a local peculiarity of the food, was technically known as a meal mob ;) often in the pressure of a local tax, (as was the case in the brief Neapolitan mutiny under Masaniello the fisherman ;) often in the hatred to foreign rulers, (which popular feeling co-oper ated with the tax in the case last mentioned ;) often in just and courageous adherence to ancient laws or privileges wrongfully and abruptly annulled, (as in the very interesting in surrection of the Commons in Castile during the first absence in Germany of the Emperor Charles V.;) but almost uniformly with the excuse of some deep provocation, in long previous oppression by an irresponsible noblesse, or in usurpation by the crown. At present there may have been oppressions: there may be that excuse for our rioters: we fear there is: these grievances, for instance, were recently alleged, (meeting at the Crown Inn, Bolton.) Supposing them true, afterwards will come the question-Who was the oppressor, and who is marked out for the victim? The corn-league masters are the oppressors, the nation is marked for the victim. These are grievances : "Reduction of our wages; unjust and unreasonable abatements; forcing upon us unhealthy and disagreeable houses; charging exorbitant rents; meanly and avariciously employing apprentices to supersede the regular journeymen ; curtailing wages by not paying up to the list almost unanimously agreed to; thus proving their (the masters') un. principled meanness and trickery. Sticking to this memorial of wrong, proving it, and not, arrogantly beyond all known arrogance, intermeddling with fundamental politics, the working people of Lancashire would have carried along with them the sympathies of all England. "But all have not intermeddled with politics: some have even disclaimed politics by printed bills." We must not too much rely upon that. It is the disease, and oftentime the providential euthanasy of such mobs congregated for riot, that they fall into anarchy; and therefore, if we receive it as a fair condition for pronouncing judgment upon them, that first of all they must be of one mind, that is a condition which never will be realized: with a sufficient motive, as, for instance, with any anxiety for the public judgment on themselves, artificially

:

they could organize such a schism, in preparation beforehand of the plea that all had not agreed to the general counsels, whilst taking good care that no practical loss of strength should thus accrue to their faction. But as to these mobs-they traffic not in excuses; they regard not any pleas in justification; they are reckless of the public judgment. Their present offence, its head and front, is—that they defy and make war upon the public beyond the ring-fence of their own labouring order; their audacity (many times we have reason to repeat, an audacity absolutely without precedent) goes to this length—that they, the men without property, do not demand to be placed on the level of those who have property; do not ask for equal political rights; do not ask for one moiety of the legislating authority no! this contents them not; they will not even be satisfied with the larger share of the lawmaking power. No, no: their war-cry is "We that have hitherto had none, intend now to have all. We will not take a part of the public power in this vast empire; we will not take the larger part; but we, the weavers, tailors, cobblers, and cotton-spinners, insist on having the whole. And not, mark you, as any concession or indulgence, but as our right—too long kept from us by violence." For as to the pretence that they allow the men of property to vote, that is the merest fraud, that could never blind any man of reflection. The suffrages of property would be so utterly swamped and engulfed by those of the no-property men, that to struggle at all would be the mere farce of a consciously-impotent protest. Out of nineteen million heads in this island, not three hundred thousand are connected with property sufficient to ensure the conservative instincts and sympathies of properties. This is a subject which at some future opening we design to treat, upon some former experimental enquiries of our own in that direction; we doubted then how far the possession of a comfortable property would act upon the politics of an individual, whether by associating him to the interests of the aristocracy, or by associating him in feeling and habits to the wishes of the democracy. That point we settled satisfactorily, but not to our satisfaction; and the result we shall attempt to

give at a future day. For the present, we content ourselves with throwing the considerate reader upon the simple relation in point of numbers between the property and the no-property classes. Were the first even a million, then the other would be eighteen millions for England and Scotland. Each class must have the same divisor for ascertaining the number of voters; consequently, the quotients will exhibit the very same relations. But besides the general question arising as to property so circumstanced (by quality or by amount) as to link the holders much more strongly by sympathy with the working class, than by interest with the aristocracy, there is another outstanding fact which tells powerfully against the chances of property in such a fearful struggle. Many of the master manufacturers, of really large and conspicuous properties, have shown themselves base enough to abjure the natural creed. and principles of their own order. Some, as mere traitors to principle, in gratification of their own vanity, and as a solitary means of gaining a distinction, have professed themselves Chartists: more, perhaps, have done this as pure simpletons, accustomed to view every thing printed in a book as somehow imaginary and never meant to be realized. But there are cases before us more flagrant than this. There are men both in and out of the House, who, under the notion of a "capital row,' or a "famous lark," would cry,

"Go it!" to any possible insurrection; as amongst the Bucaniers, from mere monotony and tædium vitæ, during their long interspaces of dull inaction, some were always found ready to propose a plot for firing the powder magazine -never alleging any other reason than that thus they would ride to h-ll on such a glorious blaze." These, it may be hoped, are few : but the numbers of needy people, originally well-educated and well-connected, who have suffered, in the want of suitable employment, a total dissolution of principles not less than has been produced by decay of wages amongst the working orders, are now

very great. These people, as a body, are every where to be purchased; they are on sale for ever-they and their abilities for speaking or for writing. But, beside these, conspicuously in Parliament do we not behold members of large property who intrench themselves in Parliamentary privilege as a vile mode to escape the penalties of sedition-sometimes even of treason? And to what other class can we refer that gentleman, brother to a senator, who, in a published letter, addresses the Chartists as a fraternal co-operator, anxious for their prudence, simply because anxious for their final success? So that, upon the whole, we are far wide of the truth if we flatter ourselves, that even upon the aristocracy we are entitled to count in their whole nominal extent. Nay, as respects that last tower of strength and innermost citadel of the constitution-the House of Lords, we heard, on the authority of a venerable and emphatically Conservative peer, such a report of the horrid Radicalism which he himself heard bandied to and fro at the fireplace in the House, as fills us with awe for the approach of any great collision between the Conservative and destroying forces of this country.

So much it was necessary to say, in order to show the real value and purport of what is meant by the Lancashire rioters in threatening us with the "five points." Very many people have never cared to enquire into the nature of these points. Had the points been two, they might have listened to :-but five-all, of course, ab stract"rights of man"-that was too much for patience. Far less will be a considerate man's patience, when he does understand them; and when he sees that every one of the five has the sole object of "packing" a pauper and mob-dependent House of Commons, without opening for challenge on the part of property, and under summary orders to do the bidding (as they take the wages) of the sovereign people. This it was necessary to expose, in order to show the difference of this insurrection from all former insurrections, even when they have

been anti-social, like the Jacquerie. Almost universally, indeed, it may be said—that in other ages, where political insurrections have arisen, this irregularity has been due to the want of any natural organ in the political system for expressing the popular voice through a legitimate channel. With the rise of representative governments, all excuse ceases for appeals by direct insurrection. "But,' replies the Lancashire mob, "the House of Commons will not receive or discuss our petitions." "No!" we rejoin," and impossible you yourselves make it that they should. You say at intervals, Your honourable House,' and you call yourselves 'petitioners; but you describe the House as in act and deed the most infamous of confederacies, combined for purposes of oppression; swindlers, though still, by courtesy, all honourable men; and their enactments, for fifty years back, as one series of efforts to help themselves and their connexions, at any cost or sacrifice to what you de nominate the people. Such petitions you know in your hearts were never meant or shaped to be received; and you had insured beforehand that they never should be received. You hoped in your malice that thus you could gain a double advantage; you would have another self-created grievance to plead-that your petition had not been received; and you would have discharged upon the House, or upon as many. as had the curiosity to read it, all the insolence which malice could prompt."

This other point we might add, in which the present riots stand upon a different footing from former riots. Heretofore one district, that in which the supposed grievance spontaneously moved the rising, was the only one concerned. Frame-breakers went only through that district of machinery. The incendiary conspirators were more sporadic; but in that same proportion less gregarious. On this sole occasion, we have seen one county menacing in mass a movement upon another county; Lancashire upon Yorkshire; Staffordshire and Cheshire upon Lancashire; and so on, until, by a resolution passed last week, every county, it seems, is to be visited, at least by organizing delegates.

This brings us to the three capital points in the conduct on both sides (the motions and the counter-motions) attending these riots; 1st, The cir

cumstances under which the movement began; 2dly, The kind of opposition by which it was faced; 3dly, The main overt act by which it has been supported.

As to the first, we had collected (but omit from the pressure of time) a series from all the chief trading towns of England in the week of the explosion, and in the week next before the explosion, proclaiming as festal news, with one voice from every county, the certain revival of trade

bursting forth as genially as a Swedish vernal season-and also the sure prospect of a glorious harvest. Su much for the excuses urged on the ground of distress!

Secondly. To omit many other neglects, and apparently imbecile compliances with the mob, indignantly we ask, and in one voice will the whole respectability of the land-why was it allowed, that, according to notice previously given, the rioters should be suffered to move in masses from town to town? thus enabling them to assume a strength far beyond what they had, and to prepare excuses for timid magistrates by counterfeit dangers. But, when boroughreeves and chief magistrates are corn-leaguers, what else is to be looked for? The soldiers and county magistrates seem uniformly to have behaved with fidelity to their duty; the town magistrates too often with the imbecility of panic, or (sometimes we fear) of collusion.

Thirdly. We suggest to the Chartists this one consideration:-you, the Chartists, rose (you say) for rights; rose as oppressed men; rose on an impulse of natural justice, and with a corresponding motto, implying that, wanting only justice for yourselves, you would respect the rights of all other persons. Fair words! How have you observed them? Fine pro mises! How were they fulfilled? Let the answer to this be the warning for the rest of your system and its delusions. You began by robbing whole districts; plundering from bakers and sellers of other provisions; levying from casual passengers money, under bodily fear, on the Queen's high-road; every one of you, as a party to the mob, is an accomplice in felonies past counting; all of you that cannot prove personal absence is a debtor, if challenged by any of your plundered vic tims, to the penalty of transportation -some for fifteen years, some for life

you and the corn-leaguers next proceeded to arson; from that to murder, many times attempted. But these felonies, you will say, were committed upon those whom you viewed as ene. mies. How, then, did you treat your friends? Fellow chartists and leaguers, fellow spinners and weavers, you assaulted drove violently from workordered them instantly to plunge their families into destitution; and in the event of their returning without leave, you sent messages to them by express delegates, that you would cudgel them soundly.

Behold the children of liberty-behold the insurgents for the reign of justice! And, if the Chartists reply, "Oh! but we were coerced, we could not act with freedom." Exactly so, we reply; nobody knows at present which felony, out of any particular dozen, was committed by a Chartist, and which by a Corn-Leaguer. Each will state the proportions as nine and three, nine for the other party, three for his own. But is not this the general moral of all such cases? What has now happened will always happen. Always there will be an anarchy; responsibility will cease; and that is made the very excuse, which is the last aggravation of guilt to the offending leaders.

There are other features in these fearful manifestations of anti-social power, which at another time will call for exemplary notice and inquisition, both by the press and by the government. In particular, we observe with horror the aid given and often volunteered by numerous private families. The Times, we see, mentions as a special case, that of Haigh Hall, a seat of Lord Balcarras, near Wigan, In this instance we suspend our opinion, because there is a standing presumption in excuse for every lonely house, such as a nobleman's mansion is pretty sure to be, that any act of the sort is extorted by reasonable terror. A small establishment may happen to be in residence at a very great house; and even in a great establishment, such as may be looked for at Trentham, (the Duke of Sutherland's,) which is at the other extreme of the insurgent district, but a small part is likely to be armed; and a still smaller fitted for a service of danger peculiarly terrific mobs, and especially under any wild persuasion that they are exacting "vengeance," being no

toriously under no self-restraint, and capable of savage cruelties unknown amongst men trained to honourable warfare. Generally, it ought not to be expected of those to whose custody are consigned great libraries or galleries of art, that they should risk such priceless property on a very doubtful contest, when by a small bribe they can purchase immunity from hazard, When a network of defence is once thrown over the whole district, it becomes the duty of each private mansion to co-operate, at some risk, with the public system; after that, it would be weakening the hands of the executive power to collude with the robbers by any private treaty : but until the public system of defence is brought into a state of maturity for measuring itself at all points against the insurgent power, each solitary house is remitted to its own discretion for making the best terms it can with an overwhelming superiority of force. No such excuse, however, applies to the case of large towns, who are always, by their professional police, or by a police speedily created for the occasion, presumably equal to the task of maintaining the avenues to their own streets against vagabond intruders from strange places. Even more-it might have been expected of individual houses in such towns, that they should not let down baskets of provisions from their upper windows. All did not adopt this measure. It seems, therefore, in any case to have been adopted not upon a ground of necessity. A mob

of many thousands, in their hurried transit, could neither be detained by vengeance before any individual house in a long street, where many houses beside had given the same affront by a refusal; nor could such a mob, with no common officers to connect one part of its vast line with another, be at all propitiated in fact by a loaf given to the leading gang, and refused to all in their rear. The benefit, therefore, to the individual house must be merely imaginary; whilst on the other hand, the injury to the public service is great, and, by its example, unlimited. For the case stands precisely thus:-Against the passive resistance of an insurgent body, confe derated on the principle of not working, there would naturally be no remedy whatever open to the government, were it not that mere necessity of food for themselves and food for their families,

surely and swiftly brings round a remedy, thus closing a period of idleness which is else sure, of itself, without inflammatory politics, to prove the mother of infinite mischief. How concisely this remedy acts, and in how brief a number of days it gathers strength, may be seen by the following simple calculation:--Every forty thousand turn-outs will reqre a thousand pounds a-day to feed them, at sixpence a-day, and their families, as stationary, and able to use more economy, at least the same sum. Here at once arises a demand of L.28,000 for each 40,000 insurgents during one fortnight. It is supposed that 200,000, or five such bodies of 40,000 each, are now self-exiled from work; that is, in other words, a money demand of one hundred and forty thousand pounds will be made on the joint-stock purse of the insurrection by the end of the first fortnight (now nearly accomplished) for the insufficient support of the insurgents. Here lies a firm natural curb-chain upon the riotous body; in which overwhelming restraint, let us say for ourselves, that we are far indeed from exulting when we think of the rioters as poor men pleading for natural rights, against cotton masters too often inclined to combine for severe exaction, and sometimes (we doubt not) tyrannically rapacious. If we feel at any moment inclined to exult in such a barrier existing to the progress of a riotous mob, it is when we reflect on the certainty with which an idle mob transmigrates into a cruel and sanguinary mob, fearful even to themselves, as parts bearing a separate interest from the whole; but still more, when we represent to ourselves this mob-not as contending for undoubted rights, or natural equities on the model of all Scriptural justice, (such as the rights of colliers to see their own day's produce of coal fairly weighed in their own presence)-but insolently declar ing that they will abrogate the whole constitution, laws, and polity of these imperial kingdoms at one blow; will impose upon us all a new constitution, out of which are to emanate such future laws as may be suitable to such

a beginning. Then indeed our hearts grow sterner in contemplating their matchless insolence and criminal folly. But in any case, it is for their own interest that a speedy close should set bounds to their career. Now the contributions of shopkeepers and private families, but much more the system of certain provision shops in the smaller towns, by which they pledge themselves to loans or credit, varying in amount through one fortnight or upwards in time, and most of all the system adopted by a number of shops in Hyde, promising publicly (we quote their own words literatim)" to assist pecuniary or otherwise," meaning probably to assist by pecuniary means or any other, seems entitled to the gravest judicial investigation: because this aid and "comfort," as the ancient laws call it, tends violently to prolong the struggle by weakening its natural restraint; and because the Hyde variety of this case tends more effectually to that result, by publishing far and wide the knowledge of so encouraging a faith in the justice and the ultimate success of the rioters. Were it not for these extensive private contributions, the funds of the rioters would be limited to the sums accu. mulated by the benefit societies, to which multitudes among them have contributed; and where the purpose had been entirely under a private agreement, the money will have been easily diverted into any other channel by an overruling majority; though often we believe that want of work is the very casus fœderis contemplated by such societies. These accomplices in higher stations ought, of all concerned, to be the most severely punished, or at least next after the original instigators of the riots, if they should judicially be proved to have been the Corn-Leaguers. And in the rear of these two cold-blooded accomplices before the act and in the act, as regards scrutiny and punishment, should be ranged all those who have been arrested, or shall be denounced and convicted, as coercers of their own brethren who had wished to pursue their work in quietness.