The Press.
London, England, 1856-11-29 00:00:00

MR. ERNEST JONES.

WE have received the first two addresses delivered
by Mr. ERNEST JONES at St. Martin's hall on the con-
dition of the English people. Whether lie has
delivered any subsequently we really do not know ;
and, what is more, though we say it without any
feeling of contempt for Mr. JONES himself, we really
do not care. The little truth which these addresses
contain (and they do contain some, as far as it goes)
is buried under such a mass of exaggeration and
falsehood that we are quite certain of its impotence.
We don't believe there are half a dozen persons in
Mr. JONES'S audience who would be imposed on by
the mass of absurdity he has uttered, or half a dozen
with sufficient patience or curiosity to separate the
grain or two of truth from the rubbish with which it
is overlaid. It is like searching for a farthing in a
waggon-load of feathers.
In the first place Mr. JONES iS very great upon the
subject of the land. " The people's land," says he,
" shall be the people's own." That is his watch-
word. They were robbed of it by the brutal
offscourings of Normandy, and the time has arrived
to wrest it back from them. Now, without stopping
to demonstrate that there are very few of the
descendants of these brutal offscourings left, and that
out of the 30,0(K) landowners of this kingdom (such
are Mr. JoNEs's figures) there are probably not
300—ay, not thirty—without a very strong infusion
of that Saxon race which Mr. JONES denominates the
people, we will just ask him one simple question :
In what respect was the title of the Saxons to the
meadows and corn-fields of England superior to that
of the Normans' Prior occupation simply, and
nothing more. The title itself was identical—the
right of conquest. And, if Mr. JONES'S theory is
sound, he had better take a railway ticket for some
of the remote valleys of Wales, and exhort the
descendants of CARACT.%CUS to regain the possessions
of their forefathers. We really cannot distinguish
between the titles of successive hordes of invaders.
There is a theory among ethnologists that there was
once a Mongolian population spread over the west of
Europe, the remains of which are to be found among
the Esquimaux and some other tribes in a similar
state of civilisation. If the indefeasible right of the
Aborigines be so strongly insisted on, Mr. JONES is
bo Ind to have an "evening with the people" on the
shores of the Arctic Ocean.

Touching the present condition of the English
people, we confess with unfeigned sorrow and sym-
pathy that it is worse than it ought to be. But then,
of all this misery, how small is the part which the
aristocracy could either "cause or cure"? In one
important respect the evil results from the very fve-
dom of action for which English society is remark-
able. Here every man who possesses any natural
or acquired advantages over his fellows immediately
rises into a superior class. If a ploughman shows
superior intelligence or education lie becomes a
bailiff. If an operative he becomes an ()veneer or
book-keeper, and from that position, perhaps, either
he or his family may progress to something higher.
Can it be wondered at, then, that the class which
remains the lowest of all remains wretched ?—a class
from which all ifs best elements are perpetually
drained off, leaving nothing but the dr,•gs behind. It
is the same with the women as with the men. Our
shops and our theatres, to say nothing of other
pui suits, are constantly absorbing all the cleverest,
prettiest, and most refined women of the lowest
class. The natural result is obvious. The elevation
of some must infallibly deepen the degradation of the
rest. If a man, however superior, could never rise
out of his own class, he would in some degree leaven
the whole body. We deplore the degradation of our
labouring classes as much as Mr. JONES can do.
But we defy him to remove it by any fresh arrange•
ment of property. The tide of population would
sweep over his landmarks within two generations,
and leave not a trace of them. The evil, on the con-
trary, is inherent and fundamental in English
sotiety ; and as long as it is productive of such a
preponderance of good, we must submit to it as the
inevitable price which we have to pay, and exert
ourselves to ameliorate the harshness of a lot which
we cannot hope materially to improve.