you see the Herts Reformer, you will have observed that I have still continued from time to time to write on my old subject, and latterly I have been trying to form a Society to collect information, and draw public attention to the question. The difficulties are very great, but I do hope that something will be done, for I see that men are interested in the question who have a personal interest in manufactures, and a practical knowledge of the state of the people. Such men may really do great good, but I can do nothing more than pull the bell, as it were, and try to give the alarm as to the magnitude of the danger. I was very much struck with Mr. Gill's speech the other day in answer to I do not know how find you it, but for myself I cannot go cordially along with the Radical party, philosophical or otherwise, even on points where in the main I agree with them. They all seem to me more or less overrun with two things, Benthamism and Political Economy; and Bentham I have always thought a bad man, and also, as Carlyle called him in a letter to a friend of mine, “a bore of the first magnitude." I believe I agree with the Radicals as to the mischief of the Corn Laws; yet I cannot but think that the Chartists have some reason in their complaint, that the clamour about the Corn Laws is rather leading men off on a false scent, and that the Repeal will not benefit the working man so much as it is expected. You will not, however, suspect me of thinking that the true scent is to be found in following's notions of universal suffrage and universal plunder. He and his companions continually remind me of slaves, of men so brutalized by their seclusion from the pale of society, that they have lost all value for the knowledge and morality of the civilized world, and have really no more ideas of the use to be made of all the manifold inventions and revelations of six thousand years, than Sir Isaac Newton's dog had of the value of his master's problems. The cry against property is just the cry of a slave, who, being incapable of holding any thing

himself as his own, has no notion of any harm in stealing, stealing, in fact, is hardly a word in his language. It is certain, I suppose, that a certain moral and social training are necessary in order to enable us to appreciate truths which, to those who have had that training, are the very life of their life. And again, there is a course of training so mischievous, and degradation and distress are such a curse, as absolutely to make men believe a lie, and to take away that common standing ground of a general sense of the principles of right and wrong, on which we meet uncorrupted ignorance, and so are able to lead it on to a sense of the purest truths and the highest. You mentioned Laing's book on Norway to me. I have got it, and like it very much; but it is easier to admire, and almost envy, the example of Norwegian society, than to apply it to our own state here. It would be a great comfort to me if your experience and observation have led you to look on matters more hopefully; and yet no man feels more keenly than I do the vast amount of goodness and energy which we have amongst us. How noble, after all, is the sight of these Trials for high treason. Such deliberation and dignity, and perfect fairness, and even gentleness on the part of the Government and the law, in dealing with guilt so recent, so great, and so palpable. Therefore we cannot be without hope that, with God's blessing, we may get over our evils, although I own with me that fear is stronger than hope.

CCXV. TO THOMAS CARLYLE, ESQ.

Rugby, January, 1840.

A note of yours to our common acquaintance, Mr. James Marshall, furnishes, I believe, the only shadow of a pretence which I could claim for addressing you, according to the ordinary forms of society. But I should be ashamed, to you above all men, to avail myself of a mere pretence; and my true reason for addressing you is be

cause I believe you sympathize with me on that most important subject, the welfare of the poorer classes, and because I know, from your History of the French Revolution, that you understand the real nature and magnitude of the evil, which so many appear to me neither to comprehend nor to feel.

I have been trying, hitherto with no success, to form a Society, the object of which should be to collect information as to every point in the condition of the poor throughout the kingdom, and to call public attention to it by every possible means, whether by the press or by yearly or quarterly meetings. And as I am most anxious to secure the cooperation of good men of all parties, it seems to me a necessary condition that the Society should broach no theories, and propose no remedies; that it should simply collect information, and rouse the attention of the country to the infinite importance of the subject. You know full well that wisdom in the higher sense and practical knowledge are rarely found in the same man; and, if any theory be started, which contains something not suited to practice, all the so-called practical men cry out against the folly of all theories, and conclude themselves, and lead the vulgar to the conclusion, that, because one particular remedy has been prescribed ignorantly, no remedy is needed, or at least none is practicable.

I see by the newspapers that you are writing on Chartism, and I am heartily glad to hear of it. I shall be curious to know whether you have any definite notions as to the means of relieving the fearful evils of our social condition, or whether you, like myself, are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the mischief, and are inclined to say, like the Persian fatalist in Herodotus, έχθιστὴ ὀδυνὴ πολλὰ φρονέοντα μηδένος κρατέειν.

I have no sort of desire to push my proposal about a Society, and would gladly be guided by wiser men as to what is best to be done. But I cannot, I am sure, be mistaken as to this, that the state of society in England at

this moment was never yet parallelled in history; and though I have no stake on the country as far as property is concerned, yet I have a wife and a large family of children; and I do not wish to lose, either for them or myself, all those thousand ties, so noble and so sacred and so dear, which bind us to our country, as she was and as she is, with all her imperfections and difficulties. If you think that any thing can be done, which could interest any other persons on the subject, I should be delighted to give aid in any possible manner to the extent of my abilities. I owe you many apologies for writing thus to a perfect stranger, but ever since I read your History of the French Revolution, I have longed to become acquainted with you; because I found in that book an understanding of the true nature of history, such as it delighted my heart to meet with; and, having from a child felt the deepest interest in the story of the French Revolution, and read pretty largely about it, I was somewhat in a condition to appreciate the richness of your knowledge, and the wisdom of your judgments. I do not mean that I agree with you in all these; in some instances I should differ very decidedly; but still the wisdom of the book, as well as its singular eloquence and poetry, was such a treasure to me as I have rarely met with, and am not at all likely to meet with again.

CCXVI. TO JAMES MARSHALL, ESQ.

Fox How, January 23, 1840.

I thank you much for your last letter, and I assure you that I attach a great value to such communications from you. The scheme of a newspaper I actually tried myself nine years ago, and spent above two hundred pounds upon it. I was not so foolish as to think that I could keep up a newspaper; but I was willing to bell the cat, hoping that some who were able might take up what I had begun. But no one did, and the thing died a na

tural death at the end of two months. I feel, however, so strongly the desirableness of such an attempt, that I am ready again to contribute money or writing, or both, to the same cause; and I should be doubly glad if we could effect both the objects you speak of, a daily paper and a weekly one. It seems to me, however, desirable that at this point I should make somewhat of a confession of my political faith to you, that you may know how far my views would coincide with yours.

My differences with the Liberal party would turn, I think, chiefly on two points. First, I agree with Carlyle, in thinking that they greatly over-estimate Bentham, and also that they overrate the Political Economists generally; not that I doubt the ability of those writers, or the truth of their conclusions, as far as regards their own science, but I think that the summum bonum of their science, and of human life, are not identical; and, therefore, many questions in which free trade is involved, and the advantages of large capital, &c., although perfectly simple in an economical point of view, become, when considered politically, very complex; and the economical good is very often from a neglect of other points made in practice a direct social evil.

But my second difference is greater by much than this; I look to the full development of the Christian Church in its perfect form, as the Kingdom of God, for the most effective removal of all evil, and promotion of all good; and I can understand no perfect Church, or perfect State, without their blending into one in this ultimate form. I believe, farther, that our fathers at the Reformation stumbled accidentally, or rather were unconsciously led by God's Providence, to the declaration of the great principle of this system, the doctrine of the King's Supremacy ;which is, in fact, no other than an assertion of the supremacy of the Church or Christian society over the clergy, and a denial of that which I hold to be one of the most mischievous falsehoods ever broached,-that the govern