by his wretched appearance, and the pitiable fanaticism with which he was possessed: for the man was honest; he was not one of those demagogues who, like Cobbett, make mischief their trade because they find it a gainful one; he asserted nothing but what he elieved, and would have suffered martyrdom for his opinions. le called himself, in his defence, The unfeed advocate of the isinherited seed of Adam.' 6 6 This, Gentlemen,' said he, is the Rights of Man! and upon this 'ock of Nature have I built my Commonwealth, and the Gates of Hell all not prevail against it.' I solemnly avow,' he continued, that nat I have written and published has been done with as good a concience, and as much philanthropy, as ever possessed the heart of any prophet, apostle, or philosopher, that ever existed. And indeed I could neither have lived or died in peace, having such important truths in my bosom unpublished.' -A tough fellow one that seemed to stand Much on a resolute carelessness, and had Which the mysterious call Philosophy. He stood alone, he said, unconnected with any party, and considered as a lunatic, except by a thinking few. Even the professed friends of liberty kept aloof from him, and would rather, if they could consistently, join in the suppression than the support of his opinions. He pleaded his own cause, being too poor to retain either attorney or counsel. And when he was brought up to judgment, the simple statement which he gave of his treatment in Newgate, ought to have produced some reform in the scandalous state of our prisons. 6 Perhaps, my lords,' said he, I have entertained too high an opinion of Human Nature, for I do not find mankind very grateful clients. I have very small encouragement indeed to rush into a prison, on various accounts. For, in the first place, the people without treat me with the contempt due to a lunatic; and the people within treat me as bad, or worse, than the most notorious felon among them. And what with redeeming and ransoming my toes from being pulled off with a string while in bed, and paying heavy and manifold fees, there is no getting through the various impositions.' But he excused the Keeper of Newgate, saying these things. were unknown to him, because it was dangerous to complain; 'for nobody could conceive what dreadful work went on among such ruffians, but those who have had the misfortune to be locked up with them. It is fortunate that this man was not a religious as well as a political enthusiast. He was poor and despised, but not despicable; for he was sincere, stoical, persevering, single-minded, and self-approved; with means less powerful, doctrines less alluring, in far less favourable times, and under circumstances equally or more discouraging, Francis of Assissi and Loyola succeeded in establishing those orders which have borne so great a part in the history, not only of the Romish Church, but of the world. No doctrine could be more directly subversive of the peace and welfare of society, than those which he was disseminating in the way which was most dangerous. The appropriate punishment (for they who can be blind to the danger, and who assert that such doctrines should be suffered to circulate unrestrained, are fitter inhabitants for Anticyra than for England) would have been transportation; at once doing justice to the community by preventing a repetition of the offence, and dealing mercifully with the offender by removing him to a country where he would be inoffensive, if not useful. He was sentenced to a fine of twenty pounds, and one year's imprisonment at Shrewsbury; a sentence so lenient as to show that Lord Kenyon very properly regarded the individual with pity the mildness of the sentence is honourable to the judge-its inadequacy is not so to the laws. Having suffered it, he became an itinerant vender of books and *pamphlets, chiefly his own works, and which he carried about in a vehicle constructed for the purpose, and he supported himself, whilst all his leisure was devoted to the promotion of his plan, till his death, which happened about two years ago. Thus it appears that for more than twelve years after the termination of his confinement, he was constantly employed in sowing the dragon's teeth! The harvest is now beginning to appear. Let us hear the evidence of the Monthly Magazine upon this subject. This Journal asserts, that the late rioters were actuated by their convictions in favour of a plan published by one Spence, for the more equal occupation of land; to introduce which plan societies seem to have been formed throughout the metropolis." It also claims for itself the merit of advancing the same principles as those of the Scalping Philanthropist : for these are its words: Much curiosity being excited in regard to the Spencean Plan of Public Economy, it will be useful to state, that the details of the system may be found in a small pamphlet called Christian Policy, by Thomas Evans, Librarian to the Society of Spencean Philanthropists, at No. 8, Newcastle-street, Strand. Mr. Evans appears to have been most cruelly used by the Pitt administration: and having been drilled into the science of politics in the school of persecution, his pamphlet is written with considerable energy. We collect from it that the main object of the Society is a more equal occupation (not proprietorship) of * The second edition of his Trial (now before us) was one of these pamphlet: it contains the whole of the work for which he was prosecuted. land. A principle which has often been urged in the pages of this Magazine. Something must be radically wrong, if industry should suffer from want in a country in which there are but two and a halt million of families to forty-two millions of acres of cultivated land, affording, under a wise policy, the produce of seventeen acres to every family, or four times as much as it could consume. Skilful labour in any branch of useful industry ought therefore to yield abundance, even though the proprietary in land should remain exactly as it does at present.' Thus far the Magazine of Sir Richard Phillips, Knight and ExSheriff, Bonapartist, Lamenter for the Battle of Waterloo, Chiefmourner for Marshal Ney, Member of the Society for Abolishing War, Pythagorean and Spencean Philanthropist. There is however another person to be examined in this cause→→ Thomas Evans, the librarian, himself. And here, the first thing which appears is, that Mr. Evans, instead of having been drilled into the science of politics in the school of persecution, as the Pythagorean Journal asserts, was in reality sent to that school in consequence of being too forward as a volunteer in the said science; Mr. Evans telling us that he was arrested during the suspension of the Habeas Corpus, as being at that time Secretary of the London Corresponding Society, and having given in his present pamphlet good reason for concluding that he was not arrested without good cause. Though this librarian has affixed the title of Christian Policy to his book, he makes no other pretension to the character of Christian himself than as a Spencean philanthropist, and informs us, that this man, Christ, was a Roman slave, crucified as a slave (the mode of execution peculiar to Roman slaves) for preaching the seditious doctrine that God was the proprietor of the earth, and not the Romans; that all men were equal in his sight, and consequently ought not to be slaves to another, nor to the Romans, for which he was crucified by the Romans.' Mr. Evans is equally well read in history and in the Gospel! This is quite enough of his religion; let us look now at his political information. France, he says, at the beginning of the Revolution, supplicated peace upon bended knees, and would have conformed to just and reasonable restraints:-the authority for this important fact must be in the Spencean library, for it certainly exists no where else. England, however, went to war, and in the course of the war discovered that the export of grain was the most lucrative branch of trade. This produced the blockading system, and the orders in council; and this monopoly having been lost, all the means of greatness on which the empire depended are passed away as it were in a moment, never to return. Such has been the effect of the impolicy of putting down Napoleon to elevate Alexander. The connexion of this reasoning is as clear as the facts themselves are original. Napoleon was a mere pigmy to Alexander; his boasting served to talk about, but he could have been managed and guarded against. Alexander is a still steady man of business, laying firm hold of all he can get and relinquishing nothing.-We are at present under the influence of the Vienna Congress of Kings. The annihilation of the Irish parliament, and the establishment of a military government, have obliged the Irish people to exist almost entirely upon potatoes (potatoes, of course, not having been known in that country before the Union.) Here, in England, we are even worse, expiring, writhing and agonizing at every pore under the torturing domination of the Pagan flesh-mongers of the Continent. Courts, and kings, and lords, and landlords, and priests, are all pagans: they adhere with pertinacity to Paganism at this time; for you find in their dwellings, the pictures, the statues, the busts of their Jupiters, Junos, Apollos, Dianas, Ve-, nuses,' &c. &c. Such is the pamphlet which Sir Pythagoras recommends as being written with considerable energy; and such the science of politics into which Mr. Evans has been drilled. Let us proceed to its practical part. Landlords, and landlords only, are the oppressors of the people.The time is come that something must be done; then let that something be effectual; remember that had the French people established a partnership in the land, no imperial tyranny ever could have raised its head in that country, nor could the present Pagan restoration have taken place. Now is the time to cancel Doomsday-book, and establish a partnership in the land; there is no other means to prevent the establishment of a military despotism, or all the horrors of a bloody revolution. Great as this undertaking is, it can be easily effected. The easy process is to declare that the territory of these realms shall be the people's farm; thus transferring all the lands, waters, mines, houses, and all feudal permanent property to the people. This will injure no one, and benefit all,-the alteration which is proposed being only that all persons possessed of houses or lands shall in future pay rent for them instead of receiving it. The government is to remain as it is; pensions to be allotted to the King, Princes, and Nobles, Clergy, and House of Commons, and the remaining balance of the whole rent-roll to be divided among the whole people,-to every man, woman, and child, being the profit of their natural estate, without tax, toll, or custom; which would be near four pounds a-head annually!' The great barons, it is admitted, may object to this; but they must submit quietly: and all ranks and conditions are called upon to form affiliated societies to bring into effect this revolution of the Spencean or Scalping Philanthropists. There is, indeed, as Sir Pythagoras observes, considerable energy in these proposals. Let not this be despised and overlooked for its extravagance.* The reader will have observed, that king, lords, and commons, are tolerated in the librarian's scheme, whereas, according to the original system, the Spensonian Republic is one and indivisible,' a trifling concession to existing prejudices; or, more probably, to existing laws. The Ultra Whigs and Extra-Reformers disclaim the Spenceans, and with perfect sincerity. These levellers are not to be confounded with the factious crew who clamour they know not why, for they know not what, and huzza any blockhead with a brazen face and a bell-metal voice, who will talk nonsense to them by the hour. The Spenceans are far more respectable than these, for they have a distinct and intelligible system; they know what they aim at and honestly declare it. Neither is the Agrarian system so foolish, or so devoid of attraction, that it may safely be despised. It has found a miserable advocate in the quondam Secretary of the Corresponding Society; under such auspices the levellers have organized themselves into regular sections; they are increasing in numbers, and they are zealously spreading their opinions. But if the system were taken up by some stronger hand, (whether an enthusiast should embrace it, or some profligate journalist think it a profession to thrive by,) compared to all other weapons of discontent, it would be found as Thor's mallet to a child's pop-gun. If the English Revolution were once commenced it would go on to this point, before it reached its inevitable termination in an iron military tyranny. Let the Ultra Whigs make the breach, and the Spenceans will level the wall: what the shavers begin the scalpers will finish but Samson is neither shorn nor blinded, and the Philistines have given him fair warning. We have now examined the grounds upon which some weak men, some mistaken or insane ones, and other very wicked ones, are endeavouring to excite rebellion. We have shown that it was not in the power of the British Government to avoid the war in the first instance, or at any time to conclude it. It was a war undertaken not for ambition, not for the lust of conquest, not, as is lyingly asserted, for the interests of a particular family, but from a cause of just fear, as Bacon describes it,' that justus metus qui cadit in constantem senatum in causâ publicâ : not out of umbrages, light jealousies, apprehensions afar off, but out of clear foresight of imminent danger. And as long as reason is reason, a just fear will be a just cause of a preventive war.' The last edition of the Spencean hand-bill says, Read! Christian Policy, the Salvation of the Empire.' Price 1s. 6d. Pubfished by T. Evans, 8, Newcastle-street, Strand, and sold by all Booksellers. |