The National Register. — London, England, 1819-08-02 00:00:00

■ k - No. 1204.—V0L. XII.] MR. OWEN'S INSTITUTION AL NEW LANARK. I latiog neither room nor opportunity last wee: to do more than simply state th., principles upon which Mr. Owen has formed his theory for ame- Earating the condition of the Your, we promised to revert again •to the same subject, and to sulanit to our readers our own sentiments both for its fitness fen- general adoption, and the tonlency- of its -vac- . tice, if it could be universally acted on. To the first of Mr. Owen's general ptinciples,,natnely, that vice and wretchedness may be totally eradicated from mitungst men,. We must acknowledge that all our ' experience of :the world, and all our study of the natural condition of the human race, lead us to give, as far as opinion eon go, a diet negative. Nor even if v:trware less disposed to question such a theory than we are, could we admit that the.assemblage of large •kodies of men and women together, upon Mr o.'s plan ar,d arruneement •would the most likely way to effect it. Solitude }resits vices, but these are both multiplied in kind lull in cit!lree wherever the mass of population is broughtinto a chne and confined intercourse. Mr. Owen has, probably, das ! more than any otherman ever did, nice siutikr -eireutestances, in voiding off these r.eneral eflixts; but, in the first place, only a small : sort of his theory has yet , been tried at all, even at J.enark, and as fur as his first r peindiple iseekcenihd, 't has not perfectly succeeded in realizing the lie is so ar:s:iotts to inspire; for instance, e happen to know that the numbs: cf.ti. - egitintate. .i.ildren born in his own establishment, still aver ages at least•si:: in the year, and thislis not the List criterion rot* the AIM .total of illicit intercourse. Again, if we cannot on one, hand entire)y banish evil, neither do we conceive it- to - he more practica ble to enforce, to an universal systera,,positive geed. We mean that no large Society can ever be brought to-so correct a ruktitf.action us that their conduct .didlintend with undeviating constancy to - the gene. sal as well as individual good, and readily sacrifice every selfish feeling and propensity to -the promo tion of public benefit. Mr. Owen.niay, thematically, prove that our happiness is inseparably connected isith thisbappiness of the community in which we :lye; but the idea is too complex and relined for the great bulk of society to comprehend and pursue, and still less, we should conceive, could this.generally prevail-in a large Cotton Mill, or in any 'similar Institution. On the subject of Popula tion, we entirely coincide with Mr. Owen's con fuse( declannions, and we shall again repiAt that a Country like ours, with millions of acres.uf land yet incultivated, with an enormous scapital, reckoning all our national debt under this heaii, , with thousands sof hands staruing fur want of worlq•and yet paying thirteen or finirteen millions.sterling in a single year for foreign corn, racy be, and - as, an a very unnatural and unprosperoussstate of society ; but it ears , never she said- to •lx over-peopled. Any drain upon its population must 'also ur-ravate the very evils under' which wei , ibour. It must niminish home consump tion, it must impair the revenue, it must weaken theonational strength. We entirely agree again with Mr. Owen, that a large portion of cur misery is to be traeed to the enormous extent to which we have iu:lied our manufactures, a position which will lard!) be luctaioned when we contemplate the state /4, ( - //1", tatti .4 nail :±le:rtitittt. ,1 C [PSI( E Sid. anxieties with the little domestic. joys of their ov.-n cottage, would sigh under such a regime, and like the country mouse in the fable any, ".give me ba:k my quiet narrow hole, with freedom, though .1 may have mothing to ttibb:c but alittle oaten straw."— Lastly, 'Mr. Owen's plan appears to uz vita inap plicable to any other situation, than where a large cotton or woollen manufacture can be-advantageously connected with it, and these ‘ve certainly think Itave already spread .quite far enough. A steam •engine would be neither usefitl, wholesome, or or- namental to iby far the largest portions of our .English parishes. Of the good Mr. Owen has done at hove .nobody ran Lear or read without feeling ..gratefulito-hint :}br such -a spirit of benevolenot, that h'systetu may do geed in many other places there can be no doubt ; it is es a general syvient only that we:spec.k of it, his as .a general system only shat we must withhold from it eur approval. At a time so critical, and important, we should l ally have ofrcred to our readers * few observations on the Meetiuge of thedlefoimers, -sad-on the mea t:4MS adopted lately by the Government respecting them. But we pledged ourselves hut week to devote our comments to Mr. Owen's Plan, and felt it right to discharge that obligation. Yet we cannot help even here just aiding, that we are informed kern every quarter that nothing can exceed the grief and disappintmer.t of the self-called friends of our hap , , py establiihments.at the complete failure of their at- tempts to turn these meetings into riot. The sei zure 'of Harrison at the very height •of i)opolar lug, anti the perfeet-qUiet with which he wr.s suttimal to be carried ME, is a circumstance whi2h every one will and must contemplate, as speaking morc••in praise of the spirit of the Mob, ;rid if they. continue to act as they did at Smithfield, tile appellation will hardly be given them, than it does fur those who would have goaded then to acts which might have again furnished a ph2a for r.:l— our liberties ; mere of t:iis ne%; Extract of a I.cLter, ciatel !Ziu Ic Jane:.), NI ay _ •• the delay in the sailing o: the packet aWords me the opportunity tor informing you, that a vessed from_ /0 res. in 11 cloys' passage, ha, brnahht a . Guar:le, vontsini.74 an (Adel report of the Governor of Coljuinitio, dated 9th of April, addre,sed to the holm me "Director of Chil . The • shAnitee is to the following elf.•ct ?tat the night before a wh ding-ship had arrived at the part of Golu.ntho, ; 1 .14 t ha t the Captain had emntimiticattd what he had observed re vious to his s tiling front Callati'un tht? 9th of )larch. a s I'm_ low 5 :—Tbsit on the 23d February, the 'hip S:111 Martin and the frigate O'lliggins, • under corer 'tit t thick fog, 01.0)4 into Call in. and were spot perceived until the moment when they (palm, their fire on the . ** ft ipites ling under Om twirl ies ; they catrtnted it* guo.lmat, and aft. r lively and uninterrupted lire of two !spurs, the Chili ships made sail fur the blood 4.ftion Lorenzo. " The Stinaish ships Suffered 'severely in their hulls, ri;- ging, and men ; the Vitt' iots had three men killed, nnel the Captain of the 01:iAgine allglitly %minded ; the•: received very little damage., which was repaired immediately, and on the 231 h or Zt:t Is of l'ehl nary, the 01Higgins alone a cot in again, to reemino ire. Front 40 to 30 shots is ere fired at Ina, hut will , the -did not fire a izeni, noel after basil:7. accomplished her object, she rejoined the San 3Lertic, •t the i,lard of San Lorenzo, *litre both remained, block ading Callan.. . '• Yi Lantiarif tnd Chnealmen had Seen o:espntelie,l, in intorcert• e. you'll from Panama, co sisting, of live Lulea merchantmen unikr convoy of en ;trifled ship. The ship VPc tot it !1111011 pith timber, coming r,,,en Chiluc a nd V aldiv;it, NO deco captured h Lord Cochrane; the mast. r offered to ritn,its, her for 11.000 dolldr,, but the l'ice- Admir.il meld not listen to file proposal. " On r.be•Cst ,s ,1. nrrived here, the Blerksom sloop of nor, from ifimr. Pai ol from eve I.`rt ou Ow tilts of A pr.l. She has tia board 2,3001111 cloi,al , of o filch the ;treater part was Iran:411111)A into hit 'frenorC.t. Andromache frip,te, use vf hole i , be Slow` -I Wooed re.OLlft'd b, eonsetln lire at Cm to wh:.l pr,soil , in Li The I'ddvosm will shortly nail for laip:tiil; it I.d Colmno:10. e Bow sit, hi tilt C‘..4e r vu t . a :11 pa urred to the Pacific in ;shout theta wr-ebs." Wiltshire Elert;od.--State of the Poll q 4 the close of the 11 tat day : Mr. Bunuct, 2113!)--.Mr. L 2a3 Our Unto, efontititutivn anti U ab 36. MO►\DAY, AUGUST .2, 1319• of our manufacturing population at the present mo ment. Five and twenty years ago, or the case it 'still stronger if we go a little further bad:, to the diseentions of NVatts and Arkwright, •Agriculture was.the great emplcyment of ocr people; at least our husbasulmen constituted .tevo thirds of the lower classes. Now, by the returns Of 1811, it appeared that Agriculture was the calling of but one out c . f. three, which, if Mr. Oaveu's cake:Lotion be correct, the power of the machinery introduced end applied to manufacture, is equal to the additional labour of 200 millions. Fur the almost cosiness quantity of goods thus .wrought an adequate demand can now be no longer found. A revulsion must necessarily follow. Our Government has long -been actively employed in miserable and wretched expedients, .in bolstering up.a state of &moiety which is frecry-tity - I:scorning more manifestly rotten, whilst the solid property of-the lend hasbeenloaded with imposts, rod its prodece depreciated by•t!te continued. depre cintion of money, 'till in limes of pressure the idle ricr soils can le no longer cultivated r.t el!. Mr. Owen's- remedy is to make e. 1.1 those erupiTerl cndur him hushandmen, as well as artisans and ma nufacturers. He would have a large tract of land attached to every establishment upen.his new Sys tem, to be cultivutcxl by the spade lonly, and en tirely kept in order, and all the work performed by those who arc r,:le part of the day spindiug or weaving, or employed in some ipeeitstof manufac ture. This may be very plausible, but it directly vio laic:, the doctrines of every former tilde writer on political e,xmmly, who have all held the divisicn of .labour to Ls the great and leading principle of so 7cial ueitio, the best•road to perfection in • the works e.of art, and without which very little progress could be koked for. Indeed, we• cannot help thinking that Mr. 'Owen would find his -cotton•spinners,for he has not yet tried it, to be very moderate 'farmers, and his farmer: very bad spinners of cotton twist. With respect to Education, upon which Mr. Owea lays• so ninth stress, we should entirely agree with him, that it is both .a debt and a boon of inestimable value to the rising generation. But we domed exactly -see how many of its noblest advantages are not lost by the system to which Mr. 'Owen would apply it. Ifthe) remain members ofhis community it may benefit the possessors for private edification, it may give a tone to their manners and ..elevate and expand their minds. 'Pelt tbe very greatest objection we have to Mr. Owen's whole scheme is, that it renders those under its influence torpid to all those passions of the soul which are the 'sweets of whatever is great and dignified and noble in the intercourse of life. There is no field for emulation, there is no spirit of indeperdence ; it may give the poor man much, but it takes much from him ; it robs him even of the comforts of his own fire-side. Ile is 1-.0 longer his own house• keeper, and his wife is equally excluded from the important dischar g e of most domestic duties. lie is to be fed at a common table, to be clothed from a common stock, to be the creature of restraint in every habit and every motion of his life. We can not therefore help thinking that if Mr Owen's. theory was fully tried, which it is not st Nen -La nark, as we must again remind our readers, both lit and his protegees would find themselves greatly disappointed,and that those of our own poor vt ho have . 1 been accustomed to tulle to . gether the cares and the 2 ; 1