The Sun.
London, England, 1819-08-04 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY, AUG

FEMALE REFORMING► SOCIETIES.

MANCFIESTER FEMALE REFORMING SOCIETY.

Tile MANCHESTER VENIAL' REFORMERS' ADDRESS
TO Tile WIVES, MOTHERS, SISTERS, AND
DAUGHTEBS OF THIS HIGHER AND MIDDLING
CLASSES OF SOCIETY.
Dear Sisters of the Earth,
It is with a son O of peaceful consideration and
due respect that we are induced to address you
upon the causes that have compelled us to lasso.
ciate together, and the miserable partners of our
woes. Bereft not only of that support the calls
of-nature require for existence; hut the balm of,
sweet, repose has Jong been a stranger to us: Our
minds are filled with 'horror and despair, fearful
on each returning 'morning the light of heaven
should'present to us the corpse of our famished
offspring, or nearest kindred, which the more kind
hand oidenth bath released trom the grasp of the
oppressor. The Sabbath, which is set apart by
the Allwise Creator for a day of rest, we are com-
pelled 'to employ in repairing the tattered gar-
ments to cover the nakedness of our forlorn and
destitute families. Paver), succeeding night brings
with it new terrors, so that we are sick of life,
and weary of a world where poverty, wretched-.
tress, tyranny, and injustice have so long been
permitted to reign amoript men,
Dear Sisters, we feel justified in stating, that
tinder the oppressive system of Government that
we now live, the same tate that bath overtaken ri
must speedily be the lot of amany of you, for it is
said in the word of God, " IVhere the carcass is,
there will be the eagles also ;" and this we have
proved to demonstration, that the lazy borough-
mongering eagles of destruction, have nearly picked
bare the bones of those who labour. You may
then fairly anticipate, that when we are mixed
with the silent dust, that you will become the
next victims of the voracious borough-tyrants,
who wilt chase you in your turn to misery and
death, till at length the middle class orsociety. is
swept by- their relentless hand from the face of
••• • • , .
the creation.
From very mature aMissleliberate coNtsideretion
we are thoroughly convinced, that under the pre-.
sent system the day is near at hand when no-
thing will he found inn our unhapplirsiountry but
ltixury, Idleness, dissipation, and tyranny on the
one ham!, and anieet poverty, slavery, wretched-
ness, misery, and death on the other. To :evert
these dreaded evils, it is your dory now, there-
fore, to unite with us as speedily as pre Bible,
and to exert your .influence with your fathers,
your husbands, your sons, your relations, and
your friends,
.to joint the. ,Male Unions tote
constiyitimially demariding Rel. in their
own. Houae, viz. the Corrosions House of Par-
liament ; for we are now thoroughly con-
vinced, for want of such timely reform the
class of society leis been reduced to its
present degraded state ; and, but for, such a
Reform, the English Nation would not have
been stamped with the disgrace of having engaged
in the late unjust, unnecessary, and destructive
war against the liberties of France, that closed its
dreadful career on the crimson plains of IVater-
loo, where the blood of our fellow-creatures
doveed'in such mighty profusion, that the fertile
earth seemed to blush at the outrage offered to
the choicest works of Heaven, and for a space
of time. was glutted with thepolluted•draugh!, till
the ...linighty, with a frown upon'the aggressors,
threw a veil over the dismal scene,
. Let ins now ask ourselves the cause of this,
dreadful carnage; " was it to gain immortal hap-
piness-tor all mankind," or, if possible, " was it
for a nobler purpose ?" Alas ! no, the simple
story is.thiss that all this dreadful slaughter was
in cool blood, committed for the purpose of
on the throne of France, contrary ltt the peo-
ple's interest and inclination, the present con-
temnible Louis, a man who had beets living for
years in this country in idieuess, and wandering
from one comer of the island to the other in
cowardly and vagabond slothfulness and con-
tempt.
Let it be remembered at the same time, that this
war, which was to reinstate this taunt, has tended
to raise landed property three-fold above its value,
anther load our beloved. country with such HIS I[l4-
snrmotintable burthen of Taxation, that it is too
intolerable to endure longer; it has nearly an-
nihilated our own flourishing trade, and is now
driving oar merchants and manufacturers to po-
verty anti degradation.
We call upon you, therefore, to join us with
heat t and hand to exterminate tyranny from the
face of our native country.
It affords us pleasure to infOrm you, that num-
bees of your rei ilks have voluntarily mixed with
us, who are frilly determined, in defiance of the
ihreats of the Boiouglimoogers, to aid us in our
just anti constitutional career. Our enemies are
resolved upon destroyieg the last vestige of the
natural lights of Mtn, anti we are determined to
establish them ; for as well might they attempt to
arrest the sun in the region of space, or to stop
the diurnal motion of the earth, as to impede the
rapid progress of the enlightened friends to liberty
and truth. The beams of angelic light that have
gone forth through the globe !wadi at length.
reached woo ntan„ arid we are proud to say, that
the Female Reformers of Manchester have also
caught, its benign and' heavenly influence; it is
not possible, therefore, for its to submit to bear
the pooderous weight of our chains any longer,
but ti Inc our endeavour to tear then, asunder,
and dash them in the f-ace of our remorseless
oppressors.... •
‘Ve can bear no longer ,to see numbers of our
parents inimured in Workhouses, our fathers se.
parated from our mothets, 'in 'direct contradie-
tion to the laws of God and the laws ral.tuan; our

IST 4, 1819-.

sons degraded below huniari nature ; our husbands
andlittleone,s clothed in ritAs, and pining on the•
face of the earth. Dear Sister's, how C.tuld you
bear to see the infant at the break, drawing from
yon the remitaur of our last blood instead of the
nourishment which nature requirea—the only sub•
sistence for yourselves being a draught of col I
%%rite'. ? It would be crinihial in us to disguise any
longer the (IN:Athol truth ; for in the midst of all
these privations, if we were to bold our peace, the
very trees of 'the forest and stones of the valley
would jtistlyery out
These are a fem of the consequences resulting
from the road career of , the Borouhmeingers:
war, to say nothing of the thousands ttnd tens of
thotisands that have been Slain, the widoWs. and •
orphans that have been lett destitute and unpro..
tected, the hypocritical hireling will blasphemously
tell yoti., ;that \these things are of Diiine ordi-
nance; but in vain does he publiib this to reason
and common sense., The Great Author of Nature
makes no distinction of person ; the rich and the
poor are all aiike to him ; and surely the forked
lightning, the awful thunder, the terrible earth-
quakes, and the howling and flaming vorcannes,
are sufficient to 'chastise the most obdurate, with-
out man becoming the oppressor of man. We
close the disgusting scene, for language would,
tall infinitely short in painting_the portrait of our.
woes in all their horrible deformities.

In conclusion, we earnestly entreat you to come
forward—posterity will bless the names they see
enrolled under the banners of Reform, Remem-
ber that all good men were Reformers in every
age of the world. Noah was a Reformer ; be
warned people of their danger, but they paid no
attention to bins. Lot /did in the like manner,
but the deluded people laughedhim to scorn ; the
consequence was, they were destroyed. All the
Prophets were Reformers, and also the Apostles ;
so was the great founder of Christianity, he was
the greatest Reformer of all ; and if Jesus Christ
'himself was to come on the earth again and to
persist against the Church and State in the same
manner he did against the Jewish and Heathen
Nations, Isis life would assuredly be sacrificed by
the relentless hands of the Borough Judases; for
corruption, tyranny, and injustice have reached
their summit, and the bitter cup of oppression is
now full to the brim.
By order of the Committee,
(Signed) - . SUSANNAH SAXTON,Sett
Union Rooms, Manchester, July 20, 1819.