South is not every word of it true. I know it is true, and I know that, for the most part, it has grown out of the subjects that this truly enlightened Doctor of Divinity lacks understanding and decision upon. I can believe the latter, but, say what he will, I never can believe the former. And well might the slave-holders retort upon him, and show that their negro slavery, heinous as it is, ought to give way, and to suffer the subject which the Doctor cannot understand to be placed first on the catalogue of human woes.

I am, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Your obedient Servant,

THOMAS BROTHERS.

TO THE CHARTISTS ON UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE, ELECTION BY BALLOT,

MY FRIENDS,

Southam, Warwickshire, Aug. 9, 1839.

SINCE I arrived in my native country I have heard a great deal of your proceedings. Many are the motives attributed to you as a party; but the ostensible motive, it seems, is to obtain a charter, securing to you universal suffrage, vote by ballot, annual parliaments, and no property qualification for members.

You desire these things because you believe they would secure to you more happiness that, under such a charter, you would soon be free from national debts, taxation, poverty, and all kinds of oppression. I cannot blame you for believing this, because, until within these few years, this was my belief; and I, conscientiously, did all I could to obtain these things: but, seeing no prospect of success, I resolved to try a country, the government of which was, as I was told, as free from imperfection as human ingenuity could make it.

Nicholas Biddle, the great American banker, says, in his eulogium on Thomas Jefferson, that the government I am speaking of was the deliberate achievement of the proudest spirits of the age; who, in the eyes of the world, and at their own imminent hazard, built up the loftiest temple of free government ever reared among men. I have tried that lofty temple of free government, and I now openly declare to you and to all the world, that I believe there to be in the United States of America more public debts, when all are fairly summed up, more taxation, poverty, and general oppression, than ever was known in any other country. This, my countrymen, I am aware is what you did not expect to hear, but it is what you ought to hear and pay attention to, because you never can redress your grievances, whatever they may be, while you mistake the cause of them. And that you have, long since, been on the wrong scent is certain, for, eight or ten years back, you said, "Give us the Reform Bill and we will be satisfied." The bill was given to you, but it did not produce the golden fruit that you had been taught to expect. Indeed, it produced nothing but mischief, and made your situations worse than they were before. The reformed parliament presented to you a new poor-law," and a whole string of laws calculated to demoralise the country; and this is all acknowledged by yourselves. According to your own showing, your condition gets worse and worse. You and I were of opinion that if we could but send a fair

number of members to parliament for populous places-do away with Old Sarum, and such like-then all would be well. The Birmingham people, for instance, said, if they could get their town incorporated, have a mayor, a heap of councilmen, and I know not what besides, all of their own choosing, then nothing could be wrong. And, particularly, if they could so far succeed as to return to the "reformed parliament" their townsmen-Mr. Attwood and Mr. Scholefield-men who were so very pure as to want no refining; and when some thoughtless, indiscreet voter talked of pledging them, according to previous arrangements, Mr. Attwood retorted, and asked them if they thought it was necessary to refine pure gold. Well, nothing, surely, could work so favourably; all these things were accomplished; all was had that was asked for. At "the Grand Meeting of the Political Union at Newhall-hill, in 1832," George Edmonds called you "to do the glorious work of all;" and Mr. Attwood remarked that " if that bill (the Reform Bill) did not pass into a law, he would rather die than live. He desired to see a time when the labourer would be courted for his industry; when, if one master refused, two would be ready to give employ; when not only bread but plenty would be given in exchange for labour. He did not contend for mock liberty, but real substantial blessings for his countrymen."

That this Bill was passed, in all respects, to his satisfaction, and to the satisfaction of the Union, is evident; because they, at that meeting, solemnly pledged themselves "never to cease to labour in the great work of exciting the public mind to political objects, until the Bill of reform should have become a law." This took place, and, agreeably to promise, the Union ceased to excite, and finally dissolved; and you, who then were the " Unionists," are now become the " Chartists," and are making all this clamour because your own acts and deeds work in such a contrary way to what you then expected.

My friends, rely upon it, if you were to succeed to-morrow in getting all that you ask for now, you would, in a short time, have more cause to repent than you have ever yet had for any public acts and deeds that you have ever done in your lives.

You ask for universal suffrage at twenty-one years of age. What is that to do for you? You find every day that you who have votes are made the prey of office-hunters; that you are persuaded this is the right way to-day, and that to-morrow. Mr. Attwood, in this very week's newspapers, addresses a letter to you in which he says, "that twelve hundred thousand of his countrymen had adopted his views; that it had taken him twenty-five years of incessant labour to effect this; that now he finds the delegation of this mighty host has joined the ranks of his enemies." This incessant labour is therefore thrown away; and this,

he tells us, is more than he can patiently endure. The fact is, it is impossible for you-at least that part of you whose time is necessarily occupied in earning for your families their daily bread to be able to guard against the schemes that are now got up to deceive you; and what will it be if there should be universal suffrage, to engender the shoals of demagogues who must and would live by cheating and deceiving you? They would (and in spite of all you could do) make you ask for the very things that you ought to oppose; and, perhaps, the very things that you thought you were opposing. Out of every workshop where ten men were employed, there would be, I doubt not, on an average, at least four that would be cunning enough to drop their tools and henceforward live by politics, making the other six keep them in idleness, in addition to all the idlers that have already to be kept. You are told, among other strange things, that if you had all votes, you would be independent-" real sovereigns ;" or, in other words, that Jack would be as good as his master. And yet, in the very same breath, they tell you to ask next for vote by ballot. Why, in this happy and independent state, be afraid to let each other know what you are about? If, after all these good things are obtained, it is expected that your situations are to be such that it is necessary for you to sneak to the ballot-box and tremblingly drop in your vote, in secret, lest your taskmaster should know what you have done-if this anticipation of your instructors be realized, I think your condition will bear more resemblance to that of slaves than it has ever done heretofore.

We have next annual parliaments; now, what is that to do for you, other than to harass your very souls out? You will be dinned to death by all the scoundrels in the country. As soon as they know you have votes they will be after you for ever; for, when they have fooled you once it will be time to begin again; and if you discover in time the villany of one, in avoiding him you will fall into the arms of another -just the same as a man does who is hustled by pickpockets. They will tell you as many flattering tales as a simpering bawd would: their motive, like hers, would be to plunder you to the utmost extent.

And this brings to my recollection a fellow, who, four or five years back, belonged to the "Trades' Union" of Philadelphia: he was a journeyman shoemaker, but too idle a one to stick to the last, and being an elegant spouter," he turned his attention to politics, and wheedled himself into the good graces of the Trades' Unionists, who, by what he . said to them, it seems, had just discovered that they were, and always had been, the most ignorant of men; but henceforward they were determined to be the most enlightened, and that they would be repre sented as such by one of their own body in the next legislative assembly. This man, or boy, for he was scarcely grown up, and had not an idea

becoming a man except what he borrowed or stole from others, was fixed upon to be the honourable member. A deputation accordingly invited him, by way of giving him an opportunity to display his oratory, to deliver an "Oration" on the anniversary of their independence. From that" Oration" I take the following extracts :

"To point out," said the shoemaker," the wily schemes and plots of fortune-hunting adventurers, the endless variety of ways resorted to by our oppressors to rob us of our natural and inalienable rights; to show how wonderfully we have escaped entire submission to the will of the heartless aristocrats; and then to paint in glowing colours the bright prospects we have, through the medium of these powerful enginesTrades' Unions-of a happy and glorious emancipation from the thraldom of accumulated wealth-are subjects so comprehensive and full of interest, that the brightest ornament of the age might employ the full power of his eloquence upon them, and add a new leaf to the chaplet which adorns his brow.

"The history of the world is but a history of the wrongs practised by privileged wealth upon oppressed poverty. Even in this country-this boasted land of liberty-has the omnipotence of wealth blasted the natural equality of man, and rendered the condition of the labourer little better than that of slave.

"Go back to the first organization of our government, and you will find the poor man there subjected to the subtlety, duplicity, and fraud of the capitalist. You will find that the desire to be rich and powerful was greater than the desire to be free and happy, and that nearly every patriotic and noble feeling was sacrificed on the altar of avarice.

"Scarcely had our independence been achieved, when a feverish anxiety manifested itself among many of the distinguished men of the day for wealth and titles; and the means resorted to to acquire wealth would have put even a Shylock to the blush.

"The war-worn soldier, returning once more to his happy home, rejoicing that his exertions had contributed to the emancipation of his country, little dreaming that the pittance he had earned by marching and fighting through flood and fire, and which in the honesty of his heart he thought would be a solace to his declining years, would soon be wrested from him by the iron hand of avarice,-he is a true patriot, and he flatters himself that all others are like him.

"For years of toil and blood he received a warrant for a small portion of the immense territory he had helped to free, and, being ignorant of its value, he sells it to those who know its value well. He is paid for it, it is true, but how? in gold or silver? No, no, in continental money-in paper trash! The poor man was obliged to part with a pound note for a shilling's worth of something to eat.