POPULAR POLITICS.
THE first and obvious pint about this little work, of' the size and appearance of one of Miss MARTINEAU'S volumes, is its
cheapness. Here we have for ninepence, not indeed the most
important sections of England and America, the Facts Relating to the Punishment of Death, and several other publications by Mr. WAKEFIELD, SO popular AS IO be out of print, but as much of
them as could be crammed into 150 pages. The main subjects of which these extracts treat are—the condition of the " bulk of the people" aml the middle classes, with the best means of remedy- ing the distresses of the one and the uneasiness of the other, through Colonization and the abolition of the Corn-laws ; the
causes of the Reform Bill, and where there is a chance of its landing us, unless some physical and intellectual improvement be made in the masses; and the uselessness, if not the mis- chievous tendency, of the punishment of death, as well upon crimi- nals as upon society at large. The peculiar qualities of Mr. WAKEFIELD'S style are easily perceived. He is a CARAVAGGIO without colour. His general
defects are a straining, and too obvious effort—a sort of tugging
at his work—a making up his mind to do. His general merits are forceful vigour, and extraordinary clearness, amounting indeed
to staring distinctness : it is not only impossible to misunderstand him, but even to avoid being impressed with what he says, how- ever one may differ from his opinions. Hence, in the popular ex- position of the abstruse subjects of political economy, Ile is with-
out a risal. In description this quality does not serve him so well : as a painter would say, his outline is too hard—he wants the delicacy and aerial abets of nature. He is deficient, too, in colour and poetical feeling ; affording on these points a striking contrast to Connarr, who, amidst his constant coarseness and fre- quent blackguardism, often exhibited a truth of delineation and a real pastoral feeling worthy of the Doric muse. The peculiar characteristic of Mr. WAKEFIELD'S style, however, may be called by the various names, as it takes the various forms, of energy, passion, or furor. And these qualities not only give a character to his Merrily composition, but influence his deductions as a reasoner, and are the cause of his usefulness as a writer— perhaps of his waiting at all ; stimulating him first to inquire, and then to give a practical effect to his inquiries. When it so hap- pens that be has embraced the whole truth, she cannot have a more prevailing advocate. But when lie only perceives the leading principle, and not the suboldinute, qualifying, or counteracting truths, (and such a disposition is not the best fitted for the patient solving of complicated problems,) then he is only fitted to act as a pioneer or explorer. Strong in his abstract truth, he may puzzle the generality of his readers, but he cannot convince them, be- cause their experience persuades; them that he is practically wrong. Hence an cceasional appearance of untrueness, and a frequent scenting exaggeration—we say seeming, because it does not arise from the enlargement of the principal figures, so much as from the diminution of all the rest. Coupled with this, and springing indeed from the same source, is a vehemence in tone and terms, with an occasional disposition to treat opponents as persons who are wilfully shutting their eyes to truth, which not only injures the cause, but is unseemly in a philosophical reformer.
Some of these defects are pretty fully illustrated in the power- ful paper called "Killing for Murder, or the Terror-struck Town ;" and which, by the by, we believe appears in the little book before us for the first time. According to Mr. WAKEFIELD'S ac- count, to be quoted presently, the inhabitants of Dunkirk are a people without crime—bating smuggling. Two Paris miscreants, however, committed a murder in their arrondissement ; were detected, convicted, and sentenced to be executed in the town of the district where the crime was committed. This sen- tence first raised disgust and indignation in the minds of the simple people; then, as the time approached, a morbid curiosity ; and on the day itself a feeling of sickening horror. From which Mr. WAKEFIELD concludes, that the punishment of death is im- proper and unnecessary in itself, mischievous in its effects upon society, and useless in preventing crime. Now, admitting all Mr. WAKEFIELD'S philanthropic views upon the subject of death punishment to be correct, something of a non sequitur is here trace- able between his premises and his conclusions : he argues at once from a particular case to a universal rule. Though the murder was premmlitated, yet its commission as regards the people of Dunkirk was an accident, from which no general rule upon the sulject can be deduced, any more than pkysiological laws can be drawn from monstrous births. Flom the character of the people, it was impossible that many executions could take place in Dun- kirk, (and if remote murderers began to use their sands for the convenience of burial, a stricter watch would soon stop them): such effects, therefore, as Mr. WAKEFIELD speaks of, could not be produced. If frequent executions were possible, we do not believe they would indurate the people in the manner as- sumed ; for the mind will bear a great deal of evil influence in one direction without being injured in others. Lastly, Dunkirk is not France ; and laws must be made for the whole nation, not a particular town. And herein lies the fallacy which the advo- cates of the abolition of the punishment of death adopt. In every social practice there is action and reaction: the infliction of death is mostly the effect of a certain condition of society, not the cause of it. If all the world were like the people of Dunkirk, the punishment of death might be properly abolished ; but its abolition would not make all the world like the people of Dunkirk.
Turning from our dry discussions to something more pleasant —Mr. WAKEFIELD'S forceful descriptions—here is the opening of the paper on which we have just been commenting.
Dunkirk, in the French Low Countries, is a fine town ; regular, with wide streets, high houses, large squares, and handsome public buildings ; well drained, riot bully lighted, and kept remarkably clean. It contains about thirty thousand inhabitants. The only French port north of Havre de Grace, which can receive large ships, and connected by canals with a wide extent of country, this town is the centre of a very important trade. The people are not French, but Fleinings ; have scarcely any notion of glory, almost despise the great genius of the great Napoleon, and take little thought of politics, save
as tiny *MICA dislike restrictions on trade, especially war. They are a most industlious people ; all of them, with hardly an exception, being engaged in some line of business; such as ship-building, rope-making, fisheries, distilling for English smugglers, and the management of exchange, both as carriers and dealers, between the north of France and several parts of the world. In the whole town there is but one native dandy, who curls his hair every (lay, smells of Cologne water, and rides about on a prancing nag, followed by his servant in gaudy livery, an object of ridicule to all beholders. Besides this one, the only idlers in the place are about five hundred English, who live there for two very good things—a cheap provision-market and a college where learning is as cheap as turkies in the great square. Here the poorest family gets a turkey now and then ; for in this town there is no pauperism. Paupers would abound, however, without a distinct working class—a class of hired labourers. But those who compose the woi king class obtain sufficient wages. How so? Be- cause the workmen are few in proportion to the demand for their services; or because, if you prefer this way of stating the ease, the demand for labour is great in proportion to the number of labourers. How this proportion takes place, is a question that does not belong to my story; here I have only ts men- tion a very gratifying result of sufficieot wages. The common people are not soured or made selfi-h by distress Being at ease, being happy themselves, they enjoy a feeling of self:respect, which naturally leads them to rtspect the happiness of others. This alone, perhaps, would have made them what they are—a most orderly, cheelful, and honest race.
But to this must be added the behaviour of the richer class, who, all en- gaged in business, do nothing to corrupt the common people ; neither gamble at bells or hart.e. races, nor keep game or mistresses, nor meddle with the pleasures of the poor, nor irritate them by ostentation, nor ever treat them with cruelty and contempt. Stay : the rich do meddle with the pleasures of the poor; for all classes may be seen engaged in the same amusements, as well as the same works, busy or dancing according to the time ; not separated, but together, with no obvious distinction between them except some difference in the value of their clothes, and this difference in their manner, that the higher order show kindness and the lower order that true respect which real kindness always obtains. A worknanu here looks upon his molter as his friend ; and the master never thinks of doubting the attachment of his servant. When the master's family go a-junketting, the domestic servant goes with them; and, likely enough, dances, if a woman, with her master ; if a man, with his mas- ter's daughter Miss Theresa, who used to give him bark three times a day when lie last had the ague : and then, if the master should be unfortunate in trade, the servant would interfere, and insist on some plan of family economy. In short, the two classes live together, as we should say in England, on terms of horrid familiarity.
Of course our remarks upon " Killing for Murder" relate only to that which it possesses in common with most very effective stories written to inculcate some particular moral—a somewhat defective logic. As a piece of powerful and vigorous writing, it is well worthy of perusal, and the book should be procured for that alone. But when we look at its interesting treatment of a number of exciting and universally interesting subjects, we are entitled to say that Popular Politics should be popularly circulated, as a remarkable tract-book. It not only amuses, but excites in- quiry and stimulates thought.
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