nations, and to cry down all men as sinners who either work or play_on the first day of the week, which never was made a Sabbath by Christ. Let them shew us, in a word, if they believe that God commanded the seventh day to be kept as a holiday because He ceased working upon it,-how they dare have the impudence to say they shall do as they like, break the seventh-day sabbath, and keep holiday on the SUN's day, as their old pagan forefathers did.

It is time that the Sabbatarians were thus openly charged home with sabbath-breaking, until they give up their cant about it; and consent to let the question be considered as, simply, one of civil and social polity. In Christianity, if its founder and his apostles are to be taken as the true authority, the observance of particular days is no part of real religion: the true Christian keeps a Sabbath of the heart every day. But, in the civil and social world, rest, relaxation, recreation, are necessary to renew the physical and mental energies of man. Periods of seven days, and a festival on the first, were kept in old India thousands of years, it is probable, before the Sabbath' was heard of in Judea: the custom pervaded numerous nations : it was observed by our Teutonic ancestors: we observe their custom yet: the names of their gods yet mark the days of the week: their Sun's daythe first day of the week-is our festival, as it was theirs. Let the timehallowed custom, since it is a good one, remain, No Englishman wishes. to abolish it. But we do not wish to see the farce continued of denouncing every man as irreligious and wicked who does not on the first day of the week attend to the exclusive reading of the Bible, or some pious book,-who does not diligently frequent some church or chapel, and shun the fields and fresh air,-who does not refuse to talk about the affairs of the world in which he lives, and mince his words when he cannot avoid mentioning them, as if he felt every syllable endangered his eternal happiness. This is the hateful mental slavery in which many live,-and we repeat, it is time that struggle was made to break it. We should hear less, then, about Sabbath Bills.' It is a fair stand-up fight that the Sabbatarians ought to have. It would rouse so much thought among the People that they would be laughed down. The utter want of foundation for their doctrine of a first-day sabbath, in their own books, and the revelation of their own glaring inconsistency, either as sabbath-breakers or ignoramuses, would stare them so fully in the face that they would prate less about "the national sin," thenceforth. We do not object, let it be observed, to their doing as they like with their time, on any day of the week. It is the slavery they wish to impose on others, we object to; and above all, the strength which their superstition gives to tyrants who use it to keep the millions in bondage.

THOMAS COOPER.

a

ORATORS. In the republican states of antiquity, the eloquence of demagogues was indeed a dangerous engine of faction, while it aspired to govern nations by its unlimited sway in directing popular councils; but now, when the effusions of the orator are, by means of the press, subjected to the immediate tribunal of an inquisitive age, the eloquence of legislative assemblies is forced to borrow its tone from the spirit of the times; and if it retain its ascendant in human affairs, it can only be by lending its aid to the prevailing cause, and to the permanent interests of truth and freedom. Dugald Stewart. REASON.-Those who pretend that reason and its faculties are depraved in such a manner as to be no longer capable of serving as a sure and faithful guide to man, either in respect to his duties or particularly with regard to religion, do not reflect that they have adopted for the basis of their system a principle destructive of all truth and consequently of religion.-Burlamaqui.

Titles of honour are like the impression on coins, which add no value to gold and silver, but only render brass current.-Sterne.

PRINCIPLE AND EXPEDIENCY.

THERE are two thoughts-one great in good, the other as great in evilwhich may be said to divide the empire of this world: these thoughts are, Principle and Expediency.

Principle gives birth to glorious struggles for Truth and Freedom; to struggles that live eternally in the memory of mankind, even when they are doomed to prove unavailing. Expediency gives birth to timid appeals, to low remonstrances, soon drowned in the contemptuous laugh of the tyrant: it is despised when it fails,-forgotten after it has succeeded.

Principle makes men,-Expediency diplomatists. Nothing is more contemptible, and yet nothing more common than compromise and half measures." It is better to have half a loaf than no bread."-Oh, men of little faith! the question is not the loaf, but the right to the loaf. Win that, and the loaf follows as a matter of course; take half the loaf and the battle to win the other half is all to fight over again. Why? because ye preferred convenience to right; expediency to justice.

Take, in O'Connell, an instance known to all. We behold in him a man who was certainly one of the most remarkable men this age has produced. Eloquence, sarcasm, wit, humour, tact, and unflagging energy, he possessed in the highest degree-with a cause in itself a tower of strength; a cause a hero might strive and die for. Yet, with all this, what did O'Connell do for Ireland? Comparatively nothing. Why did he fail so signally? Because he only acted on expediency, and never rose to principle. He had not the daring of the true man; the daring of Mazzini and Kossuth. He sought Ireland's weal in Whiggish alliances, in shiftings of power, and adroit coquetting with parties. To this aim his zeal, his wonderful talents, were devoted; and he reaped-what those who seek good by evil means will ever reap.

O'Connell was daring in speech, but timid at heart. He had not that greatness of soul which really dares. He based his arguments on Ireland's wrongs; but Ireland's wrongs, though they strengthen her case to England's eternal disgrace-do not make that case. Shall we never hear a true sound argument on this point? It concerns not merely Ireland, but every oppressed nation; ay, and England as well. By always making the question one of wrongs and not of rights; a question of the mere physical suffering, and not of the violation of the great moral law which led to that suffering; we involve ourselves in endless and unavailing disputes: we compromise the great principle of justice. It is the old story of the planter and his slave. The slave, long patient and long enduring, can at length bear no more; he raises his voice and murmurs; he is turning rebel. The alarmed planter replies, "True, poor slave, I have used thee ill; I have marked thee with my brand, as my cattle; I have lived in idleness on the sweat of thy brow; I have scourged and half-starved thee. patient! I will mend: thou shalt suffer no more!”

But, be

And suppose that he does mend; suppose he no longer whips his bondsman; suppose he feeds him and becomes a good planter. How is the case changed? Why, that from a scourged, half-starved slave, we have now a sleek, well-fed slave-but a slave still! Why is this? Because the slave was a slave of the soul, who only thought of his wrongs, and forgot his rights; because he lifted up his voice not to claim his freedom, but to lament his sufferings.

Thus acted O'Connell. Why did he ever raise the whining cry of Ireland's woe? Why, when he stood forth as the champion of an oppressed land, did he not boldly say, "I ask for Ireland's freedom-not because she

is wronged-but because she has received from God the inalienable right to be free"? Thus have proceeded the abolitionists of America, and who knows not that Ireland is the white slave of Europe?

A French poet-and poets are prophets (vates)-considering Ireland as the most oppressed nation, declares that she bears the cross of humanity: that she is pregnant with the future of the world. Why? Because conquered Ireland has suffered most from those consequences of conquest: aristocracy and serfdom. Our brethren in America tell us, in plain speech, that we are not far removed from her fate; that she will drag us down some day. Oh, if O'Connell, to return to that significant instance, had proceeded, not on expediency, but on principle, what an echo he would have won back from the slumbering element of democracy! If he had proceeded on one grand immortal principle, he might have been the Saviour of his country— a benefactor to every clime-a man to be ranked with the Men of Humanity with Mazzini and Kossuth!

:

Men of England and Ireland, weigh this well: a great struggle is at hand; it has begun. Will you rest on your divine right to be free, or on the paltry temporizing argument of making peace with your oppressors, and, under the specious plea, that "half a loaf is better than no bread," of parting with your birthright.

Expediency passeth away, but PRINCIPLE is the thing that endureth for

ever.

Correspondence.

LEGO.

SIR.-In your journal of the week before last, appears a letter from Mr. J. T. Campbell, of Wolverhampton, containing some friendly strictures on your ideas of the political value of the Freehold Land Societies. Mr. C. says, "Frechold Land Members do not concedo one iota of their claim to Universal Suffrage." To which I say, bah! If the Freehold Land Members in general, are like those of our town, they care as much about Universal Suffrage as a hog does about the planet Jupiter. At the formation of the Stafford Freehold Land Society, I was chosen one of its Provisional Committee; and, the day after my appointment, I received a mission from my brethren in office, to the effect, "That they could not act with me because I was known to be a Chartist'! They were sorry to make the objection, but they made it on political grounds alone." So much for those who "conscientiously believe, and declare, that man as man ought to have a vote !" Out of 70 members in the Stafford Freehold Land Society, there are not six individuals amongst them really the working-men of the town, who have any idea of using their Freeholdership, when acquired, for the attainment of the Franchise for their unenfranchised brethren. The members of the Stafford Society are, in general, small tradesmen, warehouse clerks, lawyers' clerks, shoe clickers, and the higher paid class of mechanics-the aristocracy of labourwho treat with derision the claims of their humbler brethren. As a Joint Stock Scheme for the acquisition of small properties, I say nothing about it; but, as a political machine, it is corrupting and debasing. The right of citizenship should be demanded by virtue of manhood existing in a political community, that man with man may stand ennobled one with the other, and deal equitably in all things. In buying the suffrage (in whatever way) we germinate corrupt ideas on liberty and equity for liberty is the parent of equity. The seller stalks along with the air of a possessor-the buyer asks with the mien of a suppliant. Hence, then, Freehold Land Societies, as political institutions, must, of necessity, retard the acquisition of true freedom to the millions of our oppressed fellow-countrymen. But Freehold Land Societies are patronised by men of rank and wealth! Oh, yes! and some folks like to keep "respectable company;" ergo, so much laudation of the "scheme!" WILLIAM PEPlow.

Browning Street, Stafford, Feb. 18, 1850.

P.S.-Want of time has prevented me going into the depth of the question, as to the ability of the great body of the people to become Freeholders under the Land Scheme; but I will take the first opportunity of solving the thing with regard to the shoemakers' earnings, Having some of the best workmen in the trade in my employ, I will take their average earnings for six weeks, with their estimated expenses, and see what is left for them to become Freeholders with.

W. P.

London.

To Correspondents.

Correspondents will please address "Thomas Cooper, 5, Park Row, Knightsbridge,

G. W.-Fifty treatises, which might be named, would not be of the value of one-Jonathan Edwards on the Freedom of the Will.-Several editions of it have been published; and G. W. may easily meet with a second-hand copy, for about half-a-crown. The celebrated Robert Hall is said to have read it over thirteen times, and then to have pronounced it 'irrefragable.' Let G. W. remember, however, when Edwards has proved to him the doctrine of Necessity-(which he cannot fail to do, for no one was ever heard of yet, who had read the book without being convinced by it)—that it does not therefore follow that "Man deserves neither praise nor blame," &c.

H. P., Leicester. Am gratified by the receipt of his letter; but his verses are scarcely perfect enough to print.

J. E., Old Street. So soon as arrangements are made for the proposed discussion, public information shall be given.

I know it, my friend, I know it.

'Working Student,' City. But the self-educated, however fervently they may desire perfection, find it difficult to observe rules which they have had to discover, before they could begin to make the practice of them habitual: it is widely different with those who were taught to lisp correctly from their very infancy. I beg to add that I do not think the best authority and usage' demand the short o in knowledge.

Factory Operative,' Manchester. His thoughts on a Progress Union are valued: respecting the Ten Hours' Bill, he will see that his suggestion is attended to; but with the contentions in the Religious body he names, I hesitate to meddle, thinking that our scanty pages can be better occupied.

J. FINLEN, Seven Dials. He must not think Shakspere less worshipful, because all his thoughts are not original. We cannot conclude that any known author is entirely original: not even Homer, or the author of the Book of Job: undoubtedly they were learners from others, like men in our day. Plato's Phædo' is the work in which J. F. will find the thoughts he refers to: it stands first in Mr. Bohn's translated edition of Plato.

N. P. N. If this writer will give me his address, I will write to him per post. THOMAS EAGLE, Wellington Street. Wesleyan Methodist Class meetings are weekly, not quarterly. The leader' is a person appointed by the preachers and leaders-is supposed to have more than the average religious experience, and after stating his own experience during the week, he asks each member of his Class, in turn, the state of their minds. They answer, in general terms; and he addresses to them a few words of advice, caution, or encouragement. There is no resemblance in these meetings to the Romish Confessional: the Classes vary in number, sometimes exceeding a score, and all speak in each other's presence.

Lectures, in London, for the ensuing Weck.

46

SUNDAY, March 10, at 7, Literary Institution, John Street, Fitzroy Square. "Columbus, and the discovery of America"-Thomas Cooper. At 7, Hall of Science, near Finsbury Square, City Road. Why do the Clergy, High and Low, avoid discussion with opponents?"-G. J. Holyoake. At 7, Farringdon Hall, Kings' Arms' Yard, Farringdon Street. 66 Workingmen's Associations, as means of elevating their moral condition"-Walter Cooper.

MONDAY, March 11, at half-past 8, Mechanics' Institute, Gould Square, Crutched Friars, "Life and Genius of Coleridge"-Joseph Fearn. At a quarter to 9, Finsbury Hall, 66, Bunhill Row. "Writings of Charles Dickens"-Mark Wilks. At half-past 8, Finsbury Mechanics' Institute, Bell Yard, City Road. "Life and Health, and the Theory, that Life is Electricity"-Dr. Curl. At half-past 8, Pentonville Athenæum, 17, Chapel Street. Elocutionary Entertainment. At a quarter-past 8, Literary Institution, Carlisle Street, Edgeware Road. "Cromwell and the Revolution"-—P. W. Perfitt.

GOVERNMENT.--If popular representation, or choice, is necessary to the legitimacy of all governments, the House of Lords is at one stroke bastardized and corrupted in blood. That house is no representative of the people at all, even in semblance or in form. The case of the Crown is altogether as bad.-Burke on the French Revolution.

rs.

GS, FROM RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

ociety everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of Society is a joint stock company, in which the members securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity-Self-it loves not realities and creators, but names and customs. -What I must do, is all that concerns me, not what the people equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for ion between greatness and meanness. It is the harder because nd those who think they know what is your duty better than you asy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in after our own; but the great man is he who, in the midst of the ith perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

POET.-A poet is no rattlebrain, saying what comes uppermost, and, ys everything, saying at last something good; but a heart in unison and country. There is nothing whimsical and fantastic in his prosweet and sad earnest, freighted with the weightiest convictions, and a the most determined aim, which any man or class knows of in his times. .-The characteristic of a genuine heroism is its persistency. All men fering impulses, fits and starts of generosity; but when you have rebe great, abide by yourself, and do not weakly try to reconcile yourself world-the heroic cannot be the common, nor the common the heroic. have the weakness to expect the sympathy of people in those actions whose ace is that they outrun sympathy, and appeal to a tardy justice. If you serve your brother, because it is fit for you to serve him, do not take back words when you find that prudent men do not commend you. Be true to your act, and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extraant, and broken the monotony of a decorous age.

SIMPLICITY OF CHARACTER.-Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense d plain dealing. All great actions have been simple, and all great pictures are. BEAUTY.-Beauty, in its largest and profoundest sense, is one expression for the niverse-God is the all-fair truth; and goodness and beauty are but different faces of the same All. But beauty in nature is not ultimate. It is the herald of *****l and external beauty, it is not alone a solid and satisfactory good. It must therefore stand as a part, and not as yet the least or highest expression of the final cause of Nature.

THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE.-The idea which now begins to agitate society has a wider scope than our daily employments, our households, and the institutions of property. We are to revise the whole of our social structure, the state, the school, religion, marriage, trade, science, and explore their foundations in our own nature; we are to see that the world not only fitted the former men, but fits us, and to clear ourselves of every usage which has not its roots in our mind. What is a man born for but to be a Reformer, a re-maker of what man has made; a renouncer of lies, a restorer of truth and good, imitating that great Nature which embosoms us all, and which sleeps no moment on an old past, but every hour repairs herself, yielding us every morning a new day, and with every pulsation a new life. Let him renounce every thing which is not true to him, and put all his practices back on their first thoughts, and do nothing for which he has not the whole world for his reason. If there are inconveniences, and what is called ruin in the way, because we have enervated and maimed ourselves, yet it would be like dying of perfumes to sink in the effort to reattach the deeds of every day to the holy and mysterious recesses of life.

SCEPTICISM.-Scepticism is the attitude assumed by the student in relation to the particulars which society adores, but which he sees to be reverend only in their tendency and spirit. The ground occupied by the sceptic is the vestibule of the temple. Society does not like to have any breath of question b own on the existing order. But the interrogation of custom at all points is an inevitable stage in the growth of every superior mind, and is the evidence of is perception of the flowing power which remains itself in all changes.