Poor "hero of a hundred fights!" Sad bond woman of pain and scorn! I drank a traitor's breath."— Oh, Freedom! is this Land of Wrong A dwelling-place for thee? Christ! rise again from the rich man's grave, To heal this blasphemy! Spartacus. THE SPHERE OF WOMAN. THE truth is, that while there is much said about "the sphere of woman," two widely different notions are entertained of what is meant by the phrase. The narrow, and, to the ruling party, the more convenient notion, is that sphere appointed by men, and bounded by their ideas of propriety ;-a notion from which any and every woman may fairly dissent. The broad and true conception is of the sphere appointed by God, and bounded by the powers which he has bestowed. This commands the assent of man and woman; and only the question of powers remains to be proved. That woman has power to represent her own interests, no one can deny till she has been tried. The modes need not be discussed here: they must vary with circumstances. The fearful and absurd images which are perpetually called up to perplex the question,-images of women on wool-sacks in England, and under canopies in America, have nothing to do with the matter. The principle being once established, the methods will follow, easily, naturally, and under a remarkable transmutation of the ludicrous into the sublime. The kings of Europe would have laughed mightily, two centuries ago, at the idea of a commoner, without robes, crown, or sceptre, stepping into the throne of a strong nation. Yet who dared to laugh when Washington's super-royal voice greeted the new world from the presidential chair, and the old world stood still to catch the echo? The principle of the equal rights of both halves of the human race is all we have to do with here. It is the true democratic principle which can never be seriously controverted, and only for a short time evaded. Governments can derive their just powers only from the consent of the governed. Harriet Martineau. A Commonwealth.-Neither by Reason, nor by experience, is it impossible that a Commonwealth should be immortal; seeing the people, being the materials, never die; and the form, which is motion, must, without opposition, be endless. The bowl which is thrown from your hand, if there be no rub, no impediment, shall never cease; for which cause the glorious luminaries, that are the bowls of God, were once thrown for ever. Harrington's Oceana. The grand contention's plainly to be scen, Daniel Defoe. REVELATIONS OF TRUTH. CHAP XVII. MOURN ye! for the bolt hath fallen; o'er man's self-devoted head bursts the dread thunderstorm; the vial of wrath is poured out; the cup of bitterness is filled to the brim: Children of the dust, vile clay-spawned reptiles clinging to corruption that bowl is filled for you. Drink ye of it, quaff ye to the very dregs thereof: pledge me, to the Hell on earth! Weep and lament! the measure of your iniquity is full. Did ye not sow the seeds of vice and misery? Behold the grain is full and heavy : Arise, and gather in your harvest! Gird ye yourselves with sackloth; strew ashes upon your heads! ye are married to Destruction; ye have chosen Sorrow to be your companion: ye have sworn; shall it not be fulfilled? Mourn! for the din of labour hath ceased, and the workman's hand forgets its cunning; the spider builds securely in the idle loom, the ploughshare lieth frozen in the furrow; Industry sueth for employment-there is none: his heart sickens; with clasped hands and tear-suffused eyes, he flingeth himself at the footstool of Luxury-Give me bread !-the pampered slave spurneth back the unwelcome suppliant; the hand of Power gripes the throat of the dying one, and hurleth him to the bottom of a dungeon. There is no crime like poverty. Mourn! for the husband and father is torn from his family, the son from his widowed mother, the brother from his sister, the lover from his betrothed bride they must leave them destitute and friendless; they must leave them to perish in want, or to pine in misery and sorrow-and for what? To murder their fellow-men, or with their own blood to manure the field of slaughter; to dishonour and insult the Eternal Spirit of Peace, at the bidding of-a king. The fate of the nations is weighed; the balance is in the hand of an idiot: in the one scale lie the hopes and happiness of a vast empire; the idiot flingeth his folly into the opposing scale, and the destinies of millions kick the beam. Mourn! for the blood of man is poured upon the altar of God: human flesh is seething in the cauldron; the priest thrusts in the fleshhook and seizes his portion of the sacrifice ;-whose shall be the remainder? It is a burnt-offering for the God of Love. Human bones are heaped before the gates of the sanctuary; on the summit of the pile three seats are placed: who are they who sit thereon? Know ye not the dark shade of Ignorance, with sightless eyeballs, and hands tied behind his back, his feet resting upon a massive book bound with strong iron clasps? Know ye not his children, worthy helpmates of their sire? Superstitionpalsied and trembling at his own words, for ever coining new phantasies, conjuring up fresh phantoms to rack his soul with terror! Intolerancewrapped with a mantle steeped in gore, a firebrand in his fleshless hand; ever and anon he waveth it over the lands, and its flame is never quenched. Priestcraft and Tyranny have joined hands: Smite the oppressors to the earth! Robbery sitteth in the high places; murder hath usurped the throne of honour. Wisdom crieth in the streets; but her voice is drowned in the jests of the trifler, in the scurrility of the fool. There is a byword in the mouth of man, a term of derision and reproach, a stumbling-stone and rock of offence: that word is TRUTH. + Arms. Skill in the use of arms should be made an essential and indispensable part of the education of youth.-Sir W. Jones. CRITICAL NOTICES. Six Lectures, and an Address. chester: 1837. By Robert Owen. A. Heywood, Man These six lectures, published at a very cheap rate, contain a clear development of the philosophic views of the Man of the Age, the great and good Robert Owen. Let no man call himself a reformer, let no man pretend to possess sympathy for care-worn and sorrow-trampled humanity, who refuses his attention to these out-pourings from the prophetic spirit of the most Christlike of living men. The lectures are intended to prove, "that the principles on which society has been based and the character of man formed, are erroneous; that these erroneous principles necessarily force a system of continued deception on the human race, a system which compels all men by their education to become irrational in their thoughts and conduct, and thus always to mistake each other's nature and character; that, in consequence of these errors, sin and misery abound, love and charity are restricted within the smallest circle; the happiness of high and low, rich and poor, is extremely limited, uncertain, and inferior. That man is therefore made, throughout all the regions of the earth, an inferior, inconsistent animal. In consequence of these universal errors, an artificial arrangement of society has been formed to force their continuance by the most ingenious contrivances that man, in this early state of his knowledge, could devise. To maintain these errors, a classification of society has gradually arisen, which, for many thousand years, has served to perpetuate them. These errors become more and more absurd and complex in proportion as experience develops facts in opposition to them. But," continues the philanthropist, "experience, the sole source of human knowledge, has, at length, in the due course of nature, developed a sufficient number of facts to expose these errors of our inexperienced ancestors. "The customs and manners of all people have been founded upon the same supposition respecting the power of individuals to believe or disbelieve—to feel or not to feel, by a free choice of their own, and not as they are compelled to do by the unchanging laws of their nature. In fact, we have only to enter, without prejudice, upon the examination, to discover that, even at this day, all languages, religions, governments, laws, customs and manners are based on this supposition; that all the public and private institutions, of the present time, have the same foundation, and that the whole of the existing system of society, over the world, emanates from it, and rests solely upon it. "This supposition, of qualities existing in human nature which do not form any part of it, has deranged the human character and all human affairs. "It deranges the intellects of the human race, creating disunion of mind and feeling, until affection and charity, for those who differ in faith or feeling, are lost to the world. "It has introduced anger, hatred, jealousy, envy, strife, murder, wars and massacres. It maintains ignorance, is the cause of poverty and the fear of it; and it is, now, the sole cause of all the wickedness and misery experienced by the human race. "It has introduced the present classification of society, dividing the family of man into castes of separate and opposing minds and interests, forming the educated and uneducated, rich and poor, the oppressor and the oppressed; creating lasting misery to each division, by making them open or covert enemies to each other. "It has introduced falsehood and established deception throughout the world; thus destroying confidence between man and man, and nation and nation, isolating the minds and feelings of each from the other, to the incalculable injury of all. "It has degraded into a small, inferior and irrational fraction of humanity, each individual of the species." The Lecturer thus states some of the consequences of embracing a rational system of society : 66 Large cities will be gradually abandoned; their population will be drawn off to occupy the far superior family residences in the country, each of which will ensure to their occupiers, greater advantages than city, town, or country residence now possesses or can possess, under any of the arrangements which can proceed from man while his mind contains only a confused, incongruous and opposing association of ideas, formed on the erroneous supposition that he is a free agent, in his thoughts, feelings, and actions. As this knowledge of human nature advances, private property will cease to be valued. It will be discovered, by all, to be, what it long has been, the demon God of the free agency system, worshipped by all, and to whose imagined power, health, peace of mind, and life itself, are daily sacrificed upon an appalling scale of magnitude. "There must be a oneness in all human affairs, as there is in the solar system; each separate part must be complete in itself, and yet it must form a part of a complete whole. "Hitherto society has been a chaos; it is so at this hour; is without form, order, or system, and is in mental darkness. All classes, sects and parties over the world, are blindly contending against each other, for they know not what; which contests produce among them only insanity and misery. "There is a little band, insignificant in numbers-by the world hitherto despised :-but, they have shielded themselves with divine armour; have cast all worldly consequences far away; lovers and worshippers of Truth, they have no fear of man, or of what man can do against them. Already have they practised with this divine weapon, and are familiar with its use. They have firmly grasped it. They have gone forth. They have entered upon the conflict, and they return not, until ignorance, falsehood, superstition, sin and misery, shall be banished from the abodes of the human race and peace and charity, reason, truth and justice, love and happiness shall reign triumphant, and for ever, over the whole family of man; and slavery, and servitude, and oppression, or evil of any kind among the sons of men, shall be known no more!" After these extracts, need we add one word of recommendation, to stimulate the attention of the least ardent desirer of human improvement, of universal happiness? Course of Popular Lectures; with three Addresses, &c. By Frances Wright. Watson, London. Frances Wright (Durasmont) is, we believe, of Scotch extraction, of a good family; and inherited considerable property. In early life she became acquainted with Owen, and learned to appreciate his doctrines. She went to America, and bought an estate at Nashville, in Kentucky, in hopes of forming a community on Owen's principles. Disappointed in this, she sold the estate, having freed the slaves upon it; and joined Robert Dale Owen in the Free Enquirer, formerly the New Harmony Gazette. The Lectures before us, were delivered in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, &c., in the years 1828-9; and created an immense sensation. Of them we will only say, that they are fraught with all that devoted love which, alas! is so little manifest except in woman; that the argument is clear and convincing; the style eloquent, and the tone manly, in the best sense of the word. The work is also valuable as evidence of the power of a female mind. We especially recommend it to the unprejudiced consideration of all those males, who yet, on the score of intellect, claim a superiority over their more moral sisters, enforcing such superiority by the argument of brutality-muscular power. The subjects of the Lectures are manifold:-On the Nature of Knowledge-Of Free Inquiry-Religion-Morals-Opinions-On existing evils and their remedyReply to the traducers of the French Reformers of the year 1789-On the state of the public mind and the measures which it calls for-&c. &c. Frances Wright (now Madame Durasmont) is again lecturing in New York, and attracting crowds of listeners-we trust, of disciples. Few are the men possessing either the intellectual power or the moral courage of this nobleminded and devoted woman. NOTES OF THE MONTH. THE good deeds of the worst government should be recorded. Let it be borne in mind, that the murderers of their Canadian fellow-subjects, have been the successful mediators between France and Mexico. They had time for this stretch of their benevolence, for at home there is no occasion for mediation. An army of spies and obsequious tools for the dirty work of tyranny is calculated to do more for the peace of an outraged and insulted people, than any adjustment of differences. So we are to have a Rural Police for seven counties, to begin with. The privileges of the wealthy City are to be respected: the rights of the pauper country may be trampled under foot. If Manchester, or any other place, should be unruly, the Whig Police of 1839 may be found as loyal as the Tory yeomanry of 1819. Surely the countrymen of Hampden will not object to a British Coercion Bill? A Bill to amend the present laws (not thought sufficiently stringent) for the suppression of "seditious" meetings, IS NOW QUIETLY PASSING through the lowest House of Legislators. In a few days, for honest men to assemble in their native land to discuss their dearest interests, will be an offence against the law.— The game of despotism is kept alive. The Canadian Constitution was suspended by the Reform Ministry. The Constitution of Jamaica is to be the next forfeiture, by their command. It is feared that the "emancipated" Blacks may too soon derive some benefit from their freedom. (St. Domingo changed its name to Hayti: even the name of Jamaica may become obsolete.) What next will the same ministerial Liberals suspend? The British Constitution? It is not to be thought of. They may, perhaps, only suspend the tolerable portions of it. Trial by jury may be meddled with; and habeas corpus become martial law. Surely, under such circumstances, Englishmen would not rebel, as the Canadians did. Surely the hangmen would not be suspended? Surely not. Who thinks them worth a rope's end? What are they doing in France? All as usual-licking the feet of the Citizen-Despot, the most politic of tyrants, the Iscariot-king of the French. Carrel's spirit has departed. April 27, 1839. We have too long Obey'd their orders, bow'd to their caprices- Fought for them, conquer'd for them, bled for them, Still to be trampled on, and still despised! Shall we sit tamely down beneath these evils? The mighty multitude shall trample down Robert Southey. |