The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-23 00:00:00

THE HEAL CONSERVATISM OF SOCIETY.

" When I look into the great movements of the age,
particularly as manifested in our own country, they seem
to me to justify no overwhelming fear. True, they are
earnest and wide-spreading ; but the objects for which
they are directed are pledges against extensive harm.
For example, ought the general diffusion of science, and
literature, and thought, to strike dread ? Do habits
of reading bread revolt ? Does the astronomer traverse
the skies, or the geologist pierce the earth, to gather
materials for assault on the social state ? Does the

study of nature stir up rebellion against its author ? Is
it the lesson which men learn from history, that they are
to better their condition by disturbing the State ? Does
the reading of poetry train us to insurrection ? Does
the diffusion of a sense of beauty through a people in-
cline them to tumult ? Are not works of genius and the
fine arts soothing influences ? Is not a shelf of books,
in a poor man's house, some pledge of his keeping the
peace ? It is not denied, that thought, in its freedom,
questions and assails the holiest truth. But is truth so
weak, so puny, as to need to be guarded by bayonets
from assault ? Has truth no beauty, no might ? Has
the human soul no power to weigh its evidence, to reve-
rence its grandeur ? Besides, does not freedom of
thought, when most unrestrained, carry a conservative
power in itself ? In such a state of things, the erring
do not all embrace the same error. Whilst truth is one
and the same, falsehood is infinitely various. It is a
house divided against itself, and cannot stand. Error
soon passes away, unless upheld by restraint on thought.
History tells us, and the lesson is invaluable, that the
physical force, which has pnt down free inquiry, has
been the main bulwark of the superstitions and illusions •
of past ages.
" In the next place, if we look at the chief direction
of the universal activity of the age, we shall find that it
is a conservative one, so as to render social convulsion next
to impossible. On what, after all, are the main energies of
this restlessness spent ? On property, on wealth. High
and low, rich and poor, are running the race of accumula-
tion. Property is the prize for which all strain their nerves;
and the vast majority compass in some measure this end.
And is such a society in danger of revulsion ? Is tu-
mult the way to wealth ? Is a state of insecurity coveted
by men who own something and hope for more ? Are
civil laws, which, after all, have property for their chief
concern, very likely to be trodden under foot by its wor-
shippers ? Of all the dreams of fear, few seem to me
more baseless than the dread of anarchy among a people
who are possessed almost to a man with the passion
for gain. lam especially amused when, among such
a people, I sometimes hear of danger to property and
society, from enthusiastic, romantic Reformers, who
preach levelling doctrines, equality of wealth, quaker
plainness of dress, vegetable food, and community-sys-
tems, where all are to toil and divide earnings alike.
What ! Dang,er from romance and enthusiasm in this
money-getting, self-seeking, self-indulging, self-display-
ing land ! I confess that to me it is a comfort to see
some outbreak of enthusiasm, whether transcendental,
philanthropic, or religious, as a proof that the human
spirit is not wholly ingalfed in matter and business, that
it can lift up a little the mountains of worldliness and.
sense with which it is so borne down. It will be time
enough to fear, when we shall see fanaticism of any kind
stopping ever so little the wheels of business or pleasure,
driving ever so little from man's mind the idea of gain,
or from woman's the love of display. Are any of you.
dreading an innovating enthusiasm ? You need only to
step into the streets to be assured that property and the
world are standing their ground against the spirit of re-
form as stoutly as the most worldly man could desire.
" Another view which quiets my fear as to social or-
der, from the universal activity of the times, is the fact
that this activity appears so much in the form of steady
labour. It is one distinction of modern over ancient
times, that we have grown more patient of toil. Our
danger is from habits of drudgery. The citizens of
Greece and Rome were above work. We seem to work

with something of the instinct of the ant and the bee ;
and this is no mean security against lawlessness and
revolt.

- - . --.
" Another circumstance of our times which favours a
quiet state of things, is the love of comforts which the
progress of arts and industry has spread over the com-
munity. In feudal ages, and ancient times, the mass of
the population had no such pleasant homes, no such de-
fences against cold and storms, no such decent apparel,
no such abundant and savoury meals, as fall to the lot of
our population. Now, it must be confessed, though not
very flattering to human nature, that men are very slow
to part with these comforts, even in defence of a good
cause, much less to throw them away in wild and sense-
less civil broils.
e The piwerous part of society are, of course, par-
ticularly 1121)&0 the fear of which I have spoken. They
see danger esEecianY in the extension of power and free-
dom of all •nds to the labouring classes of society.
bsuusr
pdiecnoi
osf
ni
el universal
enough
reproach.
pshar lo
tapoci
hl
bear,
a i i
They look with a jealous eye on attempts to elevate
ththough one would think, that to improve a man
eses
was the surest way to disarm his violence. They talk of
urs ri a e systemisbhmmeeaulnonuaTdadelnioelfaytoitidaihteaasss
the great enemies to '
They dread a conspiracy of the needy against tbesoc:eltil
used as tools ; but the stirring and guiding
the manual
in its poorer ranks. The m
dowaNureioeetgrdhno,
tototuht t
be
ranks.
ass may, in_
Communities‘\,e
fall by the voices of the prosperous.
powers of insurrection are found above
are referred to Rome, which was robbed robbed of her
liberties, and reduced to the most de
by the lawlessness of the plebeians,gading vassalage,
themselves to demagogues, and gave the republic into the
hands of a dictator. But what
made the plebeians an
?
idle, dissolute, rapacious horde It was the system of
universal rapine, which, under the name of conquest,
had been carried on for
tages by patricians, by all the
powers of the State • a s
the spoils of the pili.a..ea'semwhich glutted Rome with
world—which fed her popula-
tion_ without labour, f7o mthe public treasures, and cor-
rupted them by public
shows. It was • this which helped
to make the metropolis of the earth a sink of crime and
pollution, such as the world had never known. It was
time that the grand robber-state should be cast down
from
her guilty eminence. Her brutish populace, which
followed Caesar's car with shouts, was not worse than the
venal, crouching Senate which registered bis decrees.
Let not the poor bear the burden of the rich. At this
moment, we are groaning over the depressed and disho-
noured state of our country ; and who, let me ask, have
shaken its credit, and made so many of its institutions
bankrupt ? The poor or the rich ? Whence is it that
the income of the widow, the orphan, the aged, have
been narrowed, and multitudes on both sides of the ocean
brought to the brink of want ? Is it from an outbreak
of popular fury ? Is it from gangs of thieves sprung
from the mob ? We know the truth, and it shows us
where the great danger to property lies.
" Communities fall by the vices of the
the small. The French Revolution •- is perpetually
sounded in our ears, as a warning '
against the law-
lessness of the people. But whence •
came this re-
volution ? Who were the regicides ? Who el beheadC
Leuis XVI. ? You tell me the • Jacobins ; but his-
tory tells a different tale. I will show
you the