TOPICS OF THE DAY.
MONDAY—ITS LESSONS.
Tiii adventures of Monday were a great lesson to the Chartists and their more turbulent allies among the working classes. They bad challenged the Government and the friends of order to a trial of strength; and their own display was a pitiable exposure of weakness. They threatened to come in hundreds of thou- sands; and they could not, with all the appendages of a London crowd, muster more than a tithe of the threatened numbers. To swell the show, they were content to assort with Irish Repealers, Were anarchists, and ragamuffins of various kinds, towards whom they have no sympathy. As they marched along in their sepa- rate contingents, the aspect of physical weakness in the greater part was painful. No settled councils guided them : vio- lence was compensated by wavering ; the delegates quarrel- led among themselves on the very platform ; the leaders were distrusted by the, body of the meeting ; whether in reality, or through a most unfortunate combination of circumstances, which may easily be credited, their leaders were fain to as- sume an appearance of gross cowardice: the procession which was to force its way to the doors of Parliament through "blood," &c. was abandoned ; and the monster petition, which was to have been backed by a vast multitude, who were to dictate its acceptance, was quietly carried in a couple of cabs. Shouts of violence, scowls, gestures of bitter mortification and disappointment, attested the presence of a malignant spirit in the immediate attendants of the meeting, and their conscious dis- comfiture. The women who bung upon the skirts of the baffled revolutionists, as usual, gave tongue to the smothered ire, and as- sailed the special constables—the citizens arrayed for the protec- tion of order—with virulent abuse. There was much in the ex- hibition that was disgusting ; and as to the matter of strength, it was so overwhelming on the side of authority, that some trenchant politicians almost regret the peaceful result : the whole force of the disorderly could have been blown to pieces, and not a few impatient spirits are disappointed that the anarchists were not made to feel the power they braved, by proxy, in the persons of a few Chartists scattered before the deadly engines of war!
But is the lesson only to the Chartists? Here are the active spirits, the leading part of the working classes of London : they make a sad display of turbulent discontent, of evil associations; they betray a miserable disposition to follow their ill-chosen lead- ers either into mad excess or humiliating retreat ; they burlesque their own threats by the exhibition of their sickly aspect. But is all this matter of exultation ? Surely it shows that some other classes besides these working people are chargeable with great dereliction of duty.
There is one thing that, alone, might have prevented all the really decent folks in that crowd, men or women, from being mis- led by the wretched pretenders and insane fanatics who headed them,—general education.
Of the genuine Chartists, we believe that they are on the whole the elite of the working men—the most intelligent, the best-in- formed, the most inspired by a manly ambition. What induces them, then, to consort with silly "confederates" of Ireland, mere idlers, ragamuffins, and thieves ? It is that they are slighted, and so fly to illicit means for enforcing a better consideration. The doctrines they uphold are not absolutely irrational; but we will venture to say that something very far short of the " six points " would disarm all the. bitterness of the true Chartist. If he saw in the Legislature any sincere disposition to consider the inte- rests, the opinions, and the wishes of the working classes, he would be satisfied. But a singular monopoly of logical necessity is enforced upon the advocates of the working classes. Other classes are indulged in their special interests, their prejudices, and their fancies : the frauds of the railway speculator are not too nicely searched, the prejudices of the Protectionist are ten- derly and sparingly combated, the humour of the landlord sports- man is consulted ; but when it is a question of compliance with the notions of the working classes, precise data and strict reason are exacted. It is usually so even when some genteel patron pleads for them,—though concessions have been obtained by an Ashley which no numbers of working people could have extorted. The genuine politician of the people is excluded from a franchise which includes the mercenaries of Harwich and Bewdley. The just claims of the working man to political consider. ation are postponed to the " vested interests " of the up- per classes who deal in Parliamentary corruption and special legislation. It is a social pride which excludes the " lower orders " from equal attention, unless they come recommended by distinguished patrons. It is this denial of consideration which drives the Chartist to fix, with dogged pertinacity, on his " six points," adopt any leaders who can plead for him in Parliament, and beat up for recruits among classes as low as those whence her Majesty recruits her forces. He only wants not to be trifled with. Concede him that—really as well as professedly " con- sider" him, his opinions and his petition, and he will not repeat the discreditable scenes of last Monday. But that is not all. We boast that the force opposed to the middle-class constables and the soldiery was contemptible in point of physical strength and the outward signs of spirit: is it so, and are we to exult ? Indeed, this is the saddest part of the case. We fear it is so. We fear it is not only our towns that exhibit this stunted humanity : in many parts the agricultural population is in a very wretched state of poverty. A writer in a Wiltshire paper describes a meeting of distressed labourers and their wives —the stalwart frames of the men shrunk with scanty food, the women emaciated and incapable of the maternal functions, the children sickly and puny. It is the same in other quarters. You may contrast the "cheap" cotton gowns and cotton rags that now clothe the women, with the woollens and homespun hose that once kept them warm. We boast of our riches, and vaunt statistical proofs of our manufacturing greatness ; but, if troubles came, it is not by money and piece-goods that England would vindicate her nationality and good order. We have attended too exclu- sively to money wealth and trading greatness. The facts prove it. The hearty feeling, the homely comfort, the sturdy vigour, which made Englishmen take a pride in their country and able to defend it, have evaporated. When the clothier's yard supplied the familiar measure for the national weapon—when pea- sants spun their own goods—they handled less coin, the roads to market were not so easy, time was more wasted than it has been since the greater division of employments, and the country was not so rich in money : but, somehow, the people were robuster, had more enjoyments, and had a better spirit. Nations sink and rise ; peoples wax and wane in their physical strength : history presents more than one example. Our laws conduce to opulence in certain classes, and to an enor- mous aggregation of wealth : but there must be something wrong in the social arrangements of a nation whose sons " dwin- dle, peak, and pine" before your eyes—grow more discontented and more thoughtful as they grow feebler. No obedience to the dogmas and commonplaces of politics and public economy can absolve the council of the nation from the duty of attending to other matters besides the promotion of trading facilities and money wealth.
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