Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Such is the blind ignorance of our conduct, that I am compelled to ask, where is the boasted intellect of the British Isles?

To those who can comprehend and steadily trace the rise, progress, and consequences of the manufacturing system, it is evident that it has given birth to circumstances, which train men to think it their proper business and duty, technically speaking, to take a fair advantage of all their fellows, and to sacrifice their own happiness, and the well being of society, at the shrine of individual gain; although by such practices the most favoured of them obtain only the shadow of their wishes, while, by their overstrained exertions, in a wrong direction, the substance of their desires is removed to a greater and a greater distance from their grasp.

Let us, my friends, now no longer proceed thus; let us stand still and examine the wisdom of those practices so dear to some of us-namely, the premature employment of children, and the exaction of excessive labour from a part of our adult population, while thousands are wholly unemployed, and miserable, and starving, for want of occupation. A very limited share of sagacity, properly directed, will show us that, in our character of manufacturers only, it is clearly our interest to permit children to be properly educated, and to possess sound and vigorous constitutions;-that our operatives and all the working classes should not be asked or permitted to labour more than 12 hours per day, with 2 hours intermission, for rest, air, and meals, and that, in return for their labour, they should be allowed wages sufficient to enable them to purchase wholesome food, and some of the most useful articles of manufacture. View these changes in the most unfavourable light in which they can be placed for the manufacturing interest, and they will be found, each and all of them, to be beneficial to it. Should the non-employment of children under 12 years of age, and the limitation of the hours of labour to 12, inclusive of meals, occasion a small fractional addition to the prime cost of our manufactured articles, by the consequent diminution of the supply, yet as the latter now exceeds the demand, the prices of the articles will advance in a greater proportion, and the consumer, as he ought, will make up the difference. But any difference that may thus arise, must be small indeed, compared to the perpetual fluctuations which are made in the prices of all articles,

[ocr errors]

by a few wealthy speculators buying up at once immense quantities of the raw materials, from which the various articles of commerce are made. In the cotton business, for instance, as being now the most extended, (but the principle applies equally to all,) the ameliorations proposed will not affect the prime cost of the thread more than the fraction of a penny per pound, and in the finished cloth or muslin, not more than a fraction of that fraction per yard--while such speculations will increase the prime cost of the raw material from Id. to 12d. or 18d. per pound-and that to benefit a very few individuals, at the expense of the public. I find no fault with such speculations-but it does not become those who are the most active in them, and the chief gainers by them, to contend against the removal of evils which affect the well being and vital interests of millions of the most helpless of the population, merely on the plea that a small fractional addition would thereby be made to the prime cost of an article—when for their own immediate gain they would add ten or twenty times the amount to its price.

In short, my friends, when you come to examine the subject fairly and honestly, you will certainly find that no valid reason exists for the longer continuance of the grievous and pernicious practices which now prevail in our trade; and that instead of opposing them, it is especially our interest, one and all, to petition the legislature to remove them without delay, and I trust that when you have dispassionately and without prejudice taken all these circumstances into your consideration, you will accordingly pour in petitions from district in which manufactures are established.

every

NEW LANARK, March 30, 1818.

ROBERT OWEN

ON

THE UNION OF

CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.

To His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury.

MY LORD,

You have now presided for several years, with assiduity and regularity, over the Society for educating the Poor in the principles of the National Church; and you have witnessed the almost miraculous change which has been produced on the young mind by your influence, and by those who have acted under your direction. You have seen ignorance and vicious conduct rapidly give place to comparative intelligence and good habits. The public look on with amazement at the effects which are daily exhibited by the children at the Central School in Baldwin's Gardens. They can scarcely, however, yet believe that, by a similar process, the most neglected and wretched part of our population,—that part which disturbs the public peace, which fills our prisons, and which is left to suffer an ignominious death,-might all have been thus trained, and thus rendered respectable, efficient, and happy members of the British Empire. But, my Lord, this knowledge is hourly extending; and the inference must soon become most apparent to every one capable of even ordinary reflection. It is utterly impossible to hide it another year from the public eye. One and all will then ask of you, and of every member of the Government-" If society possesses this overwhelming influence over the habits and conduct of the rising generation, and that influence is in your hands, why do you not exert it for the safety of the State and for the benefit of all?" The responsibility with which you

and they are invested at this crisis, is of the most awful nature. The power is with you to lead the public mind to all that is truly excellent, and to secure the permanent wellbeing of the country on a foundation which neither domestic dissension nor foreign foe could in the slightest degree disturb;-and the power is also with you to oppose the progress of true knowledge for a time, and thereby create a conflict which in the end must prove more disastrous to those who govern than any of former times; for power and knowledge never before met, since the world was created, upon terms so nearly equal. Why do I thus express myself to your Grace? It is because I am anxious that the attention of Government should be immediately directed to those measures which can alone relieve the country from the dangers with which it is surrounded-and to which it must continue to be exposed, while they persevere in acting on notions they can no longer defend; notions, the errors of which every school-boy will soon detect.

You have obtained from Parliament the grant of a million for the erection of churches; and to the principle of the measure no one has objected. It has been thus liberally bestowed, in order to improve the character of the population; and if it be at all times requisite that the public money should be expended in the most advantageous manner possible, it becomes a sacred duty under existing circumstances (when, in the fourth year of peace, fourteen millions must be borrowed to make up the deficiency of the revenue), that every pound should be appropriated so as to produce the greatest beneficial result. The experience of past ages, and particularly of the present times, has proved that early training and education produce a much more durable impression than can be given by instruction at a later period in life; and that, in consequence, the teaching of the school, without the learning of the church, is far more efficacious than the learning of the church can be, without the previous teaching of the school. To those, however, who have confidence in the good effects to be derived from each, it must be most desirable to have all the benefits of both, when they may be obtained with the same, or nearly the same, expense and trouble. I well know the lively interest which your Grace, and many of the highest dignitaries of the church, in common with the public, now feel in the cause of early education. The experience which

has been lately acquired on this most important of all subjects, must have removed whatever doubt remained, as to the power which may be given to it to well form the character of every human being. But your Grace well knows, that there is no utility to be derived from the most accurate knowledge of any principles, until those principles shall be carried into practice. Your Grace, and every real friend to the gradual and rational improvement of society, will rejoice to hear, that buildings may be erected to serve most advantageously the double purpose of church and school; that they may be so contrived, as to be complete for each, without the one interfering in any manner with the best known arrangements of the other; and that, thus combined, they would most effectually cooperate in securing to the rising generation every advantage that both are calculated to give. I do not venture thus to address your Grace on any mere theoretical opinion; -the fact exists under my own eye; the experiment has been tried, and is complete in all its parts; and instead of any inconvenience having arisen from this combination of church and school, experience has proved that they ought never to be separated :—And if I do not greatly mistake, the period is near at hand-almost arrived-when this combination of church and school shall become a bond of union among mankind; when the violence of opposing opinions shall be calmed by a true knowledge of the source of all disputed opinions; and rational selfishness, or true benevolence, shall take place of ignorant dissension. All, from the highest to the lowest, are deeply interested in this change; and none, my Lord, will be so essentially benefited by it as those on whom rests the present responsibility of governing mankind. If they will not now actively lead on in the right course, is it possible they can yet be so blind as not to see, what is obvious to many, that the force of circumstances will drive them into measures most hazardous for them and for society? To avert this crisis —to produce the change gradually and by universal consent, I would willingly forgo every private consideration, and deem life itself no sacrifice in such a cause.

I will now state some of the advantages which the country may derive from having the new churches so erected as to serve the double purpose of church and school.

1st. In those situations in which churches are now deficient for the population, schools will be deficient also; and

« AnteriorContinuar »