the commerce of Greece and Rome. It was one of the ways by -which hard-hearted creditors indemnified themselves for bad debts. And -as neither law nor custom could reconcile any people to such a palpable -outrage upon the rights of humanity, it never ceased to be a prolific -source of disaffection and civil broils throughout every period of -the Greek and Roman annals. Livy records some terrible outbreaks, -arising solely from the laws of debtor and creditor. Indeed, next to -agrarian monopoly, the workings of usury in pauperizing and enslaving -free citizens was the principal cause of all the civil wars, and the -ultimate cause of the downfall of the Greek and Roman republics. - -But Greece and Rome are not the only ancient states in which debt -multiplied slaves and slavery. Tacitus informs us that the ancient -Germans were so addicted to gaming, that sometimes they staked even -their bodies upon the last throw of the dice, and, when the game went -against them, resigned themselves tranquilly to be bound and sold as -slaves. ’Tis curious to observe the language made use of by Tacitus -in describing this affair. It forcibly reminds one of the “national -debts” of modern times, and of the cunning cant by which the toiling -slaves, who pay the interest of them, are made to bear the burden -with more than asinine resignation. Indeed, the whole passage, as -given by Tacitus, might be strictly applied to the men and things we -are living amongst, if we would but substitute a few of our modern -commercial terms for the old dice-table terms employed by Tacitus. -“They (the Germans),” he says, “practise gambling amongst their serious -pursuits, and are quite sober over it. So desperate is their lust of -gain or fear of losing, that when all other means fail, they stake -their liberty and their very bodies upon the last throw of the dice; -nay, the beaten party (the loser) enters voluntarily and resignedly -into slavery. Although younger and more robust than his antagonist, -he quietly submits to be bound in fetters and sold. Such is their -perverseness in depravity--_they, themselves_, call it FAITH, HONOUR! -The successful parties (winners) dispose of this class of slaves in the -way of commerce, _that the infamy of their victory may be lost sight of -by the removal of their victim_.” In this almost literal translation, -we have paraphrased Tacitus no further than his elliptic style and -the different genius of our language render necessary; yet we can -hardly persuade ourselves that we have not been describing the process -and the very terms by which commercial speculation and our system of -public and private credit manufacture the slaves of our own day. The -only substantial difference is, that our gambling and slave-making -are upon an immeasurably larger scale, and that our enslaved Saxons, -unlike their German progenitors, have not even a chance of saving -themselves: for, though they are made to contribute all the stakes, -they are allowed no further share in the game than to look on and -pay the losses, whoever may be the winners. Tacitus’s term, _fides_ -(_faith_, _honour_), is the identical term made use of now-a-days to -enforce the payment of national debts by those who never borrowed, -and the payment of “debts of honour” by those who forget to pay their -tailors’ bills and their servants’ wages. The old German gamester’s -trick, too, of getting his victim out of the way by disposing of him as -merchandise, instead of keeping him to serve as a slave upon himself, -is not without its analogies in our modern practice. Indeed, our -whole system of commerce and of public credit is based upon a similar -practice and similar motives. The slaves of our modern landlords, -merchants, and manufacturers are always the _apparent_ slaves of -somebody else--of some wretched go-between underling, on whom the -_odium_, though not the profits, of the system is made to fall. The -landlord throws it upon the farmer or agent; the millowner, upon his -overseer; the coal-king, upon his manager; the exporting merchant, upon -the slop-shops and _sweaters_; and so on, throughout every ramification -of trade and manufacture. The loanmonger retains not in his own hands -his purchased privilege of rifling the pockets of all taxpayers twice -a year for no value received. That would make his position as odious -as that of Tacitus’s successful old German gamester would have been, -had he made the “plucked pigeon” his personal slave, who was whilom -his boon-companion and equal. Business could not go on in that way. -Our loanmonger knows it, and, therefore, no sooner does he get his -bonds than he diffuses the “scrip” as widely and plentifully as the -dews of heaven, till there is hardly a grade or calling in society -that is not made directly interested and instrumental in enslaving -the producer and defrauding him of his hire. At the moment we write, -there are nearly a quarter of a million of families interested in -what is called “public faith,” “national honour,” and all that sort -of thing; and, amongst the whole lot, there is not one that was -originally concerned in any of the hocus-pocusing transactions which -have given us our “national debt,” with its thirty millions of annual -tax on the producing slaves of this country. The original loanmongers -and their representatives have dexterously shifted the odium and the -responsibility of their black job or jobs (for there were many of -them) from their own shoulders to those, of innocent parties; and, -whatever may eventually become of these parties, they took good care -to have more than their _quid pro quo_ before they transferred their -claims upon the public purse to the present recipients of the dividends -payable half-yearly on account of the debt called “national.” Another -and, mayhap, a stronger analogy to the case of Tacitus’s “plucked -pigeons,” sold into slavery, might be found in the expatriated tenantry -and peasantry of Ireland. The landlords of that country do not _always_ -dispose of their human chattels by plague, pestilence, and famine; and -there is no law of the Twelve Tables to authorise the cutting up of -the bodies of their tenants in arrear. But there is a law--or, whether -there is or not, they find one--which authorises them to eject tenants -from their holdings, to raze their habitations to the ground, and to -drive the said tenants, homeless and breadless, to find a shelter and -a crust where they may. In such cases (and they are as plentiful as -blackberries), it is not unusual for such landlords to smuggle their -ousted victims out of the country, and even to pay their freight to -Canada in some crazy old hull (provided their fare do not exceed the -amount it would cost to bury them in case they died under a bush or -ditch after the dilapidation of their homes). Once removed to Quebec -or to the bottom of the Atlantic (it matters not which), there is an -end of trouble to both landlord and tenant. In Canada the tenant cannot -fare worse than in Ireland (for worse he could not), and he may fare -better. At the bottom of the sea he is safe, and provided for, for all -time to come. In either case he is out of the landlord’s sight, and out -of the sight of all to whom a knowledge of his treatment might suggest -misgivings as to their own future. To the landlord who ousted him, -his personal service as an actual slave would be as useless as that -of Tacitus’s ruined gamester would be to the successful one who had -won him and sold him. He would be but an incumbrance--a lump of dead -stock--an incubus upon the soil! His presence would be but a reproach -to his landlord, and curse to himself! To get rid of him, then,--to -dispose of him anyhow, or by any means, that will only get him out of -the way,--is the one thing needful. Well, Tacitus has shown us how the -lucky gamesters of his day got rid of their fleeced victims in Germany. -Against his case we fear not to put the Irish “clearers” and the -British farm-“consolidators” of our day, being perfectly assured that -the Saxons of the present day will be found to excel those of Tacitus’s -day, or any other of the old German tribes, in the art of slave-making, -as much as we excel the old Romans themselves in road-making, -shipbuilding, money-grubbing, military manslaughtering, or any other -art or science. - -To return from this digression, the relation of debtor and creditor -was unquestionably one of the direst and most fertile sources of -slavery known to the ancient pagan world. Even God’s chosen people, -the Hebrews, were not altogether free from it. It is true, Moses’s -septennial release from debt, and the jubilee ordained at the end -of every fifty years, were powerful checks upon the inroad of this -form of slavery. But, nevertheless, indebtedness _did_ furnish its -contingent to slavery even under the Mosaic law; for do we not find -Moses anticipating this curse in Leviticus, when he enjoins, “If thy -brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and _be sold_ unto thee, -thou shalt not compel him to serve as a slave or bond-servant, but as -an hired servant; and as a sojourner he shall be with thee, and shall -serve thee until the day of the jubilee,” &c. This shows clearly how -inseparable was slavery from indebtedness under the ancient order of -things, when Moses found it necessary to make provisions against its -contingency, notwithstanding all the precautions he had ordained to -prevent it. And Moses’s foresight is fully proved by the subsequent -history of the Jews. For we learn from Josephus, that at a later -epoch, to wit, under King Joram, the son of Jehosaphat, the widow of -Obadias (who had been governor of King Achab’s palace) came to tell the -prophet Elisha that, unable to reimburse the money that her husband -had borrowed, to subsist the hundred prophets he had saved from the -persecution by Jezebel, _his creditors laid claim to herself and her -children as their slaves_. We might furnish other instances of a -similar kind from sacred history; while from profane history we might -cite proofs _ad infinitum_ bearing upon the same point: but enough has -been said for our purpose. The obligation of debtors to their creditors -was undoubtedly one of the most grievous sources of slavery known to -the positive law in ancient times. Next to war, it was probably the -greatest. - -The last remaining cause to be disposed of is the marriage of -females--more especially of females married out of their own family -or tribe. That much slavery was brought about in this way is provable -in a variety of ways, and by the best traditional evidence. Homer’s -“Iliad” abounds in testimonies to this effect. We have already cited -the example of Cassandra, whom Othryon purchased from Priam, even as -Jacob bought Leah and Rachel from their father Laban. Other passages -are still more conclusive on the point. We find in the 9th book, for -instance, that Agamemnon, regretting his having occasioned the wrath of -Achilles, offers him, by way of appeasing it, certain costly presents; -amongst others, seven Lesbian female slaves, along with Briseis; and, -when Troy should be taken, twenty captives, the most beautiful, after -Helen; and as a climax, one of his own three daughters--Achilles to -choose, and to have her without purchase. And again, in the 16th book, -we find Homer making mention of a certain Polydora, the mother of -Menestheus, whom he describes as having been purchased for a wife, by -her husband, at a great expense. The poems of Virgil contain similar -evidences,--as for instance, when Juno proposes to Venus to settle -their quarrels, and to accept Dido as a spouse and servant to her son -Æneas. The term _service_ made use of by Virgil indicates clearly the -servile relation to the husband which such marriages imposed upon women. - -Having explained the _origin_ of direct slavery, its legal -establishment, and the principal known causes which multiplied it -and consolidated it as a social institution, let us now inquire in -what light it was regarded by the ancients themselves, wherefore it -was able to maintain its footing all over the world, till the advent -of Christianity; why it still obtains in so large a portion of the -habitable globe; and why it has in nowise ceased, without giving birth -to a masked or indirect slavery worse than itself. - -In this inquiry, our task will resolve itself in establishing the three -following propositions:-- - -1st. That direct or personal slavery was not regarded by the ancients -in the light in which enlightened men of the present day regard it, -that is to say, as an unnatural and inhuman institution, but, on the -contrary, was considered to be a thing perfectly natural and reasonable -in itself, and essential to the ends and purposes of society. - -2nd. That the main cause of its permanence in the world was the -universality of public opinion in its favour, rather than the force of -law or custom; and that the slaves themselves fully participated in the -general opinion. - -3rd. That, all things considered, direct slavery, whether as practised -by the ancients or by the modems (wherever it is in use), was, with -all its evils, less destructive of life, morals, and happiness to the -majority than the present system of indirect or disguised slavery, as -effected in most civilized countries by unjust agrarian, monetary, and -fiscal laws. - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -OPINION OF THE ANCIENT WORLD ON SLAVERY. - - Permanence of Slavery under all Revolutions--Ignorance of - Principle of Human Equality--Theory and Personal Experience of - Plato--Contentment of Slaves with their Condition--Occasional - Comfort and Happiness of Slaves--Absence of Revolts against - Slavery--Social and Political Rights ignored by Greeks and Romans. - - -Having, in the preceding chapters, shown how human slavery came into -the world, how it originated in the despotism of paternal power, -before laws or governments were known, and how, coeval with society -itself, it had grown up, flourished, and everywhere established -itself, as a _domestic_ institution, before any conventional act or -delegated authority of society came to consolidate it as a _social_ -institution--having shown all this, and afterwards explained the -subsequent modifications, enlargements, and aggravations of slavery -made by positive legislation,--let us now ascertain why the diabolical -institution endured so long in the world; why it still endures in very -many countries; and, above all, why every attempt to get rid of it has -hitherto only had the effect of aggravating the evils of society, and -making the mass of mankind more miserable slaves, _without the name_, -than any that ever bore the name in ancient or modern times. Having -ascertained this, we shall then be prepared to comprehend the only just -and practicable means whereby slavery of every sort, and in every form -and degree, may be effectually and for ever banished from the world. - -Had slavery, amongst the ancients, originated in, and been upheld by, -their laws and governments, it may be fairly presumed that some of -the revolutions which, at various epochs, swept away their laws and -governments would have swept away the institution of slavery amongst -the rest. Whatever is forced upon a decided majority of any people, by -the will of a minority, can be upheld only by fraud and coercion. Had -these been the conditions of slavery amongst the ancients, it is quite -certain that the moment a successful revolution, from within or from -without, came to break up the authority of rulers in any particular -country, the slaves or bondsmen would, that very moment, seize their -opportunity to emancipate themselves; and if it was the love of -equality or of social justice that made them rise, they would not lay -down their arms till they had established a just social order, based -upon the recognition of _equal rights and equal laws for all_. - -Now, there is hardly any ancient state or country we could name -that has not had its revolutions, and that did not witness, at some -period or other, a complete subversion of its government, laws, and -institutes; yet do we find the institution of slavery survive in -all. In no one instance do we find the slaves of a revolutionalized -state avail themselves of such a crisis to establish _the rights of -man as man_. Intestine commotions, military insurrections, foreign -invasions, popular triumphs over kings and senates--these and all other -like incidents in the life of nations invariably passed away without -abolishing the curse of slavery. Why was this? How happened it? Why did -not the slaves of the old pagan world take advantage of some popular -insurrection, or of the overthrow of their rulers by some invader, -to vindicate the rights of humanity in their own persons, by at once -establishing a free government for all, and by abolishing slavery -altogether? - -There is but one true and sufficient answer to these questions: it is -this:--The doctrine of human equality, of equality in rights, duties, -and responsibilities, was altogether unknown to the ancients: it was -denied in theory; it was unheard of in practice. With the solitary -exception before adverted to--that of the Essenes (of which more -by-and-by), there is no historical record or monument extant to show -that the slaves of antiquity, as a class, knew or cared anything -about theories of government, much less that they comprehended what a -Frenchman would understand by the words _république démocratique et -sociale_, or what a member of the National Reform League understands -by “the political and social rights of the people.” Nor does there -appear to have been a single writer, teacher, philosopher, legislator, -orator, or poet, amongst the whole heathen world, to inspire the -slave-class with any such notions. On the contrary, the idea that one -class were born to be slaves, and the other to be masters, was an idea -as sedulously inculcated by the educators of ancient society, as it -was implicitly believed in by the slaves themselves. The poet and the -two philosophers who, more than any others of their class, exercised -a moral influence upon the ancient world--to wit, Homer, Plato, and -Aristotle--agreed, to a hair, in considering mankind as naturally -divided into two classes--those made to command and those made to obey, -_alias_ masters and slaves. Homer tell us, formally, in the “Odyssey,” -that Jove gave to slaves but the half of a soul. Plato, when citing -this passage in his “Treatise on Laws,” substitutes the word _mind_ -for the Homeric word _virtue_, and adds his authority to that of the -poet, to inculcate that the Father of the Gods bestowed _mind_ and -_virtue_ but by halves upon the children of slavery. Plato is still -more expressive elsewhere. In his dialogue entitled “Alcibiades,” he -makes Socrates teach the same doctrine after his favourite fashion -of question and answer. He makes him ask Alcibiades whether it is -“in the class of nobles or in the class of plebeians that natural -superiority is to be found;” to which the proficient pupil unhesitating -makes answer, “Undoubtedly, in the class of nobles,” or “in those -nobly born.” Aristotle is still more emphatic than Plato in laying -down the theory of human inequality. In one place he goes so far as -to call children “the animated tools of their parents,” signifying -by that, that children are by birth the natural slaves of their -fathers. In his “Treatise on Politics,” he tells us, roundly, that -at the very moment of their birth all created beings are naturally -fashioned, some to obey, and some to command--or, rather, some _to -be commanded_, and the others to command; for it is the same verb he -makes use of in both cases, using the _passive_ mood for the slaves -and the _active_ for the slave-owners. In the same treatise he tells -us, further on, that nature actually makes the bodies of freemen -(genteel folk) different from those of slaves; that the latter are -purposely made robust and hardy for the necessities of labour, whilst -those of gentlemen are made so slight and upright as to be unfit for -physical labour, but well qualified for the business of government. -In citing this passage, we have given an almost literal translation -of the Greek--a translation more expressive of the author’s sense -than a strictly verbal translation would be. The very terms made use -of by Aristotle show clearly his belief that slaves were made to be -slaves, and their masters to govern them. The words we have rendered -by the free translation, “qualified for the business of government,” -mean, “_literally_, availably useful for political life,” which, if -not so intelligible, is stronger and of wider signification than our -translation. At all events, there can be no doubt as to Aristotle’s -meaning. Like Homer and Plato, he was a firm believer in the _duality_ -of human nature--that is to say, that slaves were born with one -nature, and their masters with another. Indeed, Plato carried this -creed so far, that he made slavery to consist in the moral and -mental man himself, and not in the servility of his condition as a -slave. A wise man, he contended, could not be made a slave of: the -natural superiority of such a man would rise superior to any, or all, -conditions that might be imposed upon him. Plato lived to have his -doctrine tried in his own person. Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, had -him sold for a slave by one Pollio, a Lacedemonian chief; but history -does not say whether Plato the slave held the same opinions on slavery -as Plato the freeman and philosopher. It was one of his maxims that -“a wise and just man could be as happy in a state of slavery as in a -state of freedom.” Dionysius took him at his word, and, tyrant though -he was, we think he served Plato right. The sage who believed in two -natures, one for slaves and another for freemen, and who taught that a -wise and just man could be as happy in slavery as in freedom, deserved -to have such doctrines tried and verified in his own person. Plato had -them tried in his; but, great philosopher as he was, we suspect he must -have found some little difference between slavery and freedom, when -we find him seizing the first opportunity to recover his liberty, and -preferring to live a freeman, in Athens, to living a slave at Ægina. - -When such were the opinions of philosophers and poets (whose mission -and function it was to live for other generations and other times them -their own), what may we not expect from the vulgar herd who lived only -for themselves? Their ideas were just what we might expect. High and -low, gentle and simple, rich and poor, freemen and slaves--all, all -believed in the duality of human nature--in the divine origin of kings, -and in the no less divine origin of slavery. On these points the whole -of pagan antiquity appears to have been unanimous. The treatment of -their helots by the Spartans, who, in order to disgust their children -with drunkenness, used to exhibit those unfortunates in a state of -bestial intoxication, speaks volumes for the notions the ancients had -of slaves and slavery. Their occasional decimation of the helots by -wholesale and deliberate slaughter, for no other or better reason than -to thin their ranks and reduce their numbers for their own convenience, -is a still more glaring exemplification. It shows that a slave was a -mere thing--a chattel--a nobody--even a nuisance, if his master only -chose to think him so. - -The Elder Cato, who was cried up for his goodness as a master to his -slaves, thought it not unworthy of himself, nor unjust to them, to -keep them always quarrelling with one another, by artfully fomenting -jealousies amongst them. Plutarch tells us, too, that when they got old -and broken down, Cato used to treat them as he (Plutarch) would not use -the ox or the horse that had served him faithfully. He used to sell -them, or dispose of them any way, when there was no more work to be got -out of them. Yet Cato was a model for the gentlemen slave-owners of his -day. He was the Benjamin Franklin of his republic; the Adam Smith of -the Roman political economy of his time. When _he_ behaved so to his -slaves, what must have been the opinions and behaviour of such masters -as were brutes by nature, tyrants by instinct and culture? Seneca -describes one of these worthies to us, under the name of Vedius Pollio, -who, if we are to believe that philosopher, was in the habit of feeding -the fish in his ponds with the flesh of his slaves! It is impossible to -conceive that slaves must not have been considered of a different and -inferior nature, when every description of masters, good and bad, are -found (however differing in their mode of treatment) to deal with them -as with beings having no rights of their own--no rights but what their -masters might choose to confer. - -The slaves, on their side, appear to have been perfectly reconciled -to slavery as an institution. The writings of the ancients have left -us nothing to countervail this opinion, but, on the contrary, much -to confirm it. We can nowhere discover any evidence to show that the -slaves of antiquity regarded slavery in any other light than as an -institution natural in itself, and neither unjust nor unreasonable, -provided they (the slaves) were well treated. It is true they often -complained of their lot, and sometimes rebelled, too, in order -to change it; but, in so doing, it is to be observed, they never -complained of slavery _as an institution_, nor invoked the principle of -Equality as the end and object of their complaints or rebellions. Their -complaint was, not that slavery existed, but that they, themselves, -and not others, were the slaves. And when they rebelled, it was not -in order to put down slavery and establish liberty for all; it was to -exchange conditions with their masters, or else to secure their own -freedom at the price of taking away other people’s. The idea of making -common cause with other slaves, in order to emancipate all slaves, -never entered their heads. Principle, or love of equality, had nothing -whatever to do with their movements. The principle of _liberty for -all_ was too sublime an idea for them. Equality before God and the law -was still further beyond them. Slavery, _as a principle_, they had -no fault to find with; they complained only of the _accident_ that -made them slaves and others free. Even of this the vast majority never -complained, because the vast majority (there is reason to believe) were -content with their lot, and satisfied with their masters’ treatment of -them. Indeed, the whole tenour of what we read of in history respecting -slaves leads to this conclusion. The vast majority were content with -their condition. In general they were kindly treated; and as they knew -no other state, and saw nothing unjust or unreasonable in slavery, they -were attached to their masters as to benefactors (regarding them as the -authors of their comfort), and might, mayhap, as a general rule, be -pronounced happy. - -The old classics are full of allusions and passages which go to show -the high state of domestic comfort enjoyed by certain descriptions of -slaves, and the free and familiar relations which subsisted between -them and their masters. A kindly and homely sort of intercourse was the -rule; harshness and ill-nature would appear to have been the exception. -Indeed, slaves were regarded so much in the light of mere animals by -masters, and masters so much as demi-gods, or superior beings, by -slaves, that no possible rivalry, jealousy, or misgivings could subsist -between them; but, on the contrary, that sort of mutual confidence, -fidelity, and fondness with which favourite horses and dogs reciprocate -the kindly treatment and caresses of their owners. Whenever we find -slaves breaking out into insurrection, we may be sure it is either -because they have harsh masters, or have been torn from distant homes, -or are being seduced by insurgent chiefs who promise them rapine and -freedom; or because they expect, through a successful insurrection, -to become pirates or robbers, which was the highest occupation of -honour and profit that a slave could aspire to in those days. In these -insurrections, as already observed, equality was never invoked. The -“rights of man” was a profound mystery in the womb of the future. The -insurgents thought of no slavery but their own; and of no other or -better advantages from liberty than the spoils of their masters, and -exchanging conditions with them. - -Limiting ourselves, for the moment, to Roman history, we find some six -revolts of slaves recorded by Livy, and some three or four more made -mention of by Aulus Gellius, Tacitus, and others. Livy does not go -much into detail; but, from the little he says, he makes it manifest -that real liberty or equality had nothing to do with any of the six -revolts he treats of. The sixth revolt, which was headed by one Eunus, -a Syrian, is related at greater length by Diodorus of Sicily. And what -does Diodorus show? That Eunus was an impostor, who pretended a mission -from the Syrian Venus, and, ejecting flames from his mouth by means -of a hollow nut that he had filled with lighted sulphur, succeeded in -fanaticising some 2,000 slaves, and inducing them to break loose from -the work-houses. He had soon an army of some 60,000 men, gained several -actions in the course of a long and bloody war, made himself master of -the camps of four prætors; but at last, pressed by increasing numbers, -and forced to shut himself up in the city of Enna with his followers, -he and they, after defending themselves with courage and bravery amid -indescribable difficulties, were at last overpowered, and perished -all, by famine, pestilence, and the sword. This insurrection, which -took place in Sicily, was no sooner quelled than another broke out, -of a similar kind, and upon as large a scale, under the command of a -slave named Athenio, who, after assassinating his master, and causing -all the work-houses to rise in insurrection, had soon as large an army -under his command as Eunus had. Like Eunus, Athenio had some incipient -successes; he stormed and made himself master of two prætorian camps: -like Eunus, however, he had soon to succumb to the united force of -famine and the sword. He perished, with nearly all his followers. The -immediate cause of these two servile wars--which, next to the famous -one under Spartacus, appear to have been the most formidable of their -kind--was the alleged violation of the work-house regulations by the -masters. Indeed, Diodorus testifies, positively and clearly, that the -revolt headed by Athenio arose solely from the inability of the prætor -in Sicily to enforce the laws or regulations which had been made in -favour of the slaves, and which, like our modern factory lords, the -masters were continually seeking to evade. Plutarch lets it appear that -a similar cause provoked the revolt of Spartacus. - -Those three revolts, which took place during the last sixty years of -the Republic--namely, the two under Eunus and Athenio, in Sicily, -and the third under Spartacus, in Italy--were the most serious and -destructive of the servile wars recorded of Rome. They had the ablest -commanders, and met with the largest measure of success. In these, if -in any wars of the kind, might we hope to find the dignity of human -nature vindicated by the insurgent bondsmen. There was nothing of the -sort. The harsh conduct of masters and the violation of work-house -rules were the motive powers of each revolt: no higher motive seems, -for a moment, to have actuated the revolters. - -The conduct, too, of Eunus and Athenio, during their brief success, -showed how thoroughly undemocratic, and even aristocratic, were their -plans and objects. Instead of setting about the abolition of slavery -and the establishment of equality, they began forthwith to ape the pomp -and circumstance of their oppressors, and to deal with their followers -as though they were little kings, and not fellow-slaves in rebellion. -They wore purple robes and gold chains. Athenio carried a silver staff -in his hand, and had his brow wreathed with a diadem, like a monarch. -Indeed, Florus tells us that, while these adventurers assumed all -the state and airs of royalty, they imitated royalty no less in the -havoc, plunder, and devastations they spread around them. At first they -contented themselves with plundering and pulling down the castles, -villas, and mansions of the aristocrats and master-class; but, this -accomplished, they soon began to exact the same servility from their -followers that they had themselves kicked against. Liberty and equality -were out of the question. Had they succeeded, their wretched followers -would soon have found that they had but exchanged masters. - -The revolt under Spartacus is the most horrible of all, because it was -a revolt of men who were gladiators as well as slaves. Liberty or the -rights of man had no more to do with this revolt than with any of the -others. It arose from brutal oppression on the part of one Lentulus -Batiatus, to whom a portion of the insurgents belonged: he was training -them, in fact, that they might combat one another to death in the arena -for his recreation. Neither in its origin, conduct, nor results did -this servile war differ from any of the others. Like all of them, it -originated in private wrongs, was purely personal in its antecedents, -and neither in its progress nor results did it exhibit a single -indication of democratic, philanthropic, or any other virtues than the -usual military ones common to all Romans at the time. In truth, what we -moderns understand by political and social rights (and without which -we know that real liberty cannot exist for any people) was an idea -altogether foreign to every class of Greeks and Romans, and, indeed, to -the whole of antiquity, with the solitary exception of the Essenes. - -Thus, _public opinion_ conspired with law and custom to uphold direct -human slavery throughout the ancient world. This opinion must have -been all but universal, since not even slaves in revolt ever dreamt -of abolishing slavery as an institution. They warred against certain -incidents and accidents of slavery; never against the principle itself. -This universality of public opinion in its favour, coupled with the -fact that direct slavery is an evil of far lesser magnitude than -the indirect slavery of modern civilization, we take to be the true -explanation of the old pagan system having endured so long in the world. - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -UNIVERSALITY OF PUBLIC OPINION AS TO MASTER AND SLAVES. - - System acquiesced in by Slave-Class--Insurrections and - Rebellions from other Causes than Hatred of Slavery--Rising - under Spartacus--Conditions wanting for Success--Contrast of - Modern Aspirations after Freedom--Example from enslaved Roman - Citizens--Preference of Slaves for their Condition. - - -Although the historical facts cited in the preceding chapter -demonstrate satisfactorily enough that what, in our times, is called -_public opinion_ was amongst the ancients universally in favour of -human slavery as a social institution, nevertheless we shall here -adduce a few additional facts in confirmation of that proposition, -before we pass on to our next, which will go to show that it was more -owing to the prevalence of such opinion, than to the force of laws, -that direct slavery endured so long; and that, viewing the question -impartially and as a whole, that form of slavery was, with all its -abominations, less galling and oppressive, and less destructive of -life, liberty, morals, and happiness, than is the present system of -indirect or disguised slavery, to which our modern civilization dooms -the vast majority of Christendom,--at least, the vast majority of the -proletarian and working classes. - -The testimonies we have quoted from Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and Seneca -were pretty decisive as to the light in which slavery was regarded by -the teachers of antiquity. Cato’s treatment of his slaves, the still -more atrocious conduct attributed to such brutes as Vedius Pollio, -and the habitual treatment of their helots by the citizens of Sparta, -show clearly enough that the proprietary classes carried out, to the -letter, the theory of their philosophers and poets; but the most -decisive evidence of all is, unquestionably, that furnished by the -various servile wars and insurrections to which we have made reference. -The fact that in no one recorded instance did the slaves of antiquity -rebel against slavery as an institution,--the fact, that in no one of -the ten servile rebellions which, under the Romans, took place in Italy -and Sicily did the insurgent slaves declare for liberty for all slaves, -nor invoke the principle of Equality against the pretensions of the -master-class,--the fact that, upon these and all similar occasions, -the rebel-slaves never dreamt of emancipating any but themselves, -uniformly betraying an utter disregard of other people’s rights when -they got the upper hand, and manifesting that no higher motive actuated -them than to break their own chains, or transfer them to the persons -of their masters,--these and the like facts banish all doubts on the -subject, and render it matter of positive certainty that no class or -description of men, amongst the ancients, disavowed the principle of -slavery, or dreamt of abolishing it as an institution of society. - -We have seen how Eunus and Athenio, the two successful leaders of the -two Sicilian insurrections, used their successes, not to proclaim -equal rights and equal laws for all, but to rob and massacre, to ape -the paraphernalia of royalty, and to impose upon others, as well as to -rivet upon their own followers, the chains they had struck from off -themselves. - -If ever a slave-insurrection might have been expected to fly at nobler -game, to strike at the very root of oppression, and to hoist the banner -of universal freedom for all slaves, it was the insurrection of the -gladiators under Spartacus, adverted to in our last, which was by far -the most formidable of all the servile wars that occurred under the -Republic. It was a war which must have succeeded in abolishing slavery, -had it only been a war of principles--that is to say, a war against -the institution itself; for it had every other essential element of -success. It was provoked by a most atrocious abuse of power on the -part of the master-class, by an outrage upon humanity so flagrantly -indefensible that, but for the prevailing prejudices in favour of -slavery as an institution, the conduct of the government in making -common cause with the wrong-doers would be altogether inexplicable. - -First, there was a good cause, to begin with--a cause to justify the -very stones of Rome to rise in mutiny. Then, the bondsmen were in this -instance regular fighting-men, trained for combat in the arena. They -had first-rate captains at their head, in the persons of Spartacus, -Crixus, and Œnomaus, of whom Spartacus was more than a match for the -ablest generals sent against him. Moreover, these gladiators might be -said to represent the entire brotherhood of slaves throughout the Roman -empire; for they had amongst them Greeks, Thracians, Gauls, Spaniards, -Germans, &c.--slaves from all parts. - -If ever insurgent bondsmen might be expected to strike a blow for -general liberty, to proclaim emancipation not for themselves only, but -for the universal brotherhood of slaves, it was this formidable body. -They had numbers, science, discipline, and commanders of consummate -skill and courage. They represented not the slave-class of Italy -alone, but the slaves of every country then subject to, or in alliance -with, the Romans. To crown all, they had an unexampled run of military -successes. Florus, Appian, and Plutarch give us copious and minute -details of this famous war, which lasted about three years, and, from -their accounts, we cannot help believing that the gladiators must have -been successful, had they made their war a war of principle,--or, to -speak more correctly, had the public opinion of their day allowed such -a thing to be possible. From the moment Spartacus was raised to the -post of commander-in-chief, the war might be said to be one continued -series of brilliant victories for the gladiators. He defeated, in -succession, not less than five Roman armies, led by prætors or consuls. -At last the Senate, after charging Crassus with the responsibility -of the war, found itself obliged to recall Lucullus from Thrace, -and Pompey the Great from Spain, to unite their forces and their -generalship with those of Crassus--so formidable was the foe, so -imminent the danger. Not Hannibal himself struck more terror into -Rome’s proud rulers than did Spartacus the slave-gladiator. - -But while history accords to Spartacus many noble qualities, and admits -his consummate talents and bravery as a general, it tells us enough, -on the other hand, to show that neither himself nor his companions in -arms had any notion of fighting for general liberty, nor any other -object in view than to accomplish their own escape from their merciless -oppressors. In this respect Spartacus but shared in the universal -opinion of his day. Possibly he had mind enough, himself, to comprehend -the wisdom and the necessity of making this war a war of principle. -A man of his superior parts was fully equal to that; but as such an -idea could not have been appreciated, nor even comprehended, by his -followers, he was too sensible to broach what would have, to them, -appeared downright insanity. Like all men similarly circumstanced, he -was forced to appeal merely to the lower order of motives. To promise -them personal freedom and the spoils of war was his only means of -keeping his followers together. Accordingly, we learn from Plutarch -that the proposed end of all his victories was to pass the Alps, gain -over the Gauls, and then, with their assistance, make their escape, -each to his respective country and home. - -At all events, the idea of abolishing the institution of slavery -appears never to have entered their minds. Had the slaves of that -age been capable of comprehending such an idea, it is almost certain -Spartacus would not have been conquered. The prevalence of such an -idea would have united the whole slave population, not only in Italy, -but everywhere else, under his standard, and there would have been -a simultaneous rising of the whole race. So exalted, so ennobling a -motive would have made his officers proof against bribery, corruption, -and jealousy, and would have effectually prevented that mutinous spirit -amongst his followers to which, more than to the strength of his -opponents, historians ascribe his downfall. - -An ignorant people, actuated only by inferior motives, by -considerations purely personal or selfish, cannot be emancipated from -slavery. The narrow selfishness of such people will ever expose them -to be cajoled or bribed into intestine divisions; and as the want of -principle will preclude them from associating the rights and liberties -of others with their own, in any struggles they may make, so will the -aid of these others be wanting to them in their hour of need, and their -ultimate discomfiture prove the inevitable consequence and just reward -of their ignorant selfishness. - -Indeed, it is to this narrow-minded disregard of principles on the part -of the slave-class--a disregard founded wholly in a selfish ignorance -of their true interests--we are to ascribe the continued prevalence -of the slavery of our own times, as well as of that which vainly -sought to disenthral itself by force under Spartacus. What happened to -the insurgent slaves under Eunus and Athenio in Sicily, and to the -gladiators under Spartacus in Italy, is just what will happen to the -Red Republicans in France, and to the Chartists in England, should they -ever attempt to recover their political and social rights otherwise -than by a movement founded purely upon principle and wholly exempt from -selfish or merely personal calculations on the part of men and leaders. -Upon no other conditions is success possible, as we shall endeavour to -demonstrate, with all but mathematical exactness, in the progress of -this inquiry. - -History has been defined, “philosophy teaching by example.” It is in -order to illume the future by the light of the past that we prosecute -this inquiry. A vulgar belief prevails extensively, both in this -country and upon the Continent, that human slavery is almost wholly -the work of priests and religion, and that the genius of Christianity -in particular is hostile to liberty and progress. Those who hold such -opinions are apt to attach an undue importance to the words “monarchy” -and “republicanism,” and to fancy that there was more real liberty -under the ancient republics of Greece and Rome, before Christianity was -heard of, than it would be now possible to establish in any country -concurrently with the kingly office, and with Christianity being a part -and parcel of its fundamental law. Such persons are also apt to suppose -that the slavery of ancient times was wholly the work of positive laws, -operating by coercion to keep down an adverse public opinion, and to -account in pretty much the same way for the abuses and oppressions of -our own time, ascribing them almost wholly to individual rulers or -governments, and scarcely at all to the ignorance and corruption of -the public opinion around them. Believing such notions to be, in a -great measure, erroneous and prejudicial to the cause of _real reform_ -(which must take possession of a people before it can of a government), -we have been at some pains, and shall be at still greater, to make -the true origin and character of slavery better understood than they -appear to be. In so doing, we think we shall be able to show that an -ignorant and unprincipled people cannot have a good or wise government, -and that an intelligent, right-principled people would not tolerate, -and therefore could not long have, a bad one. If we be right in this -sentiment, a reform of public opinion must needs precede a reform of -parliament; and as one great object of this treatise is to endeavour -to operate such a reform, we shall avoid, as much as possible, mere -assertions without proof; and therefore, even at the risk of being -sometimes tedious, we shall continue to bring forward facts and -details, as we proceed, in elucidation of our positions. - -Now, without going into theological questions (which nothing -shall induce us to do), let us request a certain class of French -philosophers, who are at present labouring to solve the “social -question,” to ask themselves how it happened that, before Christianity -was heard of, the theory and practice of human slavery had got such a -firm hold of the whole pagan world, that not even the slaves themselves -ever dreamt of calling the institution into question. - -In the middle ages we have had Jacqueries, corresponding with the -slave-insurrections under pagan Rome; but it is notorious that, in -those Jacqueries, the principle of fraternity and equality was invoked -by the disaffected. In the 16th century the Anabaptists of Munster rose -against aristocracy and privilege, and, for a season, put down their -lords and masters with as high a hand as Eunus and Athenio put down -theirs in ancient Sicily. But mark the difference: the Anabaptists -sought an order of things in which all should work, and none be -drudges or slaves; the followers of Eunus and Parthenio sought quite -a different thing,--they sought only to exchange places with their -masters, and they had no objection at all to human slavery, provided -they were not slaves themselves. - -What is true of John of Leyden and his followers might be applied -to our own Fifth-Monarchy men in Cromwell’s time, and to the French -revolutionists of 1793 and 1795 under Babœuf. If they sought to pull -down those above them, it was upon the principle and the understanding -that neither themselves nor anybody else should take the places of the -dethroned oppressors. Something similar might be predicated of certain -Socialist sects in modern France and Germany. If they are for making -a clean sweep of the aristocracy, it is not that they may take their -places. If they are against privilege, it is against the principle that -they contend, and not against the mere accident that they themselves -are not privileged parties. - -This remarkable difference in the revolutionary movements of ancient -and modern times cannot but strike every thinking man who will take -the trouble to compare them. Nor let it be said that the difference -arises solely from the disaffected having been slaves in the times -of paganism and freemen in the times of Christianity. Cataline and -his co-conspirators were not slaves, nor the friends of slaves: -yet they acted precisely upon the same motives and principles as -those ascribed to Eunus and Athenio. Cataline did not promise his -brother-revolutionists a _régime_ of liberty and equality for all -orders of men; quite the contrary. In the first place, he indignantly -repudiated all co-operation with slaves; and instead of _equal rights -and equal laws for all_, he promised one portion of his followers -a cancelling of all their debts; another portion, _magistrates, -sacerdotia, rapinas_--i.e. magisterial offices, the preferments and -property of the Church, and general plunder; and to all he promised -women, wine, horses, dogs, &c., according to their age and tastes. -If we are to believe Sallust, he was to begin with setting fire to -Rome, proceed with the massacre and spoliation of his enemies during -the confusion, and end by putting his associates and friends in the -place of the men they wished to get rid of. In other words, Cataline’s -doctrine was (to use an old Roman phrase), that every man must be -either _prædo_ or _præda_--either the _thief_ or the _spoil_, or, -as Voltaire expresses it, either _hammer_ or _anvil_; and he was -determined to be the thief, or the hammer. The doctrine of _equality_, -at any rate, had no share in his system. - -What history describes Cataline to have been is equally predicable of -the whole of the revolutionary school in which he had had his political -training. Sylla and his lieutenants, on the one hand, representing -patrician revolutionists, and Marius, Sulpitius, Saturninus, &c., on -the other, representing the plebeian revolutionists, had acted, every -man of them, upon the principles ascribed to Cataline. Not a chief -or demagogue of them all, on either side, said a word or proposed a -measure that savoured of justice or legality for all people. Principle -was entirely out of the question. It is doubtful, indeed, whether -either leaders or people understood anything at all of the matter. -There is certainly nothing in history to evidence that they either knew -or cared for any other rules or principles of government than those -good old-fashioned ones, which the several agencies of gold, intrigue, -and the sword resolve themselves into--the right of the strongest. To -such republicans as Sylla, Marius, Clodius, Sulpicius, &c., our modern -ideas of a _république démocratique et sociale_ would be about as -intelligible as a proposal to light old Rome with gas or to communicate -_senatus consulta_ by the electric telegraph. - -Before despatching this branch of our inquiry, let us cite just one -more fact from history, which we regard as perfectly decisive on the -question--a fact sufficient of itself to convince any reasonable man -that slavery, as an institution, had the public opinion of all classes -in its favour in the times we are treating of; so much so, that not -even Roman citizens and warriors, sold into slavery, thought of -questioning its propriety. - -In the second Punic war, some 1,200 Roman citizens were made prisoners -by the Carthaginians, and by them disposed of to merchants, who, in -the regular way of trade, sold them as slaves amongst the farmers of -Peloponessus, by whom they were set to work in the fields. Now, if -any class of slaves ought to be imbued with the sentiments of human -equality, it is, undoubtedly, men like these, who had not been born in -slavery, and who, from the very constitution of the Roman army, must -have been men of family and station. Let us see. Plutarch tell us, in -his Life of Flaminius, that some years after, when the Achæan cities -demanded succour of the Romans against Philip of Macedon, Titus Quintus -was sent to them with some legions, and made himself master of the -disputed territories. While engaged in these operations, his soldiers -fell in, one day, with the 1,200 Roman citizens who had been sold into -slavery by the Carthaginians, and found them delving the ground, like -any other slaves. As might be expected, the soldiers and the slaves -embraced one another as fellow-countrymen and old friends; but mark -the sequel: not a word is there in Plutarch or elsewhere to intimate -that either soldiers or slaves regarded this bondage of Roman citizens -as anything monstrous or degrading. On the contrary, after embracing, -the soldiers went their way, and the citizen-slaves resumed their -task-work. Flaminius, as being master of the country, might have set -them at liberty at once, if he liked: he did no such thing. It would -have been to _violate the rights of property_. It is true, those slaves -afterwards obtained their liberty; but it was only through a voluntary -subscription raised by the cities of the Achæan league, which, in -gratitude for the services rendered by Flaminius, redeemed the bondsmen -and made a present of them to their benefactor. And even when released -by Flaminius they did not resume their former rank of citizens: that -rank was irredeemably forfeited. They became _freedmen_ only; which -imposed upon them a sort of fealty to their patron, whose vassals they -thenceforward were in the eye of the law. This one historical incident -speaks volumes. It shows how completely the system of slavery was -ingrained in the minds and habits of the people, as well as in their -laws and institutes. Here was a victorious Roman general and soldiers -so respecting the institution, that not even their own fellow-citizens, -made prisoners by their most hated foes, were regarded as fit objects -for freedom, until it pleased their masters or owners to give them -up to the general for a sum of money; and had it not been for the -subscription of the cities, the slaves would have reconciled themselves -to their lot of slavery as to a thing quite natural and proper under -the circumstances. - -After this, let it not be said that it was the force of law or the -strength of governments that maintained slavery in ancient times. No; -it was the universality of the public opinion in its favour. Had it -been otherwise, the slaves might have emancipated themselves in any -of those revolutionary crises which were of such frequent occurrence, -and when neither law nor government had any force adequately to cope -with them. But, even in their own most successful insurrections against -the tyranny of their masters, they never dreamt (as we have seen) of -abolishing slavery. Nay, on one occasion, when Marius, unable to cope -with Sylla’s faction for want of sufficient troops, solicited the -slaves to rise in behalf of the democratic party, and offered them -their liberty if they would but join his ranks, only three individuals, -we are told, out of the whole slave population gave in their names to -be enrolled. - -In the following chapter we shall endeavour to account for this, and -show that, as a general rule, the slaves acted wisely, in preferring to -remain slaves (when they knew so little of real liberty) to becoming -“free and independent labourers,” without arms, votes, lands, money, or -credit, after British fashion. - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -COMPARISON OF ANCIENT WITH MODERN SLAVERY. - - Forces which overthrew Chattel Slavery--Advantages of real Slaves - over Freed-Men and Wages-Slaves--Natural Fecundity esteemed a - Blessing, not a Curse--Condition of American Slaves under Slavery. - - -Having seen how firmly rooted was the institution of direct human -slavery in the public opinion of the ancient world, let us now inquire -what was the potent force or combination of forces which subverted -that opinion, and which operated the mighty changes that afterwards -took place in the social relation of man to man. By these changes, we -mean the manumission of the slave-class, the consequent formation of -proletarianism, and, in course of time, the universal substitution -of indirect or disguised for direct or personal slavery--an order of -things which has ever since prevailed, and which, at the moment we -write, imposes upon the vast majority of every “civilized” country a -bondage more galling and intolerable than was the personal servitude of -man to man under the ancient system. - -It will be readily comprehended what a potent agency was requisite, -and what sacrifices must have been incurred, to subvert a social order -so deeply implanted in the habits, prejudices, and even convictions of -the whole world. To produce such effect, only the most potent causes, -only the most powerful influences known to act upon human nature, -could suffice. What are these? _Religion and self-interest._ For--not -to encumber ourselves with subdivisions of causes--suffice it to say, -that two overwhelming ones brought the change: one, the Christian -dispensation, which gradually revolutionized public opinion amongst the -slave-class, and among the pious and benevolent of the master-class; -the other was of the gross and worldly kind, coming from quite the -opposite direction, yet concurring to the same end--it was the force -of selfishness. This force it was which, operating by calculations of -profit and loss upon the mass of worldly-minded slave-owners, taught -them, if not instinctively, at least by practical experience, that -their bondmen might be made more servile and profitable slaves for -them, _without the name_, than any that ever bore the name. The former -or sublime Christian cause would, had it been allowed to operate freely -and unalloyed with worldly selfishness, have extinguished human slavery -of every form and degree from the face of the earth. The latter or more -worldly cause, by turning the manumitted slaves into proletarians and -mercenary drudges, only substituted a new and worse kind of slavery for -the old. - -But, before showing how the change was brought about, let us briefly -compare the two kinds of slavery--the old and the new. Under the old -system a slave was called by his right name--a slave. He was, to all -intents and purposes, the property of his master. He was liable to be -bought and sold, or otherwise disposed of, the same as cattle, sheep, -bales of goods, oil, wine, or any other kind of merchandise. If he had -a harsh or cruel master, he was liable to all manner of ill-treatment, -including corporal punishment and even death itself. Of liberty or -rights of course he had none but what his master might choose to -confer. Whatever wealth he might hoard or scrape together was at the -mercy of his master; for as slaves were themselves but the property of -their masters, whatever belonged to them belonged, by the same rule, to -their owners. It is needless to argue in condemnation of such a system: -it is self-condemned in the very fact that human nature recoils from -such a state, and that it is only bearable by those who know no better, -and only preferable to the sort of mockery of freedom to which it has -given place. Let it not, however, be supposed that the evils of such -a state were felt as we should now-a-days feel them, who have enjoyed -the rights of liberty and conscience; it was quite otherwise. If the -condition of direct slavery had its dark side, it had also its bright -side--bright, at least, in comparison with what has followed. The slave -of antiquity was not insulted with the name or mockery of freedom when -he knew he had none. He had not the shadow hypocritically offered him -for the substance. He had not to upbraid his masters with dissimulation -and treachery, in addition to the burdens imposed upon him. He had not -to complain that his master had robbed him or defrauded him of rights, -and of a position which belonged to him by the same constitutional -law by which the master claimed his own. Of these he could have known -nothing, simply because they had never existed in or before his time. -What men have never had, they can hardly be said to have ever lost; -and what men have never lost, they can better bear the want of, than -they can the loss of what was once theirs, and which they know and feel -ought still to belong to them. In these respects the chattel-slaves of -ancient and modern times have greatly the advantage over the starving -proletarian drudges falsely called “free and independent labourers.” - -But the ancient bondsman had other and more substantial advantages -unknown to his proletarian successors. He knew nothing of the actual -wants and destitution, nothing of the manifold privations, in which -the great mass of the labouring classes now-a-days live, move, and -have their being. The very fact of his being his master’s property -caused him to be always well fed, well housed, well clothed, and -well cared for, according to his condition and habits. If he had no -property, nor the right to acquire any, independently of his master’s -control, neither had he any rent or taxes to pay, nor any other claims -or demands upon him that were not all amply provided for at his -master’s expense. Food, clothing, shelter, firing, medicine, medical -care--these and every other essential requisite for keeping him in -health and good condition were abundantly supplied him by his master, -for the master’s own sake. Indeed, it was the master’s interest to -do so; for whether there was work for the slave to do, or not, it -equally behoved the master to keep him always in good condition, that -he might be the better workman when there was work for him to do, -and that he might fetch a better price in the slave-market when his -services were no longer wanted. Besides, it was the custom in those -days for masters to take a pride in displaying the goodly state of -their slaves--of both their prædial and domestic slaves--just as our -modern gentry and graziers take a pride in displaying the stock upon -their farms, the studs in their stables, and, above all, the plump and -portly figures of their butlers, footmen, grooms, and all the other -paraphernalia of modern flunkeyism. There was, in those days, none of -that desperate competition, in vanity or in trade, which now-a-days -makes starvelings of the millions in order to make millionaires of the -thousands; which offers premiums for fat oxen, and the union workhouse -to lean labourers; and which awards prizes for bulls and rams, and -superior breeds of every description of brutes (not excluding even the -stye and the kennel), while it degrades the human animal below the -lowest description of savage man, and maintains its anti-christian -pomp of circumstances for the few, at the expense of blistering the -backs and pinching the bellies of those who, St. Paul said, should -be “first partakers of the fruits.” This kind of modern science was -wholly unknown to the ancients. Not a line is there in the works of -Homer, Hesiod, Plato, Aristotle, indeed of any of the old poets, -philosophers, or historians, to show that they knew anything of our -modern science of political economy. They believed in slaves and in -slavery; but they had no idea of enriching a master-class by famishing -the bodies of those to whom the masters owed everything, much less did -they ever dream that the wealth and aggrandisement of the master-class -were to be promoted by the expatriation, decimation, or diminution -of the slave-class. If the ancient Spartans occasionally decimated -their slaves, it was not because they looked upon them as a “surplus -population,” burdensome upon their estates, but because they feared -their growing numbers, while their own ranks were being continually -thinned by internecine wars with their neighbours. The idea of a slave -being a useless incumbrance, a mere incubus upon the soil, was an idea -utterly incompatible with their established custom of regarding slaves -not only as property, but as that superior description of property -which alone gave value to every other. Accordingly, though amongst the -ancient philosophers we find many strange schools and sects, and very -many eccentric and incomprehensible doctrines taught, yet nowhere do we -meet with any sect or school corresponding with our modern political -economists. There is no such philosopher as our Parson Malthus to be -found in the whole circle of classic or Biblical lore. Had such a -fellow as Malthus shown himself in the days of Alexander the Great, -and gone about preaching that the gods had sent too many mouths for -the meat and harvests they had provided, not even Diogenes would have -associated with such a lunatic; and if the slaves had only got scent -of the tendencies of his theory, not Alexander himself could, in all -probability, have prevented them from flaying him alive. Fortunately -for them, however, there were no Malthuses in the world at that time. -In the absence of such philosophers, slaves were not only free to -marry and to beget children, but their masters actually regarded -every increase in their slaves’ families as a direct gain--a direct -increase of the most valuable portion of their property. The idea that -at Nature’s feast there was no cover for the new-comer was, at that -epoch, an idea that would be as abhorrent to the master’s notions -of self-interest as it would have been to the slave’s instincts of -procreation and self-preservation. - -It is true, the condition of slaves was a deplorable one when they had -such brutes for masters as Seneca describes in the person of Vedius -Pollio; but we are to regard such extreme cases as rare exceptions. -All historic testimony goes to show that the general rule was in the -other direction. Even Seneca’s testimony proves this; for, in speaking -of this very Vedius Pollio, he says, “Who does not detest this man, -even more than did his own slaves, for fattening the fish in his ponds -with human blood?” The treatment of his gladiators by Lentulus Batiatus -is another indirect proof to the same effect. Had Lentulus trained -his gladiators to appear in the arena in the usual way, to be matched -against others on some great occasion of public games, &c., they would -not have complained, much less rebelled. They would, in that case, but -have been called upon to exercise a profession which was as familiar to -the Romans, and as little distasteful to the combatants themselves, as -that of prize-fighting in England or bull-fighting in Spain. But the -brute, Batiatus, kept his gladiators locked up, and was professedly -training them to _fight with one another_ till they should die by each -other’s hands--a destination which, while it promised certain death, -held out no prospect of honour, _éclat_, nor even safety to the greater -number. It was this studied brutality, so much out of the ordinary -course, which provoked the slaves to mutiny and revolt. And the fact of -its being the only recorded instance of gladiators rising in rebellion -against the laws is the best proof that such barbarity was unusual, and -not sanctioned by the public opinion of the time. Indeed, so general -appears to have been the contentment of ancient slaves with their lot, -that only one or other of three causes is ever assigned by history for -the servile outbreaks it records:--first, excessive cruelty on the part -of masters; second, the non-execution of the laws regulating the labour -and condition of slaves; and third, the chiefs of parties raising and -embodying them with their insurgent bands in times of civil war. The -fewness of the servile wars recorded as arising out of the two first -causes sufficiently testifies that harshness on the part of masters, -and the non-execution of the regulations in favour of the slaves, -were but exceptions to the ordinary course of slave-life, and not the -general rule. It proves also that it was not against slavery itself the -slaves rose, seeing that it was only what they considered _an abuse of -it_, and not the thing itself, they rose against, and that, even when -victorious, they never set about abolishing the institution. And as to -the third cause of slave-insurrections, it proves still more forcibly -the general contentment of slaves with their lot; for, had it been -otherwise, _three_ slaves only out of the whole population would not -have responded to Marius’s appeal for a general rising of their order; -still less would they have failed to profit by the splendid victories -of Spartacus, when, had they only felt the sentiment of equality, or -entertained any dissatisfaction with their lot as slaves, they might -have effectually exterminated the whole master-class, and established -whatever form of government and of social order they thought fit. -Indeed, they had frequent opportunities during the last sixty years of -the Republic, and also during the first century or two of the Empire, -to make a successful rising against the master-class, had they been -inspired generally with a hatred of their servile condition. But it was -not so. - -As a general rule, the slaves both of Greece and Rome were fully -reconciled to their condition, and had good reason to be so, -considering how profoundly ignorant they were of the political -conditions upon which alone real liberty can exist for the many. With -their ideas and habits, any attempt to emancipate themselves would have -plunged them into deeper degradation and ruin. Even their masters, much -less themselves, knew little of the laws and institutions by which -liberty, with security and prosperity, can be established. The proof -of this is their interminable wars with one another, and with their -neighbours all around them. A still stronger proof is their egregious -folly in allowing agrarian monopoly, and usury to make such frightful -progress amongst them, that “free citizens” became actually greater -slaves to money-lenders and land-monopolists than the slaves so called; -till at last the republics of Greece and Rome were brought to such a -state that a military despotism alone could save them from tearing -one another to pieces. When such universal ignorance and barbarity -prevailed amongst the master-class--an ignorance and barbarity that -virtually left civil liberty and equality without any solid guarantees -whatever--it would be madness to expect that any revolution useful to -humanity could have been effected by a still more ignorant slave-class. -They would but have made confusion more confounded, and, by altogether -suspending production, annihilated society itself amid scenes of -indescribable carnage and cannibalism. At all events, the slaves knew -better than to make any such attempt. They preferred bearing the ills -they had, to flying to those they knew not of. Without land or capital, -and freedom to use them in security, they were infinitely better off -as slaves than they would be by any revolution, however successful, -that did not give them these essential requisites. And seeing how the -poorer classes of free citizens fared (who had to make shift to live -without the use of land or capital), it is no wonder they clung so -tenaciously to their well-fed, well-housed servile condition. In plain -truth, the slaves of antiquity would have been mad to exchange their -slavery for what is, now-a-days, falsely called liberty, unless in so -doing they took good care that, along with liberty, _they had the means -of producing and distributing wealth on their own account_. And as this -supposes a species of politico-economical knowledge infinitely beyond -what might be expected from such a class in their day,--as it supposes -such a knowledge of agrarian, monetary, fiscal, and other laws as -are absolutely necessary to the preservation of even the semblance -of liberty, and which knowledge was almost as dead a letter to their -masters as to themselves,--we cannot but rejoice, for their own sakes, -that the slaves of antiquity chose to remain as they were. When men -have but a choice of two evils, it is desirable they should choose the -lesser. The slaves of antiquity had but a choice between direct slavery -and the miseries of proletarianism: in our opinion, they chose the -lesser of the two. Had they been wise enough to understand their true -political and social rights, they might have escaped both. Christianity -came to teach them; but man’s perversity stepped in between them and -the light of the Gospel. Even to this day, after eighteen centuries of -gospel-propagandism, not one in a thousand of the slave-class--whether -they be chattel-slaves or wages-slaves--whether they be proletarians -or the property of their masters--understands his political and social -rights. The consequence is, the two kinds of slavery prevail still all -over the world; and, of the two, direct or chattel-slavery is now, as -formerly, the lesser evil of the two. In no part of the East, that we -know of, would an Oriental slave of modern times exchange conditions -with one of our Wigan handloom weavers, nor with a Dorsetshire labourer. - -But, to bring this question to a test that will make the difference -at once obvious to every one, let us just compare the condition of a -modern American slave (so-called) with that of “a free and independent -labourer” in England. We choose these two countries because they are -inhabited by the same Anglo-Saxon race; because they are at the head -of modern civilization; and because, from the commercial intercourse -between them, we know more of their positive and relative condition -than of any other two known countries. - -First, what was the actual condition of a modern chattel-slave, as he -was to be found in any of the Southern States of the great American -Union? We shall give it from the lips of an eye-witness--from one -who has visited that country and judged for himself, in the year -1849--above all, from one who is a rank abolitionist, and so thorough -going a hater of slavery, and of everything pertaining to it, that in -the paragraph immediately preceding the one we are about to extract, he -buoyantly exclaims, “When we remember the ardour and perseverance of -the American character, and the intelligence of their leaders, we must -believe that the day approaches when the axe shall be laid to the root -of this fell upas-tree.” The author of this sentiment is a Mr. Edward -Smith, who was deputed, along with another gentlemen, by an influential -body of capitalists in London to make a survey and inspection of -the north-western part of Texas, with a view to some extensive plan -of colonization projected by the parties. This Mr. Edward Smith has -furnished his employers with a printed report of his travels through -several States of the Union; and in that report he utters not a few -jeremiads upon the curse of slavery, and not a few withering invectives -against its aiders and abettors. If, therefore, any testimony in favour -of slaves and slavery can be pronounced wholly unexceptionable, it -is that of Mr. Edward Smith, the Abolitionist. Now, what says this -gentleman? We quote pages 83 and 84 of his report:-- - -“From the slaves themselves and from other parties I have learned that, -with few exceptions, they are kindly treated, are not overworked, and -have abundance of food, clothing, and efficient medical attention. We -saw them lodged in small cabins, sometimes rudely built, and in other -places very neatly built, but always _partaking of the character of the -planter’s or overlooker’s house_ near to which they stand. A slave, -his wife and family, occupy a cabin exclusively, unless the family be -small, when two or more families live together. The planters find it -to be their interest to use their negroes well. They always permit -and, indeed, urge the slave to do overwork by planting a small plot -of land, set apart for his use, with corn, tobacco, or other produce. -This they do after the day’s work is over, and also on Sundays, -when the law does not allow the master to require them to work; and -wherefore we saw them clean and well dressed, lying upon the banks of -the rivers, as we passed by. When the produce is gathered, it is sold -by the planters, and the proceeds given to the slaves. Some slaves -prefer to cut wood, which is sold to the steamboats; and all supply -themselves with vegetables from their own garden. Many industrious -slaves can thus obtain from fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars per -year for themselves, which they expend in the purchase of tea, coffee, -sugar, whisky, and other luxuries of the table, and in clothing fit -for any European gentleman. In large cities, as New Orleans, they -hire themselves from their masters at an agreed-upon sum, and work -for others, as they prefer, and thus earn from twenty to twenty-five -dollars per month for themselves. _Very many slaves own horses, kept -for their own use; and others own lands_; and Captain Knight, of the -‘New World,’ stated that he knew a slave _who owned four drays and -teams and seven slaves_. Indeed, when they are good servants, they are -much valued, and obtain every enjoyment they desire.” - -This extract is, we think, pretty decisive of our position; yet there -is another, just following, which is so strongly corroborative of what -we have advanced in respect of the contentment with their condition -which we have ascribed to the ancient slaves, that we cannot forego the -temptation to quote it. “Free-born Britons!” “independent labourers!” -mark this passage:-- - -“They” (the slaves) “do not usually care to save money wherewith to -purchase their freedom, _feeling that the protection of their masters -is an advantage to them_; but there are those, as the stewardess on -board the boat on which we descended the Mississippi, who have paid -from 1,000 to 1,500 dollars for their freedom!” - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -EXPLOITATION-VALUE OF SLAVE AND FREE LABOUR. - - Contrast of Plantation-Servants with British Workpeople--Affluence - of former American Slaves--Misery of Free Labourers and - Artisans--Value of Irish Peasants and English Workers--Free and - Slave Children in America. - - -Look on the life of a modern negro-slave in America, and compare it -with the life of a modern Irish or Scotch peasant, or even that of an -English hand-loom weaver in the North or of an English labourer in -the South and West. _Compare_, did we say? Alas! the two conditions -will not bear a comparison. _Contrast_ is the word we must use. To -the damning disgrace of modern civilization be it said, we cannot -_compare_ the condition of our free workpeople in Europe with that of -the negro-slaves of Louisiana,--we can only _contrast_ them; and the -contrast is so truly appalling that, in contemplating it, one cannot -help trembling at the prospective destination of humanity. - -Mr. Edward Smith says: “Many industrious slaves can thus” (by overwork) -“obtain from 50 to 250 dollars per year, which they expend in luxuries -of the table and in clothing fit for any European gentleman.” This, be -it observed, is over and above an abundant supply of all their ordinary -wants by their masters. It includes neither food, drink, ordinary -apparel, medicine, firing, nor house-rents,--not even vegetables or -poultry, for with these, it seems, the slaves are provided out of their -own gardens and fowl-yards. It includes not one of those ordinary -expenses which absorb the entire week’s earnings of a modern “free-born -Briton.” The American slave’s surplus earnings may be considered as so -much pocket-money. He might save, or lay by at interest, the whole of -his 250 dollars per annum towards the purchase of his liberty, if he -liked to exchange his condition for that of an independent labourer. -According to Mr. Smith, however, the negro knows better; for Mr. Smith -tells us, “they” (the negroes) “do not usually care to save money -wherewith to purchase their freedom, feeling that the protection -of their masters is an advantage to them.” If this protection be -an advantage in America, where the wages of independent labour are -still comparatively high, what would be the negro’s feelings were it -proposed to him to give up his master’s protection in exchange for the -independence of a Dorsetshire labourer or of a Yorkshire weaver? Ah! -then, indeed, he would _feel_ the difference between the two kinds -of slavery; then he would know how to appreciate that condition of -primitive slavery which Mr. Smith calls a upas-tree, and from which -our saints of Exeter Hall so yearn to release him. “Very many slaves,” -again quoth Mr. Smith, “own horses kept for their own use; and others -own land.” We should like to know how many operative cordwainers or -journeymen tailors in London keep horses for their own use, and how -many of them own lands purchased with the proceeds of their overwork? -We should like to know, too, how many of their masters can afford to -keep horses for their own use? We apply this query to the tailors and -shoemakers of London, because no other two trades are subject to less -variation than these, and because the wages paid in them are higher in -London than anywhere else in the United Kingdom. Is there a journeyman -tailor or shoemaker in London that can afford to buy and keep a -horse out of his wages? We believe not one. And if it cannot be done -with London wages, certainly nowhere else can it be done in England, -Ireland, or Scotland. As to an English field-labourer, or an artisan -in one of our manufacturing towns, keeping a horse or owning land, -the idea is absolutely ludicrous. Indeed, we are living in times when -very few of their masters, much less themselves, can afford to indulge -in such luxuries. For though we have many of that class who, having -become millionaires and country squires, can keep carriages as well -as horses, yet the majority, if the truth were known, are nearer the -_Gazette_ than they are to that easy condition in which men can afford -to keep horses for their recreation and amusement. The case of the -stewardess whom Mr. Smith met on board the boat in which he descended -the Mississippi presents a startling contrast to the ordinary condition -of industrious females in England. The stewardess had, it seems, with -her own surplus earnings purchased her freedom at from 1,000 to 1,500 -dollars; 1,500 dollars, at 4s. 2d. the dollar, is just £312 10s. of our -money. Where is the woman engaged in any branch of industry in England -that could show £312 10s., or a tithe of that sum, as the result of a -few years’ saving of wages? If there be such cases they are not one in -ten thousand. According to the commissioner of the _Morning Chronicle_, -to whose valuable revelations we referred in the preceding chapter, -“there are now in London some 28,577 needlewomen whose earnings average -but 4½d. per day. There are as many more whose earnings hardly exceed -3s. a week all the year round. Contrast (for we dare not say compare) -the condition of these unfortunate beings with that of the black female -slave who, besides living well, could save 1,500 dollars in a few -years wherewith to purchase her independence! Yet there are hypocrites -amongst us--hypocrites to be met with in shoals upon our platforms and -in our pulpits--who would wring tears of pity from us for the poor -negro slave, while not an atom of sensibility have they for their own -white slaves whose condition is infinitely more to be commiserated.” - -But, after all, the real test is this:--What is a negro-slave’s value -in the eye of his master, and what is the British or Irish slave’s -value in the eye of _his_ master or employer? A sorry, good-for-nothing -slave indeed must he or she be whom an American planter could not find -a market for! From 800 to 1,200 dollars was a common price for a good -stout negro in New Orleans. In the case of the stewardess spoken of by -Mr. Smith, we find that her master considered her worth from 1,000 -to 1,500 dollars--_i.e._, of that much value to himself. We know in -the case of our own West India slaves, that our Parliament estimated -their value to their owners at £20,000,000, the annual interest of -which we taxpayers have still to provide. But how stands the British -or Irish slave in respect of marketable value? In Ireland his value -stands so high that, only a few years ago, the landlords of Kilkenny -county, with the Marquis of Ormond at their head, actually memorialized -the Government to relieve Ireland from the presence of 2,000,000 of -the peasantry, offering to assist the Government even pecuniarily -in any scheme of emigration or transportation, or expatriation or -extermination, it might set on foot for that purpose! Indeed, hardly -a Parliamentary session has passed over, for the last twenty years, -without witnessing some kind of project, or proposal, or suggestion -for getting rid of Ireland’s “surplus population.” Up to the winter -of 1846-47 (the year of the famine) 2,000,000, at least, of the -population were uniformly condemned as surplus! Instead of being -considered worth so much per head, like the negroes, it was deemed -worth making a pecuniary sacrifice to rid the land of them. At £10 per -head, these 2,000,000 would fetch just the sum which the West India -planters thought a very inadequate remuneration for the loss of their -slaves. Instead of asking £10 per head for them, the Irish owners and -occupiers of the land were disposed to give £10 per head to get rid -of them. They would have jumped at the bargain, could they have found -the money and the purchasers. Fortunately for those patriotic and -Christian gentlemen, the famine of 1846-47 came to carry off about a -million of the surplus. Emigration and starvation have since relieved -them of another large batch. Starvation being a cheaper process than -emigration, it is the favourite scheme of the Irish proprietary -classes. But as there were then, and still are, many refractory Irish -who hold the rich man’s laws of _meum_ and _tuum_ in less respect -than they do the great law of nature which forbids any man to starve -in a land of abundance, the landowners and occupiers have found it -necessary, and for their interest, to contribute largely to the -emigration of the last few years. They have in this way expended some -hundreds of thousands of pounds, besides sacrificing many times that -amount in the voluntary cancelling of debts and in the remission of -arrears of rent due. At all events, the proprietary classes of Ireland -have furnished, and do still continue to furnish, proofs innumerable -and irrefragable that they consider their white slaves as not only -valueless, but to be worth considerably less than nothing, seeing that -they will give something very considerable to get quit of them. There’s -the marketable value of an Irish white slave! - -And how stands the case in England? Not very dissimilar from Ireland. -Are not the ominous words, “surplus population,” as familiar to us upon -this side of St. George’s Channel as they are to our Irish brethren -upon the other side? Have we not all manner of emigration schemes -afloat here, as well as there, to get rid of the surplus? How often -has it been proposed to raise a gigantic loan of millions wherewith -to promote British emigration upon a gigantic scale, and to mortgage -the poor-rates as security for the repayment of the loan! We remember -how, some twenty and odd years ago, great numbers of the agricultural -parishes in England had it gravely in contemplation to get rid of -their surplus in that way. We remember some of the calculations made -on that occasion. We remember how certain wise men in certain places -laid it down that whole parishes might be cleared at the rate of £30 -per family, on the average, and how much better it was to sacrifice -the interest of this sum (£1 10s. for each) than to saddle a parish -with the maintenance of a whole family of paupers. According to this -estimate, a whole family of English white slaves was worth just £30 -less than nothing! In other words, their marketable value might be -expressed algebraically thus:-- - - - An English white slave and family = minus £30. - - -About the time this estimate was made of the value of live Englishmen -in this country, Burke and Hare, the murderers, were selling dead -men’s bodies, in Scotland, at the rate of £10 per head to the College -of Surgeons in Edinburgh. Consequently, a dead slave was at that time -worth some £40 more than a whole family of live ones, unless the latter -could be made available for anatomical purposes. Since that period -the value both of live slaves and dead ones has greatly fallen in -the market. Subjects for the dissecting-table can now be got almost -for a song. And as to live slaves, our “surplus population” has so -vastly augmented since the time referred to, that, notwithstanding -the myriads already disposed of by famine and the cholera, we feel -assured our lords and masters have still some 5,000,000 or 6,000,000 -more they would gladly get rid of upon any terms. There are full that -number at present in the United Kingdom for whom no regular kind of -remunerative employment can be had--who are, in consequence, regarded -as not only valueless, but as a positive incumbrance upon the soil--as -a dead loss to the country--and whose lives are thereby made a burden -to themselves as well as to others. To compare the condition of these -thoroughly oppressed and neglected beings with that of the well-fed, -well-clothed, well-housed, well-cared-for negro slaves described by Mr. -Edward Smith would be to outrage common sense. As already observed, we -may _contrast_; we cannot, in decency, _compare_. Why, according to -that gentleman’s testimony, any industrious negro, with a kind master, -could save more money in twelve months (besides leading a life wholly -exempt from care) than some of our hand-loom weavers could earn in two -years, or than an Irish white slave could earn in four years at 6d. a -day--which is more than their average earnings throughout the year. - -The writer of this happening to visit Leicester some twelve months -ago, he made diligent inquiry there touching the rate of wages and the -condition of the people generally, engaged in the staple trade of the -town. From the very best sources of information, he learned that their -average wages did not exceed 6s. a week throughout the year, although -at that period the hosiery trade was unusually brisk, and all hands -full of work. Only twelve months before, nearly one-half the artisans -were out of employ, and the streets literally swarmed, at all hours -of the day, with men, women, and children roaming about in a state of -utter destitution. To beg or steal was their only resource; for they -were absolutely starving. - -Talk of negro slavery, indeed! No chattel slaves of ancient or modern -times ever knew the dire distress and torturing privations of these -poor Leicester people. Indeed, except in the midst of a civil war, such -sufferings as theirs could not have happened under the ancient system -of chattel-slavery. In ordinary times of peace, it could not have been -even conceived; for neither masters nor slaves could have possibly had -any experience of such a state of things. It was only in desperate -civil wars, or occasionally from plagues, pestilences, or famine, that -such calamities arose in ancient times; and then all classes shared -alike in the visitation. Indeed, upon such occasions the slaves were -generally those that suffered least; for as they possessed nothing to -invite spoliation, and as their productive uses made it the interest -of all parties not to molest them, they necessarily escaped most of -the evils which, in times of war and commotion, ravaged every other -class. Hence their uninterrupted increase in numbers in Italy, Sparta, -and elsewhere; whilst the free citizens, or master-class, were being -continually thinned by the calamities, referred to. And seeing that -their owners could have valued them as property only on account of -their labour, the idea of their roving about in famished gangs, like -the poor Leicester weavers, without bread or work, and of then being -forced, as a means of preserving life, to beg a brother-worm of the -earth to give them leave to toil, is an idea that would be as novel -and as difficult of explanation to them as (to borrow an illustration -from Locke) the peculiar flavour of a pine-apple would be novel and -indescribable to one who had never tasted that particular fruit. - -But man lives not by bread alone; he has other wants besides those -of food, clothing, and shelter: he has certain moral wants, and -certain sympathies, the gratification of which is as essential to -his well-being and happiness as the satisfaction of his mere animal -wants. It is in respect of these, even more than in respect of his -physical requirements, that the chattel-slave had, and still has, so -immeasurably the advantage over the proletarian wages-slave. Waiving, -for the present, the numerous proofs and evidences of this to be found -in the ancient classics, let us prove it by less fallible evidence--by -the actual condition of the chattel-slave in our own time. And here we -shall again cite the testimony of an abhorrer of chattel-slavery, to -show its superiority over the wages-slavery of proletarianism. What -says Mr. Edward Smith, the Abolitionist, in treating of those moral -relations between master and negro slave, upon which the well-being -and happiness of the latter must depend, as much as upon his physical -comforts? He says, “The planters find it their interest to use the -negroes kindly.” He says, the cottages built for them “usually partake -of the character of the planter’s or overlooker’s house, near to which -they stand.” He says, “The young coloured children are brought up with -the planter’s children, and thus learn to read a little,” though he -admits “the planters forbid their learning to write.” He says, “most -of the planters encourage ministers in giving religious instruction to -their slaves; for they have discovered that a good Christian is not a -bad servant.” He says that, as a consequence of the sort of paternal -care bestowed upon the coloured children by the planters, and of their -being brought up as companions and playmates with the planter’s own -children, “the slaves are deeply attached to the place of their birth -and to the planter’s children with whom they were raised, or whom they -nursed in infancy;” and he adds, “this attachment is commonly returned -by the planter, so that he will not part with the slaves so long as -he lives or can retain them.” These are pretty strong evidences. Yet -there is a stronger still. It relates to that event in every man’s -life, which, next to his coming into the world and leaving it, is -accounted the most important of his life; at all events, his happiness, -more especially in the humbler ranks, is said to depend more upon it -than upon any other event, or upon any other relation in which he may -stand towards his species; we mean, of course, marriage and sexual -intercourse. Now, how stands the negro-slave in this respect? Let us -see whether the planter scowls at him for marrying; let us see whether -he incurs the wrath of poor law guardians and commissioners, and the -withering anathemas of Malthus, for fulfilling one of the ends of his -being. Let us see, in short, whether he is menaced with starvation and -death, like a “free-born Briton” of the proletarian order, for obeying -a paramount law of his nature, enforced by scriptural injunction. -Upon this vitally important point in the negro’s condition Mr. Smith -observes:--“They” (the planters) “uniformly encourage marriage amongst -their slaves, and do not require a man and woman to marry unless they -wish to do so. If the man fancy a woman on another plantation, the -masters agree to the marriage, and one will sell the husband or the -wife, so that one master may own them both.” Compare these features and -conditions of negro marriages with those which characterise marriages -amongst the poor of this country. Where do we find a British or Irish -landlord encouraging the “peasantry” to marriage? Where do we find an -English or a Scotch cotton-lord, coal-king, or ironmaster promoting -early marriages amongst their white slaves? Whoever heard of any of -these gentry taking a young man or a young woman into his service, in -order to facilitate their union with those they love? On the contrary, -early marriages are systematically proscribed by these gentry, and, -indeed, all marriages, early or late, amongst the poor. Nothing is more -common, in this country, than for landlords to make it a condition, -when letting a farm to a tenant, that he (the tenant-farmer) shall not, -on any account, introduce a son-in-law or daughter-in-law beneath his -roof as inmates of the establishment; whilst he (the landlord) takes -care, at the same time, that there shall be no other habitations for -young couples on his estate. What is this but interdicting marriage -by taking the most stringent precautions against it? We know a certain -_noble_ lady, now living, who, not many years ago, when appointing a -master and mistress to instruct the young people in a boys’ and girls’ -school (established upon one of her estates), made it a positive -condition of their appointment that, although they were man and wife, -they should have no children while they held their situation! This -titled Malthusian is by no means a rare specimen of her rank or sex; -on the contrary, she is but a sample of the sack; and the sack is -judged by the sample. In truth, from Lord John Russell and his Grace -of Richmond down to “penny-a-line Chadwick,” of poor-law notoriety, -and the very lowest of his understrappers, there prevails but one -sentiment on this subject, namely, an unmitigated dread and hatred of -affording any encouragement to the labouring classes to marry. And, -from the manner in which they have contrived to frame and administer -our present system of poor-laws (throwing the weight of the burden -where there is least strength to bear it), we may add, with truth, -that they have succeeded in making the great body of our ratepayers as -anti-matrimonial and as thoroughly Malthusian as themselves. - -As the tree is known by its fruit, so may we judge of the relative -merits of the system which facilitates and encourages marriages amongst -chattel-slaves, and of that which prescribes Malthusianism to our -free and independent proletarians. The result of the latter system in -this metropolis alone is 100,000 women obliged to subsist themselves, -wholly or in part, by prostitution! The result of the former system is -prostitution reduced within very narrow limits amongst the slave-class, -and what there is of it is directly chargeable to the masters’ own -account, and not to that of their male slaves. - -But enough has been said to establish our position that -chattel-slavery, with all its abominations, is less destructive -of life, liberty, and happiness than the wages-slavery of modern -proletarianism. Were other facts and arguments necessary, we could -supply them to redundancy. We therefore dismiss the subject, and shall -proceed to show how Christianity unconsciously caused the greater evil -in attempting to rescue humanity from the lesser. - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -HISTORY OF EARLY SOCIAL REFORMERS. - - Intention of foregoing Contrast--Difficulties of Christian - Revolution, and comparative Facility of Coming Ones--Essenes as - Early Reformers--Difficulties in the way of Christian Innovations - on Pagan Slavery. - - -Before proceeding to show how Christianity, on the one hand, and -worldly selfishness on the other, concurred in superimposing the evil -of proletarianism upon that of chattel-slavery, and in gradually -supplanting chattel-slavery itself, to make place for the wages-slavery -of modern civilization, let us guard ourselves by a word or two against -a misconception that might possibly arise in the minds of some from the -perusal of the two last chapters. - -Let no one suppose that it was any part of our intention to extenuate -the abomination of serfdom or chattel-slavery under any condition, or -to mitigate that just abhorrence of it, in all its forms, which we feel -assured the reader, in common with ourselves, feels towards it. Far be -from us any such purpose. The object of this part of our inquiry was -simply to show that wages-slavery with proletarianism may be the worse -evil of the two, and is positively at this moment a greater curse to -the human race than any form of chattel-slavery or of serfdom known in -ancient, mediæval, or even in modern times. The inference, therefore, -that should be drawn from the last two chapters is, not that we regret -the social revolution which has taken place, but that it did not take -place in the right way, and that, in consequence, another and greater -revolution is still indispensable and inevitable for the major part of -the human race. - -That such revolution or, as we prefer to call it, reformation is -ardently desired by the millions everywhere cannot be doubted. -The existing condition of every country in Europe--our own -included--affords unmistakable evidence of it. The revolutionary -struggles of 1848, and the counter-revolutionary barbarities of 1849, -resorted to for their temporary suppression, are but forerunners -of the great social reconstruction we refer to. Whether this -reconstruction shall be effected peaceably in the way of social -reformation, or emerge, like order out of chaos, from the throes of a -violent convulsion, is a secret of the future, which time alone can -disclose. It ought to be, it may be, and, we trust, will be a peaceful -reformation. The times are favourable for such a change. The amazing -revolution which has lately taken place in the arts and sciences, as -applicable to the purposes of human economy, ought naturally to give -birth to another revolution of a kindred quality in the political and -social mechanism of society. This latter change need have nothing in -common with the innovations or revolutions of times past. We live at -an era of the world’s history when science may be made to yield more -treasure for all than ever was won for the few, by war and commerce, -in the past. We have agencies and powers at command for the production -of wealth, and facilities for its rapid interchange, which the ancient -world never dreamt of, and which to even our own grandfathers in the -last century would have seemed as marvellous as a Barmecidal feast or -any other brain-creation in an Arabian tale. By the agency of a single -inanimate power, that consumes not and never tires, we can do more -to change the face of terrestrial creation than could be done by the -labour of all the men and horses in the known world. We have already -in full play, though misapplied, a sufficiency of this power to equal -the labour of 700 or 800 millions of hands, with a capability of -enlarging its application and uses _ad libitum_, and with mechanical -contrivances within reach whereby that gigantic power may be made -available for the performance of every operation now performed by human -hands, and for the production and distribution of every description of -wealth and luxury desirable for man’s use. We can raise more sustenance -for man and beast from an acre of land than could the ancients from -six. We can transport tons of merchandise in ten or twelve hours to -distances which our ancestors could hardly have reached within as -many days. We could, were it worth while, light up the whole of this -vast metropolis at a single stroke of the clock. We have learned to -ride by vapour, to sketch and paint with the sunbeam, and to transmit -our messages by the lightning. In the subjugation of the elements to -man’s use, we have opened new fields for ambition, new roads to glory, -whose trophies will, ere long, throw those of kings and conquerors -into the shade, and render statecraft, priestcraft, lawyer-craft, and -every other description of craft now in the service of landlordism and -money-mongering, as odious and as obsolete as the occult sciences. - -With these powers and appliances at command, no portion of the -human race needs the subjugation of any other portion for the -gratification of its utmost legitimate wants and desires. With -such prodigious advantages in its favour, the age we live in ought -to witness the extinction of every vestige of every description -of slavery known to man. The transition from chattel-slavery to -proletarianism and wages-slavery cost, as we shall see, rivers of -human blood; and, nevertheless, man’s ignorance and barbarity have, -as we have seen, made the change rather a curse than a blessing -to the majority of his fellows. The second social revolution--the -transition from proletarianism and wages-slavery to real and universal -emancipation--may be effected without the loss of a single life, or -the sacrifice of a shilling’s worth of his possessions to any man of -any class. Such, at least, is the creed of us, National Reformers. To -make that creed known and appreciated by submitting it to a full and -impartial examination by the public, and thereby to enlist as many -as we can of the good and wise of all classes in the cause of human -redemption, is, we hardly need say, the main object of this inquiry. -In entering upon it, we found it necessary to begin at the beginning. -The light of the past, though a lurid one, has appeared to us necessary -to illumine the present; and, to see our way clearly into the future, -both lights will, we think, be found serviceable. In other words, to -render clearly intelligible _what ought to be_, we have deemed it an -essential part of our inquiry to ascertain _what has been_ and _what -now is_. In the prosecution of this task, we now proceed to show how -Christianity and selfishness concurred in changing the slavery _that -was_ into the slavery _that is_. - -As already explained, the institution of slavery was never called in -question by any class of the ancients before the advent of Christ, if -we except that small obscure sect amongst the Jews known by the name -of Essenes. Even these are supposed by some to have been a society -of Christian monks originally formed by St. Mark, who is said to -have founded the first Christian church at Alexandria. The accounts -given us by Josephus and Philo, however, make it much more probable -that the Essenes were Jews, and not Christians, and that they existed -before the birth of the Messiah. Those who ascribe their origin to -St. Mark evidently confound them with another sect of later growth, -established at Alexandria by Christian monks, and known by the name, -Therapeutæ. The bulk of this latter sect are supposed to have been -Greek Jews, converted to Christianity, and settled in Egypt. The -Essenes lived chiefly in Palestine, and spoke the Aramean and not the -Greek language. As far as certainty can be had in such matters, there -is reason to believe that the Essenes existed before and in the time -of Christ; and though no mention is made of them in the New Testament, -they are supposed to be alluded to by St. Paul in his Epistles to the -Ephesians and Colossians and in his First Epistle to Timothy. From -Josephus’s and Philo’s account of them, we should suppose them to -have been enthusiasts and ascetics, who occupied pretty much the same -position amongst their contemporaries and co-religionists, the Jews, as -the Shakers in America do amongst the modern Christian sects of that -country. That they were not _necessarily_ Christians might, we think, -be fairly inferred from the very doctrines and practices ascribed to -them; and that the existence of such a sect might well have preceded -Christ’s appearance will appear strange to no one who considers how -very popular St. John the Baptist was, and what crowds of enthusiastic -followers he attracted by his preachings and asceticism before the -Saviour made known His mission. Assuredly the Essenes were not more -ascetic than St. John the Baptist, whose raiment was camel’s hair, and -food locusts and wild honey; and assuredly their mysticism and social -equalitarianism bear less analogy to veritable Christianity than the -doctrines and practices of John. - -This argument alone, independently of historic authority, ought, we -think, to suffice to set aside the ill-grounded belief of many that -the Essenes were _necessarily_ an early Christian sect. Their holding -certain doctrines in common with Christians, such as the immortality -of the soul and man’s spiritual responsibility to and equality before -God, is no more a proof that they were followers of Christ, than the -holding of similar doctrines by Socrates and Plato would prove these -philosophers to have been believers in a religion which was unknown -till near four centuries after their death. Dr. Neander’s account of -the Essenes is, that they were a society of pious Jews, who, disgusted -with the cant and hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and wearied with the -trials of the outward and of the inward life, had withdrawn themselves -out of the strife of theological and political parties, at first, -apparently (according to Pliny the Elder), to the western side of the -Dead Sea, where they lived together in intimate connection, partly -after the fashion of the monks of later days, and partly like mystical -orders in all periods have done. From this society other smaller ones -afterwards proceeded, and spread themselves all over Palestine. They -employed themselves in the arts of peace, such as agriculture, pasture, -handicraft works, and especially in the art of healing according to -the simple but unerring ways of Nature. Dr. Neander thinks it also -probable that they imagined themselves supernaturally illuminated in -their search into Nature’s secrets and use of her powers; and that -their natural knowledge and art of healing assumed, moreover, a sort -of religious or theosophic character, since they professed to have -peculiar prophetic gifts. Comparing this account with what we know -of similar sects in our own time--with the Mormons, for instance, -or with the Shakers, or with the White Quakers of Dublin--it seems -probable enough. It is the way of all such enthusiasts to run from one -extreme to another. Despising the Pharisees for their hollowness and -canting adherence to mere traditional and ceremonial law, in which the -_letter_ was everything and the _spirit_ nothing, the Essenes went -right into the opposite extreme, and almost sacrificed the outer to -the inner man. They believed firmly in the immortality of the soul and -in future rewards and punishments; they were absolute predestinarians; -they observed the seventh day with peculiar strictness; they held the -traditions of the Old Testament in great reverence, but only as mystic -writings which they expounded allegorically; they sent gifts to the -Temple, like other Jews, but offered no sacrifices; they admitted -no one into their society till after a three years’ probation; they -lived in a state of perfect equality, except that they paid great -respect to the aged and to their priests; they considered all secular -employments ungodly and immoral, except agriculture and the trades -and occupations connected with it. They were practical communists in -the largest sense of the word, for they had no separate or individual -interests, and held all things in common; they were industrious, -quiet, orderly, and free from every kind of vice practised in ordinary -society; they held solitude and celibacy in high esteem. Some say they -allowed no marriages or sexual intercourse in their society; but this -is doubted. They allowed no change of raiment till necessity required; -they abstained from wine and other fermented liquors; they were not -permitted to eat but with their own sect, and then a certain portion -of food was served out to each person, of which they partook together -after solemn ablutions. - -It is, no doubt, the similarity of many of these practices to those -of some of the early Christians, and of the Therapeutæ in particular, -that has led some Roman Catholic divines, and also some philosophic -writers, to speak of the Essenes as of a Christian sect. Were the -supposition of these writers correct, history would in that case be -without one single testimony to show that the theory or practice of -the equality of human rights was known to any ancient people on earth, -Jew or Gentile, before the propagation of the Gospel. We believe, -however, that the supposition is without foundation. We believe the -Essenes were a Jewish, not a Christian sect. We believe their sect -was anterior to Christ, and even to John the Baptist. We believe it -consisted of ardent Jews, who, inflamed by the pious, fervid, and -truly democratic outpourings of Nehemiah and others of their prophets, -and disgusted by the manner in which they saw all Moses’s laws in -favour of the poor set aside by the scribes and Pharisees of their -day, to the profit of usurers and land-monopolisers, resolved, in the -language of their own Scripture, to “come out from amongst them and be -separate;” and that, accordingly, in the words of Dr. Neander, they -were “distinguished from the mass of ordinary Jews in this--that they -knew and loved something higher than the outward ceremonial and a dead -faith--that they really did strive after holiness of heart and inward -communion with God.” We believe moreover, that, instead of owing their -origin to Christianity, Christianity in a great measure owed its early -progress and successes to the Essenes; and that the Therapeutæ, with -whom they have been confounded, were but an offshoot of their society, -which subsequently engrafted itself upon a Christian stock. With these -considerations we hold it to be an established fact that the Essenes do -constitute a veritable exception, but the only solitary one recorded -in all history, of any people, before Christ’s advent, repudiating the -doctrine and practice of human slavery. This singular exception, if it -be one, proves two things worthy of every serious man’s notice. One is, -that if we are not indebted to Christianity for the first or earliest -repudiation of human slavery, we are indebted for it to the purest -fraction of that people, and to the purest form of that religion, to -whom and to which we owe Christianity itself; in other words, it is to -believers in the God of the Jews and of the Christians, and not to the -believers in any pagan gods or in no God, we are indebted for the first -authoritative interference with the pretended right of man to hold -his fellow-man in bondage. The other is, that the Essenes must have -purposely avoided propagandism and proselytism, kept themselves few -and select, and courted retirement and obscurity, in order to escape -persecution and perhaps death at the hands of their Jewish brethren. -Upon no other supposition would it be easy to account for their fewness -and impunity. For everything recorded of them goes to show that they -were as singular a people amongst the Jews, as the Jews themselves -were singular to the rest of the world; and those who did not spare -Christ and his Apostles were not likely to have spared them, had they -been equally bold and zealous in the propagation of their principles. -It was, probably, from similar motives that they mixed up celibacy -and other asceticisms and eccentricities with their system. What was -singular and unpopular was not likely to alarm rulers, or to excite -a dread of innovation, because not likely to excite imitation and to -attract followers; and what the authorities or the ruling classes saw -no cause to dread, they would not be forward to prosecute or persecute. -The apparent absurdities and vagaries of many other levelling sects -might probably be accounted for in a similar way. Had the Mormons mixed -up celibacy and other repulsive asceticisms and absurdities with their -politico-religious system, like the Shakers and White Quakers, it is -not improbable that they would be still under the patriarchal care of -Joe Smith at Nauvoo. This fact alone speaks volumes for the dangers and -difficulties Christianity had to encounter a few years later, when, -for the first time in the history of the human race, a few fishermen -and other obscure persons, headed by the supposed son of a carpenter, -proclaimed open warfare against all that, up to that time, had been -held sacred and indestructible in the constitution of human society. - -And what pen, what tongue, can describe the zeal, the labour, the -sacrifices, the dangers, the trials, the persecutions, of the early -Christians in their first onslaught upon the powers of might and -darkness? Never, never, can a tithe of a tithe of what they achieved -and suffered in the cause of human redemption be known to their -Christian successors of our day. It is only the profound politician, -conversant with men and with the world, as well as versed in the -history of his own and other times, who can even imagine what they must -have suffered, or approximate to appreciating the miraculous virtues -they must have displayed, and the herculean labours they must have -performed. - -Had the slaves of the ancient world been as conscious of their -own degradation, or as discontented with their lot, as are their -proletarian successors, the wages-slaves of our day, the case would -have been vastly different. But it was not so; on the contrary, the -slave-class of old was the very class that least of all was susceptible -of the sentiment of equality, and least disposed by inclination or -habit to countenance equalitarian innovators. What Mr. Edward Smith -says of the negroes of America is still more applicable to the ancient -slave-populations:--“They never tasted freedom, and do not feel the -want of it; and to be as happy as a nigger is a common phrase in free -and slave States alike.” If the modern negro has never tasted freedom, -he has at least heard of it, and heard that slavery is accounted a -crime and a felony in most Christian countries. But the ancient slave -never heard of, or imagined, any such a thing. Besides, except when he -had a downright brute for his master, he was really comfortable and -happy--“as happy as a nigger,” and for the self-same reasons. - -Here was the first great difficulty Christianity had to cope with--a -difficulty almost impossible of conception in our times. To appreciate -it properly, we must only try to conceive what a Chartist or Socialist -lecturer’s difficulty would be as a propagandist in London or in the -provinces, provided all our labourers, artisans, and other workpeople -were so fully employed at light work and ample wages, that “as happy -as a hand-loom weaver,” “as happy as a London needlewoman,” or “as -happy as a Dorchester labourer” would be as current proverbial phrases -in England as the phrase, “as happy as a nigger,” is in America. Add -to this the difference between the toleration allowed to opinions -now-a-days and formerly, and the fact that as slaves were the property -of their masters, to tamper with them was, in the eye of the law and of -public opinion, to tamper with the master’s rights of property and with -his personal security. Just imagine these things, and we shall then -have some faint idea of what the early Christians had to contend with -from this source alone, in the first propagation of _liberty, equality, -and fraternity_. But of this and their other difficulties, dangers, and -sufferings more in the next chapter. - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -PROGRESS OF EARLY CHRISTIAN PROPAGANDA. - - Opposition from corrupt Slave-Caste--Detestation of Christian - Doctrines by Slave-owners--Incomprehensibility of new Doctrine - of Equality--Absence of a destitute Free People a Drawback on - Reform--Spread of the New Teachings--Alarm, and Persecution of the - New Faith. - - -We have seen, in the preceding chapter, what apparently insurmountable -difficulties the early Christians had to struggle with in the -ignorance, contentment, traditional habits, and deep-rooted prejudices -of the slave-class. To these hereditary bondsmen, who knew no gods but -their masters’ gods, no law but their masters’ will, the sublime dogmas -of the Gospel appeared altogether incomprehensible and out of nature’s -course. Slavery they had ever regarded as decreed for them by fate; and -as they had no wants, spiritual or temporal, but such rude ones as were -abundantly provided for by their owners’ care, they regarded with alarm -and distrust the apostles of a new faith, which was characterised as -subversive of everything human and divine. In a word, the slave-class -was, of all classes existing at the time, the least accessible to -evangelical doctrine,--the least susceptible of the new dispensation -so freely and so bountifully offered, for the first time, to the whole -of humanity in the name of the Creator of all. Undoubtedly, this, if -not the first, was the greatest stumbling-block in the way of the new -reformers. - -That the master-class and the civil magistrate should encounter -such unheard-of innovations with the fiercest resistance was but -what might naturally be expected. To these the new religion was at -once sedition and rank blasphemy. A religion which treated their -gods and oracles as the offspring of fraud, begotten upon the body -of folly, was subversive of everything they deemed conservative of -society and wished to be held sacred by the multitude. A religion -which taught there was only one true God, the common Father of all, -in whose sight all men were equal,--that this God was no respecter of -persons or of classes, but would judge all alike, without regard to -rank, family, or condition,--that His worship demanded the practice -of all the virtues, and a renunciation of pride, lust, covetousness, -ambition, injustice--in short, of all the vices inseparable from -tyranny and slavery,--that, to be acceptable in His sight, men should -be as brothers, loving Him above all things, and their neighbours as -themselves,--a religion which told masters and rulers that whoever -would be foremost should be the servant of the rest, and which enjoined -upon all that whatsoever they would have others to do unto them, -even so should they do unto others,--a religion of this (till then) -new and singular character must of necessity have appeared a medley -of abominations to masters and rulers. And such, in good sooth, it -did appear to them. Indeed, so utterly atrocious and “subversive of -all law and order” did Christianity appear to the world at its first -introduction, that, but for the obscurity and seeming insignificance -of its first propagators, it is impossible it ever could have been -established by mere human agency. Contempt and pity were the true -safeguards of its first missionaries. Had they, at the outset, -exhibited any signs of strength or importance, it is certain they would -have been extirpated at once. No slave-owner would tolerate a system -which went to deny him a property in his fellow-man. No ruler, no -magistrate, would spare innovators whose doctrine went to revolutionize -the entire social system as then constituted. No nation as a notion, no -people as a people, would, for an instant, endure a religion which went -to deprive them of _their_ gods--the accredited protectors of their -liberties and laws. For in those days, be it observed, every particular -State or people had its peculiar form of worship, and its own peculiar -gods; and every religion being particularly united with the laws which -prescribed it, there was no way of converting a nation but by subduing -it--no possibility of any system of proselytism proving successful -but what could enforce its dogmas at the head of a victorious army. -In other words, the only system of religious propagandism known in -the old pagan world was the propagandism of the sword. And here let -us note, for the benefit of certain shallow philosophists who declaim -against Christianity on the alleged ground that before its introduction -religious wars were unheard of, that political and religious wars -amongst pagans were one and the same thing; and consequently, to make -good their case, they should prove that political wars were unheard -of. Rousseau exposes this philosophic error effectively in his “Social -Contract,” when showing the inseparable connection that subsisted -between religion and politics under the pagan system. “The reason,” -he says, “there appear to have been no religious wars in the days of -paganism was, that each State, having its peculiar form of government -as well as of religion, did not distinguish its gods from its laws, -and the political was also a religious war; the jurisdiction of their -gods being, as it were, limited by the boundaries of the nation, and -the gods of one country having no right over the people of another.” -Under an order of things like this, it is manifest no progress could -have been made by the first Christians had they appeared in sufficient -numbers, or of sufficient importance in the way of rank and station, -to attract the notice of governments. As already observed, it was to -their insignificance and obscurity alone they owed their preservation -and first successes. For, as we shall presently see, the moment they -grew strong enough to invite public vigilance, from that moment their -persecutions began, and a torrent of execration and vengeance was let -loose upon them the like of which was never witnessed before, nor will, -we trust, ever be again. What we shall say of these persecutions will -abundantly prove the horror which the doctrine of equality inspired in -rulers and slave-owners, and, at the same time, show what miracles of -_bearing_ and _forbearing_ the martyrs of the faith had to achieve -before those great principles, which all true Christians and democrats -now hold sacred, could ever obtain recognition in the world. - -A third difficulty, as formidable as either of the others, although -of a negative kind, also obstructed the early Christians. It was the -absence of a numerous poverty-stricken, destitute class, corresponding -with our modern proletarians, and having, like them, no guarantee for -regular subsistence from day to day. Had such a class as this been -in existence in St. Paul’s time, his missionary labours amongst the -Gentiles would have been immeasurably lighter and more successful. -The millions would have been everywhere, as it were, predisposed for -the new doctrine. Life being a burden to such people, they would have -flung themselves with enthusiasm into the movement. But all history -goes to show that hardly any such class existed till a century or -two later. Speaking on this subject, an eminent French writer (M. de -Cassagnac) observes:--“We have no certain means of determining up to -what period of history pure slavery continued, _i.e._, slavery without -any enfranchisements or manumissions.” - -Although we find early mention made of _freedmen_ in the Bible and -in the “Odyssey,” yet it is certain that in the primitive times of -slavery there were no beggars. One is, in effect, a beggar only though -lack of other means of subsistence. Now, a slave is not a beggar, he -being found and provided for by his master. There were no beggars in -our colonies during the early period of their settlement; and there -are but few still, notwithstanding the people of colour have been set -free. Blackstone judiciously observes, in his “Commentaries on the -Laws of England” (without being apparently aware of the value and -importance of the fact in a moral and social point of view), “that -the vast numbers of destitute poor which had already, in his time, -overspread England--and for whose subsistence the government had found -it necessary to make some provision, ever since the reign of Henry -IV., by an eleemosynary contribution levied with the regularity and -permanence of an ordinary tax--arose chiefly from the manumission or -setting free of large bodies of serfs during the middle ages, who were -suddenly and without forethought thrown upon society.” The monasteries, -with their magnificent hospitals and well-organised system of charity, -supported these poor outcasts as well as might be for a considerable -period. But at length came the Reformation, which, pitilessly closing -the monasteries, changed the workpeople into paupers, and the destitute -poor into robbers. Following up this argument, M. de Cassagnac, -after showing why there are fewer destitute poor in France than in -England, concludes thus:--“But whether we regard France, England, -or any other country,--whether we consult ancient history or modern -history,--we shall find it everywhere and at all times to hold good, -as a general rule, that _the emancipation of slaves is the first and -universal cause of pauperism and mendicity all the world over_.” Our -pseudo-philanthropists and saints of Exeter Hall--our abolitionists -and humanity-mongers, who sentimentalize so blandly and edifyingly -upon the evils of negro-slavery, will not, mayhap, be much gratified -by this piece of historic intelligence. It is not the less true, -however. Living experience adds the weight of its testimony to that -of ancient history to confirm M. de Cassagnac’s conclusions. For, -to this day, we find that wherever direct or chattel slavery is the -normal condition of the mass of the labouring class--as, for instance, -in sundry Asiatic nations and in the Southern States of America till -recently--there pauperism and mendicity are comparatively unknown. A -few beggars and destitute persons may be found, here and there, amongst -such people; but, besides that their number is hardly noticeable in the -general mass, it will also be found that even these few are decayed -freedmen and their offspring, or else the descendants of slaves who had -purchased or otherwise obtained their freedom. - -M. de Cassagnac mentions another fact confirmatory of this conclusion. -It is, that the first great irruption of beggars, prostitutes, thieves, -and paupers which overran Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire is -ascertained to have taken place from the second to the sixth century--a -period which corresponds exactly with the time when the mass of pagan -slaves set free was added to the mass of enfranchised Christians; and -this irruption made itself manifest at once by the regular organisation -of hospitals which then took place, but which were altogether unknown -to the ancients, whose custom it was to provide for their sick and -infirm slaves in private infirmaries, to which dispensaries were -attached, within their own premises. Indeed, wherever we find the word -“beggar” or “pauper” occur in primitive writings, we may make sure -that those writings belong to an epoch when a great many slaves had -already been emancipated--that is to say, to a secondary epoch in the -civilization of the country the writings may refer to. - -The same remark applies to mercenaries or wages-slaves; for the -ancient mercenary is no other than a manumitted slave, who is allowed -to sell his labour when he can no longer be sold himself, he being -no longer any one’s property. There is an allusion to this class of -persons in Leviticus xxv. 6: there are a few also in the “Odyssey.” -Plutarch, in his “Life of Theseus,” cites a verse of Hesiod, in which -also allusion is made to mercenaries or wages-slaves. In the same poem -of Hesiod there is mention made of beggars. These several allusions, -however, are made in such a way as to show that the class referred to -was insignificantly small. Moreover, it is far from certain that in -some of them the word “mercenary” does not refer to a class of slaves -corresponding with those modern ones in America, whose masters allowed -them, as it were, to farm themselves out to other employers, accepting -a fixed sum for themselves, and permitting the slaves to appropriate -the overplus; just as a modern London cabman is allowed to pocket all -he can make in the day, over and above what he pays his “governor” -for the use of his horse and vehicle. It is remarkable that Homer’s -“Iliad,” which was written before the “Odyssey,” does not contain a -single hemistich having reference to paupers or beggars; from which it -has been inferred that the period intervening between the two works -was one of those periods of transition when, manumissions occurring -with unusual frequency, a small mercenary class was formed, to which -allusion is made in the later poem. At all events, it is quite certain -that no large class of mercenaries or wages-slaves existed at the -time the Gospel was first propagated; and this was one of the main -difficulties in the way of its progress. A destitute proletarian class -would have hailed the doctrine of equality with joy and gladness. -To well-fed, contented, ignorant slaves, who had neither hunger nor -tuition to sharpen their intellects, it was all but incomprehensible: -besides, the relation in which they stood to their owners made it -perilous to tamper with them. - -In the face of these formidable difficulties, it may well be asked -what means, short of the miraculous, could have secured such amazing -successes for Christianity so soon after its foundation? We are not -_divines_, and therefore shall leave the miraculous to those who prefer -accounting in that way for the truly marvellous progress made by the -first Christians in the propagation of their doctrines. Suffice it for -us to say that nothing like it was ever before known in the world, nor -since. Of the rapidity and multiplicity of its early triumphs we have -abundant evidence in the history of the Acts of the Apostles. In Judea, -where the Gospel was first preached (and where, no doubt, the labours -of bygone martyred prophets, the preachings of John the Baptist, and, -mayhap, the example and secret propagandism of the Essenes had prepared -the ground for the seed), the new mission was, as might be expected, -most successful. On the fiftieth day after the Crucifixion, it is said, -three thousand persons were converted in Jerusalem by a single sermon -of the Apostles. A few weeks after, five thousand true believers were -present at another sermon preached in Jerusalem. Within less than ten -years after Christ’s death, the disciples and followers had become -so numerous throughout Judea, particularly in and about Jerusalem, -that they were objects of jealousy and alarm to Herod himself. About -the twenty-second year after the Crucifixion they had so multiplied -themselves that their name was legion. These facts may be collected -from the Acts themselves. - -Nor was it amongst the poor only that the doctrines of fraternity and -equality gained ground; they penetrated all ranks of the population; -they were ardently espoused by men in high stations and of responsible -offices, whose countenancing of such a creed was at the moment a most -perilous adventure. Amongst those early proselytes we find Joseph -of Arimathea and Nicodemus, both members of the Jewish sanhedrim or -council; Jarius, a ruler of the synagogue; Zaccheus, the chief of -the publicans at Jericho; Apollos, a distinguished orator; Sergius -Paulus, a Roman and governor of the island of Cyprus; Cornelius, -a Roman centurion; Dionysius, a judge and senator of the Athenian -Areopagus; Erastus, treasurer of Corinth; Tyrennus, another Corinthian -and professor of rhetoric; Paul, learned in the Jewish law; Publius, -governor of Melite (now Malta); Philemon, a man of great rank and -influence at Colosse; Simon, a sophist of some note in Samaria; Zenas, -a lawyer; and, we are told, even some of the emperor’s own household. - -For, as may be inferred from some of these names, it was not in Judea -only the new faith triumphed: it spread with almost equal celerity -and success throughout Asia Minor, Greece, Africa, and the islands of -the Archipelago; indeed, everywhere in the countries bordering the -Mediterranean. There was hardly a province of the Roman empire that was -not visited by its missionaries, even in the lifetime of the Apostles. -Some of its earliest and most marked triumphs came off in the heart -of Greece itself, at that time reputed the most polished nation in -the world, and to whose schools and academies (as being the choicest -nurseries of learning, art, and science) the aristocracies of Rome -and elsewhere sent their sons to be educated and trained for public -employments. Indeed, long before the last of the Apostles disappeared, -we read of churches founded at Ephesus, Corinth, Thessalonica, Berœa, -Philippi, and other Greek cities. Rome herself, the seat of empire -and mistress of the world, was not proof against the contagion of -spiritualized democracy. Before the end of the second century there -were Christians to be found in almost every department of the imperial -service--Christians in the senate, in the palace, in the camp, in -the public offices,--in short, everywhere, it is said, except in -the temples and the theatres, from which, of course, their religion -debarred them. - -But, it will be readily imagined, this amazing progress was not -obtained without paying the cost which is paid for all reformations, in -the blood and calamities of the principal actors. A religion of such -unheard-of character, ushered into a world such as we have described, -could not but excite the fiercest opposition and call forth the most -malignant passions. It was so with Christianity, despite all the -miracles alleged to have been wrought in its favour. The very term -“Christian” was first heard of as a term of reproach. The new believers -are said to have got that name at Antioch, where the people “were given -to scoffing,” but afterwards adopted it themselves as a term of honour, -and gloried in it, just as we have seen the Chartists of England adopt -that title (first given them in derision by their enemies), and glorify -themselves in it; or as the French revolutionists of 1793 adopted and -converted into an honorary title the nickname of “Sans Culottes,” -contemptuously given them by Lafayette; or as our democratic brethren -in America converted “Yankee Doodle” into a national air, by way of -revenge for the insult originally intended by their enemies in its use. - -That the word Christian was, indeed, originally used as a term of -reproach cannot be doubted. Christ or his disciples never used the -term. It is nowhere to be found in the Gospels; and if made use of -twice or thrice in the Acts, and in one of the Apostolic Epistles, -it is evidently used as a term borrowed from others, and not as one -voluntarily adopted by the sect itself. But the best proof that the -term was used in an offensive sense, and that the sect itself was held -in detestation (mitigated only by contempt), is furnished by Tacitus’s -“Annals,” in the only passage in which that historian deigns to notice -them. It occurs where, speaking of the Christians persecuted by Nero, -he describes them as believers in a “deplorable and destructive -superstition,” which had its origin with one Christ; and then, as -if for want of a name to give them, he adds, “_Vulgus Christianos -appellabat_,” _i.e._ the vulgar or common people called them Christians. - -At the period referred to here, the Christians were too few and too -weak to cause much alarm out of Judea. Hence the air of contempt -with which Tacitus wrote of them. Not very long after, however, -the score was altogether changed. From a handful of obscure and -unnoticeable sectarians, having scarcely any feelings in common with -the rest of mankind, they grew into a gigantic community, having -their missionaries, their churches, and even their political agents, -spread throughout every corner of the empire. It was then their -persecutions began to assume those forms and proportions which are -necessary to attract history; it was then the pagan priesthoods, -pagan magistrates, and pagan aristocracies found it necessary to -check the tendencies of the new heresy, and to rouse and infuriate -the superstitious prejudices and passions of the populace against the -innovators. Nor was this a difficult task. At all times it is easy -enough to influence ignorant mobs against reforms they understand not, -and against men they comprehend not. It was peculiarly so in the case -of the pagan rabble, let loose against the early Christians. For, be -it observed, this new religion, which never ceased proselytizing, -was a singularly exclusive one. It denied dogmatically, and rejected -contemptuously, every alleged fact and article of heathen mythology, -and the existence of every article of their worship. It would hear -of no compromise, no amalgamation. If it prevailed at all, it must -prevail by the subversion of every altar, statue, temple, consecrated -to pagan uses. It pronounced all other gods false; all other worship -sinful and an abomination. With these peculiarities engraved on it, -it was impossible for the new religion to escape persecution from the -pagan priesthood and superstitious rabble. And when we combine with -this the consideration that the pagan magistrates and rulers regarded -the doctrines of Christ as subversive of governmental authority, of the -subordination of classes, and of the institution of property itself, as -well as of religion and of the protection of their gods, we shall be -at no loss to appreciate the nature of the feelings about to be roused -into action against the Christians. We shall see, as we proceed, how -these feelings showed themselves in the struggles and prosecutions -which ensued. - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -THE FOUR GREAT PERSECUTIONS. - - Obscurity and Insignificance of Early Reformers their - best Protection--Christians the Great Levellers--Nero’s - Persecution--The Blood of the Martyrs the Seed of the - Church--Persecution of Domitian--Martyrdoms under Trajan--Tortures - under Antoninus. - - -We have seen, in the preceding chapter, why Christianity must, upon its -first introduction, have been universally and virulently opposed by the -established powers of the world; and how, but for the lowliness and -obscurity of its first propagators, it must, by attracting the notice -of the wealthy and powerful, have been crushed at once, instead of -making the amazing progress it did, before its persecutions began. - -When the interests of wealth and power adjudged it necessary to -crucify the Founder, their comparative insignificance could alone be -a protection for his disciples and followers. And the supposed cause -of their being spared so long is the fact of their appearing to the -Roman governors only as a sect of Jews who had seceded from their -brethren on account of some non-important item of worship or doctrine, -not worth inquiring into. It was a part of Roman policy, as we have -seen, to tolerate all religions, and even to incorporate the gods of -their subjects or allies along with their own. The Jews, like all other -people subject to the empire, enjoyed this toleration; and so long as -the Christians appeared to be only a sect of this singular people, they -participated with them in the imperial protection. We have a remarkable -proof of this in the case of St. Paul. When he returned to Jerusalem -from his third apostolic mission, the favour with which he was received -by his Christian brethren there, and the joy they manifested at the -great success of his mission in Macedonia, Achaia, &c., roused the -ire of his countrymen. It is related that some Jews of Asia (who had -probably witnessed the fruits of his zeal and ability amongst the -Gentiles in their own country), seeing him one day in the temple, gave -instant vent to their bigoted or conservative rage, by pointing him -out as the man who was aiming to destroy all distinction between Jew -and Gentile. They charged him with teaching things contrary to the -law of Moses, and with polluting the holy temple by bringing into it -uncircumcised heathen. The effect of this was to enrage the multitude -against St. Paul. They seized him, dragged him out of the temple, -brutally maltreated him, and were on the point of putting him to death, -when he was rescued out of their hands by Lysias, a Roman military -tribune, and the then principal army-officers at Jerusalem. This -conduct of Lysias towards the great apostle, taken in juxtaposition -with the previous well-known efforts of Pontius Pilate to save Christ -himself from the hands of his Jewish enemies, shows clearly enough -that the early Christians had little to fear from the Romans, so long -as they were deemed to be only a religious sect of the Jews, and to be -aiming at a kingdom which “is not of this world.” - -It became otherwise, however, as soon as the pagan priesthood and -pagan magistracy began to discover that Christ’s kingdom would very -materially affect this world, as well as the next. The priests, -trembling for their revenues and estates, the magistrates and rulers -for their power, and the rich generally for their wealth and station, -became _very_ Jews from the moment that discovery was made. A religion -which proclaimed _spiritual_ equality was, to the priest and rulers, -undistinguishable from one that, if it did not proclaim, would very -speedily lead to _temporal_ equality as well; and the principle of -_community of goods_, which so notoriously prevailed in some of the -early churches, was point blank evidence of the levelling tendencies of -the sect. Indeed, examining it philosophically, the religion could not -be otherwise than _social_ in its effect. For, as its main doctrines -went to condemn riches (“lay not up for yourselves treasures,” &c.), -to make power a _trust_ for the governed, and not a profitable -_monopoly_ for governors (“let him who would be foremost amongst you -be the servant of the rest,” &c.), and to exhibit this life as a mere -probationary state for another and eternal one, in which the poor of -this world were likely to fare better than the rich (“it is easier -for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man -to enter the kingdom of heaven”),--as these and the like were amongst -the vital doctrines of the new religion, it is impossible that such -as embraced it with a firm belief in its ordinances, and promises of -future rewards and punishment, could dare to rob and enslave their -fellow-creatures, or peril their eternal salvation in another world -for the sake of enjoying the mammon of unrighteousness in this for -the brief space of a few years. These conclusions being but strictly -logical deductions from Christian premisses, it is no wonder that -a people, whom one of their own historians (Sallust) represents as -valuing riches, honour, and empire as the greatest goods the immortal -gods could vouchsafe to man, should regard with an evil eye a religion -which threatened them with the loss of all, by bringing them into -contempt, and making the possession of them a peril to salvation. - -At all events, such was the impression made upon the pagan mind. Had -they regarded Christ’s kingdom as pertaining only to another world, -they would have cheerfully made his followers a present of it, on -condition that they did not meddle with this. But in the face of such -levelling doctrines, and in presence of a faith so lively and ardent, -which made hosts of men renounce their temporal possessions in order -to render themselves worthy of the new dispensation, the higher and -wealthier orders of the empire soon became convinced that they would -lose their kingdoms in this world if they allowed any further scope to -that new and strange religion which promised so much in the next. - -Hence originated that series of persecutions so well known in the -history of the Christian church, and which lasted upwards of three -hundred years. According to the best accounts, it began about A.D. -64, in the reign of Nero. Although the mummeries and monstrosities of -polytheism were openly derided by St. Paul and others from the first -starting of their missions, yet it does not appear that any public acts -of legislation or administration were directed against Christianity -till this period, when it had acquired such extension and stability -as to make it truly formidable. It was then the Roman authorities -began to blame themselves for their toleration, and to wonder that -the Jews had found it so difficult to infuse into the breasts of -Roman magistrates that rancour and virulence so conspicuous in the -Jews themselves. Moreover, the open attacks upon paganism continually -made by the Christians rendered them extremely obnoxious to the -populace, who considered their understandings as well as their gods -insulted by every sermon directed against them. They retorted upon the -Christians by stigmatising them as _atheists_, and at the instigation -of their priests, secretly backed by the rich, called loudly upon the -civil magistrates to suppress them by force, as a body of seditious -conspirators whose object was to destroy the politico-religious -constitution of the empire. As happens in the suppression of all -popular movements, lies and inventions the most horrid, imputing to -them all manner of abominations, were circulated all over the empire, -and, by these and like circumstances, the minds of all classes of -pagans were prepared to regard with pleasure or indifference any amount -of cruelty and wrong that interested vengeance might wreak upon them. -In short, the sort of feeling that was got up against the Socialists -and Red Republicans of France, before and after the June insurrection, -will convey the best idea of the public opinion which was manufactured -in Nero’s time to prepare men’s minds for the terrible proscriptions -that followed. Indeed, many of the designations of horror applied to -modern Socialists are little else than translations of the Latin terms -so copiously lavished upon the poor Christians. - -Besides the private persecution which never ceased (and which is always -more galling and unbearable than the public), there were at least ten -great imperial crusades directed against Christianity. When we say -directed against Christianity, we wish to be distinctly understood as -meaning against _liberty_ and _equality_. About the _spiritualism_ of -Christianity the pagan rulers cared not a straw, more than they did -about their own gods. Religion was a mere pretence in the matter, as -it is in all such matters. It served their purposes with the multitude -(who alone are sincere on such occasions); and that is all they -cared for. It is by viewing persecution in this light--the only true -light--that modern reformers can profit by our remarks on this head. - -The first great persecution (which took place under Nero, about A.D. -64) is noticed by Tacitus in his “Annals.” From the language used by -that historian, it is manifest that the wealthier classes of Rome -regarded the Christians of that period as a most dangerous combination -against not only the government, but (to use a _doctrinaire_ phrase) -against “society” itself. Tacitus--himself an aristocrat--regarded -the aristocratic orders of his day as constituting _society_; and -finding these orders to be no favourites with the Christians, he -roundly accuses the latter of “hatred towards the human race,” and -describes them as followers of _one_ Christ, who was the founder of -a “deplorable and destructive superstition”! In the same way, the -Bonapartes, the Thiers, and the Guizots of the present day represent -their own plundering class as _society_, and describe such men as Ledru -Rollin, Mazzini, Louis Blanc, Proudhon, &c., as enemies of all law -and order--as enemies of family, property, and religion,--in short, -as warring against “the very existence of society itself” (their own -words), because they preferred the rights and happiness of the great -majority to the usurpations of a criminal and contemptible minority. -It is now an established fact--a fact as well attested as any in -history--that the insurrection and bloody carnage in June, 1848, was -preconcerted and with great pains elaborated by the friends of “law and -order,” in order to purge “society” of Red Republicanism and Socialism, -or (to use their own phrase) _pour en finir_--_i.e._ to make a finish -of the democratic and social republic by drowning it in the blood of -its authors and most heroic defenders. - -It is not so well known how the great fire originated in Rome, which -Nero and his myrmidons charged upon the Christians. History had no -historians for the poor of those days. There is but too much reason, -however, to believe that the burning of Rome in Nero’s time was as -much the work of the friends of “law and order,” and for a similar -purpose, as the June insurrection was notoriously the work of the -same description of gentry in Paris. Times and circumstances change, -but not human nature; it is always the same, and will ever develop -itself in the like way under like circumstances. Nero is said to have -fiddled when Rome burned. The friends of “law and order,” the defenders -of “society,” were never in brighter ecstacies than when Cavaignac -announced the demolition, by shells and cannon, of the houses of the -insurgents, and the massacre of their brave defenders. If setting fire -to Rome, and reducing three-fourths of it to ashes, could have been -made available for the destruction of the Christians, the aristocracy -of that day would no more have scrupled at it than did Rostochin the -burning of Moscow, Cavaignac the demolitions in Paris, or General -Oudinot the bombardment of Rome. Aristocrats have never been aught but -robbers since the birth of their order; and all history proves that -they invariably become murderers, burners, devastators, and hirers of -assassins the moment the people attempt to recover their own. It was -so, most likely, in the burning of Rome. To this day, Nero himself is -suspected of the deed, though we think it far more likely to have been -the work of his aristocracy, with whom he was no favourite, because he -made himself too familiar with the common people. - -But whether the atrocity was Nero’s work, or that of the aristocratic -enemies of Christianity, it is certain the unfortunate Christians were -made to bear the odium and penalties of it. Without any evidence on -the matter, the best and bravest of the Christian party--those publicly -known as such--were openly seized and accused of the act. Through -these, others were discovered and laid hold of, till the imperial -net was full of victims. They were condemned to a variety of cruel -deaths, and they perished in the midst of all manner of insults and -execrations. Some were sewed up in the skins of wild beasts, and then -thrown to hungry dogs, to be torn in pieces and devoured. Some were -nailed to crosses, like their Divine Master. Others were burnt alive, -in a manner which ought to cause aristocracy and vulgar intolerance to -be abhorred till the crack of doom. The victims were first sewed up in -pitched clothes or coverings; these were then set on fire, and, being -lighted up at night, they served as torches to illuminate Nero’s own -gardens, which were given for the purpose. - -These barbarities were followed by edicts published against the -Christians, which enjoined upon the authorities to repress them -by every means placed at their disposal by the law. Of course, -many martyrs suffered, especially in Italy. St. Peter and St. Paul -are generally supposed to have been of the number. The former was -crucified, it is said, with his head downwards, at his own request. -St. Paul was beheaded. Such, at least, is the tradition preserved by -the early Fathers, who are all unanimous that their martyrdom was a -consequence of this persecution; though it is not precisely known -whether it was the burning of Rome that was made the pretence of -killing them, or a revolt of the Jews from the Romans, which took place -a year or two later, through a successful insurrection in Jerusalem. -The former is the more likely and accredited, though the latter is not -improbable, seeing the Christians gave the Romans some trouble at the -time in Judea, where their garrison in Jerusalem was put to the sword, -and one of their generals, who came to besiege it, was ignominiously -repulsed and defeated in his retreat. Such events would naturally -exasperate the Romans against both Jews and Christians; and as the -populace hated both sects alike, the martyrdom of Peter and Paul might -be easily enough accounted for under the circumstances. - -It is needless to say, Nero’s persecution was unsuccessful. It -only made the Christians more cautious. Their numbers and zeal but -multiplied in despite of it. And if, to men of their principles, it -could be any satisfaction to hear of their enemy’s death, they had -abundant occasion for it when it became known that Nero fell by his -own hand--thus atoning for his injustice to them by at last doing -justice to himself. If we mistake not, the Red Republicans and Social -Reformers of the Continent will have cause to rejoice at many such acts -of self-retribution on the part of their oppressors before many years -elapse. - -The second general persecution of the Christians took place in the -reign of Domitian, towards the close of the first century. In this -persecution many Christian teachers of great eminence suffered, but -with no better success to the cause of paganism than the first. It -appears to have ceased at the death of Domitian. - -The third great persecution commenced in the third year of the Emperor -Trajan, A.D. 100. Without going into the causes alleged by divines -and churchmen for this persecution (which they would have us think -was a purely spiritual affair), let us at once say that every feature -of it known to us in these days shows clearly enough that it was the -_temporal_ and not the _spiritual_ tendencies of Christianity the -Emperor Trajan directed his force against. Indeed, the charges recorded -against them are precisely the same as those made against Chartists -in England, Red Republicans in France, or democrats anywhere in the -present day. One churchman, treating of it, says, “Under the plausible -pretence of their holding illegal meetings and societies, they were -severely persecuted by the governors of provinces and other officers, -in which persecutions great numbers fell by the rage of popular tumult, -as well as by laws and processes.” Is it not under a similar “plausible -pretence of holding illegal meetings and societies” that most -persecutions take place against the political and social reformers of -the present day? And wherein are the doctrines professed by the latter -different from those recorded of the Christians in Trajan’s time? -In no one essential particular. What a pity that our modern divines -and churchmen cannot be got to see the persecutions of Chartists and -Socialists, now-a-days, with the same eyes with which they look upon -those of our predecessors, in religion and politics, who suffered under -Nero, Domitian, and Trajan! The Trajan persecution continued several -years, and made an immense number of martyrs; amongst others the famous -Clement, Bishop of Rome. But as Trajan was an emperor famed for his -liberality, justice, and moderation, some of our modern parsons are at -a loss to account for his severity to the Christians. Unless it be the -chastening hand of Providence, they know not what to see in it. Sweet -innocents! Did they ever hear of any _liberal_ persecutors in England, -or of any _moderate_ mitrailleurs in France? Know they not that the -authors of all the late massacres, transportations and dungeonings -in France call themselves _moderate_ reformers and liberals, and -declare they will have only _la république des honnêtes gens_--the -republic of honest men? Know they not, too, that the really honest men -who are their victims get the very identical names, in France, that -Trajan’s judges gave the victims of his persecution--viz., brigands, -malefactors, and traitors? Yes, let modern churchmen and parsons -pretend what they may, the authorities they now uphold are the exact -counterpart of the Trajans and Domitians of old; and the political -victims of the present day are as exactly the counterpart of those -early Christians whose martyrdom they so affect to deplore, and which -(to blind their flocks) they would have us believe was purely the -consequence of their opinions touching a future state. - -In this persecution under Trajan, and in another which ensued under -his successor Adrian, it is as well known as anything in history that -the great bulk of the martyrs suffered for the _political_ and not the -_spiritual_ dogmas they upheld, and that in the eye of public opinion -they passed not so much for blasphemers and atheists (names given to -them to please the superstitious rabble), but as seditious disturbers -of the peace, enemies of the emperor, malefactors towards society, and -traitors to the imperial government. - -The fourth great persecution took place under Antoninus the -Philosopher, and, with different degrees of severity in different -places, continued throughout the whole of his reign. In this -persecution perished the famous Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, said -to have been the friend and companion of St. John. Thus the poor -Christians fared no better under a philosophic emperor than under -the “moderate” and “virtuous” Trajan. Indeed, we have at this moment -shoals of “philosophers” in France and England who, for absurdity -and hard-heartedness, throw churchmen entirely into the shade. -Parson Malthus’s divinity may have been bad enough; we aver it was -not worse than his philosophy. Many of the unfortunate sufferers in -this philosopher’s reign were devoured by wild beasts; others were -tortured to death in an iron chair, made red-hot for the purpose. -Even women were not spared. The names of two are preserved--Biblia -and Blandina--whose sufferings and heroic courage contrast nobly with -the cowardly cruelty of the philosophic scoundrel-emperor who gave -his sanction to their death. Singularly enough, France, the “eldest -daughter of the church,” was the scene of the worse persecutions -which took place in this reign, when false philosophy _versus_ real -Christianity was the order of the day; and, singularly enough, -France is now the country where, _par excellence_, real Christianity -is taking the field in right earnest against both philosophism -and false Christianity. What France failed to do in the first and -second centuries, and failed again to do in the eighteenth, she is -now labouring to accomplish for all the world in the middle of the -nineteenth. - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -PROGRESS OF PROPAGANDA TO THE TENTH PERSECUTION. - - Seven Years’ Persecution of Equalitarian Innovators--Seventh - Great Persecution--Christians charged with Sorcery in Eighth - Persecution--Tortures of Ninth and Tenth Persecutions--Pretended - Conversion of Constantine--Lives of Early Christians Exemplars to - the Pagan World. - - -The persecutions under the “moderate” Trajan and the “philosophic” -Antoninus had no effect, as we have seen, in stopping the progress of -Christianity. On the contrary, they but served to extend it, by causing -the multitude to interest themselves more in examining a religion which -excited so much alarm amongst those orders of men who, from their power -and riches, they could not but regard as their natural oppressors. -The discreet conduct and humane character of the early Christians was -another, indeed, the chief cause of their success. Those pagans who had -relations with them in private life, and who had thereby opportunities -of judging them as men and citizens, could not be brought to regard -with horror a religion which had produced such characters, nor to -sympathise with the atrocious spirit which consigned them to the fate -of malefactors. Up to the reign of Severus, then, Christianity went on -conquering and to conquer, in despite of edicts and persecutions. - -It was in this reign that the fifth great persecution took place. -In the early part of it no additions were made to the severe edicts -already in force against them; and history preserves but few cases of -their suffering from the application of the old. This was partly owing -to the greater caution imposed upon them by the laws against illegal -meetings and societies passed under Trajan and Antoninus, and partly, -it is said, to the interest at court of a celebrated Christian, named -Proculus, who, by an extraordinary application of his medical art, had -cured the emperor of a dangerous distemper. This precarious lenity, -however, did not endure long. After having been partially interrupted -by an occasional execution of the old laws in force, it was effectually -terminated by an edict of Severus (A.D. 197), which prohibited every -subject of the empire, under severe penalties, from embracing the -Jewish or Christian faith. - -This edict would appear, at first sight, designed only to prevent the -further growth of Christianity; but as, in one of its clauses, it -urged the magistracy to enforce the law’s of former emperors, still in -force, it gave rise to a frightful proscription. For seven years the -Christians were exposed to all manner of persecution and prosecution, -not only in Rome and Italy, but in Gaul, Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, -Syria, Egypt and the rest of Africa. Amongst the celebrated martyrs in -this persecution fell Leonidas, the father of Origen, and Irenæus, -Bishop of Lyons, in Gaul. It was on this occasion Tertullian composed -his well-known “Apologetica,” or apology on behalf of the victims--a -work from which a great deal may be learned of what the early -Christians had to endure in this persecution, more particularly at -Alexandria in Egypt, where the violence of pagan intolerance was most -felt. - -The sixth persecution, under the Emperor Maximinus, which began about -A.D. 235, does not appear to have been so severe as the preceding ones. -Maximinus’s predecessor, the Emperor Alexander, was rather favourable -to the Christians, he and his family having given shelter and patronage -to many of them. This excited the envy and hatred of the party -favourable to Maximinus’s interests, and, at their instigation it is -supposed, the latter prince rekindled the flames of persecution against -the Christians. Celsus was the literary champion of the pagans on this -occasion; and Origen, that of the Christians. The latter gained great -credit and influence amongst his own party, by the zeal and energy with -which he supported the Christians in the fiery ordeal they had to pass -through in the trials of this period. - -The seventh persecution is considered by many the severest that ever -befell the Christian world. It took place during the short reign -of Decius, and was ushered in by an imperial edict, couched in the -strongest terms, and issued A.D. 249. One of its first effects was the -putting to death of Fabianus, Bishop of Rome, with a number of his -followers. Immense numbers of the Christians were publicly destroyed -in almost every province of the empire. The Bishops of Jerusalem and -Antioch died in prison. Tortures the most excruciating were resorted -to, to extort confessions of guilt, the betrayal of accomplices, or a -renunciation of their faith. These were, for the most part, endured -with heroic fortitude; but many sank under the trial, and, to save -their lives, consented to burn incense upon the altars of the gods; -others purchased safety by bribes, or secured it by flight. The poor, -as usual, fared worst. Unable to secure themselves by patronage or -bribery, they were seized before they had time for flight, and put to -death with every refinement of torture, and in a variety of ways. Some -were publicly burnt in the market-places; others were whipped, branded, -and then impaled or crucified. Many were thrown to wild beasts to be -devoured; and not a few were stoned to death by an enraged populace, -whose “wild justice” was too impatient to await magisterial decisions. -At Alexandria in particular, they anticipated the emperor’s edict, -and in their blind fury put many to death who were not Christians -at all, mistaking them for such on account of their connections, -real or supposed. Political bias had much to do in embittering this -persecution. The leading Christians were known to be attached to -the family of the Emperor Philip, who was supposed to be secretly -favourable to their sect. This aggravated the rage of the opposite -faction, and superadded political passions to fanatic zeal in the -proscriptions under Decius. Upon the whole, no other pagan persecution -cost the Christians more lives than this, nor entailed upon them a -greater variety of sacrifices and sufferings. - -The eighth general persecution was not upon so large a scale; but it -had its distinguishing barbarities to bear witness to the truth of a -celebrated saying of Plutarch, namely, that rage and rancour stifle -all sentiments of humanity in the human breast, and that “no beast -is more savage than man when he is possessed of power equal to his -passions.” We may conceive to what excess these passions were carried -under the Emperor Valerian (A.D. 257), when we find that potentate and -his aristocracy employing an Egyptian magician (named Macrinus) to give -out, as the result of his occult science, that he had discovered that -the peace and prosperity of the Roman empire were incompatible with the -“wicked spells” and “execrable charms” practised by the Christians. -This, of course, was a mere pretence to infuriate the rabble and the -distressed of all classes against them. To counteract the pretended -“spells” and “charms” of Christianity, Valerian is said, by the advice -of Macrinus, to have performed many impious rites and sacrifices, -amongst which was the cutting the throats of infants, &c. All this -jugglery was intended to disguise from his subjects the true nature -of the struggle between Christianity and pagan despotism, namely, the -struggle of humanity to vindicate its inherent rights against arbitrary -power and the barbarism of superstitious ignorance. At any rate, fresh -edicts were promulgated in all places against the Christians; and, -with the emperor’s sanction, they were exposed without protection to -the common rage. Amongst the noble army of martyrs sacrificed under -this brutal emperor, history makes honorary mention of St. Lawrence, -Archdeacon of Rome, and of St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, said to -have been two of the most learned and distinguished men of their age. - -The ninth general persecution took place under the Emperor Aurelian, -about the year 274. So little, however, is recorded of this -persecution, that we may safely infer it gave but little interruption -to the peace of the church. Indeed, by this time the Christians were, -in many places, as numerous as the pagans; and many of their body were -opulent subjects, possessed of great local and general influence. One -more great persecution, and we shall find them upon an equality with -their proud oppressors. We shall next find them, in political parlance, -“masters of the situation;” we shall find them established in power, -and corrupted with riches and luxury. A portion of them, at least, -we shall find in that position; and then, agreeably to the laws of -human nature, we shall find them no longer Christians, but practising -the same vices, and committing the same crimes of tyranny and wrong, -they so much condemned in the old pagans. One great persecution more, -and lo! Christianity will be enthroned in power; and then farewell to -Christian progress and Christian principles! One great persecution more -will give to “Christians” the ascendancy; and in that ascendancy will -be the death of Christianity itself! - -The tenth and last great persecution of the early church took place -under the Emperor Diocletian, and broke out in the nineteenth year -of his reign (about the year A.D. 303). Diocletian himself does not -appear to have been animated by any bigoted zeal or political hatred -against the Christians. Galerius, whom he had declared Cæsar, and the -mother of Galerius, who was a zealot in the pagan interest, vehemently -urged him to promulgate edicts for their suppression. To this end, -the philosopher Hierocles prepared public opinion for them by violent -writings against the Christians; and the pagan priesthood, as in -interest bound, supported Hierocles. - -This persecution began in the city of Nicomedia, and thence extended -into other cities and provinces, till at last it became general all -over the empire. Though, doubtless, the historians of the church -have exaggerated this as well as other persecutions, yet there is a -sufficiency of well-authenticated facts to show that, however the -wealthy and intriguing Christians might have contrived to secure -lenity and even impunity for themselves, it was far otherwise with -the majority, who were poor, ardent, and enterprising. As in the -seventh persecution under Decius, the diabolical ingenuity of man -was racked to discover new modes of punishment, new refinements of -torture. Some were roasted alive at slow fires till death put an end -to their sufferings; others were hung by the feet, with their heads -downwards, and suffocated by the smoke of dull fires. Pouring melted -lead down the throats of the victims was one variety of torture; -another was tearing off the flesh from their quivering limbs with -shells. Some of the sufferers had splinters of reeds thrust into the -most sensitive parts of their persons--into their eyes, for example, or -under their finger-nails and nails of their toes; others were impaled -alive. Many had their limbs broken, and in that condition were left -to expire in protracted agonies. Such as were not capitally punished -were scourged or branded, or else had their limbs mutilated and their -features disfigured. Altogether, the victims were as numerous as in -the persecution under Decius. Amongst the more noted ones we read of -the Bishops of Tyre, Sidon, Emesa, and Nicomedia. Very many matrons -and virgins of unblemished character passed through the flames of -martyrdom. And as to the plebeian or poorer classes, they perished -literally in myriads. At length, upon the accession of the Emperor -Constantine the persecution slackened. He declared in favour of the -Christians, and soon after, openly embracing the new religion, he -published the first law in their favour. The death of Maximian, Emperor -of the East, soon after put an end to all their tribulations at the -hands of pagans. - -It was then that, for the first time, Christianity (or rather a -something worse than paganism which usurped its name) took possession -of the thrones of princes. The religion of the court, it became -the fashionable religion. Aristocrats, military men, the leading -professions, men of the world, became converts to it in a twinkling. We -speak, of course, only of the _name_--not of the _thing_. It was the -_name_ only that was established by Constantine: the _thing_ itself he -knew and cared nothing about. The religion as taught by Jesus and his -disciples is not a religion for courts and courtiers; it flourishes not -in presence of emperors and prætorian guards. Constantine’s conversion -was but a _coup d’état_, or political _ruse_, to destroy Christianity -by itself; _alias_, to make its votaries (all true believers) ashamed -of its very name, through seeing it professed by base hypocrites--its -natural and irreconcilable enemies. Its immediate effect was to -neutralise the force of Christianity as operating against the abuses -of government and against social injustice. It became henceforward -impossible to know who were Christians and who were not--at least, who -were sincere and who were not; the false ones bearing the same name as -the true ones, and, in proportion to their hypocrisy, more emphatic -and ostentatious in their profession of faith than the true believers. -As a matter of course, the rich, the ambitious, the low intriguer, the -bustling man of the world, adhered publicly to the name or profession -of Christian for the sake of the good things attached thereto in -church and state. The honest, the simple-hearted, the oppressed many -saw they were foully tricked, but were powerless to right themselves. -Between the pagans, who still adhered to the old system, and their -hypocritical betrayers in high places, their fate was a deplorable one. -After all their struggles and sacrifices for Christianity, they had -the mortification to find that, just at the moment they counted upon -victory, they found discomfiture and shame; and that what 300 years of -pagan torturings, dungeonings, and terrorism had failed to accomplish -against their religion, was effected at once by an “organised -hypocrisy” of _soi-disant_ Christians supposed to belong to their own -church and party. - -Most people date the triumph of Christianity from the accession, or -rather from the conversion, of Constantine. In our opinion, it is the -_decline_ of Christianity, or the _reaction_ against it, that ought -to date therefrom. During the first three centuries the progress of -Christianity was one continued series of triumphs--purchased, it is -true, by the blood of countless martyrs, but not the less real and -effective on that account; but from the moment it became a state -religion, under Constantine and his successors, it ceased to be the -religion of Christ and his apostles, and became a figment of forms and -ceremonies worthless as the ceremonialism of the Pharisees. Many, it is -true, continued sincerely attached to the real thing--the religion of -Jesus; but, discountenanced and discouraged by their own priests and -rulers, they soon fell into discredit, and their numbers diminished -with every succeeding reign, till at last Christianity (as at first -taught) was nowhere to be found. - -In this present century, and in this present year 1850, it is reviving -again under new names and forms. It is allying itself with a philosophy -which has nothing in common with the hollow philosophism of the last -century, but much in common with the natural instincts and primitive -feelings of man. The Christianity which is being now revived in -France, Germany, and elsewhere on the Continent approaches nearer to -the Christianity of the first and second centuries than most people -are aware of. At bottom it is the same; but in form and garb it must -necessarily partake of the science and civilization of the times we -are in. Its object, like that of Christ and his disciples, is to -banish sin and slavery, crime and misery, from the world, but without -pretending to any extraordinary mission, or to any other light than -the revelations of Scripture interpreted and explained by reason. The -_Christianisme_ and the _humanité_ of Pierre Leroux may be taken as -samples of this modern revival of Christianity. - -As a general rule, the early Christians exemplified in their lives -the charity, the purity, and the disinterestedness enjoined by the -Gospel; it was therefore they were so successful with the people. The -persecutions of the pagans did not make them retaliate. They were too -wise, too discreet, to rebel against laws or governments that could -have crushed them at once; and for the unfortunate, deluded populace -they had nothing but pity in the midst of their worst excesses. They -knew it was ignorance alone that made the populace so furious against -them: they knew they were the true friends of this populace; and that -this populace would be their friend, if they could but understand each -other. Hence the toleration preached and practised with such good -effect in the early ages of the church. It is true, there were disputes -and occasional intolerance amongst Christians from the first,--we have -sundry proofs of it in Paul’s Epistles, the Acts, and in the writings -of the early Fathers; but it was not till after the legal establishment -of Christianity that the guilt of intolerance or persecution could -be charged against Christians as a body. Though corruption had been -making way amongst them long before that, and though there were -symptoms enough in the Church prognosticative of the dire effect -that power and the mammon of unrighteousness might have upon them, -yet the main body remained sound. What they suffered from the pagans -naturally made them hold together for mutual aid and counsel; it also -cemented in them habits of mutual love and tenderness for each other’s -feelings: above all, it confirmed them in their aversion to tyranny -and intolerance, and enamoured them more and more of that Gospel which -everywhere enjoins charity, tenderness, mercy, and self-denial for -the sake of others. They remembered Christ’s sermon on the mount, his -unbounded compassion for sinners, his forgiveness of all, his love of -little children, his humility, his readiness to be the servant of his -followers, his teachings, fastings, prayers, and sufferings for all. -These were ever present in their minds. They knew and felt that, guided -by the spirit and precepts of the Gospel, by the conduct of its Author, -and by the preachings and examples of his apostles, true Christians -could not be otherwise than tolerant, forgiving, just, and affectionate -towards one another. - -The general conduct of Christians before the age of Constantine was -in conformity with those maxims. They believed what they professed; -and they practised what they believed. Upon this head the writings of -the early Fathers are all but unanimous. We could cite a volume-full -of exemplifications; but the fact, as an historical one, is notorious -beyond the necessity for proof. - -Up to the time of Constantine the progress of Christianity was one -continued series of triumphs over the principles and practices of -human slavery--one earnest, uninterrupted protest against those vices -and passions in which the subjection of man to his fellow-man has its -origin. In the minds of the early Christians, the Gospel dispensation -was no other than a divine protestation against the abasement of -the human race by tyranny, upon the one hand, and slavery upon the -other. Not one of the sublime virtues so beautifully pourtrayed and so -authoritatively enjoined by Christ and his disciples could flourish and -bear fruit in a world of tyrants and slaves. Either that divine Gospel -must, therefore, ever remain a dead letter, or the system of human -slavery, with all its violence, vice, and crimes, must be overthrown. -Every act, every institute, every martyrdom, of the early Christians -goes to show they were impressed with this belief. Hence their -marvellous labours, their still more marvellous sufferings (voluntarily -incurred and borne), and, most marvellous of all, their extraordinary -successes. Everything goes to prove their fixed determination to -subvert, from its foundation, that anti-social structure of society -which made man the slave of his fellow-man; their every act and -discourse tended accordingly to its overthrow. It cannot be overthrown -by an outbreak, a _coup de main_, a surprise, or onslaught of brute -force. Its existence being the work of opinion, it can be overthrown -only by opinion. The world must therefore be made to believe -differently. The minds and hearts that uphold it must be enlightened, -softened, refined, exalted, reformed. Behold the mission of the early -Christians--the means and end of their godlike labours. - -Up to the age of Constantine, we repeat, the Christian revolution -gained ground incessantly, if not uninterruptedly. It progressed not -only in despite of, but actually _by means of_ every one of the ten -great imperial persecutions we have sketched. Like the Antæus of -mythology, it gathered fresh strength from every fall. - -With its _establishment_ under Constantine ended its triumphant -progress! What churchmen call its final victory, its crowning glory, -was in reality its first decisive check--the cause and forerunner -of its downfall; in other words, it was the beginning of the -counter-revolution or reaction which soon afterwards rendered null and -void all the martyrdoms and triumphs of three hundred years. - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -DEBASEMENT OF THE NEW POWER WHEN SEIZED BY RULERS. - - Cost of making the New Ideas triumphant--Change in Character in - the hands of Kings, Courtiers, and Profitmongers--Emancipations - become a matter of Policy and Profit--Repudiation of Principles of - Fraternity and Equality--Horrors of Introduction of Proletarianism. - - -We have seen, in the two last chapters, what terrible tribulations -it cost the early Christians to obtain admission into the world for -the doctrines of liberty, fraternity, and equality,--we ought rather, -perhaps, to say, for the more comprehensive doctrines of justice -and humanity, upon which the others must be based to be real and -enduring. For upwards of three hundred years these poor Christians -were the victims of an untiring persecution, which smote them without -pity and without remorse, in every part of the wide-extended Roman -empire. We have seen how, at ten distinct epochs, by the edicts of as -many emperors, this persecution burst upon them with such signal and -surpassing fury that, to this day, it seems almost a miracle that the -sect was not utterly extirpated. More marvellous still, we find them -growing and extending themselves after every persecution, till at -length, under Constantine, they have become so numerous and formidable -that persecution may no longer be safely tried. Indeed, force would -no longer prevail; so fraud must be resorted to. The sham conversion -of Constantine and his courtiers was the fraud had recourse to. Those -hypocrites suddenly pretended to a new light. Constantine made his -own conversion quite a supernatural affair; he pretended to have -seen a brilliant apparition in the heavens, presenting a cross with -this inscription, “In hoc signo vinces,”--“In this sign thou shalt -conquer.” His courtiers and expectants, of course, partook of the -imperial illumination; they discovered with miraculous haste, if not -by miraculous agency, the divine authority of the Christian religion. -By embracing it in _name_ and _profession_ they wisely calculated -they could more easily extinguish it in _substance_ and in _practice_ -than by any other means. In the first place, it would detach the mere -_political_ Christians--_i.e._, the selfish and ambitious ones--from -the real ones, the honest, unsuspecting mass. In the next place, it -would conciliate the former by throwing open to them the offices and -honours of the state; and, at the same time, flatter the multitude by -the seeming conversion of an emperor and his court to their religion. -Above all, it would have the advantage of pricking up the Christian -organization (which, up to that epoch, was a veritable democratic -organization) by detaching from the multitude all their leading -spiritual and political chiefs, who would thenceforward be sure to have -one doctrine for the rich and another for the poor, in order to keep -the doors of preferment open for themselves. Such, at least, was the -effect of the legal establishment of Christianity; and they know but -little of men and of politics who would attribute that event to other -motives or causes. - -In truth, the progress of real Christianity--the Christianity taught -by Christ and his disciples--received its death-blow from its legal -establishment by Constantine. As long as it had the enemies of human -rights for its foes, it attracted to itself the friends of human -rights; but the moment it became a state religion--the religion of -courts and courtiers--the religion of emperors and aristocrats--the -religion of ambitious priests and sanguinary soldiers--the religion, in -short, of the rich and powerful,--from that moment it repelled sincere -believers from all communion with the church. It either plunged them -into despair for humanity, or else forced them, by their necessities -and passions, to become servile and hypocritical professors of what in -their hearts they despised, as being a libel upon the Redeemer and a -fraud upon humanity. It was, in effect, paganism under a new name and -with somewhat new forms. - -Altogether the propagation of Christianity assumed a new aspect after -it became the religion of the Roman empire. Pride and hypocrisy took -the place of humility and zeal. Ambition, corruption, and servility -entirely supplanted in the hearts of men the virtues which the Gospel -had hitherto consecrated in the eyes of Christians. Not a shred of -democracy, not a vestige of fraternity nor of the love of liberty and -equality, could survive in a religion patronised by courts, professed -by its parasites and prostitutes, made a stepping-stone for the -purposes of lucre and ambition, guarded and defended by prætorian -bands, and surrounded with the munificence and corruption of imperial -power. - -The effects of the change soon became visible and palpable to all. -During the three first centuries every extension of the Christian -propagandism was followed by the most beneficial social consequences. -It brought rich and poor, gentle and simple, high and low, learned and -unlearned, Jew and Gentile, into terms of the closest and most cordial -communionship. All distinctions of wealth and talent, of rank, station, -office, intellectual and personal endowments--all, all sank before -the beneficent spell of a religion which declared all men equal and -brothers, and which promised to all a heaven both here and hereafter, -upon the sole condition of keeping its commandments and carrying -into effect its precepts. In the face of such a religion, no man who -believed in it could be a tyrant; no man would be a slave a moment -longer than he could help. “My service,” says Christ, “is perfect -freedom.” Thus was it understood by the Christians of the first three -centuries. Under the Heaven-bred influence of the new dispensation, -masters manumitted their slaves in thousands. The slaves so manumitted -loved their masters to distraction, and would die rather than betray or -disoblige them. The rich converts divided their substance freely with -the poor; the poor as freely bestowed their services, and administered -comforts to the rich, renouncing or losing all feelings of envy and -distrust towards them. Everywhere collections were made amongst the -brethren for distressed members--for members even of churches or -congregations in far-off countries; and these collections were always -superabundant, because from the heart, and inspired by a power greater -than the power of pelf. In many of the primitive congregations a real -equality prevailed amongst all the members--a veritable reciprocity of -benefactions and sacrifices--a _bona fide_ community of goods and of -friendly offices. - -This it was which gave such an extraordinary impulse to Christianity -at its first outset:--the total absence of selfishness; the perfect -sincerity of the members; their unbounded faith in their new religion -and in one another; their sovereign contempt for worldly advantages -obtained by trickery and fraud; and their firm belief that it needed -only their example and precept to change the face of entire humanity, -and assimilate the rest of the world to themselves in virtue and innate -happiness. In a word, they abounded and superabounded in the three -cardinal virtues-- - - - FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY! - - -faith in their principles--a perfect hope of seeing them realised--and -a charity prepared to make the most unbounded allowances for the -weaknesses and follies of all who might oppose themselves to the new -dispensation. No wonder, with such principles, they accomplished such -marvels. - -But all was changed with the change that took place under Constantine. -Masters, it is true, still continued to manumit their slaves; but, -alas! it was in a very different spirit, and for very different -purposes from those which actuated the true or early Christians. It -appears from the concurrent testimonies of the Fathers of the church, -and of legal documents still extant, that vast numbers of slaves were -manumitted, in the first three centuries, through the pious zeal of -their masters; and that those slaves and their progeny fell into great -poverty and want through the absence of any legal provision for them, -to compensate for the loss of their masters’ protection and support. -The early Christian missionaries, who caused their liberation from -slavery, never, of course, contemplated such a result. They looked to a -complete renovation of society, which would dispense the blessings of -creation to all God’s creatures alike, according to their services and -deserts. They never imagined a state of things in which _to be free_ -would imply _freedom only to starve_. Yet such, unfortunately, was the -result they unconsciously brought about. The myriads of manumitted -slaves, once deprived of their masters’ homes and protection, had -thenceforward no other means of providing a subsistence, but to betake -themselves to one or other of the four courses indicated in our first -and second chapters. They must either find work as hired labourers, -or they must beg, or they must steal, or they (if females) must turn -to prostitution. They must, to repeat the Guizot classification of -proletarianism, become - - - LABOURERS, BEGGARS, THIEVES, OR PROSTITUTES - - -And that is just what happened. All that could find work, and were -inclined to work, became labourers for hire; others took to begging; -a third class became thieves and robbers; and the unfortunates of -the weaker sex as naturally and as necessarily betook themselves to -prostitution. - -The majority of both sexes, of course, took to hired labour, when they -could get it, as the safest occupation. Having no land nor capital -wherewith to turn their freedom to account for their own advantage, -they had no alternative but to find employers, or else die of hunger, -unless they betook themselves to the other courses adverted to. - -Here began that frightful system of wages-slavery, so often adverted to -in the progress of this inquiry--that desolating system which has since -extended itself all over the civilized world, and which has converted -three-fourths of Christendom into more degraded and unhappy beings than -were the ancient chattel-slaves of the pagans or the negro-slaves who -were in the Southern States of the American republic. - -Constantine’s courtier-“Christians” and capitalists were not slow in -availing themselves of this new form of slavery. They soon discovered -that it was (to them) a _cheaper_ slavery than the old one. They -discovered that an “independent labourer” might be made, by the fear -of starvation, to do more work than a chattel-slave ever did under the -fear of the lash; and with this advantage in their own favour, that -he might be turned off and left to starve when there was no work for -him; whereas they would have to _keep_ the chattel-slave, and _keep him -well_ too, whether there was work for him or not. - -But as we have already, in a former chapter, so largely dwelt on the -comparative merits of the two kinds of slavery, it is unnecessary to -repeat here the signal advantages which landlords and capitalists -derive from wages-slavery in comparison with the other. At any rate, -the capitalists or proprietors, under Constantine and his successors, -must have been well aware of them; for we find that, instead of -compelling the manumitted slaves and their progeny to return to the -condition of chattel-slavery, they greatly added to their numbers by -still further manumissions, only accompanying them with very stringent -laws and regulations to keep them, now “independent labourers,” as -effectually under their thumb as when they had been nominal bondsmen. - -Had the primitive Christians foreseen the terrible abuse their -benevolent labours were destined to give rise to, it may be questioned -whether they would not have abandoned their mission, rather than risk -the superinducing of proletarianism, with all its horrors, upon the -system they sought to explode--the system of chattel-slavery. It was -not in order to fill the world with famishing beggars, with necessitous -thieves and prostitutes, and, above all, with myriads of honest -producers starving in the midst of their own productions,--it was not -for such unholy purposes that the early Christians divized the _régime_ -of fraternity and equality; yet all the traditions that remain to us of -Christian propagandism prove unmistakably that such were its effects, -even before the downfall of the Roman empire, to which event it, in our -opinion, in no small degree contributed. - -Indeed, Rome was already overrun with paupers and fugitive slaves, and -Italy with thieves and vagabonds, before Constantine found it politic -to make Christianity a state religion. But, lest we might be suspected -of giving scope to invention, or of indulging in idle imaginings, -on a subject so fraught with interest to mankind, we shall here use -the authority of a profound antiquarian to illustrate this critical -period of history, when the great transition from chattel-slavery to -proletarianism was effected. Let our readers fail not, in perusing it, -to compare it with what we have previously laid down in respect of -the condition of slaves under the old pagan system. We quote from the -learned work of M. Granier de Cassagnac, entitled “Histoire des Classes -Ouvrières et Bourgeoises”:-- - -“Things remained in this state, that is to say, the poor, still far -from numerous, had no hospital or asylum in which to take refuge -during the first ages of the vulgar era. The Christians dispensed alms -freely and bountifully, nourishing the necessitous poor out of their -substance. But they were not yet masters; they were still a minority -of the population. They could not act collectively, publicly, or in a -corporate or legal capacity, but only individually and in an isolated -manner, each on his own account. The pagan clergy, on the other hand, -who were in possession of immense territorial estates, which proceeded -partly from permanent grants or donations disbursed from the imperial -treasury, and dating as far back as the age of Numa (who had originated -them), and partly from innumerable inheritances and legacies which had -subsequently fallen to them, never had any idea of succouring the poor, -or of organizing any system of public charity; and when, towards the -close of the fourth century, Symmachus addressed to Valentinian II., to -Theodosius, and to Arcadius those two celebrated letters on the pagan -worship which was falling into decay, in which he complains so bitterly -of the emperors having confiscated the property of the priests and the -vestals, St. Ambrose, in the first of his two answers to Symmachus -addressed to Valentinian II., contrasts with the avarice of the pagan -clergy, who kept all their riches to themselves, the self-denial of the -Christian church, which possessed nothing (as St. Ambrose expresses it) -but its faith, and the whole of whose goods were the property of the -poor. - -“However, although it is certain the number of permanent poor or -professional beggars was not very numerous up to the beginning of the -third century, there occurred terrible epochs when this number was -fearfully augmented. It was in years of famine--in years when the -harvests failed in Sicily or in Africa, or when the two corporations of -shippers and bakers--one charged with superintending the importations -and the other with the distribution of bread and flour--were suddenly -brought to a standstill, that occurred those horrible famines from -which the superior administration of modern times preserves the -people of our times; it was then that all the slaves of Italy, no -longer fed by their masters, were seen flocking to Rome to demand -bread; but as this increase of population soon threatened Rome itself -with starvation, they were expelled the city upon a given day, to -go and die where they might. This was the ordinary course adopted -by Roman administrations in critical times; and Symmachus, who was -prefect of Rome about the year 383, wrote thus:--‘We fear the total -failure of provisions at Rome, even after having chased away all the -stranger-population which took refuge amongst us, and which the city -subsisted.’ - -“On their side, the Christians inveighed loudly against the burgesses -of Rome for refusing to divide their superfluity with the strangers who -sought relief within her walls. St. Ambrose, who makes mention of this -expulsion in several parts of his works, inveighs indignantly against -this want of feeling on the part of the pagans. ‘Those,’ says he, ‘who -banish the poor strangers from Rome are much to blame. It is inhuman -to repulse a fellow-creature at the moment he craves succour at your -hands. Brute beasts do not treat their kind so: ’tis only man that -behaves so to man.’ Sometimes the pagans themselves protested against -the expulsion of strangers when famine threatened the towns they had -fled from.” - -This, it will be observed, took place after the legal establishment of -Christianity under Constantine. M. de Cassagnac continues:-- - -“For the rest, it is manifest from divers writings of the third and -fourth centuries that, as soon as the charity of the early Christians -became known, the poor gathered in groups around the churches. At Rome -they congregated near the church of the Apostles, in the Vatican. -It was there they received a diurnal distribution of alms, as may -be seen (amongst other proofs) in the works of Ammian Marcellinus, -and in the poem of Prudentius against Symmachus. Moreover, it seems -all manner of imposition used to be committed by loose characters to -surprise the compassion of the Christian bishops. Here is the way -St. Ambrose expresses himself on this subject, in the second book of -his treatise on the duties of ministers:--‘We must fix bounds to our -liberality, that it may not be abused or rendered useless. The priests, -in particular, ought to be very circumspect on this head, that they -may proportion their alms to the justice of the case, and not to the -importunity of the claimant. Never did the greediness of beggars reach -such a pitch. Able-bodied men present themselves, strolling about for -the mere pleasure of vagabondizing, and who would absorb the relief -due only to the veritable poor. There are some of them who feign to -be in debt: let this point be strictly verified. Others declare they -have been despoiled by robbers: let exact information be taken of these -persons,’ &c. The scandal given by these fraudulent beggars and their -impositions went to such a length, that the Emperor Valentinian II. -made a law, dated from Padua, in 382, expelling from Rome all who were -not beggars really incapable of gaining a livelihood. - -“The law of Valentinian is very curious, in so far as it contains -certain data and precise details illustrative of the state of -pauperism in Italy towards the close of the fourth century. We see -by it, for example, that the greater part of the beggars congregated -at Rome were either runaway slaves or serfs whom the culture of the -fields could not supply with employment. They precipitated themselves -into Rome, which was then the largest city in the world, and where, -better than anywhere else, they might escape the vigilant search of -their masters.... Justinian re-enacts pretty nearly the same law as -Valentinian--only with this difference,--that he condemns all sturdy -beggars to labour on the public works. - -“The whole of this vast redundancy of beggars took place in the third -and fourth centuries. It seems they had interpreted literally St. -Jerome’s character of Christians, when he calls them, in his 26th -Epistle to Pammachius, the _subordinates and candidates of the poor_. -The predominant historic and social fact of the fourth century is the -outrageous multiplication of proletarians, and (after innumerable -failures of private charity) the creation and organization of a grand -system of public charity to relieve the wants of the poor, and to -provide asylums for old age, for the infirm, and for deserted children. -This eleemosynary system, which the lapse of time has but more largely -developed, and which is still the only palliative resorted to by modern -societies to cure, or rather to bandage, the wounds of civilization, -thus owes its origin to Christianism. - -“Seeing that antiquity, during a period of more than 4,000 years, -had not emancipated so many slaves as to produce any noticeable or -considerable mass of proletarians, and that in less than 400 years -Christianism had so multiplied them, that regular society was, as it -were, choked and perilled by them, one would be tempted to believe -that Christianity made a dead set against slavery, and went to work by -grand essays of systematic enfranchisement. That, however, would be an -error. In general, Christianism did not meddle with the positive law: -it left to Cæsar what belonged to Cæsar. St. Paul wrote to the slaves -of Ephesus that the new religion made no change in their duties as -slaves. Nevertheless, Christianity created, alongside the old moral -world, a new moral world, into which it admitted all who volunteered -to accept its conditions. It was by this attractive power that -Christianism drew over to it, in succession, all the members of pagan -society; and the magnificent application that it gave to its ideas of -charity, fraternity, and love was the principal cause which indirectly -determined so many emancipations, and which gave birth to such a host -of proletarians.” - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -SERVICE OF CHRISTIANITY IN BREAKING CASTE-BONDS. - - Division of Emancipated Slaves into two Classes of - Proletarians--Equality and Fraternity gave the desire for - Liberty--Inveteracy of Caste-Prejudice--Perversion of Christianity - under Constantine--Antagonism of Wages-Slavery and Christianity. - - -Our last chapter concluded with an instructive passage, translated from -the work of M. Granier de Cassagnac, showing how the pure spirit of -primitive Christianity had operated the manumission of slaves in such -masses that the Roman empire was soon overrun with proletarians of the -several conditions described. What four thousand years of paganism had -not effected, to any sensible extent, was the work of less than three -hundred years of Christian propagandism. But, alas! how different was -the result aimed at by Christ and his successors! Those emancipations, -which the early Christians had fondly hoped would bring about the reign -of universal liberty and fraternity, but introduced a new form of -slavery infinitely worse than the old, became, under Constantine and -his successors, a curse to the emancipated, whose fatal consequences -have never since ceased to be felt by three-fourths of Christendom. -A few of the manumitted prospered, in the old Roman guilds or -corporations, as burgesses, employers, or administrators; and a similar -class, more extensive and more opulent, still obtains in our own times. -But the vast majority, being without land, capital, or the patronage of -masters, had to seek a precarious subsistence by casual labour, or else -by theft, beggary, or prostitution. The passage from Cassagnac, quoted -in the last chapter, shows how fearfully those unhappy proletarians -had multiplied before the end of the fourth century. Immediately -following it, there is another which bears so authoritatively upon the -subject-matter of our inquiry, and which so strongly corroborates what -has been advanced, in this work, on the relative merits of chattel -and wages slavery, that we cannot forbear giving it a place here. We -translate from pages 304 and 305 of the work referred to:-- - -“In pagan society few slaves desired to become free; and the reason -is very simple. As slaves, they had, in their masters’ homes, all the -necessaries of life; they were sure of never having to suffer cold, nor -hunger or thirst, and to be comfortably housed and well taken care of, -in old age as well as in youth, in sickness as well as in health. As -freemen (‘independent labourers’!) they would have to provide not only -for their own wants, but also for those of their wives and children; -and this not only during the vigour of life, but also in old age and -during their infirmities, without taking into the account that, poor -and weak as they must necessarily be when emerging from slavery, -they would have to encounter all the chances of a perpetual struggle -with society--a struggle in which even the rich and the strong not -unfrequently succumb.” - -This account of the ancient pagan slaves corresponds exactly with Mr. -Edward Smith’s account of the slaves he met with in the Southern States -of America. The latter would not give you “thank ye” for their liberty, -“feeling the protection of their masters to be an advantage,” and -because the “mere hirer has not the attachment for the hired that the -master naturally feels for his slave.” - -It may be asked, then, how came the ancient pagan slave to appreciate -the boon of liberty when gratuitously given to him by his Christian -master? M. de Cassagnac, we think, answers the question with great -force and truth. “But in the new Christian association the slave felt -a new motive and attraction towards liberty. In the first place, the -enfranchised Christian was not, as in pagan society, repulsed by the -remorseless prejudices of caste. Without refusing to take nobility -of race into account, it showed no extravagant preference for it, as -paganism did. The Apostles and the early Fathers had freely extended -the hand of fellowship to the enfranchised and to the lower orders in -general--a race of men whom the Gentiles, that is to say, the genteel -society of paganism, had, up to that time, scornfully flouted. St. -Paul wrote to the Romans, that before God there is no exception of -persons; and St. Gregory and St. Ambrose have filled their works with -philosophical as well as Christian raillery levelled against the -pride of pedigree, and the right of domination founded upon it, which -was a direct onslaught upon the pagan nobility, whose principle was -the tradition of power and rank according to blood. The enfranchised -slaves and their offspring were always welcome amongst the Christians, -to share with them every social advantage. They might pass through -all the degrees of clerical ordination--become deacons, priests, -bishops,--in short, leap that hitherto impassable gulf, which, under -the old pagan régime, completely separated the humble from the higher -ranks of society. Accordingly, the Christian slaves who became free -were sure to have no moral prepossession or prejudice against them, -while all religious ones were in their favour. They were certain not to -be insolently scouted as of the lower orders, and also to be succoured -and relieved, in case of need, as fellow-Christians. It was on this -account they precipitated themselves into the régime of liberty, and -that so imprudently and in such immense masses that, suddenly becoming -their own masters, and responsible for their own maintenance, the vast -majority were soon overtaken and overwhelmed by misery of which they -had had no foresight--a misery till then unheard of--an appalling -misery, the recollections of which, as handed down to us from the -fourth century, present a veritable picture of horrors.” - -It is only those who have felt the insolence of rank and power who can -appreciate the motives which impelled the slaves and the lower ranks of -citizens to embrace the new Christian code of liberty in the days to -which the foregoing passage refers. One more passage, illustrative of -this view, we shall translate from another part of Cassagnac’s work. -And, in this passage, what a true but frightful picture is presented to -us of the wrongs inflicted by the self-privileged few upon the despised -many--wrongs as old as the world, and yet as green in the present -day as though they were but of yesterday’s growth! It is a fearfully -significant passage:-- - -“The proletarians are, then, the progeny of the ancient slave-class--of -the ancient junior branches of families, given, bartered, or sold by -the _fathers_ of the _heroic_ period--the age of gods and heroes. This -great, active, terrible, poetic, and calamitous race has been marching -onwards since the beginning of the world, struggling to conquer repose -for itself, like Ahasuerus, and mayhap, like him, will never attain -it. It has still the old malediction on its head, which dooms it to -move incessantly without making progress. All it has gained from its -fatigues of ages is, that Homer and Plato say to it, ‘March on!--you -will never reach your destination in this world;’ and that St. Paul -says to it, ‘You will reach it in the next world.’ It marches on, -then, and has been so marching for sixty centuries; covered with -obscurity, opprobrium, and contempt; obtaining no credit for its -virtues or talents, none for its labours, none for its sufferings. It -is not accounted more beautiful for having produced an Aspasia, more -illustrious for having given birth to a Phedon, more brave for having -turned out a Spartacus from amid its ranks. Whatever may have been its -intelligence, its patient endurance, its wisdom, its parts, it was -never honoured with the title of ‘sons of the gods,’ like the noble -race; and Plato himself, though he had felt what slavery was under -King Dionysius, cast in its teeth the famed Homeric verse, in which -it is told that the slave has but the half of a human soul. Singular -fatality! In vain did manumissions and enfranchisements break the -chains of this doomed race. The mark of the collar is still on their -necks (as with the dog in the fable); and one of their own caste, -Horace, the son of a _freed_ man, in the very golden age of antique -philosophy, poesy, and civilization, threw in their face the eternal -aspersion, ‘Money alters not the race--changes not the blood.’ Though -they had gained this money by fatigues of body or fatigues of mind, by -manual or by intellectual excellence,--though they had been merchants -or soldiers, senators or philosophers,--still was the cry rung in their -ears, ‘Money alters not the race.’ This malediction of race or blood -was implacable. In vain had Ventidius Bassus become a consul: he was -told, ‘You have been a scavenger and a muleteer.’ In vain had Galerius, -Diocletian, Probus, Pertinax, Vitellius, Augustus himself, become -emperors. Galerius was told, ‘You are but an upstart;’ Diocletian, ‘You -have been a slave;’ Probus, ‘Your father was a gardener;’ Pertinax, -‘Your father was an enfranchised bondsman;’ Vitellius, ‘Your father was -a soap-maker;’ and they were very near writing upon the marble statue -of Augustus, ‘Your grandfather was a mercer, and your father was a -usurer or a money-lender.’ - -“If this eternal and universal reprobation of the slave and -enfranchised caste did not spare the most exalted heads and the most -illustrious, imagine what the wretched proletarian was to expect -in his lowly, poverty-stricken, and degraded state. The gentlefolk -repelled him from the family hearth; civil society made him an outcast -from all its prerogatives. He was born, and he lived and he died, -apart from other men. And as we are told of certain rivers which flow -together in the same bed or channel without once commingling their -waters, so proletarianism and gentility, enfranchised slavery and -nobility, touched and elbowed each other, and even lay down in the same -bed, but without ever combining or losing themselves in each other by -amalgamation.” - -Had Christianity operated no other good in the world than breaking down -the barriers of rank and pedigree--those barriers which up to Christ’s -advent had effectually divided the human race into two irreconcilable -castes--it would have done enough to entitle it to be regarded as the -most important event that had till then occurred in the world. Until -that most stupid and inveterate of all prejudices, the prejudice in -favour of race or blood, was effectually rooted out, no real progress -could have been made by humanity. The early Christians felt this, and -so did the few freed-men and proletarians of their day. The latter, -ousted from the family circle and from the rights of citizenship, -rejected at once from private and from public society, must naturally -have yearned for some new society in which their wounded feelings -might find a refuge from the barbarous pride of their fellow-men. -Such a society they found in the new Christian brotherhood. Hence the -ardour with which the slave and proletarian class embraced the new -dispensation; and hence its first fatal but unforeseen consequence--the -myriad pauper-population which soon after overran Italy and the whole -Roman empire. - -But no sooner was the character of Christianity altered and debased--as -it became after its legal establishment under Constantine--no sooner -did the wealthy and ambitious portion of the Christians abandon their -religious obligations for worldly advantages, and lose all sympathy -with their poorer brethren, than the latter found themselves in a worse -condition, in respect of social intercourse, than was the lot of the -old slaves, their forefathers. They had then to endure the pangs of -destitution, superadded to the insolence and pride of race and riches. - -Before the epoch of Christianity, the only refuge society offered to -the few manumitted slaves and proletarians from the withering pride of -social disparagement was what Frenchmen call _communes_, or what we in -England would call _municipal institutions_. All ancient history goes -to show that _communes_ or _municipalities_, of some kind or other, -existed from a very remote period. In these communes or municipalities -the progeny and descendants of slaves formed a sort of society amongst -themselves, in which they were governed by their own bye-laws, -according to the charters they held, or the amount of privileges -conceded to them by the governments under which they found shelter. -The enormous mass of proletarianism caused by Christianity necessarily -enlarged and greatly altered the character of these municipal bodies: -one portion of the members became in time opulent burgesses, growing -rich by manufactures, commerce, and the professions allied with them; -the remainder--the vast majority--became wages-slaves, or else fell -into the other degraded sections of proletarianism already described. - -In our modern society, the pride and exclusiveness of the upstart -burgess-class towards their proletarian brethren is not less insulting -and obdurate than were the same qualities in the ancient nobles towards -the slave-class from which these burgesses are derived. If our modern -middle-classes have still to endure an occasional humiliation from -aristocratic _morgue_--from the exclusive pretensions of noble blood -and ancestral honours--they take care to indemnify themselves largely -by similar insolence at the expense of their less fortunate brethren, -the working-classes. Indeed, were the latter to be asked which of the -two classes, the higher or the middle, they ordinarily experience most -courtesy from, they would unhesitatingly make answer, from the higher. - -Nor is this class-insolence, this two-fold pride of blood and riches, -confined to monarchical countries. It is as rife in republican Americas -as in purse-proud, aristocratic England. In Spanish America both kinds -of pride exist in full vigour; but that of caste, or blood, is carried -to such excess as must render the excluded classes perfectly miserable -all their lives. In the Free States even of republican America a man of -colour dared not sit in the same part of a church or a theatre with the -whites. Intermarriage between the two races was regarded with horror, -and with difficulty could a clergyman be found to officiate at such -a ceremony. In travelling, the people of colour must not enter the -same carriages, nor (if in a steamboat) must they be seen in the same -cabin as the whites. The negro-class, male and female, must travel in -inferior trains by land, and sleep in inferior berths or upon deck when -at sea or in excursions up and down the rivers. At places of public -amusement they have their “coloured” seat and in the house of God their -“coloured” gallery. In New Orleans and other cities in the South there -are great numbers of coloured ladies of excellent education--ladies -highly accomplished, and possessed, too, of great wealth, who lived in -concubinage with white men, because they could not be legally married -to them. There was a distinguished American general in the States who -had several children, the offspring of such concubinage; and, with all -his influence, he could not find admission into society for the members -of his family. They and their like find barriers everywhere opposed to -them. - -It is true, these are not so much distinctions of wealth and pedigree, -as distinctions of blood and race. But the principle of exclusiveness -is the same. It is the exercise of injustice by the strong against the -weak--the oppression of one class by another--a particular form or -phase of slavery, which under any and every phase is anti-Christian -and anti-human. Liberty and Christianity do not require a black -man to marry a white woman, nor _vice versâ_; but both liberty and -Christianity forbid coercive laws against such marriages, and more -especially do they repudiate and reprobate the system of exclusiveness -and unnecessary insults so universally exercised by the whites against -the people of colour. Had the Christianity which overthrew paganism, -in the three first centuries, continued to prevail in the world, and -succeeded in assimilating the laws and institutions of nations to the -law of the Gospel, it is certain slavery must have long since become -extinct. Christianity knows no distinction between black men and white -men--between noble and peasant--between proletarian and millionaire. -Wages-slavery is as incompatible with its spirit as is chattel-slavery. -Were that spirit to prevail, our laws and institutions would be such -that neither form of slavery could for an instant raise its head -anywhere. - -It is true, great efforts are being made by a certain class of -_soi-disant_ Christians to procure the abolition of chattel-slavery. -We must, however, regard all such efforts as the fruits of folly or -hypocrisy, so long as we find no efforts made by the same parties -to abolish _wages-slavery_--a slavery which we have shown to be -immeasurably worse for white slaves than is chattel-slavery for -the blacks. If it be said that to abolish wages-slavery would be -impossible, we answer, No! We shall show, before we dismiss this -inquiry, that wages-slavery is wholly and solely the work of tyrannical -laws which one set of men impose upon another by fraud and force, and -which they have no more right to impose, nor necessity for imposing, -than they have to traffic in human flesh, or the black king of Dahomey -has to make war upon his neighbours that he may conquer and sell them -for slaves. - -As long as these infamous laws (the laws alluded to) continue to be -in force, we hold it to be disgustingly absurd and even infamous -to agitate the world for the abolition of chattel-slavery. If we -attempt to alter the condition of slaves we should do so for their -own benefit, and not for _ours_. We should do so to ameliorate their -condition, and not to make it worse. The ranters of Exeter Hall have -no idea of ameliorating the condition of the negroes they so yearn to -“emancipate.” Their whole and sole object is to “proletarianize” them -for the benefit of employers and usurers. Their object is, in fact, to -reduce them to the level of the Irish peasantry, or of the labourers -in Dorsetshire or the weavers in Lancashire. The planters themselves -did not deny that they would have preferred “independent labourers” -to slaves, if they could have got them. They acknowledged that white -labour would have been more profitable to them than slave-labour--even -in cotton and sugar planting--if they could only have made sure of a -constant supply of it when wanted. But they said the white labourer -was too independent to render it safe for the planters to trust to his -services in seasons of pressure, as during the time of cane-pressing, -sugar-boiling, and cotton-picking. Assure him of a supply of such -labour--only give him a “surplus population” of starving proletarians -to be ever ready at his hand, like so many sheep in a crib, and you -will make him an abolitionist at once. And why? Because wages-slavery -would be then cheaper and better for him than chattel-slavery. On no -other principle would he emancipate them. Upon no other principle did -any emancipations ever take place in the world, save in the three -first ages of Christianity. And no sooner did the pagan masters and -hypocritical _Christians_ discover, under Constantine, that more work -could be got out of “free” proletarians than out of chattel-slaves, and -that the former _need not_ while the latter _must be_ kept, than they, -too, became abolitionists upon the same principle. - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -FORM OF SLAVERY UNDER MODERN CIVILIZATION. - - Persistence of Chattel-Slavery in Eastern Countries--Assumption - of Form of Wages-Slavery under Modern Civilization--Creation of - Millionaire Capitalists by Present System--Result in Ruin and - Starvation of the Labouring Class--Necessity of Repressive Armies - and Police--Measures necessary to secure Social Reform. - - -Having seen how human slavery originated in parental despotism--how -it expanded by war, commerce, indebtedness, marriage, _&_c.--how it -continued to be _direct_ or _chattel_ slavery all over the world till -the advent of Christianity--how it, in consequence of the workings -of the Gospel, gradually assumed the form of _wages_-slavery, and -generated modern proletarianism throughout Western Europe and -America--having also seen how the system of chattel-slavery _worked_ -in the ancient world and in the slave-states of America, and compared, -or rather contrasted, that system with its more hideous successor, -wages-slavery--let us now inquire what are the forms and conditions of -human slavery as it exists under modern civilization, and by what means -and appliances it may be effectually and for ever banished from the -world. - -As already stated, direct or chattel slavery is still the normal -condition of the labouring classes in most Eastern countries, and of -the black population in South America. In Russia and other countries a -species of serfdom, until quite recently, obtained, which partook of -the nature of both chattel and wages slavery, but which was probably, -on the whole, less objectionable than either. The serfs of such -countries correspond with our _villains_ of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman -times, and are clearly a remnant of the old feudal system which grew -up in most parts of Europe upon the dissolution of the Roman empire. -Wherever this serfdom prevails, proletarianism is confined to the -cities and towns, the serfs being, like chattel-slaves, provided for -out of the lands to which they are attached. - -In the principal states of Europe and America, in our colonies -generally, and indeed in most modern countries called “civilized,” -wages-slavery is the normal condition of the labouring classes. This -latter kind of slavery is, _cæteris paribus_, more or less intensely -severe according to the degree of perfection to which civilization -is carried. Thus, in our United Kingdom, which is accounted the most -civilized country in the world, wages-slavery is attended with greater -hardships, and subject to more privations and casualties, than anywhere -else. Nowhere else do we find employment so precarious; nowhere else -such multitudes of people overworked at one time and totally destitute -of employment at other times; nowhere else do we see such masses -of the population subsisting upon pittances wholly inadequate to -sustain human beings in health and strength; nowhere else do we find -jails and workhouses so overcrowded; nowhere else do we hear of whole -districts depopulated by famine, nor of upwards of 1,500,000 out of -eight millions of people being cut off by actual starvation and forced -expatriation in the course of twelve months, as has happened in Ireland -in our own times. All this, too, we find to be contemporaneous and in -juxtaposition with granaries, warehouses, and shops teeming with a -superabundance of the choicest produce of all climes--with cries of -over-production and glutted markets ringing in our ears wherever we -pass--and with the most opulent and numerous aristocracy, territorial -and commercial, that was ever known to be congregated in any country -of seven times the extent--to say nothing of a still more numerous -middle-class, in whose ranks may be found some thousands far surpassing -German counts or German princes in command of wealth and luxury. -Hence, no doubt, it was that Sir Robert Peel, not many years since, -accounted in Parliament for our distress by assuring the House that -“the occasional distress and destitution of great numbers of people was -a necessary consequence of our advanced civilization, and was therefore -a thing naturally to be expected in such a country as England.” - -We remember, some years ago, when an address was presented to this -same Sir Robert Peel by some 6,000 or 7,000 of the merchants, -bankers, shipowners, &c., of the City of London, to console him for -his temporary expulsion from office by the Whigs,--we remember how -the _Times_ (which was then _ratting_ from the Whigs) boasted, by -way of demonstrating the respectability of the addressers, that the -list contained the names of 1,500 citizens whose aggregate wealth -would suffice to redeem the National Debt, and still leave enough to -support the owners in opulence. We remember having seen it stated, -about the same period, in a City article of the said _Times_, that so -prosperous was trade that ironmasters in Staffordshire and Wales were -known to have realised £200,000 in one year. We remember hearing, on -the best authority, of the house of Baring & Co. clearing £650,000 by -the speculations of a single year. We know a banker died, a few years -since, in Liverpool whose estate was computed at from £5,000,000 to -£7,000,000. Peel’s father is said to have died worth £3,000,000; and -old Arkwright worth twice that much. Soames, the late shipowner, was -worth several millions. Rentals varying from £20,000 to upwards of -£200,000 a year are numerous in England. The Duke of Westminster’s -property will, it is said, be now worth half-a-million per annum of -income. London, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, and other towns abound -in millionaires worth from a _plum_ to twenty, thirty, and even fifty -_plums_. A year’s rental of some of our dukes would pay the wages of -some 20,000 Irish labourers for a whole twelvemonth, at sixpence per -day each, which is more than thousands of them can earn by a hard -day’s work. A single bargain on the Stock Exchange will realise, for -a Rothschild, a Baring, a Gurney, or a Goldsmid, more than 30,000 -needlewomen in London could possibly earn in two years at present -wages. Were a few of our great landowners and millionaire capitalists -so inclined, they might, by clubbing together, keep an army of 100,000 -fighting men about them, whose maintenance, at their present wages, -would actually not be missed out of their enormous revenues. At £15 per -man, the annual cost would be only a million and a half, which, divided -amongst Sir Robert Peel’s 1,500 city addressers, would weigh less -heavily upon them than a penny a week subscription upon a poor Chartist -weaver. - -And while this monstrous hell-begotten opulence stares us in the face -wherever we go, what find we to be the condition of the men to whom we -owe the very bread we eat, and without whom England would be a howling -wilderness, namely, the agricultural labourers? We find them, in order -to escape death from starvation, driven to the very brink of rebellion, -as may be collected from paragraphs like the following, which may be -seen in almost every agricultural journal we may chance to take up. We -quote from a Wiltshire paper:-- - -“RIOTS IN THE AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS.--The farm-labourers of the -district round West Lavington, Devizes, have been resisting an attempt -to reduce wages from seven to six shillings a week, by forcibly -stopping farm operations. The men having got a hint of the contemplated -reduction, a number of them waited upon the steward of Lord Churchill, -the owner of the principal farms, with a view of inducing him to -intercede in their behalf. This led to no beneficial results; and the -men finding that their masters were determined on reduction, about a -hundred and fifty of them assembled in front of the house of a Mr. -Spencer, and stopped men, horses, and agricultural implements that -were proceeding to work by that road. Having persuaded other labourers -to join them, they went round to all the farms and completely stopped -all operations. They took horses from ploughs, opened sheep-pens, and -prevented all labour being proceeded with. On the following day some of -them returned to work; but warrants being issued for the ringleaders, -more than a hundred men formed themselves into a band and paraded the -streets, armed with staves. The assistance of the constabulary was then -obtained, and something like order restored. The next day a man named -Kite was taken before the magistrates and committed to prison. He had -not been long in custody before a large body of his fellow-labourers, -armed with sticks, came into the town for the purpose of rescuing him, -but were deterred by the presence of a strong military detachment.” - -Here we find soldiers and policemen (whose keep costs for each man -more than double the labourer’s pay) employed to force Englishmen -to choose between starvation and toiling all the week round for six -shillings. Supposing these unfortunate labourers to work every day in -the year (Sundays excepted), their wages, at six shillings a week, -would be just £15 12s. for the whole year! Here is a sum wherewith to -keep a wife and, mayhap, five or six young children! Mr. Edward Smith -has told us how common it is to see nigger-slaves in America making -and spending from 50 to 150 dollars per annum by the labour of their -leisure hours--that is to say, exclusive of the maintenance provided -for them by their masters in exchange for their regular work. Take the -mean--100 dollars. This, at 4s. 2d. per dollar, is just £20 16s. 8d. If -he saves or spends 150 dollars, it is upwards of £30. Here, then, we -find a nigger-bondsman so far superior in condition to the free-born -Englishman, that he can actually afford to throw away upon luxuries (by -the earnings of his leisure hours) one-third more than, or even double, -the entire sum that a Wiltshire labourer is paid for the whole of his -time, though he drudge all the year round, and is never sick a single -day. If facts like these do not make the blood of Englishmen rush to -their cheeks, and the very cravenest of them take the field for their -social rights, they are past redemption. - -Sir Robert Peel calls all this “civilization;” and the House of Commons -cried, “Hear, hear,” and cheered and supported him, when he declared -that the remedy for such a state of things lay not within the compass -of legislation; that Parliament depended, itself, upon the people, -and not the people on Parliament; and that the only and proper remedy -for the distressed classes was for them “to take their affairs into -their own hands”! Well, in the foregoing paragraph from the Devizes -newspaper, we see them essay to take their affairs into their own -hands; and we see also, that no sooner do they attempt to do so--no -sooner do they proceed to act upon Sir Robert’s advice--than soldiers -and police are brought down upon them, and warrants issued for their -apprehension. If this be not the perfection of human slavery, as well -as the perfection of inhumanity and injustice, we really know not what -is. - -But is it true that no Parliamentary cure is findable for the -disease?--that the evil is one beyond the reach of legislative -control?--that, after all, the boasted “omnipotence of Parliament” -(which, Blackstone tells us, can do anything and everything not -naturally impossible)--is it true that this boasted omnipotence cannot -secure for an Englishman the food he has raised, the bread he has -earned--nay, doubly, trebly, quintuply, decuply earned? Is this true? -No, no; a thousand times no! What Parliament has done, it can undo; -what Parliament ought to do, and can do, it ought to be made to do, or -else to abdicate. There is not a member in either House of Parliament -that does not know, as well as we know, that our _land_ and _money_ -laws are at the bottom of all the distress in the country, and that -the repeal of bad laws, and the enactment of good ones, are all that -is wanted to make England a paradise. There is not a member in either -House that does not know that all the slavery in the world, or that -has ever been in the world, is, or has been, the work of landlords -and money-lords; and that, consequently, the only true and proper way -to put an end to slavery is to make laws to deprive landlords and -money-lords of the power to enslave and rob their fellow-creatures. -If it be said, this cannot be done without interfering with the -rights of private property, we answer emphatically that it is laws -against robbery, and not against property, that are wanted. We assert -emphatically (because we know we can prove satisfactorily) that the -repeal of unjust laws, and the enactment of a few just and salutary -ones, upon Land, Credit, and Equitable Exchange (the latter including -Currency), is all that is needed to terminate poverty and slavery -for ever; and that it is perfectly within the compass of Parliament -to enact such laws without violating the rights of private property, -or confiscating to the value of one shilling of any man’s estate, or -otherwise dealing with it than in the legitimate way of taxation and -commutation, which the laws of all countries recognise and practise, -and none more than our own. - -But, before going a step further in this inquiry, we beg to submit -here the following resolutions which were proposed to a crowded public -meeting by the author of this work, and carried by acclamation without -a single dissentient, although the meeting was composed of reformers -and philanthropists of all shades and sects:-- - -“This meeting is of opinion that in addition to a full, fair, and free -representation of the whole people in the Commons House of Parliament, -upon principles the same, or similar to those laid down in the People’s -Charter, the following measures, some of a provisional, the others -of a permanent nature, are necessary to ensure real political and -social justice to the oppressed and suffering population of the United -Kingdom, and to protect society from violent revolutionary changes:-- - -“1. A repeal of our present wasteful and degrading system of poor-laws, -and a substitution of a just and efficient poor-law (based upon the -original Act of Elizabeth), which would centralise the rates, and -dispense them equitably and economically for the beneficial employment -and relief of the destitute poor; the rates to be levied only upon the -owners of every description of realized property; the employment to be -of a healthy, useful, and reproductive kind, so as to render the poor -self-sustaining and self-respecting. Till such employment be procured -the relief of the poor to be, in all cases, promptly and liberally -administered as a right, and not grudgingly doled out as a boon; the -relief not to be accompanied with obduracy, insult, imprisonment in the -workhouses, separation of married couples, the breaking up of families, -or any such other harsh and degrading conditions as, under the present -system, convert relief into punishment, and treat the unhappy applicant -rather as a convicted criminal than as (what he really is) the victim -of an unjust and vitiated state of society. - -“2. In order to lighten the pressure of rates, and at the same time -gradually to diminish, and finally to absorb, the growing mass of -pauperism and surplus population, it is the duty of the Government to -appropriate its present surplus revenue, and the proceeds of national -or public property, to the purchasing of lands, and the location -thereon of the unemployed poor. The rents accruing from these lands to -be applied to further purchases of land, till all who desired to occupy -land, either as individual holders or industrial communities, might be -enabled to do so. A general law, empowering parishes to raise loans -upon the security of their rates, would greatly facilitate and expedite -the operation of Government towards this desirable end. - -“3. Pending the operations of these measures, it is desirable to -mitigate the burdens of taxation and of public and private indebtedness -upon all classes who suffer thereby,--the more especially as these -burdens have been vastly aggravated by the recent monetary and free -trade measures of Sir Robert Peel. To this end, the Public Debt and -all private indebtedness affected by the fall of prices should be -equitably adjusted in favour of the debtor and productive classes, and -the charges of Government should be reduced upon a scale corresponding -with the general fall of prices and of wages. And, as what is -improperly called the National Debt has been admitted, in both Houses -of Parliament, to be in the nature of a _bona fide_ mortgage upon -the realised property of the country, it is but strict justice that -the owners of this property, and they only, should be henceforward -held responsible for both capital and interest. At all events, the -industrious classes should not be held answerable for it, seeing -that the debt was not borrowed by them, nor for them, nor with their -consent, and that even had it been so, they have had no assets left -them for the payment of it. Moreover, the realised property of this -country, being estimated at eight times the amount of the debt, the -owners or mortgagers have no valid excuse or plea to offer on the score -of inability, for refusing to meet the claims of their mortgagees. - -“4. The gradual resumption by the State (on the acknowledged principles -of equitable compensation to existing holders or their heirs) of its -ancient, undoubted, inalienable dominion and sole proprietorship over -all lands, mines, turbaries, fisheries, &c., of the United Kingdom -and our Colonies; the same to be held by the State, as trustees in -perpetuity for the entire people, and rented out to them in such -quantities and on such terms as the law and local circumstances shall -determine;--because the land, being the gift of the Creator to ALL, -can never become the exclusive property of individuals; because the -monopoly of the land in private hands is a palpable invasion of the -rights of the excluded parties, rendering them more or less the slaves -of landlords and capitalists, and tending to circumscribe or annul -their other rights and liberties; because a monopoly of the earth by a -portion of mankind is no more justifiable than would be the monopoly -of air, light, heat, or water; and because the rental of land (which -justly belongs to the whole people) would form a national fund adequate -to defray all charges of the public service, execute all needful public -works, and educate the population, without the necessity for any -taxation. - -“5. That, as it is the recognised duty of the State to support all -those of its subjects who from incapacity or misfortune are unable to -procure their own subsistence, and as the nationalization of landed -property would open up new sources of occupation for the now surplus -industry of the people (a surplus which is daily augmented by the -accumulation of machinery in the hands of the capitalists), the same -principle which now sanctions a public provision for the destitute poor -should be extended to the providing a sound system of National Credit, -through which any man might (under certain conditions) procure an -advance from the national funds arising out of the proceeds of public -property, and thereby be enabled to rent and cultivate land on his -own account, instead of being subjected, as now, to the injustice and -tyranny of wages-slavery (through which capitalists and profitmongers -are enabled to defraud him of his fair recompense), or being induced -to become a hired slaughterer of his fellow-creatures at the bidding -of godless diplomatists, enabling them to foment and prosecute -international wars, and trample on popular rights, for the exclusive -advantage of aristocratic and ‘vested interests.’ The same privilege -of obtaining a share of the national credit to be applicable to the -requirements of individuals, companies, and communities in all other -branches of useful industry, as well as in agriculture. - -“6. That the National Currency should be based on real, consumable -wealth, or on the _bona fide_ credit of the State, and not upon the -variable and uncertain amount of scarce metals; because a currency -depending on such a basis, however suitable in past times, or as a -measure of value in present international commerce, has now become, by -the increase of population and wealth, wholly inadequate to perform -the functions of equitably representing and distributing that wealth; -thereby rendering all commodities liable to perpetual fluctuation -in price, as those metals happen to be more or less plentiful in -any country; increasing to an enormous extent the evils inherent in -usury and in the banking and funding systems (in support of which -a legitimate function of the law--the PROTECTION of property--is -distorted into an instrument for the CREATION of property to a large -amount for the benefit of a small portion of society belonging to what -are called vested interests); because, from its liability to become -locally or nationally scarce or in excess, that equilibrium which -should be maintained between the production and consumption of wealth -is destroyed; because, being of intrinsic value itself, it fosters a -vicious trade in money and a ruinous practice of commercial gambling -and speculation; and, finally, because, under the present system of -society, it has become confessedly the ‘root of all evil,’ and the -main support of that unholy worship of Mammon which now so extensively -prevails, to the supplanting of all true religion, natural and revealed. - -“7. That in order to facilitate the transfer of property or service, -and the mutual interchange of wealth among the people, to equalize -the demand and supply of commodities, to encourage consumption as -well as production, and to render it as easy to sell as to buy, it is -an important duty of the State to institute, in every town and city, -public marts or stores for the reception of all kinds of exchangeable -goods, to be valued by disinterested officers appointed for the -purpose, either upon a corn or a labour standard; the depositors to -receive symbolic notes representing the value of their deposits, such -notes to be made legal currency throughout the country, enabling their -owners to draw from the public stores to an equivalent amount, thereby -gradually displacing the present reckless system of competitive trading -and shopkeeping--a system which, however necessary or unavoidable in -the past, now produces a monstrous amount of evil, by maintaining a -large class living on the profits made by the mere sale of goods, on -the demoralizing principle of buying cheap and selling dear, totally -regardless of the ulterior effects of that policy upon society at large -and the true interests of humanity. - -“It is not assumed that the foregoing propositions comprise all the -reforms needed in society. Doubtless there are many other reforms -required besides those alluded to; doubtless we want a sound system -of national education for youth, made compulsory upon all parents -and guardians; doubtless we require a far less expensive system of -military and naval defence than now obtains; doubtless we require -the expropriation of railways, canals, bridges, docks, gas-works, -water-works, &c.; and doubtless we require a juster and more humane -code of civil and penal law than we now possess. But these and all -other needful reforms will be easy of accomplishment when those -comprised in the foregoing propositions shall have been effected. -Without these, indeed, justice cannot be done to humanity; society -cannot be placed in the true path of improvement, never again to -be turned aside or thrown back; nor can those natural checks and -counter-checks be instituted without which the conflicting passions and -propensities of man fail to produce a harmonious whole, but with which, -as in the material world, all things are made to work together for -good, reconciling man to his position in the universe, and exalting his -hopes of future destiny.” - -We shall treat the subject of these propositions in the following -chapters; and meanwhile the reader will please observe that similar -resolutions have also received the sanction of numerous meetings, large -and small, throughout the country. - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -REFORMS AS MUCH NEEDED IN AMERICA AND IN COLONIES AS IN EUROPE. - - Answer to question, “How is Human Slavery to go - out?”--Insufficiency of mere Political Freedom--Accessibility of - Public Lands in new Countries their chief Advantage--Inadequacy of - Universal Suffrage without a Knowledge of Social Rights--America - falling into same Abyss as Europe. - - -Before resuming the subject of the foregoing propositions, we pray the -reader to bear in mind, that we are now arrived at that all-important -branch of our inquiry which proposes to answer the question, “How is -human slavery to be made to go out of the world?” To have shown how it -came in,--how it was propagated,--the varied phases it has assumed, -and the hideous, wide-spread proletarianism to which the conversion -of _chattel_-slavery into _wages_-slavery has given rise,--to have -shown all this, without at the same time essaying to show how the fell -monster is to be eradicated from the face of the earth, would be a -mere idle literary dissertation--a contemptible parade of erudition, -without object, without end. A higher purpose will, we trust, be -found to have dictated this inquiry. An earnest, heartfelt desire -to contribute our quota towards rescuing humanity from oppression -and sorrow is the motive we lay claim to. This motive it is which -impelled us, on the part of the National Reform League, to propose -the resolutions embodied in the last chapter. In those resolutions -we profess to answer the question, “How is human slavery to be made -to go out of the world?” It is true, their immediate application is -intended only for our own country; but they are equally applicable -to France, Germany, and every other “civilized” country--America -itself not excepted. America is comparatively free from most of the -political anomalies and exclusive privileges which disgrace Europe, -and degrade the vast numerical majority of its people. There are no -crowned heads there; there is no State Church. Some of the States have -public debts, but they are comparatively light, and, for the most -part, in course of easy liquidation. Moreover, there is no titled -aristocracy claiming, by hereditary right, to legislate for or govern -any of the States. In this respect, men of all grades and conditions -are equally eligible for office, and for places of trust, honour, and -emolument. Universal suffrage may be said to be the general rule, and -property qualifications the exception, for the election of members -of the legislature and officers of government. Treason works no -corruption of blood in America. There is no law of primogeniture or -entail; there is no religion established and maintained by law, and -consequently no legal bars to religious freedom. Taxation is, generally -speaking, equal, uniform, and direct. It was, before the civil war, -comparatively light, too; and when otherwise, the remedy lies with the -people themselves; for, as restrictions upon the suffrage by property -and tax-qualifications exist but in some few of the States (and in -these are not very onerous or stringent), the basis of representation -may, for all practical purposes, be considered _numerical_, and not -territorial or financial. Add to these advantages the fact that the -old common law of England is the common law of America; and that -where any departure from it is made by statute, it is invariably in a -democratic sense. Thus, in Texas and other States, for instance, that -part of the old common law which considers a married woman as dead in -law is abrogated by statute in favour of the gentle sex, and so as to -give her more power than she possesses under the civil law. Thus, any -property possessed by her before marriage remains at her sole disposal -after marriage, as also any property she may become entitled to during -coverture. She may receive from and give to her husband a deed of -conveyance whilst under coverture. And any deed of conveyance made by -the husband requires for its full validity the joint signature of the -wife. In some of the States, too, the homestead can never be taken in -execution of debt; and, at the moment we write, a powerful movement is -going on throughout the States to secure a similar exemption of the -homestead throughout the entire Union. These and other privileges--the -result of her political constitution--America fully enjoys. No European -state can compare with her in these respects--not even Norway or -Switzerland. In a word, America is already possessed of every political -amelioration contended for by the old Radicals of this country, or -by the financial or mere middle-class reformers of the present day. -Indeed, to assimilate us to America is their _summum bonum_--the _ne -plus ultra_ of their reforming aspirations. - -Far be it from us to undervalue the political rights secured to the -Americans by their general and State constitutions. Nevertheless, we -unhesitatingly affirm that the foregoing propositions are no less -necessary for the extinction of slavery in America than in England, -France, or any other European country. - -Our position is this: It is the land and money laws of a country that -must ever mainly determine the social condition of its people. In other -words, without just agrarian and commercial laws--laws that shall -establish for all classes equal rights in the soil and equal advantages -from the use of money and credit (so as to secure equitable exchange -in trade)--no country can be prosperous, be its form of government -what it may. Now, in these respects America has but little to boast -of over England, France, or any other European country. If she does -not exhibit the wide-spread distress that these countries exhibit, she -owes it not so much to the superiority of her political institutions -(for of these she has as yet but little availed herself), as she -does to her unbounded resources (in the extent and fertility of her -soil), and to the comparative exemption she enjoys from public and -private indebtedness owing to her being a new country. But for these -causes--but for the facility with which unappropriated land may be had, -and but for the fewness of her territorial and commercial aristocracy -as compared with those of older countries--her citizens would very soon -exhibit the same hideous extremes of rich and poor as are to be found -in Europe. Indeed, New York and some of the New England States (where -most of the land is appropriated, and the population crowded) have -already, on more than one occasion, exhibited all the worst features -of British “civilization”--that is to say, wholesale squalor and -destitution (with their necessary consequences) in close proximity to -teeming granaries and warehouses; otherwise, an unemployed labouring -population, in rags and hunger, within sight of merchant-princes and -master-manufacturers worth some hundreds of thousands of dollars each. - -And why should it be otherwise? The social system is the same there as -here. Rents are higher in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, &c., than -in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. Competition is the same or worse. -Wages-slavery is as rife in Massachusets, Pennsylvania, and New York -as in any part of the British Isles; and if wages be not quite as low -in Philadelphia and Lowell as they are in Manchester and Birmingham, -it is partly owing to the high protective duties laid on foreign -manufactures, partly to the comparative scarcity of hands, but chiefly -to the facility with which the victims of competition can escape from -the mills and factories to the backwoods of Indiana, Missouri, &c. - -In other words, the Americans owe whatever advantage they have over -us not to any superiority in their _social_ institutions,--not to -better agrarian and commercial laws,--nor even to the acknowledged -superiority of their civil and religious system of polity,--but to -the territorial and other local advantages to which we have referred, -and which no more distinguish them than they do the people of Sydney, -Adelaide, Port Phillip, Natal, New Zealand, or any other new country -in which land is abundant and labour scarce. But let America (with her -present social system) come to be peopled as England is,--let her now -unappropriated land be made private property of, and her agrarian and -commercial laws remain what they are,--and we venture to say that not -one jot better off will her labouring population be than ours now is. -Universal suffrage might stem the aristocratic tide for a season (as it -has done in other new countries); but the men of land and money would -sweep away universal suffrage there, as they have ever done elsewhere, -the moment they found it incompatible with landlordism and usury. All -the principal States of Europe had universal suffrage a few years ago; -France alone possesses it now, and that with a tenure so insecure that -it can hardly be said to be established. In all the other States the -men of land and money destroyed universal suffrage by brute force; they -dispersed diets and national assemblies at the point of the bayonet, -and made rights and constitutions to disappear before the cannon of -disciplined assassins. It may be the same in France before six months. -It would have been the same long ere now, but that some two millions -of _social_ reformers were known to be ready to take advantage of the -event, in order to wreak vengeance upon the landed and commercial -villains who have defrauded them out of the fruits of three revolutions -purchased with torrents of blood. - -In truth, universal suffrage is no guarantee at all for liberty, -unless it be accompanied, on the part of the working classes, with a -knowledge of their social rights, and a consequent determination to use -political power for their establishment. The Romans, the Spartans and -Athenians, the Sicilians, and many other ancient peoples had universal -suffrage--at least, a vote for every citizen who was not a helot or a -bondsman; but it proved of no use to them, for want of knowing their -social rights. For the like reason, the Irish made no good use of -their forty-shilling freehold vote, when they had it; and, for the -same reason, they offered no resistance when it was taken away. The -French people had universal suffrage in 1793. Their Convention of that -period was elected by universal suffrage; and the constitution it made -was far more democratic than the French constitution of 1848. But, not -understanding their social rights then so well as they do now, they -suffered their landlords and money-lords to rob them of it, just as -the old Romans, Athenians, &c., had allowed _their_ land and money -lords to do in their day. After the Convention had succeeded, with -the aid of the Parisian shopocracy, in murdering Robespierre and in -striking terror into all who, like him, loved justice and the people, -they not only abolished the democratic constitution of 1793 and put a -middle-class constitution in its place, but they actually decreed that -they (the Convention members) should constitute _two-thirds_ of the -next Legislative Assembly, and that the nation should be at liberty -to choose only the remaining third! Strange to say, too, the people -submitted to this, as to every other abomination of the times; they -submitted because the great mass of them were too profoundly ignorant -of their social rights to take much interest in the franchise question. -It ever was so, it ever will be so, with a people ignorant of their -social rights: they will never risk life or limb in defence of their -_political_ till they comprehend their _social_ rights. - -In America there is less danger than anywhere else of the people losing -their political rights. This is owing partly to the greater equality in -property which subsists there, but chiefly to the agitation of _social_ -questions which has been forced upon the working classes of late years -by the continuous arrival of European emigrants competing with them -in the labour-market, and alarming them, by their example, as to what -might prove their own fate hereafter, should they suffer a powerful -territorial and commercial aristocracy to grow up amongst them. Hence -the springing up of the “Free Soil” and “National Reform” movements -in the United States; hence an attempt to radicalize the constitution -of Rhode Island; hence the numerous publications which denounced the -sale of the public lands--especially to foreigners and companies; hence -the hatred of national debts--especially if they arise out of foreign -loans--and the determination of the working-classes to repudiate them; -and hence, above all, the cheering fact, so well deserving of our -notice, that every new revision of an American constitution--whether it -be that of a State or of the entire Union--is invariably distinguished -by an increase of strength or latitude given to the democratic -principle. This is particularly observable in the new States, where -the settlers, consisting in great part of exiles forced from Europe -by poverty and tyranny, have carried out with them an intense hatred -of the systems they fled from, and therefore take all the democratic -precautions they can to keep down the aristocratic leaven. - -But not even America herself, we predict, will escape the _régime_ of -Europe, unless she reform her social institutions while she is yet -young and healthy. Her agrarian laws are not a jot better than those -of France or England; and her commercial spirit is even more ravenous -and unscrupulous. In one respect she is worse than either. We allude -to her preference of metallic money to symbolic money; which is a -result of the fraudulent paper-systems she has so often smarted under. -There is no subject upon which the American working-classes are so -lamentably at fault as the subject of money. They fancy that an honest -paper-system is impossible, because they have been so often cheated by -the worthless rags of fraudulent usurers; and in this suicidal delusion -the bullionists and usurers take good care to confirm them. Next to -their want of sound views upon the Land question, this delusion as to -the real nature and proper functions of Money is the greatest foe to -American progress. On the subject of _Credit_--that most potent of all -levers of modern production--the same ignorance prevails in America -as here and in France. In truth, were it not that universal suffrage -is the fundamental law in France and America, while it is scouted in -England, we should be at a loss to know what advantages the French -and Americans possess over us, so deplorably similar are the three -countries in respect of social rights. - -But we shall better comprehend these matters when we come to analyze -the propositions of the National Reform League, and to test their value -by showing their equal applicability to, and desirability for, all -three countries,--indeed, for all civilized countries under the sun. - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -RELIEF TO UNEMPLOYED OR DESTITUTE A RIGHT, NOT A CHARITY. - - Inability of a People ignorant of Social Rights to choose - Representatives--Duties of a wise Democracy--Omnipotency of a - Knowledge of Social Rights--Facility of Application of Social - Reforms--Exposition of the three Provisional Measures necessary. - - -We have stated, in a former chapter, that the repeal of unjust laws, -and the enactment of a few just and salutary ones, upon Land, Credit, -and Equitable Exchange (the latter including Currency), are all that -is wanted to terminate poverty and slavery for ever; and that nothing -is easier than for Parliament to enact such laws without infringing -the rights of private property, without confiscating to the value of a -shilling of any man’s estate, or otherwise dealing with property than -in the legitimate way of taxation and commutation which the laws of all -countries recognise and practise, and none more so than our own. - -The resolutions which we have before cited show clearly how it may -be done. An honest Parliament is of course presupposed; for, without -an honest legislature to begin with, reform is all moonshine. The -first article of the League’s creed is, therefore, a full, free, -and fair representation of the whole people. To that end it demands -the enactment of the “People’s Charter”--not because it regards the -Charter’s plan of representation as perfect, but because that plan is -sufficiently so for all practical purposes, and because, having already -received the sanction of millions of the population, it would be unwise -and mischievous to risk dividing the people by the propounding of any -fresh scheme, the more especially as any defects in the “Charter” may -be easily enough remedied hereafter by a parliament or convention -elected upon Chartist principles. - -But although the “People’s Charter” is a _sine qua non_ with the -League, it is, after all, but a machinery for providing the _means_ -to an _end_. The _means_ is parliamentary reform; the _end_ is social -reform, or a reformation of society through the operation of just and -humane laws. The “Charter,” in fact, but aims at restoring to the -people the undoubted right of self-government--the right of making the -laws according to which, and to which only, they are to be ruled. It -leaves to the people themselves to do all the rest. It gives them the -power to elect what sort of representatives they choose, and to exact -from them what pledges they like in the way of social and political -reform. With the people themselves, however, it must ultimately rest -whether even the “People’s Charter” shall give them veritable political -and social rights. - -If they know how to choose their legislators, and are resolute -to enforce the law, they will have both. But if, from ignorance, -corruption, or other causes, they know not how to make a proper choice, -they will but have escaped Scylla to fall into Charybdis, and, mayhap, -make bad worse. The very men they elect to save them may prove their -direst enemies. These, with the aid (out of doors) of the ignorant -and depraved of all classes, may accomplish the ruin of their best -friends, and then (as the French Convention did, after murdering -Robespierre) destroy universal suffrage itself, under pretence that it -had led to nothing but folly, blood, and crime. These are no imaginary -suppositions. We are but supposing for England, and the present time, -what has heretofore occurred in most other countries and in all times -under similar circumstances. A people ignorant of their true political -and social rights will never elect a Parliament of real political and -social reformers; they will only elect declaiming demagogues and crafty -adventurers, who will promise everything and perform nothing,--who, -professing to be doing everything for the people, will, in reality, -do nothing for them but make them stepping-stones to their own -aggrandisement, and who, as usual, beginning with frightening the -aristocracies of land and money, will end with compromising and going -shares with them for the public spoil, after establishing a reign of -terror over the people for their own conjoint security. How easily -might we demonstrate this by _à priori_ reasoning, were it necessary. -The history of all past revolutions, however, dispenses with any such -necessity. Indeed, the bare fact that universal suffrage is nowhere to -be found now-a-days amongst those ancient states and communities where -it formerly flourished is proof sufficient. A truly intelligent people -would ever remain a self-governing people. A people fully conscious of -the value of their political and social rights could never lose the -franchise. In the first place, they would so use it as to remove or -prevent the growth of those unnatural interests and institutes which -are incompatible with its free exercise and permanent security. In the -next place, they would use it to establish the social rights of the -people upon a basis as broad as the population itself. And, lastly, -they would so know how to appreciate the blessings of self-government, -from a consciousness that they owed their liberties and happiness -to no other source, that they would fight like lions, and die to a -man, rather than surrender their franchises. Such a people might be -exterminated; it could not be enslaved or disfranchised. Xerxes, with -his innumerable hordes, was not a match for a few thousand Greeks -inspired with the love of freedom. A Persian army could not force the -pass of Thermopylæ against three hundred freemen under Leonidas, till -treachery leagued with numbers for his overthrow; and even then the -handful of freemen had to be exterminated, because they could not be -taken alive, nor subdued to slavery. We have a still more striking -example of this in the present day. Of all the European States that -enjoyed universal suffrage a few years ago, France is now the only -one in which it survives. And why? Because France is the only one of -them in which a large proportion of the working-classes are imbued -with a knowledge of their _social_ rights, and consequently the only -one in which the working people are determined to maintain the right -of self-government by fire and sword, if necessary. In Prussia, -Austria, and in most of the German and Italian States the mass of -the people had heard little or nothing of their _social_ rights, and -consequently attached too little value to them to fight for them, or -for the political power through which alone they could be securely -established. Hence their comparative non-resistance to the overthrow of -their respective constitutions. It is otherwise in France. There, at -least two millions out of eight millions of adult males understand so -well the value of their political and social rights that Louis Napoleon -and his _bourgeoisie_ dared not overthrow universal suffrage by their -_coup d’état_. The upper and middle classes hate universal suffrage -quite as much in France as their feudal and money-grubbing brethren -hate it in England, Germany, and Italy. Nevertheless, they dared not -strike the blow, lest it should recoil fatally upon themselves. There -are full two millions of _social_ democrats in France who are resolved -to set the whole country in flames, and, if needs be, perish in the -conflagration, rather than suffer a traitorous conspiracy of landlords -and money-lords to put down their constitution by force. It is in the -stern determination of these two millions that rests the sole real -security for universal suffrage in France. The number of these social -democrats increases, too, every day with the spread of knowledge, -and with their greater experience of the baseness and perfidy of the -commercial villains who seek to eject them from the constitution, and -at whose instigations the present government is continually persecuting -their party, and seeking to goad it into premature insurrection in -order to create an occasion for establishing a pitiless military -despotism. With the increase of social democracy, increases the -security for universal suffrage. Every Social Democrat is essentially a -freeman in heart and soul, in conviction and sentiment. Such men will -fight when slaves would not. They were the freemen of Athens and Sparta -that overthrew the hordes of Xerxes. Had the helots and bondsmen been -sent against them, they would have succumbed to the barbarians, even as -they had to their own masters. The helots of Sparta and the bondsmen -of Athens knew nothing of _political_ and still less of _social_ -rights. Hence did they all die, as they had lived, bondsmen and slaves. -For the same reason did the chattel-slaves of the ancient world live -and die in bondage for forty centuries before the Christian era. For -the same reason the serfs and _villains_ of the middle ages suffered -themselves to be _adscripti glebæ_, and quietly transferred from lord -to lord as estates changed hands, just the same as the other live -stock on the lands. For the same reason, and no other, were the modern -serfs of Russia, Poland, &c., no better off than their predecessors -of mediæval times; and precisely for the self-same reason are the -wages-slaves of modern “civilization” so tractable under a system -which, for real though disguised savagery, throws Oriental barbarism -and chattel-slavery completely into the shade. - -Impressed with these convictions, the National Reform League sees no -hope for the successful establishment of the “Charter,” and for the -permanent enjoyment of its legitimate fruits, but in the diffusion, -amongst the people at large, of sound political and social knowledge. -Real _political_ they believe to be inseparable from real _social_ -power, and the converse. To make the people appreciate universal -suffrage, we must teach them what they lose by the want of it, and -what they may fairly expect from a wise and legitimate use of it. In -answer to Sir Robert Peel and the House of Commons, we repudiate their -doctrine that legislation is not responsible for the sufferings of the -people; and the terms of our repudiation are made good in the seven -resolutions or propositions of the League. - -What is, then, demanded in those seven propositions that is not within -the easy compass of a few acts of Parliament? What is there in them -incompatible with the acknowledged rights of individuals or with the -public peace or public security? In what respect can they endanger, -ever so remotely, life, liberty, property, religion, family, home, or -any other thing held sacred amongst men? On the contrary, do they not -go to secure all these with stronger guarantees than they can ever -derive from coercive laws or from the corruption of public opinion? - -The “People’s Charter,” unaccompanied by the social reforms we demand, -might possibly prove a danger for all classes, through the poor, in -their ignorance, demanding what they had no right to, and through the -rich, in their selfishness, refusing everything to an enfranchised -people armed with power to take more than their own. But we challenge -the world to prove that the “Charter,” accompanied with the social -reforms we ask, could be a danger or an injustice to any class, or -that it could fail to work out the complete emancipation of the whole -people, politically, socially, morally, and intellectually. - -What are the social reforms we demand? They may be classed under two -heads. The three first propositions demand reforms of a provisional -kind, to meet temporary evils. The remaining four are of a permanent -kind, to cure permanent evils. Resolution I. is as follows:-- - -“A repeal of our present wasteful and degrading system of poor-laws, -and a substitution of a just and efficient poor-law (based upon the -original Act of Elizabeth), which would centralize the rates, and -dispense them equitably and economically for the beneficial employment -and relief of the destitute poor. The rates to be levied only upon the -owners of every description of realized property. The employment to be -of a healthy, useful, and reproductive kind, so as to render the poor -self-sustaining and self-respecting. Till such employment be procured, -the relief of the poor to be, in all cases, promptly and liberally -administered as a right, and not grudgingly doled out as a boon; the -relief not to be accompanied with obduracy, insult, imprisonment in the -workhouses, separation of married couples, the breaking up of families, -or any such other harsh and degrading conditions as, under the present -system, convert relief into punishment, and treat the unhappy applicant -rather as a convicted criminal than as (what he really is) the victim -of an unjust and vitiated state of society.” - -What is there unjust or impracticable in this proposition? Who ought, -by right, to support the poor? Clearly, those who have most profited by -their labour, and whose enormous revenues (derived from the aggregate -labour of the people every year, without yielding any equivalent) are -the main cause of so many labourers falling into pauperism. And who -are these? Clearly, the owners of _realised_ property,--the owners -of lands, houses, mines, collieries, turbaries, fisheries, docks, -wharfs, canals, bank-stock, railway-shares, consols, and every other -description of property yielding an annual income independently of any -labour or service or risk on the part of the proprietor. It is not -upon mechanics, tradesmen, or professional men who have but their own -exertions to trust to for a living, and who may or may not be worth -a groat, that the burden should fall. These parties are supposed to -render to society an equivalent for what they get, and consequently -ought not to be made responsible for keeping others whose poverty they -have not caused. At all events, it will be time enough to tax them -when they have realised something by their respective callings. But -as the others render to society no equivalent for their incomes, as -their incomes are purely and wholly the _creation of law_, and not of -their own labour or services, and as they are therefore the parties -who _make_ the poor, both common sense and common justice demand that -they should be made to _keep_ the poor, or at least enable the poor to -keep themselves by remunerative labour. Moreover, it was upon these -classes, and these only, that the original Act of Queen Elizabeth -contemplated the levies should fall. The 43rd Elizabeth extended the -rate to every other description of _realised_ property, as well as -mere _real_ property; but owing to the comparatively small amount of -_realised_ property (other than what falls within the legal description -of _real_) which existed in Elizabeth’s time, and for 150 years after, -and owing to the difficulty of ascertaining it for assessment purposes, -it escaped its due share of the burden; and, indeed, until about eight -years ago most people fancied that it was _real_ property only, and not -_realised_, that was contemplated in the original Act. The enormous -strides, however, that other descriptions of _realised_ property -(besides lands and houses) have made of late years have opened people’s -eyes to the true intent and purport of the Act; and hence moneymongers, -scrip-holders and annuitants must no longer expect to escape and throw -their burden upon shopkeepers, mechanics, and needy professionals. - -In truth, it is not their interest to do so, unless they choose to risk -their all for the sake of a beggarly saving of a few pounds a year, -which they, of all others, ought least to begrudge the poor, their -especial victims. As to centralizing the rate, the selfish conduct of -landed proprietors and others has made such a step almost inevitable. -By preventing the building of cottages on their respective estates -in town and country, and by working the law of settlement to their -own selfish ends so as to debar the poor from having any legal claim -in their respective townships, they have so effectually overcrowded -some parishes with paupers, to spare their own, that nothing but a -centralised rate (to be dispensed according to the number of claimants -in each) can now restore justice as between parish and parish and -union and union. But let those who may entertain any doubt as to the -expediency or necessity of centralization but read Mr. Hutchinson’s -admirable work on the subject, and we think they will at once admit -that such an arrangement ought no longer to be deferred. - -As to the liberal and kindly treatment we demand for the unemployed -and destitute poor, it is no more than a fraction of their right. If -they had _justice_ done them they would need no _charity_, and, till -justice is done them, we demand that their treatment shall be what our -resolution describes, and that it shall be considered their _right_, -and not grudgingly doled out as a boon. - -Thus far for Resolution No. 1. In the following chapter we shall show -cause for Resolution No. 2. - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -GRADUAL RESUMPTION OF PUBLIC LANDS BY THE STATE. - - Necessity of Agrarian Reform--Crown Lands, Church Lands, and - Corporation Lands to be immediately resumed, and their Rent - applied to the relief of Taxation--The Rich have no right to - meddle with them--Needed, by the exploited Millions, as a Fulcrum - to raise them from the Earth. - - -The first three resolutions of the National Reform League affirm -(as already observed) only provisional or temporary measures to -redress temporary grievances. They apply to pauperism, public and -private indebtedness, and to onerous and unequal taxation, which, -though great and oppressive evils, are nevertheless but natural and -inevitable consequences of the gigantic social wrongs they emanate -from, and which are grappled with in the four last resolutions. But -for radically bad agrarian and commercial laws, there would be no -pauperism, no overwhelming public and private debt, no oppressive -and unequal taxation. It is these laws that are at the bottom of all -the mischief; it is these laws that have produced the pauperism, the -indebtedness, the taxation, and that would produce them again were -they extinguished this hour. Therefore, to have a permanent cure of -our social evils we must radically reform our agrarian and commercial -systems. Resolutions 4, 5, 6, and 7 show how this may be done. But, -meanwhile, the evil consequences of our agrarian and commercial systems -cannot brook delay: they must be dealt with provisionally and summarily -before the permanent remedy can be applied. Paupers cannot be left to -starve, debtors to be overwhelmed with usury and law expenses, and -struggling millions to be ground down with oppressive rates and taxes, -while our agrarian and commercial systems are being reformed by the -slow operation of the measures suggested in Resolutions 4, 5, 6, and -7. These several classes must have speedy relief; else relief will -come too late. The effect of Peel’s monetary and free-trade measures -in aggravating the burdens of debts and taxes while it diminishes the -means of meeting them, and in multiplying paupers while it impoverishes -ratepayers, renders it absolutely necessary to deal speedily and -summarily with the evils of pauperism, indebtedness, and taxation. -Hence the three first resolutions of the League. By perusing them -attentively, the reader will find that they, at one and the same time, -go to mitigate the evils of pauperism, indebtedness, and taxation by -just and efficient provisional measures, and to prepare the way for -those larger and permanent measures by which Resolutions 4, 5, 6, and 7 -seek to extirpate social evil altogether. - -In the preceding chapter we have shown cause for Resolution No. 1; we -now proceed to show cause for Resolution No. 2, which is as follows:-- - -“In order to lighten the pressure of rates, and, at the same time, -gradually to diminish, and finally to absorb, the growing mass of -pauperism and surplus population, it is the duty of the Government to -appropriate its present surplus revenue, and the proceeds of national -or public property, to the purchasing of lands, and the location -thereon of the unemployed poor. The rents accruing from these lands to -be applied to further purchases of land, till all who desired to occupy -land, either as individual holders or industrial communities, might be -enabled to do so. A general law, empowering parishes to raise loans -upon the security of their rates, would greatly facilitate and expedite -the operation of Government towards this desirable end.” - -If it be but an act of justice to paupers and ratepayers that the -rates should be levied and dispensed as Resolution No. 1 suggests; -it is no less an act of justice to both that the rates should be -expended in the most beneficial manner for all parties, and finally -dispensed with altogether when no longer necessary. Resolution No. 2 -has this end in view. It asks the government and ratepayers to use -the _public_ money in the most advantageous way for the _public_. It -does not ask them to take money from one class to give to another, -nor to relieve the pauperism _that is_ at the risk of what may be -elsewhere. All surplus revenue in the hands of government is clearly -public property: it is raised from the whole body of the public. The -proceeds of crown lands, corporation lands, church lands, and various -other descriptions of public property are also clearly amenable to -public uses, without infringing the rights of private property or -vested interests. The seven or eight millions of rates raised annually -for the relief of the poor are also _public_ property,--only with this -important distinction, that being a legal substitute for the share -which the poor formerly enjoyed of the tithes and other ecclesiastical -revenues, their destination for the poor has _equity_ as well as _law_ -for its sanction. The celebrated William Cobbett estimated that, if -everything that was titheable formerly were titheable now (that is, -if lay-impropriators had not converted to their own use the “great -tithes,” and if they had not also taken possession of the abbey-lands -at the time of the Reformation), the poor’s share of the tithes, &c., -would be now upwards of ten millions sterling per annum. For this, -which was their ancient patrimony, the present poor’s rate is but a -substitute. Surely, then, it is not asking too much for the poor to ask -that the eight millions arising from this rate should be appropriated -to the best advantage for them. - -And how could it be better appropriated than by purchasing land, -whereon to employ them productively, and locate them in comfortable -habitations? At present their lives are a burden to themselves and -others. Upon the land they would enjoy independence and happiness--the -natural result of their own industry and thrift. After the first -year or two they would be able to subsist themselves in comfort. The -rents paid by them would, in the first instance, go to liquidate the -loans contracted on the credit of the rates; and, these discharged, -they would be afterwards available for the purchase of other lands -as they came into the market. Thus paupers and ratepayers would be -both benefited,--the former made independent, the latter relieved -permanently from a grievous and growing burden on their respective -parishes. Then, as to the surplus revenue and the proceeds of public -property, to what better use could the public possibly apply them -than to the location of the industrious poor on the land? Talk of -repealing the duty on bricks! talk of a sinking fund to reduce the -National Debt!--no sensible man has any faith in these schemes. Every -such man knows that no reduction of taxes can possibly benefit those -who cannot command employment, or an adequate remuneration for it when -they have it. Every such man knows, too, that as long as landlords -and capitalists can create what “surplus population” they like, by -keeping the people from cultivating land _on their own account_, there -can be no security either for regular employment or adequate wages. -Farmers and manufacturers will employ only those they want--those they -can make a profit by. The rest will be left to the union bastile or -to starvation. But let the surplus revenue and the proceeds of public -property be applied in the way we speak of, and, from that moment, -the surplus population diminishes with every fresh location on the -land; the food of the country is increased in amount and cheapened -in price; employment and wages are augmented for the unlocated; and -a new and never-failing home market is created for the benefit of -all, through the conversion of unemployed paupers (half-starved upon -workhouse diet) into substantial husbandmen able to give agricultural -produce in exchange for manufactures. There is a vast deal of public -property in this country, a portion, at least, of whose proceeds a -universal-suffrage parliament would be sure to employ in this way. -There are the crown lands; there is still a good deal of unenclosed -common (though not less than 6,000,000 acres have been filched from -the people during the reigns of the 2nd and 3rd Georges); there are -the lands belonging to the church, the universities and the colleges; -there are the tithes, too; there is a deal of property in the hands of -corporate bodies, and attached to various educational and eleemosynary -establishments, and most of these endowments have been altogether -perverted from their original destinations. - -A universal-suffrage parliament would secure to the poor their full -share of benefit accruing from the revenues of all this property. What -belongs to the whole public ought to be applied for the advantage of -the whole public; and it is only a majority of the whole public that -is competent to decide how corporate bodies elected upon property -qualifications have a right to dispose of property which equitably -belongs to the non-electors as much as to the burgesses having votes. -The same remark applies to schools, charities, and other endowments, -the original founders of which intended them principally for the -benefit of the poor. The crown lands do not belong to the higher -or middle classes, more than they do to the working-classes or to -the paupers in our union workhouses. Yet the aristocracy and their -retainers alone derive any benefit from them. The lands and revenues -of the church are _public_ property. A parliament which represents -only a fraction of the public has no right to appropriate these lands -and revenues to the Established Church, or to any church, if the vast -majority of the population desire they should be differently applied. -And who can doubt that such majority is totally averse to their present -appropriation? Many, like ourselves, might not like to dispossess the -present incumbents. But why should not their revenues, as they die off, -revert to the public for public uses, and their successors be left -(like the ministers of other churches, and like all other professional -men) to their own congregations and their own resources? Suppose this -had been done twenty or thirty years ago--the revenues of bishopricks -and livings, as the incumbents died off, thrown into a common fund -for the purchase of lands, and the rents of these lands again applied -in the same way--what a goodly slice of the soil, and what a goodly -revenue, would be now in the hands of the public! And who would be -wronged by such appropriation? Clearly not the then clergy, for the -reform would not have taken effect till after their death. Clearly -not their present successors; for these would have no legal title to -a property which the public and the law had chosen to appropriate -otherwise. Indeed, the majority of them--the poor curates--would have -been even benefited by the change; for, if left to the voluntary -principle, their congregations would provide better for them than does -the present Establishment. At all events, they could not be said to -have lost what they never had; and even if they fared worse than they -do now, they could not blame the public for having “done what it liked -with its own.” What was not done twenty or thirty years ago ought to -be done now: the public should now insist that church property and -every other description of property belonging to the public, should -be henceforward devoted only to such public uses as a majority of -the public may sanction. Any other application of it is robbery. A -parliament has no more right to rob the public for the benefit of -individuals, than it has to rob individuals for the benefit of the -public. This is their own maxim, and they should be held to it. - -The proceeds of public property and the poor’s rate would, if honestly -applied, be amply sufficient to locate the unemployed poor upon the -land. Estates are every day coming into the market for sale. To the -owners it matters not a straw who buys their lands, so long as the full -price is paid for it. They are willing to sell, and the public are -willing to buy. The funds wherewith to buy are the surplus revenue, -the proceeds of public property, and some £8,000,000 of poor’s rate. -Assuredly, here is ample means of restoring their own to the people, -without robbing anybody. All that is wanted is an honest parliament to -legalize the work. - -If it be said that such application of public property would benefit -the poor only, and be an injustice to the rich, the answer is that -the lands so purchased would not be the property of the poor, but the -property of the whole nation--rich and poor; and that, inasmuch as -the rents accruing therefrom would be applicable to public uses only, -the whole public, and not the poor alone, would have the benefit -in the remission of rates and taxes. The only disadvantage the rich -would suffer from such reform is that it would gradually emancipate -industry from their iron grasp. Now that disadvantage is its best -recommendation. The rich _may_ have a right to use their own _private_ -property as they like (though with respect to _land_ they have no -such right), but they can have no right to use the _public_ property -otherwise than as a majority of the public may decide--much less to use -it for the enslavement and degradation of the great majority. - -As to the present parliament doing anything like what is here -recommended, it would be madness to expect it. A parliament which -represents only those who thrive by labour’s wrongs will never -recognise labour’s rights, nor legislate for labour’s emancipation. -Such a parliament will never apply public property otherwise than to -the injury and enslavement of the industrial classes. If it had a -surplus of twenty millions, these classes would not derive a shilling -benefit from it. Indeed, not even the distressed portion of the middle -classes can command its sympathies where aristocratic interests stand -in the way: of this we have a remarkable instance in the result of a -motion for the repeal of the window-tax--the tax on air and light. At -the same time there was an opportunity of saving about a million a year -by calling home the African anti-slavery squadron. But no; the precious -House would neither repeal the tax on air and light nor disband the -anti-slavery armament. Everybody is now aware that this blockading -squadron on the Gold Coast was the veriest humbug that ever provoked -derision. - -In the next chapter we shall treat of the 3rd Resolution. We are on -the eve of great changes, and nothing but a clear understanding by the -people of their social rights can enable them to profit by what may -occur. - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -NATIONAL DEBT A MORTGAGE ON REALISED PROPERTY. - - Necessity for Adjustment of Public and Private Debts--Their - overwhelming Burden must result in Civil War--Third Resolution - the only Remedy--Opinion of Cobbett--Enormous Increase of Debt - through Improvements in Manufactures--Only just Claims of Public - and Private Creditors. - - -Resolution No. 3 of the League proposes an equitable settlement of -questions of grave moment--of questions which will ere long be settled -by force out of doors, unless Parliament adjusts them within by fair -legislation. It is to the following effect:-- - -“Pending the operation of these measures, it is desirable to mitigate -the burdens of taxation and of public and private indebtedness upon -all classes who suffer thereby--the more especially as these burdens -have been vastly aggravated by the recent monetary and free-trade -measures of Sir Robert Peel. To this end, the Public Debt and all -private indebtedness affected by the fall of prices should be equitably -adjusted in favour of the debtor and productive classes, and the -charges of government should be reduced upon a scale corresponding -with the general fall of prices and of wages. And as what is -improperly called the National Debt has been admitted, in both Houses -of Parliament, to be in the nature of a _bona fide_ mortgage upon -the realised property of the country, it is but strict justice that -the owners of this property, and they only, should be henceforward -held responsible for both capital and interest. At all events, the -industrious classes should not be held answerable for it, seeing the -debt was not borrowed by them, nor for them, nor with their consent; -and that, even had it been so, they have had no assets left them for -the payment of it. Moreover, the realised property of this country -being estimated at eight times the amount of the debt, the owners or -mortgagers have no valid excuse or plea to offer, on the score of -inability, for refusing to meet the claims of the mortgagees.” - -The questions here dealt with are those which, in all probability, -are destined to involve England in the great European revolution. If -not adjusted somehow in an early session of parliament, we predict -they will cause a civil war between the agriculturists and the town -“interests”--between the men of acres and the fund and money lords. -And should that war ensue, it will merge into a general social war of -classes, in the progress of which all will be losers, but the final -issue of which will be the extinction of “vested interests” and the -proscription of all who would maintain them. Resolution No. 3 is -intended to avert such a catastrophe for the sake of all parties. Let -us see if we are just in our demands. - -The Public Debt is estimated, in round numbers, at £800,000,000. The -private indebtedness of the country is calculated at more than three -times the amount of the Public Debt--say £2,500,000,000. The interest -of the Public Debt is at least £30,000,000 per annum, including the -expenses of collection. The annual interest of private debts is -believed to exceed £100,000,000. Here is a fearful deduction to be made -from the aggregate earnings of the people every year, before a shilling -can be set aside for wages or profits. This mass of £130,000,000 per -annum is all sheer usury--a sheer plundering of the productive classes. -Yet it is only a part, and by no means the major part, of the annual -sacrifice entailed upon the industrious orders by our agrarian and -commercial systems. There is acknowledged to be upwards of £700,000,000 -of property insured with our several insurance companies, who of course -receive premiums on the whole, varying in the per-centage charged, -according to the nature of the property insured, but amounting in the -aggregate to an enormous annual sum. This sum, like the interest of -the public and private debts, must be provided for every year before -wages and profits can begin. Then there is the unmortgaged portion of -the incomes derived from lands and houses. Then there is the public -and private taxation of the country (not included in the £30,000,000 -set aside for the payment of the interest of the debt). There are the -tithes; the losses accruing from bad debts; the revenues of railway -companies, canal companies, water companies, gas companies, dock -companies, mining companies, banking companies, cemetery companies, and -countless other companies; the whole of which must be deducted from the -annual production of the country before the mechanic and labourer can -receive a farthing of wages, or before the mere employer and tradesman -can enter upon that margin to which wages and profits must look for -their share of the general produce. If we assume our present annual -production to be £630,000,000, one-third of this, or some £200,000,000, -must be set aside for the interest of public and private debts, the -revenues of companies, the claims of taxation, &c. The capitalists -and tradespeople may be supposed to pocket some £300,000,000 more, -and the miserable remnant, some £130,000,000 per annum, is probably -the _maximum_ of what the working-classes receive for producing the -whole. At all events, the latter do not average above 10s. per week for -each family; and supposing the number of working families to be about -5,000,000, this would give them a gross income of about £130,000,000 -per annum. - -We pretend not to perfect accuracy in these figures: we profess to deal -only with round numbers. An approximation to the actual state of things -is all we aim at; for that is all we require to elucidate our position. -But if we deviate from arithmetical exactness (as must needs be in such -calculations), the deviation will be found to be rather _in favour_ of -the producer than against him; and therefore our argument must be held -so much the stronger, the less exact we are in figures. - -That the producer does not, upon the average, receive a fourth of his -produce is a certain fact. If the producers got back £125,000,000 -out of a gross annual produce of £600,000,000 and odd, it is the very -extreme of their good fortune. Some of them, we know, get far more -than in this proportion--more than a fourth or than a third,--nay, -mayhap one-half. But the majority, on the other hand, get less than a -fourth; and millions of them less than a sixth or even an eighth of -their produce. An Irish labourer or a London needlewoman does not, -probably, receive a tithe of the value of their labour. Estimating in -this way--striking a balance between all the various descriptions of -producers--we do not understate their income when we average it at 10s. -per week for each family, or at from £125,000,000 to £130,000,000 for -the whole, out of a gross annual production of, say, from £600,000,000 -to £630,000,000 sterling. Small as is this proportion allotted to the -producer out of his own earnings, it is becoming smaller and smaller -every year, as prices and wages decline under the operation of Peel’s -monetary and free-trade measures. The reason is obvious. To make money -scarce, on the one hand, and to invite foreign competition on the -other, must of necessity lower prices. Whatever lowers prices swells -the burden of debts, taxes, and of all other fixed money obligations. -In the same ratio it must reduce the aggregate of profits and wages; -for the more the producers (employers and employed) have to give out of -the common stock to pay taxes and the interest of public and private -debts, the less there must be left for themselves. - -Peel’s monetary laws of 1819 and 1844-45 have made money scarce, and -will keep it permanently so while they remain in force. His free-trade -measures of 1846 go to aggravate competition in our home markets, and -tend directly to the lowering of prices and wages in favour of the mere -annuitant or idle consumer. The effect of both measures, conjointly, -is to increase the pressure of debt and taxes to a degree that is -already felt to be unbearable. If persevered in, the inevitable result -is revolution--violent revolution. Under the conjoint effects of his -measures, wheat has already gone down below 40s.,--nay, as low as 36s. -Bankruptcies have reached an appalling figure; and estates are rapidly -changing hands (passing from mortgagors to mortgagees), and not a few -of them are going out of cultivation altogether. The Encumbered Estates -Commission was sitting hardly three months in Dublin before one-twelfth -of the landed property of Ireland, measured by rental, came within its -jurisdiction. Scores of Scotch landlords and hundreds of Irish are no -longer able to pay interest on their mortgages, owing to the reduced -prices of agricultural produce. For the same reason, farmers cannot -pay rents, nor the interest of borrowed capital. In England they are -universally reducing, or threatening to reduce, wages. In Ireland -they are throwing up their farms, or falling into arrears with their -rent. In Scotland the same may be said. In all three countries the -poor labourers are ground down so low that lower they can hardly be. -Hence the agricultural risings and incendiarisms in England; hence -the midnight outrages and murders in Ireland; hence the unprecedented -tide of emigration from all three countries. No farmer can possibly -pay rent, taxes, tithes, and interest of capital with wheat below -40s. No landlord, having his estates encumbered, can make head against -his liabilities with existing prices. No labourer can have any other -prospect before him but starvation and crime under such a system. To -have to pay some £200,000,000 a year (out of £600,000,000) to usurers -and tax-eaters would be a dire enough infliction even with wheat at -60s. and all other commodities at proportionally high prices. But to be -saddled with such a liability in the face of wheat at 36s., and of the -like downward progress of prices and wages in every other department -of industry, is what the country cannot bear. No country on earth -could stand it: England will not stand it. A furious civil war--a -downright revolution--must, we repeat, be the inevitable consequence of -perseverance in such a system. - -Our third resolution offers the only just and feasible way of averting -such revolution. We cannot restore corn-laws; we cannot go back to -Protection: it is too late for that. The country has no more sympathy -with the landlords than it has with the moneymongers. It wants not to -bolster up one interest at the expense of the other, but to compel -both to adjust their conflicting claims without robbing the public. If -parliament will insist upon “keeping faith with the public creditor,” -let it do so at the expense of the parties properly liable. Let the -owners of _realised_ property be the only parties responsible for the -“National” Debt. Sir Robert Peel and Lord Brougham declared, amid -the cheers of both Houses, that this debt is a _bona fide_ mortgage -upon the whole realised property of the country. Very well. Let the -mortgagors, then, be made to do as all other mortgagors do;--let them -either redeem the mortgage (as they may do), or pay the interest till -they do. And if they will not pay interest or capital, let the mortgage -be foreclosed, and their estates sequestered. This is but common -sense and common justice. It is only the most shameless and hardened -dishonesty that could saddle such a liability upon the non-propertied -classes, seeing they never borrowed the money, had no advantage from -its expenditure, and have had no assets left them wherewith to pay that -or any other debt. Speaking of this monstrous injustice--the injustice -of taxing the working-classes for the interest of this debt--the late -Mr. Cobbett indignantly asked, “What would be said of a law that -should compel the children to pay the debts of the father, he having -left them nothing wherewith to pay?--of a law that should make the -children work all the days of their lives to clear off the score run -up by a profligate and drunken father?--of a law which should say to -the father, ‘Spend away; run in debt; keep on borrowing; close your -eyes in the midst of drunkenness and gluttony; imitate the frequenters -of Bellamy’s all your life; and your children and children’s children -shall be slaves to pay Bellamy and others, with whom you have run up -the score?’ Would not the makers of such a law be held in everlasting -execration? And in what respect does this case differ from that of a -prodigal and borrowing nation which would make its working-classes -responsible for debts they had no share in borrowing or spending?” - -There is no getting over this. Cobbett’s reasoning is the reasoning of -every just and honest man who knows anything of the subject. The case -is even stronger than he puts it. The bulk of the debt was contracted -to force unjust taxation on the American colonies and to force back -Bourbon royalty upon France. These are the very last objects upon which -the working-classes would expend money or incur liabilities. It is, in -fact, making them pay for crime and murder, as well as for their own -impoverishment and enslavement! - -These views, we rejoice to say, are making way in all quarters, high -and low. Mr. Isaac Buchanan (formerly President of the Boards of Trade -of Toronto and Hamilton in Canada, and who represented the metropolis -of Upper Canada in the Canadian parliament) has boldly demanded -that all connection shall cease between the National Debt and her -Majesty’s Exchequer, in a pamphlet issued by him, entitled “The Moral -Consequences of Sir Robert Peel’s Unprincipled and Fatal Course,” -&c. The same view is taken by the democrats of Ireland, and has been -successfully promulgated at sundry Chartist meetings in town and -country. By-and-by it will be the creed of all classes, as well as of -the Chartists and National Reform League. - -But while we insist that the owners of realised property shall be -held solely responsible for the National Debt, we assert that justice -to them demands that the debt be equitably adjusted for them before -they are called upon to liquidate it. Peel’s monetary and free-trade -measures have more than doubled the debt. We say nothing of the -£27,000,000 which our “reformed” parliament has added of late years to -the debt; let that pass. We speak of the change made in the value of -money by the Act of 1819, restoring cash payments; and of the complete -revolution in prices effected by the tariff and corn-law repeal. These -measures have more than doubled the value of the pound sterling, and -more than trebled the original value of Consols. For example, the -average price paid for £100 stock in the 3 per Cents. during the war -was £60 of depreciated bank paper, worth then only £40 in silver. The -holder of that stock is now entitled to receive ninety-seven sovereigns -for it. Every individual pound of the £60, at the time it was lent, -would only buy one-fourth of a quarter of wheat. Every pound paid back -now will buy more than half a quarter--more than twice as much. It will -buy more than three times as much of London or Birmingham goods, and -more than four or five times as much of Manchester and Glasgow goods. -Here, then, we have the value of the pound more than doubled, on the -one hand; and, on the other, we find the fundholder entitled to receive -£97 for every £60 he lent in rags! Combine these two alterations: mark -their conjoint effect in favour of the public creditor. Observe the -difference to him of going into market with ninety-seven sovereigns -wherewith to buy wheat at less than 40s. and going with only sixty rags -to buy wheat at upwards of 80s. (the average price during the war, when -he lent his money); and then bear in mind that what is clear gain to -him is so much clear loss to us, the taxpayers. The difference is, in -fact, so much downright plunder taken from the industrious and given -to the idle and useless. - -Not even at the expense of the owners of realised property are the -fundholders entitled to any such advantage. They are entitled to their -own (to receive it from the proper parties, the borrowers), but they -have no just claim for more than their own. What was borrowed should -be paid back, and no more. Peel’s measures give them thrice their own, -while they work in an opposite direction against land and labour. Let -there be a fair adjustment, then. Let the £800,000,000 of capital be -reduced according to the change in the value of money and the fall in -prices, and let the owners of every description of property be made to -pay their equitable share of the adjusted burden; but on no account let -another shilling of taxes be raised on account of the debt. No doubt -the Chartists will have an eye to this when their day comes; and it is -coming fast. - -Private obligations affected by Peel’s measures should be adjusted -upon the same principle as the public debt. Not to do so is to rob one -class to enrich another: to persevere in such a course is to invite -convulsion. Law is intended to _protect_ property for all; not to -_create_ property for any. To pervert it from this, its legitimate -function, into an instrument of rapine for the injury and ruin of those -it should shield is to arm the nation against the law. This is the very -effect Peel’s measures are now producing. Hence the necessity for a -timely adjustment. The Act of 1819 ought to have provided against any -such necessity; and when he introduced his free-trade measures in 1846, -he ought to have made provision in his Acts that all public and private -liabilities, involving fixed money payments, should be dischargeable -only upon a reduced scale to be calculated upon the general fall of -prices. Upon this principle all mortgages, leases, contracts, &c., -would be open to easy readjustment, and the whole of our taxation might -be reduced upon a scale corresponding with the fall of prices, without -any necessity for a fresh enactment on the subject. If prices fell -_one-third_, upon the average, all salaries, pensions, &c., would be -reduced one-third; and the same in respect of public and private debts, -mortgages, leases, &c. As it is, we see no remedy for the mischief but -what is pointed out in our third resolution. We said so before Peel’s -measure became law; and some of the ablest and most experienced men in -the kingdom have since publicly expressed a similar opinion. - -But enough on the _provisional_ or _palliative_ measures that are -needful ere the four resolutions, embodied in the succeeding chapters, -shall have had time to operate a full reform of our present iniquitous -agrarian and commercial laws and institutions. - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -NATIONAL LANDS AND CREDIT FOR THE USE OF THE PEOPLE. - - Unjust Laws to enable the Few to deprive the Working Class - of their Earnings--Private Property in Land the Basis of - Wages-Slavery--Raw Materials of Wealth belong to all--Land and - Money Lords govern the World--Right of Working Class to the Use of - Credit--Surplus of Earnings of Working Class beyond Consumption - the Source of all Capital. - - -To provide a full, adequate, and permanent remedy for the manifold and -all-pervading ills that are the consequence of land-monopoly and usury, -the people must reclaim their right to the National Territory, which -has been gradually and surreptitiously usurped by private and sinister -interests; the enactment of laws to secure for all, co-ordinately -therewith, the mighty engine of Credit, which must be utilized for the -industrious orders of society, who are the strength and mainstay of the -nation, and therefore the most entitled to its benefits. - -The fourth and fifth resolutions of the League run as follows:-- - -“The gradual resumption by the State (on the acknowledged principle -of equitable compensation to existing holders or their heirs) of its -ancient, undoubted, inalienable dominion and sole proprietorship -over all the lands, mines, turbaries, fisheries, &c., of the United -Kingdom and our Colonies, the same to be held by the State, as trustee -in perpetuity for the entire people, and rented out to them in such -quantities as the law and local circumstances may determine; because -the land, being the gift of the Creator to ALL, can never become the -exclusive property of individuals; because the monopoly of the land -in private hands is a palpable invasion of the rights of the excluded -parties, rendering them, more or less, the slaves of landlords and -capitalists, and tending to circumscribe or annul their other rights -and liberties; because a monopoly of the earth by a portion of mankind -is no more justifiable than would be the monopoly of the air, light, -heat, or water; and because the rental of the land (which justly -belongs to the whole people) would form a national fund adequate to -defray all charges of the public service, execute all needful public -works, and educate the population, without the necessity of any -taxation. - -“That as it is the recognised duty of the State to support all those of -its subjects who, from incapacity or misfortune, are unable to procure -their own subsistence--and as the nationalisation of landed property -would open up new sources of occupation for the now surplus industry -of the people (a surplus which is daily augmented by the accumulation -of machinery in the hands of the capitalists)--the same principle -which now sanctions a public provision for the destitute poor should -be extended to providing a sound system of National Credit, through -which any man might, under certain conditions, procure an advance from -the national funds arising out of the proceeds of public property, -and thereby be enabled to rent and cultivate land on his own account, -instead of being subjected, as now, to the injustice and tyranny of -wages-slavery (through which capitalists and profitmongers are enabled -to defraud him of his fair recompense), or being induced to become a -hired slaughterer of his fellow-creatures at the bidding of godless -diplomatists, enabling them to foment and prosecute international -wars, and trample on popular rights, for the exclusive advantage of -aristocratic and ‘vested interests.’ The same privilege of obtaining a -share in the national credit to be applicable to the requirements of -individuals, companies, and communities in all other branches of useful -industry, as well as in agriculture.” - -What is it that creates poverty--the mother of slavery, ignorance, and -misery--but unjust laws, by which the many are robbed for the benefit -of the few? A poverty-stricken people can never be a free, a happy, -a religious, or an educated people. No reform that will not give the -people the means of acquiring property by honest industry--which will -not enable them to be independent of wages-slavery--which will not -enable them to live in houses of their own, and allow them free access -to the soil of their country, is worth their serious attention. - -We defy all the genius and statesmanship in the world to save a -population from being the slaves of middle-class vampires so long as -land is private property. We defy all the learning and ability in the -United Kingdom to show me how we can be extricated from poverty and -premature death in this country without a radical reform of our land -and money laws. It is assumed that land, mines, rivers, &c., are fit -and proper subjects of private property, like bales of cloth, pottery -wares, or any other product of man’s skill and industry; and that, -accordingly, the works of God’s creation may be bought and sold in the -market, the same as if they were the works of human hands. This is a -principle so utterly abhorrent to common sense and reason--it is, on -the face of it, so gross a perversion of natural justice, that the -rights of property cannot possibly be reconciled with it, nor coexist a -moment in presence of it. Once allow the soil of a country, which God -made for all its inhabitants, and for all generations born upon it, to -be bought up, or otherwise monopolized or usurped by any particular -section of any one generation (be that section large or small), and -that moment your community is divided into tyrants and slaves--into -knaves who will work for nobody, and into drudges who will have to work -for anybody or everybody but themselves. No subsequent legislation--no -possible tinkering or patchwork in the way of remedial measures--can -sensibly affect a system based upon so hideous a foundation. You may -talk of forms of government, or of reforms of parliament; but we -hesitate not to say that no reform of parliament, no reconstruction -of the government, can be of the slightest avail towards amelioration -whilst that glaring and gigantic injustice constitutes the basis of -private property; and for this simple reason, because the rights of -labour and the rights of property, which ought to be really one and the -same, are utterly irreconcilable under such a system. As long therefore -as it shall prevail, so long must the rich be insecure, and the mass -miserable, whatever may be the form of government, from monarchy to -democracy the most pure and unlimited. - -No man, not a fool or a knave, will deny that the _raw materials_ of -all wealth belong to all men alike in their natural state: to assert -the contrary, would be to assert that God, like a capricious human -despot, dispenses His favours regardless of justice or of the wants -of His creatures. The only question is this--Can the lands, mines, -turbaries, collieries, fisheries, &c., containing all materials of -wealth in every country, be restored to its inhabitants without -injustice or undue suffering to the present possessors, whoever they -may be? If this could not be done, there might be some excuse for -the present monstrous system. But no government need have the least -difficulty on this point. Our own government, for instance, has only to -do, in respect of landed property, for the benefit of the nation, what -it does every day to promote the speculative interests of individuals -and private companies. Owners of real estate are compellable now, by -existing laws, to exchange such property for a money-compensation -when the public interest requires such change. Does anybody consider -that a wrong is done to the owners of such property so long as the -money-compensation to them is sufficient to satisfy the public -conscience represented by a sheriff’s jury? Now, if it be right to do -this for the sake of a company or a few speculating individuals, how -much more justifiable is it to do it for the just benefit of millions, -and to produce thereby such a reformation, materially and morally, -as no pen nor tongue could adequately describe? Indeed, in order to -restore its land gradually to the nation, it would not be necessary -to go so far in expropriation or forcible dispossession as existing -laws authorise in favour of companies chartered by parliament to make -railways, canals, docks, barracks, or any other public works. There -would be no need to dispossess any proprietor during his lifetime, -nor even his successors, without their own consent; it would be quite -sufficient for all useful national ends and purposes to buy up the -land as it comes into the market in the ordinary course, either by the -voluntary act of the seller or by due legal process, such as a decree -of the Court of Chancery, &c., and then make the land so bought with -the public money the inalienable property of the nation ever after, as -it by right should be. - -Unquestionably, land-usurpers and money-changers, taking both terms -in their widest sense, must _in foro conscientiæ_ be distinguished -from all other sinners. We know of no great social evil in civilized -life that is not clearly traceable, directly or indirectly, to these -two classes. It is they that govern the world everywhere, and that -have always governed it since the first dawn of civilisation; it is -they that make all revolutions and counter-revolutions, all false -systems of religion and education, all State-Church establishments, -all standing armies of soldiers, constables, priests, and lawyers, and -that impose on all peoples the burdens requisite for the maintenance -of those armies; in a word, it is landlords and profitmongers that -have everywhere organised society as we find it, and that uphold this -organisation for their own advantage, at the cost of more wrong and -wretchedness to mankind than tongue or pen ever did or ever will be -able to describe. And amongst the greatest of their crimes against -humanity is this, that, in addition to the machinery of brute force -they keep in pay to uphold their domination, they have rendered an -effectual exposure of their system next to impossible through the -legions of venal journalists, mercenary orators, and unprincipled -_littérateurs_ they subsidise to corrupt public opinion and to mystify -the people on every subject that bears upon their weal or woe, as also -to hunt down by calumny, and to destroy by private persecution, any and -every man that shall dare to lift the veil that hides from the millions -their horrible policy. - -We must _live_ somewhere; and we must have the _needful things_ to live -on. But landlords and profitmongers claim to own every rood of ground -in the kingdom, and every house on the land; and we cannot procure -the commonest necessaries of life except through some profitmonger. -We must therefore either go without homes and without meat and drink -altogether, or we must have them from the landlord and profitmonger -on their own arbitrary terms. To have them on _any_ terms, too many -persons are often obliged, in times of difficulty and danger, to -connive at and even laud what they abhor. Again, the wrongs done by -ordinary criminals are in general superficial and ephemeral in their -effects. The man who steals my watch, or robs my house, does me only -as much wrong as I may repair at the cost of earning the price of -another watch or of the goods stolen from my house. But they who rob a -people of their territory rob them of a priceless possession, for which -all the labour and labour’s worth in the world would be no adequate -compensation. It is not only a robbery of the existing generation, but -a robbery of all generations to come; for it is depriving the whole -posterity of the disinherited of their fair legitimate share of the -_raw materials_ of wealth, which God made equally for the use of all, -in order that the descendants of the wrong-doers, so far as human -laws can determine it, may be able to grow richer and richer in every -succeeding age, by letting out for rents that raw material which is by -natural right the inheritance of all. - -Perhaps the most extortionate system of legal robbery, in connection -with private property in the soil, is found in what are called _ground -rentals_. By virtue of this system, a man like the Duke of Westminster -is enabled to realise an income greater than the queen gets for her -services (and she does something for her money, but the duke does -absolutely nothing for his), merely because the land on which certain -houses are built is _said_, by a fiction in law, to belong to him; -and, after a certain number of years, the houses themselves become his -property, and he forthwith proceeds to grant fresh leases of them at -increased rents. - -As to the right of _occupation_ of the land, we should make it the -same for all, giving the tenancy to those who would pay most rent to -the State, only taking care that no man held more than one farm, or a -larger one than he could cultivate himself whilst there were others in -want of small ones. As a matter of course, we should guard against too -great a subdivision as well. - - -Another false principle at the root of our politico-commercial system -is, that Credit should exist only for the rich, and not at all for the -poor. This is a most atrocious principle, both in theory and practice. -As between citizen and citizen, or between subject and subject, the -principle might be defensible enough on prudential grounds; but as -between the citizen and his country it is wholly unjustifiable, and -calculated to keep subordinates subordinate, and to fatten tyrants -and usurers with the sweat and blood of slaves. If the _rents_ of -the country were public property, as they ought to be, no honest, -industrious man should be refused a temporary advance or loan from them -for productive purposes; and it is not in the power of man to conceive -a better security for the repayment of the same than the skilled -labour of an industrious, sober freeman protected by laws made with -his own consent. There is no other security _now_ for the repayment -of loans, public or private, than the known capacity of working men -to produce a _surplus_ over and above their own consumption. If -they could not, or did not, do this, there would be no interest for -fundholders, mortgagees, or money-lenders of any sort. Indeed, there -is no other source than the said surplus for the payment of rents, -taxes, dividends, premiums on insurance policies, and the interest of -upwards of two thousand millions of private debts. Out of the same -source, and no other, comes also the enormous income annually received -by capitalists and traders under the name of Profits. Upstarts, who -have made fortunes in trade, invariably make the worst landlords--the -least social and hospitable, the most grinding and exacting. This is -exemplified in every country in Europe, where rents are continually -becoming heavier, and small farms more difficult of attainment by the -poor, in proportion as the mercantile body and master-manufacturers -increase in numbers and in wealth. In all such countries, national or -public debts, provincial debts, and corporation debts are never-failing -concomitants of increased commerce and manufactures, as are also -banking and other joint-stock companies, which absorb so much of the -produce of the soil for profits, discounts, dividends, and interest -of money, that there would be nothing left for the landlords and -cultivators, if it were not that the working-classes are dispossessed -altogether both of their _proprietary_ and their _occupancy_ rights in -the soil, and turned into mere drudges or wages-slaves to the landlords -and tenant-farmers, who work them harder, and feed them worse, than -their cattle. The difference between what the labourers and mechanics -actually produce in value and the miserable pittance allowed to them -is the plunder-fund out of which are kept in comparative ease and -luxury the worthless classes that enslave and prey upon them. Yes, -the whole and sole security for all is the labourer’s capability to -produce a surplus over and above what he consumes during the period -of production. It were strange, then--passing strange, indeed--if -that surplus, which is now sufficient security for everybody else, -should not be as good a security for himself, when the very object of -the advance or loan is neither more nor less than to furnish him with -the means of repayment, by at once enabling him to produce, and by -making him the master of his own products. Yet, in the teeth of this -well-known capability on his part, the man whose surplus productions -enable others to get loans, and repay both capital and interest, is the -only man who can get no loan for himself, because, by our atrocious -system, the Credit as well as the Land of the country is hermetically -sealed against him. To support the system of the landlords and the -profitmongers, it is absolutely necessary to place millions of the -population in positions and situations wherein they cannot possibly -earn their bread without breaking one or other of the Ten Commandments -and running counter to the injunctions of the Gospel. - -Partington tells us, in his Encyclopædia, that the history of every -country in Europe goes back to the time when its land was public -property. Did that state of things obtain now, all the mines, as -well as all the land that covers them, would be the property of the -public, agreeably to the old law maxim, “Cujus est solum, ejusdem sunt -omnia quæ infra sunt, ad imam terram, et omnia quæ supra sunt, usque -ad cœlum,”--“Whoever owns the soil, to the same belongs all that is -beneath the soil, down to the bottom of the earth, and all that is -overhead, even up to the sky.” If this maxim prevailed now-a-days, the -rents of mines would go to public uses only. After due examination -and survey by public authority, they would be let out to companies of -actual workers by public tender, and all they realised above the rent -to the State would go only to those who risked their lives in working -them. There would be few accidents, we suspect, under such arrangement; -and if there were any, the workers alone would be to blame for their -greed in not sinking more shafts and taking the other necessary -precautions for their safe working. - -In the manufacturing districts of England it has been ascertained -that half the children born to the artisans die before they complete -their fifth year, and that the average duration of human life amongst -the working classes is only some 17 or 18 years, while it averages -38 years amongst the “better classes,” _i.e._, amongst the landlords -and profitmongers who reap the best fruits of their toil. This is an -arbitrary confiscation or squandering of human life not to be found, -even in time of war, in any other country not manufacturing, mining, -and commercial. The men composing the master-class in these callings -are, with hardly an exception, open and even avowed enemies of the -political and social rights of the working classes. They have literally -expelled the people from every institution in the State. They and -their accomplices, the landlords and tenant-farmers, have usurped and -absorbed all the prerogatives of the Crown and all the rights of the -people. They have turned the producers out of parliament, out of the -corporations, out of the vestries, out of the juries, out of the -magistracy, out of the church, out of the public press, out of all -the public boards--in a word, out of every department of the State, -and left them without a single legislator, magistrate, administrator, -common-councilman, vestryman, or public organ of any kind to represent -or protect their interests. But it is not simply of what are called -their organic or political rights that these tyrants have despoiled -the working classes; they have also robbed them of all _proprietary_ -and _occupancy_ rights in the soil, combining for that purpose -with the landlords and the tenant-farmers, to whom the sight of an -agricultural labourer putting a spade or a plough into the land on his -own account, or in any other capacity than that of a wages-slave to -some bull-frog farmer, is the horror of horrors. Just as farmers in the -rural districts will take vacant farms they do not want, and at rents -by which they know they must be losers, merely to keep out labourers -or exclude from occupancy the men they want for slaves, so will these -mining and manufacturing tyrants rent on long leases, or actually -buy up outright, lands in the neighbourhood of the towns where their -factories are, to prevent their toiling slaves from having the chance -of renting them, or any portion of them, however small, lest they -might be able to escape the slavery of the mill through comparative -independence. - -We doubt if there be a single recorded instance in the whole history -of civilized society of any king, ruler, statesman, legislator, -prophet, philosopher, orator, or other public man, seeking honestly, -and with probabilities of success, the reign of justice, humanity, and -fraternity for his fellow-countrymen, that was not overwhelmed with -calumny, overpowered by faction, and ultimately either put to death or -forced to fly for his life and bury himself in poverty and obscurity -to escape the malice of the oppressors of his country. But who were -those oppressors? The same everywhere--the same now as ever--the idle -rich, who prey on their industrious fellow-creatures through the -inventions of rents, profits, interest of money, dividends, taxes, -and so forth--all arising out of usurpations of the soil, and making -money grow money. The ancient prophets and apostles suffered for causes -not essentially different from those which destroyed the Gracchi -at Rome and Agis and Cleomenes of Sparta. Romulus and Julius Cæsar -were victims of the same spirit that beheaded Paul and sawed Isaiah -asunder. Heraclides and Hippo of Sicily perished through landlordism -and profitmongering, in no other sense than did John the Baptist under -Herod; St. Stephen, by the Jewish rabble, let loose upon him by the -middle-class Pharisees; and Socrates, by the hypocritical “property” -classes of Athens; nay, the Saviour himself, whose crucifixion was -perpetrated by like influences on behalf of like interests. All -honest reformers, spiritual or temporal, must necessarily be foes to -landlordism and usury, though not to the persons of landlords and -usurers. The latter, however, have ever considered attacks upon their -system to be attacks upon themselves: and, accordingly, they have -crushed or murdered every honest reformer whose influence has hitherto -threatened to supplant their own with the millions. And so it ever will -be--until the millions shall become wise enough, and moral enough, to -be able to dispose summarily of landlordism and usury without further -preaching or teaching. Any one who will take the trouble to read over -a list of the laws proposed by Julius Cæsar, in any book of Roman -antiquities (say Adams’s “Antiquities”), will see by their titles that -they were all essentially popular, and designed to protect the citizens -from the cupidity of land-monopolists, usurers, and dilapidators of -the public revenue. In this we have the true _secret_ of his murder by -the patrician conspirators, headed by Brutus, who, with all the stoic -virtues attributed to him, was a rank aristocrat in grain, and a usurer -to boot; for, according to the testimony of his friend Cicero, he used -to charge interest for his money at the rate of 48 per cent., and -gather it in, too, with the sabre’s edge when necessary. - -In a well-ordered state of society there would be neither land-usurpers -nor money-changers; that is, no persons living by letting out land as -_private_ property (since all land would be public property solely, -the rents going to the public for public uses only), and no persons -living upon what Lord Bacon called “the bastard use of money,” that -is, upon profits, usury, dividends, &c. In other words, the whole -people would be sole landlord, every individual of the people having -the same _proprietary_ and the same _occupancy_ rights as every -other individual; and with respect to money, it would be a mere -_representative_ of wealth or value, which would disappear altogether -when the wealth or value it represented disappeared; money would not -grow money, as it does now. In a just and rational state of society, -all the money in the world could not purchase an acre of land, nor -would it enable the owner to add one pound more to his heap, unless he -earned it by producing a pound’s worth of wealth, or doing a pound’s -worth of service for society, such as society would recognise. To speak -downright, plain English, landlords and money-changers have no right -to be in the world at all. Instead of governing society absolutely, as -they do now, they have no right to form a recognised part of society at -all, no more than wolves and crocodiles have to invite themselves to -our Christmas parties that they may devour our children, or than wens, -tumours, ulcers, cancers, running sores, or deformities of any sort -have to constitute themselves parts of our natural bodies, and to claim -to invade, overrun, and subject our whole systems to their pestilential -domination. All the talent and all the sophistry in the world could not -show any legitimate use for landlords or profitmongers _as such_, or -anything they do for society that could not be better done without them -than with them, and at less than a hundredth part of their cost. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. - -NATIONAL SYSTEM OF CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE REQUIRED. - - Inadequacy and Absurdity of present Medium of Exchange--Necessity - for new National Currency for Home Trade--Example from Iron - Currency of Sparta--Labour Notes of Guernsey--Gold and Silver mere - Commodities--All four Reforms must be combined. - - -In this chapter we shall elucidate the remaining two propositions of -the League, on the important complementary reforms necessary to be -introduced for the expulsion of human slavery from the face of the -land, and the full emancipation of industry from the trammels of a -false and pernicious system of Currency and Exchange. The sixth and -seventh resolutions read as follows:-- - -“That the National Currency should be based on real, consumable wealth, -or on the _bona fide_ credit of the State, and not upon the variable -and uncertain amount of scarce metals; because a currency depending on -such a basis, however suitable in past times, or as a measure of value -in present international commerce, has now become, by the increase of -population and wealth, wholly inadequate to perform the functions of -equitably representing and distributing that wealth; thereby rendering -all commodities liable to perpetual fluctuation in price, as those -metals happen to be more or less plentiful in any country; increasing -to an enormous extent the evils inherent in usury, and in the banking -and funding systems (in support of which a legitimate function of the -law--the PROTECTION of property--is distorted into an instrument for -the CREATION of property to a large amount for the benefit of a small -portion of society belonging to what are called vested interests); -because, from its liability to become locally or nationally scarce or -in excess, that equilibrium which should be maintained between the -production and consumption of wealth is destroyed; because, being of -intrinsic value in itself, it fosters a vicious trade in money, and a -ruinous practice of commercial gambling and speculation; and, finally, -because, under the present system of society, it has become confessedly -the ‘root of all evil’ and the main support of that unholy worship of -Mammon which now so extensively prevails, to the supplanting of all -true religion, natural and revealed. - -“That in order to facilitate the transfer of property or service, and -the mutual interchange of wealth among the people, to equalise the -demand and supply of commodities, to encourage consumption as well -as production, and to render it as easy to sell as to buy, it is an -important duty of the State to institute in every town and city public -marts or stores for the reception of all kinds of exchangeable goods, -to be valued by disinterested officers appointed for the purpose, -either upon a corn or a labour standard; the depositors to receive -symbolic notes representing the value of their deposits, such notes to -be made legal currency throughout the country, enabling their owners to -draw from the public stores to an equivalent amount, thereby gradually -displacing the present reckless system of competitive trading and -shopkeeping,--a system which, however necessary, or unavoidable in -the past, now produces a monstrous amount of evil, by maintaining a -large class living on the profits made by the mere sale of goods, on -the demoralising principle of buying cheap and selling dear, totally -regardless of the ulterior effects of that policy upon society at large -and the true interests of humanity.” - -Add to the gigantic fraud of the land-usurpers the hardly less -monstrous fraud of the money-changers in daring to make two particular -metals (falsely called precious) the sole basis of that currency which -is the life’s blood of society, without which exchanges cannot be -safely effected, and you see capped before you the climax of iniquity. -These precious metals being articles of commerce--mere merchandise, -like iron or cotton, at the same time that they are made the sole basis -of our instruments of exchange, it follows, as a necessary consequence, -that whoever can, by commerce, monopolise these precious metals can, by -so doing, monopolise at the same time the basis of our currency, and so -leave us without any instruments of exchange at all, but what may be -convertible, upon their own fraudulent terms, into those two favoured -metals, which their commercial wealth has enabled them to monopolise. - -The false principle at the root of our present system is, that _money_ -or the _medium of exchange_ should be itself a thing of intrinsic -value. By this false principle there must be an expenditure of labour -equal to what is required to produce the equivalents it exchanges -for; and besides the absurdity of such misplaced, because wholly -useless, labour, it is manifestly ridiculous to suppose that any one -commodity (more especially an exceedingly scarce one, like gold) can -ever be obtained in sufficient abundance to represent adequately all -other commodities which may be produced _ad libitum_, to any extent -demanded by consumption, and which, without the intervention of gold -at all, might be interchanged from hand to hand, in one single week, -to an amount equal to fifty times the value of all the gold in the -country. It is like supposing a part of a thing to be equal to the -whole. Gold may be a good measure of value, and, as such, is perfectly -unobjectionable; but as an exclusive representative of value, or as the -sole basis of representation (which our present laws have virtually -made it, by constituting it the sole basis of our circulating medium), -it is to our productive and trading population what a single blanket or -a single suit of clothes would be, applied to the use of a whole family -consisting of divers persons of all ages and sizes. The strongest and -most important members of the political family get the best share of -the blanket; the others get the least, and some get none at all. As -well might the garments of a dwarf be expected to fit a giant, as -well might our legislators attempt to restore a full-grown bird to -the egg whence it was hatched, as attempt to tie down the population -and commerce of this great country to the Procrustean bed of Peel’s -monetary system as established by his laws of 1819 and 1844. That -system alone, were there no other causes in operation, _must sooner -or later produce a convulsion in this country, if it be not speedily -unmade by wiser and better men than its authors_. To pretend that the -rights of property exist in a country where such a monetary system -coexists with private ownership of the soil, is a monstrous perversion -of language. It is not the rights of property, but the wrongs of -robbery, that these land and money laws tend to conservate. - -The prime necessity of man is to live: he cannot live without corn, -unless in the lowest condition of the savage; but he may not only live, -but live in comfort, without gold or silver. They are not the “staffs -of life,” however in our ignorance we may bow the knee to them as to -graven images. We invest them with supreme power, as superstition -invests its idols. The ancient fabulist who sketched the character of -_Midas_ seems to have written, by anticipation, a satire on modern -credulity. _Midas_ enjoyed the fatal gift of turning all he touched -into gold; his food was transmuted into the precious metal, and -starvation taught him that corn was the true standard of all that was -physically valuable. _Midas_ was the prototype of modern bullionists -and moneymongers. The Bank of England can now pave its floors with -gold; but what does it avail to the people? And yet was it not the -industry of the people that raised the ore from the mines, and brought -it hither by the sale or exchange of their labour, sustained by corn, -the produce of labour in another form? What was the _intrinsic_ value -of gold to _Midas_? - -We must not confound the _qualities_ of a mineral with its -_properties_. Undoubtedly, the precious metals possess durability, -sameness, great value in small bulk, portability, resistance to wear -and tear, in a greater degree than any other substances; but these -qualities _per se_ do not constitute them _money_,--they do no more -than recommend them to mercantile nations as the best instruments of -their kind out of which money can be manufactured; it is the act of -the legislature, and that alone, which gives them the character and -force of a _legal tender_, without which they would not form part of -the currency of a nation. The legislature could confer the same power -on any other material, even the most worthless, as Lycurgus did on -iron, deprived of its malleability; and yet Sparta flourished with that -circulating medium; nay, more, Sparta fell into ruin when the precious -metals superseded the worthless iron, which its rulers were compelled -to revive before the Republic was restored to prosperity. Some Eastern -nations have used _cowries_ (small shells) as money; and the Russians, -in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, employed the skins of -squirrels and martens. We ourselves use paper, and have used it without -the condition of convertibility. In fact, if gold and silver had never -been deposited in the bowels of the earth, or had been suffered to -remain there, the wealth of nations would not have been deteriorated -one farthing. They are the _signs_ of the thing signified, made such -by Act of Parliament; they will neither feed us, nor clothe us, nor -house us through their _own inherent qualities_. It is we ourselves -who give them all their gigantic power; we make them a legal tender. -Thus credulity set up graven images in the temples of old; and Labour, -having deposited all its earnings on the shrine, bent its knee before -the shining metal, and implored food and raiment from the idol carved -with its own hands. Common sense would have appealed to the _plough_ -and the _loom_. - -We have said that the precious metals, when made a legal tender by -the legislature, are still no more than signs of the thing signified; -what, then, is the thing signified, whose value they measure, and -in measurement represent? We answer, all those things of value -which, in return for a sufficient inducement, are capable of being -transferred from one person to another. These are expressed by the -terms Property, Capital, Stock. All these possess _intrinsic_ value, -for they represent accumulated labour; and accumulated labour is -the result of a continuous consumption of corn--the standard of all -values--the staff of life, without which neither property, capital, -nor stock could be accumulated, without which, indeed, the race of -civilised man could not be perpetuated. A granary full of corn, or a -warehouse full of cottons and woollens, are examples of _real money_: -they may exist while the proprietors of them have not an ounce of -gold or silver in their coffers; and, in a mercantile sense, they may -be poor, nay, necessitous, with all this wealth in their possession; -because corn, cottons, and woollens are not legal tenders according -to Act of Parliament,--no man is _bound_ to take them in acquittance -of a debt,--they are not a satisfaction to the sheriff. It is idle to -say that such persons may obtain relief through a banker: the very -application shows a state of dependence into which the holder of -real money ought never to be reduced: for he who produces the thing -signified ought not to be under the control or caprice of him who -merely deals in its sign. Moreover, the banker himself may be unable -to give any accommodation: gold and silver may have left the country; -even the Bank of England may be so crippled as to have borrowed -some millions of the precious metals from France: we may be within -twenty-four hours of barter. Is this a picture of the imagination? No; -it is a faithful sketch of what _has_ happened; and why should it not -happen again, the same causes remaining in readiness to act? - -What is the lesson that such considerations ought to teach? It is this, -that a nation, rich in real money, may be thrown into bankruptcy, -and perhaps revolution, by adopting a false representative of value, -through the privation of that gold which its legislature recognises -as the sole legal tender. Let the gold go, what remains? Our land, -retaining its fertility; our machinery, capable of continuing its work; -our vessels, as seaworthy as before; our skilled industry, with its -intelligence unimpaired; our unskilled labour, not a whit enfeebled in -its natural productive powers. These are the elements of real money. - -In the island of Guernsey it was proposed to build a meat-market, and -the estimates amounted to about £4,000. As all taxes in that island are -raised by a direct assessment on property, the rich protested against -the expenditure, though they desired the proposed accommodation. Here, -then, was a dilemma, since they who willed the end would not will the -means, and without the means the structure could not be erected. Had -such an emergency arisen with us, our Chancellor of the Exchequer would -unhesitatingly have thrown all the burden on the working-classes, -by taxing the commodities they daily consumed; but the rulers of -Guernsey have notions of honour and justice which do not permit them -to relieve the rich at the expense of the poor, and they are too well -instructed in the principles of commerce to crush trade by customs -and excise; these contrivances, as iniquitous as they are bungling, -would be disdained by the legislatures of the Channel Islands. How, -then, did they proceed in building the meat-market? They issued paper -notes, _guaranteed by the States of Guernsey_, this national paper -_not bearing interest_; and the better to show the nature of this -currency, the words “Meat-market Notes” were inscribed upon them, and -they were numbered so that no more could be put into circulation than -represented the sum agreed to be expended on the undertaking. On the -first instalment being due to the contractor, he was paid in these -notes, which he again paid away to his workmen and others, who passed -them to the shopkeepers; the landlords took them for rent, and the -treasurer of the States and the constables received them in discharge -of dues and taxes. At length the building was completed, when butchers -took the stalls at an annual rent, and as that rent was received the -meat-market notes were destroyed. In due course of time this rent -wholly extinguished the notes; and the market remains, to this day, -a permanent source of national revenue, applicable to other national -improvements; and, strange as it may sound, no individual has been -taxed one farthing for its construction! Here, then, is a practical -illustration of the uses of a symbolic currency, and of the mode in -which it may be made to work. Not an ounce of gold was employed; not a -shilling of interest was paid. The States of Guernsey were their own -guarantees for their own paper; they created the substance with the -symbol, realising the allegory of Aladdin’s lamp. - -As bullion, the precious metals are mere commodities, and therefore -possess no more intrinsic value than any other commodity, under the -laws of supply and demand; as coin, they are still bits of bullion, -and it is the act of ourselves, or of the legislature who represents -us, that gives them the character and the power of a legal tender. And -yet we have the folly to kneel down to this graven image, and measure -individual happiness and national greatness by its presence or its -departure. Foreign trade, however valuable, must ever be subsidiary to -the home trade. This doctrine none will contest; being admitted, then -it follows that the chief care of the government should be to provide a -currency suited to the home trade, and leave to merchants the care of -adjusting the foreign exchanges, which never, for any long period, can -be adverse or favourable; for what the ebb tide takes away the flood -returns. It is an axiom in political economy that a favourable state of -the exchanges acts as a _bounty on imports_ and as a _duty on exports_, -while the reverse takes place when the exchanges are unfavourable. -The true _par_ forms the centre of these oscillations, and though -peculiar circumstances will rarely allow that _par_ to be _exactly_ -hit, yet the tendency to approach it is constant, and the divergence -from it is always evanescent. But the home trade is governed by very -different influences; for, while we pay taxes on all we consume, the -foreigner pays none on what he purchases from us, since he deals with -us according to the measure of value, while we deal with each other -according to price. Gold represents the _natural_ price of commodities, -not the taxed price. Therefore, we ought to have two sorts of currency; -let bullion serve for foreign trade, but let us have government paper, -convertible into gold at the _market price_--not the _Mint price_--as -the medium of internal exchanges. When gold is scarce, let it rise in -value measured in the Bank or National note, and we need not fear a -drain of bullion. - -There can be no freedom nor safety, much less prosperity, for any -people till they obtain just laws to regulate landed tenures, credit, -and commercial interchange. With such laws there could not exist -a bad government, nor would oppression in any form be possible. -Without such laws there cannot be a good government, be its form, -its administration, its institutes, or its franchises what they may. -Land, and whatever else the Deity has made for man’s use, must be -expropriated, by commutation, on equitable terms for the general good, -and never again be made private property. Credit must be accessible for -every member of the community, on terms beneficial for the individual, -and just and safe for the public. And all commerce must be gradually, -reduced to equitable exchange on the principle of equal values for -equal values, measured by a labour or corn standard. - -Under the systems of Landed Tenures, Currency, and Commerce which at -present prevail in England and in France, it is no exaggeration to say, -that those who live upon _rents_, _profits_, _usury_, _discounts_, -_dividends_, _commissions_, _fees_, etc., absorb from 300 to 350 -million pounds sterling worth of the people’s produce in each country -every year, over and above what they give the people any value whatever -for, in money or service of any appreciable kind. In fact, for this -enormous annual drain the useful classes of both countries receive no -consideration whatever. It is sheer robbery, disguised under plausible -names and forms. The Seven Propositions of the National Reform League -present what would seem the only feasible means of ridding the country -of this crushing incubus, consistent with acknowledging legal rights -and vested interests. Unless some such compromise be agreed on between -rich and poor, both in England and in France, a convulsion, sooner or -later, that will engulf both, must be the inevitable consequence. No -country could long sustain two such existing drains by the idle and -baneful classes upon the laborious producers--drains equal to from 300 -to 350 millions every year in each country--without at last collapsing -after protracted agonies to preserve national life. The system of -equitable Exchange substituted for the present nefarious one of -profitmongering would save the _souls_ as well as the _bodies_ of both -nations; but _that_ is absolutely impossible without such antecedent -laws on Land and Currency as we have pointed out. - -It is the same with Currency. You may, for instance, by repealing -Peel’s Currency Acts of 1819 and 1844, by making an annual issue of -Exchequer paper, equal to the taxation, our legal tender, and by -superadding to this the advantage of a free but sound commercial -currency, in the form of private and joint-stock paper issues -adequately secured,--you may by such a reform as this, and by -making gold a mere merchandise to rise and fall in the market like -all other merchantable commodities according to the law of supply -and demand,--you may by this means make money more plentiful and -come-at-able for trade purposes, and thus relieve society of a large -proportion of its distress,--you may do all this and so far effect -much good for society without any other accompanying reforms; but -the benefits of such a reform _per se_ would, we contend, be only -_temporary_; they could not be permanent, for want of the other -reforms. For a time money would be plentiful, employment abundant, -prices and wages high, and trade what is called prosperous; but this -very prosperity would soon work its own destruction; it would lead to -increased speculation, increased production, increased competition, -increased rents for lands and houses, increase of expenditure and -taxation, and to a terrific increase of what are called vested -interests; it would soon overstock the markets, and glut the warehouses -with unsaleable goods. Then would come a crash--a fearful, ruinous -crash; mills would run short time or stop; the factories and the -workshops would dismiss their hands; multitudes accustomed for some -time to full employment and good living would be cast suddenly adrift -to beg, borrow, or steal; the workhouses would overflow as the mills -and workshops became empty; the shopkeepers would be ruined by forced -sales and the lack of legitimate custom. This would react on the -manufacturers and merchants, and, through them, on the artisans and -labourers. Meanwhile the increased pressure of inflamed rents, taxes, -and vested interests would be found intolerable by a people without -trade and without employment. Down would go prices and wages again, -in despite of the superabundance of money, which would have found its -way to and accumulated in the hands of usurers, fixed-income men, -and non-productive, overgrown capitalists. In short, we should see a -repetition on a larger scale than ever of one of those periodic crises -in the commercial world which, under the present system, we invariably -find to follow close upon the heels of every great development of our -manufacturing and trading prosperity. - -It is with Land-reform as with Currency; it would be of comparatively -little use to nationalise landed property with the view of throwing -open the land to labourers and small farmers, unless you at the same -time enabled them, by a sound system of Credit, to procure implements -and stock for their holdings, and to subsist themselves till after they -gathered in the first year’s crop. And even with competent allotments -of Land and Credit to stock them, the occupants’ condition would be -still but a very indifferent one without the aid of an efficient -Currency wherewith to effect easy and equitable exchanges of their -surplus agricultural produce for money or for other produce, as their -wants might require. In short, each element is imperfect in itself as -the means of social reform. But all, from operating conjointly and -harmoniously, go to make social reform perfect. And seeing that it -is just as easy to legislate upon all forms conjointly as upon each -separately, it appears to us a sad waste of time and labour to agitate -for any one without including the rest at the same time, the more -especially as the peculiar virtues of each are only brought into full -play and development by being made to operate in unison with the other -three. - -There is not one warrior that ever fought for king, people, or -commonwealth: they have all fought for landlords and profitmongers, -to whom alone they could look for pay and promotion; consequently, no -good to the human race ever accrued from their conquests or victories. -Nor will the millions ever gain by any war not waged by themselves on -their own account, nor by any victories not won by themselves over -their hereditary eternal foes, the landlords and profitmongers--over -the latter especially, the more numerous, deadly, and irreclaimable of -the two. Profitmongers are, indeed, perfectly irreclaimable enemies -of the human race, because as such they can possess no one virtue, no -one quality of head, heart, or conscience, by which they could be won -over to God or humanity. In all the higher professional callings--in -those associated with the arts and sciences--the pursuit of truth, and -the culture of a taste for the Sublime, the Beautiful, the Chaste, -the Sympathetic, form an essential part of their studies and the very -foundation of success. Such is the case with engineers, architects, -sculptors, painters, musicians, historians, mathematicians, physicians -and surgeons, artists of every kind, orators, poets, professors of -science, advocates, &c. The higher qualities of the human mind must be -more or less cultivated by all those descriptions of persons, if they -would excel; and it is in the very nature of their studies to generate -in them some appreciation of truth, taste, sympathy, or refinement. -But the profitmongering devils of society neither need nor care for -such ennobling pursuits. Indeed, the less they are tinctured with -them, the more fitted they are for their nefarious callings. Genius, -taste, culture, are not required for buying in the cheapest markets -and selling in the dearest, for lying, deceiving, adulterating goods, -giving short weight, or cheating our fellow-creatures out of their -substance, either by underpaying them for their work or giving them -less than the value for their money. Still less are the superior moral -qualities required in profitmongering pursuits; indeed, such qualities -are only drawbacks and impediments in the way of success in business. -Hence no clever profitmonger ever thinks of encumbering himself with -them. True, mercantile men have a proverb which has become trite -from use--“_Honesty is the best policy_;” but they use it, like -other good things, only to improve their opportunities of cheating. -A tacit understanding not to cheat one another is often necessary to -their success in cheating the rest of mankind, which, after all, is -the main business of their lives. As this iniquitous class can grow -rich only by grinding and cheating their fellow-creatures, that is, -by robbery and oppression, they are, by the very nature of their -pursuits and practices, irreconcilable enemies of society. It is their -interest that the working-classes should be always at variance amongst -themselves--always a prey to ignorance--given to mutual jealousy and -mistrust--and filled with prejudices and superstitions, by which they -may at all times have their passions inflamed against those who would -unite, enlighten, and emancipate them from bondage. It is the interest -of this class, too, that the mass of the people should never own a -house, nor even rent an acre of land, so that they may be forced to -become wages-slaves to profitmongers, and pay to them every few years -in rent more than the value of their wretched tenements. In short, -profitmongers, as the main supports of all aristocracies and of all -tyrannies in the world, are constrained by the very necessities of -their position and by the very nature of their pursuits, to ignore the -Ten Commandments in practice, and to trample under foot the Gospel of -the Saviour. There cannot, then, be even a semblance of real reform -in society without beginning with clipping the claws and drawing the -teeth of the profitmongers. The human race is, indeed, without hope -of salvation either in this world or the next, until their present -unlimited and irresponsible power of murder and robbery over the mass -of mankind shall be wrenched from profitmongers and landlords. - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -CHAPTER XXII. - -EVILS OF MONOPOLIES AND EXPLOITATIONS OF INDUSTRIES. - - False Principle of Law-made Property--Absurdity of Funding - System and Borrowing from Investors--Evil of Public Works in - hands of Profitmongers and Speculators--Rapacity of Predatory - Classes--Efforts of Robespierre to abolish the nefarious - System--his legal Assassination in consequence--All Evils of - Society the work of Landlords and Profitmongers. - - -Another false principle at the root of our system (mark it well! for -it is a most diabolical one) is, that laws may legitimately _make_ -property for one set of people at the expense of another set, without -the consent of the latter, and without giving them an equivalent. -This principle lurks insidiously at the root of scores of different -sorts of property, well known to exist in this country, and to be -wholly and solely the offspring of class-legislation. The dividends -payable on the National Debt are of this class of property; so are -railway dividends; so are the dividends or revenues accruing from -canals, docks, wharfs, fisheries, insurance offices, gas-companies, -water-companies, mining-companies, and private companies of all sorts, -which are chartered by private Acts of Parliament to do for the public -what the public ought to be empowered to do for themselves. There -is no subject upon which more gross and general ignorance prevails -than upon this. Most people imagine that a man may as legitimately -possess property of the kinds here alluded to, as he may possess a -house, a horse, or a gross of Birmingham buttons. No delusion can -be more ridiculous. Parliaments are chosen, and laws are designed, -not to _make_ property for people, but to _protect_ it for those who -have made it for themselves, or obtained it from those that _did_. -If a man builds a house, or buys an ox, it is his rightful property -irrespectively of Acts of Parliament. The law did not give him the -house or the ox; neither has it a right to take it away, unless for -a good and sufficient reason, and then only upon awarding adequate -compensation. The same principle applies to every other legitimate -description of property. All such legitimate descriptions of property -are acquired or made by the owners themselves, and not by the law. The -law only _protects_ such property; it does not _create_ or _make_ it. - -The State plan of borrowing money from its subjects on the -perpetual-interest system is replete with folly and extravagance; -unless it be admitted to be an artful scheme for robbing the -wealth-producers, by taxing them with the payment of the interest of -money which they never borrowed. An honest government would quickly set -about paying this debt off, by offering life annuities to a certain -number of stock-holders every year. A real State power ought never -to _borrow_ money; it ought to _make_ it when required to cancel its -obligations, receiving the same money back in the form of taxes, so as -to prevent depreciation. The government practice of borrowing money on -Exchequer bills is also absurdly wasteful; surely the credit of the -State ought to be above that of any of its subjects! - -What is true of funded property is equally applicable to the various -other descriptions of property referred to. Railroads should not be -private property; neither should canals, docks, fisheries, mines, the -supplying of gas, water, etc. Works of this sort, designed for the use -of the public, should be constructed or executed only at the public -cost, and the public, and the public only, should have the advantage. -They should not be suffered to fall into the hands of private -speculators, for whom they are only a legal disguise to enable them to -rob the public. A universal-suffrage parliament would never sanction -such a system, unless it were stark mad. Like the funding system, it -only tends to breed idle schemers to prey upon the industrious classes. -All profits upon their outlay received by such private companies, -while they preserve their capital intact, is in reality so much public -plunder handed over to them by the law. Indeed, not unfrequently the -profits for a single year are greater than the outlay itself, whilst -the original shares are proportionately enhanced in value. Thus, shares -in the New River Company, originally worth £100, are now worth £16,000; -in other words, the annual interest is equal to eight times the -original capital. It is superfluous to say such _property_ is the sole -creation of law, which, whenever it deviates from its original function -of _protecting_ property, to that of _creating_ or _making_ it, only -robs one set of people to enrich another--a species of act which laws -are intended to punish, and not to set the example of. - -The mercantile middle-classes are everywhere organizing chartered -companies to give themselves perpetual vested interests in the -labour of the working-classes, and mortgage the latter to posterity, -through public loans and State indebtedness. Wars are now got up or -waged every year merely to create fresh batches of “_stocks_” or -“_public securities_” to be thrown, as marketable wares, upon the -stock-exchanges of the world, in order that lazy, worthless, swindling -villains, who have got rich by profitmongering, may be able to convert -definite money-capitals into interminable annuities, or perennial -streams of income wrung from the labouring classes in taxes, for which -the said classes never receive a particle of consideration or value -in any shape, while the “_investors_,” as they are called, not only -retain their money-capitals under the name of stock, but, as a general -rule, can always sell that stock at a premium, or for more than the sum -originally lent or invested; while, till they choose to sell out, they -are privileged to live securely on the taxes. - -All slavery in all countries called civilised is the work of -landlords and profitmongers. These two classes, which have no right -to form an integral portion of society at all, have everywhere made -themselves masters of society, and are everywhere in a state of -permanent conspiracy against the rest of the community, allowing no -man to hold his proper rank or position in the world unless he makes -common cause with them in keeping the poor and the labouring class -in ignorance, poverty, and slavery. There is no age nor country in -which they have not shown themselves murderers or assassins the moment -any large section of the public began to see through their system of -self-licensed rapine. They have invariably either murdered the leaders -and teachers of the creed which menaced their usurpations, or else -got up sham wars with neighbouring States (the belligerents being -co-conspirators), under colour of which they procured the intervention -of foreign arms in aid of their own, to crush the new creed and its -abettors before they had time to take root. No one nation on earth has, -up to the present time, been permitted to _learn_, much less establish, -honest laws on Land, Credit, Currency, and Exchange, so as to secure -its permanent freedom and happiness, owing to malignant combinations -of these two classes, which seem to exist for no other purpose than to -keep the human race in eternal chains and misery. - -Robespierre is the only legislator and statesman known to history who -sought a radical reformation of society for the millions, through just -fundamental laws on property, with analogous institutions to reach and -purify every department of the State, so that the poorest man in France -might get rich through his own industry if he chose to work, and have -the whole armed power of society to guarantee to him the exclusive -ownership and enjoyment of his earnings and accumulations. But at the -same time he left to the rich all they had, depriving them only of the -power of future robbery. To this end were directed articles 6, 7, 8, -9, 10, 11, and 12 of his “Declaration of Rights:”--“Art. 6. Property -is the right which each citizen has to enjoy and to dispose of, at his -pleasure, the portion of fortune or wealth that is guaranteed to him -by the law. Art. 7. The right of property is limited, like all other -rights, by the obligation to respect the rights of others. Art. 8. It -can prejudice neither the safety, nor the liberty, nor the existence, -nor the property of our fellow-citizens. Art. 9. All traffic that -violates this principle is essentially illicit and immoral. Art. 10. -Society is under obligation to provide subsistence for all its members, -either by procuring employment for them or by ensuring the means of -existence to those who are incapable of labour. Art. 11. The relief -indispensable to those who are in want of necessaries is a debt due by -the possessors of superfluities. It belongs to the law to determine -the manner in which the debt should be discharged. Art. 12. Citizens -whose incomes do not exceed what is necessary to their subsistence -are dispensed from contributing to the public expenditure. The rest -ought to contribute _progressively_, according to the extent of their -fortunes.” - -Although Robespierre and his party were ostensibly murdered by the -Convention, it was the landlords and profitmongers of France that -were really and substantially his murderers in chief; for it was in -their interest the Convention murdered him, well knowing beforehand -that these classes wished for his death, in order to eject the -working-classes from the constitution, and re-seize the whole powers -of the State for themselves, as they had done under the Constituent. -The 9th Thermidor was as much a _coup d’état_ as Louis Napoleon’s -2nd December, and both for the same classes--for landlords and -profitmongers, who never yet submitted to any laws not made exclusively -by themselves or for themselves, at the cost of slavery to the masses. -Real liberty will never exist in the world until these two murderous -classes are made to disappear from society under the operation of just -laws on Land, Credit, Currency, and Exchange. It is to such laws that -Robespierre points in articles 6, 7, 8, and 9 of his “Declaration of -Rights;” and it is to their operation upon society he points in that -magnificent passage here quoted from his report, on _Pluviose, An II._, -the parallel of which was never before uttered by statesman:--“We -desire an order of things in which all the mean and cruel passions -shall be chained down--all the beneficent and generous passions -awakened by the laws; in which ambition shall consist in the desire -of meriting glory, and serving our country; in which distinctions -shall spring but from equality itself; in which the citizen shall -be subject to the magistrate, the magistrate to the people, and the -people to justice; in which the country shall ensure the prosperity -of every individual, and in which each individual shall enjoy with -pride the prosperity and glory of his country; in which every soul -shall be aggrandised by the continual intercommunication of republican -sentiments, and by the wish to merit the esteem of a great people; in -which the arts shall flourish as the decorations of the liberty that -ennobles them; and in which commerce will be a source of public riches, -and not of monstrous opulence to a few great houses only. We desire to -substitute in our country morality for egotism, probity for honour, -principles for usages, duties for conventionalities, the empire of -reason for the tyranny of fashion, contempt of vice for contempt of -misfortune, manly pride for insolence, greatness of soul for vanity, -love of glory for love of money, honesty for respectability, good -people for good society, merit for intrigue, genius for wit, truth -for display, the charms of happiness for the _ennui_ of pleasure, the -greatness of man for the littleness of the great; a people magnanimous, -powerful, and happy, for a people amiable, frivolous, and miserable; in -a word, we desire to substitute all the virtues and all the miracles -of the Republic for all the vices and all the ridiculous fopperies of -the Monarchy. We desire, in short, to fulfil the vows of nature, to -accomplish the destinies of humanity, to absolve Providence from the -long reign of crime and tyranny; that France, heretofore illustrious -amongst enslaved countries, may, by eclipsing all the free States that -ever existed, become a model for nations, the terror of oppressors, the -consolation of the oppressed, the ornament of the world; and that, in -sealing our work with our blood, we may at least witness the breaking -dawn of universal felicity.” It was these articles and his speeches -at the Jacobin club, showing Robespierre’s determination, if he got -the power, to put _property_ on a proper basis, that determined the -landlords and profitmongers of France to murder him the moment the -state of parties and divisions of the people gave them the chance of -doing so with safety to themselves. - -It is idle to attribute the evils of society to any other source but -the ascendancy of these two accursed classes; for no other component -parts of society have any interest in oppressing mankind or in -debasing humanity. Examine the other constituents of society, and -you find them all to be naturally friends and benefactors of their -fellow-creatures, and their callings to be essential to the public -welfare. All truly Christian ministers give full value for what they -get; so do physicians and surgeons; so do engineers, architects, -builders, draughtsmen, designers, artists of every kind, sculptors, -miniature and portrait painters, musicians, composers, mechanics, and -artisans of every description, whether engaged on works of usefulness -or ornament, professors and teachers of science and _belles lettres_, -more especially the higher class of scientific men, to whom we owe -inventions and discoveries, and the higher class of philosophers, -poets, historians, and critics, to whom we owe taste, refinement, -and a thousand sources of quiet enjoyment. In short, every man that -contributes, either by the labour of his brain or of his hands, to -the wealth and enjoyments of society is a valuable member of it, and -cannot possibly have an interest in keeping his fellow-creatures in -ignorance and bondage. In virtue of their callings, they, and all -other persons employed in art and education, as in production and -distribution, are naturally interested in just and good government, -and in seeing equal rights and equal laws exist for all. But not so -landlords and profitmongers: their class-interests are diametrically -opposed to the well-being, independence, and happiness of society, of -which they have not a right even to form an integral part. We cannot do -without Christian pastors, physicians, engineers, architects, builders, -professors, artists, and able men devoted to the sciences, without -relapsing into barbarism and savagery. But where is the earthly use of -a landlord, as a landlord; of a profitmonger, as a profitmonger? All -the ingenuity in the world could not point out any legitimate use for -these classes. What functions do they perform that could not be better -performed without them than with them, and at less than a hundredth -part of the cost? What business have they in society at all? They have -no lawful business whatever. They are no more a necessary part of the -body politic than are wens, tumours, or ulcers necessary parts of -the natural human body. Their presence in it is only a proof of the -diseased state of the body politic; just as the presence of the others -attests an impure state of the blood or functional disorganization. -They have no more legitimate right to obtrude themselves on society -than a wolf or a tiger has to join and make one of a Christmas party. -They exist only for the impoverishment, corruption, enslavement, -and destruction of the human race. They are the sole authors of all -the calamities known to social existence; and the history of our -race is little else than a harrowing record of their wars, plots, -conspiracies, invasions, massacres, famines, conflagrations, and -atrocities of every sort, to blot the image of God out of man, in order -to turn him into a beast of burden or a beast of prey for their own -use. It is only by just laws on Property that the human race can be -delivered from these two hellish classes; and all reform is a farce -which points not to that paramount object. - -[Illustration: FINIS.] - -PRINTED BY G. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The rise, progress, and phases of human slavery: how it came into the world and how it shall be made to go out</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: James Bronterre O'Brien</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: August 10, 2021 [eBook #66031]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Turgut Dincer, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND PHASES OF HUMAN SLAVERY: HOW IT CAME INTO THE WORLD AND HOW IT SHALL BE MADE TO GO OUT ***</div> - -<div class="mynote"><p class="center">Transcriber’s Note:<br /><br /> -Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.<br /></p></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</a></span></p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" alt="frontispiece" /></div> - -<div class="center"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>A man who lived for truth, and truth alone—</div> -<div>Brave as the bravest—generous as brave;</div> -<div>A man whose heart was rent by every moan</div> -<div>That burst from every trodden, tortured slave;</div> -<div>A man prepared to fight, prepared to die,</div> -<div>To lighten, banish, human misery.</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div>The mighty scorned him, vilified, oppressed;</div> -<div>The bitter cup of poverty and pain</div> -<div>Forced him to drink. He was misfortune’s guest</div> -<div>Through weary, weary years; his anguish’d brain</div> -<div>Shed tears of pity—wrath—for Mankind’s woe;</div> -<div>For his own sorrows tears could never flow.</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div>He loved the people with a brother’s love;</div> -<div>He hated tyrants with a tyrant’s hate.</div> -<div>He turned from kings below, to God above—</div> -<div>The King of kings, who smites the wicked great.</div> -<div>The shame, the scourge, the terror of their race,</div> -<div>Those demons in earth’s holy dwelling-place.</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div>Thou noble soul!—around thee gathered those</div> -<div>Who, poor and trampled patriots, were like thee.</div> -<div>Thou art not dead!—thy martyred spirit glows</div> -<div>In us, a band devoted of the free;</div> -<div>We best can celebrate thy natal day,</div> -<div>By virtues, valours, such as marked thy way.</div> -<div class="right">WILLIAM MACCALL.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/title.jpg" alt="title page" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<h1>THE <br /><br />RISE, PROGRESS, AND PHASES <br /><br />OF <br /><br />HUMAN SLAVERY:</h1> - -<p class="bold space-above">HOW IT CAME INTO THE WORLD,<br /> -AND HOW IT SHALL BE MADE TO GO OUT.</p> - -<p class="bold space-above">BY</p> - -<p class="bold2">JAMES BRONTERRE O’BRIEN.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/titledec.jpg" alt="title decoration" /></div> - -<p class="bold space-above">LONDON:<br />WILLIAM REEVES, 185, FLEET STREET, E.C.<br /> -<span class="smcap">G. Standring, 8 and 9, Finsbury Street;<br />Martin Boon, 170, Farringdon Road, W.C.<br /> -South Africa: Hay Bros., Wholesale Agents, King William’s Town.</span><br />——<br />1885</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></p> - -<h2>TO THE PEOPLE!</h2> - -<p>This little Work, by an eloquent denunciator of the manifold evils of -Profitmongering and Landlordism, whose entire life was devoted to the -advocacy of Social Rights, as distinguished from Socialistic theories, -is now given to the world for the first time in a complete form.</p> - -<p>The Author, in his lifetime, was frustrated in his design of finishing -his History through the ceaseless machinations of working-class -exploiters and landlords. This has been at length achieved by the aid -of his various writings preserved in print. The object steadily kept in -view has been to give the <i>ipsissima verba</i> of the Author, so that no -foreign pen may garble or mislead.</p> - -<p>In order to provide room for so much additional matter as was essential -to the elucidation of the great reforms needed in the subjects of Land -Nationalisation, Credit, Currency, and Exchange, it has been found -expedient to omit from this edition some disquisitions on subjects of -ephemeral and passing interest, not closely connected with the scope of -the Work. Ample compensation, however, has been given in the additions -which have been made for the elucidation and enforcement of the saving -truths herein contained.</p> - -<p class="right">“SPARTACUS.”</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/line.jpg" alt="line" /></div> - -<table summary="CONTENTS"> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER I.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">PROLETARIANISM SPRUNG FROM CHATTEL SLAVERY.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Importance of Social Reform—Universality of covert or open Slavery—Partial<br /> -Prevalence of Working Class—Origin in Proletarianism—Advent of<br /> -Christianity—its Effects on Slavery—Middle and Working Classes the<br /> -product of Emancipations—Classification of the <i>Proletariat</i></td> - <td><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER II.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">ORIGIN OF SLAVERY IN PATERNAL AUTHORITY.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Antiquity of Slavery—anterior to Legal Institution—Examples cited from Ancient<br /> -History—Arose from Patriarchal Government—despotic Power of Head<br /> -of Family—Marriage Custom of Purchase—Aristocratic Governments<br /> -favourable to Development—Decadence under Republics</td> - <td><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER III.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">CAUSES OF PARENTAL DESPOTISM.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Evidences from Egypt and Persia—Supreme Authority of Family Head—First<br /> -Legal Limitation under Roman Empire—Necessity for gradual Growth of<br /> -Slavery—Source of Paternal Riches—Importance of Chief of Family</td> - <td><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER IV.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">INCREASE AND CONSOLIDATION OF SLAVERY.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Sanction given by Law and Public Opinion—Various Causes of Enslavement—Practices<br /> -of Ancient Germans—Analogy in Modern Commercial and -Funding<br />Systems and Expatriation of Irish Peasantry—Slavery among the Jews</td> - <td><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER V.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">OPINION OF THE ANCIENT WORLD ON SLAVERY.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Permanence of Slavery under all Revolutions—Ignorance of principle of Human<br /> -Equality—Theory and Personal Experience of Plato—Contentment of -Slaves<br />with their Condition—Occasional Comfort and Happiness of Slaves—Absence<br /> -of Revolts against Slavery—Social and Political Rights ignored by Greeks and Romans</td> - <td><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER VI.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span>UNIVERSALITY OF PUBLIC OPINION AS TO MASTER AND SLAVES.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">System acquiesced in by Slave-Class—Insurrections and Rebellions from other<br /> -causes than Hatred of Slavery—Rising under Spartacus—conditions<br /> -wanting for Success—Contrast of Modern Aspirations after Freedom—Example<br /> -from enslaved Roman Citizens—Preference of Slaves for their Condition</td> - <td><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER VII.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">COMPARISON OF ANCIENT AND MODERN SLAVERY.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Forces which overthrew Chattel Slavery—Advantages of Chattel Slaves over<br />Freedmen -and Wages-slaves—Natural Fecundity esteemed a Blessing, not a<br /> -Curse—Condition of American Slaves under Slavery</td> - <td><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER VIII.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">EXPLOITATION-VALUE OF SLAVE AND FREE LABOUR.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Contrast of Plantation-Servants with British Workpeople—Affluence of former<br /> -American Slaves—Misery of Free Labourers and Artisans—Value of<br /> -Irish Peasants and English Workers—Free and Slave Children in America</td> - <td><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER IX.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">HISTORY OF EARLY SOCIAL REFORMERS.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Intention of foregoing Contrast—Difficulties of Christian Revolution, and comparative<br /> -Facility of coming Ones—Essenes as Early Reformers—Difficulties in<br /> -the way of Christian innovations on Pagan Slavery</td> - <td><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER X.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">PROGRESS OF EARLY CHRISTIAN PROPAGANDA.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Opposition from corrupt Slave-Caste—Detestation of Christian Doctrines by<br />Slave-owners—Incomprehensibility -of the new Doctrine of Equality—Absence of<br /> -a destitute Free People a Drawback on Reform—Spread of the New<br /> -Teachings—Alarm, and Persecution of the New Faith</td> - <td><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XI.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">THE FOUR GREAT PERSECUTIONS.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Obscurity and Insignificance of Early Reformers their best Protection—Christians<br /> -the great Levellers—Nero’s Persecution—The Blood of the Martyrs the<br /> -Seed of the Church—Persecution of Domitian—Martyrdoms under<br /> -Trajan—Tortures under Antonius</td> - <td><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XII.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span>PROGRESS OF PROPAGANDA TO THE TENTH PERSECUTION.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Seven Years’ Persecution of Equalitarian Innovators—Seventh Great<br />Persecution—Christians -charged with Sorcery in Eighth Persecution—Tortures of<br />Ninth -and Tenth Persecutions—Pretended Conversion of Constantine—Lives of<br /> -Early Christian exemplars to the Pagan World</td> - <td><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XIII.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">DEBASEMENT OF THE NEW POWER WHEN SEIZED BY RULERS.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Cost of making the New Ideas triumphant—Change in Character in the hands of<br /> -Kings, Courtiers, and Profitmongers—Emancipations become a matter of<br /> -Policy and Profit—Repudiation of principles of Fraternity and Equality—Horrors<br /> -of introduction of Proletarianism</td> - <td><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XIV.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">SERVICE OF CHRISTIANITY IN BREAKING CASTE-BONDS.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Division of Emancipated Slaves into two Classes of Proletarians—Equality and<br /> -Fraternity gave the desire for Liberty—Inveteracy of Caste-prejudice—Perversion<br /> -of Christianity under Constantine—Antagonism of Wages-Slavery and Christianity</td> - <td><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XV.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">FORM OF SLAVERY UNDER MODERN CIVILIZATION.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Persistence of Chattel-Slavery in Eastern Countries—Assumption of form of Wages-Slavery<br /> -under Modern Civilization—Creation of Millionaire Capitalists by<br /> -present System—Result in Ruin and Starvation of the Labouring Class—Necessity<br /> -of repressive Armies and Police—Measures necessary to secure Social Reform</td> - <td><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XVI.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">REFORMS AS MUCH NEEDED IN AMERICA AND IN COLONIES AS IN EUROPE.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Answer to question, “How is Human Slavery to go out?”—Insufficiency of mere<br /> -Political Freedom—Accessibility of Public Lands in new Countries their<br /> -chief Advantage—Inadequacy of Universal Suffrage without a Knowledge<br /> -of Social Rights—America falling into same Abyss as Europe</td> - <td><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XVII.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">RELIEF TO UNEMPLOYED OR DESTITUTE A RIGHT—NOT A CHARITY.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Inability of a People ignorant of Social Rights to choose Representatives—Duties<br /> -of a wise Democracy—Omnipotency of a Knowledge of Social Rights—Facility<br /> -of Application of Social Reforms—Exposition of the three<br /> -Provisional Measures necessary</td> - <td><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XVIII.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span>GRADUAL RESUMPTION OF PUBLIC LANDS BY THE STATE.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Necessity of Agrarian Reform—Crown Lands, Church Lands, and Corporation<br /> -Lands to be immediately resumed, and their Rent applied to the relief of<br /> -Taxation—The Rich have no right to meddle with them—Needed by the<br /> -exploited Millions, as a Fulcrum to raise them from the Earth</td> - <td><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XIX.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">NATIONAL DEBT A MORTGAGE ON REALISED PROPERTY.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Necessity for Adjustment of Public and Private Debts—Their overwhelming<br /> -Burden must result in Civil War—Third Resolution the only Remedy—Opinion<br /> -of Cobbett—Enormous Increase of Debt through Improvements in<br /> -Manufactures—Only just Claims of Public and Private Creditors</td> - <td><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XX.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">NATIONAL LANDS AND CREDIT FOR THE USE OF THE PEOPLE.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Unjust Laws to enable the Few to deprive the Working Class of their Earnings—Private<br /> -Property in Land the Basis of Wages-Slavery—Raw Materials of<br /> -Wealth belong to all—Land and Money Lords govern the World—Right<br /> -of Working Class to the Use of Credit—Surplus of Earnings of Working<br /> -Class beyond Consumption the Source of all Capital</td> - <td><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XXI.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">NATIONAL SYSTEM OF CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE REQUIRED.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Inadequacy and Absurdity of present Medium of Exchange—Necessity of new<br /> -National Currency for the Home Trade—Example from Iron Currency of<br /> -Sparta—Labour Notes of Guernsey—Gold and Silver mere Commodities—All<br /> -four Reforms must be combined</td> - <td><a href="#Page_134">134</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">————</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="center">CHAPTER XXII.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="center">EVIL OF MONOPOLIES AND EXPLOITATION OF INDUSTRIES.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">False principle of Law-made Property—Absurdity of Funding System and<br /> -Borrowing from Investors—Evil of Public Works in hands of Profitmongers<br /> -and Speculators—Rapacity of Predatory Classes—Efforts of<br /> -Robespierre to abolish their nefarious System—his legal Assassination in<br /> -consequence—All the evils of Society the work of Landlords and Profitmongers</td> - <td><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold">THE</p> - -<p class="bold">RISE, PROGRESS, AND PHASES</p> - -<p class="bold">OF</p> - -<p class="bold2">HUMAN SLAVERY.</p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/line.jpg" alt="line" /></div> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER I.</span> <span class="smaller">PROLETARIANISM SPRUNG FROM CHATTEL SLAVERY.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Importance of Social Reform—Universality of Covert or -Open Slavery—Partial Prevalence of Working Class—Origin -in Proletarianism—Advent of Christianity—Its Effects -on Slavery—Middle and Working Classes the Produce of -Emancipations—Classification of the <i>Proletariat</i>.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>At this critical period of the world’s history, when either the whole -of society must undergo a peaceful Social Reformation that shall -strike at the root of abuses, or else be incessantly menaced with -revolutionary violence and anarchy, it becomes a subject of grave -interest to ascertain how Human Slavery came into the world; how it -has been propagated; wherefore it has been endured so long; the varied -phases it has assumed in modern times; and, finally, how it may be -successfully grappled with and extinguished, so that henceforth it may -exist only in the history of the past.</p> - -<p>Glancing over the world’s map, we find nearly all the inhabited -parts parcelled out into various nations and races—some called -civilized, some savage, and the rest, forming the greater part, in some -intermediate state of semi-barbarism. One sad feature, however, is -found, with hardly an exception, to belong to all. It is Slavery, in -one form or another;—it is the subjection of man to his fellow-man by -force or fraud. Yes, disguise it as we may, human slavery is everywhere -to be found—as rife in countries called Christian and civilized as -in those called barbarous and pagan—as rife in the western as in the -eastern hemisphere—as rife in the middle of the nineteenth century -as in the pagan days of the Ptolemies and the Pharaohs.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> The only -difference is, it is in the one case slavery direct and avowed; in the -other, slavery hypocritically masked under legal forms. The latter is -the phase slavery has assumed in countries calling themselves Christian -and civilized; but it is a slavery not the less galling and unbearable -because it is indirect and disguised.</p> - -<p>What are called the “Working Classes” are the slave populations of -civilized countries. These classes constitute the basis of European -society in particular and of all civilized societies in general. We -make this restriction, because there are societies in which there is -found nothing to correspond with what in England and France are called -the working classes. For example, they are unknown in Arabia, amongst -the Nomad tribes of Africa, the Red-Indians of America, and the hunter -tribes of Tartary; and, although in process of development, they are -comparatively “few and far between” in Russia, Turkey, Greece and, -indeed, throughout the nations of the East in general.</p> - -<p>Amongst those who write books and deliver speeches about the working -classes, few concern themselves to note this peculiarity in their -history, namely, the fact that they exist in some countries and not in -others; and the no less startling fact, that it is only at particular -epochs of history, and only under certain peculiar circumstances of -society, that they have been known to spring into social existence as -a distinctive class. Books, journals, pamphlets, essays, speeches, -sermons, Acts of Parliament, all are alike silent upon this notable -fact. Nobody dreams of inquiring whether the working classes do, or do -not, constitute a separate and distinct race in the countries they are -found in; or of asking themselves what cause or causes produced them -at particular epochs and in certain climes, while they continue to be -unknown at other epochs and in other climes; and why we find them, as -it were, sown broadcast in one country, while they appear but emerging -into doubtful existence in other countries. In truth, the history of -the middle and working classes has still to be written; and though it -is far from our present purpose to undertake any such task, we shall, -nevertheless, of necessity have to draw largely upon history for the -elucidation of the facts and arguments by which we shall support our -views upon the subject of slavery.</p> - -<p>Not to encumber the question with details which, however interesting -to antiquarians and scholars, would be out of place here, let us -briefly observe at once, that the working classes, however general -and extensive an element they constitute in modern society, are, -nevertheless, but an emanation from another element, much more -extensive and general, bequeathed to us by the ancient world under the -name of Proletarians. By the term Proletarians is to be understood, -not merely that class of citizens to which the electoral census of the -Romans gave the name, but every description of persons of both sexes -who, having no masters to own them as slaves, and consequently to be -chargeable with their maintenance, and who, being without fortune -or friends, were obliged to procure their subsistence as they best -could—by labour, by mendicity, by theft, or by prostitution.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> The -Romans used the term to denote the lowest, or lowest but one, class of -voters—those who, being without property, had only their offspring -(<i>proles</i>) to offer as hostages to the State for their good behavior, -or rather as guarantees for not abusing their rights of citizenship. We -use the term in the more enlarged sense of its modern acceptation, to -denote every description of persons who are dependent upon others for -the means of earning their daily bread, without being actual slaves.</p> - -<p>In the early periods of history, and, indeed, until some time after -the introduction of Christianity, the Proletarians constituted a very -small fraction of society. The reason is obvious. Actual slaves and -their owners formed the bulk of every community. The few Proletarians -of the old Pagan world were either decayed families who had lost the -patrimonies of their fathers, or else the descendants of manumitted -slaves, who, in succeeding to the condition of freemen (acquired for -them by their enfranchised forefathers), succeeded also to their -poverty and precarious tenure of life, by inheriting the disadvantage -of having no patrons bound to protect them, no masters answerable for -their maintenance, no market for their labour. But as such manumissions -were, before the establishment of Christianity, comparatively of rare -occurrence, and as the offspring of them were as likely to be absorbed -in time by the slave-owning class as to sink into and swell the -Proletarian, the result was, that until the times of Augustus Cæsar, -and indeed for a considerable period after, the Proletarians were by -no means a numerous class. In other words, there were comparatively -few upon whom the necessity was imposed of obtaining a precarious -subsistence by hired labour, mendicity, theft, or prostitution. Almost -all kinds of labour, agricultural and mechanical, were performed -by slaves; masters had, therefore, little or no occasion to hire -“free labourers.” Prostitution was followed as a profession only by -courtesans who were freed-women or the offspring of freed-women. The -slave class who were devoted to that degradation were either the -property of masters (of whose households they formed part) or else of -mangones, or slave-merchants, who openly sold them or let them out on -hire for that purpose. Of beggars and thieves there could have been -comparatively few, for the same reasons the conditions of society, as -then constituted, did not make place for them. As already observed, -almost every one was either an actual slave or an owner of slaves. -If a slave-owner, he lived upon the revenues of his estates—upon -his possessions, of which his slaves constituted a part, often the -greater part. If a slave, his wants were supplied, and his necessities -provided for, by those to whom he belonged. If a predial slave, he was -kept out of the produce of his master’s farms, just as the herds and -flocks were kept, both being regarded alike in the light of chattel -property. If a domestic slave, his keep was a necessary part of his -master’s household expenses. If let out for hire (an ordinary condition -of ancient slavery), a portion of his gains was of necessity applied -to his own maintenance. In any case—in all cases—he was exempt from -want, and from the fear<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> of want, as well as from all care and anxiety -about providing for his subsistence. He could not, it is true, earn -wages or acquire property for himself without his master’s leave; but -neither, on the other hand, was he liable to starvation or privation -because there might happen to be no work for him to do. Work or no -work, he was always sure to be well fed, well housed, well clothed, -and well cared for, as long as his master had enough and was satisfied -with him. If he was incapable of acquiring property, so was he also -exempt from its cares, and sure to participate in the use of his -master’s, at least to the extent requisite for keeping him in bodily -health and in good condition. Nor were slaves always debarred from the -acquisition of property. There are instances recorded of slaves having -been permitted to amass considerable fortunes, though this was rarely -the case till after their masters manumitted them. Some also became -celebrated as grammarians, poets, and teachers of <i>belles lettres</i> and -philosophy. Indeed, when they happened to have good, kind masters their -lot was by no means a hard one;—it was an enviable one in comparison -with that of a modern “free-born Briton,” rejoicing in the status -of an “independent labourer.” Of this we shall adduce proofs enough -by-and-by. Suffice it, for the present, to observe, that so well must -slaves have been used to fare under the old pagan system, that terms -corresponding with our “wanton,” “saucy,” “pampered,” are of frequent -occurrence in the old Greek and Roman classics as applied to slaves, -particularly domestic or menial. At all events, destitution, in the -modern sense, was unknown to them; and, with it, were also unknown -its inevitable consequences—mendicity, robbery, theft, prostitution, -and crime—<i>as characteristic of a class or of a system</i>. Individual -or isolated cases there might be, and these chiefly amongst the -manumitted; but there was no large class of persons subsisting by such -means—no outlawed class compelled, as it were, by the very first law -of nature—self-preservation—to erect such means into a system in -order to preserve life.</p> - -<p>Social evils there were—frightful evils—under the old pagan system. -Slavery itself was an evil—an appalling evil—under even its most -favourable conditions. But fearful as those evils were—hateful as -direct slavery must ever be while man is man—the ancient pagan -world has exhibited nothing so revolting and truly abominable as the -development and progress of Proletarianism, which was consequent upon -the breaking up of the old system of slavery, and which has ever since -gained more and more strength in every age, till, in our times, it has -made Proletarians of three-fourths of the people of every civilized -country, and threatens society itself with actual dissolution.</p> - -<p>Strange that what God designed to be man’s greatest blessing should -be made man’s greatest curse by man’s own perversity! Yet so it is -with almost every good thing designed or invented to perfect man in -wisdom and civilization. It is so with science and machinery, it is -so with money; it is so with public credit; it is so with mercantile -enterprise; it is so with the institution of private property; and so, -also, it has hitherto been with the divine institution of Christianity -itself. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> - -<p>Christianity was introduced into the world at a period when the cup of -human wickedness was full to overflowing. The inequalities of human -condition were then greater than at any antecedent epoch. Wars the most -bloody and brutal, and on the most extensive scale, had just ravaged -the whole civilized world, ending with the destruction of the Roman -Republic and with the erection of a military empire which threatened -all nations and all future generations with irredeemable bondage. The -long internecine struggles of Marius and Sylla, of Julius Cæsar and -Pompey, and afterwards of Anthony and Augustus, had crimsoned three -parts of the globe with human blood, and let loose such a universal -torrent of rapine, lust, proscriptions, conspiracy, and crime of every -sort throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa, that hardly any nation or -people escaped the general demoralization. Direct human slavery—the -personal subjection of man to man as property—was at its height as a -social institution. Thousands and hundreds of thousands who had been -free citizens were taken prisoners and sold as slaves during those -horrid wars. To escape similar disasters, whole nations and races -without number placed themselves under the protectorate of Rome, -paid tribute to the imperial exchequer, and basely bartered their -independence and the rights and liberties of their subjects to win the -smiles or to court the pleasure of Augustus and his successors. Rome -herself was a mass of incarnadined corruption. To reconcile the Romans -to their newly forged fetters it became the policy of their government -to brutalize their minds with gladiatorial shows, or with the familiar -sight of human beings torn to pieces by wild beasts, or by shedding -each other’s blood with a ferocity unknown to wild beasts, and to -corrupt their hearts and manners with importations of all that was most -debasing in the systematized lewdness and debaucheries of the Grecian -stage.</p> - -<p>It was at this peculiar crisis of human affairs that Christianity -made its appearance in the world. Need we say the divine mission of -its Author was to rescue humanity from the scourges we have been -describing, to bind up its bleeding wounds, and to infuse into it -a spirit the opposite of what had produced the appalling vices and -evils so rife at the time of His advent? Need we expatiate upon the -marvellous successes which attended the labours of Himself and his -apostles in the early propagation of the Gospel, or upon the amazing -revolution which His followers wrought in the minds of men during the -three first centuries? It is quite unnecessary to do so: history has -made the world familiar with the prodigies of those days. Suffice it to -say that anything like so extraordinary and so universal a revolution -in the opinions and manners of men had never before been conceived, -much less operated. Upon this point, at least, all historians of credit -and all true philosophers are agreed.</p> - -<p>Amongst the greatest of these marvels was the gradual but rapid -extinction of direct human slavery, which took place throughout -the greater part of the Roman empire during the three first ages. -Antecedently to the preaching of the Gospel, the emancipation of slaves -was but of rare and casual occurrence: it happened only on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> those -unusual occasions when a slave could purchase his freedom, or get -somebody to purchase it for him; or when a benevolent owner conferred -it upon him as the reward of long and faithful services; or when he -broke loose from his owner, to become a pirate or bandit; or when -some ambitious chieftain or conspirator conferred it illegally, by -draughting him into his insurgent battalions. But how few the aggregate -of these emancipations were, even in the early days of the empire, we -may infer from a passage in Seneca, where he tells us that, upon the -occasion of a discussion in the senate upon sumptuary laws, a certain -senator, having proposed that all slaves should be forced to wear a -certain uniform, was immediately reminded of the danger there would be -in furnishing the slaves with so ready a means of contrasting their own -numbers with the paucity of their masters. Indeed, Tacitus also informs -us, that when the quæstor, Curtius Lupus, was dispersing a revolt of -slaves which took place in Italy about the twenty-fourth year of the -vulgar era, “Rome trembled at the frightful number of the slaves,” -as compared with the small number of free citizens—a number which, -Tacitus further states, was diminishing every day. It would be easy to -multiply proofs of this kind, but it is unnecessary, seeing that all -historians admit that no emancipation of slaves upon a large scale—no -systematic emancipations upon principle—took place antecedently to -the introduction of Christianity; but that from the moment when the -Gospel began to take root in Rome and in its tributary provinces—from -that moment the manumissions of slaves began to take place frequently -and systematically, till at last, upon the complete establishment of -Christianity, direct personal slavery was entirely abolished.</p> - -<p>Here, however, the perversity of man stepped in, to undo all that -Christianity had done. The very emancipations it operated, and which -it intended for the happiness of the emancipated, and to serve as -the foundation of a new social edifice, in which all should enjoy -equal rights and equal laws—these very emancipations were made a -curse instead of a blessing to the emancipated, and to serve for the -foundation of a worse system of slavery than any that was known under -the Cæsars or the Pharaohs, or than any that existed in the Southern -States of America or under any Oriental despotism.</p> - -<p>Yes, the perverse ingenuity of man has turned the systematic and -benevolent emancipations operated by Christianity into an evil greater -than the evil it sought to redress—into an indirect and masked system -of slavery more hideous and unbearable than the direct and undisguised -slavery it warred against. For what did these Christian emancipations -operate; and what have been their consequences to humanity? They -turned well-fed, well-housed, comfortable slaves into ragged, starving -paupers; and their consequences have been to fill Europe with a race of -Proletarians by far more numerous and miserable than the human chattels -of the ancients, whose place they occupy in modern civilization. -Out of the systematic emancipations (the progressive and ultimately -universal manumission of slaves) operated by Christianity have sprung -what are now called the middle and working classes. The more fortunate -of the manumitted and of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> their posterity have become our modern -Bourgeois; the less fortunate and more numerous have become our modern -Proletarians. These latter are what the French call <i>le Prolétariat -de l’Europe</i>; and this <i>Prolétariat</i> their Guizots and doctrinaires -now divide into the four following classes, which we pray all true -democrats to mark, learn, and inwardly digest:—1, les Ouvriers; 2, -les Mendians; 3, les Voleurs; and 4, les Filles Publiques: that is -to say, 1, Workmen; 2, Beggars; 3, Robbers; and 4, Prostitutes!—a -classification which must be highly flattering to the operative class, -and enamour them vastly of royal and doctrinaire governments.</p> - -<p>These several divisions of the <i>Prolétariat</i> are thus defined by the -doctrinaires:—</p> - -<blockquote><p>“A workman is a Proletarian who works for wages in order to live.</p> - -<p>“A beggar is a Proletarian who will not or cannot work, and who -begs in order to live.</p> - -<p>“A robber is a Proletarian who will neither work nor beg, but who -robs or steals in order to live.</p> - -<p>“A public woman is a Proletarian who will neither work nor beg nor -steal, but who prostitutes herself in order to live.”</p></blockquote> - -<p>Such is the classification by which the vast majority of civilized -society is nowadays distinguished by writers of the first eminence! -Such is the classification they justify and would uphold! Nay, as -we shall show, they offer it to us as the legitimate development of -civilization, and as a just and righteous inheritance purchased for us -by the blood of our Redeemer, and bequeathed to us through eighteen -centuries of Gospel propagandism!!!</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i007.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER II.</span> <span class="smaller">ORIGIN OF SLAVERY IN PATERNAL AUTHORITY.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Antiquity of Slavery—Anterior to Legal Institution—Examples -cited from Ancient History—Arose from Patriarchal -Government—Despotic Power of Head of Family—Marriage -Custom of Purchase—Aristocratic Governments favourable to -Development—Decadence under Republics.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>In the preceding chapter we have shown how the modern working classes -sprang from the ancient Proletarians; how the Proletarians arose out -of the downfall of the ancient system of <i>direct</i> slavery; and how -Christianity was mainly instrumental in bringing about the manumission -of slaves in the Roman empire, and thence throughout western Europe. -The Proletarians, past and present, are but the descendants and -successors of the manumitted slaves, and of decayed families of -the ancient master-class; and, as observed in our last chapter, -the modern classification of them by writers of the Guizot school -is—<span class="smcap">Workpeople</span>, <span class="smcap">Robbers</span>, <span class="smcap">Beggars</span>, and -<span class="smcap">Prostitutes</span>.</p> - -<p>All who have escaped this classification are such descendants or -successors of the ancient freedmen as have found their way into -the class of burgesses, consisting of merchants, manufacturers, -professionals, and money-dealers of all sorts. Of the remainder, by -far the greater number fall within the description of work-people: -these are the wages-slaves of modern civilization. Direct slavery was, -then, the parent of Proletarianism; and Proletarianism the parent -of wages-slavery. But how did direct slavery itself originate—the -personal slavery of man to man? Was it instituted? Was it the creature -of law, or of conventional compact? Upon this point the concurrent -testimony of history and of philosophy is unanimous: it goes to show -that slavery was not a public institution originally framed by human -laws, but that it was what the Americans call a <i>domestic</i> institution -originating in the despotic authority of parents over their offspring -in the very infancy of society. This origin necessarily supposes -slavery to have been amongst the earliest, if not the very earliest, -of human institutions—to have been coeval with the institution of -society itself. In point of fact, it appears to have been so. Tracing -history back to its fountain-heads, before systems came to disturb -them, we discover a countless variety of unmistakable signs to show -that two distinct classes, not to say races, made up the aggregate of -souls in every ancient community of which history makes mention. One -is the master-class; the other, the slave-class. The first possesses; -the second is possessed. This aboriginal condition of humanity appears, -as an historical fact, universal. There is no ancient tradition, there -is no authentic record purporting to be history, that does not make -mention of masters and slaves. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> - -<p>There were masters and slaves amongst the ancient Hebrews, the proofs -of which are abundantly scattered throughout the Old Testament and -in Josephus’s “History of the Antiquities of the Jews.” There were -masters and slaves amongst the Greeks in the remotest periods of -their annals. This is shown by numerous passages in Homer’s “Iliad” -and “Odyssey;”—as, for instance, in book xxi. of the “Iliad,” where -Achilles boasts to Lycaon of the captives he had taken, and sold into -slavery; and in book xxii. of the “Odyssey,” where Euryclea, the -governess of Ulysses’ household, says to him, “You have in your house -fifty female slaves, whom I have taught to work in wool-spinning, and -to support their servitude.” That masters and slaves existed at every -epoch of the Roman republic and empire is evident from the testimony of -every ancient classic whose writings or recorded sayings are extant. -The Institutes of Justinian make slavery expressly a subject of -legislation. That the relation of master and slave obtained in ancient -Gaul and in ancient Germany we have abundant evidences in Cæsar’s -Commentaries and in several passages to be found in Tacitus’s treatise -“De Moribus Germanorum.” Indeed, masters and slaves are known to have -existed in France as late as the twelfth century, and in Prussia as -late as one hundred years ago, as may be seen by the General Code of -the Prussian States, published in 1794. Masters and slaves are still -to be found in all Mahomedan countries, throughout the kingdoms of the -East generally, and (tell it not in Gath!), until lately, in several of -the republics of the United States of America.</p> - -<p>But it is superfluous to insist upon the existence of a fact, the -proofs of which are to be found in all ages and countries—in the -oldest codes as well as in the oldest books, in the most ancient -legends of poets as well as in the best accredited traditions of -history. Indeed, the institution of direct or personal slavery is so -ancient, that its origin is lost in the night of ages, and is nowhere -accounted for. It appears to have been coeval with the origin of -society itself. Wherever we find the beginning of civil institutions -recorded, there we find slavery already established. Moses founded the -institutions of the Jews; and slavery is found in the books of Moses. -Homer is prior, by many ages, to the historic times of Greece; and -slavery is found in the books of Homer. The “Twelve Tables” are the -basis of Roman institutions; and Romulus, long anterior to the “Twelve -Tables,” opened an asylum at Rome to receive the runaway slaves of -Laticum. At later epochs, the Salic law, the feudal and forest laws, -the common or traditionary law of the Saxons, Thuringians, Germans, -and Anglo-Saxons, are the starting points of the institutions of -most modern nations; and slavery is found in all the codes of the -invaders—it is expressly mentioned or tacitly assumed in all. Let us -note it here as an important consideration, that in all these monuments -of legislation, whether poetic or historic, slavery is not treated -as a thing instituted for the first time; it is only made incidental -mention of as a pre-existing thing, already acknowledged, accepted, -established; it was what the French call <i>un fait accompli</i>—a settled -fact. Moses, Homer, the “Twelve Tables,” the mediæval laws of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> -invasion, do not institute or found slavery; they but bear testimony -to its existence, either by incidental mention of it, or by imposing -new conditions to regulate the relation of master and slaves; in short, -they only go to show that slavery <i>was</i> before they <i>were</i>, or, in -other words, that slavery was not (to use the language of jurists) the -work of positive law, but a “great fact” anterior to all law, and as -old as the origin of society itself.</p> - -<p>The aboriginal character of slavery admitted, it remains to be -shown, wherefore did society, in its infancy, establish slavery; or, -rather, by what <i>modus operandi</i> was slavery made to develop itself -in aboriginal society. History, reason, our very instincts, tell us -there is but one satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon. It arose -from the unbounded power which fathers, or the heads of families, -exercised, in early days, over their households—wives, concubines, -and children. All history is unanimous as to the fact that fathers -exercised a supreme authority over their offspring in the early ages -of the world. The same fact is found still to obtain amongst races -retaining primitive customs. Evidences to this effect are to be -abundantly met with in the Bible, in the Greek tragedians, in the -legislation of the Romans, in Asiatic traditions. All go to prove -that parental authority was bounded only by parental will,—that it -extended even to the power of life and death over their offspring. The -old pagans, in order to give the highest idea of the power of Jupiter, -call him the “father of the gods.” For no other reason have Jews and -Christians, in like manner, named God the All-Powerful Father. Paternal -authority was so absolute and extensive in primitive times, that it -suffered no other, co-ordinate or paramount: it completely absorbed -the rights and the very existence of wife and children. Out of this -absolute paternal authority did personal slavery first arise. Sons, -daughters, and even wives were but slaves of the head of the family; -they were amongst his chattels—a part of his estate. Aristotle calls -children the “animated tools or instruments of their parents.” In the -days of the patriarchs, paternal authority over children was absolute -amongst the Jews. Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac is one of many proofs -that might be cited. It is evident God would not have ordered a thing -contrary to the positive law—a law ordained by God himself. Moreover, -divers passages in Josephus show in the clearest and most explicit -terms that the absolute authority of fathers over their children -continued undisputed, and to be held sacred, down to the time of Herod -the Great, who was contemporary with the Emperor Augustus of Rome. The -strongest evidence of this is the prosecution of his own two sons, -Alexander and Aristobulus, before Augustus, wherein Herod took great -credit to himself for his moderation in referring the matter to the -emperor, “seeing that, in virtue of his rights as a father, he might -put them to death without any other warrant or authority.” The elder -son, Alexander, in his reply, frankly admitted his father’s right -to give him death as he had given him life. Some years later, this -same Herod exemplified the paternal power of the Jews in a still more -impressive manner. In a speech which he delivered against these same -rebellious sons before an assembly of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> the notables of his province, -he reminded them that, independently of the law of nature, which gave -him an absolute power of life and death over his offspring, there was -an express law of his nation on the subject, which ordained that when -a father and mother should accuse their children, and lay hands upon -their heads, all parties present should be held bound to <i>stone</i> them; -and that, accordingly, he might, without consulting them, have put -his sons to death without any form of trial whatever, in virtue of -his parental rights. These facts are decisive enough as respects the -Jews. It is to be understood, however, that it was only aristocratic -fathers—fathers amongst the higher orders—that ordinarily exercised -this atrocious despotism over their own families.</p> - -<p>The power of fathers over their children was quite as absolute -amongst the early Greeks and Romans as amongst the Jews; and if it -did not descend to so late a period of their annals, it is only -because aristocratic forms gave place sooner to democratic, under -their government, than amongst the Jews. That it existed in full -force at the time of the Trojan war is forcibly demonstrated by the -sacrifice of Iphigenia, which, as an historical fact, is a tradition -corresponding exactly with the sacrifice by Abraham. In Sparta it -prevailed as completely, in the days of Lycurgus, as it did in Judæa -in the patriarchal times. Plutarch relates that, at that epoch, a -sort of family council was usually held upon the birth of a child, to -deliberate whether the newly born should be allowed to live or die. -Even at Athens, where the democratic element prevailed more than at -Sparta, and where humanity and refinement, the offspring of arts and -letters, had made greater progress, the absolute power of parents -was such that, even as late as the age of Solon, the Athenians were -in the habit of selling their children for slaves—a practice which, -Plutarch informs us, there was no law to prohibit. Let us here observe -generally, that it was in the Homeric period that the absoluteness of -parental authority displayed itself with the most vigour in Greece, -and that this period corresponds exactly, in the history of their -comparative legislation, with the patriarchal epoch of the Jews. For -example, daughters were so completely identified with the chattels -or property of their fathers, that their suitors had always to pay a -certain price for marrying and taking them away. Thus, Jacob served -Laban for seven years to obtain his daughter Rachel; and thus, among -the Greeks, Othryon engaged to serve Priam during the siege of Troy, to -obtain his daughter Cassandra without paying a dowry—that is, without -buying her otherwise than by his services. Instances of this kind might -be multiplied; but enough has been said to illustrate our position. -Let us observe, however, as a general rule, that paternal authority -was always greatest in the states most aristocratically constituted, -and always least in those most democratically constituted; and that -the period through which the absoluteness of paternal power prevailed -was longer or shorter, in different countries, just according to the -later or earlier development given to the democratic principle in their -institutions. Such a barbarous power being utterly irreconcilable with -liberty and justice,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> it could flourish only in times of ignorance and -brute force. As democracy arose, and civilization spread, the parental -despotism declined. It lasted longer in Judæa than in Sparta, and -longer in Sparta than in Athens; because the barbarism of oligarchy -pervaded longer in Judæa than in Sparta, and longer in Sparta than in -Athens.</p> - -<p>Amongst the Romans paternal despotism was carried to a fearful height. -Roman legislation abounds in records of it; and her chronicles -confirm all that is revealed to us by her legislatures. Dionysius -of Halicarnassus tells us of an old law of the Papyrian Code which -authorised fathers to kill and to sell their children. The Code of -Justinian also makes mention of it. But the despotic authority of -Roman fathers over their children is an historical fact, sufficiently -familiar to most readers to dispense with the necessity of further -proofs. It was one of the darkest traits of their legislation and -national character, and it doubtless had no small share in imparting -to their republic those harsh and overbearing qualities which involved -them in perpetual broils amongst themselves and in endless wars of -aggression against their neighbours.</p> - -<p>To this barbarous and despotic power of parents over their offspring—a -power extending over their whole lifetime—a power which applied to -both sexes, and which appears to be coeval with the first existence of -society itself—to this brutal, irrational, and inhuman power are we -doubtless indebted for the origin of all human slavery. In what manner -this despotic power manifested itself, and how the past and present -order of things grew out of it, we shall endeavour to show in future -chapters.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i012.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER III.</span> <span class="smaller">CAUSES OF PARENTAL DESPOTISM.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Evidences from Egypt and Persia—Supreme Authority of Family -Head—First Legal Limitation under Roman Empire—Necessity for -gradual Growth of Slavery—Source of Paternal Riches—Importance -of Chief of the Family.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>We stated, in our last chapter, that human slavery, according to the -concurrent testimony of history and philosophy, originated in the -unbounded power which fathers or heads of families exercised, in the -infancy of society, over their household—over wives, concubines, and -children. Of the existence of this power amongst the ancient Jews, -Greeks, and Romans we adduced some remarkable evidences. Similar -evidences abound with respect to Egypt, Persia, Media, Asia Minor, -and, indeed, of every other ancient people of which any traditions -are preserved. The records of the various tribes and nations which -inhabited Asia Minor go to show that the authority of fathers over -their offspring continued to be supreme and absolute even down to a -period not far removed from the Christian era. For example, Xenophon -relates, in his “Anabasis,” how a certain Thracian king, named -Teutes, offered to give him his daughter, and to purchase one of -his (Xenophon’s), if he had any, “according to the law of Thrace.” -Plutarch, in his Life of Lucullus, furnishes similar evidences. He -relates, that during the distress in which the proprietors of Asia -Minor found themselves after the defeat of King Tigranes, those fathers -of families who, upon the arrival of Lucullus, had not wherewith to -satisfy the demands of the Roman tax-collectors, sold their little -children and marriageable daughters. That such things should prevail -under pure despotisms like those of ancient Asia Minor, Egypt, Persia, -&c., or under the patriarchal <i>régime</i> of the Jews, when manners were -primitive and the government a theocracy, is what we might expect in -the natural order of things; but that they should occur under the more -democratic and polished governments of Greece and Rome is what appears -astonishing to our modern notions; yet so it was. The authority of -paternity was no less supreme in the later than in the older countries. -The early annals of Rome exhibit some glaring but curious instances of -it, which, taken in connection with the revelations of later times, -not only render the fact undoubted, but will account for many of the -harsher qualities of the Romans, and, at the same time, strengthen -our theory of human slavery. Going back to the very cradle of the -Romans, we find that, when Rhea was delivered of Romulus and Remus, -Amulius, her uncle, ordered the immediate exposure of the infants. -This Roman fact corresponds with the exposure of Moses in Egypt, and -with the Greek legend which describes Œdipus as having been similarly -exposed and found suspended from a tree by the feet.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> Dionysius of -Halicarnassus, in relating the well-known story of the Horatii, tells -us that the elder Horatius, assuming the defence of his son, the -murderer of his sister, claimed the right of solely taking cognizance -of the affair, inasmuch as his paternal quality constituted him a -born judge of his own children. If we remember aright, Racine, in -his tragedy of the Horatii and Curiatii, follows up the same idea. -Plutarch, in the Life of Publicola, relating the conspiracy of the -Aquilians in favour of the Tarquins, tells us that Junius Brutus in -like manner arrogated the right of jurisdiction in the affair of his -own son, and that he judged, condemned, and caused him to be executed -in virtue of his paternal authority, without any of those judiciary -observances which were adhered to in respect of the other conspirators. -Titus Livius, an earlier and higher authority in such matters than -Plutarch, gives a similar account of this affair.</p> - -<p>Down to the times of Sylla, there does not appear to have been any -considerable check or restraint imposed upon paternal power. The -absolute authority of fathers was in some slight degree moderated by -a law of that dictator, known to jurisconsults under the title of -“Lex Cornelia de Sicariis”—a law aimed not so much at the domestic -jurisdiction of fathers, as at the abuse of such jurisdiction for -the purposes of private vengeance. But, that and similar laws -notwithstanding, we find, even under the emperor, examples of domestic -jurisdiction which go to prove that the sovereign authority of -fathers was carried out through every epoch of the civil law. The -philosopher, Seneca, reports the particulars of a process by a great -personage, named Titus Arrius, instituted of his own authority, at his -own domestic tribunal, against his own son. At this process or trial -Augustus himself assisted as a simple witness. Seneca’s account of -this affair, which is brief and to the purpose, is worthy of notice. -“Titus Arrius,” he says, “wishing to judge his son, invited Augustus -to his domestic council. The emperor repaired to this citizen’s -home, took his seat, and gave his presence simply as a witness of an -affair in which he was not concerned. Augustus does not say: ‘Let the -accused be brought before me at my palace;’ that would have been to -arrogate to himself jurisdiction in the matter, and to deprive the -father of his rights. After the cause had been heard—the accusation -and defence—Titus Arrius demanded of each of the council to write -down his judgment.” Tacitus, in like manner, relates that a senator, -named Plautius, sat in judgment upon his own wife, Pomponia Græcina, -who was accused of addicting herself to superstitions. She was tried -before the assembled household, and according to ancient usage. -This happened in the reign of Nero. To these pagan we might add the -Christian authority of Tertullian, who makes mention, at the opening -of his “Apologetica,” of domestic judgments which had just recently -taken place at Rome, and which, like that of Plautius, would seem -to have been directed against the Christians, whose religion, till -the reign of Constantine, was looked upon (to use the language of -Tacitus) as “a deplorable and destructive superstition.” In short, -the despotism of paternal authority appears to have prevailed in Rome -at every epoch of her history, down to the period<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> when paganism lost -its hold upon the population. It is inferred from divers documents -still extant, that the absolute authority of fathers did not disappear -before the end of the third century; and the first law which positively -prohibited fathers from giving, selling, or contracting away their -children is said to be a law of Dioclesian and of Maximian. These laws -are recited in the fourth book of the Justinian Code. Nevertheless, -there is a law of Constantine, whereby the sale of children, in cases -of great poverty or destitution, was made legally permissible. In -truth, paternal despotism, like its offspring, direct slavery, perished -little by little, or by slow degrees. Like direct slavery itself, it -paled and sank before the rising light of the Gospel. The three first -centuries witnessed one continuous struggle of Christianity against -the establishments of paganism. Amongst the worst of these were -parental despotism and personal slavery. As the Gospel gained ground -upon paganism, parental despotism and slavery went down. Towards the -close of the third century, the majority of the better classes of the -Romans had embraced the new faith. Parental despotism and the servile -subjection of man to man being incompatible with that faith, these two -relics of primeval barbarism began rapidly to disappear; and after -the legal establishment of the Christian religion by Constantine, the -relation of master and servant (though, as we shall see by-and-by, by -no means improved) became altogether a new and different relation.</p> - -<p>These preliminary remarks upon the history of fathers of families and -of the ancient paternal authority must not be considered irrelevant, -or otherwise than essential to our design. Without them, we could not -account for the origin of human slavery; and, without knowing its -origin, we could not well develop its progress and the various phases -it has assumed up to the present time. No ancient record or tradition -in existence goes to show that human slavery originated in positive -laws or in coercive ordinances enforced by the sword. Reason and -experience naturally coincide with history in this matter. That any -portion of society, after living on terms of equality with the rest, -should suddenly allow all its rights to be extinguished by brute force, -or consent to have its liberties and independence voted away, when it -had arms and instincts to defend them, is contrary to common sense and -to all experience. Much less is it probable that the great majority -would have everywhere suffered a contemptible minority to usurp the -rights and powers of the whole. The ancient slave-class were everywhere -a majority. Nothing but the force of early habit and traditional -example could have made the majority the willing bondsmen of the -minority. But as the relation must have commenced at some period before -such habits and such traditional example could take effect, and as some -sort of authority was absolutely necessary to establish the relation, -it follows that, in the absence of all other competent authority, it -must have been the natural authority of parents over their offspring -that first established slavery. Such slavery must, of course, in the -first instance have been direct; for, in a rude and primitive society, -no other would be intelligible or possible. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> - -<p>If we be right in these antecedents, our conclusions from them must be, -that the first fathers were the first masters, and the first children -were the first slaves. To determine the history of the first masters -is,therefore, virtually to suggest the history of the first slaves. -Yes, the unbounded power of paternity in the first ages of the world -was the origin of all human slavery; and therefore is slavery a thing -anterior to all written constitutions, to all human laws, traditional -or imposed.</p> - -<p>Now come the questions, Why did our first parents make slaves of -their children? and how came the domestic institution, established by -parental despotism, to become a social institution diffused throughout -the whole of society? Our natural instincts, undeveloped by reason -and undisciplined by knowledge and experience, would, methinks, lead -us to account satisfactorily for both facts. It was natural that the -head of the family should govern the family. It was not unnatural that -the parent, who had given life to the child, and who had preserved -that life when the child was unable to take care of itself, should -in some measure regard that life as his own; and as the maintenance -of his offspring must have been a burden on the parent, and kept him -comparatively poor in the days of early manhood, it is no more than -what we should expect from the selfishness of old age—especially in -a rude social state—that he should seek to indemnify himself, by the -future labour of his children, for his cost and pains in bringing them -up. Let us also bear in mind, that we are treating of those primitive -times when man’s animal instincts interpreted polygamy and the law of -nature to be one and the same—times which Dryden describes as</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>“Those ancient times, e’er priestcraft did begin—</div> -<div class="i1">’Twas e’er polygamy was deemed a sin.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>In those days, the larger the family, the greater the wealth and power -of the head of the household. In infancy, the offspring might be a -charge and a source of poverty; but, as they grew up, they more than -repaid the cost of maintenance,—they became, in fact, a source of -wealth and power and aggrandisement to the parent. Now, according to -all known traditions, the ancient fathers of families gloried in a -numerous progeny. In the history of the Jews, families of fifty and -upwards are frequently spoken of. Josephus informs us, that Gedeon had -seventy sons; Jair, thirty; Apsan, thirty sons and thirty daughters; -Abdon, forty sons—all of them living at the time of his death—besides -thirty grandsons. Indeed, the Old Testament abounds in examples showing -the multitudinous progeny ascribed to the old patriarchs—most of -them, too, born of concubines, under what the modern world would call -<i>disparaging</i> circumstances.</p> - -<p>The traditions of early Greece harmonise, in this respect, with those -of the Jews. Who has not read of the fifty daughters of Danaüs? In -Homer, we find old Priam appealing to his numerous progeny, as the -best means of exciting pity and respect in the vindictive breast of -Achilles. We find him telling of his fifty children—of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>nineteen born -of the same mother, Hecuba; and all the rest, of concubines. Livy -and Plutarch tell us of the three hundred Fabians—all of the same -family—who perished in a great battle against the Tuscans, fought in -the early wars of the Republic; and Plutarch also makes mention, in his -Life of Theseus, of a certain personage, Pallas, who had fifty children.</p> - -<p>From these and innumerable testimonies of a similar kind, we may -readily conceive that these numerous wives and concubines kept by the -heads of families in early times made fathers vastly more important -personages than they are nowadays, and gave them progenies which, in -comparison with modern ones, might be considered clans or tribes. What -with wives, concubines, children, and grandchildren, every such father -was veritably the head of a community; and inasmuch as his power was -absolute over each and all, he had every motive that selfishness could -dictate to make them, and keep them, slaves for his aggrandisement and -pleasure. In fact, the more numerous his progeny and household, the -greater was his source of wealth, the higher his status, and the better -his security against personal violence in lawless times. That slavery -should originate and grow up in this way appears to us perfectly -natural. At all events, in no other way has it ever been, or can it -ever be, satisfactorily accounted for.</p> - -<p>What happened in the case of one father of a family would as naturally -happen in respect of others. In the progress of time, some of the -younger branches would naturally stray from the paternal home, and -emigrate to other lands, where they would settle down and, in time, -become the heads of families—the founders of new races of slaves. -Indeed, we have but to imagine the case of one to apply to thousands -similarly circumstanced, and we shall see the origin of human slavery -at once satisfactorily explained. Those early fathers, or heads of -families, would naturally love some of their children better than -others; at least, they would have more confidence in some one than in -the rest. To those so loved, or so favoured, would naturally devolve -the headship of the family, or such portions of the patrimonial estate -as might enable them to found new families elsewhere. These families, -like the parent one, would as naturally resolve themselves into little -communities of masters and slaves; so that in course of time, by the -natural operation of one and the same first cause, the whole of society -would find itself, what we find it to have been in all early history, -an aggregation of souls divided everywhere into two great classes—a -master-class possessing, and a slave-class possessed.</p> - -<p>Let us not imagine, however, that a social order which appears to us -so inhuman and so unnatural was viewed in this light, or inspired -<i>our</i> feelings, in the ancient world; it would be a great mistake to -suppose this. Nothing was further from the contemplation of the men of -antiquity than our notions and theories about the equality of human -rights. The idea of what man ought to be, or is capable of being made, -was an idea unknown to the ancient world. The division of the human -race into masters and slaves appeared to them a perfectly natural -division: they saw no other; they never heard of any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> other; they -appear never to have conceived the possibility of any other. Even the -slaves themselves never complained of slavery <i>as an institution</i>; -they never demanded liberty in the sense we demand it. When they did -complain, it was not because they thought that one class ought not to -be a master-class and the other a slave-class: that was an idea quite -beyond them. When they complained—and they often <i>did</i> complain, and -sometimes rebel too—it was either because they found their masters -harsh and cruel, and wished to exchange them for new and better ones, -or because they hoped, by breaking their fetters and becoming soldiers, -pirates, or adventurers of some kind, to exchange their condition as -slaves for the more enviable one of slave-owners. History records -several insurrections of slaves that took place in ancient times; but -in no one instance does it appear that the insurgents took up arms for -the principle of equality, or for any cause common to other slaves -as well as to themselves. Of this fact we shall adduce some notable -evidences in the progress of this inquiry. For the present, we shall -content ourselves with the assertion that, as a general rule, the -religious doctrine of men’s equality before God, and the political and -social doctrine of man’s equality before the law, or as a member of -society, were doctrines utterly unknown to, or uncared for amongst, the -old pagan world. In hazarding this assertion, we would be understood -as applying it to all classes and callings of the ancients alike—to -philosophers, poets, orators, and statesmen, as well as to mechanics, -labourers, house-servants, even the very lowest description of menial -slaves. That one or two philosophers and poets, here and there, may be -found to have uttered sentiments prophetic of “the good time coming,” -or indicative of a tacit belief that man was made for a higher and -brighter destiny than was his then lot, we pretend not to deny. But -that any class or calling of men existed in the old pagan world who -believed in, much less contended for, the political and social rights -of man <i>as man</i> is what, we fearlessly assert, cannot be proved from -any historical authority extant. With the exception of the Essenes of -Judæa and the Therapeutæ of Egypt, we know of no attempt having been -made in ancient times to realise the social views latterly so prevalent -amongst the working classes in France, Germany, and, indeed, in most -parts of Central and Western Europe, England included. The Essenes -and Therapeutæ, however, can hardly be considered an exception to the -general rule, seeing that the latter was a Christian sect, and that -the Essenes, being Jews, believed in the same God that all Christians -professed to worship. Besides, the Essenes were but a very small sect, -hardly exceeding 4,000 souls in all; and though they held and practised -the theory of human equality, and proscribed slavery from amongst them, -yet, like the Shakers of America, they so mixed up absolute celibacy, -and other ascetic doctrines and practices, with their community-system -that, in the very nature of things, they could never be more than a -small, isolated sect, utterly incapable of influencing, by creed or -example, the destinies of the human race.</p> - -<p>But how the cause of human liberty came to be hopeless under the old -pagan systems, and how Christianity itself has hitherto failed in its -divine mission, must be the subject of future chapters.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER IV.</span> <span class="smaller">INCREASE AND CONSOLIDATION OF SLAVERY.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Sanction given by Law and Public Opinion—Various Causes of -Enslavement—Practices of Ancient Germans—Analogy in Modern -Commercial and Funding Systems, and Expatriation of Irish -Peasantry—Slavery among the Jews.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>Having shown how human slavery originated in parental despotism, let us -now inquire how positive laws came to consolidate and regulate it, and -public opinion to consecrate and perpetuate it, till it had become the -normal condition of some three-fourths of the human race antecedently -to the period of Christ’s advent. Here we shall again find history our -safest guide. If the oldest traditions show, on the one hand, that -slavery did not originate in human laws, but was the spontaneous growth -of the natural subjection of children to parents, there is equally -ample authority, on the other hand, to show that, once introduced, all -the forces of law and opinion known to the ancients were unsparingly -applied to propagate and maintain slavery in every pagan country.</p> - -<p>While families remained apart from each other, without intercourse, -without social relationship, slavery knew no other law than the will or -pleasure of the head of each household. But when, in the progress of -early civilization, the families congregated in any particular locality -or country came to find it necessary to constitute themselves into one -great society for the purposes of exchange or commerce, intermarrying, -mutual defence against aggression, &c., the despotic will of -individuals gave place, of necessity, to a general law of the heads -of families composing the society. It was then, and not till then, -that slavery became a <i>legal</i> institution. The general law not only -sanctioned and enforced it, but also greatly enlarged its bounds by -creating new sources of slavery. For example, to be taken prisoner in -war, to take refuge in the house of another, to be unable to pay one’s -debts, or, if a girl, being married out of her family or tribe,—these -were so many new sources of slavery created by the general law. The -rights of war were made to confer upon the vanquisher the same rights -over the vanquished that belonged to their own fathers. Indeed, amongst -the ancients the vanquished were considered as “men without gods,” -that is to say, men without ancestors of rank or dignity (for, in the -language of the primitive poets, the gods and the ancestors of great -families are one and the same thing); and they were treated as mere -chattels, as appears from the very name given, viz., <i>mancipia</i>, which, -though the ordinary term applied to slaves taken in battle, is, in -its etymological sense, applicable only to things inanimate. Whether -it was from a religious scruple, or for the purpose of divesting the -vanquished of what prestige might attach to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> them from the possession -of their gods or ancestral images, we find that the taking or keeping -possession of these gods was always a vital consideration in the -sieges and battles of antiquity. Once taken by the enemy, the capture -and enslavement of their possessors was deemed inevitable. Those -left without gods, in this sense, were regarded as outlaws by their -fellow-citizens, and their future slavery was considered a <i>mere -matter of course</i> by themselves, as well as by their conquerors. We -may readily imagine what a prolific source of slavery this must have -been in lawless times, when <i>might</i> alone conferred <i>right</i>. We may -also conceive how greatly it must have aggravated and embittered the -aboriginal relations between master and slave.</p> - -<p>Asylums, or houses of refuge, were another means of extending slavery -under the positive law. The man who took sanctuary in one of these -places became the slave or chattel of the protector who had given -him safety. These asylums, of which we find mention made in the -primitive traditions of almost every old country, drew together not -only maltreated slaves from other quarters, but malefactors and -vagabonds of all sorts, and, in general, that restless and turbulent -class of people who love action for its own sake, and cannot live out -of broils and adventure. History testifies to the opening of such -asylums by rulers, and founders of cities, as an essential feature -of their policy. Thus, Moses determined six certain cities in which -manslayers might take refuge from the avenger. Theseus opened a refuge -at Athens, the remembrance of which was so fresh in Plutarch’s time, -that that biographer thinks the phrase of the common criers in his day, -“All peoples, come hither!” were the identical words used by Theseus -himself. Romulus, as before observed, opened an asylum at Rome for the -fugitive slaves of Latium, which, it is said, remained open for upwards -of 750 years. Indeed, if we are to believe Suetonius, it and similar -places of refuge were to be found in Rome, and in the provinces, till -Tiberius formally abolished “the law and custom” of them by an edict. -It may be observed, generally, of these asylums that, originally or -primitively, the parties who fled for refuge to them became the slaves, -or subjects, or clients of their protectors, yielding to the latter -their personal liberty and service in exchange for their preservation; -but at later epochs the character both of asylums and of those who -fled to them changed altogether. When opened by free cities within the -boundaries of their liberties, or by priests in their temples, they -were sacred to freedom, and not to slavery. There is no doubt, however, -that in the early ages of the world both law and custom turned them -largely to account in extending the domain of slavery.</p> - -<p>Next to war, indebtedness, or the relation of debtor to creditor, was -probably the most odious and prolific source of slavery under the -positive law. Such appears to have been the case, at least, amongst -Greeks and Romans, with whose histories the moderns are better -acquainted than with those of other ancient countries. Plutarch tells -us, in his Life of Solon, that that legislator, on his arriving at -power, found a large proportion of the citizens in a state of actual -slavery to their creditors, and that one of his greatest difficulties -and triumphs was the adjustment of their conflicting claims. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> - -<p>Certain writers and commentators speak of an old Athenian law which -gave money-lenders, as security for their money lent, the personal -liberty of the borrowers—otherwise, a power to make them slaves. -Others say the law in question extended the creditor’s power to one of -life or death—that he might expose or kill his defaulting debtor. The -Roman laws of the Twelve Tables were, we know, borrowed from Greece; -and Aulus Gellius cites the express terms of the law of the Third Table -to show that it armed Roman creditors with similar power over their -unfortunate debtors. The rigour of this law was such, that in case -there were several creditors, they had the option either to sell the -debtor’s person to strangers or to dissever his body and divide the -pieces amongst them. Shocked and disgusted at the barbarity of this -law, Aulus Gellius asks, “What can be conceived more savage, what more -foreign to man’s natural disposition, than that the members and limbs -of a destitute debtor should be drawn asunder by a mangling process -of ever so short duration?” Tertullian, one of the early Christian -fathers, bears testimony to the existence of that and similar laws -under the pagan system. As he uses the plural word <i>leges</i> instead of -the singular <i>lex</i>, it is clear there must have been more than one -law of the kind. The murderous part of such laws was, however, too -revolting to be carried into effect; so the enslavement of the debtor’s -person was the course usually adopted by vindictive creditors. Indeed, -Quintilian tells us expressly that public morals rejected the law of -the Twelve Tables—at least, that portion of it which gave creditors -the power to cut up the bodies of insolvent debtors. To imprison or -enslave them was, therefore, their only practicable course; and as the -latter was the more profitable, it became the one usually resorted to. -The sale of unfortunate debtors as slaves became, therefore, a part and -parcel of the commerce of Greece and Rome. It was one of the ways by -which hard-hearted creditors indemnified themselves for bad debts. And -as neither law nor custom could reconcile any people to such a palpable -outrage upon the rights of humanity, it never ceased to be a prolific -source of disaffection and civil broils throughout every period of -the Greek and Roman annals. Livy records some terrible outbreaks, -arising solely from the laws of debtor and creditor. Indeed, next to -agrarian monopoly, the workings of usury in pauperizing and enslaving -free citizens was the principal cause of all the civil wars, and the -ultimate cause of the downfall of the Greek and Roman republics.</p> - -<p>But Greece and Rome are not the only ancient states in which debt -multiplied slaves and slavery. Tacitus informs us that the ancient -Germans were so addicted to gaming, that sometimes they staked even -their bodies upon the last throw of the dice, and, when the game went -against them, resigned themselves tranquilly to be bound and sold as -slaves. ’Tis curious to observe the language made use of by Tacitus -in describing this affair. It forcibly reminds one of the “national -debts” of modern times, and of the cunning cant by which the toiling -slaves, who pay the interest of them, are made to bear the burden with -more than asinine resignation. Indeed, the whole passage, as given by -Tacitus, might be strictly applied to the men and things we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> are living -amongst, if we would but substitute a few of our modern commercial -terms for the old dice-table terms employed by Tacitus. “They (the -Germans),” he says, “practise gambling amongst their serious pursuits, -and are quite sober over it. So desperate is their lust of gain or fear -of losing, that when all other means fail, they stake their liberty -and their very bodies upon the last throw of the dice; nay, the beaten -party (the loser) enters voluntarily and resignedly into slavery. -Although younger and more robust than his antagonist, he quietly -submits to be bound in fetters and sold. Such is their perverseness in -depravity—<i>they, themselves</i>, call it <span class="smaller">FAITH</span>, <span class="smaller">HONOUR</span>! -The successful parties (winners) dispose of this class of slaves in the -way of commerce, <i>that the infamy of their victory may be lost sight of -by the removal of their victim</i>.” In this almost literal translation, -we have paraphrased Tacitus no further than his elliptic style and -the different genius of our language render necessary; yet we can -hardly persuade ourselves that we have not been describing the process -and the very terms by which commercial speculation and our system of -public and private credit manufacture the slaves of our own day. The -only substantial difference is, that our gambling and slave-making -are upon an immeasurably larger scale, and that our enslaved Saxons, -unlike their German progenitors, have not even a chance of saving -themselves: for, though they are made to contribute all the stakes, -they are allowed no further share in the game than to look on and -pay the losses, whoever may be the winners. Tacitus’s term, <i>fides</i> -(<i>faith</i>, <i>honour</i>), is the identical term made use of now-a-days to -enforce the payment of national debts by those who never borrowed, -and the payment of “debts of honour” by those who forget to pay their -tailors’ bills and their servants’ wages. The old German gamester’s -trick, too, of getting his victim out of the way by disposing of him as -merchandise, instead of keeping him to serve as a slave upon himself, -is not without its analogies in our modern practice. Indeed, our -whole system of commerce and of public credit is based upon a similar -practice and similar motives. The slaves of our modern landlords, -merchants, and manufacturers are always the <i>apparent</i> slaves of -somebody else—of some wretched go-between underling, on whom the -<i>odium</i>, though not the profits, of the system is made to fall. The -landlord throws it upon the farmer or agent; the millowner, upon his -overseer; the coal-king, upon his manager; the exporting merchant, upon -the slop-shops and <i>sweaters</i>; and so on, throughout every ramification -of trade and manufacture. The loanmonger retains not in his own hands -his purchased privilege of rifling the pockets of all taxpayers twice -a year for no value received. That would make his position as odious -as that of Tacitus’s successful old German gamester would have been, -had he made the “plucked pigeon” his personal slave, who was whilom -his boon-companion and equal. Business could not go on in that way. -Our loanmonger knows it, and, therefore, no sooner does he get his -bonds than he diffuses the “scrip” as widely and plentifully as the -dews of heaven, till there is hardly a grade or calling in society -that is not made directly interested and instrumental in enslaving -the producer and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> defrauding him of his hire. At the moment we write, -there are nearly a quarter of a million of families interested in -what is called “public faith,” “national honour,” and all that sort -of thing; and, amongst the whole lot, there is not one that was -originally concerned in any of the hocus-pocusing transactions which -have given us our “national debt,” with its thirty millions of annual -tax on the producing slaves of this country. The original loanmongers -and their representatives have dexterously shifted the odium and the -responsibility of their black job or jobs (for there were many of -them) from their own shoulders to those, of innocent parties; and, -whatever may eventually become of these parties, they took good care -to have more than their <i>quid pro quo</i> before they transferred their -claims upon the public purse to the present recipients of the dividends -payable half-yearly on account of the debt called “national.” Another -and, mayhap, a stronger analogy to the case of Tacitus’s “plucked -pigeons,” sold into slavery, might be found in the expatriated tenantry -and peasantry of Ireland. The landlords of that country do not <i>always</i> -dispose of their human chattels by plague, pestilence, and famine; and -there is no law of the Twelve Tables to authorise the cutting up of -the bodies of their tenants in arrear. But there is a law—or, whether -there is or not, they find one—which authorises them to eject tenants -from their holdings, to raze their habitations to the ground, and to -drive the said tenants, homeless and breadless, to find a shelter and -a crust where they may. In such cases (and they are as plentiful as -blackberries), it is not unusual for such landlords to smuggle their -ousted victims out of the country, and even to pay their freight to -Canada in some crazy old hull (provided their fare do not exceed the -amount it would cost to bury them in case they died under a bush or -ditch after the dilapidation of their homes). Once removed to Quebec -or to the bottom of the Atlantic (it matters not which), there is an -end of trouble to both landlord and tenant. In Canada the tenant cannot -fare worse than in Ireland (for worse he could not), and he may fare -better. At the bottom of the sea he is safe, and provided for, for all -time to come. In either case he is out of the landlord’s sight, and out -of the sight of all to whom a knowledge of his treatment might suggest -misgivings as to their own future. To the landlord who ousted him, -his personal service as an actual slave would be as useless as that -of Tacitus’s ruined gamester would be to the successful one who had -won him and sold him. He would be but an incumbrance—a lump of dead -stock—an incubus upon the soil! His presence would be but a reproach -to his landlord, and curse to himself! To get rid of him, then,—to -dispose of him anyhow, or by any means, that will only get him out of -the way,—is the one thing needful. Well, Tacitus has shown us how the -lucky gamesters of his day got rid of their fleeced victims in Germany. -Against his case we fear not to put the Irish “clearers” and the -British farm-“consolidators” of our day, being perfectly assured that -the Saxons of the present day will be found to excel those of Tacitus’s -day, or any other of the old German tribes, in the art of slave-making, -as much as we excel the old Romans themselves in road-making, -shipbuilding, money-grubbing, military manslaughtering, or any other -art or science. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> - -<p>To return from this digression, the relation of debtor and creditor -was unquestionably one of the direst and most fertile sources of -slavery known to the ancient pagan world. Even God’s chosen people, -the Hebrews, were not altogether free from it. It is true, Moses’s -septennial release from debt, and the jubilee ordained at the end -of every fifty years, were powerful checks upon the inroad of this -form of slavery. But, nevertheless, indebtedness <i>did</i> furnish its -contingent to slavery even under the Mosaic law; for do we not find -Moses anticipating this curse in Leviticus, when he enjoins, “If thy -brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and <i>be sold</i> unto thee, -thou shalt not compel him to serve as a slave or bond-servant, but as -an hired servant; and as a sojourner he shall be with thee, and shall -serve thee until the day of the jubilee,” &c. This shows clearly how -inseparable was slavery from indebtedness under the ancient order of -things, when Moses found it necessary to make provisions against its -contingency, notwithstanding all the precautions he had ordained to -prevent it. And Moses’s foresight is fully proved by the subsequent -history of the Jews. For we learn from Josephus, that at a later -epoch, to wit, under King Joram, the son of Jehosaphat, the widow of -Obadias (who had been governor of King Achab’s palace) came to tell the -prophet Elisha that, unable to reimburse the money that her husband -had borrowed, to subsist the hundred prophets he had saved from the -persecution by Jezebel, <i>his creditors laid claim to herself and her -children as their slaves</i>. We might furnish other instances of a -similar kind from sacred history; while from profane history we might -cite proofs <i>ad infinitum</i> bearing upon the same point: but enough has -been said for our purpose. The obligation of debtors to their creditors -was undoubtedly one of the most grievous sources of slavery known to -the positive law in ancient times. Next to war, it was probably the -greatest.</p> - -<p>The last remaining cause to be disposed of is the marriage of -females—more especially of females married out of their own family -or tribe. That much slavery was brought about in this way is provable -in a variety of ways, and by the best traditional evidence. Homer’s -“Iliad” abounds in testimonies to this effect. We have already cited -the example of Cassandra, whom Othryon purchased from Priam, even as -Jacob bought Leah and Rachel from their father Laban. Other passages -are still more conclusive on the point. We find in the 9th book, for -instance, that Agamemnon, regretting his having occasioned the wrath of -Achilles, offers him, by way of appeasing it, certain costly presents; -amongst others, seven Lesbian female slaves, along with Briseis; and, -when Troy should be taken, twenty captives, the most beautiful, after -Helen; and as a climax, one of his own three daughters—Achilles to -choose, and to have her without purchase. And again, in the 16th book, -we find Homer making mention of a certain Polydora, the mother of -Menestheus, whom he describes as having been purchased for a wife, by -her husband, at a great expense. The poems of Virgil contain similar -evidences,—as for instance, when Juno proposes to Venus to settle -their quarrels, and to accept Dido as a spouse and servant to her son -Æneas. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> term <i>service</i> made use of by Virgil indicates clearly the -servile relation to the husband which such marriages imposed upon women.</p> - -<p>Having explained the <i>origin</i> of direct slavery, its legal -establishment, and the principal known causes which multiplied it -and consolidated it as a social institution, let us now inquire in -what light it was regarded by the ancients themselves, wherefore it -was able to maintain its footing all over the world, till the advent -of Christianity; why it still obtains in so large a portion of the -habitable globe; and why it has in nowise ceased, without giving birth -to a masked or indirect slavery worse than itself.</p> - -<p>In this inquiry, our task will resolve itself in establishing the three -following propositions:—</p> - -<p>1st. That direct or personal slavery was not regarded by the ancients -in the light in which enlightened men of the present day regard it, -that is to say, as an unnatural and inhuman institution, but, on the -contrary, was considered to be a thing perfectly natural and reasonable -in itself, and essential to the ends and purposes of society.</p> - -<p>2nd. That the main cause of its permanence in the world was the -universality of public opinion in its favour, rather than the force of -law or custom; and that the slaves themselves fully participated in the -general opinion.</p> - -<p>3rd. That, all things considered, direct slavery, whether as practised -by the ancients or by the modems (wherever it is in use), was, with -all its evils, less destructive of life, morals, and happiness to the -majority than the present system of indirect or disguised slavery, as -effected in most civilized countries by unjust agrarian, monetary, and -fiscal laws.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i025.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER V.</span> <span class="smaller">OPINION OF THE ANCIENT WORLD ON SLAVERY.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Permanence of Slavery under all Revolutions—Ignorance of -Principle of Human Equality—Theory and Personal Experience of -Plato—Contentment of Slaves with their Condition—Occasional -Comfort and Happiness of Slaves—Absence of Revolts against -Slavery—Social and Political Rights ignored by Greeks and Romans.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>Having, in the preceding chapters, shown how human slavery came into -the world, how it originated in the despotism of paternal power, -before laws or governments were known, and how, coeval with society -itself, it had grown up, flourished, and everywhere established -itself, as a <i>domestic</i> institution, before any conventional act or -delegated authority of society came to consolidate it as a <i>social</i> -institution—having shown all this, and afterwards explained the -subsequent modifications, enlargements, and aggravations of slavery -made by positive legislation,—let us now ascertain why the diabolical -institution endured so long in the world; why it still endures in very -many countries; and, above all, why every attempt to get rid of it has -hitherto only had the effect of aggravating the evils of society, and -making the mass of mankind more miserable slaves, <i>without the name</i>, -than any that ever bore the name in ancient or modern times. Having -ascertained this, we shall then be prepared to comprehend the only just -and practicable means whereby slavery of every sort, and in every form -and degree, may be effectually and for ever banished from the world.</p> - -<p>Had slavery, amongst the ancients, originated in, and been upheld by, -their laws and governments, it may be fairly presumed that some of -the revolutions which, at various epochs, swept away their laws and -governments would have swept away the institution of slavery amongst -the rest. Whatever is forced upon a decided majority of any people, by -the will of a minority, can be upheld only by fraud and coercion. Had -these been the conditions of slavery amongst the ancients, it is quite -certain that the moment a successful revolution, from within or from -without, came to break up the authority of rulers in any particular -country, the slaves or bondsmen would, that very moment, seize their -opportunity to emancipate themselves; and if it was the love of -equality or of social justice that made them rise, they would not lay -down their arms till they had established a just social order, based -upon the recognition of <i>equal rights and equal laws for all</i>.</p> - -<p>Now, there is hardly any ancient state or country we could name -that has not had its revolutions, and that did not witness, at some -period or other, a complete subversion of its government, laws, and -institutes; yet do we find the institution of slavery survive in -all.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> In no one instance do we find the slaves of a revolutionalized -state avail themselves of such a crisis to establish <i>the rights of -man as man</i>. Intestine commotions, military insurrections, foreign -invasions, popular triumphs over kings and senates—these and all other -like incidents in the life of nations invariably passed away without -abolishing the curse of slavery. Why was this? How happened it? Why did -not the slaves of the old pagan world take advantage of some popular -insurrection, or of the overthrow of their rulers by some invader, -to vindicate the rights of humanity in their own persons, by at once -establishing a free government for all, and by abolishing slavery -altogether?</p> - -<p>There is but one true and sufficient answer to these questions: it is -this:—The doctrine of human equality, of equality in rights, duties, -and responsibilities, was altogether unknown to the ancients: it was -denied in theory; it was unheard of in practice. With the solitary -exception before adverted to—that of the Essenes (of which more -by-and-by), there is no historical record or monument extant to show -that the slaves of antiquity, as a class, knew or cared anything -about theories of government, much less that they comprehended what a -Frenchman would understand by the words <i>république démocratique et -sociale</i>, or what a member of the National Reform League understands -by “the political and social rights of the people.” Nor does there -appear to have been a single writer, teacher, philosopher, legislator, -orator, or poet, amongst the whole heathen world, to inspire the -slave-class with any such notions. On the contrary, the idea that one -class were born to be slaves, and the other to be masters, was an idea -as sedulously inculcated by the educators of ancient society, as it -was implicitly believed in by the slaves themselves. The poet and the -two philosophers who, more than any others of their class, exercised -a moral influence upon the ancient world—to wit, Homer, Plato, and -Aristotle—agreed, to a hair, in considering mankind as naturally -divided into two classes—those made to command and those made to obey, -<i>alias</i> masters and slaves. Homer tell us, formally, in the “Odyssey,” -that Jove gave to slaves but the half of a soul. Plato, when citing -this passage in his “Treatise on Laws,” substitutes the word <i>mind</i> -for the Homeric word <i>virtue</i>, and adds his authority to that of the -poet, to inculcate that the Father of the Gods bestowed <i>mind</i> and -<i>virtue</i> but by halves upon the children of slavery. Plato is still -more expressive elsewhere. In his dialogue entitled “Alcibiades,” he -makes Socrates teach the same doctrine after his favourite fashion -of question and answer. He makes him ask Alcibiades whether it is -“in the class of nobles or in the class of plebeians that natural -superiority is to be found;” to which the proficient pupil unhesitating -makes answer, “Undoubtedly, in the class of nobles,” or “in those -nobly born.” Aristotle is still more emphatic than Plato in laying -down the theory of human inequality. In one place he goes so far as -to call children “the animated tools of their parents,” signifying -by that, that children are by birth the natural slaves of their -fathers. In his “Treatise on Politics,” he tells us, roundly, that -at the very moment of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> birth all created beings are naturally -fashioned, some to obey, and some to command—or, rather, some <i>to -be commanded</i>, and the others to command; for it is the same verb he -makes use of in both cases, using the <i>passive</i> mood for the slaves -and the <i>active</i> for the slave-owners. In the same treatise he tells -us, further on, that nature actually makes the bodies of freemen -(genteel folk) different from those of slaves; that the latter are -purposely made robust and hardy for the necessities of labour, whilst -those of gentlemen are made so slight and upright as to be unfit for -physical labour, but well qualified for the business of government. -In citing this passage, we have given an almost literal translation -of the Greek—a translation more expressive of the author’s sense -than a strictly verbal translation would be. The very terms made use -of by Aristotle show clearly his belief that slaves were made to be -slaves, and their masters to govern them. The words we have rendered -by the free translation, “qualified for the business of government,” -mean, “<i>literally</i>, availably useful for political life,” which, if -not so intelligible, is stronger and of wider signification than our -translation. At all events, there can be no doubt as to Aristotle’s -meaning. Like Homer and Plato, he was a firm believer in the <i>duality</i> -of human nature—that is to say, that slaves were born with one -nature, and their masters with another. Indeed, Plato carried this -creed so far, that he made slavery to consist in the moral and -mental man himself, and not in the servility of his condition as a -slave. A wise man, he contended, could not be made a slave of: the -natural superiority of such a man would rise superior to any, or all, -conditions that might be imposed upon him. Plato lived to have his -doctrine tried in his own person. Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, had -him sold for a slave by one Pollio, a Lacedemonian chief; but history -does not say whether Plato the slave held the same opinions on slavery -as Plato the freeman and philosopher. It was one of his maxims that -“a wise and just man could be as happy in a state of slavery as in a -state of freedom.” Dionysius took him at his word, and, tyrant though -he was, we think he served Plato right. The sage who believed in two -natures, one for slaves and another for freemen, and who taught that a -wise and just man could be as happy in slavery as in freedom, deserved -to have such doctrines tried and verified in his own person. Plato had -them tried in his; but, great philosopher as he was, we suspect he must -have found some little difference between slavery and freedom, when -we find him seizing the first opportunity to recover his liberty, and -preferring to live a freeman, in Athens, to living a slave at Ægina.</p> - -<p>When such were the opinions of philosophers and poets (whose mission -and function it was to live for other generations and other times them -their own), what may we not expect from the vulgar herd who lived only -for themselves? Their ideas were just what we might expect. High and -low, gentle and simple, rich and poor, freemen and slaves—all, all -believed in the duality of human nature—in the divine origin of kings, -and in the no less divine origin of slavery. On these points the whole -of pagan antiquity appears to have been unanimous. The treatment of -their helots by the Spartans, who,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> in order to disgust their children -with drunkenness, used to exhibit those unfortunates in a state of -bestial intoxication, speaks volumes for the notions the ancients had -of slaves and slavery. Their occasional decimation of the helots by -wholesale and deliberate slaughter, for no other or better reason than -to thin their ranks and reduce their numbers for their own convenience, -is a still more glaring exemplification. It shows that a slave was a -mere thing—a chattel—a nobody—even a nuisance, if his master only -chose to think him so.</p> - -<p>The Elder Cato, who was cried up for his goodness as a master to his -slaves, thought it not unworthy of himself, nor unjust to them, to -keep them always quarrelling with one another, by artfully fomenting -jealousies amongst them. Plutarch tells us, too, that when they got old -and broken down, Cato used to treat them as he (Plutarch) would not use -the ox or the horse that had served him faithfully. He used to sell -them, or dispose of them any way, when there was no more work to be got -out of them. Yet Cato was a model for the gentlemen slave-owners of his -day. He was the Benjamin Franklin of his republic; the Adam Smith of -the Roman political economy of his time. When <i>he</i> behaved so to his -slaves, what must have been the opinions and behaviour of such masters -as were brutes by nature, tyrants by instinct and culture? Seneca -describes one of these worthies to us, under the name of Vedius Pollio, -who, if we are to believe that philosopher, was in the habit of feeding -the fish in his ponds with the flesh of his slaves! It is impossible to -conceive that slaves must not have been considered of a different and -inferior nature, when every description of masters, good and bad, are -found (however differing in their mode of treatment) to deal with them -as with beings having no rights of their own—no rights but what their -masters might choose to confer.</p> - -<p>The slaves, on their side, appear to have been perfectly reconciled -to slavery as an institution. The writings of the ancients have left -us nothing to countervail this opinion, but, on the contrary, much -to confirm it. We can nowhere discover any evidence to show that the -slaves of antiquity regarded slavery in any other light than as an -institution natural in itself, and neither unjust nor unreasonable, -provided they (the slaves) were well treated. It is true they often -complained of their lot, and sometimes rebelled, too, in order -to change it; but, in so doing, it is to be observed, they never -complained of slavery <i>as an institution</i>, nor invoked the principle of -Equality as the end and object of their complaints or rebellions. Their -complaint was, not that slavery existed, but that they, themselves, -and not others, were the slaves. And when they rebelled, it was not -in order to put down slavery and establish liberty for all; it was to -exchange conditions with their masters, or else to secure their own -freedom at the price of taking away other people’s. The idea of making -common cause with other slaves, in order to emancipate all slaves, -never entered their heads. Principle, or love of equality, had nothing -whatever to do with their movements. The principle of <i>liberty for -all</i> was too sublime an idea for them. Equality before God and the law -was still further beyond them. Slavery, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span><i>as a principle</i>, they had -no fault to find with; they complained only of the <i>accident</i> that -made them slaves and others free. Even of this the vast majority never -complained, because the vast majority (there is reason to believe) were -content with their lot, and satisfied with their masters’ treatment of -them. Indeed, the whole tenour of what we read of in history respecting -slaves leads to this conclusion. The vast majority were content with -their condition. In general they were kindly treated; and as they knew -no other state, and saw nothing unjust or unreasonable in slavery, they -were attached to their masters as to benefactors (regarding them as the -authors of their comfort), and might, mayhap, as a general rule, be -pronounced happy.</p> - -<p>The old classics are full of allusions and passages which go to show -the high state of domestic comfort enjoyed by certain descriptions of -slaves, and the free and familiar relations which subsisted between -them and their masters. A kindly and homely sort of intercourse was the -rule; harshness and ill-nature would appear to have been the exception. -Indeed, slaves were regarded so much in the light of mere animals by -masters, and masters so much as demi-gods, or superior beings, by -slaves, that no possible rivalry, jealousy, or misgivings could subsist -between them; but, on the contrary, that sort of mutual confidence, -fidelity, and fondness with which favourite horses and dogs reciprocate -the kindly treatment and caresses of their owners. Whenever we find -slaves breaking out into insurrection, we may be sure it is either -because they have harsh masters, or have been torn from distant homes, -or are being seduced by insurgent chiefs who promise them rapine and -freedom; or because they expect, through a successful insurrection, -to become pirates or robbers, which was the highest occupation of -honour and profit that a slave could aspire to in those days. In these -insurrections, as already observed, equality was never invoked. The -“rights of man” was a profound mystery in the womb of the future. The -insurgents thought of no slavery but their own; and of no other or -better advantages from liberty than the spoils of their masters, and -exchanging conditions with them.</p> - -<p>Limiting ourselves, for the moment, to Roman history, we find some six -revolts of slaves recorded by Livy, and some three or four more made -mention of by Aulus Gellius, Tacitus, and others. Livy does not go -much into detail; but, from the little he says, he makes it manifest -that real liberty or equality had nothing to do with any of the six -revolts he treats of. The sixth revolt, which was headed by one Eunus, -a Syrian, is related at greater length by Diodorus of Sicily. And what -does Diodorus show? That Eunus was an impostor, who pretended a mission -from the Syrian Venus, and, ejecting flames from his mouth by means -of a hollow nut that he had filled with lighted sulphur, succeeded in -fanaticising some 2,000 slaves, and inducing them to break loose from -the work-houses. He had soon an army of some 60,000 men, gained several -actions in the course of a long and bloody war, made himself master of -the camps of four prætors; but at last, pressed by increasing numbers, -and forced to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> shut himself up in the city of Enna with his followers, -he and they, after defending themselves with courage and bravery amid -indescribable difficulties, were at last overpowered, and perished -all, by famine, pestilence, and the sword. This insurrection, which -took place in Sicily, was no sooner quelled than another broke out, -of a similar kind, and upon as large a scale, under the command of a -slave named Athenio, who, after assassinating his master, and causing -all the work-houses to rise in insurrection, had soon as large an army -under his command as Eunus had. Like Eunus, Athenio had some incipient -successes; he stormed and made himself master of two prætorian camps: -like Eunus, however, he had soon to succumb to the united force of -famine and the sword. He perished, with nearly all his followers. The -immediate cause of these two servile wars—which, next to the famous -one under Spartacus, appear to have been the most formidable of their -kind—was the alleged violation of the work-house regulations by the -masters. Indeed, Diodorus testifies, positively and clearly, that the -revolt headed by Athenio arose solely from the inability of the prætor -in Sicily to enforce the laws or regulations which had been made in -favour of the slaves, and which, like our modern factory lords, the -masters were continually seeking to evade. Plutarch lets it appear that -a similar cause provoked the revolt of Spartacus.</p> - -<p>Those three revolts, which took place during the last sixty years of -the Republic—namely, the two under Eunus and Athenio, in Sicily, -and the third under Spartacus, in Italy—were the most serious and -destructive of the servile wars recorded of Rome. They had the ablest -commanders, and met with the largest measure of success. In these, if -in any wars of the kind, might we hope to find the dignity of human -nature vindicated by the insurgent bondsmen. There was nothing of the -sort. The harsh conduct of masters and the violation of work-house -rules were the motive powers of each revolt: no higher motive seems, -for a moment, to have actuated the revolters.</p> - -<p>The conduct, too, of Eunus and Athenio, during their brief success, -showed how thoroughly undemocratic, and even aristocratic, were their -plans and objects. Instead of setting about the abolition of slavery -and the establishment of equality, they began forthwith to ape the pomp -and circumstance of their oppressors, and to deal with their followers -as though they were little kings, and not fellow-slaves in rebellion. -They wore purple robes and gold chains. Athenio carried a silver staff -in his hand, and had his brow wreathed with a diadem, like a monarch. -Indeed, Florus tells us that, while these adventurers assumed all -the state and airs of royalty, they imitated royalty no less in the -havoc, plunder, and devastations they spread around them. At first they -contented themselves with plundering and pulling down the castles, -villas, and mansions of the aristocrats and master-class; but, this -accomplished, they soon began to exact the same servility from their -followers that they had themselves kicked against. Liberty and equality -were out of the question. Had they succeeded, their wretched followers -would soon have found that they had but exchanged masters. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> - -<p>The revolt under Spartacus is the most horrible of all, because it was -a revolt of men who were gladiators as well as slaves. Liberty or the -rights of man had no more to do with this revolt than with any of the -others. It arose from brutal oppression on the part of one Lentulus -Batiatus, to whom a portion of the insurgents belonged: he was training -them, in fact, that they might combat one another to death in the arena -for his recreation. Neither in its origin, conduct, nor results did -this servile war differ from any of the others. Like all of them, it -originated in private wrongs, was purely personal in its antecedents, -and neither in its progress nor results did it exhibit a single -indication of democratic, philanthropic, or any other virtues than the -usual military ones common to all Romans at the time. In truth, what we -moderns understand by political and social rights (and without which -we know that real liberty cannot exist for any people) was an idea -altogether foreign to every class of Greeks and Romans, and, indeed, to -the whole of antiquity, with the solitary exception of the Essenes.</p> - -<p>Thus, <i>public opinion</i> conspired with law and custom to uphold direct -human slavery throughout the ancient world. This opinion must have -been all but universal, since not even slaves in revolt ever dreamt -of abolishing slavery as an institution. They warred against certain -incidents and accidents of slavery; never against the principle itself. -This universality of public opinion in its favour, coupled with the -fact that direct slavery is an evil of far lesser magnitude than -the indirect slavery of modern civilization, we take to be the true -explanation of the old pagan system having endured so long in the world.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i032.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER VI.</span> <span class="smaller">UNIVERSALITY OF PUBLIC OPINION AS TO MASTER AND SLAVES.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">System acquiesced in by Slave-Class—Insurrections and -Rebellions from other Causes than Hatred of Slavery—Rising -under Spartacus—Conditions wanting for Success—Contrast of -Modern Aspirations after Freedom—Example from enslaved Roman -Citizens—Preference of Slaves for their Condition.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>Although the historical facts cited in the preceding chapter -demonstrate satisfactorily enough that what, in our times, is called -<i>public opinion</i> was amongst the ancients universally in favour of -human slavery as a social institution, nevertheless we shall here -adduce a few additional facts in confirmation of that proposition, -before we pass on to our next, which will go to show that it was more -owing to the prevalence of such opinion, than to the force of laws, -that direct slavery endured so long; and that, viewing the question -impartially and as a whole, that form of slavery was, with all its -abominations, less galling and oppressive, and less destructive of -life, liberty, morals, and happiness, than is the present system of -indirect or disguised slavery, to which our modern civilization dooms -the vast majority of Christendom,—at least, the vast majority of the -proletarian and working classes.</p> - -<p>The testimonies we have quoted from Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and Seneca -were pretty decisive as to the light in which slavery was regarded by -the teachers of antiquity. Cato’s treatment of his slaves, the still -more atrocious conduct attributed to such brutes as Vedius Pollio, -and the habitual treatment of their helots by the citizens of Sparta, -show clearly enough that the proprietary classes carried out, to the -letter, the theory of their philosophers and poets; but the most -decisive evidence of all is, unquestionably, that furnished by the -various servile wars and insurrections to which we have made reference. -The fact that in no one recorded instance did the slaves of antiquity -rebel against slavery as an institution,—the fact, that in no one of -the ten servile rebellions which, under the Romans, took place in Italy -and Sicily did the insurgent slaves declare for liberty for all slaves, -nor invoke the principle of Equality against the pretensions of the -master-class,—the fact that, upon these and all similar occasions, -the rebel-slaves never dreamt of emancipating any but themselves, -uniformly betraying an utter disregard of other people’s rights when -they got the upper hand, and manifesting that no higher motive actuated -them than to break their own chains, or transfer them to the persons -of their masters,—these and the like facts banish all doubts on the -subject, and render it matter of positive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> certainty that no class or -description of men, amongst the ancients, disavowed the principle of -slavery, or dreamt of abolishing it as an institution of society.</p> - -<p>We have seen how Eunus and Athenio, the two successful leaders of the -two Sicilian insurrections, used their successes, not to proclaim -equal rights and equal laws for all, but to rob and massacre, to ape -the paraphernalia of royalty, and to impose upon others, as well as to -rivet upon their own followers, the chains they had struck from off -themselves.</p> - -<p>If ever a slave-insurrection might have been expected to fly at nobler -game, to strike at the very root of oppression, and to hoist the banner -of universal freedom for all slaves, it was the insurrection of the -gladiators under Spartacus, adverted to in our last, which was by far -the most formidable of all the servile wars that occurred under the -Republic. It was a war which must have succeeded in abolishing slavery, -had it only been a war of principles—that is to say, a war against -the institution itself; for it had every other essential element of -success. It was provoked by a most atrocious abuse of power on the -part of the master-class, by an outrage upon humanity so flagrantly -indefensible that, but for the prevailing prejudices in favour of -slavery as an institution, the conduct of the government in making -common cause with the wrong-doers would be altogether inexplicable.</p> - -<p>First, there was a good cause, to begin with—a cause to justify the -very stones of Rome to rise in mutiny. Then, the bondsmen were in this -instance regular fighting-men, trained for combat in the arena. They -had first-rate captains at their head, in the persons of Spartacus, -Crixus, and Œnomaus, of whom Spartacus was more than a match for the -ablest generals sent against him. Moreover, these gladiators might be -said to represent the entire brotherhood of slaves throughout the Roman -empire; for they had amongst them Greeks, Thracians, Gauls, Spaniards, -Germans, &c.—slaves from all parts.</p> - -<p>If ever insurgent bondsmen might be expected to strike a blow for -general liberty, to proclaim emancipation not for themselves only, but -for the universal brotherhood of slaves, it was this formidable body. -They had numbers, science, discipline, and commanders of consummate -skill and courage. They represented not the slave-class of Italy -alone, but the slaves of every country then subject to, or in alliance -with, the Romans. To crown all, they had an unexampled run of military -successes. Florus, Appian, and Plutarch give us copious and minute -details of this famous war, which lasted about three years, and, from -their accounts, we cannot help believing that the gladiators must have -been successful, had they made their war a war of principle,—or, to -speak more correctly, had the public opinion of their day allowed such -a thing to be possible. From the moment Spartacus was raised to the -post of commander-in-chief, the war might be said to be one continued -series of brilliant victories for the gladiators. He defeated, in -succession, not less than five Roman armies, led by prætors or consuls. -At last the Senate, after charging Crassus with the responsibility -of the war, found itself obliged to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> recall Lucullus from Thrace, -and Pompey the Great from Spain, to unite their forces and their -generalship with those of Crassus—so formidable was the foe, so -imminent the danger. Not Hannibal himself struck more terror into -Rome’s proud rulers than did Spartacus the slave-gladiator.</p> - -<p>But while history accords to Spartacus many noble qualities, and admits -his consummate talents and bravery as a general, it tells us enough, -on the other hand, to show that neither himself nor his companions in -arms had any notion of fighting for general liberty, nor any other -object in view than to accomplish their own escape from their merciless -oppressors. In this respect Spartacus but shared in the universal -opinion of his day. Possibly he had mind enough, himself, to comprehend -the wisdom and the necessity of making this war a war of principle. -A man of his superior parts was fully equal to that; but as such an -idea could not have been appreciated, nor even comprehended, by his -followers, he was too sensible to broach what would have, to them, -appeared downright insanity. Like all men similarly circumstanced, he -was forced to appeal merely to the lower order of motives. To promise -them personal freedom and the spoils of war was his only means of -keeping his followers together. Accordingly, we learn from Plutarch -that the proposed end of all his victories was to pass the Alps, gain -over the Gauls, and then, with their assistance, make their escape, -each to his respective country and home.</p> - -<p>At all events, the idea of abolishing the institution of slavery -appears never to have entered their minds. Had the slaves of that -age been capable of comprehending such an idea, it is almost certain -Spartacus would not have been conquered. The prevalence of such an -idea would have united the whole slave population, not only in Italy, -but everywhere else, under his standard, and there would have been -a simultaneous rising of the whole race. So exalted, so ennobling a -motive would have made his officers proof against bribery, corruption, -and jealousy, and would have effectually prevented that mutinous spirit -amongst his followers to which, more than to the strength of his -opponents, historians ascribe his downfall.</p> - -<p>An ignorant people, actuated only by inferior motives, by -considerations purely personal or selfish, cannot be emancipated from -slavery. The narrow selfishness of such people will ever expose them -to be cajoled or bribed into intestine divisions; and as the want of -principle will preclude them from associating the rights and liberties -of others with their own, in any struggles they may make, so will the -aid of these others be wanting to them in their hour of need, and their -ultimate discomfiture prove the inevitable consequence and just reward -of their ignorant selfishness.</p> - -<p>Indeed, it is to this narrow-minded disregard of principles on the part -of the slave-class—a disregard founded wholly in a selfish ignorance -of their true interests—we are to ascribe the continued prevalence -of the slavery of our own times, as well as of that which vainly -sought to disenthral itself by force under Spartacus. What happened to -the insurgent slaves under Eunus and Athenio in Sicily,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> and to the -gladiators under Spartacus in Italy, is just what will happen to the -Red Republicans in France, and to the Chartists in England, should they -ever attempt to recover their political and social rights otherwise -than by a movement founded purely upon principle and wholly exempt from -selfish or merely personal calculations on the part of men and leaders. -Upon no other conditions is success possible, as we shall endeavour to -demonstrate, with all but mathematical exactness, in the progress of -this inquiry.</p> - -<p>History has been defined, “philosophy teaching by example.” It is in -order to illume the future by the light of the past that we prosecute -this inquiry. A vulgar belief prevails extensively, both in this -country and upon the Continent, that human slavery is almost wholly -the work of priests and religion, and that the genius of Christianity -in particular is hostile to liberty and progress. Those who hold such -opinions are apt to attach an undue importance to the words “monarchy” -and “republicanism,” and to fancy that there was more real liberty -under the ancient republics of Greece and Rome, before Christianity was -heard of, than it would be now possible to establish in any country -concurrently with the kingly office, and with Christianity being a part -and parcel of its fundamental law. Such persons are also apt to suppose -that the slavery of ancient times was wholly the work of positive laws, -operating by coercion to keep down an adverse public opinion, and to -account in pretty much the same way for the abuses and oppressions of -our own time, ascribing them almost wholly to individual rulers or -governments, and scarcely at all to the ignorance and corruption of -the public opinion around them. Believing such notions to be, in a -great measure, erroneous and prejudicial to the cause of <i>real reform</i> -(which must take possession of a people before it can of a government), -we have been at some pains, and shall be at still greater, to make -the true origin and character of slavery better understood than they -appear to be. In so doing, we think we shall be able to show that an -ignorant and unprincipled people cannot have a good or wise government, -and that an intelligent, right-principled people would not tolerate, -and therefore could not long have, a bad one. If we be right in this -sentiment, a reform of public opinion must needs precede a reform of -parliament; and as one great object of this treatise is to endeavour -to operate such a reform, we shall avoid, as much as possible, mere -assertions without proof; and therefore, even at the risk of being -sometimes tedious, we shall continue to bring forward facts and -details, as we proceed, in elucidation of our positions.</p> - -<p>Now, without going into theological questions (which nothing -shall induce us to do), let us request a certain class of French -philosophers, who are at present labouring to solve the “social -question,” to ask themselves how it happened that, before Christianity -was heard of, the theory and practice of human slavery had got such a -firm hold of the whole pagan world, that not even the slaves themselves -ever dreamt of calling the institution into question.</p> - -<p>In the middle ages we have had Jacqueries, corresponding with the -slave-insurrections under pagan Rome; but it is notorious that,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> in -those Jacqueries, the principle of fraternity and equality was invoked -by the disaffected. In the 16th century the Anabaptists of Munster rose -against aristocracy and privilege, and, for a season, put down their -lords and masters with as high a hand as Eunus and Athenio put down -theirs in ancient Sicily. But mark the difference: the Anabaptists -sought an order of things in which all should work, and none be -drudges or slaves; the followers of Eunus and Parthenio sought quite -a different thing,—they sought only to exchange places with their -masters, and they had no objection at all to human slavery, provided -they were not slaves themselves.</p> - -<p>What is true of John of Leyden and his followers might be applied -to our own Fifth-Monarchy men in Cromwell’s time, and to the French -revolutionists of 1793 and 1795 under Babœuf. If they sought to pull -down those above them, it was upon the principle and the understanding -that neither themselves nor anybody else should take the places of the -dethroned oppressors. Something similar might be predicated of certain -Socialist sects in modern France and Germany. If they are for making -a clean sweep of the aristocracy, it is not that they may take their -places. If they are against privilege, it is against the principle that -they contend, and not against the mere accident that they themselves -are not privileged parties.</p> - -<p>This remarkable difference in the revolutionary movements of ancient -and modern times cannot but strike every thinking man who will take -the trouble to compare them. Nor let it be said that the difference -arises solely from the disaffected having been slaves in the times -of paganism and freemen in the times of Christianity. Cataline and -his co-conspirators were not slaves, nor the friends of slaves: -yet they acted precisely upon the same motives and principles as -those ascribed to Eunus and Athenio. Cataline did not promise his -brother-revolutionists a <i>régime</i> of liberty and equality for all -orders of men; quite the contrary. In the first place, he indignantly -repudiated all co-operation with slaves; and instead of <i>equal rights -and equal laws for all</i>, he promised one portion of his followers -a cancelling of all their debts; another portion, <i>magistrates, -sacerdotia, rapinas</i>—i.e. magisterial offices, the preferments and -property of the Church, and general plunder; and to all he promised -women, wine, horses, dogs, &c., according to their age and tastes. -If we are to believe Sallust, he was to begin with setting fire to -Rome, proceed with the massacre and spoliation of his enemies during -the confusion, and end by putting his associates and friends in the -place of the men they wished to get rid of. In other words, Cataline’s -doctrine was (to use an old Roman phrase), that every man must be -either <i>prædo</i> or <i>præda</i>—either the <i>thief</i> or the <i>spoil</i>, or, -as Voltaire expresses it, either <i>hammer</i> or <i>anvil</i>; and he was -determined to be the thief, or the hammer. The doctrine of <i>equality</i>, -at any rate, had no share in his system.</p> - -<p>What history describes Cataline to have been is equally predicable of -the whole of the revolutionary school in which he had had his political -training. Sylla and his lieutenants, on the one hand, representing -patrician revolutionists, and Marius, Sulpitius, Saturninus, &c.,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> on -the other, representing the plebeian revolutionists, had acted, every -man of them, upon the principles ascribed to Cataline. Not a chief -or demagogue of them all, on either side, said a word or proposed a -measure that savoured of justice or legality for all people. Principle -was entirely out of the question. It is doubtful, indeed, whether -either leaders or people understood anything at all of the matter. -There is certainly nothing in history to evidence that they either knew -or cared for any other rules or principles of government than those -good old-fashioned ones, which the several agencies of gold, intrigue, -and the sword resolve themselves into—the right of the strongest. To -such republicans as Sylla, Marius, Clodius, Sulpicius, &c., our modern -ideas of a <i>république démocratique et sociale</i> would be about as -intelligible as a proposal to light old Rome with gas or to communicate -<i>senatus consulta</i> by the electric telegraph.</p> - -<p>Before despatching this branch of our inquiry, let us cite just one -more fact from history, which we regard as perfectly decisive on the -question—a fact sufficient of itself to convince any reasonable man -that slavery, as an institution, had the public opinion of all classes -in its favour in the times we are treating of; so much so, that not -even Roman citizens and warriors, sold into slavery, thought of -questioning its propriety.</p> - -<p>In the second Punic war, some 1,200 Roman citizens were made prisoners -by the Carthaginians, and by them disposed of to merchants, who, in -the regular way of trade, sold them as slaves amongst the farmers of -Peloponessus, by whom they were set to work in the fields. Now, if -any class of slaves ought to be imbued with the sentiments of human -equality, it is, undoubtedly, men like these, who had not been born in -slavery, and who, from the very constitution of the Roman army, must -have been men of family and station. Let us see. Plutarch tell us, in -his Life of Flaminius, that some years after, when the Achæan cities -demanded succour of the Romans against Philip of Macedon, Titus Quintus -was sent to them with some legions, and made himself master of the -disputed territories. While engaged in these operations, his soldiers -fell in, one day, with the 1,200 Roman citizens who had been sold into -slavery by the Carthaginians, and found them delving the ground, like -any other slaves. As might be expected, the soldiers and the slaves -embraced one another as fellow-countrymen and old friends; but mark -the sequel: not a word is there in Plutarch or elsewhere to intimate -that either soldiers or slaves regarded this bondage of Roman citizens -as anything monstrous or degrading. On the contrary, after embracing, -the soldiers went their way, and the citizen-slaves resumed their -task-work. Flaminius, as being master of the country, might have set -them at liberty at once, if he liked: he did no such thing. It would -have been to <i>violate the rights of property</i>. It is true, those slaves -afterwards obtained their liberty; but it was only through a voluntary -subscription raised by the cities of the Achæan league, which, in -gratitude for the services rendered by Flaminius, redeemed the bondsmen -and made a present of them to their benefactor. And even when released -by Flaminius they did not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> resume their former rank of citizens: that -rank was irredeemably forfeited. They became <i>freedmen</i> only; which -imposed upon them a sort of fealty to their patron, whose vassals they -thenceforward were in the eye of the law. This one historical incident -speaks volumes. It shows how completely the system of slavery was -ingrained in the minds and habits of the people, as well as in their -laws and institutes. Here was a victorious Roman general and soldiers -so respecting the institution, that not even their own fellow-citizens, -made prisoners by their most hated foes, were regarded as fit objects -for freedom, until it pleased their masters or owners to give them -up to the general for a sum of money; and had it not been for the -subscription of the cities, the slaves would have reconciled themselves -to their lot of slavery as to a thing quite natural and proper under -the circumstances.</p> - -<p>After this, let it not be said that it was the force of law or the -strength of governments that maintained slavery in ancient times. No; -it was the universality of the public opinion in its favour. Had it -been otherwise, the slaves might have emancipated themselves in any -of those revolutionary crises which were of such frequent occurrence, -and when neither law nor government had any force adequately to cope -with them. But, even in their own most successful insurrections against -the tyranny of their masters, they never dreamt (as we have seen) of -abolishing slavery. Nay, on one occasion, when Marius, unable to cope -with Sylla’s faction for want of sufficient troops, solicited the -slaves to rise in behalf of the democratic party, and offered them -their liberty if they would but join his ranks, only three individuals, -we are told, out of the whole slave population gave in their names to -be enrolled.</p> - -<p>In the following chapter we shall endeavour to account for this, and -show that, as a general rule, the slaves acted wisely, in preferring to -remain slaves (when they knew so little of real liberty) to becoming -“free and independent labourers,” without arms, votes, lands, money, or -credit, after British fashion.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i039.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER VII.</span> <span class="smaller">COMPARISON OF ANCIENT WITH MODERN SLAVERY.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Forces which overthrew Chattel Slavery—Advantages of real Slaves -over Freed-Men and Wages-Slaves—Natural Fecundity esteemed a -Blessing, not a Curse—Condition of American Slaves under Slavery.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>Having seen how firmly rooted was the institution of direct human -slavery in the public opinion of the ancient world, let us now inquire -what was the potent force or combination of forces which subverted -that opinion, and which operated the mighty changes that afterwards -took place in the social relation of man to man. By these changes, we -mean the manumission of the slave-class, the consequent formation of -proletarianism, and, in course of time, the universal substitution -of indirect or disguised for direct or personal slavery—an order of -things which has ever since prevailed, and which, at the moment we -write, imposes upon the vast majority of every “civilized” country a -bondage more galling and intolerable than was the personal servitude of -man to man under the ancient system.</p> - -<p>It will be readily comprehended what a potent agency was requisite, -and what sacrifices must have been incurred, to subvert a social order -so deeply implanted in the habits, prejudices, and even convictions of -the whole world. To produce such effect, only the most potent causes, -only the most powerful influences known to act upon human nature, -could suffice. What are these? <i>Religion and self-interest.</i> For—not -to encumber ourselves with subdivisions of causes—suffice it to say, -that two overwhelming ones brought the change: one, the Christian -dispensation, which gradually revolutionized public opinion amongst the -slave-class, and among the pious and benevolent of the master-class; -the other was of the gross and worldly kind, coming from quite the -opposite direction, yet concurring to the same end—it was the force -of selfishness. This force it was which, operating by calculations of -profit and loss upon the mass of worldly-minded slave-owners, taught -them, if not instinctively, at least by practical experience, that -their bondmen might be made more servile and profitable slaves for -them, <i>without the name</i>, than any that ever bore the name. The former -or sublime Christian cause would, had it been allowed to operate freely -and unalloyed with worldly selfishness, have extinguished human slavery -of every form and degree from the face of the earth. The latter or more -worldly cause, by turning the manumitted slaves into proletarians and -mercenary drudges, only substituted a new and worse kind of slavery for -the old.</p> - -<p>But, before showing how the change was brought about, let us briefly -compare the two kinds of slavery—the old and the new. Under the old -system a slave was called by his right name—a slave.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> He was, to all -intents and purposes, the property of his master. He was liable to be -bought and sold, or otherwise disposed of, the same as cattle, sheep, -bales of goods, oil, wine, or any other kind of merchandise. If he had -a harsh or cruel master, he was liable to all manner of ill-treatment, -including corporal punishment and even death itself. Of liberty or -rights of course he had none but what his master might choose to -confer. Whatever wealth he might hoard or scrape together was at the -mercy of his master; for as slaves were themselves but the property of -their masters, whatever belonged to them belonged, by the same rule, to -their owners. It is needless to argue in condemnation of such a system: -it is self-condemned in the very fact that human nature recoils from -such a state, and that it is only bearable by those who know no better, -and only preferable to the sort of mockery of freedom to which it has -given place. Let it not, however, be supposed that the evils of such -a state were felt as we should now-a-days feel them, who have enjoyed -the rights of liberty and conscience; it was quite otherwise. If the -condition of direct slavery had its dark side, it had also its bright -side—bright, at least, in comparison with what has followed. The slave -of antiquity was not insulted with the name or mockery of freedom when -he knew he had none. He had not the shadow hypocritically offered him -for the substance. He had not to upbraid his masters with dissimulation -and treachery, in addition to the burdens imposed upon him. He had not -to complain that his master had robbed him or defrauded him of rights, -and of a position which belonged to him by the same constitutional -law by which the master claimed his own. Of these he could have known -nothing, simply because they had never existed in or before his time. -What men have never had, they can hardly be said to have ever lost; -and what men have never lost, they can better bear the want of, than -they can the loss of what was once theirs, and which they know and feel -ought still to belong to them. In these respects the chattel-slaves of -ancient and modern times have greatly the advantage over the starving -proletarian drudges falsely called “free and independent labourers.”</p> - -<p>But the ancient bondsman had other and more substantial advantages -unknown to his proletarian successors. He knew nothing of the actual -wants and destitution, nothing of the manifold privations, in which -the great mass of the labouring classes now-a-days live, move, and -have their being. The very fact of his being his master’s property -caused him to be always well fed, well housed, well clothed, and -well cared for, according to his condition and habits. If he had no -property, nor the right to acquire any, independently of his master’s -control, neither had he any rent or taxes to pay, nor any other claims -or demands upon him that were not all amply provided for at his -master’s expense. Food, clothing, shelter, firing, medicine, medical -care—these and every other essential requisite for keeping him in -health and good condition were abundantly supplied him by his master, -for the master’s own sake. Indeed, it was the master’s interest to -do so; for whether there was work for the slave to do, or not, it -equally behoved the master to keep him always in good <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>condition, that -he might be the better workman when there was work for him to do, -and that he might fetch a better price in the slave-market when his -services were no longer wanted. Besides, it was the custom in those -days for masters to take a pride in displaying the goodly state of -their slaves—of both their prædial and domestic slaves—just as our -modern gentry and graziers take a pride in displaying the stock upon -their farms, the studs in their stables, and, above all, the plump and -portly figures of their butlers, footmen, grooms, and all the other -paraphernalia of modern flunkeyism. There was, in those days, none of -that desperate competition, in vanity or in trade, which now-a-days -makes starvelings of the millions in order to make millionaires of the -thousands; which offers premiums for fat oxen, and the union workhouse -to lean labourers; and which awards prizes for bulls and rams, and -superior breeds of every description of brutes (not excluding even the -stye and the kennel), while it degrades the human animal below the -lowest description of savage man, and maintains its anti-christian -pomp of circumstances for the few, at the expense of blistering the -backs and pinching the bellies of those who, St. Paul said, should -be “first partakers of the fruits.” This kind of modern science was -wholly unknown to the ancients. Not a line is there in the works of -Homer, Hesiod, Plato, Aristotle, indeed of any of the old poets, -philosophers, or historians, to show that they knew anything of our -modern science of political economy. They believed in slaves and in -slavery; but they had no idea of enriching a master-class by famishing -the bodies of those to whom the masters owed everything, much less did -they ever dream that the wealth and aggrandisement of the master-class -were to be promoted by the expatriation, decimation, or diminution -of the slave-class. If the ancient Spartans occasionally decimated -their slaves, it was not because they looked upon them as a “surplus -population,” burdensome upon their estates, but because they feared -their growing numbers, while their own ranks were being continually -thinned by internecine wars with their neighbours. The idea of a slave -being a useless incumbrance, a mere incubus upon the soil, was an idea -utterly incompatible with their established custom of regarding slaves -not only as property, but as that superior description of property -which alone gave value to every other. Accordingly, though amongst the -ancient philosophers we find many strange schools and sects, and very -many eccentric and incomprehensible doctrines taught, yet nowhere do we -meet with any sect or school corresponding with our modern political -economists. There is no such philosopher as our Parson Malthus to be -found in the whole circle of classic or Biblical lore. Had such a -fellow as Malthus shown himself in the days of Alexander the Great, -and gone about preaching that the gods had sent too many mouths for -the meat and harvests they had provided, not even Diogenes would have -associated with such a lunatic; and if the slaves had only got scent -of the tendencies of his theory, not Alexander himself could, in all -probability, have prevented them from flaying him alive. Fortunately -for them, however, there were no Malthuses in the world at that time. -In the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> absence of such philosophers, slaves were not only free to -marry and to beget children, but their masters actually regarded -every increase in their slaves’ families as a direct gain—a direct -increase of the most valuable portion of their property. The idea that -at Nature’s feast there was no cover for the new-comer was, at that -epoch, an idea that would be as abhorrent to the master’s notions -of self-interest as it would have been to the slave’s instincts of -procreation and self-preservation.</p> - -<p>It is true, the condition of slaves was a deplorable one when they had -such brutes for masters as Seneca describes in the person of Vedius -Pollio; but we are to regard such extreme cases as rare exceptions. -All historic testimony goes to show that the general rule was in the -other direction. Even Seneca’s testimony proves this; for, in speaking -of this very Vedius Pollio, he says, “Who does not detest this man, -even more than did his own slaves, for fattening the fish in his ponds -with human blood?” The treatment of his gladiators by Lentulus Batiatus -is another indirect proof to the same effect. Had Lentulus trained -his gladiators to appear in the arena in the usual way, to be matched -against others on some great occasion of public games, &c., they would -not have complained, much less rebelled. They would, in that case, but -have been called upon to exercise a profession which was as familiar to -the Romans, and as little distasteful to the combatants themselves, as -that of prize-fighting in England or bull-fighting in Spain. But the -brute, Batiatus, kept his gladiators locked up, and was professedly -training them to <i>fight with one another</i> till they should die by each -other’s hands—a destination which, while it promised certain death, -held out no prospect of honour, <i>éclat</i>, nor even safety to the greater -number. It was this studied brutality, so much out of the ordinary -course, which provoked the slaves to mutiny and revolt. And the fact of -its being the only recorded instance of gladiators rising in rebellion -against the laws is the best proof that such barbarity was unusual, and -not sanctioned by the public opinion of the time. Indeed, so general -appears to have been the contentment of ancient slaves with their lot, -that only one or other of three causes is ever assigned by history for -the servile outbreaks it records:—first, excessive cruelty on the part -of masters; second, the non-execution of the laws regulating the labour -and condition of slaves; and third, the chiefs of parties raising and -embodying them with their insurgent bands in times of civil war. The -fewness of the servile wars recorded as arising out of the two first -causes sufficiently testifies that harshness on the part of masters, -and the non-execution of the regulations in favour of the slaves, -were but exceptions to the ordinary course of slave-life, and not the -general rule. It proves also that it was not against slavery itself the -slaves rose, seeing that it was only what they considered <i>an abuse of -it</i>, and not the thing itself, they rose against, and that, even when -victorious, they never set about abolishing the institution. And as to -the third cause of slave-insurrections, it proves still more forcibly -the general contentment of slaves with their lot; for, had it been -otherwise, <i>three</i> slaves only out of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> whole population would not -have responded to Marius’s appeal for a general rising of their order; -still less would they have failed to profit by the splendid victories -of Spartacus, when, had they only felt the sentiment of equality, or -entertained any dissatisfaction with their lot as slaves, they might -have effectually exterminated the whole master-class, and established -whatever form of government and of social order they thought fit. -Indeed, they had frequent opportunities during the last sixty years of -the Republic, and also during the first century or two of the Empire, -to make a successful rising against the master-class, had they been -inspired generally with a hatred of their servile condition. But it was -not so.</p> - -<p>As a general rule, the slaves both of Greece and Rome were fully -reconciled to their condition, and had good reason to be so, -considering how profoundly ignorant they were of the political -conditions upon which alone real liberty can exist for the many. With -their ideas and habits, any attempt to emancipate themselves would have -plunged them into deeper degradation and ruin. Even their masters, much -less themselves, knew little of the laws and institutions by which -liberty, with security and prosperity, can be established. The proof -of this is their interminable wars with one another, and with their -neighbours all around them. A still stronger proof is their egregious -folly in allowing agrarian monopoly, and usury to make such frightful -progress amongst them, that “free citizens” became actually greater -slaves to money-lenders and land-monopolists than the slaves so called; -till at last the republics of Greece and Rome were brought to such a -state that a military despotism alone could save them from tearing -one another to pieces. When such universal ignorance and barbarity -prevailed amongst the master-class—an ignorance and barbarity that -virtually left civil liberty and equality without any solid guarantees -whatever—it would be madness to expect that any revolution useful to -humanity could have been effected by a still more ignorant slave-class. -They would but have made confusion more confounded, and, by altogether -suspending production, annihilated society itself amid scenes of -indescribable carnage and cannibalism. At all events, the slaves knew -better than to make any such attempt. They preferred bearing the ills -they had, to flying to those they knew not of. Without land or capital, -and freedom to use them in security, they were infinitely better off -as slaves than they would be by any revolution, however successful, -that did not give them these essential requisites. And seeing how the -poorer classes of free citizens fared (who had to make shift to live -without the use of land or capital), it is no wonder they clung so -tenaciously to their well-fed, well-housed servile condition. In plain -truth, the slaves of antiquity would have been mad to exchange their -slavery for what is, now-a-days, falsely called liberty, unless in so -doing they took good care that, along with liberty, <i>they had the means -of producing and distributing wealth on their own account</i>. And as this -supposes a species of politico-economical knowledge infinitely beyond -what might be expected from such a class in their day,—as it supposes -such a knowledge of agrarian, monetary, fiscal,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> and other laws as -are absolutely necessary to the preservation of even the semblance -of liberty, and which knowledge was almost as dead a letter to their -masters as to themselves,—we cannot but rejoice, for their own sakes, -that the slaves of antiquity chose to remain as they were. When men -have but a choice of two evils, it is desirable they should choose the -lesser. The slaves of antiquity had but a choice between direct slavery -and the miseries of proletarianism: in our opinion, they chose the -lesser of the two. Had they been wise enough to understand their true -political and social rights, they might have escaped both. Christianity -came to teach them; but man’s perversity stepped in between them and -the light of the Gospel. Even to this day, after eighteen centuries of -gospel-propagandism, not one in a thousand of the slave-class—whether -they be chattel-slaves or wages-slaves—whether they be proletarians -or the property of their masters—understands his political and social -rights. The consequence is, the two kinds of slavery prevail still all -over the world; and, of the two, direct or chattel-slavery is now, as -formerly, the lesser evil of the two. In no part of the East, that we -know of, would an Oriental slave of modern times exchange conditions -with one of our Wigan handloom weavers, nor with a Dorsetshire labourer.</p> - -<p>But, to bring this question to a test that will make the difference -at once obvious to every one, let us just compare the condition of a -modern American slave (so-called) with that of “a free and independent -labourer” in England. We choose these two countries because they are -inhabited by the same Anglo-Saxon race; because they are at the head -of modern civilization; and because, from the commercial intercourse -between them, we know more of their positive and relative condition -than of any other two known countries.</p> - -<p>First, what was the actual condition of a modern chattel-slave, as he -was to be found in any of the Southern States of the great American -Union? We shall give it from the lips of an eye-witness—from one -who has visited that country and judged for himself, in the year -1849—above all, from one who is a rank abolitionist, and so thorough -going a hater of slavery, and of everything pertaining to it, that in -the paragraph immediately preceding the one we are about to extract, he -buoyantly exclaims, “When we remember the ardour and perseverance of -the American character, and the intelligence of their leaders, we must -believe that the day approaches when the axe shall be laid to the root -of this fell upas-tree.” The author of this sentiment is a Mr. Edward -Smith, who was deputed, along with another gentlemen, by an influential -body of capitalists in London to make a survey and inspection of -the north-western part of Texas, with a view to some extensive plan -of colonization projected by the parties. This Mr. Edward Smith has -furnished his employers with a printed report of his travels through -several States of the Union; and in that report he utters not a few -jeremiads upon the curse of slavery, and not a few withering invectives -against its aiders and abettors. If, therefore, any testimony in favour -of slaves and slavery can be pronounced wholly unexceptionable, it -is that of Mr. Edward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> Smith, the Abolitionist. Now, what says this -gentleman? We quote pages 83 and 84 of his report:—</p> - -<p>“From the slaves themselves and from other parties I have learned that, -with few exceptions, they are kindly treated, are not overworked, and -have abundance of food, clothing, and efficient medical attention. We -saw them lodged in small cabins, sometimes rudely built, and in other -places very neatly built, but always <i>partaking of the character of the -planter’s or overlooker’s house</i> near to which they stand. A slave, -his wife and family, occupy a cabin exclusively, unless the family be -small, when two or more families live together. The planters find it -to be their interest to use their negroes well. They always permit -and, indeed, urge the slave to do overwork by planting a small plot -of land, set apart for his use, with corn, tobacco, or other produce. -This they do after the day’s work is over, and also on Sundays, -when the law does not allow the master to require them to work; and -wherefore we saw them clean and well dressed, lying upon the banks of -the rivers, as we passed by. When the produce is gathered, it is sold -by the planters, and the proceeds given to the slaves. Some slaves -prefer to cut wood, which is sold to the steamboats; and all supply -themselves with vegetables from their own garden. Many industrious -slaves can thus obtain from fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars per -year for themselves, which they expend in the purchase of tea, coffee, -sugar, whisky, and other luxuries of the table, and in clothing fit -for any European gentleman. In large cities, as New Orleans, they -hire themselves from their masters at an agreed-upon sum, and work -for others, as they prefer, and thus earn from twenty to twenty-five -dollars per month for themselves. <i>Very many slaves own horses, kept -for their own use; and others own lands</i>; and Captain Knight, of the -‘New World,’ stated that he knew a slave <i>who owned four drays and -teams and seven slaves</i>. Indeed, when they are good servants, they are -much valued, and obtain every enjoyment they desire.”</p> - -<p>This extract is, we think, pretty decisive of our position; yet there -is another, just following, which is so strongly corroborative of what -we have advanced in respect of the contentment with their condition -which we have ascribed to the ancient slaves, that we cannot forego the -temptation to quote it. “Free-born Britons!” “independent labourers!” -mark this passage:—</p> - -<p>“They” (the slaves) “do not usually care to save money wherewith to -purchase their freedom, <i>feeling that the protection of their masters -is an advantage to them</i>; but there are those, as the stewardess on -board the boat on which we descended the Mississippi, who have paid -from 1,000 to 1,500 dollars for their freedom!”</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER VIII.</span> <span class="smaller">EXPLOITATION-VALUE OF SLAVE AND FREE LABOUR.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Contrast of Plantation-Servants with British Workpeople—Affluence -of former American Slaves—Misery of Free Labourers and -Artisans—Value of Irish Peasants and English Workers—Free and -Slave Children in America.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>Look on the life of a modern negro-slave in America, and compare it -with the life of a modern Irish or Scotch peasant, or even that of an -English hand-loom weaver in the North or of an English labourer in -the South and West. <i>Compare</i>, did we say? Alas! the two conditions -will not bear a comparison. <i>Contrast</i> is the word we must use. To -the damning disgrace of modern civilization be it said, we cannot -<i>compare</i> the condition of our free workpeople in Europe with that of -the negro-slaves of Louisiana,—we can only <i>contrast</i> them; and the -contrast is so truly appalling that, in contemplating it, one cannot -help trembling at the prospective destination of humanity.</p> - -<p>Mr. Edward Smith says: “Many industrious slaves can thus” (by overwork) -“obtain from 50 to 250 dollars per year, which they expend in luxuries -of the table and in clothing fit for any European gentleman.” This, be -it observed, is over and above an abundant supply of all their ordinary -wants by their masters. It includes neither food, drink, ordinary -apparel, medicine, firing, nor house-rents,—not even vegetables or -poultry, for with these, it seems, the slaves are provided out of their -own gardens and fowl-yards. It includes not one of those ordinary -expenses which absorb the entire week’s earnings of a modern “free-born -Briton.” The American slave’s surplus earnings may be considered as so -much pocket-money. He might save, or lay by at interest, the whole of -his 250 dollars per annum towards the purchase of his liberty, if he -liked to exchange his condition for that of an independent labourer. -According to Mr. Smith, however, the negro knows better; for Mr. Smith -tells us, “they” (the negroes) “do not usually care to save money -wherewith to purchase their freedom, feeling that the protection -of their masters is an advantage to them.” If this protection be -an advantage in America, where the wages of independent labour are -still comparatively high, what would be the negro’s feelings were it -proposed to him to give up his master’s protection in exchange for the -independence of a Dorsetshire labourer or of a Yorkshire weaver? Ah! -then, indeed, he would <i>feel</i> the difference between the two kinds -of slavery; then he would know how to appreciate that condition of -primitive slavery which Mr. Smith calls a upas-tree, and from which -our saints of Exeter Hall so yearn to release him. “Very many slaves,” -again quoth Mr. Smith, “own horses kept for their own use; and others<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> -own land.” We should like to know how many operative cordwainers or -journeymen tailors in London keep horses for their own use, and how -many of them own lands purchased with the proceeds of their overwork? -We should like to know, too, how many of their masters can afford to -keep horses for their own use? We apply this query to the tailors and -shoemakers of London, because no other two trades are subject to less -variation than these, and because the wages paid in them are higher in -London than anywhere else in the United Kingdom. Is there a journeyman -tailor or shoemaker in London that can afford to buy and keep a -horse out of his wages? We believe not one. And if it cannot be done -with London wages, certainly nowhere else can it be done in England, -Ireland, or Scotland. As to an English field-labourer, or an artisan -in one of our manufacturing towns, keeping a horse or owning land, -the idea is absolutely ludicrous. Indeed, we are living in times when -very few of their masters, much less themselves, can afford to indulge -in such luxuries. For though we have many of that class who, having -become millionaires and country squires, can keep carriages as well -as horses, yet the majority, if the truth were known, are nearer the -<i>Gazette</i> than they are to that easy condition in which men can afford -to keep horses for their recreation and amusement. The case of the -stewardess whom Mr. Smith met on board the boat in which he descended -the Mississippi presents a startling contrast to the ordinary condition -of industrious females in England. The stewardess had, it seems, with -her own surplus earnings purchased her freedom at from 1,000 to 1,500 -dollars; 1,500 dollars, at 4s. 2d. the dollar, is just £312 10s. of our -money. Where is the woman engaged in any branch of industry in England -that could show £312 10s., or a tithe of that sum, as the result of a -few years’ saving of wages? If there be such cases they are not one in -ten thousand. According to the commissioner of the <i>Morning Chronicle</i>, -to whose valuable revelations we referred in the preceding chapter, -“there are now in London some 28,577 needlewomen whose earnings average -but 4½d. per day. There are as many more whose earnings hardly exceed -3s. a week all the year round. Contrast (for we dare not say compare) -the condition of these unfortunate beings with that of the black female -slave who, besides living well, could save 1,500 dollars in a few -years wherewith to purchase her independence! Yet there are hypocrites -amongst us—hypocrites to be met with in shoals upon our platforms and -in our pulpits—who would wring tears of pity from us for the poor -negro slave, while not an atom of sensibility have they for their own -white slaves whose condition is infinitely more to be commiserated.”</p> - -<p>But, after all, the real test is this:—What is a negro-slave’s value -in the eye of his master, and what is the British or Irish slave’s -value in the eye of <i>his</i> master or employer? A sorry, good-for-nothing -slave indeed must he or she be whom an American planter could not find -a market for! From 800 to 1,200 dollars was a common price for a good -stout negro in New Orleans. In the case of the stewardess spoken of by -Mr. Smith, we find that her master<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> considered her worth from 1,000 -to 1,500 dollars—<i>i.e.</i>, of that much value to himself. We know in -the case of our own West India slaves, that our Parliament estimated -their value to their owners at £20,000,000, the annual interest of -which we taxpayers have still to provide. But how stands the British -or Irish slave in respect of marketable value? In Ireland his value -stands so high that, only a few years ago, the landlords of Kilkenny -county, with the Marquis of Ormond at their head, actually memorialized -the Government to relieve Ireland from the presence of 2,000,000 of -the peasantry, offering to assist the Government even pecuniarily -in any scheme of emigration or transportation, or expatriation or -extermination, it might set on foot for that purpose! Indeed, hardly -a Parliamentary session has passed over, for the last twenty years, -without witnessing some kind of project, or proposal, or suggestion -for getting rid of Ireland’s “surplus population.” Up to the winter -of 1846-47 (the year of the famine) 2,000,000, at least, of the -population were uniformly condemned as surplus! Instead of being -considered worth so much per head, like the negroes, it was deemed -worth making a pecuniary sacrifice to rid the land of them. At £10 per -head, these 2,000,000 would fetch just the sum which the West India -planters thought a very inadequate remuneration for the loss of their -slaves. Instead of asking £10 per head for them, the Irish owners and -occupiers of the land were disposed to give £10 per head to get rid -of them. They would have jumped at the bargain, could they have found -the money and the purchasers. Fortunately for those patriotic and -Christian gentlemen, the famine of 1846-47 came to carry off about a -million of the surplus. Emigration and starvation have since relieved -them of another large batch. Starvation being a cheaper process than -emigration, it is the favourite scheme of the Irish proprietary -classes. But as there were then, and still are, many refractory Irish -who hold the rich man’s laws of <i>meum</i> and <i>tuum</i> in less respect -than they do the great law of nature which forbids any man to starve -in a land of abundance, the landowners and occupiers have found it -necessary, and for their interest, to contribute largely to the -emigration of the last few years. They have in this way expended some -hundreds of thousands of pounds, besides sacrificing many times that -amount in the voluntary cancelling of debts and in the remission of -arrears of rent due. At all events, the proprietary classes of Ireland -have furnished, and do still continue to furnish, proofs innumerable -and irrefragable that they consider their white slaves as not only -valueless, but to be worth considerably less than nothing, seeing that -they will give something very considerable to get quit of them. There’s -the marketable value of an Irish white slave!</p> - -<p>And how stands the case in England? Not very dissimilar from Ireland. -Are not the ominous words, “surplus population,” as familiar to us upon -this side of St. George’s Channel as they are to our Irish brethren -upon the other side? Have we not all manner of emigration schemes -afloat here, as well as there, to get rid of the surplus? How often -has it been proposed to raise a gigantic loan of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> millions wherewith -to promote British emigration upon a gigantic scale, and to mortgage -the poor-rates as security for the repayment of the loan! We remember -how, some twenty and odd years ago, great numbers of the agricultural -parishes in England had it gravely in contemplation to get rid of -their surplus in that way. We remember some of the calculations made -on that occasion. We remember how certain wise men in certain places -laid it down that whole parishes might be cleared at the rate of £30 -per family, on the average, and how much better it was to sacrifice -the interest of this sum (£1 10s. for each) than to saddle a parish -with the maintenance of a whole family of paupers. According to this -estimate, a whole family of English white slaves was worth just £30 -less than nothing! In other words, their marketable value might be -expressed algebraically thus:—</p> - -<p class="center">An English white slave and family = minus £30.</p> - -<p>About the time this estimate was made of the value of live Englishmen -in this country, Burke and Hare, the murderers, were selling dead -men’s bodies, in Scotland, at the rate of £10 per head to the College -of Surgeons in Edinburgh. Consequently, a dead slave was at that time -worth some £40 more than a whole family of live ones, unless the latter -could be made available for anatomical purposes. Since that period -the value both of live slaves and dead ones has greatly fallen in -the market. Subjects for the dissecting-table can now be got almost -for a song. And as to live slaves, our “surplus population” has so -vastly augmented since the time referred to, that, notwithstanding -the myriads already disposed of by famine and the cholera, we feel -assured our lords and masters have still some 5,000,000 or 6,000,000 -more they would gladly get rid of upon any terms. There are full that -number at present in the United Kingdom for whom no regular kind of -remunerative employment can be had—who are, in consequence, regarded -as not only valueless, but as a positive incumbrance upon the soil—as -a dead loss to the country—and whose lives are thereby made a burden -to themselves as well as to others. To compare the condition of these -thoroughly oppressed and neglected beings with that of the well-fed, -well-clothed, well-housed, well-cared-for negro slaves described by Mr. -Edward Smith would be to outrage common sense. As already observed, we -may <i>contrast</i>; we cannot, in decency, <i>compare</i>. Why, according to -that gentleman’s testimony, any industrious negro, with a kind master, -could save more money in twelve months (besides leading a life wholly -exempt from care) than some of our hand-loom weavers could earn in two -years, or than an Irish white slave could earn in four years at 6d. a -day—which is more than their average earnings throughout the year.</p> - -<p>The writer of this happening to visit Leicester some twelve months -ago, he made diligent inquiry there touching the rate of wages and the -condition of the people generally, engaged in the staple trade of the -town. From the very best sources of information, he learned that their -average wages did not exceed 6s. a week throughout the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> year, although -at that period the hosiery trade was unusually brisk, and all hands -full of work. Only twelve months before, nearly one-half the artisans -were out of employ, and the streets literally swarmed, at all hours -of the day, with men, women, and children roaming about in a state of -utter destitution. To beg or steal was their only resource; for they -were absolutely starving.</p> - -<p>Talk of negro slavery, indeed! No chattel slaves of ancient or modern -times ever knew the dire distress and torturing privations of these -poor Leicester people. Indeed, except in the midst of a civil war, such -sufferings as theirs could not have happened under the ancient system -of chattel-slavery. In ordinary times of peace, it could not have been -even conceived; for neither masters nor slaves could have possibly had -any experience of such a state of things. It was only in desperate -civil wars, or occasionally from plagues, pestilences, or famine, that -such calamities arose in ancient times; and then all classes shared -alike in the visitation. Indeed, upon such occasions the slaves were -generally those that suffered least; for as they possessed nothing to -invite spoliation, and as their productive uses made it the interest -of all parties not to molest them, they necessarily escaped most of -the evils which, in times of war and commotion, ravaged every other -class. Hence their uninterrupted increase in numbers in Italy, Sparta, -and elsewhere; whilst the free citizens, or master-class, were being -continually thinned by the calamities, referred to. And seeing that -their owners could have valued them as property only on account of -their labour, the idea of their roving about in famished gangs, like -the poor Leicester weavers, without bread or work, and of then being -forced, as a means of preserving life, to beg a brother-worm of the -earth to give them leave to toil, is an idea that would be as novel -and as difficult of explanation to them as (to borrow an illustration -from Locke) the peculiar flavour of a pine-apple would be novel and -indescribable to one who had never tasted that particular fruit.</p> - -<p>But man lives not by bread alone; he has other wants besides those -of food, clothing, and shelter: he has certain moral wants, and -certain sympathies, the gratification of which is as essential to -his well-being and happiness as the satisfaction of his mere animal -wants. It is in respect of these, even more than in respect of his -physical requirements, that the chattel-slave had, and still has, so -immeasurably the advantage over the proletarian wages-slave. Waiving, -for the present, the numerous proofs and evidences of this to be found -in the ancient classics, let us prove it by less fallible evidence—by -the actual condition of the chattel-slave in our own time. And here we -shall again cite the testimony of an abhorrer of chattel-slavery, to -show its superiority over the wages-slavery of proletarianism. What -says Mr. Edward Smith, the Abolitionist, in treating of those moral -relations between master and negro slave, upon which the well-being -and happiness of the latter must depend, as much as upon his physical -comforts? He says, “The planters find it their interest to use the -negroes kindly.” He says, the cottages built for them “usually partake -of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> character of the planter’s or overlooker’s house, near to which -they stand.” He says, “The young coloured children are brought up with -the planter’s children, and thus learn to read a little,” though he -admits “the planters forbid their learning to write.” He says, “most -of the planters encourage ministers in giving religious instruction to -their slaves; for they have discovered that a good Christian is not a -bad servant.” He says that, as a consequence of the sort of paternal -care bestowed upon the coloured children by the planters, and of their -being brought up as companions and playmates with the planter’s own -children, “the slaves are deeply attached to the place of their birth -and to the planter’s children with whom they were raised, or whom they -nursed in infancy;” and he adds, “this attachment is commonly returned -by the planter, so that he will not part with the slaves so long as -he lives or can retain them.” These are pretty strong evidences. Yet -there is a stronger still. It relates to that event in every man’s -life, which, next to his coming into the world and leaving it, is -accounted the most important of his life; at all events, his happiness, -more especially in the humbler ranks, is said to depend more upon it -than upon any other event, or upon any other relation in which he may -stand towards his species; we mean, of course, marriage and sexual -intercourse. Now, how stands the negro-slave in this respect? Let us -see whether the planter scowls at him for marrying; let us see whether -he incurs the wrath of poor law guardians and commissioners, and the -withering anathemas of Malthus, for fulfilling one of the ends of his -being. Let us see, in short, whether he is menaced with starvation and -death, like a “free-born Briton” of the proletarian order, for obeying -a paramount law of his nature, enforced by scriptural injunction. -Upon this vitally important point in the negro’s condition Mr. Smith -observes:—“They” (the planters) “uniformly encourage marriage amongst -their slaves, and do not require a man and woman to marry unless they -wish to do so. If the man fancy a woman on another plantation, the -masters agree to the marriage, and one will sell the husband or the -wife, so that one master may own them both.” Compare these features and -conditions of negro marriages with those which characterise marriages -amongst the poor of this country. Where do we find a British or Irish -landlord encouraging the “peasantry” to marriage? Where do we find an -English or a Scotch cotton-lord, coal-king, or ironmaster promoting -early marriages amongst their white slaves? Whoever heard of any of -these gentry taking a young man or a young woman into his service, in -order to facilitate their union with those they love? On the contrary, -early marriages are systematically proscribed by these gentry, and, -indeed, all marriages, early or late, amongst the poor. Nothing is more -common, in this country, than for landlords to make it a condition, -when letting a farm to a tenant, that he (the tenant-farmer) shall not, -on any account, introduce a son-in-law or daughter-in-law beneath his -roof as inmates of the establishment; whilst he (the landlord) takes -care, at the same time, that there shall be no other habitations for -young couples on his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> estate. What is this but interdicting marriage -by taking the most stringent precautions against it? We know a certain -<i>noble</i> lady, now living, who, not many years ago, when appointing a -master and mistress to instruct the young people in a boys’ and girls’ -school (established upon one of her estates), made it a positive -condition of their appointment that, although they were man and wife, -they should have no children while they held their situation! This -titled Malthusian is by no means a rare specimen of her rank or sex; -on the contrary, she is but a sample of the sack; and the sack is -judged by the sample. In truth, from Lord John Russell and his Grace -of Richmond down to “penny-a-line Chadwick,” of poor-law notoriety, -and the very lowest of his understrappers, there prevails but one -sentiment on this subject, namely, an unmitigated dread and hatred of -affording any encouragement to the labouring classes to marry. And, -from the manner in which they have contrived to frame and administer -our present system of poor-laws (throwing the weight of the burden -where there is least strength to bear it), we may add, with truth, -that they have succeeded in making the great body of our ratepayers as -anti-matrimonial and as thoroughly Malthusian as themselves.</p> - -<p>As the tree is known by its fruit, so may we judge of the relative -merits of the system which facilitates and encourages marriages amongst -chattel-slaves, and of that which prescribes Malthusianism to our -free and independent proletarians. The result of the latter system in -this metropolis alone is 100,000 women obliged to subsist themselves, -wholly or in part, by prostitution! The result of the former system is -prostitution reduced within very narrow limits amongst the slave-class, -and what there is of it is directly chargeable to the masters’ own -account, and not to that of their male slaves.</p> - -<p>But enough has been said to establish our position that -chattel-slavery, with all its abominations, is less destructive -of life, liberty, and happiness than the wages-slavery of modern -proletarianism. Were other facts and arguments necessary, we could -supply them to redundancy. We therefore dismiss the subject, and shall -proceed to show how Christianity unconsciously caused the greater evil -in attempting to rescue humanity from the lesser.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i053.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER IX.</span> <span class="smaller">HISTORY OF EARLY SOCIAL REFORMERS.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Intention of foregoing Contrast—Difficulties of Christian -Revolution, and comparative Facility of Coming Ones—Essenes as -Early Reformers—Difficulties in the way of Christian Innovations -on Pagan Slavery.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>Before proceeding to show how Christianity, on the one hand, and -worldly selfishness on the other, concurred in superimposing the evil -of proletarianism upon that of chattel-slavery, and in gradually -supplanting chattel-slavery itself, to make place for the wages-slavery -of modern civilization, let us guard ourselves by a word or two against -a misconception that might possibly arise in the minds of some from the -perusal of the two last chapters.</p> - -<p>Let no one suppose that it was any part of our intention to extenuate -the abomination of serfdom or chattel-slavery under any condition, or -to mitigate that just abhorrence of it, in all its forms, which we feel -assured the reader, in common with ourselves, feels towards it. Far be -from us any such purpose. The object of this part of our inquiry was -simply to show that wages-slavery with proletarianism may be the worse -evil of the two, and is positively at this moment a greater curse to -the human race than any form of chattel-slavery or of serfdom known in -ancient, mediæval, or even in modern times. The inference, therefore, -that should be drawn from the last two chapters is, not that we regret -the social revolution which has taken place, but that it did not take -place in the right way, and that, in consequence, another and greater -revolution is still indispensable and inevitable for the major part of -the human race.</p> - -<p>That such revolution or, as we prefer to call it, reformation is -ardently desired by the millions everywhere cannot be doubted. -The existing condition of every country in Europe—our own -included—affords unmistakable evidence of it. The revolutionary -struggles of 1848, and the counter-revolutionary barbarities of 1849, -resorted to for their temporary suppression, are but forerunners -of the great social reconstruction we refer to. Whether this -reconstruction shall be effected peaceably in the way of social -reformation, or emerge, like order out of chaos, from the throes of a -violent convulsion, is a secret of the future, which time alone can -disclose. It ought to be, it may be, and, we trust, will be a peaceful -reformation. The times are favourable for such a change. The amazing -revolution which has lately taken place in the arts and sciences, as -applicable to the purposes of human economy, ought naturally to give -birth to another revolution of a kindred quality in the political and -social mechanism of society. This latter change need have nothing in -common with the innovations or revolutions of times past. We live at -an era of the world’s history when science may be made to yield more -treasure for all than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> ever was won for the few, by war and commerce, -in the past. We have agencies and powers at command for the production -of wealth, and facilities for its rapid interchange, which the ancient -world never dreamt of, and which to even our own grandfathers in the -last century would have seemed as marvellous as a Barmecidal feast or -any other brain-creation in an Arabian tale. By the agency of a single -inanimate power, that consumes not and never tires, we can do more -to change the face of terrestrial creation than could be done by the -labour of all the men and horses in the known world. We have already -in full play, though misapplied, a sufficiency of this power to equal -the labour of 700 or 800 millions of hands, with a capability of -enlarging its application and uses <i>ad libitum</i>, and with mechanical -contrivances within reach whereby that gigantic power may be made -available for the performance of every operation now performed by human -hands, and for the production and distribution of every description of -wealth and luxury desirable for man’s use. We can raise more sustenance -for man and beast from an acre of land than could the ancients from -six. We can transport tons of merchandise in ten or twelve hours to -distances which our ancestors could hardly have reached within as -many days. We could, were it worth while, light up the whole of this -vast metropolis at a single stroke of the clock. We have learned to -ride by vapour, to sketch and paint with the sunbeam, and to transmit -our messages by the lightning. In the subjugation of the elements to -man’s use, we have opened new fields for ambition, new roads to glory, -whose trophies will, ere long, throw those of kings and conquerors -into the shade, and render statecraft, priestcraft, lawyer-craft, and -every other description of craft now in the service of landlordism and -money-mongering, as odious and as obsolete as the occult sciences.</p> - -<p>With these powers and appliances at command, no portion of the -human race needs the subjugation of any other portion for the -gratification of its utmost legitimate wants and desires. With -such prodigious advantages in its favour, the age we live in ought -to witness the extinction of every vestige of every description -of slavery known to man. The transition from chattel-slavery to -proletarianism and wages-slavery cost, as we shall see, rivers of -human blood; and, nevertheless, man’s ignorance and barbarity have, -as we have seen, made the change rather a curse than a blessing -to the majority of his fellows. The second social revolution—the -transition from proletarianism and wages-slavery to real and universal -emancipation—may be effected without the loss of a single life, or -the sacrifice of a shilling’s worth of his possessions to any man of -any class. Such, at least, is the creed of us, National Reformers. To -make that creed known and appreciated by submitting it to a full and -impartial examination by the public, and thereby to enlist as many -as we can of the good and wise of all classes in the cause of human -redemption, is, we hardly need say, the main object of this inquiry. -In entering upon it, we found it necessary to begin at the beginning. -The light of the past, though a lurid one, has appeared to us necessary -to illumine the present; and, to see our way clearly into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> future, -both lights will, we think, be found serviceable. In other words, to -render clearly intelligible <i>what ought to be</i>, we have deemed it an -essential part of our inquiry to ascertain <i>what has been</i> and <i>what -now is</i>. In the prosecution of this task, we now proceed to show how -Christianity and selfishness concurred in changing the slavery <i>that -was</i> into the slavery <i>that is</i>.</p> - -<p>As already explained, the institution of slavery was never called in -question by any class of the ancients before the advent of Christ, if -we except that small obscure sect amongst the Jews known by the name -of Essenes. Even these are supposed by some to have been a society -of Christian monks originally formed by St. Mark, who is said to -have founded the first Christian church at Alexandria. The accounts -given us by Josephus and Philo, however, make it much more probable -that the Essenes were Jews, and not Christians, and that they existed -before the birth of the Messiah. Those who ascribe their origin to -St. Mark evidently confound them with another sect of later growth, -established at Alexandria by Christian monks, and known by the name, -Therapeutæ. The bulk of this latter sect are supposed to have been -Greek Jews, converted to Christianity, and settled in Egypt. The -Essenes lived chiefly in Palestine, and spoke the Aramean and not the -Greek language. As far as certainty can be had in such matters, there -is reason to believe that the Essenes existed before and in the time -of Christ; and though no mention is made of them in the New Testament, -they are supposed to be alluded to by St. Paul in his Epistles to the -Ephesians and Colossians and in his First Epistle to Timothy. From -Josephus’s and Philo’s account of them, we should suppose them to -have been enthusiasts and ascetics, who occupied pretty much the same -position amongst their contemporaries and co-religionists, the Jews, as -the Shakers in America do amongst the modern Christian sects of that -country. That they were not <i>necessarily</i> Christians might, we think, -be fairly inferred from the very doctrines and practices ascribed to -them; and that the existence of such a sect might well have preceded -Christ’s appearance will appear strange to no one who considers how -very popular St. John the Baptist was, and what crowds of enthusiastic -followers he attracted by his preachings and asceticism before the -Saviour made known His mission. Assuredly the Essenes were not more -ascetic than St. John the Baptist, whose raiment was camel’s hair, and -food locusts and wild honey; and assuredly their mysticism and social -equalitarianism bear less analogy to veritable Christianity than the -doctrines and practices of John.</p> - -<p>This argument alone, independently of historic authority, ought, we -think, to suffice to set aside the ill-grounded belief of many that -the Essenes were <i>necessarily</i> an early Christian sect. Their holding -certain doctrines in common with Christians, such as the immortality -of the soul and man’s spiritual responsibility to and equality before -God, is no more a proof that they were followers of Christ, than the -holding of similar doctrines by Socrates and Plato would prove these -philosophers to have been believers in a religion which was unknown -till near four centuries after their death. Dr. Neander’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> account of -the Essenes is, that they were a society of pious Jews, who, disgusted -with the cant and hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and wearied with the -trials of the outward and of the inward life, had withdrawn themselves -out of the strife of theological and political parties, at first, -apparently (according to Pliny the Elder), to the western side of the -Dead Sea, where they lived together in intimate connection, partly -after the fashion of the monks of later days, and partly like mystical -orders in all periods have done. From this society other smaller ones -afterwards proceeded, and spread themselves all over Palestine. They -employed themselves in the arts of peace, such as agriculture, pasture, -handicraft works, and especially in the art of healing according to -the simple but unerring ways of Nature. Dr. Neander thinks it also -probable that they imagined themselves supernaturally illuminated in -their search into Nature’s secrets and use of her powers; and that -their natural knowledge and art of healing assumed, moreover, a sort -of religious or theosophic character, since they professed to have -peculiar prophetic gifts. Comparing this account with what we know -of similar sects in our own time—with the Mormons, for instance, -or with the Shakers, or with the White Quakers of Dublin—it seems -probable enough. It is the way of all such enthusiasts to run from one -extreme to another. Despising the Pharisees for their hollowness and -canting adherence to mere traditional and ceremonial law, in which the -<i>letter</i> was everything and the <i>spirit</i> nothing, the Essenes went -right into the opposite extreme, and almost sacrificed the outer to -the inner man. They believed firmly in the immortality of the soul and -in future rewards and punishments; they were absolute predestinarians; -they observed the seventh day with peculiar strictness; they held the -traditions of the Old Testament in great reverence, but only as mystic -writings which they expounded allegorically; they sent gifts to the -Temple, like other Jews, but offered no sacrifices; they admitted -no one into their society till after a three years’ probation; they -lived in a state of perfect equality, except that they paid great -respect to the aged and to their priests; they considered all secular -employments ungodly and immoral, except agriculture and the trades -and occupations connected with it. They were practical communists in -the largest sense of the word, for they had no separate or individual -interests, and held all things in common; they were industrious, -quiet, orderly, and free from every kind of vice practised in ordinary -society; they held solitude and celibacy in high esteem. Some say they -allowed no marriages or sexual intercourse in their society; but this -is doubted. They allowed no change of raiment till necessity required; -they abstained from wine and other fermented liquors; they were not -permitted to eat but with their own sect, and then a certain portion -of food was served out to each person, of which they partook together -after solemn ablutions.</p> - -<p>It is, no doubt, the similarity of many of these practices to those -of some of the early Christians, and of the Therapeutæ in particular, -that has led some Roman Catholic divines, and also some <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>philosophic -writers, to speak of the Essenes as of a Christian sect. Were the -supposition of these writers correct, history would in that case be -without one single testimony to show that the theory or practice of -the equality of human rights was known to any ancient people on earth, -Jew or Gentile, before the propagation of the Gospel. We believe, -however, that the supposition is without foundation. We believe the -Essenes were a Jewish, not a Christian sect. We believe their sect -was anterior to Christ, and even to John the Baptist. We believe it -consisted of ardent Jews, who, inflamed by the pious, fervid, and -truly democratic outpourings of Nehemiah and others of their prophets, -and disgusted by the manner in which they saw all Moses’s laws in -favour of the poor set aside by the scribes and Pharisees of their -day, to the profit of usurers and land-monopolisers, resolved, in the -language of their own Scripture, to “come out from amongst them and be -separate;” and that, accordingly, in the words of Dr. Neander, they -were “distinguished from the mass of ordinary Jews in this—that they -knew and loved something higher than the outward ceremonial and a dead -faith—that they really did strive after holiness of heart and inward -communion with God.” We believe moreover, that, instead of owing their -origin to Christianity, Christianity in a great measure owed its early -progress and successes to the Essenes; and that the Therapeutæ, with -whom they have been confounded, were but an offshoot of their society, -which subsequently engrafted itself upon a Christian stock. With these -considerations we hold it to be an established fact that the Essenes do -constitute a veritable exception, but the only solitary one recorded -in all history, of any people, before Christ’s advent, repudiating the -doctrine and practice of human slavery. This singular exception, if it -be one, proves two things worthy of every serious man’s notice. One is, -that if we are not indebted to Christianity for the first or earliest -repudiation of human slavery, we are indebted for it to the purest -fraction of that people, and to the purest form of that religion, to -whom and to which we owe Christianity itself; in other words, it is to -believers in the God of the Jews and of the Christians, and not to the -believers in any pagan gods or in no God, we are indebted for the first -authoritative interference with the pretended right of man to hold -his fellow-man in bondage. The other is, that the Essenes must have -purposely avoided propagandism and proselytism, kept themselves few -and select, and courted retirement and obscurity, in order to escape -persecution and perhaps death at the hands of their Jewish brethren. -Upon no other supposition would it be easy to account for their fewness -and impunity. For everything recorded of them goes to show that they -were as singular a people amongst the Jews, as the Jews themselves -were singular to the rest of the world; and those who did not spare -Christ and his Apostles were not likely to have spared them, had they -been equally bold and zealous in the propagation of their principles. -It was, probably, from similar motives that they mixed up celibacy -and other asceticisms and eccentricities with their system. What was -singular and unpopular was not likely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> to alarm rulers, or to excite -a dread of innovation, because not likely to excite imitation and to -attract followers; and what the authorities or the ruling classes saw -no cause to dread, they would not be forward to prosecute or persecute. -The apparent absurdities and vagaries of many other levelling sects -might probably be accounted for in a similar way. Had the Mormons mixed -up celibacy and other repulsive asceticisms and absurdities with their -politico-religious system, like the Shakers and White Quakers, it is -not improbable that they would be still under the patriarchal care of -Joe Smith at Nauvoo. This fact alone speaks volumes for the dangers and -difficulties Christianity had to encounter a few years later, when, -for the first time in the history of the human race, a few fishermen -and other obscure persons, headed by the supposed son of a carpenter, -proclaimed open warfare against all that, up to that time, had been -held sacred and indestructible in the constitution of human society.</p> - -<p>And what pen, what tongue, can describe the zeal, the labour, the -sacrifices, the dangers, the trials, the persecutions, of the early -Christians in their first onslaught upon the powers of might and -darkness? Never, never, can a tithe of a tithe of what they achieved -and suffered in the cause of human redemption be known to their -Christian successors of our day. It is only the profound politician, -conversant with men and with the world, as well as versed in the -history of his own and other times, who can even imagine what they must -have suffered, or approximate to appreciating the miraculous virtues -they must have displayed, and the herculean labours they must have -performed.</p> - -<p>Had the slaves of the ancient world been as conscious of their -own degradation, or as discontented with their lot, as are their -proletarian successors, the wages-slaves of our day, the case would -have been vastly different. But it was not so; on the contrary, the -slave-class of old was the very class that least of all was susceptible -of the sentiment of equality, and least disposed by inclination or -habit to countenance equalitarian innovators. What Mr. Edward Smith -says of the negroes of America is still more applicable to the ancient -slave-populations:—“They never tasted freedom, and do not feel the -want of it; and to be as happy as a nigger is a common phrase in free -and slave States alike.” If the modern negro has never tasted freedom, -he has at least heard of it, and heard that slavery is accounted a -crime and a felony in most Christian countries. But the ancient slave -never heard of, or imagined, any such a thing. Besides, except when he -had a downright brute for his master, he was really comfortable and -happy—“as happy as a nigger,” and for the self-same reasons.</p> - -<p>Here was the first great difficulty Christianity had to cope with—a -difficulty almost impossible of conception in our times. To appreciate -it properly, we must only try to conceive what a Chartist or Socialist -lecturer’s difficulty would be as a propagandist in London or in the -provinces, provided all our labourers, artisans, and other workpeople -were so fully employed at light work and ample wages, that “as happy -as a hand-loom weaver,” “as happy as a London<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> needlewoman,” or “as -happy as a Dorchester labourer” would be as current proverbial phrases -in England as the phrase, “as happy as a nigger,” is in America. Add -to this the difference between the toleration allowed to opinions -now-a-days and formerly, and the fact that as slaves were the property -of their masters, to tamper with them was, in the eye of the law and of -public opinion, to tamper with the master’s rights of property and with -his personal security. Just imagine these things, and we shall then -have some faint idea of what the early Christians had to contend with -from this source alone, in the first propagation of <i>liberty, equality, -and fraternity</i>. But of this and their other difficulties, dangers, and -sufferings more in the next chapter.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i060.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER X.</span> <span class="smaller">PROGRESS OF EARLY CHRISTIAN PROPAGANDA.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Opposition from corrupt Slave-Caste—Detestation of Christian -Doctrines by Slave-owners—Incomprehensibility of new Doctrine -of Equality—Absence of a destitute Free People a Drawback on -Reform—Spread of the New Teachings—Alarm, and Persecution of the -New Faith.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>We have seen, in the preceding chapter, what apparently insurmountable -difficulties the early Christians had to struggle with in the -ignorance, contentment, traditional habits, and deep-rooted prejudices -of the slave-class. To these hereditary bondsmen, who knew no gods but -their masters’ gods, no law but their masters’ will, the sublime dogmas -of the Gospel appeared altogether incomprehensible and out of nature’s -course. Slavery they had ever regarded as decreed for them by fate; and -as they had no wants, spiritual or temporal, but such rude ones as were -abundantly provided for by their owners’ care, they regarded with alarm -and distrust the apostles of a new faith, which was characterised as -subversive of everything human and divine. In a word, the slave-class -was, of all classes existing at the time, the least accessible to -evangelical doctrine,—the least susceptible of the new dispensation -so freely and so bountifully offered, for the first time, to the whole -of humanity in the name of the Creator of all. Undoubtedly, this, if -not the first, was the greatest stumbling-block in the way of the new -reformers.</p> - -<p>That the master-class and the civil magistrate should encounter -such unheard-of innovations with the fiercest resistance was but -what might naturally be expected. To these the new religion was at -once sedition and rank blasphemy. A religion which treated their -gods and oracles as the offspring of fraud, begotten upon the body -of folly, was subversive of everything they deemed conservative of -society and wished to be held sacred by the multitude. A religion -which taught there was only one true God, the common Father of all, -in whose sight all men were equal,—that this God was no respecter of -persons or of classes, but would judge all alike, without regard to -rank, family, or condition,—that His worship demanded the practice -of all the virtues, and a renunciation of pride, lust, covetousness, -ambition, injustice—in short, of all the vices inseparable from -tyranny and slavery,—that, to be acceptable in His sight, men should -be as brothers, loving Him above all things, and their neighbours as -themselves,—a religion which told masters and rulers that whoever -would be foremost should be the servant of the rest, and which enjoined -upon all that whatsoever they would have others to do unto them, -even so should they do unto others,—a religion of this (till then) -new and singular character must of necessity have appeared a medley -of abominations to masters and rulers. And<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> such, in good sooth, it -did appear to them. Indeed, so utterly atrocious and “subversive of -all law and order” did Christianity appear to the world at its first -introduction, that, but for the obscurity and seeming insignificance -of its first propagators, it is impossible it ever could have been -established by mere human agency. Contempt and pity were the true -safeguards of its first missionaries. Had they, at the outset, -exhibited any signs of strength or importance, it is certain they would -have been extirpated at once. No slave-owner would tolerate a system -which went to deny him a property in his fellow-man. No ruler, no -magistrate, would spare innovators whose doctrine went to revolutionize -the entire social system as then constituted. No nation as a notion, no -people as a people, would, for an instant, endure a religion which went -to deprive them of <i>their</i> gods—the accredited protectors of their -liberties and laws. For in those days, be it observed, every particular -State or people had its peculiar form of worship, and its own peculiar -gods; and every religion being particularly united with the laws which -prescribed it, there was no way of converting a nation but by subduing -it—no possibility of any system of proselytism proving successful -but what could enforce its dogmas at the head of a victorious army. -In other words, the only system of religious propagandism known in -the old pagan world was the propagandism of the sword. And here let -us note, for the benefit of certain shallow philosophists who declaim -against Christianity on the alleged ground that before its introduction -religious wars were unheard of, that political and religious wars -amongst pagans were one and the same thing; and consequently, to make -good their case, they should prove that political wars were unheard -of. Rousseau exposes this philosophic error effectively in his “Social -Contract,” when showing the inseparable connection that subsisted -between religion and politics under the pagan system. “The reason,” -he says, “there appear to have been no religious wars in the days of -paganism was, that each State, having its peculiar form of government -as well as of religion, did not distinguish its gods from its laws, -and the political was also a religious war; the jurisdiction of their -gods being, as it were, limited by the boundaries of the nation, and -the gods of one country having no right over the people of another.” -Under an order of things like this, it is manifest no progress could -have been made by the first Christians had they appeared in sufficient -numbers, or of sufficient importance in the way of rank and station, -to attract the notice of governments. As already observed, it was to -their insignificance and obscurity alone they owed their preservation -and first successes. For, as we shall presently see, the moment they -grew strong enough to invite public vigilance, from that moment their -persecutions began, and a torrent of execration and vengeance was let -loose upon them the like of which was never witnessed before, nor will, -we trust, ever be again. What we shall say of these persecutions will -abundantly prove the horror which the doctrine of equality inspired in -rulers and slave-owners, and, at the same time, show what miracles of -<i>bearing</i> and <i>forbearing</i> the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> martyrs of the faith had to achieve -before those great principles, which all true Christians and democrats -now hold sacred, could ever obtain recognition in the world.</p> - -<p>A third difficulty, as formidable as either of the others, although -of a negative kind, also obstructed the early Christians. It was the -absence of a numerous poverty-stricken, destitute class, corresponding -with our modern proletarians, and having, like them, no guarantee for -regular subsistence from day to day. Had such a class as this been -in existence in St. Paul’s time, his missionary labours amongst the -Gentiles would have been immeasurably lighter and more successful. -The millions would have been everywhere, as it were, predisposed for -the new doctrine. Life being a burden to such people, they would have -flung themselves with enthusiasm into the movement. But all history -goes to show that hardly any such class existed till a century or -two later. Speaking on this subject, an eminent French writer (M. de -Cassagnac) observes:—“We have no certain means of determining up to -what period of history pure slavery continued, <i>i.e.</i>, slavery without -any enfranchisements or manumissions.”</p> - -<p>Although we find early mention made of <i>freedmen</i> in the Bible and -in the “Odyssey,” yet it is certain that in the primitive times of -slavery there were no beggars. One is, in effect, a beggar only though -lack of other means of subsistence. Now, a slave is not a beggar, he -being found and provided for by his master. There were no beggars in -our colonies during the early period of their settlement; and there -are but few still, notwithstanding the people of colour have been set -free. Blackstone judiciously observes, in his “Commentaries on the -Laws of England” (without being apparently aware of the value and -importance of the fact in a moral and social point of view), “that -the vast numbers of destitute poor which had already, in his time, -overspread England—and for whose subsistence the government had found -it necessary to make some provision, ever since the reign of Henry -IV., by an eleemosynary contribution levied with the regularity and -permanence of an ordinary tax—arose chiefly from the manumission or -setting free of large bodies of serfs during the middle ages, who were -suddenly and without forethought thrown upon society.” The monasteries, -with their magnificent hospitals and well-organised system of charity, -supported these poor outcasts as well as might be for a considerable -period. But at length came the Reformation, which, pitilessly closing -the monasteries, changed the workpeople into paupers, and the destitute -poor into robbers. Following up this argument, M. de Cassagnac, -after showing why there are fewer destitute poor in France than in -England, concludes thus:—“But whether we regard France, England, -or any other country,—whether we consult ancient history or modern -history,—we shall find it everywhere and at all times to hold good, -as a general rule, that <i>the emancipation of slaves is the first and -universal cause of pauperism and mendicity all the world over</i>.” Our -pseudo-philanthropists and saints of Exeter Hall—our abolitionists -and humanity-mongers, who sentimentalize so blandly and edifyingly -upon the evils of negro-slavery, will not, mayhap, be much gratified<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> -by this piece of historic intelligence. It is not the less true, -however. Living experience adds the weight of its testimony to that -of ancient history to confirm M. de Cassagnac’s conclusions. For, -to this day, we find that wherever direct or chattel slavery is the -normal condition of the mass of the labouring class—as, for instance, -in sundry Asiatic nations and in the Southern States of America till -recently—there pauperism and mendicity are comparatively unknown. A -few beggars and destitute persons may be found, here and there, amongst -such people; but, besides that their number is hardly noticeable in the -general mass, it will also be found that even these few are decayed -freedmen and their offspring, or else the descendants of slaves who had -purchased or otherwise obtained their freedom.</p> - -<p>M. de Cassagnac mentions another fact confirmatory of this conclusion. -It is, that the first great irruption of beggars, prostitutes, thieves, -and paupers which overran Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire is -ascertained to have taken place from the second to the sixth century—a -period which corresponds exactly with the time when the mass of pagan -slaves set free was added to the mass of enfranchised Christians; and -this irruption made itself manifest at once by the regular organisation -of hospitals which then took place, but which were altogether unknown -to the ancients, whose custom it was to provide for their sick and -infirm slaves in private infirmaries, to which dispensaries were -attached, within their own premises. Indeed, wherever we find the word -“beggar” or “pauper” occur in primitive writings, we may make sure -that those writings belong to an epoch when a great many slaves had -already been emancipated—that is to say, to a secondary epoch in the -civilization of the country the writings may refer to.</p> - -<p>The same remark applies to mercenaries or wages-slaves; for the -ancient mercenary is no other than a manumitted slave, who is allowed -to sell his labour when he can no longer be sold himself, he being -no longer any one’s property. There is an allusion to this class of -persons in Leviticus xxv. 6: there are a few also in the “Odyssey.” -Plutarch, in his “Life of Theseus,” cites a verse of Hesiod, in which -also allusion is made to mercenaries or wages-slaves. In the same poem -of Hesiod there is mention made of beggars. These several allusions, -however, are made in such a way as to show that the class referred to -was insignificantly small. Moreover, it is far from certain that in -some of them the word “mercenary” does not refer to a class of slaves -corresponding with those modern ones in America, whose masters allowed -them, as it were, to farm themselves out to other employers, accepting -a fixed sum for themselves, and permitting the slaves to appropriate -the overplus; just as a modern London cabman is allowed to pocket all -he can make in the day, over and above what he pays his “governor” -for the use of his horse and vehicle. It is remarkable that Homer’s -“Iliad,” which was written before the “Odyssey,” does not contain a -single hemistich having reference to paupers or beggars; from which it -has been inferred that the period intervening between the two works -was one of those periods of transition when, manumissions occurring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> -with unusual frequency, a small mercenary class was formed, to which -allusion is made in the later poem. At all events, it is quite certain -that no large class of mercenaries or wages-slaves existed at the -time the Gospel was first propagated; and this was one of the main -difficulties in the way of its progress. A destitute proletarian class -would have hailed the doctrine of equality with joy and gladness. -To well-fed, contented, ignorant slaves, who had neither hunger nor -tuition to sharpen their intellects, it was all but incomprehensible: -besides, the relation in which they stood to their owners made it -perilous to tamper with them.</p> - -<p>In the face of these formidable difficulties, it may well be asked -what means, short of the miraculous, could have secured such amazing -successes for Christianity so soon after its foundation? We are not -<i>divines</i>, and therefore shall leave the miraculous to those who prefer -accounting in that way for the truly marvellous progress made by the -first Christians in the propagation of their doctrines. Suffice it for -us to say that nothing like it was ever before known in the world, nor -since. Of the rapidity and multiplicity of its early triumphs we have -abundant evidence in the history of the Acts of the Apostles. In Judea, -where the Gospel was first preached (and where, no doubt, the labours -of bygone martyred prophets, the preachings of John the Baptist, and, -mayhap, the example and secret propagandism of the Essenes had prepared -the ground for the seed), the new mission was, as might be expected, -most successful. On the fiftieth day after the Crucifixion, it is said, -three thousand persons were converted in Jerusalem by a single sermon -of the Apostles. A few weeks after, five thousand true believers were -present at another sermon preached in Jerusalem. Within less than ten -years after Christ’s death, the disciples and followers had become -so numerous throughout Judea, particularly in and about Jerusalem, -that they were objects of jealousy and alarm to Herod himself. About -the twenty-second year after the Crucifixion they had so multiplied -themselves that their name was legion. These facts may be collected -from the Acts themselves.</p> - -<p>Nor was it amongst the poor only that the doctrines of fraternity and -equality gained ground; they penetrated all ranks of the population; -they were ardently espoused by men in high stations and of responsible -offices, whose countenancing of such a creed was at the moment a most -perilous adventure. Amongst those early proselytes we find Joseph -of Arimathea and Nicodemus, both members of the Jewish sanhedrim or -council; Jarius, a ruler of the synagogue; Zaccheus, the chief of -the publicans at Jericho; Apollos, a distinguished orator; Sergius -Paulus, a Roman and governor of the island of Cyprus; Cornelius, -a Roman centurion; Dionysius, a judge and senator of the Athenian -Areopagus; Erastus, treasurer of Corinth; Tyrennus, another Corinthian -and professor of rhetoric; Paul, learned in the Jewish law; Publius, -governor of Melite (now Malta); Philemon, a man of great rank and -influence at Colosse; Simon, a sophist of some note in Samaria; Zenas, -a lawyer; and, we are told, even some of the emperor’s own household. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p> - -<p>For, as may be inferred from some of these names, it was not in Judea -only the new faith triumphed: it spread with almost equal celerity -and success throughout Asia Minor, Greece, Africa, and the islands of -the Archipelago; indeed, everywhere in the countries bordering the -Mediterranean. There was hardly a province of the Roman empire that was -not visited by its missionaries, even in the lifetime of the Apostles. -Some of its earliest and most marked triumphs came off in the heart -of Greece itself, at that time reputed the most polished nation in -the world, and to whose schools and academies (as being the choicest -nurseries of learning, art, and science) the aristocracies of Rome -and elsewhere sent their sons to be educated and trained for public -employments. Indeed, long before the last of the Apostles disappeared, -we read of churches founded at Ephesus, Corinth, Thessalonica, Berœa, -Philippi, and other Greek cities. Rome herself, the seat of empire -and mistress of the world, was not proof against the contagion of -spiritualized democracy. Before the end of the second century there -were Christians to be found in almost every department of the imperial -service—Christians in the senate, in the palace, in the camp, in -the public offices,—in short, everywhere, it is said, except in -the temples and the theatres, from which, of course, their religion -debarred them.</p> - -<p>But, it will be readily imagined, this amazing progress was not -obtained without paying the cost which is paid for all reformations, in -the blood and calamities of the principal actors. A religion of such -unheard-of character, ushered into a world such as we have described, -could not but excite the fiercest opposition and call forth the most -malignant passions. It was so with Christianity, despite all the -miracles alleged to have been wrought in its favour. The very term -“Christian” was first heard of as a term of reproach. The new believers -are said to have got that name at Antioch, where the people “were given -to scoffing,” but afterwards adopted it themselves as a term of honour, -and gloried in it, just as we have seen the Chartists of England adopt -that title (first given them in derision by their enemies), and glorify -themselves in it; or as the French revolutionists of 1793 adopted and -converted into an honorary title the nickname of “Sans Culottes,” -contemptuously given them by Lafayette; or as our democratic brethren -in America converted “Yankee Doodle” into a national air, by way of -revenge for the insult originally intended by their enemies in its use.</p> - -<p>That the word Christian was, indeed, originally used as a term of -reproach cannot be doubted. Christ or his disciples never used the -term. It is nowhere to be found in the Gospels; and if made use of -twice or thrice in the Acts, and in one of the Apostolic Epistles, -it is evidently used as a term borrowed from others, and not as one -voluntarily adopted by the sect itself. But the best proof that the -term was used in an offensive sense, and that the sect itself was held -in detestation (mitigated only by contempt), is furnished by Tacitus’s -“Annals,” in the only passage in which that historian deigns to notice -them. It occurs where, speaking of the Christians persecuted by Nero, -he describes them as believers in a “deplorable and destructive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> -superstition,” which had its origin with one Christ; and then, as -if for want of a name to give them, he adds, “<i>Vulgus Christianos -appellabat</i>,” <i>i.e.</i> the vulgar or common people called them Christians.</p> - -<p>At the period referred to here, the Christians were too few and too -weak to cause much alarm out of Judea. Hence the air of contempt -with which Tacitus wrote of them. Not very long after, however, -the score was altogether changed. From a handful of obscure and -unnoticeable sectarians, having scarcely any feelings in common with -the rest of mankind, they grew into a gigantic community, having -their missionaries, their churches, and even their political agents, -spread throughout every corner of the empire. It was then their -persecutions began to assume those forms and proportions which are -necessary to attract history; it was then the pagan priesthoods, -pagan magistrates, and pagan aristocracies found it necessary to -check the tendencies of the new heresy, and to rouse and infuriate -the superstitious prejudices and passions of the populace against the -innovators. Nor was this a difficult task. At all times it is easy -enough to influence ignorant mobs against reforms they understand not, -and against men they comprehend not. It was peculiarly so in the case -of the pagan rabble, let loose against the early Christians. For, be -it observed, this new religion, which never ceased proselytizing, -was a singularly exclusive one. It denied dogmatically, and rejected -contemptuously, every alleged fact and article of heathen mythology, -and the existence of every article of their worship. It would hear -of no compromise, no amalgamation. If it prevailed at all, it must -prevail by the subversion of every altar, statue, temple, consecrated -to pagan uses. It pronounced all other gods false; all other worship -sinful and an abomination. With these peculiarities engraved on it, -it was impossible for the new religion to escape persecution from the -pagan priesthood and superstitious rabble. And when we combine with -this the consideration that the pagan magistrates and rulers regarded -the doctrines of Christ as subversive of governmental authority, of the -subordination of classes, and of the institution of property itself, as -well as of religion and of the protection of their gods, we shall be -at no loss to appreciate the nature of the feelings about to be roused -into action against the Christians. We shall see, as we proceed, how -these feelings showed themselves in the struggles and prosecutions -which ensued.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i067.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XI.</span> <span class="smaller">THE FOUR GREAT PERSECUTIONS.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Obscurity and Insignificance of Early Reformers their -best Protection—Christians the Great Levellers—Nero’s -Persecution—The Blood of the Martyrs the Seed of the -Church—Persecution of Domitian—Martyrdoms under Trajan—Tortures -under Antoninus.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>We have seen, in the preceding chapter, why Christianity must, upon its -first introduction, have been universally and virulently opposed by the -established powers of the world; and how, but for the lowliness and -obscurity of its first propagators, it must, by attracting the notice -of the wealthy and powerful, have been crushed at once, instead of -making the amazing progress it did, before its persecutions began.</p> - -<p>When the interests of wealth and power adjudged it necessary to -crucify the Founder, their comparative insignificance could alone be -a protection for his disciples and followers. And the supposed cause -of their being spared so long is the fact of their appearing to the -Roman governors only as a sect of Jews who had seceded from their -brethren on account of some non-important item of worship or doctrine, -not worth inquiring into. It was a part of Roman policy, as we have -seen, to tolerate all religions, and even to incorporate the gods of -their subjects or allies along with their own. The Jews, like all other -people subject to the empire, enjoyed this toleration; and so long as -the Christians appeared to be only a sect of this singular people, they -participated with them in the imperial protection. We have a remarkable -proof of this in the case of St. Paul. When he returned to Jerusalem -from his third apostolic mission, the favour with which he was received -by his Christian brethren there, and the joy they manifested at the -great success of his mission in Macedonia, Achaia, &c., roused the -ire of his countrymen. It is related that some Jews of Asia (who had -probably witnessed the fruits of his zeal and ability amongst the -Gentiles in their own country), seeing him one day in the temple, gave -instant vent to their bigoted or conservative rage, by pointing him -out as the man who was aiming to destroy all distinction between Jew -and Gentile. They charged him with teaching things contrary to the -law of Moses, and with polluting the holy temple by bringing into it -uncircumcised heathen. The effect of this was to enrage the multitude -against St. Paul. They seized him, dragged him out of the temple, -brutally maltreated him, and were on the point of putting him to death, -when he was rescued out of their hands by Lysias, a Roman military -tribune, and the then principal army-officers at Jerusalem. This -conduct of Lysias towards the great apostle, taken in juxtaposition -with the previous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> well-known efforts of Pontius Pilate to save Christ -himself from the hands of his Jewish enemies, shows clearly enough -that the early Christians had little to fear from the Romans, so long -as they were deemed to be only a religious sect of the Jews, and to be -aiming at a kingdom which “is not of this world.”</p> - -<p>It became otherwise, however, as soon as the pagan priesthood and -pagan magistracy began to discover that Christ’s kingdom would very -materially affect this world, as well as the next. The priests, -trembling for their revenues and estates, the magistrates and rulers -for their power, and the rich generally for their wealth and station, -became <i>very</i> Jews from the moment that discovery was made. A religion -which proclaimed <i>spiritual</i> equality was, to the priest and rulers, -undistinguishable from one that, if it did not proclaim, would very -speedily lead to <i>temporal</i> equality as well; and the principle of -<i>community of goods</i>, which so notoriously prevailed in some of the -early churches, was point blank evidence of the levelling tendencies of -the sect. Indeed, examining it philosophically, the religion could not -be otherwise than <i>social</i> in its effect. For, as its main doctrines -went to condemn riches (“lay not up for yourselves treasures,” &c.), -to make power a <i>trust</i> for the governed, and not a profitable -<i>monopoly</i> for governors (“let him who would be foremost amongst you -be the servant of the rest,” &c.), and to exhibit this life as a mere -probationary state for another and eternal one, in which the poor of -this world were likely to fare better than the rich (“it is easier -for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man -to enter the kingdom of heaven”),—as these and the like were amongst -the vital doctrines of the new religion, it is impossible that such -as embraced it with a firm belief in its ordinances, and promises of -future rewards and punishment, could dare to rob and enslave their -fellow-creatures, or peril their eternal salvation in another world -for the sake of enjoying the mammon of unrighteousness in this for -the brief space of a few years. These conclusions being but strictly -logical deductions from Christian premisses, it is no wonder that -a people, whom one of their own historians (Sallust) represents as -valuing riches, honour, and empire as the greatest goods the immortal -gods could vouchsafe to man, should regard with an evil eye a religion -which threatened them with the loss of all, by bringing them into -contempt, and making the possession of them a peril to salvation.</p> - -<p>At all events, such was the impression made upon the pagan mind. Had -they regarded Christ’s kingdom as pertaining only to another world, -they would have cheerfully made his followers a present of it, on -condition that they did not meddle with this. But in the face of such -levelling doctrines, and in presence of a faith so lively and ardent, -which made hosts of men renounce their temporal possessions in order -to render themselves worthy of the new dispensation, the higher and -wealthier orders of the empire soon became convinced that they would -lose their kingdoms in this world if they allowed any further scope to -that new and strange religion which promised so much in the next. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> - -<p>Hence originated that series of persecutions so well known in the -history of the Christian church, and which lasted upwards of three -hundred years. According to the best accounts, it began about -<span class="smaller">A.D.</span> 64, in the reign of Nero. Although the mummeries and -monstrosities of polytheism were openly derided by St. Paul and others -from the first starting of their missions, yet it does not appear that -any public acts of legislation or administration were directed against -Christianity till this period, when it had acquired such extension -and stability as to make it truly formidable. It was then the Roman -authorities began to blame themselves for their toleration, and to -wonder that the Jews had found it so difficult to infuse into the -breasts of Roman magistrates that rancour and virulence so conspicuous -in the Jews themselves. Moreover, the open attacks upon paganism -continually made by the Christians rendered them extremely obnoxious to -the populace, who considered their understandings as well as their gods -insulted by every sermon directed against them. They retorted upon the -Christians by stigmatising them as <i>atheists</i>, and at the instigation -of their priests, secretly backed by the rich, called loudly upon the -civil magistrates to suppress them by force, as a body of seditious -conspirators whose object was to destroy the politico-religious -constitution of the empire. As happens in the suppression of all -popular movements, lies and inventions the most horrid, imputing to -them all manner of abominations, were circulated all over the empire, -and, by these and like circumstances, the minds of all classes of -pagans were prepared to regard with pleasure or indifference any amount -of cruelty and wrong that interested vengeance might wreak upon them. -In short, the sort of feeling that was got up against the Socialists -and Red Republicans of France, before and after the June insurrection, -will convey the best idea of the public opinion which was manufactured -in Nero’s time to prepare men’s minds for the terrible proscriptions -that followed. Indeed, many of the designations of horror applied to -modern Socialists are little else than translations of the Latin terms -so copiously lavished upon the poor Christians.</p> - -<p>Besides the private persecution which never ceased (and which is always -more galling and unbearable than the public), there were at least ten -great imperial crusades directed against Christianity. When we say -directed against Christianity, we wish to be distinctly understood as -meaning against <i>liberty</i> and <i>equality</i>. About the <i>spiritualism</i> of -Christianity the pagan rulers cared not a straw, more than they did -about their own gods. Religion was a mere pretence in the matter, as -it is in all such matters. It served their purposes with the multitude -(who alone are sincere on such occasions); and that is all they -cared for. It is by viewing persecution in this light—the only true -light—that modern reformers can profit by our remarks on this head.</p> - -<p>The first great persecution (which took place under Nero, about -<span class="smaller">A.D.</span> 64) is noticed by Tacitus in his “Annals.” From the -language used by that historian, it is manifest that the wealthier -classes of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> Rome regarded the Christians of that period as a most -dangerous combination against not only the government, but (to use a -<i>doctrinaire</i> phrase) against “society” itself. Tacitus—himself an -aristocrat—regarded the aristocratic orders of his day as constituting -<i>society</i>; and finding these orders to be no favourites with the -Christians, he roundly accuses the latter of “hatred towards the human -race,” and describes them as followers of <i>one</i> Christ, who was the -founder of a “deplorable and destructive superstition”! In the same -way, the Bonapartes, the Thiers, and the Guizots of the present day -represent their own plundering class as <i>society</i>, and describe such -men as Ledru Rollin, Mazzini, Louis Blanc, Proudhon, &c., as enemies of -all law and order—as enemies of family, property, and religion,—in -short, as warring against “the very existence of society itself” -(their own words), because they preferred the rights and happiness of -the great majority to the usurpations of a criminal and contemptible -minority. It is now an established fact—a fact as well attested as any -in history—that the insurrection and bloody carnage in June, 1848, was -preconcerted and with great pains elaborated by the friends of “law and -order,” in order to purge “society” of Red Republicanism and Socialism, -or (to use their own phrase) <i>pour en finir</i>—<i>i.e.</i> to make a finish -of the democratic and social republic by drowning it in the blood of -its authors and most heroic defenders.</p> - -<p>It is not so well known how the great fire originated in Rome, which -Nero and his myrmidons charged upon the Christians. History had no -historians for the poor of those days. There is but too much reason, -however, to believe that the burning of Rome in Nero’s time was as -much the work of the friends of “law and order,” and for a similar -purpose, as the June insurrection was notoriously the work of the -same description of gentry in Paris. Times and circumstances change, -but not human nature; it is always the same, and will ever develop -itself in the like way under like circumstances. Nero is said to have -fiddled when Rome burned. The friends of “law and order,” the defenders -of “society,” were never in brighter ecstacies than when Cavaignac -announced the demolition, by shells and cannon, of the houses of the -insurgents, and the massacre of their brave defenders. If setting fire -to Rome, and reducing three-fourths of it to ashes, could have been -made available for the destruction of the Christians, the aristocracy -of that day would no more have scrupled at it than did Rostochin the -burning of Moscow, Cavaignac the demolitions in Paris, or General -Oudinot the bombardment of Rome. Aristocrats have never been aught but -robbers since the birth of their order; and all history proves that -they invariably become murderers, burners, devastators, and hirers of -assassins the moment the people attempt to recover their own. It was -so, most likely, in the burning of Rome. To this day, Nero himself is -suspected of the deed, though we think it far more likely to have been -the work of his aristocracy, with whom he was no favourite, because he -made himself too familiar with the common people.</p> - -<p>But whether the atrocity was Nero’s work, or that of the aristocratic -enemies of Christianity, it is certain the unfortunate Christians were -made to bear the odium and penalties of it. Without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> any evidence on -the matter, the best and bravest of the Christian party—those publicly -known as such—were openly seized and accused of the act. Through -these, others were discovered and laid hold of, till the imperial -net was full of victims. They were condemned to a variety of cruel -deaths, and they perished in the midst of all manner of insults and -execrations. Some were sewed up in the skins of wild beasts, and then -thrown to hungry dogs, to be torn in pieces and devoured. Some were -nailed to crosses, like their Divine Master. Others were burnt alive, -in a manner which ought to cause aristocracy and vulgar intolerance to -be abhorred till the crack of doom. The victims were first sewed up in -pitched clothes or coverings; these were then set on fire, and, being -lighted up at night, they served as torches to illuminate Nero’s own -gardens, which were given for the purpose.</p> - -<p>These barbarities were followed by edicts published against the -Christians, which enjoined upon the authorities to repress them -by every means placed at their disposal by the law. Of course, -many martyrs suffered, especially in Italy. St. Peter and St. Paul -are generally supposed to have been of the number. The former was -crucified, it is said, with his head downwards, at his own request. -St. Paul was beheaded. Such, at least, is the tradition preserved by -the early Fathers, who are all unanimous that their martyrdom was a -consequence of this persecution; though it is not precisely known -whether it was the burning of Rome that was made the pretence of -killing them, or a revolt of the Jews from the Romans, which took place -a year or two later, through a successful insurrection in Jerusalem. -The former is the more likely and accredited, though the latter is not -improbable, seeing the Christians gave the Romans some trouble at the -time in Judea, where their garrison in Jerusalem was put to the sword, -and one of their generals, who came to besiege it, was ignominiously -repulsed and defeated in his retreat. Such events would naturally -exasperate the Romans against both Jews and Christians; and as the -populace hated both sects alike, the martyrdom of Peter and Paul might -be easily enough accounted for under the circumstances.</p> - -<p>It is needless to say, Nero’s persecution was unsuccessful. It -only made the Christians more cautious. Their numbers and zeal but -multiplied in despite of it. And if, to men of their principles, it -could be any satisfaction to hear of their enemy’s death, they had -abundant occasion for it when it became known that Nero fell by his -own hand—thus atoning for his injustice to them by at last doing -justice to himself. If we mistake not, the Red Republicans and Social -Reformers of the Continent will have cause to rejoice at many such acts -of self-retribution on the part of their oppressors before many years -elapse.</p> - -<p>The second general persecution of the Christians took place in the -reign of Domitian, towards the close of the first century. In this -persecution many Christian teachers of great eminence suffered, but -with no better success to the cause of paganism than the first. It -appears to have ceased at the death of Domitian. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> - -<p>The third great persecution commenced in the third year of the Emperor -Trajan, <span class="smaller">A.D.</span> 100. Without going into the causes alleged by -divines and churchmen for this persecution (which they would have us -think was a purely spiritual affair), let us at once say that every -feature of it known to us in these days shows clearly enough that it -was the <i>temporal</i> and not the <i>spiritual</i> tendencies of Christianity -the Emperor Trajan directed his force against. Indeed, the charges -recorded against them are precisely the same as those made against -Chartists in England, Red Republicans in France, or democrats anywhere -in the present day. One churchman, treating of it, says, “Under the -plausible pretence of their holding illegal meetings and societies, -they were severely persecuted by the governors of provinces and other -officers, in which persecutions great numbers fell by the rage of -popular tumult, as well as by laws and processes.” Is it not under a -similar “plausible pretence of holding illegal meetings and societies” -that most persecutions take place against the political and social -reformers of the present day? And wherein are the doctrines professed -by the latter different from those recorded of the Christians in -Trajan’s time? In no one essential particular. What a pity that our -modern divines and churchmen cannot be got to see the persecutions of -Chartists and Socialists, now-a-days, with the same eyes with which -they look upon those of our predecessors, in religion and politics, -who suffered under Nero, Domitian, and Trajan! The Trajan persecution -continued several years, and made an immense number of martyrs; -amongst others the famous Clement, Bishop of Rome. But as Trajan was -an emperor famed for his liberality, justice, and moderation, some of -our modern parsons are at a loss to account for his severity to the -Christians. Unless it be the chastening hand of Providence, they know -not what to see in it. Sweet innocents! Did they ever hear of any -<i>liberal</i> persecutors in England, or of any <i>moderate</i> mitrailleurs -in France? Know they not that the authors of all the late massacres, -transportations and dungeonings in France call themselves <i>moderate</i> -reformers and liberals, and declare they will have only <i>la république -des honnêtes gens</i>—the republic of honest men? Know they not, -too, that the really honest men who are their victims get the very -identical names, in France, that Trajan’s judges gave the victims of -his persecution—viz., brigands, malefactors, and traitors? Yes, let -modern churchmen and parsons pretend what they may, the authorities -they now uphold are the exact counterpart of the Trajans and Domitians -of old; and the political victims of the present day are as exactly the -counterpart of those early Christians whose martyrdom they so affect to -deplore, and which (to blind their flocks) they would have us believe -was purely the consequence of their opinions touching a future state.</p> - -<p>In this persecution under Trajan, and in another which ensued under -his successor Adrian, it is as well known as anything in history that -the great bulk of the martyrs suffered for the <i>political</i> and not the -<i>spiritual</i> dogmas they upheld, and that in the eye of public opinion -they passed not so much for blasphemers and atheists<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> (names given to -them to please the superstitious rabble), but as seditious disturbers -of the peace, enemies of the emperor, malefactors towards society, and -traitors to the imperial government.</p> - -<p>The fourth great persecution took place under Antoninus the -Philosopher, and, with different degrees of severity in different -places, continued throughout the whole of his reign. In this -persecution perished the famous Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, said -to have been the friend and companion of St. John. Thus the poor -Christians fared no better under a philosophic emperor than under -the “moderate” and “virtuous” Trajan. Indeed, we have at this moment -shoals of “philosophers” in France and England who, for absurdity -and hard-heartedness, throw churchmen entirely into the shade. -Parson Malthus’s divinity may have been bad enough; we aver it was -not worse than his philosophy. Many of the unfortunate sufferers in -this philosopher’s reign were devoured by wild beasts; others were -tortured to death in an iron chair, made red-hot for the purpose. -Even women were not spared. The names of two are preserved—Biblia -and Blandina—whose sufferings and heroic courage contrast nobly with -the cowardly cruelty of the philosophic scoundrel-emperor who gave -his sanction to their death. Singularly enough, France, the “eldest -daughter of the church,” was the scene of the worse persecutions -which took place in this reign, when false philosophy <i>versus</i> real -Christianity was the order of the day; and, singularly enough, -France is now the country where, <i>par excellence</i>, real Christianity -is taking the field in right earnest against both philosophism -and false Christianity. What France failed to do in the first and -second centuries, and failed again to do in the eighteenth, she is -now labouring to accomplish for all the world in the middle of the -nineteenth.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i074.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XII.</span> <span class="smaller">PROGRESS OF PROPAGANDA TO THE TENTH PERSECUTION.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Seven Years’ Persecution of Equalitarian Innovators—Seventh -Great Persecution—Christians charged with Sorcery in Eighth -Persecution—Tortures of Ninth and Tenth Persecutions—Pretended -Conversion of Constantine—Lives of Early Christians Exemplars to -the Pagan World.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>The persecutions under the “moderate” Trajan and the “philosophic” -Antoninus had no effect, as we have seen, in stopping the progress of -Christianity. On the contrary, they but served to extend it, by causing -the multitude to interest themselves more in examining a religion which -excited so much alarm amongst those orders of men who, from their power -and riches, they could not but regard as their natural oppressors. -The discreet conduct and humane character of the early Christians was -another, indeed, the chief cause of their success. Those pagans who had -relations with them in private life, and who had thereby opportunities -of judging them as men and citizens, could not be brought to regard -with horror a religion which had produced such characters, nor to -sympathise with the atrocious spirit which consigned them to the fate -of malefactors. Up to the reign of Severus, then, Christianity went on -conquering and to conquer, in despite of edicts and persecutions.</p> - -<p>It was in this reign that the fifth great persecution took place. -In the early part of it no additions were made to the severe edicts -already in force against them; and history preserves but few cases of -their suffering from the application of the old. This was partly owing -to the greater caution imposed upon them by the laws against illegal -meetings and societies passed under Trajan and Antoninus, and partly, -it is said, to the interest at court of a celebrated Christian, named -Proculus, who, by an extraordinary application of his medical art, had -cured the emperor of a dangerous distemper. This precarious lenity, -however, did not endure long. After having been partially interrupted -by an occasional execution of the old laws in force, it was effectually -terminated by an edict of Severus (<span class="smaller">A.D.</span> 197), which prohibited -every subject of the empire, under severe penalties, from embracing the -Jewish or Christian faith.</p> - -<p>This edict would appear, at first sight, designed only to prevent the -further growth of Christianity; but as, in one of its clauses, it -urged the magistracy to enforce the law’s of former emperors, still in -force, it gave rise to a frightful proscription. For seven years the -Christians were exposed to all manner of persecution and prosecution, -not only in Rome and Italy, but in Gaul, Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, -Syria, Egypt and the rest of Africa. Amongst the celebrated martyrs in -this persecution fell Leonidas, the father of Origen, and Irenæus,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> -Bishop of Lyons, in Gaul. It was on this occasion Tertullian composed -his well-known “Apologetica,” or apology on behalf of the victims—a -work from which a great deal may be learned of what the early -Christians had to endure in this persecution, more particularly at -Alexandria in Egypt, where the violence of pagan intolerance was most -felt.</p> - -<p>The sixth persecution, under the Emperor Maximinus, which began about -<span class="smaller">A.D.</span> 235, does not appear to have been so severe as the -preceding ones. Maximinus’s predecessor, the Emperor Alexander, was -rather favourable to the Christians, he and his family having given -shelter and patronage to many of them. This excited the envy and -hatred of the party favourable to Maximinus’s interests, and, at their -instigation it is supposed, the latter prince rekindled the flames of -persecution against the Christians. Celsus was the literary champion of -the pagans on this occasion; and Origen, that of the Christians. The -latter gained great credit and influence amongst his own party, by the -zeal and energy with which he supported the Christians in the fiery -ordeal they had to pass through in the trials of this period.</p> - -<p>The seventh persecution is considered by many the severest that ever -befell the Christian world. It took place during the short reign -of Decius, and was ushered in by an imperial edict, couched in the -strongest terms, and issued <span class="smaller">A.D.</span> 249. One of its first effects -was the putting to death of Fabianus, Bishop of Rome, with a number -of his followers. Immense numbers of the Christians were publicly -destroyed in almost every province of the empire. The Bishops of -Jerusalem and Antioch died in prison. Tortures the most excruciating -were resorted to, to extort confessions of guilt, the betrayal of -accomplices, or a renunciation of their faith. These were, for the -most part, endured with heroic fortitude; but many sank under the -trial, and, to save their lives, consented to burn incense upon the -altars of the gods; others purchased safety by bribes, or secured it by -flight. The poor, as usual, fared worst. Unable to secure themselves -by patronage or bribery, they were seized before they had time for -flight, and put to death with every refinement of torture, and in a -variety of ways. Some were publicly burnt in the market-places; others -were whipped, branded, and then impaled or crucified. Many were thrown -to wild beasts to be devoured; and not a few were stoned to death by -an enraged populace, whose “wild justice” was too impatient to await -magisterial decisions. At Alexandria in particular, they anticipated -the emperor’s edict, and in their blind fury put many to death who -were not Christians at all, mistaking them for such on account of -their connections, real or supposed. Political bias had much to do in -embittering this persecution. The leading Christians were known to be -attached to the family of the Emperor Philip, who was supposed to be -secretly favourable to their sect. This aggravated the rage of the -opposite faction, and superadded political passions to fanatic zeal -in the proscriptions under Decius. Upon the whole, no other pagan -persecution cost the Christians more lives than this, nor entailed upon -them a greater variety of sacrifices and sufferings. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> - -<p>The eighth general persecution was not upon so large a scale; but it -had its distinguishing barbarities to bear witness to the truth of a -celebrated saying of Plutarch, namely, that rage and rancour stifle all -sentiments of humanity in the human breast, and that “no beast is more -savage than man when he is possessed of power equal to his passions.” -We may conceive to what excess these passions were carried under the -Emperor Valerian (<span class="smaller">A.D.</span> 257), when we find that potentate and -his aristocracy employing an Egyptian magician (named Macrinus) to give -out, as the result of his occult science, that he had discovered that -the peace and prosperity of the Roman empire were incompatible with the -“wicked spells” and “execrable charms” practised by the Christians. -This, of course, was a mere pretence to infuriate the rabble and the -distressed of all classes against them. To counteract the pretended -“spells” and “charms” of Christianity, Valerian is said, by the advice -of Macrinus, to have performed many impious rites and sacrifices, -amongst which was the cutting the throats of infants, &c. All this -jugglery was intended to disguise from his subjects the true nature -of the struggle between Christianity and pagan despotism, namely, the -struggle of humanity to vindicate its inherent rights against arbitrary -power and the barbarism of superstitious ignorance. At any rate, fresh -edicts were promulgated in all places against the Christians; and, -with the emperor’s sanction, they were exposed without protection to -the common rage. Amongst the noble army of martyrs sacrificed under -this brutal emperor, history makes honorary mention of St. Lawrence, -Archdeacon of Rome, and of St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, said to -have been two of the most learned and distinguished men of their age.</p> - -<p>The ninth general persecution took place under the Emperor Aurelian, -about the year 274. So little, however, is recorded of this -persecution, that we may safely infer it gave but little interruption -to the peace of the church. Indeed, by this time the Christians were, -in many places, as numerous as the pagans; and many of their body were -opulent subjects, possessed of great local and general influence. One -more great persecution, and we shall find them upon an equality with -their proud oppressors. We shall next find them, in political parlance, -“masters of the situation;” we shall find them established in power, -and corrupted with riches and luxury. A portion of them, at least, -we shall find in that position; and then, agreeably to the laws of -human nature, we shall find them no longer Christians, but practising -the same vices, and committing the same crimes of tyranny and wrong, -they so much condemned in the old pagans. One great persecution more, -and lo! Christianity will be enthroned in power; and then farewell to -Christian progress and Christian principles! One great persecution more -will give to “Christians” the ascendancy; and in that ascendancy will -be the death of Christianity itself!</p> - -<p>The tenth and last great persecution of the early church took place -under the Emperor Diocletian, and broke out in the nineteenth year of -his reign (about the year <span class="smaller">A.D.</span> 303). Diocletian himself does<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> -not appear to have been animated by any bigoted zeal or political -hatred against the Christians. Galerius, whom he had declared Cæsar, -and the mother of Galerius, who was a zealot in the pagan interest, -vehemently urged him to promulgate edicts for their suppression. To -this end, the philosopher Hierocles prepared public opinion for them by -violent writings against the Christians; and the pagan priesthood, as -in interest bound, supported Hierocles.</p> - -<p>This persecution began in the city of Nicomedia, and thence extended -into other cities and provinces, till at last it became general all -over the empire. Though, doubtless, the historians of the church -have exaggerated this as well as other persecutions, yet there is a -sufficiency of well-authenticated facts to show that, however the -wealthy and intriguing Christians might have contrived to secure -lenity and even impunity for themselves, it was far otherwise with -the majority, who were poor, ardent, and enterprising. As in the -seventh persecution under Decius, the diabolical ingenuity of man -was racked to discover new modes of punishment, new refinements of -torture. Some were roasted alive at slow fires till death put an end -to their sufferings; others were hung by the feet, with their heads -downwards, and suffocated by the smoke of dull fires. Pouring melted -lead down the throats of the victims was one variety of torture; -another was tearing off the flesh from their quivering limbs with -shells. Some of the sufferers had splinters of reeds thrust into the -most sensitive parts of their persons—into their eyes, for example, or -under their finger-nails and nails of their toes; others were impaled -alive. Many had their limbs broken, and in that condition were left -to expire in protracted agonies. Such as were not capitally punished -were scourged or branded, or else had their limbs mutilated and their -features disfigured. Altogether, the victims were as numerous as in -the persecution under Decius. Amongst the more noted ones we read of -the Bishops of Tyre, Sidon, Emesa, and Nicomedia. Very many matrons -and virgins of unblemished character passed through the flames of -martyrdom. And as to the plebeian or poorer classes, they perished -literally in myriads. At length, upon the accession of the Emperor -Constantine the persecution slackened. He declared in favour of the -Christians, and soon after, openly embracing the new religion, he -published the first law in their favour. The death of Maximian, Emperor -of the East, soon after put an end to all their tribulations at the -hands of pagans.</p> - -<p>It was then that, for the first time, Christianity (or rather a -something worse than paganism which usurped its name) took possession -of the thrones of princes. The religion of the court, it became -the fashionable religion. Aristocrats, military men, the leading -professions, men of the world, became converts to it in a twinkling. We -speak, of course, only of the <i>name</i>—not of the <i>thing</i>. It was the -<i>name</i> only that was established by Constantine: the <i>thing</i> itself he -knew and cared nothing about. The religion as taught by Jesus and his -disciples is not a religion for courts and courtiers; it flourishes not -in presence of emperors and prætorian guards.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> Constantine’s conversion -was but a <i>coup d’état</i>, or political <i>ruse</i>, to destroy Christianity -by itself; <i>alias</i>, to make its votaries (all true believers) ashamed -of its very name, through seeing it professed by base hypocrites—its -natural and irreconcilable enemies. Its immediate effect was to -neutralise the force of Christianity as operating against the abuses -of government and against social injustice. It became henceforward -impossible to know who were Christians and who were not—at least, who -were sincere and who were not; the false ones bearing the same name as -the true ones, and, in proportion to their hypocrisy, more emphatic -and ostentatious in their profession of faith than the true believers. -As a matter of course, the rich, the ambitious, the low intriguer, the -bustling man of the world, adhered publicly to the name or profession -of Christian for the sake of the good things attached thereto in -church and state. The honest, the simple-hearted, the oppressed many -saw they were foully tricked, but were powerless to right themselves. -Between the pagans, who still adhered to the old system, and their -hypocritical betrayers in high places, their fate was a deplorable one. -After all their struggles and sacrifices for Christianity, they had -the mortification to find that, just at the moment they counted upon -victory, they found discomfiture and shame; and that what 300 years of -pagan torturings, dungeonings, and terrorism had failed to accomplish -against their religion, was effected at once by an “organised -hypocrisy” of <i>soi-disant</i> Christians supposed to belong to their own -church and party.</p> - -<p>Most people date the triumph of Christianity from the accession, or -rather from the conversion, of Constantine. In our opinion, it is the -<i>decline</i> of Christianity, or the <i>reaction</i> against it, that ought -to date therefrom. During the first three centuries the progress of -Christianity was one continued series of triumphs—purchased, it is -true, by the blood of countless martyrs, but not the less real and -effective on that account; but from the moment it became a state -religion, under Constantine and his successors, it ceased to be the -religion of Christ and his apostles, and became a figment of forms and -ceremonies worthless as the ceremonialism of the Pharisees. Many, it is -true, continued sincerely attached to the real thing—the religion of -Jesus; but, discountenanced and discouraged by their own priests and -rulers, they soon fell into discredit, and their numbers diminished -with every succeeding reign, till at last Christianity (as at first -taught) was nowhere to be found.</p> - -<p>In this present century, and in this present year 1850, it is reviving -again under new names and forms. It is allying itself with a philosophy -which has nothing in common with the hollow philosophism of the last -century, but much in common with the natural instincts and primitive -feelings of man. The Christianity which is being now revived in -France, Germany, and elsewhere on the Continent approaches nearer to -the Christianity of the first and second centuries than most people -are aware of. At bottom it is the same; but in form and garb it must -necessarily partake of the science and civilization of the times we -are in. Its object, like that of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> Christ and his disciples, is to -banish sin and slavery, crime and misery, from the world, but without -pretending to any extraordinary mission, or to any other light than -the revelations of Scripture interpreted and explained by reason. The -<i>Christianisme</i> and the <i>humanité</i> of Pierre Leroux may be taken as -samples of this modern revival of Christianity.</p> - -<p>As a general rule, the early Christians exemplified in their lives -the charity, the purity, and the disinterestedness enjoined by the -Gospel; it was therefore they were so successful with the people. The -persecutions of the pagans did not make them retaliate. They were too -wise, too discreet, to rebel against laws or governments that could -have crushed them at once; and for the unfortunate, deluded populace -they had nothing but pity in the midst of their worst excesses. They -knew it was ignorance alone that made the populace so furious against -them: they knew they were the true friends of this populace; and that -this populace would be their friend, if they could but understand each -other. Hence the toleration preached and practised with such good -effect in the early ages of the church. It is true, there were disputes -and occasional intolerance amongst Christians from the first,—we have -sundry proofs of it in Paul’s Epistles, the Acts, and in the writings -of the early Fathers; but it was not till after the legal establishment -of Christianity that the guilt of intolerance or persecution could -be charged against Christians as a body. Though corruption had been -making way amongst them long before that, and though there were -symptoms enough in the Church prognosticative of the dire effect -that power and the mammon of unrighteousness might have upon them, -yet the main body remained sound. What they suffered from the pagans -naturally made them hold together for mutual aid and counsel; it also -cemented in them habits of mutual love and tenderness for each other’s -feelings: above all, it confirmed them in their aversion to tyranny -and intolerance, and enamoured them more and more of that Gospel which -everywhere enjoins charity, tenderness, mercy, and self-denial for -the sake of others. They remembered Christ’s sermon on the mount, his -unbounded compassion for sinners, his forgiveness of all, his love of -little children, his humility, his readiness to be the servant of his -followers, his teachings, fastings, prayers, and sufferings for all. -These were ever present in their minds. They knew and felt that, guided -by the spirit and precepts of the Gospel, by the conduct of its Author, -and by the preachings and examples of his apostles, true Christians -could not be otherwise than tolerant, forgiving, just, and affectionate -towards one another.</p> - -<p>The general conduct of Christians before the age of Constantine was -in conformity with those maxims. They believed what they professed; -and they practised what they believed. Upon this head the writings of -the early Fathers are all but unanimous. We could cite a volume-full -of exemplifications; but the fact, as an historical one, is notorious -beyond the necessity for proof.</p> - -<p>Up to the time of Constantine the progress of Christianity was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> one -continued series of triumphs over the principles and practices of -human slavery—one earnest, uninterrupted protest against those vices -and passions in which the subjection of man to his fellow-man has its -origin. In the minds of the early Christians, the Gospel dispensation -was no other than a divine protestation against the abasement of -the human race by tyranny, upon the one hand, and slavery upon the -other. Not one of the sublime virtues so beautifully pourtrayed and so -authoritatively enjoined by Christ and his disciples could flourish and -bear fruit in a world of tyrants and slaves. Either that divine Gospel -must, therefore, ever remain a dead letter, or the system of human -slavery, with all its violence, vice, and crimes, must be overthrown. -Every act, every institute, every martyrdom, of the early Christians -goes to show they were impressed with this belief. Hence their -marvellous labours, their still more marvellous sufferings (voluntarily -incurred and borne), and, most marvellous of all, their extraordinary -successes. Everything goes to prove their fixed determination to -subvert, from its foundation, that anti-social structure of society -which made man the slave of his fellow-man; their every act and -discourse tended accordingly to its overthrow. It cannot be overthrown -by an outbreak, a <i>coup de main</i>, a surprise, or onslaught of brute -force. Its existence being the work of opinion, it can be overthrown -only by opinion. The world must therefore be made to believe -differently. The minds and hearts that uphold it must be enlightened, -softened, refined, exalted, reformed. Behold the mission of the early -Christians—the means and end of their godlike labours.</p> - -<p>Up to the age of Constantine, we repeat, the Christian revolution -gained ground incessantly, if not uninterruptedly. It progressed not -only in despite of, but actually <i>by means of</i> every one of the ten -great imperial persecutions we have sketched. Like the Antæus of -mythology, it gathered fresh strength from every fall.</p> - -<p>With its <i>establishment</i> under Constantine ended its triumphant -progress! What churchmen call its final victory, its crowning glory, -was in reality its first decisive check—the cause and forerunner -of its downfall; in other words, it was the beginning of the -counter-revolution or reaction which soon afterwards rendered null and -void all the martyrdoms and triumphs of three hundred years.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i081.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XIII.</span> <span class="smaller">DEBASEMENT OF THE NEW POWER WHEN SEIZED BY RULERS.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Cost of making the New Ideas triumphant—Change in Character in -the hands of Kings, Courtiers, and Profitmongers—Emancipations -become a matter of Policy and Profit—Repudiation of Principles of -Fraternity and Equality—Horrors of Introduction of Proletarianism.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>We have seen, in the two last chapters, what terrible tribulations -it cost the early Christians to obtain admission into the world for -the doctrines of liberty, fraternity, and equality,—we ought rather, -perhaps, to say, for the more comprehensive doctrines of justice -and humanity, upon which the others must be based to be real and -enduring. For upwards of three hundred years these poor Christians -were the victims of an untiring persecution, which smote them without -pity and without remorse, in every part of the wide-extended Roman -empire. We have seen how, at ten distinct epochs, by the edicts of as -many emperors, this persecution burst upon them with such signal and -surpassing fury that, to this day, it seems almost a miracle that the -sect was not utterly extirpated. More marvellous still, we find them -growing and extending themselves after every persecution, till at -length, under Constantine, they have become so numerous and formidable -that persecution may no longer be safely tried. Indeed, force would -no longer prevail; so fraud must be resorted to. The sham conversion -of Constantine and his courtiers was the fraud had recourse to. Those -hypocrites suddenly pretended to a new light. Constantine made his -own conversion quite a supernatural affair; he pretended to have -seen a brilliant apparition in the heavens, presenting a cross with -this inscription, “In hoc signo vinces,”—“In this sign thou shalt -conquer.” His courtiers and expectants, of course, partook of the -imperial illumination; they discovered with miraculous haste, if not -by miraculous agency, the divine authority of the Christian religion. -By embracing it in <i>name</i> and <i>profession</i> they wisely calculated -they could more easily extinguish it in <i>substance</i> and in <i>practice</i> -than by any other means. In the first place, it would detach the mere -<i>political</i> Christians—<i>i.e.</i>, the selfish and ambitious ones—from -the real ones, the honest, unsuspecting mass. In the next place, it -would conciliate the former by throwing open to them the offices and -honours of the state; and, at the same time, flatter the multitude by -the seeming conversion of an emperor and his court to their religion. -Above all, it would have the advantage of pricking up the Christian -organization (which, up to that epoch, was a veritable democratic -organization) by detaching from the multitude all their leading -spiritual and political chiefs, who would thenceforward be sure to have -one doctrine for the rich and another for the poor, in order to keep -the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> doors of preferment open for themselves. Such, at least, was the -effect of the legal establishment of Christianity; and they know but -little of men and of politics who would attribute that event to other -motives or causes.</p> - -<p>In truth, the progress of real Christianity—the Christianity taught -by Christ and his disciples—received its death-blow from its legal -establishment by Constantine. As long as it had the enemies of human -rights for its foes, it attracted to itself the friends of human -rights; but the moment it became a state religion—the religion of -courts and courtiers—the religion of emperors and aristocrats—the -religion of ambitious priests and sanguinary soldiers—the religion, in -short, of the rich and powerful,—from that moment it repelled sincere -believers from all communion with the church. It either plunged them -into despair for humanity, or else forced them, by their necessities -and passions, to become servile and hypocritical professors of what in -their hearts they despised, as being a libel upon the Redeemer and a -fraud upon humanity. It was, in effect, paganism under a new name and -with somewhat new forms.</p> - -<p>Altogether the propagation of Christianity assumed a new aspect after -it became the religion of the Roman empire. Pride and hypocrisy took -the place of humility and zeal. Ambition, corruption, and servility -entirely supplanted in the hearts of men the virtues which the Gospel -had hitherto consecrated in the eyes of Christians. Not a shred of -democracy, not a vestige of fraternity nor of the love of liberty and -equality, could survive in a religion patronised by courts, professed -by its parasites and prostitutes, made a stepping-stone for the -purposes of lucre and ambition, guarded and defended by prætorian -bands, and surrounded with the munificence and corruption of imperial -power.</p> - -<p>The effects of the change soon became visible and palpable to all. -During the three first centuries every extension of the Christian -propagandism was followed by the most beneficial social consequences. -It brought rich and poor, gentle and simple, high and low, learned and -unlearned, Jew and Gentile, into terms of the closest and most cordial -communionship. All distinctions of wealth and talent, of rank, station, -office, intellectual and personal endowments—all, all sank before -the beneficent spell of a religion which declared all men equal and -brothers, and which promised to all a heaven both here and hereafter, -upon the sole condition of keeping its commandments and carrying -into effect its precepts. In the face of such a religion, no man who -believed in it could be a tyrant; no man would be a slave a moment -longer than he could help. “My service,” says Christ, “is perfect -freedom.” Thus was it understood by the Christians of the first three -centuries. Under the Heaven-bred influence of the new dispensation, -masters manumitted their slaves in thousands. The slaves so manumitted -loved their masters to distraction, and would die rather than betray or -disoblige them. The rich converts divided their substance freely with -the poor; the poor as freely bestowed their services, and administered -comforts to the rich, renouncing or losing all feelings of envy and -distrust towards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> them. Everywhere collections were made amongst the -brethren for distressed members—for members even of churches or -congregations in far-off countries; and these collections were always -superabundant, because from the heart, and inspired by a power greater -than the power of pelf. In many of the primitive congregations a real -equality prevailed amongst all the members—a veritable reciprocity of -benefactions and sacrifices—a <i>bona fide</i> community of goods and of -friendly offices.</p> - -<p>This it was which gave such an extraordinary impulse to Christianity -at its first outset:—the total absence of selfishness; the perfect -sincerity of the members; their unbounded faith in their new religion -and in one another; their sovereign contempt for worldly advantages -obtained by trickery and fraud; and their firm belief that it needed -only their example and precept to change the face of entire humanity, -and assimilate the rest of the world to themselves in virtue and innate -happiness. In a word, they abounded and superabounded in the three -cardinal virtues—</p> - -<p class="center">FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY!</p> - -<p>faith in their principles—a perfect hope of seeing them realised—and -a charity prepared to make the most unbounded allowances for the -weaknesses and follies of all who might oppose themselves to the new -dispensation. No wonder, with such principles, they accomplished such -marvels.</p> - -<p>But all was changed with the change that took place under Constantine. -Masters, it is true, still continued to manumit their slaves; but, -alas! it was in a very different spirit, and for very different -purposes from those which actuated the true or early Christians. It -appears from the concurrent testimonies of the Fathers of the church, -and of legal documents still extant, that vast numbers of slaves were -manumitted, in the first three centuries, through the pious zeal of -their masters; and that those slaves and their progeny fell into great -poverty and want through the absence of any legal provision for them, -to compensate for the loss of their masters’ protection and support. -The early Christian missionaries, who caused their liberation from -slavery, never, of course, contemplated such a result. They looked to a -complete renovation of society, which would dispense the blessings of -creation to all God’s creatures alike, according to their services and -deserts. They never imagined a state of things in which <i>to be free</i> -would imply <i>freedom only to starve</i>. Yet such, unfortunately, was the -result they unconsciously brought about. The myriads of manumitted -slaves, once deprived of their masters’ homes and protection, had -thenceforward no other means of providing a subsistence, but to betake -themselves to one or other of the four courses indicated in our first -and second chapters. They must either find work as hired labourers, -or they must beg, or they must steal, or they (if females) must turn -to prostitution. They must, to repeat the Guizot classification of -proletarianism, become</p> - -<p class="center">LABOURERS, BEGGARS, THIEVES, OR PROSTITUTES</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> -<p>And that is just what happened. All that could find work, and were -inclined to work, became labourers for hire; others took to begging; -a third class became thieves and robbers; and the unfortunates of -the weaker sex as naturally and as necessarily betook themselves to -prostitution.</p> - -<p>The majority of both sexes, of course, took to hired labour, when they -could get it, as the safest occupation. Having no land nor capital -wherewith to turn their freedom to account for their own advantage, -they had no alternative but to find employers, or else die of hunger, -unless they betook themselves to the other courses adverted to.</p> - -<p>Here began that frightful system of wages-slavery, so often adverted to -in the progress of this inquiry—that desolating system which has since -extended itself all over the civilized world, and which has converted -three-fourths of Christendom into more degraded and unhappy beings than -were the ancient chattel-slaves of the pagans or the negro-slaves who -were in the Southern States of the American republic.</p> - -<p>Constantine’s courtier-“Christians” and capitalists were not slow in -availing themselves of this new form of slavery. They soon discovered -that it was (to them) a <i>cheaper</i> slavery than the old one. They -discovered that an “independent labourer” might be made, by the fear -of starvation, to do more work than a chattel-slave ever did under the -fear of the lash; and with this advantage in their own favour, that -he might be turned off and left to starve when there was no work for -him; whereas they would have to <i>keep</i> the chattel-slave, and <i>keep him -well</i> too, whether there was work for him or not.</p> - -<p>But as we have already, in a former chapter, so largely dwelt on the -comparative merits of the two kinds of slavery, it is unnecessary to -repeat here the signal advantages which landlords and capitalists -derive from wages-slavery in comparison with the other. At any rate, -the capitalists or proprietors, under Constantine and his successors, -must have been well aware of them; for we find that, instead of -compelling the manumitted slaves and their progeny to return to the -condition of chattel-slavery, they greatly added to their numbers by -still further manumissions, only accompanying them with very stringent -laws and regulations to keep them, now “independent labourers,” as -effectually under their thumb as when they had been nominal bondsmen.</p> - -<p>Had the primitive Christians foreseen the terrible abuse their -benevolent labours were destined to give rise to, it may be questioned -whether they would not have abandoned their mission, rather than risk -the superinducing of proletarianism, with all its horrors, upon the -system they sought to explode—the system of chattel-slavery. It was -not in order to fill the world with famishing beggars, with necessitous -thieves and prostitutes, and, above all, with myriads of honest -producers starving in the midst of their own productions,—it was not -for such unholy purposes that the early Christians divized the <i>régime</i> -of fraternity and equality; yet all the traditions that remain to us of -Christian propagandism prove unmistakably that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> such were its effects, -even before the downfall of the Roman empire, to which event it, in our -opinion, in no small degree contributed.</p> - -<p>Indeed, Rome was already overrun with paupers and fugitive slaves, and -Italy with thieves and vagabonds, before Constantine found it politic -to make Christianity a state religion. But, lest we might be suspected -of giving scope to invention, or of indulging in idle imaginings, -on a subject so fraught with interest to mankind, we shall here use -the authority of a profound antiquarian to illustrate this critical -period of history, when the great transition from chattel-slavery to -proletarianism was effected. Let our readers fail not, in perusing it, -to compare it with what we have previously laid down in respect of -the condition of slaves under the old pagan system. We quote from the -learned work of M. Granier de Cassagnac, entitled “Histoire des Classes -Ouvrières et Bourgeoises”:—</p> - -<p>“Things remained in this state, that is to say, the poor, still far -from numerous, had no hospital or asylum in which to take refuge -during the first ages of the vulgar era. The Christians dispensed alms -freely and bountifully, nourishing the necessitous poor out of their -substance. But they were not yet masters; they were still a minority -of the population. They could not act collectively, publicly, or in a -corporate or legal capacity, but only individually and in an isolated -manner, each on his own account. The pagan clergy, on the other hand, -who were in possession of immense territorial estates, which proceeded -partly from permanent grants or donations disbursed from the imperial -treasury, and dating as far back as the age of Numa (who had originated -them), and partly from innumerable inheritances and legacies which had -subsequently fallen to them, never had any idea of succouring the poor, -or of organizing any system of public charity; and when, towards the -close of the fourth century, Symmachus addressed to Valentinian II., to -Theodosius, and to Arcadius those two celebrated letters on the pagan -worship which was falling into decay, in which he complains so bitterly -of the emperors having confiscated the property of the priests and the -vestals, St. Ambrose, in the first of his two answers to Symmachus -addressed to Valentinian II., contrasts with the avarice of the pagan -clergy, who kept all their riches to themselves, the self-denial of the -Christian church, which possessed nothing (as St. Ambrose expresses it) -but its faith, and the whole of whose goods were the property of the -poor.</p> - -<p>“However, although it is certain the number of permanent poor or -professional beggars was not very numerous up to the beginning of the -third century, there occurred terrible epochs when this number was -fearfully augmented. It was in years of famine—in years when the -harvests failed in Sicily or in Africa, or when the two corporations of -shippers and bakers—one charged with superintending the importations -and the other with the distribution of bread and flour—were suddenly -brought to a standstill, that occurred those horrible famines from -which the superior administration of modern times preserves the -people of our times; it was then that all the slaves of Italy, no -longer fed by their masters, were seen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> flocking to Rome to demand -bread; but as this increase of population soon threatened Rome itself -with starvation, they were expelled the city upon a given day, to -go and die where they might. This was the ordinary course adopted -by Roman administrations in critical times; and Symmachus, who was -prefect of Rome about the year 383, wrote thus:—‘We fear the total -failure of provisions at Rome, even after having chased away all the -stranger-population which took refuge amongst us, and which the city -subsisted.’</p> - -<p>“On their side, the Christians inveighed loudly against the burgesses -of Rome for refusing to divide their superfluity with the strangers who -sought relief within her walls. St. Ambrose, who makes mention of this -expulsion in several parts of his works, inveighs indignantly against -this want of feeling on the part of the pagans. ‘Those,’ says he, ‘who -banish the poor strangers from Rome are much to blame. It is inhuman -to repulse a fellow-creature at the moment he craves succour at your -hands. Brute beasts do not treat their kind so: ’tis only man that -behaves so to man.’ Sometimes the pagans themselves protested against -the expulsion of strangers when famine threatened the towns they had -fled from.”</p> - -<p>This, it will be observed, took place after the legal establishment of -Christianity under Constantine. M. de Cassagnac continues:—</p> - -<p>“For the rest, it is manifest from divers writings of the third and -fourth centuries that, as soon as the charity of the early Christians -became known, the poor gathered in groups around the churches. At Rome -they congregated near the church of the Apostles, in the Vatican. -It was there they received a diurnal distribution of alms, as may -be seen (amongst other proofs) in the works of Ammian Marcellinus, -and in the poem of Prudentius against Symmachus. Moreover, it seems -all manner of imposition used to be committed by loose characters to -surprise the compassion of the Christian bishops. Here is the way -St. Ambrose expresses himself on this subject, in the second book of -his treatise on the duties of ministers:—‘We must fix bounds to our -liberality, that it may not be abused or rendered useless. The priests, -in particular, ought to be very circumspect on this head, that they -may proportion their alms to the justice of the case, and not to the -importunity of the claimant. Never did the greediness of beggars reach -such a pitch. Able-bodied men present themselves, strolling about for -the mere pleasure of vagabondizing, and who would absorb the relief -due only to the veritable poor. There are some of them who feign to -be in debt: let this point be strictly verified. Others declare they -have been despoiled by robbers: let exact information be taken of these -persons,’ &c. The scandal given by these fraudulent beggars and their -impositions went to such a length, that the Emperor Valentinian II. -made a law, dated from Padua, in 382, expelling from Rome all who were -not beggars really incapable of gaining a livelihood.</p> - -<p>“The law of Valentinian is very curious, in so far as it contains -certain data and precise details illustrative of the state of -pauperism in Italy towards the close of the fourth century. We see -by it, for example, that the greater part of the beggars congregated -at Rome were either runaway slaves or serfs whom the culture<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> of the -fields could not supply with employment. They precipitated themselves -into Rome, which was then the largest city in the world, and where, -better than anywhere else, they might escape the vigilant search of -their masters.... Justinian re-enacts pretty nearly the same law as -Valentinian—only with this difference,—that he condemns all sturdy -beggars to labour on the public works.</p> - -<p>“The whole of this vast redundancy of beggars took place in the third -and fourth centuries. It seems they had interpreted literally St. -Jerome’s character of Christians, when he calls them, in his 26th -Epistle to Pammachius, the <i>subordinates and candidates of the poor</i>. -The predominant historic and social fact of the fourth century is the -outrageous multiplication of proletarians, and (after innumerable -failures of private charity) the creation and organization of a grand -system of public charity to relieve the wants of the poor, and to -provide asylums for old age, for the infirm, and for deserted children. -This eleemosynary system, which the lapse of time has but more largely -developed, and which is still the only palliative resorted to by modern -societies to cure, or rather to bandage, the wounds of civilization, -thus owes its origin to Christianism.</p> - -<p>“Seeing that antiquity, during a period of more than 4,000 years, -had not emancipated so many slaves as to produce any noticeable or -considerable mass of proletarians, and that in less than 400 years -Christianism had so multiplied them, that regular society was, as it -were, choked and perilled by them, one would be tempted to believe -that Christianity made a dead set against slavery, and went to work by -grand essays of systematic enfranchisement. That, however, would be an -error. In general, Christianism did not meddle with the positive law: -it left to Cæsar what belonged to Cæsar. St. Paul wrote to the slaves -of Ephesus that the new religion made no change in their duties as -slaves. Nevertheless, Christianity created, alongside the old moral -world, a new moral world, into which it admitted all who volunteered -to accept its conditions. It was by this attractive power that -Christianism drew over to it, in succession, all the members of pagan -society; and the magnificent application that it gave to its ideas of -charity, fraternity, and love was the principal cause which indirectly -determined so many emancipations, and which gave birth to such a host -of proletarians.”</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i088.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XIV.</span> <span class="smaller">SERVICE OF CHRISTIANITY IN BREAKING CASTE-BONDS.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Division of Emancipated Slaves into two Classes of -Proletarians—Equality and Fraternity gave the desire for -Liberty—Inveteracy of Caste-Prejudice—Perversion of Christianity -under Constantine—Antagonism of Wages-Slavery and Christianity.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>Our last chapter concluded with an instructive passage, translated from -the work of M. Granier de Cassagnac, showing how the pure spirit of -primitive Christianity had operated the manumission of slaves in such -masses that the Roman empire was soon overrun with proletarians of the -several conditions described. What four thousand years of paganism had -not effected, to any sensible extent, was the work of less than three -hundred years of Christian propagandism. But, alas! how different was -the result aimed at by Christ and his successors! Those emancipations, -which the early Christians had fondly hoped would bring about the reign -of universal liberty and fraternity, but introduced a new form of -slavery infinitely worse than the old, became, under Constantine and -his successors, a curse to the emancipated, whose fatal consequences -have never since ceased to be felt by three-fourths of Christendom. -A few of the manumitted prospered, in the old Roman guilds or -corporations, as burgesses, employers, or administrators; and a similar -class, more extensive and more opulent, still obtains in our own times. -But the vast majority, being without land, capital, or the patronage of -masters, had to seek a precarious subsistence by casual labour, or else -by theft, beggary, or prostitution. The passage from Cassagnac, quoted -in the last chapter, shows how fearfully those unhappy proletarians -had multiplied before the end of the fourth century. Immediately -following it, there is another which bears so authoritatively upon the -subject-matter of our inquiry, and which so strongly corroborates what -has been advanced, in this work, on the relative merits of chattel -and wages slavery, that we cannot forbear giving it a place here. We -translate from pages 304 and 305 of the work referred to:—</p> - -<p>“In pagan society few slaves desired to become free; and the reason -is very simple. As slaves, they had, in their masters’ homes, all the -necessaries of life; they were sure of never having to suffer cold, nor -hunger or thirst, and to be comfortably housed and well taken care of, -in old age as well as in youth, in sickness as well as in health. As -freemen (‘independent labourers’!) they would have to provide not only -for their own wants, but also for those of their wives and children; -and this not only during the vigour of life, but also in old age and -during their infirmities, without taking into the account that, poor -and weak as they must necessarily be when emerging from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> slavery, -they would have to encounter all the chances of a perpetual struggle -with society—a struggle in which even the rich and the strong not -unfrequently succumb.”</p> - -<p>This account of the ancient pagan slaves corresponds exactly with Mr. -Edward Smith’s account of the slaves he met with in the Southern States -of America. The latter would not give you “thank ye” for their liberty, -“feeling the protection of their masters to be an advantage,” and -because the “mere hirer has not the attachment for the hired that the -master naturally feels for his slave.”</p> - -<p>It may be asked, then, how came the ancient pagan slave to appreciate -the boon of liberty when gratuitously given to him by his Christian -master? M. de Cassagnac, we think, answers the question with great -force and truth. “But in the new Christian association the slave felt -a new motive and attraction towards liberty. In the first place, the -enfranchised Christian was not, as in pagan society, repulsed by the -remorseless prejudices of caste. Without refusing to take nobility -of race into account, it showed no extravagant preference for it, as -paganism did. The Apostles and the early Fathers had freely extended -the hand of fellowship to the enfranchised and to the lower orders in -general—a race of men whom the Gentiles, that is to say, the genteel -society of paganism, had, up to that time, scornfully flouted. St. -Paul wrote to the Romans, that before God there is no exception of -persons; and St. Gregory and St. Ambrose have filled their works with -philosophical as well as Christian raillery levelled against the -pride of pedigree, and the right of domination founded upon it, which -was a direct onslaught upon the pagan nobility, whose principle was -the tradition of power and rank according to blood. The enfranchised -slaves and their offspring were always welcome amongst the Christians, -to share with them every social advantage. They might pass through -all the degrees of clerical ordination—become deacons, priests, -bishops,—in short, leap that hitherto impassable gulf, which, under -the old pagan régime, completely separated the humble from the higher -ranks of society. Accordingly, the Christian slaves who became free -were sure to have no moral prepossession or prejudice against them, -while all religious ones were in their favour. They were certain not to -be insolently scouted as of the lower orders, and also to be succoured -and relieved, in case of need, as fellow-Christians. It was on this -account they precipitated themselves into the régime of liberty, and -that so imprudently and in such immense masses that, suddenly becoming -their own masters, and responsible for their own maintenance, the vast -majority were soon overtaken and overwhelmed by misery of which they -had had no foresight—a misery till then unheard of—an appalling -misery, the recollections of which, as handed down to us from the -fourth century, present a veritable picture of horrors.”</p> - -<p>It is only those who have felt the insolence of rank and power who can -appreciate the motives which impelled the slaves and the lower ranks of -citizens to embrace the new Christian code of liberty in the days to -which the foregoing passage refers. One more passage, illustrative of -this view, we shall translate from another part of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> Cassagnac’s work. -And, in this passage, what a true but frightful picture is presented to -us of the wrongs inflicted by the self-privileged few upon the despised -many—wrongs as old as the world, and yet as green in the present -day as though they were but of yesterday’s growth! It is a fearfully -significant passage:—</p> - -<p>“The proletarians are, then, the progeny of the ancient slave-class—of -the ancient junior branches of families, given, bartered, or sold by -the <i>fathers</i> of the <i>heroic</i> period—the age of gods and heroes. This -great, active, terrible, poetic, and calamitous race has been marching -onwards since the beginning of the world, struggling to conquer repose -for itself, like Ahasuerus, and mayhap, like him, will never attain -it. It has still the old malediction on its head, which dooms it to -move incessantly without making progress. All it has gained from its -fatigues of ages is, that Homer and Plato say to it, ‘March on!—you -will never reach your destination in this world;’ and that St. Paul -says to it, ‘You will reach it in the next world.’ It marches on, -then, and has been so marching for sixty centuries; covered with -obscurity, opprobrium, and contempt; obtaining no credit for its -virtues or talents, none for its labours, none for its sufferings. It -is not accounted more beautiful for having produced an Aspasia, more -illustrious for having given birth to a Phedon, more brave for having -turned out a Spartacus from amid its ranks. Whatever may have been its -intelligence, its patient endurance, its wisdom, its parts, it was -never honoured with the title of ‘sons of the gods,’ like the noble -race; and Plato himself, though he had felt what slavery was under -King Dionysius, cast in its teeth the famed Homeric verse, in which -it is told that the slave has but the half of a human soul. Singular -fatality! In vain did manumissions and enfranchisements break the -chains of this doomed race. The mark of the collar is still on their -necks (as with the dog in the fable); and one of their own caste, -Horace, the son of a <i>freed</i> man, in the very golden age of antique -philosophy, poesy, and civilization, threw in their face the eternal -aspersion, ‘Money alters not the race—changes not the blood.’ Though -they had gained this money by fatigues of body or fatigues of mind, by -manual or by intellectual excellence,—though they had been merchants -or soldiers, senators or philosophers,—still was the cry rung in their -ears, ‘Money alters not the race.’ This malediction of race or blood -was implacable. In vain had Ventidius Bassus become a consul: he was -told, ‘You have been a scavenger and a muleteer.’ In vain had Galerius, -Diocletian, Probus, Pertinax, Vitellius, Augustus himself, become -emperors. Galerius was told, ‘You are but an upstart;’ Diocletian, ‘You -have been a slave;’ Probus, ‘Your father was a gardener;’ Pertinax, -‘Your father was an enfranchised bondsman;’ Vitellius, ‘Your father was -a soap-maker;’ and they were very near writing upon the marble statue -of Augustus, ‘Your grandfather was a mercer, and your father was a -usurer or a money-lender.’</p> - -<p>“If this eternal and universal reprobation of the slave and -enfranchised caste did not spare the most exalted heads and the most -illustrious, imagine what the wretched proletarian was to expect -in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> his lowly, poverty-stricken, and degraded state. The gentlefolk -repelled him from the family hearth; civil society made him an outcast -from all its prerogatives. He was born, and he lived and he died, -apart from other men. And as we are told of certain rivers which flow -together in the same bed or channel without once commingling their -waters, so proletarianism and gentility, enfranchised slavery and -nobility, touched and elbowed each other, and even lay down in the same -bed, but without ever combining or losing themselves in each other by -amalgamation.”</p> - -<p>Had Christianity operated no other good in the world than breaking down -the barriers of rank and pedigree—those barriers which up to Christ’s -advent had effectually divided the human race into two irreconcilable -castes—it would have done enough to entitle it to be regarded as the -most important event that had till then occurred in the world. Until -that most stupid and inveterate of all prejudices, the prejudice in -favour of race or blood, was effectually rooted out, no real progress -could have been made by humanity. The early Christians felt this, and -so did the few freed-men and proletarians of their day. The latter, -ousted from the family circle and from the rights of citizenship, -rejected at once from private and from public society, must naturally -have yearned for some new society in which their wounded feelings -might find a refuge from the barbarous pride of their fellow-men. -Such a society they found in the new Christian brotherhood. Hence the -ardour with which the slave and proletarian class embraced the new -dispensation; and hence its first fatal but unforeseen consequence—the -myriad pauper-population which soon after overran Italy and the whole -Roman empire.</p> - -<p>But no sooner was the character of Christianity altered and debased—as -it became after its legal establishment under Constantine—no sooner -did the wealthy and ambitious portion of the Christians abandon their -religious obligations for worldly advantages, and lose all sympathy -with their poorer brethren, than the latter found themselves in a worse -condition, in respect of social intercourse, than was the lot of the -old slaves, their forefathers. They had then to endure the pangs of -destitution, superadded to the insolence and pride of race and riches.</p> - -<p>Before the epoch of Christianity, the only refuge society offered to -the few manumitted slaves and proletarians from the withering pride of -social disparagement was what Frenchmen call <i>communes</i>, or what we in -England would call <i>municipal institutions</i>. All ancient history goes -to show that <i>communes</i> or <i>municipalities</i>, of some kind or other, -existed from a very remote period. In these communes or municipalities -the progeny and descendants of slaves formed a sort of society amongst -themselves, in which they were governed by their own bye-laws, -according to the charters they held, or the amount of privileges -conceded to them by the governments under which they found shelter. -The enormous mass of proletarianism caused by Christianity necessarily -enlarged and greatly altered the character of these municipal bodies: -one portion of the members became in time opulent burgesses, growing -rich by manufactures, commerce,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> and the professions allied with them; -the remainder—the vast majority—became wages-slaves, or else fell -into the other degraded sections of proletarianism already described.</p> - -<p>In our modern society, the pride and exclusiveness of the upstart -burgess-class towards their proletarian brethren is not less insulting -and obdurate than were the same qualities in the ancient nobles towards -the slave-class from which these burgesses are derived. If our modern -middle-classes have still to endure an occasional humiliation from -aristocratic <i>morgue</i>—from the exclusive pretensions of noble blood -and ancestral honours—they take care to indemnify themselves largely -by similar insolence at the expense of their less fortunate brethren, -the working-classes. Indeed, were the latter to be asked which of the -two classes, the higher or the middle, they ordinarily experience most -courtesy from, they would unhesitatingly make answer, from the higher.</p> - -<p>Nor is this class-insolence, this two-fold pride of blood and riches, -confined to monarchical countries. It is as rife in republican Americas -as in purse-proud, aristocratic England. In Spanish America both kinds -of pride exist in full vigour; but that of caste, or blood, is carried -to such excess as must render the excluded classes perfectly miserable -all their lives. In the Free States even of republican America a man of -colour dared not sit in the same part of a church or a theatre with the -whites. Intermarriage between the two races was regarded with horror, -and with difficulty could a clergyman be found to officiate at such -a ceremony. In travelling, the people of colour must not enter the -same carriages, nor (if in a steamboat) must they be seen in the same -cabin as the whites. The negro-class, male and female, must travel in -inferior trains by land, and sleep in inferior berths or upon deck when -at sea or in excursions up and down the rivers. At places of public -amusement they have their “coloured” seat and in the house of God their -“coloured” gallery. In New Orleans and other cities in the South there -are great numbers of coloured ladies of excellent education—ladies -highly accomplished, and possessed, too, of great wealth, who lived in -concubinage with white men, because they could not be legally married -to them. There was a distinguished American general in the States who -had several children, the offspring of such concubinage; and, with all -his influence, he could not find admission into society for the members -of his family. They and their like find barriers everywhere opposed to -them.</p> - -<p>It is true, these are not so much distinctions of wealth and pedigree, -as distinctions of blood and race. But the principle of exclusiveness -is the same. It is the exercise of injustice by the strong against the -weak—the oppression of one class by another—a particular form or -phase of slavery, which under any and every phase is anti-Christian -and anti-human. Liberty and Christianity do not require a black -man to marry a white woman, nor <i>vice versâ</i>; but both liberty and -Christianity forbid coercive laws against such marriages, and more -especially do they repudiate and reprobate the system of exclusiveness -and unnecessary insults so universally <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>exercised by the whites against -the people of colour. Had the Christianity which overthrew paganism, -in the three first centuries, continued to prevail in the world, and -succeeded in assimilating the laws and institutions of nations to the -law of the Gospel, it is certain slavery must have long since become -extinct. Christianity knows no distinction between black men and white -men—between noble and peasant—between proletarian and millionaire. -Wages-slavery is as incompatible with its spirit as is chattel-slavery. -Were that spirit to prevail, our laws and institutions would be such -that neither form of slavery could for an instant raise its head -anywhere.</p> - -<p>It is true, great efforts are being made by a certain class of -<i>soi-disant</i> Christians to procure the abolition of chattel-slavery. -We must, however, regard all such efforts as the fruits of folly or -hypocrisy, so long as we find no efforts made by the same parties -to abolish <i>wages-slavery</i>—a slavery which we have shown to be -immeasurably worse for white slaves than is chattel-slavery for -the blacks. If it be said that to abolish wages-slavery would be -impossible, we answer, No! We shall show, before we dismiss this -inquiry, that wages-slavery is wholly and solely the work of tyrannical -laws which one set of men impose upon another by fraud and force, and -which they have no more right to impose, nor necessity for imposing, -than they have to traffic in human flesh, or the black king of Dahomey -has to make war upon his neighbours that he may conquer and sell them -for slaves.</p> - -<p>As long as these infamous laws (the laws alluded to) continue to be -in force, we hold it to be disgustingly absurd and even infamous -to agitate the world for the abolition of chattel-slavery. If we -attempt to alter the condition of slaves we should do so for their -own benefit, and not for <i>ours</i>. We should do so to ameliorate their -condition, and not to make it worse. The ranters of Exeter Hall have -no idea of ameliorating the condition of the negroes they so yearn to -“emancipate.” Their whole and sole object is to “proletarianize” them -for the benefit of employers and usurers. Their object is, in fact, to -reduce them to the level of the Irish peasantry, or of the labourers -in Dorsetshire or the weavers in Lancashire. The planters themselves -did not deny that they would have preferred “independent labourers” -to slaves, if they could have got them. They acknowledged that white -labour would have been more profitable to them than slave-labour—even -in cotton and sugar planting—if they could only have made sure of a -constant supply of it when wanted. But they said the white labourer -was too independent to render it safe for the planters to trust to his -services in seasons of pressure, as during the time of cane-pressing, -sugar-boiling, and cotton-picking. Assure him of a supply of such -labour—only give him a “surplus population” of starving proletarians -to be ever ready at his hand, like so many sheep in a crib, and you -will make him an abolitionist at once. And why? Because wages-slavery -would be then cheaper and better for him than chattel-slavery. On no -other principle would he emancipate them. Upon no other principle did -any emancipations ever take<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> place in the world, save in the three -first ages of Christianity. And no sooner did the pagan masters and -hypocritical <i>Christians</i> discover, under Constantine, that more work -could be got out of “free” proletarians than out of chattel-slaves, and -that the former <i>need not</i> while the latter <i>must be</i> kept, than they, -too, became abolitionists upon the same principle.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i095.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XV.</span> <span class="smaller">FORM OF SLAVERY UNDER MODERN CIVILIZATION.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Persistence of Chattel-Slavery in Eastern Countries—Assumption -of Form of Wages-Slavery under Modern Civilization—Creation of -Millionaire Capitalists by Present System—Result in Ruin and -Starvation of the Labouring Class—Necessity of Repressive Armies -and Police—Measures necessary to secure Social Reform.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>Having seen how human slavery originated in parental despotism—how -it expanded by war, commerce, indebtedness, marriage, <i>&</i>c.—how it -continued to be <i>direct</i> or <i>chattel</i> slavery all over the world till -the advent of Christianity—how it, in consequence of the workings -of the Gospel, gradually assumed the form of <i>wages</i>-slavery, and -generated modern proletarianism throughout Western Europe and -America—having also seen how the system of chattel-slavery <i>worked</i> -in the ancient world and in the slave-states of America, and compared, -or rather contrasted, that system with its more hideous successor, -wages-slavery—let us now inquire what are the forms and conditions of -human slavery as it exists under modern civilization, and by what means -and appliances it may be effectually and for ever banished from the -world.</p> - -<p>As already stated, direct or chattel slavery is still the normal -condition of the labouring classes in most Eastern countries, and of -the black population in South America. In Russia and other countries a -species of serfdom, until quite recently, obtained, which partook of -the nature of both chattel and wages slavery, but which was probably, -on the whole, less objectionable than either. The serfs of such -countries correspond with our <i>villains</i> of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman -times, and are clearly a remnant of the old feudal system which grew -up in most parts of Europe upon the dissolution of the Roman empire. -Wherever this serfdom prevails, proletarianism is confined to the -cities and towns, the serfs being, like chattel-slaves, provided for -out of the lands to which they are attached.</p> - -<p>In the principal states of Europe and America, in our colonies -generally, and indeed in most modern countries called “civilized,” -wages-slavery is the normal condition of the labouring classes. This -latter kind of slavery is, <i>cæteris paribus</i>, more or less intensely -severe according to the degree of perfection to which civilization -is carried. Thus, in our United Kingdom, which is accounted the most -civilized country in the world, wages-slavery is attended with greater -hardships, and subject to more privations and casualties, than anywhere -else. Nowhere else do we find employment so precarious; nowhere else -such multitudes of people overworked at one time and totally destitute -of employment at other times; nowhere else do we see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> such masses -of the population subsisting upon pittances wholly inadequate to -sustain human beings in health and strength; nowhere else do we find -jails and workhouses so overcrowded; nowhere else do we hear of whole -districts depopulated by famine, nor of upwards of 1,500,000 out of -eight millions of people being cut off by actual starvation and forced -expatriation in the course of twelve months, as has happened in Ireland -in our own times. All this, too, we find to be contemporaneous and in -juxtaposition with granaries, warehouses, and shops teeming with a -superabundance of the choicest produce of all climes—with cries of -over-production and glutted markets ringing in our ears wherever we -pass—and with the most opulent and numerous aristocracy, territorial -and commercial, that was ever known to be congregated in any country -of seven times the extent—to say nothing of a still more numerous -middle-class, in whose ranks may be found some thousands far surpassing -German counts or German princes in command of wealth and luxury. -Hence, no doubt, it was that Sir Robert Peel, not many years since, -accounted in Parliament for our distress by assuring the House that -“the occasional distress and destitution of great numbers of people was -a necessary consequence of our advanced civilization, and was therefore -a thing naturally to be expected in such a country as England.”</p> - -<p>We remember, some years ago, when an address was presented to this -same Sir Robert Peel by some 6,000 or 7,000 of the merchants, -bankers, shipowners, &c., of the City of London, to console him for -his temporary expulsion from office by the Whigs,—we remember how -the <i>Times</i> (which was then <i>ratting</i> from the Whigs) boasted, by -way of demonstrating the respectability of the addressers, that the -list contained the names of 1,500 citizens whose aggregate wealth -would suffice to redeem the National Debt, and still leave enough to -support the owners in opulence. We remember having seen it stated, -about the same period, in a City article of the said <i>Times</i>, that so -prosperous was trade that ironmasters in Staffordshire and Wales were -known to have realised £200,000 in one year. We remember hearing, on -the best authority, of the house of Baring & Co. clearing £650,000 by -the speculations of a single year. We know a banker died, a few years -since, in Liverpool whose estate was computed at from £5,000,000 to -£7,000,000. Peel’s father is said to have died worth £3,000,000; and -old Arkwright worth twice that much. Soames, the late shipowner, was -worth several millions. Rentals varying from £20,000 to upwards of -£200,000 a year are numerous in England. The Duke of Westminster’s -property will, it is said, be now worth half-a-million per annum of -income. London, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, and other towns abound -in millionaires worth from a <i>plum</i> to twenty, thirty, and even fifty -<i>plums</i>. A year’s rental of some of our dukes would pay the wages of -some 20,000 Irish labourers for a whole twelvemonth, at sixpence per -day each, which is more than thousands of them can earn by a hard -day’s work. A single bargain on the Stock Exchange will realise, for -a Rothschild, a Baring, a Gurney, or a Goldsmid, more than 30,000 -needlewomen in London could possibly earn in two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> years at present -wages. Were a few of our great landowners and millionaire capitalists -so inclined, they might, by clubbing together, keep an army of 100,000 -fighting men about them, whose maintenance, at their present wages, -would actually not be missed out of their enormous revenues. At £15 per -man, the annual cost would be only a million and a half, which, divided -amongst Sir Robert Peel’s 1,500 city addressers, would weigh less -heavily upon them than a penny a week subscription upon a poor Chartist -weaver.</p> - -<p>And while this monstrous hell-begotten opulence stares us in the face -wherever we go, what find we to be the condition of the men to whom we -owe the very bread we eat, and without whom England would be a howling -wilderness, namely, the agricultural labourers? We find them, in order -to escape death from starvation, driven to the very brink of rebellion, -as may be collected from paragraphs like the following, which may be -seen in almost every agricultural journal we may chance to take up. We -quote from a Wiltshire paper:—</p> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Riots in the Agricultural Districts.</span>—The farm-labourers of -the district round West Lavington, Devizes, have been resisting an -attempt to reduce wages from seven to six shillings a week, by forcibly -stopping farm operations. The men having got a hint of the contemplated -reduction, a number of them waited upon the steward of Lord Churchill, -the owner of the principal farms, with a view of inducing him to -intercede in their behalf. This led to no beneficial results; and the -men finding that their masters were determined on reduction, about a -hundred and fifty of them assembled in front of the house of a Mr. -Spencer, and stopped men, horses, and agricultural implements that -were proceeding to work by that road. Having persuaded other labourers -to join them, they went round to all the farms and completely stopped -all operations. They took horses from ploughs, opened sheep-pens, and -prevented all labour being proceeded with. On the following day some of -them returned to work; but warrants being issued for the ringleaders, -more than a hundred men formed themselves into a band and paraded the -streets, armed with staves. The assistance of the constabulary was then -obtained, and something like order restored. The next day a man named -Kite was taken before the magistrates and committed to prison. He had -not been long in custody before a large body of his fellow-labourers, -armed with sticks, came into the town for the purpose of rescuing him, -but were deterred by the presence of a strong military detachment.”</p> - -<p>Here we find soldiers and policemen (whose keep costs for each man -more than double the labourer’s pay) employed to force Englishmen -to choose between starvation and toiling all the week round for six -shillings. Supposing these unfortunate labourers to work every day in -the year (Sundays excepted), their wages, at six shillings a week, -would be just £15 12s. for the whole year! Here is a sum wherewith to -keep a wife and, mayhap, five or six young children! Mr. Edward Smith -has told us how common it is to see nigger-slaves in America making -and spending from 50 to 150 dollars<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> per annum by the labour of their -leisure hours—that is to say, exclusive of the maintenance provided -for them by their masters in exchange for their regular work. Take the -mean—100 dollars. This, at 4s. 2d. per dollar, is just £20 16s. 8d. If -he saves or spends 150 dollars, it is upwards of £30. Here, then, we -find a nigger-bondsman so far superior in condition to the free-born -Englishman, that he can actually afford to throw away upon luxuries (by -the earnings of his leisure hours) one-third more than, or even double, -the entire sum that a Wiltshire labourer is paid for the whole of his -time, though he drudge all the year round, and is never sick a single -day. If facts like these do not make the blood of Englishmen rush to -their cheeks, and the very cravenest of them take the field for their -social rights, they are past redemption.</p> - -<p>Sir Robert Peel calls all this “civilization;” and the House of Commons -cried, “Hear, hear,” and cheered and supported him, when he declared -that the remedy for such a state of things lay not within the compass -of legislation; that Parliament depended, itself, upon the people, -and not the people on Parliament; and that the only and proper remedy -for the distressed classes was for them “to take their affairs into -their own hands”! Well, in the foregoing paragraph from the Devizes -newspaper, we see them essay to take their affairs into their own -hands; and we see also, that no sooner do they attempt to do so—no -sooner do they proceed to act upon Sir Robert’s advice—than soldiers -and police are brought down upon them, and warrants issued for their -apprehension. If this be not the perfection of human slavery, as well -as the perfection of inhumanity and injustice, we really know not what -is.</p> - -<p>But is it true that no Parliamentary cure is findable for the -disease?—that the evil is one beyond the reach of legislative -control?—that, after all, the boasted “omnipotence of Parliament” -(which, Blackstone tells us, can do anything and everything not -naturally impossible)—is it true that this boasted omnipotence cannot -secure for an Englishman the food he has raised, the bread he has -earned—nay, doubly, trebly, quintuply, decuply earned? Is this true? -No, no; a thousand times no! What Parliament has done, it can undo; -what Parliament ought to do, and can do, it ought to be made to do, or -else to abdicate. There is not a member in either House of Parliament -that does not know, as well as we know, that our <i>land</i> and <i>money</i> -laws are at the bottom of all the distress in the country, and that -the repeal of bad laws, and the enactment of good ones, are all that -is wanted to make England a paradise. There is not a member in either -House that does not know that all the slavery in the world, or that -has ever been in the world, is, or has been, the work of landlords -and money-lords; and that, consequently, the only true and proper way -to put an end to slavery is to make laws to deprive landlords and -money-lords of the power to enslave and rob their fellow-creatures. -If it be said, this cannot be done without interfering with the -rights of private property, we answer emphatically that it is laws -against robbery, and not against property, that are wanted. We assert -emphatically (because we know we can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> prove satisfactorily) that the -repeal of unjust laws, and the enactment of a few just and salutary -ones, upon Land, Credit, and Equitable Exchange (the latter including -Currency), is all that is needed to terminate poverty and slavery -for ever; and that it is perfectly within the compass of Parliament -to enact such laws without violating the rights of private property, -or confiscating to the value of one shilling of any man’s estate, or -otherwise dealing with it than in the legitimate way of taxation and -commutation, which the laws of all countries recognise and practise, -and none more than our own.</p> - -<p>But, before going a step further in this inquiry, we beg to submit -here the following resolutions which were proposed to a crowded public -meeting by the author of this work, and carried by acclamation without -a single dissentient, although the meeting was composed of reformers -and philanthropists of all shades and sects:—</p> - -<p>“This meeting is of opinion that in addition to a full, fair, and free -representation of the whole people in the Commons House of Parliament, -upon principles the same, or similar to those laid down in the People’s -Charter, the following measures, some of a provisional, the others -of a permanent nature, are necessary to ensure real political and -social justice to the oppressed and suffering population of the United -Kingdom, and to protect society from violent revolutionary changes:—</p> - -<p>“1. A repeal of our present wasteful and degrading system of poor-laws, -and a substitution of a just and efficient poor-law (based upon the -original Act of Elizabeth), which would centralise the rates, and -dispense them equitably and economically for the beneficial employment -and relief of the destitute poor; the rates to be levied only upon the -owners of every description of realized property; the employment to be -of a healthy, useful, and reproductive kind, so as to render the poor -self-sustaining and self-respecting. Till such employment be procured -the relief of the poor to be, in all cases, promptly and liberally -administered as a right, and not grudgingly doled out as a boon; the -relief not to be accompanied with obduracy, insult, imprisonment in the -workhouses, separation of married couples, the breaking up of families, -or any such other harsh and degrading conditions as, under the present -system, convert relief into punishment, and treat the unhappy applicant -rather as a convicted criminal than as (what he really is) the victim -of an unjust and vitiated state of society.</p> - -<p>“2. In order to lighten the pressure of rates, and at the same time -gradually to diminish, and finally to absorb, the growing mass of -pauperism and surplus population, it is the duty of the Government to -appropriate its present surplus revenue, and the proceeds of national -or public property, to the purchasing of lands, and the location -thereon of the unemployed poor. The rents accruing from these lands to -be applied to further purchases of land, till all who desired to occupy -land, either as individual holders or industrial communities, might be -enabled to do so. A general law, empowering parishes to raise loans -upon the security of their rates, would greatly facilitate and expedite -the operation of Government towards this desirable end. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> - -<p>“3. Pending the operations of these measures, it is desirable to -mitigate the burdens of taxation and of public and private indebtedness -upon all classes who suffer thereby,—the more especially as these -burdens have been vastly aggravated by the recent monetary and free -trade measures of Sir Robert Peel. To this end, the Public Debt and -all private indebtedness affected by the fall of prices should be -equitably adjusted in favour of the debtor and productive classes, and -the charges of Government should be reduced upon a scale corresponding -with the general fall of prices and of wages. And, as what is -improperly called the National Debt has been admitted, in both Houses -of Parliament, to be in the nature of a <i>bona fide</i> mortgage upon -the realised property of the country, it is but strict justice that -the owners of this property, and they only, should be henceforward -held responsible for both capital and interest. At all events, the -industrious classes should not be held answerable for it, seeing -that the debt was not borrowed by them, nor for them, nor with their -consent, and that even had it been so, they have had no assets left -them for the payment of it. Moreover, the realised property of this -country, being estimated at eight times the amount of the debt, the -owners or mortgagers have no valid excuse or plea to offer on the score -of inability, for refusing to meet the claims of their mortgagees.</p> - -<p>“4. The gradual resumption by the State (on the acknowledged principles -of equitable compensation to existing holders or their heirs) of its -ancient, undoubted, inalienable dominion and sole proprietorship over -all lands, mines, turbaries, fisheries, &c., of the United Kingdom -and our Colonies; the same to be held by the State, as trustees in -perpetuity for the entire people, and rented out to them in such -quantities and on such terms as the law and local circumstances shall -determine;—because the land, being the gift of the Creator to ALL, -can never become the exclusive property of individuals; because the -monopoly of the land in private hands is a palpable invasion of the -rights of the excluded parties, rendering them more or less the slaves -of landlords and capitalists, and tending to circumscribe or annul -their other rights and liberties; because a monopoly of the earth by a -portion of mankind is no more justifiable than would be the monopoly -of air, light, heat, or water; and because the rental of land (which -justly belongs to the whole people) would form a national fund adequate -to defray all charges of the public service, execute all needful public -works, and educate the population, without the necessity for any -taxation.</p> - -<p>“5. That, as it is the recognised duty of the State to support all -those of its subjects who from incapacity or misfortune are unable to -procure their own subsistence, and as the nationalization of landed -property would open up new sources of occupation for the now surplus -industry of the people (a surplus which is daily augmented by the -accumulation of machinery in the hands of the capitalists), the same -principle which now sanctions a public provision for the destitute poor -should be extended to the providing a sound system of National Credit, -through which any man might (under certain conditions) procure an -advance from the national funds arising out of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> the proceeds of public -property, and thereby be enabled to rent and cultivate land on his -own account, instead of being subjected, as now, to the injustice and -tyranny of wages-slavery (through which capitalists and profitmongers -are enabled to defraud him of his fair recompense), or being induced -to become a hired slaughterer of his fellow-creatures at the bidding -of godless diplomatists, enabling them to foment and prosecute -international wars, and trample on popular rights, for the exclusive -advantage of aristocratic and ‘vested interests.’ The same privilege -of obtaining a share of the national credit to be applicable to the -requirements of individuals, companies, and communities in all other -branches of useful industry, as well as in agriculture.</p> - -<p>“6. That the National Currency should be based on real, consumable -wealth, or on the <i>bona fide</i> credit of the State, and not upon the -variable and uncertain amount of scarce metals; because a currency -depending on such a basis, however suitable in past times, or as a -measure of value in present international commerce, has now become, by -the increase of population and wealth, wholly inadequate to perform -the functions of equitably representing and distributing that wealth; -thereby rendering all commodities liable to perpetual fluctuation -in price, as those metals happen to be more or less plentiful in -any country; increasing to an enormous extent the evils inherent in -usury and in the banking and funding systems (in support of which a -legitimate function of the law—the <span class="smaller">PROTECTION</span> of property—is -distorted into an instrument for the <span class="smaller">CREATION</span> of property to -a large amount for the benefit of a small portion of society belonging -to what are called vested interests); because, from its liability to -become locally or nationally scarce or in excess, that equilibrium -which should be maintained between the production and consumption of -wealth is destroyed; because, being of intrinsic value itself, it -fosters a vicious trade in money and a ruinous practice of commercial -gambling and speculation; and, finally, because, under the present -system of society, it has become confessedly the ‘root of all evil,’ -and the main support of that unholy worship of Mammon which now so -extensively prevails, to the supplanting of all true religion, natural -and revealed.</p> - -<p>“7. That in order to facilitate the transfer of property or service, -and the mutual interchange of wealth among the people, to equalize -the demand and supply of commodities, to encourage consumption as -well as production, and to render it as easy to sell as to buy, it is -an important duty of the State to institute, in every town and city, -public marts or stores for the reception of all kinds of exchangeable -goods, to be valued by disinterested officers appointed for the -purpose, either upon a corn or a labour standard; the depositors to -receive symbolic notes representing the value of their deposits, such -notes to be made legal currency throughout the country, enabling their -owners to draw from the public stores to an equivalent amount, thereby -gradually displacing the present reckless system of competitive trading -and shopkeeping—a system which, however necessary or unavoidable in -the past, now produces a monstrous amount of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> evil, by maintaining a -large class living on the profits made by the mere sale of goods, on -the demoralizing principle of buying cheap and selling dear, totally -regardless of the ulterior effects of that policy upon society at large -and the true interests of humanity.</p> - -<p>“It is not assumed that the foregoing propositions comprise all the -reforms needed in society. Doubtless there are many other reforms -required besides those alluded to; doubtless we want a sound system -of national education for youth, made compulsory upon all parents -and guardians; doubtless we require a far less expensive system of -military and naval defence than now obtains; doubtless we require -the expropriation of railways, canals, bridges, docks, gas-works, -water-works, &c.; and doubtless we require a juster and more humane -code of civil and penal law than we now possess. But these and all -other needful reforms will be easy of accomplishment when those -comprised in the foregoing propositions shall have been effected. -Without these, indeed, justice cannot be done to humanity; society -cannot be placed in the true path of improvement, never again to -be turned aside or thrown back; nor can those natural checks and -counter-checks be instituted without which the conflicting passions and -propensities of man fail to produce a harmonious whole, but with which, -as in the material world, all things are made to work together for -good, reconciling man to his position in the universe, and exalting his -hopes of future destiny.”</p> - -<p>We shall treat the subject of these propositions in the following -chapters; and meanwhile the reader will please observe that similar -resolutions have also received the sanction of numerous meetings, large -and small, throughout the country.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i103.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XVI.</span> <span class="smaller">REFORMS AS MUCH NEEDED IN AMERICA AND IN COLONIES AS IN EUROPE.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Answer to question, “How is Human Slavery to go -out?”—Insufficiency of mere Political Freedom—Accessibility of -Public Lands in new Countries their chief Advantage—Inadequacy of -Universal Suffrage without a Knowledge of Social Rights—America -falling into same Abyss as Europe.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>Before resuming the subject of the foregoing propositions, we pray the -reader to bear in mind, that we are now arrived at that all-important -branch of our inquiry which proposes to answer the question, “How is -human slavery to be made to go out of the world?” To have shown how it -came in,—how it was propagated,—the varied phases it has assumed, -and the hideous, wide-spread proletarianism to which the conversion -of <i>chattel</i>-slavery into <i>wages</i>-slavery has given rise,—to have -shown all this, without at the same time essaying to show how the fell -monster is to be eradicated from the face of the earth, would be a -mere idle literary dissertation—a contemptible parade of erudition, -without object, without end. A higher purpose will, we trust, be -found to have dictated this inquiry. An earnest, heartfelt desire -to contribute our quota towards rescuing humanity from oppression -and sorrow is the motive we lay claim to. This motive it is which -impelled us, on the part of the National Reform League, to propose -the resolutions embodied in the last chapter. In those resolutions -we profess to answer the question, “How is human slavery to be made -to go out of the world?” It is true, their immediate application is -intended only for our own country; but they are equally applicable -to France, Germany, and every other “civilized” country—America -itself not excepted. America is comparatively free from most of the -political anomalies and exclusive privileges which disgrace Europe, -and degrade the vast numerical majority of its people. There are no -crowned heads there; there is no State Church. Some of the States have -public debts, but they are comparatively light, and, for the most -part, in course of easy liquidation. Moreover, there is no titled -aristocracy claiming, by hereditary right, to legislate for or govern -any of the States. In this respect, men of all grades and conditions -are equally eligible for office, and for places of trust, honour, and -emolument. Universal suffrage may be said to be the general rule, and -property qualifications the exception, for the election of members -of the legislature and officers of government. Treason works no -corruption of blood in America. There is no law of primogeniture or -entail; there is no religion established and maintained by law, and -consequently no legal bars to religious freedom. Taxation is, generally -speaking, equal, uniform, and direct. It was, before the civil war, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>comparatively light, too; and when otherwise, the remedy lies with the -people themselves; for, as restrictions upon the suffrage by property -and tax-qualifications exist but in some few of the States (and in -these are not very onerous or stringent), the basis of representation -may, for all practical purposes, be considered <i>numerical</i>, and not -territorial or financial. Add to these advantages the fact that the -old common law of England is the common law of America; and that -where any departure from it is made by statute, it is invariably in a -democratic sense. Thus, in Texas and other States, for instance, that -part of the old common law which considers a married woman as dead in -law is abrogated by statute in favour of the gentle sex, and so as to -give her more power than she possesses under the civil law. Thus, any -property possessed by her before marriage remains at her sole disposal -after marriage, as also any property she may become entitled to during -coverture. She may receive from and give to her husband a deed of -conveyance whilst under coverture. And any deed of conveyance made by -the husband requires for its full validity the joint signature of the -wife. In some of the States, too, the homestead can never be taken in -execution of debt; and, at the moment we write, a powerful movement is -going on throughout the States to secure a similar exemption of the -homestead throughout the entire Union. These and other privileges—the -result of her political constitution—America fully enjoys. No European -state can compare with her in these respects—not even Norway or -Switzerland. In a word, America is already possessed of every political -amelioration contended for by the old Radicals of this country, or -by the financial or mere middle-class reformers of the present day. -Indeed, to assimilate us to America is their <i>summum bonum</i>—the <i>ne -plus ultra</i> of their reforming aspirations.</p> - -<p>Far be it from us to undervalue the political rights secured to the -Americans by their general and State constitutions. Nevertheless, we -unhesitatingly affirm that the foregoing propositions are no less -necessary for the extinction of slavery in America than in England, -France, or any other European country.</p> - -<p>Our position is this: It is the land and money laws of a country that -must ever mainly determine the social condition of its people. In other -words, without just agrarian and commercial laws—laws that shall -establish for all classes equal rights in the soil and equal advantages -from the use of money and credit (so as to secure equitable exchange -in trade)—no country can be prosperous, be its form of government -what it may. Now, in these respects America has but little to boast -of over England, France, or any other European country. If she does -not exhibit the wide-spread distress that these countries exhibit, she -owes it not so much to the superiority of her political institutions -(for of these she has as yet but little availed herself), as she -does to her unbounded resources (in the extent and fertility of her -soil), and to the comparative exemption she enjoys from public and -private indebtedness owing to her being a new country. But for these -causes—but for the facility with which unappropriated land may be had, -and but for the fewness of her <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>territorial and commercial aristocracy -as compared with those of older countries—her citizens would very soon -exhibit the same hideous extremes of rich and poor as are to be found -in Europe. Indeed, New York and some of the New England States (where -most of the land is appropriated, and the population crowded) have -already, on more than one occasion, exhibited all the worst features -of British “civilization”—that is to say, wholesale squalor and -destitution (with their necessary consequences) in close proximity to -teeming granaries and warehouses; otherwise, an unemployed labouring -population, in rags and hunger, within sight of merchant-princes and -master-manufacturers worth some hundreds of thousands of dollars each.</p> - -<p>And why should it be otherwise? The social system is the same there as -here. Rents are higher in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, &c., than -in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. Competition is the same or worse. -Wages-slavery is as rife in Massachusets, Pennsylvania, and New York -as in any part of the British Isles; and if wages be not quite as low -in Philadelphia and Lowell as they are in Manchester and Birmingham, -it is partly owing to the high protective duties laid on foreign -manufactures, partly to the comparative scarcity of hands, but chiefly -to the facility with which the victims of competition can escape from -the mills and factories to the backwoods of Indiana, Missouri, &c.</p> - -<p>In other words, the Americans owe whatever advantage they have over -us not to any superiority in their <i>social</i> institutions,—not to -better agrarian and commercial laws,—nor even to the acknowledged -superiority of their civil and religious system of polity,—but to -the territorial and other local advantages to which we have referred, -and which no more distinguish them than they do the people of Sydney, -Adelaide, Port Phillip, Natal, New Zealand, or any other new country -in which land is abundant and labour scarce. But let America (with her -present social system) come to be peopled as England is,—let her now -unappropriated land be made private property of, and her agrarian and -commercial laws remain what they are,—and we venture to say that not -one jot better off will her labouring population be than ours now is. -Universal suffrage might stem the aristocratic tide for a season (as it -has done in other new countries); but the men of land and money would -sweep away universal suffrage there, as they have ever done elsewhere, -the moment they found it incompatible with landlordism and usury. All -the principal States of Europe had universal suffrage a few years ago; -France alone possesses it now, and that with a tenure so insecure that -it can hardly be said to be established. In all the other States the -men of land and money destroyed universal suffrage by brute force; they -dispersed diets and national assemblies at the point of the bayonet, -and made rights and constitutions to disappear before the cannon of -disciplined assassins. It may be the same in France before six months. -It would have been the same long ere now, but that some two millions -of <i>social</i> reformers were known to be ready to take advantage of the -event, in order to wreak vengeance upon the landed and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> commercial -villains who have defrauded them out of the fruits of three revolutions -purchased with torrents of blood.</p> - -<p>In truth, universal suffrage is no guarantee at all for liberty, -unless it be accompanied, on the part of the working classes, with a -knowledge of their social rights, and a consequent determination to use -political power for their establishment. The Romans, the Spartans and -Athenians, the Sicilians, and many other ancient peoples had universal -suffrage—at least, a vote for every citizen who was not a helot or a -bondsman; but it proved of no use to them, for want of knowing their -social rights. For the like reason, the Irish made no good use of -their forty-shilling freehold vote, when they had it; and, for the -same reason, they offered no resistance when it was taken away. The -French people had universal suffrage in 1793. Their Convention of that -period was elected by universal suffrage; and the constitution it made -was far more democratic than the French constitution of 1848. But, not -understanding their social rights then so well as they do now, they -suffered their landlords and money-lords to rob them of it, just as -the old Romans, Athenians, &c., had allowed <i>their</i> land and money -lords to do in their day. After the Convention had succeeded, with -the aid of the Parisian shopocracy, in murdering Robespierre and in -striking terror into all who, like him, loved justice and the people, -they not only abolished the democratic constitution of 1793 and put a -middle-class constitution in its place, but they actually decreed that -they (the Convention members) should constitute <i>two-thirds</i> of the -next Legislative Assembly, and that the nation should be at liberty -to choose only the remaining third! Strange to say, too, the people -submitted to this, as to every other abomination of the times; they -submitted because the great mass of them were too profoundly ignorant -of their social rights to take much interest in the franchise question. -It ever was so, it ever will be so, with a people ignorant of their -social rights: they will never risk life or limb in defence of their -<i>political</i> till they comprehend their <i>social</i> rights.</p> - -<p>In America there is less danger than anywhere else of the people losing -their political rights. This is owing partly to the greater equality in -property which subsists there, but chiefly to the agitation of <i>social</i> -questions which has been forced upon the working classes of late years -by the continuous arrival of European emigrants competing with them -in the labour-market, and alarming them, by their example, as to what -might prove their own fate hereafter, should they suffer a powerful -territorial and commercial aristocracy to grow up amongst them. Hence -the springing up of the “Free Soil” and “National Reform” movements -in the United States; hence an attempt to radicalize the constitution -of Rhode Island; hence the numerous publications which denounced the -sale of the public lands—especially to foreigners and companies; hence -the hatred of national debts—especially if they arise out of foreign -loans—and the determination of the working-classes to repudiate them; -and hence, above all, the cheering fact, so well deserving of our -notice, that every new revision of an American constitution—whether it -be that of a State<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> or of the entire Union—is invariably distinguished -by an increase of strength or latitude given to the democratic -principle. This is particularly observable in the new States, where -the settlers, consisting in great part of exiles forced from Europe -by poverty and tyranny, have carried out with them an intense hatred -of the systems they fled from, and therefore take all the democratic -precautions they can to keep down the aristocratic leaven.</p> - -<p>But not even America herself, we predict, will escape the <i>régime</i> of -Europe, unless she reform her social institutions while she is yet -young and healthy. Her agrarian laws are not a jot better than those -of France or England; and her commercial spirit is even more ravenous -and unscrupulous. In one respect she is worse than either. We allude -to her preference of metallic money to symbolic money; which is a -result of the fraudulent paper-systems she has so often smarted under. -There is no subject upon which the American working-classes are so -lamentably at fault as the subject of money. They fancy that an honest -paper-system is impossible, because they have been so often cheated by -the worthless rags of fraudulent usurers; and in this suicidal delusion -the bullionists and usurers take good care to confirm them. Next to -their want of sound views upon the Land question, this delusion as to -the real nature and proper functions of Money is the greatest foe to -American progress. On the subject of <i>Credit</i>—that most potent of all -levers of modern production—the same ignorance prevails in America -as here and in France. In truth, were it not that universal suffrage -is the fundamental law in France and America, while it is scouted in -England, we should be at a loss to know what advantages the French -and Americans possess over us, so deplorably similar are the three -countries in respect of social rights.</p> - -<p>But we shall better comprehend these matters when we come to analyze -the propositions of the National Reform League, and to test their value -by showing their equal applicability to, and desirability for, all -three countries,—indeed, for all civilized countries under the sun.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i108.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XVII.</span> <span class="smaller">RELIEF TO UNEMPLOYED OR DESTITUTE A RIGHT, NOT A CHARITY.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Inability of a People ignorant of Social Rights to choose -Representatives—Duties of a wise Democracy—Omnipotency of a -Knowledge of Social Rights—Facility of Application of Social -Reforms—Exposition of the three Provisional Measures necessary.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>We have stated, in a former chapter, that the repeal of unjust laws, -and the enactment of a few just and salutary ones, upon Land, Credit, -and Equitable Exchange (the latter including Currency), are all that -is wanted to terminate poverty and slavery for ever; and that nothing -is easier than for Parliament to enact such laws without infringing -the rights of private property, without confiscating to the value of a -shilling of any man’s estate, or otherwise dealing with property than -in the legitimate way of taxation and commutation which the laws of all -countries recognise and practise, and none more so than our own.</p> - -<p>The resolutions which we have before cited show clearly how it may -be done. An honest Parliament is of course presupposed; for, without -an honest legislature to begin with, reform is all moonshine. The -first article of the League’s creed is, therefore, a full, free, -and fair representation of the whole people. To that end it demands -the enactment of the “People’s Charter”—not because it regards the -Charter’s plan of representation as perfect, but because that plan is -sufficiently so for all practical purposes, and because, having already -received the sanction of millions of the population, it would be unwise -and mischievous to risk dividing the people by the propounding of any -fresh scheme, the more especially as any defects in the “Charter” may -be easily enough remedied hereafter by a parliament or convention -elected upon Chartist principles.</p> - -<p>But although the “People’s Charter” is a <i>sine qua non</i> with the -League, it is, after all, but a machinery for providing the <i>means</i> -to an <i>end</i>. The <i>means</i> is parliamentary reform; the <i>end</i> is social -reform, or a reformation of society through the operation of just and -humane laws. The “Charter,” in fact, but aims at restoring to the -people the undoubted right of self-government—the right of making the -laws according to which, and to which only, they are to be ruled. It -leaves to the people themselves to do all the rest. It gives them the -power to elect what sort of representatives they choose, and to exact -from them what pledges they like in the way of social and political -reform. With the people themselves, however, it must ultimately rest -whether even the “People’s Charter” shall give them veritable political -and social rights. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> - -<p>If they know how to choose their legislators, and are resolute -to enforce the law, they will have both. But if, from ignorance, -corruption, or other causes, they know not how to make a proper choice, -they will but have escaped Scylla to fall into Charybdis, and, mayhap, -make bad worse. The very men they elect to save them may prove their -direst enemies. These, with the aid (out of doors) of the ignorant -and depraved of all classes, may accomplish the ruin of their best -friends, and then (as the French Convention did, after murdering -Robespierre) destroy universal suffrage itself, under pretence that it -had led to nothing but folly, blood, and crime. These are no imaginary -suppositions. We are but supposing for England, and the present time, -what has heretofore occurred in most other countries and in all times -under similar circumstances. A people ignorant of their true political -and social rights will never elect a Parliament of real political and -social reformers; they will only elect declaiming demagogues and crafty -adventurers, who will promise everything and perform nothing,—who, -professing to be doing everything for the people, will, in reality, -do nothing for them but make them stepping-stones to their own -aggrandisement, and who, as usual, beginning with frightening the -aristocracies of land and money, will end with compromising and going -shares with them for the public spoil, after establishing a reign of -terror over the people for their own conjoint security. How easily -might we demonstrate this by <i>à priori</i> reasoning, were it necessary. -The history of all past revolutions, however, dispenses with any such -necessity. Indeed, the bare fact that universal suffrage is nowhere to -be found now-a-days amongst those ancient states and communities where -it formerly flourished is proof sufficient. A truly intelligent people -would ever remain a self-governing people. A people fully conscious of -the value of their political and social rights could never lose the -franchise. In the first place, they would so use it as to remove or -prevent the growth of those unnatural interests and institutes which -are incompatible with its free exercise and permanent security. In the -next place, they would use it to establish the social rights of the -people upon a basis as broad as the population itself. And, lastly, -they would so know how to appreciate the blessings of self-government, -from a consciousness that they owed their liberties and happiness -to no other source, that they would fight like lions, and die to a -man, rather than surrender their franchises. Such a people might be -exterminated; it could not be enslaved or disfranchised. Xerxes, with -his innumerable hordes, was not a match for a few thousand Greeks -inspired with the love of freedom. A Persian army could not force the -pass of Thermopylæ against three hundred freemen under Leonidas, till -treachery leagued with numbers for his overthrow; and even then the -handful of freemen had to be exterminated, because they could not be -taken alive, nor subdued to slavery. We have a still more striking -example of this in the present day. Of all the European States that -enjoyed universal suffrage a few years ago, France is now the only -one in which it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> survives. And why? Because France is the only one of -them in which a large proportion of the working-classes are imbued -with a knowledge of their <i>social</i> rights, and consequently the only -one in which the working people are determined to maintain the right -of self-government by fire and sword, if necessary. In Prussia, -Austria, and in most of the German and Italian States the mass of -the people had heard little or nothing of their <i>social</i> rights, and -consequently attached too little value to them to fight for them, or -for the political power through which alone they could be securely -established. Hence their comparative non-resistance to the overthrow of -their respective constitutions. It is otherwise in France. There, at -least two millions out of eight millions of adult males understand so -well the value of their political and social rights that Louis Napoleon -and his <i>bourgeoisie</i> dared not overthrow universal suffrage by their -<i>coup d’état</i>. The upper and middle classes hate universal suffrage -quite as much in France as their feudal and money-grubbing brethren -hate it in England, Germany, and Italy. Nevertheless, they dared not -strike the blow, lest it should recoil fatally upon themselves. There -are full two millions of <i>social</i> democrats in France who are resolved -to set the whole country in flames, and, if needs be, perish in the -conflagration, rather than suffer a traitorous conspiracy of landlords -and money-lords to put down their constitution by force. It is in the -stern determination of these two millions that rests the sole real -security for universal suffrage in France. The number of these social -democrats increases, too, every day with the spread of knowledge, -and with their greater experience of the baseness and perfidy of the -commercial villains who seek to eject them from the constitution, and -at whose instigations the present government is continually persecuting -their party, and seeking to goad it into premature insurrection in -order to create an occasion for establishing a pitiless military -despotism. With the increase of social democracy, increases the -security for universal suffrage. Every Social Democrat is essentially a -freeman in heart and soul, in conviction and sentiment. Such men will -fight when slaves would not. They were the freemen of Athens and Sparta -that overthrew the hordes of Xerxes. Had the helots and bondsmen been -sent against them, they would have succumbed to the barbarians, even as -they had to their own masters. The helots of Sparta and the bondsmen -of Athens knew nothing of <i>political</i> and still less of <i>social</i> -rights. Hence did they all die, as they had lived, bondsmen and slaves. -For the same reason did the chattel-slaves of the ancient world live -and die in bondage for forty centuries before the Christian era. For -the same reason the serfs and <i>villains</i> of the middle ages suffered -themselves to be <i>adscripti glebæ</i>, and quietly transferred from lord -to lord as estates changed hands, just the same as the other live -stock on the lands. For the same reason, and no other, were the modern -serfs of Russia, Poland, &c., no better off than their predecessors -of mediæval times; and precisely for the self-same reason are the -wages-slaves of modern “civilization” so tractable under a system -which, for real though disguised savagery, throws Oriental barbarism -and chattel-slavery completely into the shade. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p> - -<p>Impressed with these convictions, the National Reform League sees no -hope for the successful establishment of the “Charter,” and for the -permanent enjoyment of its legitimate fruits, but in the diffusion, -amongst the people at large, of sound political and social knowledge. -Real <i>political</i> they believe to be inseparable from real <i>social</i> -power, and the converse. To make the people appreciate universal -suffrage, we must teach them what they lose by the want of it, and -what they may fairly expect from a wise and legitimate use of it. In -answer to Sir Robert Peel and the House of Commons, we repudiate their -doctrine that legislation is not responsible for the sufferings of the -people; and the terms of our repudiation are made good in the seven -resolutions or propositions of the League.</p> - -<p>What is, then, demanded in those seven propositions that is not within -the easy compass of a few acts of Parliament? What is there in them -incompatible with the acknowledged rights of individuals or with the -public peace or public security? In what respect can they endanger, -ever so remotely, life, liberty, property, religion, family, home, or -any other thing held sacred amongst men? On the contrary, do they not -go to secure all these with stronger guarantees than they can ever -derive from coercive laws or from the corruption of public opinion?</p> - -<p>The “People’s Charter,” unaccompanied by the social reforms we demand, -might possibly prove a danger for all classes, through the poor, in -their ignorance, demanding what they had no right to, and through the -rich, in their selfishness, refusing everything to an enfranchised -people armed with power to take more than their own. But we challenge -the world to prove that the “Charter,” accompanied with the social -reforms we ask, could be a danger or an injustice to any class, or -that it could fail to work out the complete emancipation of the whole -people, politically, socially, morally, and intellectually.</p> - -<p>What are the social reforms we demand? They may be classed under two -heads. The three first propositions demand reforms of a provisional -kind, to meet temporary evils. The remaining four are of a permanent -kind, to cure permanent evils. Resolution I. is as follows:—</p> - -<p>“A repeal of our present wasteful and degrading system of poor-laws, -and a substitution of a just and efficient poor-law (based upon the -original Act of Elizabeth), which would centralize the rates, and -dispense them equitably and economically for the beneficial employment -and relief of the destitute poor. The rates to be levied only upon the -owners of every description of realized property. The employment to be -of a healthy, useful, and reproductive kind, so as to render the poor -self-sustaining and self-respecting. Till such employment be procured, -the relief of the poor to be, in all cases, promptly and liberally -administered as a right, and not grudgingly doled out as a boon; the -relief not to be accompanied with obduracy, insult, imprisonment in the -workhouses, separation of married couples, the breaking up of families, -or any such other harsh and degrading conditions as, under the present -system, convert relief into punishment, and treat the unhappy applicant -rather as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> convicted criminal than as (what he really is) the victim -of an unjust and vitiated state of society.”</p> - -<p>What is there unjust or impracticable in this proposition? Who ought, -by right, to support the poor? Clearly, those who have most profited by -their labour, and whose enormous revenues (derived from the aggregate -labour of the people every year, without yielding any equivalent) are -the main cause of so many labourers falling into pauperism. And who -are these? Clearly, the owners of <i>realised</i> property,—the owners -of lands, houses, mines, collieries, turbaries, fisheries, docks, -wharfs, canals, bank-stock, railway-shares, consols, and every other -description of property yielding an annual income independently of any -labour or service or risk on the part of the proprietor. It is not -upon mechanics, tradesmen, or professional men who have but their own -exertions to trust to for a living, and who may or may not be worth -a groat, that the burden should fall. These parties are supposed to -render to society an equivalent for what they get, and consequently -ought not to be made responsible for keeping others whose poverty they -have not caused. At all events, it will be time enough to tax them -when they have realised something by their respective callings. But -as the others render to society no equivalent for their incomes, as -their incomes are purely and wholly the <i>creation of law</i>, and not of -their own labour or services, and as they are therefore the parties -who <i>make</i> the poor, both common sense and common justice demand that -they should be made to <i>keep</i> the poor, or at least enable the poor to -keep themselves by remunerative labour. Moreover, it was upon these -classes, and these only, that the original Act of Queen Elizabeth -contemplated the levies should fall. The 43rd Elizabeth extended the -rate to every other description of <i>realised</i> property, as well as -mere <i>real</i> property; but owing to the comparatively small amount of -<i>realised</i> property (other than what falls within the legal description -of <i>real</i>) which existed in Elizabeth’s time, and for 150 years after, -and owing to the difficulty of ascertaining it for assessment purposes, -it escaped its due share of the burden; and, indeed, until about eight -years ago most people fancied that it was <i>real</i> property only, and not -<i>realised</i>, that was contemplated in the original Act. The enormous -strides, however, that other descriptions of <i>realised</i> property -(besides lands and houses) have made of late years have opened people’s -eyes to the true intent and purport of the Act; and hence moneymongers, -scrip-holders and annuitants must no longer expect to escape and throw -their burden upon shopkeepers, mechanics, and needy professionals.</p> - -<p>In truth, it is not their interest to do so, unless they choose to risk -their all for the sake of a beggarly saving of a few pounds a year, -which they, of all others, ought least to begrudge the poor, their -especial victims. As to centralizing the rate, the selfish conduct of -landed proprietors and others has made such a step almost inevitable. -By preventing the building of cottages on their respective estates -in town and country, and by working the law of settlement to their -own selfish ends so as to debar the poor from having<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> any legal claim -in their respective townships, they have so effectually overcrowded -some parishes with paupers, to spare their own, that nothing but a -centralised rate (to be dispensed according to the number of claimants -in each) can now restore justice as between parish and parish and -union and union. But let those who may entertain any doubt as to the -expediency or necessity of centralization but read Mr. Hutchinson’s -admirable work on the subject, and we think they will at once admit -that such an arrangement ought no longer to be deferred.</p> - -<p>As to the liberal and kindly treatment we demand for the unemployed -and destitute poor, it is no more than a fraction of their right. If -they had <i>justice</i> done them they would need no <i>charity</i>, and, till -justice is done them, we demand that their treatment shall be what our -resolution describes, and that it shall be considered their <i>right</i>, -and not grudgingly doled out as a boon.</p> - -<p>Thus far for Resolution No. 1. In the following chapter we shall show -cause for Resolution No. 2.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i114.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XVIII.</span> <span class="smaller">GRADUAL RESUMPTION OF PUBLIC LANDS BY THE STATE.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Necessity of Agrarian Reform—Crown Lands, Church Lands, and -Corporation Lands to be immediately resumed, and their Rent -applied to the relief of Taxation—The Rich have no right to -meddle with them—Needed, by the exploited Millions, as a Fulcrum -to raise them from the Earth.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>The first three resolutions of the National Reform League affirm -(as already observed) only provisional or temporary measures to -redress temporary grievances. They apply to pauperism, public and -private indebtedness, and to onerous and unequal taxation, which, -though great and oppressive evils, are nevertheless but natural and -inevitable consequences of the gigantic social wrongs they emanate -from, and which are grappled with in the four last resolutions. But -for radically bad agrarian and commercial laws, there would be no -pauperism, no overwhelming public and private debt, no oppressive -and unequal taxation. It is these laws that are at the bottom of all -the mischief; it is these laws that have produced the pauperism, the -indebtedness, the taxation, and that would produce them again were -they extinguished this hour. Therefore, to have a permanent cure of -our social evils we must radically reform our agrarian and commercial -systems. Resolutions 4, 5, 6, and 7 show how this may be done. But, -meanwhile, the evil consequences of our agrarian and commercial systems -cannot brook delay: they must be dealt with provisionally and summarily -before the permanent remedy can be applied. Paupers cannot be left to -starve, debtors to be overwhelmed with usury and law expenses, and -struggling millions to be ground down with oppressive rates and taxes, -while our agrarian and commercial systems are being reformed by the -slow operation of the measures suggested in Resolutions 4, 5, 6, and -7. These several classes must have speedy relief; else relief will -come too late. The effect of Peel’s monetary and free-trade measures -in aggravating the burdens of debts and taxes while it diminishes the -means of meeting them, and in multiplying paupers while it impoverishes -ratepayers, renders it absolutely necessary to deal speedily and -summarily with the evils of pauperism, indebtedness, and taxation. -Hence the three first resolutions of the League. By perusing them -attentively, the reader will find that they, at one and the same time, -go to mitigate the evils of pauperism, indebtedness, and taxation by -just and efficient provisional measures, and to prepare the way for -those larger and permanent measures by which Resolutions 4, 5, 6, and 7 -seek to extirpate social evil altogether.</p> - -<p>In the preceding chapter we have shown cause for Resolution No. 1; we -now proceed to show cause for Resolution No. 2, which is as follows:— </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> - -<p>“In order to lighten the pressure of rates, and, at the same time, -gradually to diminish, and finally to absorb, the growing mass of -pauperism and surplus population, it is the duty of the Government to -appropriate its present surplus revenue, and the proceeds of national -or public property, to the purchasing of lands, and the location -thereon of the unemployed poor. The rents accruing from these lands to -be applied to further purchases of land, till all who desired to occupy -land, either as individual holders or industrial communities, might be -enabled to do so. A general law, empowering parishes to raise loans -upon the security of their rates, would greatly facilitate and expedite -the operation of Government towards this desirable end.”</p> - -<p>If it be but an act of justice to paupers and ratepayers that the -rates should be levied and dispensed as Resolution No. 1 suggests; -it is no less an act of justice to both that the rates should be -expended in the most beneficial manner for all parties, and finally -dispensed with altogether when no longer necessary. Resolution No. 2 -has this end in view. It asks the government and ratepayers to use -the <i>public</i> money in the most advantageous way for the <i>public</i>. It -does not ask them to take money from one class to give to another, -nor to relieve the pauperism <i>that is</i> at the risk of what may be -elsewhere. All surplus revenue in the hands of government is clearly -public property: it is raised from the whole body of the public. The -proceeds of crown lands, corporation lands, church lands, and various -other descriptions of public property are also clearly amenable to -public uses, without infringing the rights of private property or -vested interests. The seven or eight millions of rates raised annually -for the relief of the poor are also <i>public</i> property,—only with this -important distinction, that being a legal substitute for the share -which the poor formerly enjoyed of the tithes and other ecclesiastical -revenues, their destination for the poor has <i>equity</i> as well as <i>law</i> -for its sanction. The celebrated William Cobbett estimated that, if -everything that was titheable formerly were titheable now (that is, -if lay-impropriators had not converted to their own use the “great -tithes,” and if they had not also taken possession of the abbey-lands -at the time of the Reformation), the poor’s share of the tithes, &c., -would be now upwards of ten millions sterling per annum. For this, -which was their ancient patrimony, the present poor’s rate is but a -substitute. Surely, then, it is not asking too much for the poor to ask -that the eight millions arising from this rate should be appropriated -to the best advantage for them.</p> - -<p>And how could it be better appropriated than by purchasing land, -whereon to employ them productively, and locate them in comfortable -habitations? At present their lives are a burden to themselves and -others. Upon the land they would enjoy independence and happiness—the -natural result of their own industry and thrift. After the first -year or two they would be able to subsist themselves in comfort. The -rents paid by them would, in the first instance, go to liquidate the -loans contracted on the credit of the rates; and, these discharged, -they would be afterwards available for the purchase<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> of other lands -as they came into the market. Thus paupers and ratepayers would be -both benefited,—the former made independent, the latter relieved -permanently from a grievous and growing burden on their respective -parishes. Then, as to the surplus revenue and the proceeds of public -property, to what better use could the public possibly apply them -than to the location of the industrious poor on the land? Talk of -repealing the duty on bricks! talk of a sinking fund to reduce the -National Debt!—no sensible man has any faith in these schemes. Every -such man knows that no reduction of taxes can possibly benefit those -who cannot command employment, or an adequate remuneration for it when -they have it. Every such man knows, too, that as long as landlords -and capitalists can create what “surplus population” they like, by -keeping the people from cultivating land <i>on their own account</i>, there -can be no security either for regular employment or adequate wages. -Farmers and manufacturers will employ only those they want—those they -can make a profit by. The rest will be left to the union bastile or -to starvation. But let the surplus revenue and the proceeds of public -property be applied in the way we speak of, and, from that moment, -the surplus population diminishes with every fresh location on the -land; the food of the country is increased in amount and cheapened -in price; employment and wages are augmented for the unlocated; and -a new and never-failing home market is created for the benefit of -all, through the conversion of unemployed paupers (half-starved upon -workhouse diet) into substantial husbandmen able to give agricultural -produce in exchange for manufactures. There is a vast deal of public -property in this country, a portion, at least, of whose proceeds a -universal-suffrage parliament would be sure to employ in this way. -There are the crown lands; there is still a good deal of unenclosed -common (though not less than 6,000,000 acres have been filched from -the people during the reigns of the 2nd and 3rd Georges); there are -the lands belonging to the church, the universities and the colleges; -there are the tithes, too; there is a deal of property in the hands of -corporate bodies, and attached to various educational and eleemosynary -establishments, and most of these endowments have been altogether -perverted from their original destinations.</p> - -<p>A universal-suffrage parliament would secure to the poor their full -share of benefit accruing from the revenues of all this property. What -belongs to the whole public ought to be applied for the advantage of -the whole public; and it is only a majority of the whole public that -is competent to decide how corporate bodies elected upon property -qualifications have a right to dispose of property which equitably -belongs to the non-electors as much as to the burgesses having votes. -The same remark applies to schools, charities, and other endowments, -the original founders of which intended them principally for the -benefit of the poor. The crown lands do not belong to the higher -or middle classes, more than they do to the working-classes or to -the paupers in our union workhouses. Yet the aristocracy and their -retainers alone derive any benefit from them. The lands and revenues -of the church are <i>public</i> property.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> A parliament which represents -only a fraction of the public has no right to appropriate these lands -and revenues to the Established Church, or to any church, if the vast -majority of the population desire they should be differently applied. -And who can doubt that such majority is totally averse to their present -appropriation? Many, like ourselves, might not like to dispossess the -present incumbents. But why should not their revenues, as they die off, -revert to the public for public uses, and their successors be left -(like the ministers of other churches, and like all other professional -men) to their own congregations and their own resources? Suppose this -had been done twenty or thirty years ago—the revenues of bishopricks -and livings, as the incumbents died off, thrown into a common fund -for the purchase of lands, and the rents of these lands again applied -in the same way—what a goodly slice of the soil, and what a goodly -revenue, would be now in the hands of the public! And who would be -wronged by such appropriation? Clearly not the then clergy, for the -reform would not have taken effect till after their death. Clearly -not their present successors; for these would have no legal title to -a property which the public and the law had chosen to appropriate -otherwise. Indeed, the majority of them—the poor curates—would have -been even benefited by the change; for, if left to the voluntary -principle, their congregations would provide better for them than does -the present Establishment. At all events, they could not be said to -have lost what they never had; and even if they fared worse than they -do now, they could not blame the public for having “done what it liked -with its own.” What was not done twenty or thirty years ago ought to -be done now: the public should now insist that church property and -every other description of property belonging to the public, should -be henceforward devoted only to such public uses as a majority of -the public may sanction. Any other application of it is robbery. A -parliament has no more right to rob the public for the benefit of -individuals, than it has to rob individuals for the benefit of the -public. This is their own maxim, and they should be held to it.</p> - -<p>The proceeds of public property and the poor’s rate would, if honestly -applied, be amply sufficient to locate the unemployed poor upon the -land. Estates are every day coming into the market for sale. To the -owners it matters not a straw who buys their lands, so long as the full -price is paid for it. They are willing to sell, and the public are -willing to buy. The funds wherewith to buy are the surplus revenue, -the proceeds of public property, and some £8,000,000 of poor’s rate. -Assuredly, here is ample means of restoring their own to the people, -without robbing anybody. All that is wanted is an honest parliament to -legalize the work.</p> - -<p>If it be said that such application of public property would benefit -the poor only, and be an injustice to the rich, the answer is that -the lands so purchased would not be the property of the poor, but the -property of the whole nation—rich and poor; and that, inasmuch as -the rents accruing therefrom would be applicable to public uses only, -the whole public, and not the poor alone, would have the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>benefit -in the remission of rates and taxes. The only disadvantage the rich -would suffer from such reform is that it would gradually emancipate -industry from their iron grasp. Now that disadvantage is its best -recommendation. The rich <i>may</i> have a right to use their own <i>private</i> -property as they like (though with respect to <i>land</i> they have no -such right), but they can have no right to use the <i>public</i> property -otherwise than as a majority of the public may decide—much less to use -it for the enslavement and degradation of the great majority.</p> - -<p>As to the present parliament doing anything like what is here -recommended, it would be madness to expect it. A parliament which -represents only those who thrive by labour’s wrongs will never -recognise labour’s rights, nor legislate for labour’s emancipation. -Such a parliament will never apply public property otherwise than to -the injury and enslavement of the industrial classes. If it had a -surplus of twenty millions, these classes would not derive a shilling -benefit from it. Indeed, not even the distressed portion of the middle -classes can command its sympathies where aristocratic interests stand -in the way: of this we have a remarkable instance in the result of a -motion for the repeal of the window-tax—the tax on air and light. At -the same time there was an opportunity of saving about a million a year -by calling home the African anti-slavery squadron. But no; the precious -House would neither repeal the tax on air and light nor disband the -anti-slavery armament. Everybody is now aware that this blockading -squadron on the Gold Coast was the veriest humbug that ever provoked -derision.</p> - -<p>In the next chapter we shall treat of the 3rd Resolution. We are on -the eve of great changes, and nothing but a clear understanding by the -people of their social rights can enable them to profit by what may -occur.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i119.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XIX.</span> <span class="smaller">NATIONAL DEBT A MORTGAGE ON REALISED PROPERTY.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Necessity for Adjustment of Public and Private Debts—Their -overwhelming Burden must result in Civil War—Third Resolution -the only Remedy—Opinion of Cobbett—Enormous Increase of Debt -through Improvements in Manufactures—Only just Claims of Public -and Private Creditors.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>Resolution No. 3 of the League proposes an equitable settlement of -questions of grave moment—of questions which will ere long be settled -by force out of doors, unless Parliament adjusts them within by fair -legislation. It is to the following effect:—</p> - -<p>“Pending the operation of these measures, it is desirable to mitigate -the burdens of taxation and of public and private indebtedness upon -all classes who suffer thereby—the more especially as these burdens -have been vastly aggravated by the recent monetary and free-trade -measures of Sir Robert Peel. To this end, the Public Debt and all -private indebtedness affected by the fall of prices should be equitably -adjusted in favour of the debtor and productive classes, and the -charges of government should be reduced upon a scale corresponding -with the general fall of prices and of wages. And as what is -improperly called the National Debt has been admitted, in both Houses -of Parliament, to be in the nature of a <i>bona fide</i> mortgage upon -the realised property of the country, it is but strict justice that -the owners of this property, and they only, should be henceforward -held responsible for both capital and interest. At all events, the -industrious classes should not be held answerable for it, seeing the -debt was not borrowed by them, nor for them, nor with their consent; -and that, even had it been so, they have had no assets left them for -the payment of it. Moreover, the realised property of this country -being estimated at eight times the amount of the debt, the owners or -mortgagers have no valid excuse or plea to offer, on the score of -inability, for refusing to meet the claims of the mortgagees.”</p> - -<p>The questions here dealt with are those which, in all probability, -are destined to involve England in the great European revolution. If -not adjusted somehow in an early session of parliament, we predict -they will cause a civil war between the agriculturists and the town -“interests”—between the men of acres and the fund and money lords. -And should that war ensue, it will merge into a general social war of -classes, in the progress of which all will be losers, but the final -issue of which will be the extinction of “vested interests” and the -proscription of all who would maintain them. Resolution No. 3 is -intended to avert such a catastrophe for the sake of all parties. Let -us see if we are just in our demands.</p> - -<p>The Public Debt is estimated, in round numbers, at £800,000,000.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> The -private indebtedness of the country is calculated at more than three -times the amount of the Public Debt—say £2,500,000,000. The interest -of the Public Debt is at least £30,000,000 per annum, including the -expenses of collection. The annual interest of private debts is -believed to exceed £100,000,000. Here is a fearful deduction to be made -from the aggregate earnings of the people every year, before a shilling -can be set aside for wages or profits. This mass of £130,000,000 per -annum is all sheer usury—a sheer plundering of the productive classes. -Yet it is only a part, and by no means the major part, of the annual -sacrifice entailed upon the industrious orders by our agrarian and -commercial systems. There is acknowledged to be upwards of £700,000,000 -of property insured with our several insurance companies, who of course -receive premiums on the whole, varying in the per-centage charged, -according to the nature of the property insured, but amounting in the -aggregate to an enormous annual sum. This sum, like the interest of -the public and private debts, must be provided for every year before -wages and profits can begin. Then there is the unmortgaged portion of -the incomes derived from lands and houses. Then there is the public -and private taxation of the country (not included in the £30,000,000 -set aside for the payment of the interest of the debt). There are the -tithes; the losses accruing from bad debts; the revenues of railway -companies, canal companies, water companies, gas companies, dock -companies, mining companies, banking companies, cemetery companies, and -countless other companies; the whole of which must be deducted from the -annual production of the country before the mechanic and labourer can -receive a farthing of wages, or before the mere employer and tradesman -can enter upon that margin to which wages and profits must look for -their share of the general produce. If we assume our present annual -production to be £630,000,000, one-third of this, or some £200,000,000, -must be set aside for the interest of public and private debts, the -revenues of companies, the claims of taxation, &c. The capitalists -and tradespeople may be supposed to pocket some £300,000,000 more, -and the miserable remnant, some £130,000,000 per annum, is probably -the <i>maximum</i> of what the working-classes receive for producing the -whole. At all events, the latter do not average above 10s. per week for -each family; and supposing the number of working families to be about -5,000,000, this would give them a gross income of about £130,000,000 -per annum.</p> - -<p>We pretend not to perfect accuracy in these figures: we profess to deal -only with round numbers. An approximation to the actual state of things -is all we aim at; for that is all we require to elucidate our position. -But if we deviate from arithmetical exactness (as must needs be in such -calculations), the deviation will be found to be rather <i>in favour</i> of -the producer than against him; and therefore our argument must be held -so much the stronger, the less exact we are in figures.</p> - -<p>That the producer does not, upon the average, receive a fourth of his -produce is a certain fact. If the producers got back £125,000,000<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> -out of a gross annual produce of £600,000,000 and odd, it is the very -extreme of their good fortune. Some of them, we know, get far more -than in this proportion—more than a fourth or than a third,—nay, -mayhap one-half. But the majority, on the other hand, get less than a -fourth; and millions of them less than a sixth or even an eighth of -their produce. An Irish labourer or a London needlewoman does not, -probably, receive a tithe of the value of their labour. Estimating in -this way—striking a balance between all the various descriptions of -producers—we do not understate their income when we average it at 10s. -per week for each family, or at from £125,000,000 to £130,000,000 for -the whole, out of a gross annual production of, say, from £600,000,000 -to £630,000,000 sterling. Small as is this proportion allotted to the -producer out of his own earnings, it is becoming smaller and smaller -every year, as prices and wages decline under the operation of Peel’s -monetary and free-trade measures. The reason is obvious. To make money -scarce, on the one hand, and to invite foreign competition on the -other, must of necessity lower prices. Whatever lowers prices swells -the burden of debts, taxes, and of all other fixed money obligations. -In the same ratio it must reduce the aggregate of profits and wages; -for the more the producers (employers and employed) have to give out of -the common stock to pay taxes and the interest of public and private -debts, the less there must be left for themselves.</p> - -<p>Peel’s monetary laws of 1819 and 1844-45 have made money scarce, and -will keep it permanently so while they remain in force. His free-trade -measures of 1846 go to aggravate competition in our home markets, and -tend directly to the lowering of prices and wages in favour of the mere -annuitant or idle consumer. The effect of both measures, conjointly, -is to increase the pressure of debt and taxes to a degree that is -already felt to be unbearable. If persevered in, the inevitable result -is revolution—violent revolution. Under the conjoint effects of his -measures, wheat has already gone down below 40s.,—nay, as low as 36s. -Bankruptcies have reached an appalling figure; and estates are rapidly -changing hands (passing from mortgagors to mortgagees), and not a few -of them are going out of cultivation altogether. The Encumbered Estates -Commission was sitting hardly three months in Dublin before one-twelfth -of the landed property of Ireland, measured by rental, came within its -jurisdiction. Scores of Scotch landlords and hundreds of Irish are no -longer able to pay interest on their mortgages, owing to the reduced -prices of agricultural produce. For the same reason, farmers cannot -pay rents, nor the interest of borrowed capital. In England they are -universally reducing, or threatening to reduce, wages. In Ireland -they are throwing up their farms, or falling into arrears with their -rent. In Scotland the same may be said. In all three countries the -poor labourers are ground down so low that lower they can hardly be. -Hence the agricultural risings and incendiarisms in England; hence -the midnight outrages and murders in Ireland; hence the unprecedented -tide of emigration from all three countries. No farmer can possibly -pay rent, taxes, tithes, and interest of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> capital with wheat below -40s. No landlord, having his estates encumbered, can make head against -his liabilities with existing prices. No labourer can have any other -prospect before him but starvation and crime under such a system. To -have to pay some £200,000,000 a year (out of £600,000,000) to usurers -and tax-eaters would be a dire enough infliction even with wheat at -60s. and all other commodities at proportionally high prices. But to be -saddled with such a liability in the face of wheat at 36s., and of the -like downward progress of prices and wages in every other department -of industry, is what the country cannot bear. No country on earth -could stand it: England will not stand it. A furious civil war—a -downright revolution—must, we repeat, be the inevitable consequence of -perseverance in such a system.</p> - -<p>Our third resolution offers the only just and feasible way of averting -such revolution. We cannot restore corn-laws; we cannot go back to -Protection: it is too late for that. The country has no more sympathy -with the landlords than it has with the moneymongers. It wants not to -bolster up one interest at the expense of the other, but to compel -both to adjust their conflicting claims without robbing the public. If -parliament will insist upon “keeping faith with the public creditor,” -let it do so at the expense of the parties properly liable. Let the -owners of <i>realised</i> property be the only parties responsible for the -“National” Debt. Sir Robert Peel and Lord Brougham declared, amid -the cheers of both Houses, that this debt is a <i>bona fide</i> mortgage -upon the whole realised property of the country. Very well. Let the -mortgagors, then, be made to do as all other mortgagors do;—let them -either redeem the mortgage (as they may do), or pay the interest till -they do. And if they will not pay interest or capital, let the mortgage -be foreclosed, and their estates sequestered. This is but common -sense and common justice. It is only the most shameless and hardened -dishonesty that could saddle such a liability upon the non-propertied -classes, seeing they never borrowed the money, had no advantage from -its expenditure, and have had no assets left them wherewith to pay that -or any other debt. Speaking of this monstrous injustice—the injustice -of taxing the working-classes for the interest of this debt—the late -Mr. Cobbett indignantly asked, “What would be said of a law that -should compel the children to pay the debts of the father, he having -left them nothing wherewith to pay?—of a law that should make the -children work all the days of their lives to clear off the score run -up by a profligate and drunken father?—of a law which should say to -the father, ‘Spend away; run in debt; keep on borrowing; close your -eyes in the midst of drunkenness and gluttony; imitate the frequenters -of Bellamy’s all your life; and your children and children’s children -shall be slaves to pay Bellamy and others, with whom you have run up -the score?’ Would not the makers of such a law be held in everlasting -execration? And in what respect does this case differ from that of a -prodigal and borrowing nation which would make its working-classes -responsible for debts they had no share in borrowing or spending?” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p> - -<p>There is no getting over this. Cobbett’s reasoning is the reasoning of -every just and honest man who knows anything of the subject. The case -is even stronger than he puts it. The bulk of the debt was contracted -to force unjust taxation on the American colonies and to force back -Bourbon royalty upon France. These are the very last objects upon which -the working-classes would expend money or incur liabilities. It is, in -fact, making them pay for crime and murder, as well as for their own -impoverishment and enslavement!</p> - -<p>These views, we rejoice to say, are making way in all quarters, high -and low. Mr. Isaac Buchanan (formerly President of the Boards of Trade -of Toronto and Hamilton in Canada, and who represented the metropolis -of Upper Canada in the Canadian parliament) has boldly demanded -that all connection shall cease between the National Debt and her -Majesty’s Exchequer, in a pamphlet issued by him, entitled “The Moral -Consequences of Sir Robert Peel’s Unprincipled and Fatal Course,” -&c. The same view is taken by the democrats of Ireland, and has been -successfully promulgated at sundry Chartist meetings in town and -country. By-and-by it will be the creed of all classes, as well as of -the Chartists and National Reform League.</p> - -<p>But while we insist that the owners of realised property shall be -held solely responsible for the National Debt, we assert that justice -to them demands that the debt be equitably adjusted for them before -they are called upon to liquidate it. Peel’s monetary and free-trade -measures have more than doubled the debt. We say nothing of the -£27,000,000 which our “reformed” parliament has added of late years to -the debt; let that pass. We speak of the change made in the value of -money by the Act of 1819, restoring cash payments; and of the complete -revolution in prices effected by the tariff and corn-law repeal. These -measures have more than doubled the value of the pound sterling, and -more than trebled the original value of Consols. For example, the -average price paid for £100 stock in the 3 per Cents. during the war -was £60 of depreciated bank paper, worth then only £40 in silver. The -holder of that stock is now entitled to receive ninety-seven sovereigns -for it. Every individual pound of the £60, at the time it was lent, -would only buy one-fourth of a quarter of wheat. Every pound paid back -now will buy more than half a quarter—more than twice as much. It will -buy more than three times as much of London or Birmingham goods, and -more than four or five times as much of Manchester and Glasgow goods. -Here, then, we have the value of the pound more than doubled, on the -one hand; and, on the other, we find the fundholder entitled to receive -£97 for every £60 he lent in rags! Combine these two alterations: mark -their conjoint effect in favour of the public creditor. Observe the -difference to him of going into market with ninety-seven sovereigns -wherewith to buy wheat at less than 40s. and going with only sixty rags -to buy wheat at upwards of 80s. (the average price during the war, when -he lent his money); and then bear in mind that what is clear gain to -him is so much clear loss to us, the taxpayers. The difference is, in -fact, so much <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>downright plunder taken from the industrious and given -to the idle and useless.</p> - -<p>Not even at the expense of the owners of realised property are the -fundholders entitled to any such advantage. They are entitled to their -own (to receive it from the proper parties, the borrowers), but they -have no just claim for more than their own. What was borrowed should -be paid back, and no more. Peel’s measures give them thrice their own, -while they work in an opposite direction against land and labour. Let -there be a fair adjustment, then. Let the £800,000,000 of capital be -reduced according to the change in the value of money and the fall in -prices, and let the owners of every description of property be made to -pay their equitable share of the adjusted burden; but on no account let -another shilling of taxes be raised on account of the debt. No doubt -the Chartists will have an eye to this when their day comes; and it is -coming fast.</p> - -<p>Private obligations affected by Peel’s measures should be adjusted -upon the same principle as the public debt. Not to do so is to rob one -class to enrich another: to persevere in such a course is to invite -convulsion. Law is intended to <i>protect</i> property for all; not to -<i>create</i> property for any. To pervert it from this, its legitimate -function, into an instrument of rapine for the injury and ruin of those -it should shield is to arm the nation against the law. This is the very -effect Peel’s measures are now producing. Hence the necessity for a -timely adjustment. The Act of 1819 ought to have provided against any -such necessity; and when he introduced his free-trade measures in 1846, -he ought to have made provision in his Acts that all public and private -liabilities, involving fixed money payments, should be dischargeable -only upon a reduced scale to be calculated upon the general fall of -prices. Upon this principle all mortgages, leases, contracts, &c., -would be open to easy readjustment, and the whole of our taxation might -be reduced upon a scale corresponding with the fall of prices, without -any necessity for a fresh enactment on the subject. If prices fell -<i>one-third</i>, upon the average, all salaries, pensions, &c., would be -reduced one-third; and the same in respect of public and private debts, -mortgages, leases, &c. As it is, we see no remedy for the mischief but -what is pointed out in our third resolution. We said so before Peel’s -measure became law; and some of the ablest and most experienced men in -the kingdom have since publicly expressed a similar opinion.</p> - -<p>But enough on the <i>provisional</i> or <i>palliative</i> measures that are -needful ere the four resolutions, embodied in the succeeding chapters, -shall have had time to operate a full reform of our present iniquitous -agrarian and commercial laws and institutions.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XX.</span> <span class="smaller">NATIONAL LANDS AND CREDIT FOR THE USE OF THE PEOPLE.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Unjust Laws to enable the Few to deprive the Working Class -of their Earnings—Private Property in Land the Basis of -Wages-Slavery—Raw Materials of Wealth belong to all—Land and -Money Lords govern the World—Right of Working Class to the Use of -Credit—Surplus of Earnings of Working Class beyond Consumption -the Source of all Capital.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>To provide a full, adequate, and permanent remedy for the manifold and -all-pervading ills that are the consequence of land-monopoly and usury, -the people must reclaim their right to the National Territory, which -has been gradually and surreptitiously usurped by private and sinister -interests; the enactment of laws to secure for all, co-ordinately -therewith, the mighty engine of Credit, which must be utilized for the -industrious orders of society, who are the strength and mainstay of the -nation, and therefore the most entitled to its benefits.</p> - -<p>The fourth and fifth resolutions of the League run as follows:—</p> - -<p>“The gradual resumption by the State (on the acknowledged principle -of equitable compensation to existing holders or their heirs) of its -ancient, undoubted, inalienable dominion and sole proprietorship -over all the lands, mines, turbaries, fisheries, &c., of the United -Kingdom and our Colonies, the same to be held by the State, as trustee -in perpetuity for the entire people, and rented out to them in such -quantities as the law and local circumstances may determine; because -the land, being the gift of the Creator to <span class="smaller">ALL</span>, can never -become the exclusive property of individuals; because the monopoly of -the land in private hands is a palpable invasion of the rights of the -excluded parties, rendering them, more or less, the slaves of landlords -and capitalists, and tending to circumscribe or annul their other -rights and liberties; because a monopoly of the earth by a portion -of mankind is no more justifiable than would be the monopoly of the -air, light, heat, or water; and because the rental of the land (which -justly belongs to the whole people) would form a national fund adequate -to defray all charges of the public service, execute all needful -public works, and educate the population, without the necessity of any -taxation.</p> - -<p>“That as it is the recognised duty of the State to support all those of -its subjects who, from incapacity or misfortune, are unable to procure -their own subsistence—and as the nationalisation of landed property -would open up new sources of occupation for the now surplus industry -of the people (a surplus which is daily augmented by the accumulation -of machinery in the hands of the capitalists)—the same principle -which now sanctions a public provision for the destitute poor should -be extended to providing a sound system of National Credit, through -which any man might, under certain <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>conditions, procure an advance from -the national funds arising out of the proceeds of public property, -and thereby be enabled to rent and cultivate land on his own account, -instead of being subjected, as now, to the injustice and tyranny of -wages-slavery (through which capitalists and profitmongers are enabled -to defraud him of his fair recompense), or being induced to become a -hired slaughterer of his fellow-creatures at the bidding of godless -diplomatists, enabling them to foment and prosecute international -wars, and trample on popular rights, for the exclusive advantage of -aristocratic and ‘vested interests.’ The same privilege of obtaining a -share in the national credit to be applicable to the requirements of -individuals, companies, and communities in all other branches of useful -industry, as well as in agriculture.”</p> - -<p>What is it that creates poverty—the mother of slavery, ignorance, and -misery—but unjust laws, by which the many are robbed for the benefit -of the few? A poverty-stricken people can never be a free, a happy, -a religious, or an educated people. No reform that will not give the -people the means of acquiring property by honest industry—which will -not enable them to be independent of wages-slavery—which will not -enable them to live in houses of their own, and allow them free access -to the soil of their country, is worth their serious attention.</p> - -<p>We defy all the genius and statesmanship in the world to save a -population from being the slaves of middle-class vampires so long as -land is private property. We defy all the learning and ability in the -United Kingdom to show me how we can be extricated from poverty and -premature death in this country without a radical reform of our land -and money laws. It is assumed that land, mines, rivers, &c., are fit -and proper subjects of private property, like bales of cloth, pottery -wares, or any other product of man’s skill and industry; and that, -accordingly, the works of God’s creation may be bought and sold in the -market, the same as if they were the works of human hands. This is a -principle so utterly abhorrent to common sense and reason—it is, on -the face of it, so gross a perversion of natural justice, that the -rights of property cannot possibly be reconciled with it, nor coexist a -moment in presence of it. Once allow the soil of a country, which God -made for all its inhabitants, and for all generations born upon it, to -be bought up, or otherwise monopolized or usurped by any particular -section of any one generation (be that section large or small), and -that moment your community is divided into tyrants and slaves—into -knaves who will work for nobody, and into drudges who will have to work -for anybody or everybody but themselves. No subsequent legislation—no -possible tinkering or patchwork in the way of remedial measures—can -sensibly affect a system based upon so hideous a foundation. You may -talk of forms of government, or of reforms of parliament; but we -hesitate not to say that no reform of parliament, no reconstruction -of the government, can be of the slightest avail towards amelioration -whilst that glaring and gigantic injustice constitutes the basis of -private property; and for this simple reason, because the rights of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> -labour and the rights of property, which ought to be really one and the -same, are utterly irreconcilable under such a system. As long therefore -as it shall prevail, so long must the rich be insecure, and the mass -miserable, whatever may be the form of government, from monarchy to -democracy the most pure and unlimited.</p> - -<p>No man, not a fool or a knave, will deny that the <i>raw materials</i> of -all wealth belong to all men alike in their natural state: to assert -the contrary, would be to assert that God, like a capricious human -despot, dispenses His favours regardless of justice or of the wants -of His creatures. The only question is this—Can the lands, mines, -turbaries, collieries, fisheries, &c., containing all materials of -wealth in every country, be restored to its inhabitants without -injustice or undue suffering to the present possessors, whoever they -may be? If this could not be done, there might be some excuse for -the present monstrous system. But no government need have the least -difficulty on this point. Our own government, for instance, has only to -do, in respect of landed property, for the benefit of the nation, what -it does every day to promote the speculative interests of individuals -and private companies. Owners of real estate are compellable now, by -existing laws, to exchange such property for a money-compensation -when the public interest requires such change. Does anybody consider -that a wrong is done to the owners of such property so long as the -money-compensation to them is sufficient to satisfy the public -conscience represented by a sheriff’s jury? Now, if it be right to do -this for the sake of a company or a few speculating individuals, how -much more justifiable is it to do it for the just benefit of millions, -and to produce thereby such a reformation, materially and morally, -as no pen nor tongue could adequately describe? Indeed, in order to -restore its land gradually to the nation, it would not be necessary -to go so far in expropriation or forcible dispossession as existing -laws authorise in favour of companies chartered by parliament to make -railways, canals, docks, barracks, or any other public works. There -would be no need to dispossess any proprietor during his lifetime, -nor even his successors, without their own consent; it would be quite -sufficient for all useful national ends and purposes to buy up the -land as it comes into the market in the ordinary course, either by the -voluntary act of the seller or by due legal process, such as a decree -of the Court of Chancery, &c., and then make the land so bought with -the public money the inalienable property of the nation ever after, as -it by right should be.</p> - -<p>Unquestionably, land-usurpers and money-changers, taking both terms -in their widest sense, must <i>in foro conscientiæ</i> be distinguished -from all other sinners. We know of no great social evil in civilized -life that is not clearly traceable, directly or indirectly, to these -two classes. It is they that govern the world everywhere, and that -have always governed it since the first dawn of civilisation; it is -they that make all revolutions and counter-revolutions, all false -systems of religion and education, all State-Church establishments, -all standing armies of soldiers, constables, priests, and lawyers, and -that impose on all peoples the burdens requisite for the maintenance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> -of those armies; in a word, it is landlords and profitmongers that -have everywhere organised society as we find it, and that uphold this -organisation for their own advantage, at the cost of more wrong and -wretchedness to mankind than tongue or pen ever did or ever will be -able to describe. And amongst the greatest of their crimes against -humanity is this, that, in addition to the machinery of brute force -they keep in pay to uphold their domination, they have rendered an -effectual exposure of their system next to impossible through the -legions of venal journalists, mercenary orators, and unprincipled -<i>littérateurs</i> they subsidise to corrupt public opinion and to mystify -the people on every subject that bears upon their weal or woe, as also -to hunt down by calumny, and to destroy by private persecution, any and -every man that shall dare to lift the veil that hides from the millions -their horrible policy.</p> - -<p>We must <i>live</i> somewhere; and we must have the <i>needful things</i> to live -on. But landlords and profitmongers claim to own every rood of ground -in the kingdom, and every house on the land; and we cannot procure -the commonest necessaries of life except through some profitmonger. -We must therefore either go without homes and without meat and drink -altogether, or we must have them from the landlord and profitmonger -on their own arbitrary terms. To have them on <i>any</i> terms, too many -persons are often obliged, in times of difficulty and danger, to -connive at and even laud what they abhor. Again, the wrongs done by -ordinary criminals are in general superficial and ephemeral in their -effects. The man who steals my watch, or robs my house, does me only -as much wrong as I may repair at the cost of earning the price of -another watch or of the goods stolen from my house. But they who rob a -people of their territory rob them of a priceless possession, for which -all the labour and labour’s worth in the world would be no adequate -compensation. It is not only a robbery of the existing generation, but -a robbery of all generations to come; for it is depriving the whole -posterity of the disinherited of their fair legitimate share of the -<i>raw materials</i> of wealth, which God made equally for the use of all, -in order that the descendants of the wrong-doers, so far as human -laws can determine it, may be able to grow richer and richer in every -succeeding age, by letting out for rents that raw material which is by -natural right the inheritance of all.</p> - -<p>Perhaps the most extortionate system of legal robbery, in connection -with private property in the soil, is found in what are called <i>ground -rentals</i>. By virtue of this system, a man like the Duke of Westminster -is enabled to realise an income greater than the queen gets for her -services (and she does something for her money, but the duke does -absolutely nothing for his), merely because the land on which certain -houses are built is <i>said</i>, by a fiction in law, to belong to him; -and, after a certain number of years, the houses themselves become his -property, and he forthwith proceeds to grant fresh leases of them at -increased rents.</p> - -<p>As to the right of <i>occupation</i> of the land, we should make it the -same for all, giving the tenancy to those who would pay most rent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> to -the State, only taking care that no man held more than one farm, or a -larger one than he could cultivate himself whilst there were others in -want of small ones. As a matter of course, we should guard against too -great a subdivision as well.</p> - -<p class="space-above">Another false principle at the root of our politico-commercial system -is, that Credit should exist only for the rich, and not at all for the -poor. This is a most atrocious principle, both in theory and practice. -As between citizen and citizen, or between subject and subject, the -principle might be defensible enough on prudential grounds; but as -between the citizen and his country it is wholly unjustifiable, and -calculated to keep subordinates subordinate, and to fatten tyrants -and usurers with the sweat and blood of slaves. If the <i>rents</i> of -the country were public property, as they ought to be, no honest, -industrious man should be refused a temporary advance or loan from them -for productive purposes; and it is not in the power of man to conceive -a better security for the repayment of the same than the skilled -labour of an industrious, sober freeman protected by laws made with -his own consent. There is no other security <i>now</i> for the repayment -of loans, public or private, than the known capacity of working men -to produce a <i>surplus</i> over and above their own consumption. If -they could not, or did not, do this, there would be no interest for -fundholders, mortgagees, or money-lenders of any sort. Indeed, there -is no other source than the said surplus for the payment of rents, -taxes, dividends, premiums on insurance policies, and the interest of -upwards of two thousand millions of private debts. Out of the same -source, and no other, comes also the enormous income annually received -by capitalists and traders under the name of Profits. Upstarts, who -have made fortunes in trade, invariably make the worst landlords—the -least social and hospitable, the most grinding and exacting. This is -exemplified in every country in Europe, where rents are continually -becoming heavier, and small farms more difficult of attainment by the -poor, in proportion as the mercantile body and master-manufacturers -increase in numbers and in wealth. In all such countries, national or -public debts, provincial debts, and corporation debts are never-failing -concomitants of increased commerce and manufactures, as are also -banking and other joint-stock companies, which absorb so much of the -produce of the soil for profits, discounts, dividends, and interest -of money, that there would be nothing left for the landlords and -cultivators, if it were not that the working-classes are dispossessed -altogether both of their <i>proprietary</i> and their <i>occupancy</i> rights in -the soil, and turned into mere drudges or wages-slaves to the landlords -and tenant-farmers, who work them harder, and feed them worse, than -their cattle. The difference between what the labourers and mechanics -actually produce in value and the miserable pittance allowed to them -is the plunder-fund out of which are kept in comparative ease and -luxury the worthless classes that enslave and prey upon them. Yes, -the whole and sole security for all is the labourer’s capability to -produce a surplus over and above<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> what he consumes during the period -of production. It were strange, then—passing strange, indeed—if -that surplus, which is now sufficient security for everybody else, -should not be as good a security for himself, when the very object of -the advance or loan is neither more nor less than to furnish him with -the means of repayment, by at once enabling him to produce, and by -making him the master of his own products. Yet, in the teeth of this -well-known capability on his part, the man whose surplus productions -enable others to get loans, and repay both capital and interest, is the -only man who can get no loan for himself, because, by our atrocious -system, the Credit as well as the Land of the country is hermetically -sealed against him. To support the system of the landlords and the -profitmongers, it is absolutely necessary to place millions of the -population in positions and situations wherein they cannot possibly -earn their bread without breaking one or other of the Ten Commandments -and running counter to the injunctions of the Gospel.</p> - -<p>Partington tells us, in his Encyclopædia, that the history of every -country in Europe goes back to the time when its land was public -property. Did that state of things obtain now, all the mines, as -well as all the land that covers them, would be the property of the -public, agreeably to the old law maxim, “Cujus est solum, ejusdem sunt -omnia quæ infra sunt, ad imam terram, et omnia quæ supra sunt, usque -ad cœlum,”—“Whoever owns the soil, to the same belongs all that is -beneath the soil, down to the bottom of the earth, and all that is -overhead, even up to the sky.” If this maxim prevailed now-a-days, the -rents of mines would go to public uses only. After due examination -and survey by public authority, they would be let out to companies of -actual workers by public tender, and all they realised above the rent -to the State would go only to those who risked their lives in working -them. There would be few accidents, we suspect, under such arrangement; -and if there were any, the workers alone would be to blame for their -greed in not sinking more shafts and taking the other necessary -precautions for their safe working.</p> - -<p>In the manufacturing districts of England it has been ascertained -that half the children born to the artisans die before they complete -their fifth year, and that the average duration of human life amongst -the working classes is only some 17 or 18 years, while it averages -38 years amongst the “better classes,” <i>i.e.</i>, amongst the landlords -and profitmongers who reap the best fruits of their toil. This is an -arbitrary confiscation or squandering of human life not to be found, -even in time of war, in any other country not manufacturing, mining, -and commercial. The men composing the master-class in these callings -are, with hardly an exception, open and even avowed enemies of the -political and social rights of the working classes. They have literally -expelled the people from every institution in the State. They and -their accomplices, the landlords and tenant-farmers, have usurped and -absorbed all the prerogatives of the Crown and all the rights of the -people. They have turned the producers out of parliament, out of the -corporations, out of the vestries,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> out of the juries, out of the -magistracy, out of the church, out of the public press, out of all -the public boards—in a word, out of every department of the State, -and left them without a single legislator, magistrate, administrator, -common-councilman, vestryman, or public organ of any kind to represent -or protect their interests. But it is not simply of what are called -their organic or political rights that these tyrants have despoiled -the working classes; they have also robbed them of all <i>proprietary</i> -and <i>occupancy</i> rights in the soil, combining for that purpose -with the landlords and the tenant-farmers, to whom the sight of an -agricultural labourer putting a spade or a plough into the land on his -own account, or in any other capacity than that of a wages-slave to -some bull-frog farmer, is the horror of horrors. Just as farmers in the -rural districts will take vacant farms they do not want, and at rents -by which they know they must be losers, merely to keep out labourers -or exclude from occupancy the men they want for slaves, so will these -mining and manufacturing tyrants rent on long leases, or actually -buy up outright, lands in the neighbourhood of the towns where their -factories are, to prevent their toiling slaves from having the chance -of renting them, or any portion of them, however small, lest they -might be able to escape the slavery of the mill through comparative -independence.</p> - -<p>We doubt if there be a single recorded instance in the whole history -of civilized society of any king, ruler, statesman, legislator, -prophet, philosopher, orator, or other public man, seeking honestly, -and with probabilities of success, the reign of justice, humanity, and -fraternity for his fellow-countrymen, that was not overwhelmed with -calumny, overpowered by faction, and ultimately either put to death or -forced to fly for his life and bury himself in poverty and obscurity -to escape the malice of the oppressors of his country. But who were -those oppressors? The same everywhere—the same now as ever—the idle -rich, who prey on their industrious fellow-creatures through the -inventions of rents, profits, interest of money, dividends, taxes, -and so forth—all arising out of usurpations of the soil, and making -money grow money. The ancient prophets and apostles suffered for causes -not essentially different from those which destroyed the Gracchi -at Rome and Agis and Cleomenes of Sparta. Romulus and Julius Cæsar -were victims of the same spirit that beheaded Paul and sawed Isaiah -asunder. Heraclides and Hippo of Sicily perished through landlordism -and profitmongering, in no other sense than did John the Baptist under -Herod; St. Stephen, by the Jewish rabble, let loose upon him by the -middle-class Pharisees; and Socrates, by the hypocritical “property” -classes of Athens; nay, the Saviour himself, whose crucifixion was -perpetrated by like influences on behalf of like interests. All -honest reformers, spiritual or temporal, must necessarily be foes to -landlordism and usury, though not to the persons of landlords and -usurers. The latter, however, have ever considered attacks upon their -system to be attacks upon themselves: and, accordingly, they have -crushed or murdered every honest reformer whose influence has hitherto<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> -threatened to supplant their own with the millions. And so it ever will -be—until the millions shall become wise enough, and moral enough, to -be able to dispose summarily of landlordism and usury without further -preaching or teaching. Any one who will take the trouble to read over -a list of the laws proposed by Julius Cæsar, in any book of Roman -antiquities (say Adams’s “Antiquities”), will see by their titles that -they were all essentially popular, and designed to protect the citizens -from the cupidity of land-monopolists, usurers, and dilapidators of -the public revenue. In this we have the true <i>secret</i> of his murder by -the patrician conspirators, headed by Brutus, who, with all the stoic -virtues attributed to him, was a rank aristocrat in grain, and a usurer -to boot; for, according to the testimony of his friend Cicero, he used -to charge interest for his money at the rate of 48 per cent., and -gather it in, too, with the sabre’s edge when necessary.</p> - -<p>In a well-ordered state of society there would be neither land-usurpers -nor money-changers; that is, no persons living by letting out land as -<i>private</i> property (since all land would be public property solely, -the rents going to the public for public uses only), and no persons -living upon what Lord Bacon called “the bastard use of money,” that -is, upon profits, usury, dividends, &c. In other words, the whole -people would be sole landlord, every individual of the people having -the same <i>proprietary</i> and the same <i>occupancy</i> rights as every -other individual; and with respect to money, it would be a mere -<i>representative</i> of wealth or value, which would disappear altogether -when the wealth or value it represented disappeared; money would not -grow money, as it does now. In a just and rational state of society, -all the money in the world could not purchase an acre of land, nor -would it enable the owner to add one pound more to his heap, unless he -earned it by producing a pound’s worth of wealth, or doing a pound’s -worth of service for society, such as society would recognise. To speak -downright, plain English, landlords and money-changers have no right -to be in the world at all. Instead of governing society absolutely, as -they do now, they have no right to form a recognised part of society at -all, no more than wolves and crocodiles have to invite themselves to -our Christmas parties that they may devour our children, or than wens, -tumours, ulcers, cancers, running sores, or deformities of any sort -have to constitute themselves parts of our natural bodies, and to claim -to invade, overrun, and subject our whole systems to their pestilential -domination. All the talent and all the sophistry in the world could not -show any legitimate use for landlords or profitmongers <i>as such</i>, or -anything they do for society that could not be better done without them -than with them, and at less than a hundredth part of their cost.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XXI.</span> <span class="smaller">NATIONAL SYSTEM OF CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE REQUIRED.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">Inadequacy and Absurdity of present Medium of Exchange—Necessity -for new National Currency for Home Trade—Example from Iron -Currency of Sparta—Labour Notes of Guernsey—Gold and Silver mere -Commodities—All four Reforms must be combined.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>In this chapter we shall elucidate the remaining two propositions of -the League, on the important complementary reforms necessary to be -introduced for the expulsion of human slavery from the face of the -land, and the full emancipation of industry from the trammels of a -false and pernicious system of Currency and Exchange. The sixth and -seventh resolutions read as follows:—</p> - -<p>“That the National Currency should be based on real, consumable wealth, -or on the <i>bona fide</i> credit of the State, and not upon the variable -and uncertain amount of scarce metals; because a currency depending on -such a basis, however suitable in past times, or as a measure of value -in present international commerce, has now become, by the increase of -population and wealth, wholly inadequate to perform the functions of -equitably representing and distributing that wealth; thereby rendering -all commodities liable to perpetual fluctuation in price, as those -metals happen to be more or less plentiful in any country; increasing -to an enormous extent the evils inherent in usury, and in the banking -and funding systems (in support of which a legitimate function of -the law—the <span class="smaller">PROTECTION</span> of property—is distorted into an -instrument for the <span class="smaller">CREATION</span> of property to a large amount -for the benefit of a small portion of society belonging to what are -called vested interests); because, from its liability to become locally -or nationally scarce or in excess, that equilibrium which should -be maintained between the production and consumption of wealth is -destroyed; because, being of intrinsic value in itself, it fosters a -vicious trade in money, and a ruinous practice of commercial gambling -and speculation; and, finally, because, under the present system of -society, it has become confessedly the ‘root of all evil’ and the main -support of that unholy worship of Mammon which now so extensively -prevails, to the supplanting of all true religion, natural and revealed.</p> - -<p>“That in order to facilitate the transfer of property or service, and -the mutual interchange of wealth among the people, to equalise the -demand and supply of commodities, to encourage consumption as well -as production, and to render it as easy to sell as to buy, it is an -important duty of the State to institute in every town and city public -marts or stores for the reception of all kinds of exchangeable goods, -to be valued by disinterested officers appointed for the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>purpose, -either upon a corn or a labour standard; the depositors to receive -symbolic notes representing the value of their deposits, such notes to -be made legal currency throughout the country, enabling their owners to -draw from the public stores to an equivalent amount, thereby gradually -displacing the present reckless system of competitive trading and -shopkeeping,—a system which, however necessary, or unavoidable in -the past, now produces a monstrous amount of evil, by maintaining a -large class living on the profits made by the mere sale of goods, on -the demoralising principle of buying cheap and selling dear, totally -regardless of the ulterior effects of that policy upon society at large -and the true interests of humanity.”</p> - -<p>Add to the gigantic fraud of the land-usurpers the hardly less -monstrous fraud of the money-changers in daring to make two particular -metals (falsely called precious) the sole basis of that currency which -is the life’s blood of society, without which exchanges cannot be -safely effected, and you see capped before you the climax of iniquity. -These precious metals being articles of commerce—mere merchandise, -like iron or cotton, at the same time that they are made the sole basis -of our instruments of exchange, it follows, as a necessary consequence, -that whoever can, by commerce, monopolise these precious metals can, by -so doing, monopolise at the same time the basis of our currency, and so -leave us without any instruments of exchange at all, but what may be -convertible, upon their own fraudulent terms, into those two favoured -metals, which their commercial wealth has enabled them to monopolise.</p> - -<p>The false principle at the root of our present system is, that <i>money</i> -or the <i>medium of exchange</i> should be itself a thing of intrinsic -value. By this false principle there must be an expenditure of labour -equal to what is required to produce the equivalents it exchanges -for; and besides the absurdity of such misplaced, because wholly -useless, labour, it is manifestly ridiculous to suppose that any one -commodity (more especially an exceedingly scarce one, like gold) can -ever be obtained in sufficient abundance to represent adequately all -other commodities which may be produced <i>ad libitum</i>, to any extent -demanded by consumption, and which, without the intervention of gold -at all, might be interchanged from hand to hand, in one single week, -to an amount equal to fifty times the value of all the gold in the -country. It is like supposing a part of a thing to be equal to the -whole. Gold may be a good measure of value, and, as such, is perfectly -unobjectionable; but as an exclusive representative of value, or as the -sole basis of representation (which our present laws have virtually -made it, by constituting it the sole basis of our circulating medium), -it is to our productive and trading population what a single blanket or -a single suit of clothes would be, applied to the use of a whole family -consisting of divers persons of all ages and sizes. The strongest and -most important members of the political family get the best share of -the blanket; the others get the least, and some get none at all. As -well might the garments of a dwarf be expected to fit a giant, as -well might our legislators attempt to restore a full-grown bird to -the egg whence it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> hatched, as attempt to tie down the population -and commerce of this great country to the Procrustean bed of Peel’s -monetary system as established by his laws of 1819 and 1844. That -system alone, were there no other causes in operation, <i>must sooner -or later produce a convulsion in this country, if it be not speedily -unmade by wiser and better men than its authors</i>. To pretend that the -rights of property exist in a country where such a monetary system -coexists with private ownership of the soil, is a monstrous perversion -of language. It is not the rights of property, but the wrongs of -robbery, that these land and money laws tend to conservate.</p> - -<p>The prime necessity of man is to live: he cannot live without corn, -unless in the lowest condition of the savage; but he may not only live, -but live in comfort, without gold or silver. They are not the “staffs -of life,” however in our ignorance we may bow the knee to them as to -graven images. We invest them with supreme power, as superstition -invests its idols. The ancient fabulist who sketched the character of -<i>Midas</i> seems to have written, by anticipation, a satire on modern -credulity. <i>Midas</i> enjoyed the fatal gift of turning all he touched -into gold; his food was transmuted into the precious metal, and -starvation taught him that corn was the true standard of all that was -physically valuable. <i>Midas</i> was the prototype of modern bullionists -and moneymongers. The Bank of England can now pave its floors with -gold; but what does it avail to the people? And yet was it not the -industry of the people that raised the ore from the mines, and brought -it hither by the sale or exchange of their labour, sustained by corn, -the produce of labour in another form? What was the <i>intrinsic</i> value -of gold to <i>Midas</i>?</p> - -<p>We must not confound the <i>qualities</i> of a mineral with its -<i>properties</i>. Undoubtedly, the precious metals possess durability, -sameness, great value in small bulk, portability, resistance to wear -and tear, in a greater degree than any other substances; but these -qualities <i>per se</i> do not constitute them <i>money</i>,—they do no more -than recommend them to mercantile nations as the best instruments of -their kind out of which money can be manufactured; it is the act of -the legislature, and that alone, which gives them the character and -force of a <i>legal tender</i>, without which they would not form part of -the currency of a nation. The legislature could confer the same power -on any other material, even the most worthless, as Lycurgus did on -iron, deprived of its malleability; and yet Sparta flourished with that -circulating medium; nay, more, Sparta fell into ruin when the precious -metals superseded the worthless iron, which its rulers were compelled -to revive before the Republic was restored to prosperity. Some Eastern -nations have used <i>cowries</i> (small shells) as money; and the Russians, -in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, employed the skins of -squirrels and martens. We ourselves use paper, and have used it without -the condition of convertibility. In fact, if gold and silver had never -been deposited in the bowels of the earth, or had been suffered to -remain there, the wealth of nations would not have been deteriorated -one farthing. They are the <i>signs</i> of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> thing signified, made such -by Act of Parliament; they will neither feed us, nor clothe us, nor -house us through their <i>own inherent qualities</i>. It is we ourselves -who give them all their gigantic power; we make them a legal tender. -Thus credulity set up graven images in the temples of old; and Labour, -having deposited all its earnings on the shrine, bent its knee before -the shining metal, and implored food and raiment from the idol carved -with its own hands. Common sense would have appealed to the <i>plough</i> -and the <i>loom</i>.</p> - -<p>We have said that the precious metals, when made a legal tender by -the legislature, are still no more than signs of the thing signified; -what, then, is the thing signified, whose value they measure, and -in measurement represent? We answer, all those things of value -which, in return for a sufficient inducement, are capable of being -transferred from one person to another. These are expressed by the -terms Property, Capital, Stock. All these possess <i>intrinsic</i> value, -for they represent accumulated labour; and accumulated labour is -the result of a continuous consumption of corn—the standard of all -values—the staff of life, without which neither property, capital, -nor stock could be accumulated, without which, indeed, the race of -civilised man could not be perpetuated. A granary full of corn, or a -warehouse full of cottons and woollens, are examples of <i>real money</i>: -they may exist while the proprietors of them have not an ounce of -gold or silver in their coffers; and, in a mercantile sense, they may -be poor, nay, necessitous, with all this wealth in their possession; -because corn, cottons, and woollens are not legal tenders according -to Act of Parliament,—no man is <i>bound</i> to take them in acquittance -of a debt,—they are not a satisfaction to the sheriff. It is idle to -say that such persons may obtain relief through a banker: the very -application shows a state of dependence into which the holder of -real money ought never to be reduced: for he who produces the thing -signified ought not to be under the control or caprice of him who -merely deals in its sign. Moreover, the banker himself may be unable -to give any accommodation: gold and silver may have left the country; -even the Bank of England may be so crippled as to have borrowed -some millions of the precious metals from France: we may be within -twenty-four hours of barter. Is this a picture of the imagination? No; -it is a faithful sketch of what <i>has</i> happened; and why should it not -happen again, the same causes remaining in readiness to act?</p> - -<p>What is the lesson that such considerations ought to teach? It is this, -that a nation, rich in real money, may be thrown into bankruptcy, -and perhaps revolution, by adopting a false representative of value, -through the privation of that gold which its legislature recognises -as the sole legal tender. Let the gold go, what remains? Our land, -retaining its fertility; our machinery, capable of continuing its work; -our vessels, as seaworthy as before; our skilled industry, with its -intelligence unimpaired; our unskilled labour, not a whit enfeebled in -its natural productive powers. These are the elements of real money.</p> - -<p>In the island of Guernsey it was proposed to build a meat-market, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>and -the estimates amounted to about £4,000. As all taxes in that island are -raised by a direct assessment on property, the rich protested against -the expenditure, though they desired the proposed accommodation. Here, -then, was a dilemma, since they who willed the end would not will the -means, and without the means the structure could not be erected. Had -such an emergency arisen with us, our Chancellor of the Exchequer would -unhesitatingly have thrown all the burden on the working-classes, -by taxing the commodities they daily consumed; but the rulers of -Guernsey have notions of honour and justice which do not permit them -to relieve the rich at the expense of the poor, and they are too well -instructed in the principles of commerce to crush trade by customs -and excise; these contrivances, as iniquitous as they are bungling, -would be disdained by the legislatures of the Channel Islands. How, -then, did they proceed in building the meat-market? They issued paper -notes, <i>guaranteed by the States of Guernsey</i>, this national paper -<i>not bearing interest</i>; and the better to show the nature of this -currency, the words “Meat-market Notes” were inscribed upon them, and -they were numbered so that no more could be put into circulation than -represented the sum agreed to be expended on the undertaking. On the -first instalment being due to the contractor, he was paid in these -notes, which he again paid away to his workmen and others, who passed -them to the shopkeepers; the landlords took them for rent, and the -treasurer of the States and the constables received them in discharge -of dues and taxes. At length the building was completed, when butchers -took the stalls at an annual rent, and as that rent was received the -meat-market notes were destroyed. In due course of time this rent -wholly extinguished the notes; and the market remains, to this day, -a permanent source of national revenue, applicable to other national -improvements; and, strange as it may sound, no individual has been -taxed one farthing for its construction! Here, then, is a practical -illustration of the uses of a symbolic currency, and of the mode in -which it may be made to work. Not an ounce of gold was employed; not a -shilling of interest was paid. The States of Guernsey were their own -guarantees for their own paper; they created the substance with the -symbol, realising the allegory of Aladdin’s lamp.</p> - -<p>As bullion, the precious metals are mere commodities, and therefore -possess no more intrinsic value than any other commodity, under the -laws of supply and demand; as coin, they are still bits of bullion, -and it is the act of ourselves, or of the legislature who represents -us, that gives them the character and the power of a legal tender. And -yet we have the folly to kneel down to this graven image, and measure -individual happiness and national greatness by its presence or its -departure. Foreign trade, however valuable, must ever be subsidiary to -the home trade. This doctrine none will contest; being admitted, then -it follows that the chief care of the government should be to provide a -currency suited to the home trade, and leave to merchants the care of -adjusting the foreign exchanges, which never, for any long period, can -be adverse or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> favourable; for what the ebb tide takes away the flood -returns. It is an axiom in political economy that a favourable state of -the exchanges acts as a <i>bounty on imports</i> and as a <i>duty on exports</i>, -while the reverse takes place when the exchanges are unfavourable. -The true <i>par</i> forms the centre of these oscillations, and though -peculiar circumstances will rarely allow that <i>par</i> to be <i>exactly</i> -hit, yet the tendency to approach it is constant, and the divergence -from it is always evanescent. But the home trade is governed by very -different influences; for, while we pay taxes on all we consume, the -foreigner pays none on what he purchases from us, since he deals with -us according to the measure of value, while we deal with each other -according to price. Gold represents the <i>natural</i> price of commodities, -not the taxed price. Therefore, we ought to have two sorts of currency; -let bullion serve for foreign trade, but let us have government paper, -convertible into gold at the <i>market price</i>—not the <i>Mint price</i>—as -the medium of internal exchanges. When gold is scarce, let it rise in -value measured in the Bank or National note, and we need not fear a -drain of bullion.</p> - -<p>There can be no freedom nor safety, much less prosperity, for any -people till they obtain just laws to regulate landed tenures, credit, -and commercial interchange. With such laws there could not exist -a bad government, nor would oppression in any form be possible. -Without such laws there cannot be a good government, be its form, -its administration, its institutes, or its franchises what they may. -Land, and whatever else the Deity has made for man’s use, must be -expropriated, by commutation, on equitable terms for the general good, -and never again be made private property. Credit must be accessible for -every member of the community, on terms beneficial for the individual, -and just and safe for the public. And all commerce must be gradually, -reduced to equitable exchange on the principle of equal values for -equal values, measured by a labour or corn standard.</p> - -<p>Under the systems of Landed Tenures, Currency, and Commerce which at -present prevail in England and in France, it is no exaggeration to say, -that those who live upon <i>rents</i>, <i>profits</i>, <i>usury</i>, <i>discounts</i>, -<i>dividends</i>, <i>commissions</i>, <i>fees</i>, etc., absorb from 300 to 350 -million pounds sterling worth of the people’s produce in each country -every year, over and above what they give the people any value whatever -for, in money or service of any appreciable kind. In fact, for this -enormous annual drain the useful classes of both countries receive no -consideration whatever. It is sheer robbery, disguised under plausible -names and forms. The Seven Propositions of the National Reform League -present what would seem the only feasible means of ridding the country -of this crushing incubus, consistent with acknowledging legal rights -and vested interests. Unless some such compromise be agreed on between -rich and poor, both in England and in France, a convulsion, sooner or -later, that will engulf both, must be the inevitable consequence. No -country could long sustain two such existing drains by the idle and -baneful classes upon the laborious producers—drains equal to from 300 -to 350<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> millions every year in each country—without at last collapsing -after protracted agonies to preserve national life. The system of -equitable Exchange substituted for the present nefarious one of -profitmongering would save the <i>souls</i> as well as the <i>bodies</i> of both -nations; but <i>that</i> is absolutely impossible without such antecedent -laws on Land and Currency as we have pointed out.</p> - -<p>It is the same with Currency. You may, for instance, by repealing -Peel’s Currency Acts of 1819 and 1844, by making an annual issue of -Exchequer paper, equal to the taxation, our legal tender, and by -superadding to this the advantage of a free but sound commercial -currency, in the form of private and joint-stock paper issues -adequately secured,—you may by such a reform as this, and by -making gold a mere merchandise to rise and fall in the market like -all other merchantable commodities according to the law of supply -and demand,—you may by this means make money more plentiful and -come-at-able for trade purposes, and thus relieve society of a large -proportion of its distress,—you may do all this and so far effect -much good for society without any other accompanying reforms; but -the benefits of such a reform <i>per se</i> would, we contend, be only -<i>temporary</i>; they could not be permanent, for want of the other -reforms. For a time money would be plentiful, employment abundant, -prices and wages high, and trade what is called prosperous; but this -very prosperity would soon work its own destruction; it would lead to -increased speculation, increased production, increased competition, -increased rents for lands and houses, increase of expenditure and -taxation, and to a terrific increase of what are called vested -interests; it would soon overstock the markets, and glut the warehouses -with unsaleable goods. Then would come a crash—a fearful, ruinous -crash; mills would run short time or stop; the factories and the -workshops would dismiss their hands; multitudes accustomed for some -time to full employment and good living would be cast suddenly adrift -to beg, borrow, or steal; the workhouses would overflow as the mills -and workshops became empty; the shopkeepers would be ruined by forced -sales and the lack of legitimate custom. This would react on the -manufacturers and merchants, and, through them, on the artisans and -labourers. Meanwhile the increased pressure of inflamed rents, taxes, -and vested interests would be found intolerable by a people without -trade and without employment. Down would go prices and wages again, -in despite of the superabundance of money, which would have found its -way to and accumulated in the hands of usurers, fixed-income men, -and non-productive, overgrown capitalists. In short, we should see a -repetition on a larger scale than ever of one of those periodic crises -in the commercial world which, under the present system, we invariably -find to follow close upon the heels of every great development of our -manufacturing and trading prosperity.</p> - -<p>It is with Land-reform as with Currency; it would be of comparatively -little use to nationalise landed property with the view of throwing -open the land to labourers and small farmers, unless you at the same -time enabled them, by a sound system of Credit, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> procure implements -and stock for their holdings, and to subsist themselves till after they -gathered in the first year’s crop. And even with competent allotments -of Land and Credit to stock them, the occupants’ condition would be -still but a very indifferent one without the aid of an efficient -Currency wherewith to effect easy and equitable exchanges of their -surplus agricultural produce for money or for other produce, as their -wants might require. In short, each element is imperfect in itself as -the means of social reform. But all, from operating conjointly and -harmoniously, go to make social reform perfect. And seeing that it -is just as easy to legislate upon all forms conjointly as upon each -separately, it appears to us a sad waste of time and labour to agitate -for any one without including the rest at the same time, the more -especially as the peculiar virtues of each are only brought into full -play and development by being made to operate in unison with the other -three.</p> - -<p>There is not one warrior that ever fought for king, people, or -commonwealth: they have all fought for landlords and profitmongers, -to whom alone they could look for pay and promotion; consequently, no -good to the human race ever accrued from their conquests or victories. -Nor will the millions ever gain by any war not waged by themselves on -their own account, nor by any victories not won by themselves over -their hereditary eternal foes, the landlords and profitmongers—over -the latter especially, the more numerous, deadly, and irreclaimable of -the two. Profitmongers are, indeed, perfectly irreclaimable enemies -of the human race, because as such they can possess no one virtue, no -one quality of head, heart, or conscience, by which they could be won -over to God or humanity. In all the higher professional callings—in -those associated with the arts and sciences—the pursuit of truth, and -the culture of a taste for the Sublime, the Beautiful, the Chaste, -the Sympathetic, form an essential part of their studies and the very -foundation of success. Such is the case with engineers, architects, -sculptors, painters, musicians, historians, mathematicians, physicians -and surgeons, artists of every kind, orators, poets, professors of -science, advocates, &c. The higher qualities of the human mind must be -more or less cultivated by all those descriptions of persons, if they -would excel; and it is in the very nature of their studies to generate -in them some appreciation of truth, taste, sympathy, or refinement. -But the profitmongering devils of society neither need nor care for -such ennobling pursuits. Indeed, the less they are tinctured with -them, the more fitted they are for their nefarious callings. Genius, -taste, culture, are not required for buying in the cheapest markets -and selling in the dearest, for lying, deceiving, adulterating goods, -giving short weight, or cheating our fellow-creatures out of their -substance, either by underpaying them for their work or giving them -less than the value for their money. Still less are the superior moral -qualities required in profitmongering pursuits; indeed, such qualities -are only drawbacks and impediments in the way of success in business. -Hence no clever profitmonger ever thinks of encumbering himself with -them. True, mercantile men have a proverb<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> which has become trite -from use—“<i>Honesty is the best policy</i>;” but they use it, like -other good things, only to improve their opportunities of cheating. -A tacit understanding not to cheat one another is often necessary to -their success in cheating the rest of mankind, which, after all, is -the main business of their lives. As this iniquitous class can grow -rich only by grinding and cheating their fellow-creatures, that is, -by robbery and oppression, they are, by the very nature of their -pursuits and practices, irreconcilable enemies of society. It is their -interest that the working-classes should be always at variance amongst -themselves—always a prey to ignorance—given to mutual jealousy and -mistrust—and filled with prejudices and superstitions, by which they -may at all times have their passions inflamed against those who would -unite, enlighten, and emancipate them from bondage. It is the interest -of this class, too, that the mass of the people should never own a -house, nor even rent an acre of land, so that they may be forced to -become wages-slaves to profitmongers, and pay to them every few years -in rent more than the value of their wretched tenements. In short, -profitmongers, as the main supports of all aristocracies and of all -tyrannies in the world, are constrained by the very necessities of -their position and by the very nature of their pursuits, to ignore the -Ten Commandments in practice, and to trample under foot the Gospel of -the Saviour. There cannot, then, be even a semblance of real reform -in society without beginning with clipping the claws and drawing the -teeth of the profitmongers. The human race is, indeed, without hope -of salvation either in this world or the next, until their present -unlimited and irresponsible power of murder and robbery over the mass -of mankind shall be wrenched from profitmongers and landlords.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i142.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XXII.</span> <span class="smaller">EVILS OF MONOPOLIES AND EXPLOITATIONS OF INDUSTRIES.</span></h2> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<blockquote><p class="center">False Principle of Law-made Property—Absurdity of Funding -System and Borrowing from Investors—Evil of Public Works in -hands of Profitmongers and Speculators—Rapacity of Predatory -Classes—Efforts of Robespierre to abolish the nefarious -System—his legal Assassination in consequence—All Evils of -Society the work of Landlords and Profitmongers.</p></blockquote> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>Another false principle at the root of our system (mark it well! for -it is a most diabolical one) is, that laws may legitimately <i>make</i> -property for one set of people at the expense of another set, without -the consent of the latter, and without giving them an equivalent. -This principle lurks insidiously at the root of scores of different -sorts of property, well known to exist in this country, and to be -wholly and solely the offspring of class-legislation. The dividends -payable on the National Debt are of this class of property; so are -railway dividends; so are the dividends or revenues accruing from -canals, docks, wharfs, fisheries, insurance offices, gas-companies, -water-companies, mining-companies, and private companies of all sorts, -which are chartered by private Acts of Parliament to do for the public -what the public ought to be empowered to do for themselves. There -is no subject upon which more gross and general ignorance prevails -than upon this. Most people imagine that a man may as legitimately -possess property of the kinds here alluded to, as he may possess a -house, a horse, or a gross of Birmingham buttons. No delusion can -be more ridiculous. Parliaments are chosen, and laws are designed, -not to <i>make</i> property for people, but to <i>protect</i> it for those who -have made it for themselves, or obtained it from those that <i>did</i>. -If a man builds a house, or buys an ox, it is his rightful property -irrespectively of Acts of Parliament. The law did not give him the -house or the ox; neither has it a right to take it away, unless for -a good and sufficient reason, and then only upon awarding adequate -compensation. The same principle applies to every other legitimate -description of property. All such legitimate descriptions of property -are acquired or made by the owners themselves, and not by the law. The -law only <i>protects</i> such property; it does not <i>create</i> or <i>make</i> it.</p> - -<p>The State plan of borrowing money from its subjects on the -perpetual-interest system is replete with folly and extravagance; -unless it be admitted to be an artful scheme for robbing the -wealth-producers, by taxing them with the payment of the interest of -money which they never borrowed. An honest government would quickly set -about paying this debt off, by offering life annuities to a certain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> -number of stock-holders every year. A real State power ought never -to <i>borrow</i> money; it ought to <i>make</i> it when required to cancel its -obligations, receiving the same money back in the form of taxes, so as -to prevent depreciation. The government practice of borrowing money on -Exchequer bills is also absurdly wasteful; surely the credit of the -State ought to be above that of any of its subjects!</p> - -<p>What is true of funded property is equally applicable to the various -other descriptions of property referred to. Railroads should not be -private property; neither should canals, docks, fisheries, mines, the -supplying of gas, water, etc. Works of this sort, designed for the use -of the public, should be constructed or executed only at the public -cost, and the public, and the public only, should have the advantage. -They should not be suffered to fall into the hands of private -speculators, for whom they are only a legal disguise to enable them to -rob the public. A universal-suffrage parliament would never sanction -such a system, unless it were stark mad. Like the funding system, it -only tends to breed idle schemers to prey upon the industrious classes. -All profits upon their outlay received by such private companies, -while they preserve their capital intact, is in reality so much public -plunder handed over to them by the law. Indeed, not unfrequently the -profits for a single year are greater than the outlay itself, whilst -the original shares are proportionately enhanced in value. Thus, shares -in the New River Company, originally worth £100, are now worth £16,000; -in other words, the annual interest is equal to eight times the -original capital. It is superfluous to say such <i>property</i> is the sole -creation of law, which, whenever it deviates from its original function -of <i>protecting</i> property, to that of <i>creating</i> or <i>making</i> it, only -robs one set of people to enrich another—a species of act which laws -are intended to punish, and not to set the example of.</p> - -<p>The mercantile middle-classes are everywhere organizing chartered -companies to give themselves perpetual vested interests in the -labour of the working-classes, and mortgage the latter to posterity, -through public loans and State indebtedness. Wars are now got up or -waged every year merely to create fresh batches of “<i>stocks</i>” or -“<i>public securities</i>” to be thrown, as marketable wares, upon the -stock-exchanges of the world, in order that lazy, worthless, swindling -villains, who have got rich by profitmongering, may be able to convert -definite money-capitals into interminable annuities, or perennial -streams of income wrung from the labouring classes in taxes, for which -the said classes never receive a particle of consideration or value -in any shape, while the “<i>investors</i>,” as they are called, not only -retain their money-capitals under the name of stock, but, as a general -rule, can always sell that stock at a premium, or for more than the sum -originally lent or invested; while, till they choose to sell out, they -are privileged to live securely on the taxes.</p> - -<p>All slavery in all countries called civilised is the work of -landlords and profitmongers. These two classes, which have no right -to form an integral portion of society at all, have everywhere made -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>themselves masters of society, and are everywhere in a state of -permanent conspiracy against the rest of the community, allowing no -man to hold his proper rank or position in the world unless he makes -common cause with them in keeping the poor and the labouring class -in ignorance, poverty, and slavery. There is no age nor country in -which they have not shown themselves murderers or assassins the moment -any large section of the public began to see through their system of -self-licensed rapine. They have invariably either murdered the leaders -and teachers of the creed which menaced their usurpations, or else -got up sham wars with neighbouring States (the belligerents being -co-conspirators), under colour of which they procured the intervention -of foreign arms in aid of their own, to crush the new creed and its -abettors before they had time to take root. No one nation on earth has, -up to the present time, been permitted to <i>learn</i>, much less establish, -honest laws on Land, Credit, Currency, and Exchange, so as to secure -its permanent freedom and happiness, owing to malignant combinations -of these two classes, which seem to exist for no other purpose than to -keep the human race in eternal chains and misery.</p> - -<p>Robespierre is the only legislator and statesman known to history who -sought a radical reformation of society for the millions, through just -fundamental laws on property, with analogous institutions to reach and -purify every department of the State, so that the poorest man in France -might get rich through his own industry if he chose to work, and have -the whole armed power of society to guarantee to him the exclusive -ownership and enjoyment of his earnings and accumulations. But at the -same time he left to the rich all they had, depriving them only of the -power of future robbery. To this end were directed articles 6, 7, 8, -9, 10, 11, and 12 of his “Declaration of Rights:”—“Art. 6. Property -is the right which each citizen has to enjoy and to dispose of, at his -pleasure, the portion of fortune or wealth that is guaranteed to him -by the law. Art. 7. The right of property is limited, like all other -rights, by the obligation to respect the rights of others. Art. 8. It -can prejudice neither the safety, nor the liberty, nor the existence, -nor the property of our fellow-citizens. Art. 9. All traffic that -violates this principle is essentially illicit and immoral. Art. 10. -Society is under obligation to provide subsistence for all its members, -either by procuring employment for them or by ensuring the means of -existence to those who are incapable of labour. Art. 11. The relief -indispensable to those who are in want of necessaries is a debt due by -the possessors of superfluities. It belongs to the law to determine -the manner in which the debt should be discharged. Art. 12. Citizens -whose incomes do not exceed what is necessary to their subsistence -are dispensed from contributing to the public expenditure. The rest -ought to contribute <i>progressively</i>, according to the extent of their -fortunes.”</p> - -<p>Although Robespierre and his party were ostensibly murdered by the -Convention, it was the landlords and profitmongers of France that -were really and substantially his murderers in chief; for it was in -their interest the Convention murdered him,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> well knowing beforehand -that these classes wished for his death, in order to eject the -working-classes from the constitution, and re-seize the whole powers -of the State for themselves, as they had done under the Constituent. -The 9th Thermidor was as much a <i>coup d’état</i> as Louis Napoleon’s -2nd December, and both for the same classes—for landlords and -profitmongers, who never yet submitted to any laws not made exclusively -by themselves or for themselves, at the cost of slavery to the masses. -Real liberty will never exist in the world until these two murderous -classes are made to disappear from society under the operation of just -laws on Land, Credit, Currency, and Exchange. It is to such laws that -Robespierre points in articles 6, 7, 8, and 9 of his “Declaration of -Rights;” and it is to their operation upon society he points in that -magnificent passage here quoted from his report, on <i>Pluviose, An II.</i>, -the parallel of which was never before uttered by statesman:—“We -desire an order of things in which all the mean and cruel passions -shall be chained down—all the beneficent and generous passions -awakened by the laws; in which ambition shall consist in the desire -of meriting glory, and serving our country; in which distinctions -shall spring but from equality itself; in which the citizen shall -be subject to the magistrate, the magistrate to the people, and the -people to justice; in which the country shall ensure the prosperity -of every individual, and in which each individual shall enjoy with -pride the prosperity and glory of his country; in which every soul -shall be aggrandised by the continual intercommunication of republican -sentiments, and by the wish to merit the esteem of a great people; in -which the arts shall flourish as the decorations of the liberty that -ennobles them; and in which commerce will be a source of public riches, -and not of monstrous opulence to a few great houses only. We desire to -substitute in our country morality for egotism, probity for honour, -principles for usages, duties for conventionalities, the empire of -reason for the tyranny of fashion, contempt of vice for contempt of -misfortune, manly pride for insolence, greatness of soul for vanity, -love of glory for love of money, honesty for respectability, good -people for good society, merit for intrigue, genius for wit, truth -for display, the charms of happiness for the <i>ennui</i> of pleasure, the -greatness of man for the littleness of the great; a people magnanimous, -powerful, and happy, for a people amiable, frivolous, and miserable; in -a word, we desire to substitute all the virtues and all the miracles -of the Republic for all the vices and all the ridiculous fopperies of -the Monarchy. We desire, in short, to fulfil the vows of nature, to -accomplish the destinies of humanity, to absolve Providence from the -long reign of crime and tyranny; that France, heretofore illustrious -amongst enslaved countries, may, by eclipsing all the free States that -ever existed, become a model for nations, the terror of oppressors, the -consolation of the oppressed, the ornament of the world; and that, in -sealing our work with our blood, we may at least witness the breaking -dawn of universal felicity.” It was these articles and his speeches -at the Jacobin club, showing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> Robespierre’s determination, if he got -the power, to put <i>property</i> on a proper basis, that determined the -landlords and profitmongers of France to murder him the moment the -state of parties and divisions of the people gave them the chance of -doing so with safety to themselves.</p> - -<p>It is idle to attribute the evils of society to any other source but -the ascendancy of these two accursed classes; for no other component -parts of society have any interest in oppressing mankind or in -debasing humanity. Examine the other constituents of society, and -you find them all to be naturally friends and benefactors of their -fellow-creatures, and their callings to be essential to the public -welfare. All truly Christian ministers give full value for what they -get; so do physicians and surgeons; so do engineers, architects, -builders, draughtsmen, designers, artists of every kind, sculptors, -miniature and portrait painters, musicians, composers, mechanics, and -artisans of every description, whether engaged on works of usefulness -or ornament, professors and teachers of science and <i>belles lettres</i>, -more especially the higher class of scientific men, to whom we owe -inventions and discoveries, and the higher class of philosophers, -poets, historians, and critics, to whom we owe taste, refinement, -and a thousand sources of quiet enjoyment. In short, every man that -contributes, either by the labour of his brain or of his hands, to -the wealth and enjoyments of society is a valuable member of it, and -cannot possibly have an interest in keeping his fellow-creatures in -ignorance and bondage. In virtue of their callings, they, and all -other persons employed in art and education, as in production and -distribution, are naturally interested in just and good government, -and in seeing equal rights and equal laws exist for all. But not so -landlords and profitmongers: their class-interests are diametrically -opposed to the well-being, independence, and happiness of society, of -which they have not a right even to form an integral part. We cannot do -without Christian pastors, physicians, engineers, architects, builders, -professors, artists, and able men devoted to the sciences, without -relapsing into barbarism and savagery. But where is the earthly use of -a landlord, as a landlord; of a profitmonger, as a profitmonger? All -the ingenuity in the world could not point out any legitimate use for -these classes. What functions do they perform that could not be better -performed without them than with them, and at less than a hundredth -part of the cost? What business have they in society at all? They have -no lawful business whatever. They are no more a necessary part of the -body politic than are wens, tumours, or ulcers necessary parts of -the natural human body. Their presence in it is only a proof of the -diseased state of the body politic; just as the presence of the others -attests an impure state of the blood or functional disorganization. -They have no more legitimate right to obtrude themselves on society -than a wolf or a tiger has to join and make one of a Christmas party. -They exist only for the impoverishment, corruption, enslavement, -and destruction of the human race. They are the sole authors of all -the calamities known to social existence; and the history of our -race is little else than a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> harrowing record of their wars, plots, -conspiracies, invasions, massacres, famines, conflagrations, and -atrocities of every sort, to blot the image of God out of man, in order -to turn him into a beast of burden or a beast of prey for their own -use. It is only by just laws on Property that the human race can be -delivered from these two hellish classes; and all reform is a farce -which points not to that paramount object.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/i148.jpg" alt="Decoration Finis" /></div> - -<p class="center space-above">PRINTED BY G. 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