Selected Political Writings of John Thelwall Vol 2 by Robert Lamb Corinna Wagner

Author:Robert Lamb, Corinna Wagner [Robert Lamb, Corinna Wagner]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General
ISBN: 9781000748581
Google: EPHcDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-04-13T03:50:27+00:00

THE TRIBUNE, NO. XXIX

ON the CAUSES of the LATE DISTURBANCES. Part the First. Including Strictures on the Opinion of Lord BACON,34 that the Poverty and Misery of the People35 is the principal Source of SEDITIONS and TROUBLES.

I NOW, Citizens, proceed to illustrate the axiom, that ‘PARLIAMENTARY CORRUPTION AND MINISTERIAL AMBITION ARE THE ORIGINAL SOURCES OF ALL THE CALAMITIES AND DISTRUBANCES THAT AFFLICT THE NATION!’

I shall begin this subject with observing, what appears to me to be an ample justification of his enquiry, that Violence is the twin brother of Ignorance; and that both are engendered by Misery, and nurtured by Corruption!

In order to illustrate this, let us consider awhile the nature of the late disturbances, and recollect who are the men that have been engaged in them. Have they been the frequenters of political Lectures, of the members of political associations? – We know from facts the contrary. Reformers have proved themselves to be no rioters; and we have seen, by the melancholy occurrences at the Old Bailey, a few days ago, that the very men employed to support by coercion the present system of government, are those among whom the unfortunate beings have been found, who were foremost in expressing, in an improper manner, their detestation of certain practices of an oppressive nature, and to express, by violence and fury, their impatience and sense of their wrongs. I allude to the unfortunate Drummer, whose life, it seems, is to atone for the injuries he has committed against the peace of society: a poor being actuated, perhaps, by an honest and laudable motive; but unfortunately plunged so deep in ignorance, as not to know the manner in which such motives ought to have directed him to act. Yet what is the conduct of the scribbling retainers of this coercive system? – What is the conduct of those diurnal retailers of slander and defamation – which call themselves news-papers – as if falsehood and calumny could ever be new, when Corruptions and Injustice bear the sway? – We find them anxiously and busily employed in base attempts to turn the attention of the people from the real sources of their grievances, to the unfortunate agents and traders, who are suffering at least their share of all the miseries of the nation.

Citizens, if you persuade mankind that the miller, the mealman, the butcher, the baker, are the causes of the dearness of the necessaries of life, what will be their conduct? They will see the objects of their resentment at hand; and these will become the victims of their mistaken rage.

But the fact is, that it is not individuals – it is mistaken institutions, false principles, and the delusions of Corruption, that have reduced the great mass of the people to that melancholy situation into which they are plunged. It is therefore not by disturbance, not by violence, but by reformation, that these objects must be effected. To this political melioration let us then direct our attention. By a conduct opposite to

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