A Hundred Years Ago
Tnx " SPECTATOR," JANUARY 30TH, 1830. A POLITICAL UNION AMONG THE LOWER AND MIDDLE CLASSES.
The following are its objects :— " 1. To obtain, by every just and legal means, such a Reform in the Commons' House of Parliament, as may ensure a real and effectual Representation of the Lower and Middle Classes of the People in that House. " 2. To inquire, consult, consider, and determine respecting the rights and liberties of the industrious classes, and respecting the legal means of securing those which remain and recovering those which are lost.
" 3. To prepare Petitions, Addresses, and Remonstrances to the Crown and the Legislative Bodies, respecting the preser- vation and restoration of Public Rights, and respecting the repeal of bad laws, and the enactment of good laws. 4. To prevent and redress, as far as practicable, all local public wrongs and oppressions, and all local encroachments upon the rights, interests, and privileges of the community. S. To obtain the repeal of the Malt and Beer duties and in general, to obtain an alteration in the system of taxation, so as to cause it to press less severely upon the industrious classes of the community, and more equally upon the wealthy classes.
" 6. To obtain the reduction of each separate tax and expense of the Government in the same degree as the legislative increase and the value of money has increased their respective values, and has reduced and is reducing the general prices of labour throughout the country. • " 7.. To promote peace, union, and concord, among all classes of His Majesty's subjects, and to guide and direct the public mind into uniform, peaceful, and legitimate operations • instead of leaving it to waste its strength in loose, desultory, and uncon- nectedexertions, or to cause to its own objects, unguided, unassisted, and uncontrolled.
" 8. To 'collect and organize the peaceful expression of the Public Opinion, so as to bring it to act upon the Legislative functions in a 'just, legal, and effectual way. " 9. To influence, by every legal means, the elections of Members of Parliament; so as to promote the return of upright and capable representatives of the people. " 10. To adopt such measures as may be legal and necessary for the purpose of obtaining an effectual Parliamentary investi- gation into the situation of the country, and into the cause of its embarrassments and difficulties.
WATER IN PARIS.
At length the French Government have taken up the important subject of procuring for the inhabitants of Paris a supply of water in their houses. It may well be a matter of wonder to the inhabitants of this country to see the Parisians supplied with water by carts, the porters of which carry it up on their backs to the inhabitnts of the upper floors. The Government have now fixed on a plan, and will offer the contract for its execution to public competition in the manner of a loan. It is computed that 700 tons of iron will be required to complete the works.
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