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

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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 firstrpeindiple 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

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