The Press.
London, England, 1854-01-21 00:00:00

SATURDAY,

The prineipalwars have always been carried out by the
aristocracy, because they are afraid the people should have
time to think, and that, like a clock pendulum that goes
swinging backwards and forwards, tick tack, tick tack
there should be nothing but work, work, work, for them.
They have secured all the land of the country, and they
have secured many things beside, and what they havn't
cured the Queen has. Everything belongs to her. It is
" The Queen's Army," '' The Queen's Navy," " The
Queen's Revenue," and " The People's Debt." We have
nothing else that's national to divide among us, and so
it will be until such time as working men are of sly
opinion, that they won't fight, and then h 11
WI end
of war.

Alluding to these tracts and placards with
which the country was inundated when the
militia was first embodied, Mr. Somerville

says :

tray, you have heard this village man of peace, like his
brethren, in cities and °entity towns descant, in guano.
some argument ; quote Mr. Cobden's mis-statement of
history and personal invective, affirming the fully of wk.
quate defensiveness, and the dishonourable profession of
national defenders. _ . _

You have heard him read the letter of good Friend Fry
from the newspapers, who, as chief secretary of the Peace
Society, rushed to the press when the tint militiaman fell
into the hands of the police, rejoicing over one man that
had fallen rather than over the rectitude of fifty thousand
who had committed no fault.
" I say unto you, that joy shall be in heaven over one
sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just

orisons which need no repentance."—St. inks, iv. 7.
Such are the gracious words of the Saviour. Bat the
disputatious men of peace, who, forsooth, are more scrip-
tural in spirit and outward life than ordinary men and
women, shout for joy over the one militiamen who does
wrong at Hammersmith, but are mute over the good bells.
viour of fifty thousand, there and elsewhere.
A sketch of a man of peace, apart from his
polities, we cannot refrain from giving, pre-
mising only that the author disclaims person-
alities :

From the foregoing it may be inferred that he is a cotton
mill-master. He may be ; but the man of peace mar work
in other material than cotton ; in leather, iron, timber,
cloth, corn, or earth ; but far more probably he handleth
not any material. Most probably he stands with hat on
head and hands in pocket, between the shoemaker and the
leather, the blacksmith and the iron, the joiner and the
timber, the tailor and the cloth, the miller and the corn,
the baker and the flour. As to the earth, he may work that
with his own hands. It is plaster of Paris to mingle in
yon bread, the manipulation of which, like hedge-row
leaves in the tea of a wicked world, it may be inconvenient.
to refer to a second person.
He deplores the ignorance as well as the wickedness o
the world; but from the world's ignorance of adulterated
food, and the trick of falsity in materials of handicraft,
ariseth to him much profit. This, in your hearing, he
ascribes to the blessing of a special Providence on his
meek and peaceful devotion to business.
He deplores the vices of the poor; but the fruit of vice
is to hint as vintage, it' poverty be its fruit.
• • • * For as his mission is to
combat and contradict other noon, so is he a contradiction
to himself. He is not without some ingredient of good.
He would be a devil wholly if he had never done a poi
thing, so restlessly active as he is. Ile is not wholly a
devil.
Rochdale, Mr. Somerville considers, is the
peculiar stronghold of the men of peace : he
therefore describes it at some -length:—
The men of peace, whose own borough this is, look bock
on fifteen years of successful turbulence, during which they
have kept the vicar, churchmen, respectable moderation,
and neutrality, in trouble. They have driven social
respectability from parochial and municipal business.
, Though professing to he peculiarly scriptural and spiritual
in their own sentiments, yet, from " tenderness of con-
science," they and the motley multitude which they lead
have preferred to parochial and municipal offices " fniternal
democrats," " torch-light chartists," and " philosophic
infidels :" which congruous fraternity, headed and led by
brawling " universal brotherhood," have, for the whole time
since the elder Bright [now M.P.] was old enough to lead
the town tumults, outraged all.moderation and decency of
triumph.
Imagine what a provincial town of France would bare
been in the time of the first revolution [the provincial
Robespierres of " liberty " and " public safety " only
restrained from using the guillotine] ; the " goddess of
reason " and all the adjuncts of revolution present but the
guillotine; the clergy mocked; social rank and respectal
a•
bility shrinking from the offensive presence of brid
insolence ! Imagine a reign of disgust, instead of a reign
of terror, and you see what Rochdale in England has been
for fifteen years under the meek champions of teuder cote
science and freedom of opinion.
From the Peace Society the author has
received provocation sufficient to justify almost
any retaliation. When the militia was called
out they placarded him all over the kingdom,
beneath a picture, in which he was represented
as receiving his punishment :
They quoted a book written by me in such manner her
leave the impression on the reader that I was au
of their anti-militia placards, or, at least, the principal
person addressing future militia-men to dissuade then!
from the service. They did not name the book, nor Wert
any clue to the context of the quotation, to show eithei
why I was flogged, or wby the book was writttu.