The National Register.
London, England, 1819-08-01 00:00:00

No. 1208.—VoL. XII.]

AIR. OWEN'S INSTITUTION

AL NEW LANARK.

Baring neither room nor opportunity last week ,1
to do more than simply •state :the :principles upon
which Mr. Owen has formed his theoryler ame-
liorating the condition of the Poor, we promised to
'revert again to the some subject, and to submit to
our renders our own sentiments both for its.fitness •
fur general adoption, and 'the tendency of- its !prac-
tice, if it could be universally acted on. 'To the first
of Mr. Owen's 'general principles, namely, That vice
and wretchedness -may .be. totally -eradicated from
amongst men, wenintst -acknowledge that all our ,
experience:of the. world, .anti £1 our-study of the
natural condition-of the human race, lead us to give,
as far as:opinion can go, a direct negative. Nor even
if we. were less di:Toted to question such a theory
'titan we are, could we admit that the assemblage of
„large bodies of men and women together, upon
Mr. o.'s plan and arrangement would be the most
-likely way to effect it. Solitude las its vices, but
.these arc both multiplied in kind and in degree
wherever the mass of population is brought into a
close and confined intercourse. Mr. Owen has,
• probably, done more than any other man ever did,
under similar circumstances, in warding off these

general effects; but, in the first place, only a small
mart of his theory has yet beet:l464.st all, even at
Lanark, and as far as his first principle is concerned,
it has not perfectly succeeded in realizing the
hopes he is so anxious to inspire; fir instance,
we happen to know that the number of illegitimate .
children Paorn in his own establishment, still aver-,
ages at least six in the year, and this is nut the best
criterion of the suns total of iiiicit intercourse.
Again, if we cannot on one hand entirely banish
evil, neither do we conceive it to be more.practica-
ble to enforce, as an universal wstera, positive good.
train that no large -Society can ever be brought
to so cornet a rule of action .at that their-conduct
shall tend with undeviating constancy to tht gene-
ral as well as individual good, and readily sacvitice
every selliA feeling and propensity to the promo-
tion of public benefit. ills.-Owen may, theoretically,
prove that our happiness is inseparably connected
with the happiness of the community in which we
live ; but the idea is too complex and refined for
the great bulk of society to comprehend and
pitrsne, .and still less, we should conceive, could
this prierally prevaTin a large Cotton Mill, or in
any similar Institution. On the subject of Popula-
tion, we entirely cobteide with .Mr. Owen's.
ern-
slant declarations, and Ave shall again repeat that a
Country like ours, with million:, of acres df land yet
uncultivated, with an-enormous capital, reckoning
all nut-tuitional debt wtaier this head, with thousands;
of 'hands starvieg Lim wart of work, and yet paying
thirteen or fourteen. millions sterling in a single year
for foreign cow, may and is, in a very unnatural
• and mprosferous state of society ; but it can never
be said to. tic over-peopled. Any drain upon its
population must also aggravate the very evils under
which we labour. it mug aiminish home consump-
tion, it must impair the revenue, it most weaken

at national strength. We entirely agree again with
Mr. Owen, that a large portion of our misery is to
be traced to the enormous eatent to which we have
pushed our manufactures, a position which will
• luardy be guestioued wbeu we contemplate the state