Star.
London, England, 1830-01-14 00:00:00

ADDRESS TO THE BRITISH NATION.

FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN—After having visited va-
rious countries. I find you on my return increased in
wealth, and also in poverty and distress.
That the public wealth has greatly accumulated may
be inferred by the improved state of the roads and the
higher degree of cultivation visible in every part of the
kingdom, by the increase of the large towns and the
superior character of the new buildings, and by the
multiplied productions of every description which are
now created.
That poverty and distress also more extensively prevail
i•• equally evident from the increased appearance of
wretchedness visible among the lower orders, and from
the degree of corroding anxiety and care depicted
upon the countenances of the great majority of both
the middle and working classes ; producing among the
population of these kingdoms an appearance of less satis-
faction and more misery than is to be seen among any
other people, whether free or enslaved, in any other part
el' the globe.
And these results are produced in a country supera-
bounding with the means for the creation of wealth ;
and in one where public (pinion has a greater influence
in directing the measures of Government than in any
other, perhaps, excepting the United States of North
America.

It becomes, then, most interesting to ascertain how it
is that there exist such extraordinary means of creating
wealth, and of securing pecuniary independence to all
within the British dominions; and yet that there should,
at the same time, prevail so much poverty and misery
among a large portion of the population; and so much
dissatisfaction with the existing order of things, both
at home and abroad.

The cause is in yourselves, and from you the remedy
must proceed.
The scientific knowledge of the educated part of the
inhabitants of this country greatly exceeds that of their
moral and political knowledge. For, by means of
scientific knowledge, powers have already been obtained,
sufficient, if rightly directed, to saturate with wealth nut
only the British dominions, but the world at large ; while
the deficiency in moral and political knowledge is so
great, that these powers of production, instead of being
applied to the creation of the most valuable wealth for all
the population, are now so unwisely directed as to make
a few individuals greatly too wealthy, either for their own
or the public benefit, and to render poverty and crime,
and their consequent misery, unavoidable to a large por-
tion of the community.
The remedy for these evils is to be found, therefore,
only in tho introduction of more correct moral and poli-
tical knowledge among you. An accurate knowledge of
these subjects would enable all parties to discover the
great and lamentable errors into which mankind have
hitherto fallen in directing the powers of society ; and to
perceive that, in order to govern a country well, it is ne-
cessary that all its physical and mental powers should be
applied to form the best character for the whole popula-
tion, that it may be enabled to produce the greatest amount
of the most valuable wealth, and to distribute it in such
a manner as to secure the greatest degree of happiness
to the whole population.
These desirable results, it is evident, have never
hitherto been obtained for any portion of the human race :
and all are effectually prevented from attempting to in-
troduce into society such measures as would secure them,
by the mistaken system of morality which they have been
fo:.ced, from infancy, to receive.
To give a right or beneficial direction to the new scien-
tific powers of production, a union of feeling and of action
is necessary ; and that union cannot be permanently
effected among any portion of the human race by any
moral or religious system founded on the notions upon
which all the past and present moral and religious systems
of the world have been established.

Is it then desirable that for the sole purpose of keeping
men in ignorance and misery, that they may be more
easily governed by the few, while the few, also, are
essentially injured, that moral and religious errors which
generate disunion and a want of charity and of kindness
among the human race, and which prevent the enjoyment
of a very high degree of happiness among all people, shall
lr• longer allowed to be considered sacred in the estima-
Con of the public ?
My conviction is, that now there is no wisdom what-
ever in thus continuing to destroy the superior faculties
a the human race—that there is not one individual,
whatever may be . his station, who is not grievously in-
jured by this deception—and that for the safety, well-
-I.eing, and happiness of all, it is necessary now to un-
mask the hypocrisy of a system by which so many evils
of the most lamentable description are entailed upon the
population of all countries.
It is the moral courage to effect this object that is alone
wanting, in order to relieve the world for ever from po-
verty, or the fear of poverty ; and to remove the obsta-
cles which now prevent a superior character being formed,
and rendered permanent, among mankind.
Shall we, then, of the present generation, who have
been permitted to perceive these great truths, be deterred,
by fear of man, or by any temporary consequences, from
performing the greatest duty that ever can be performed
far the human race?
Shall we, for want of bestowing rational education
upon the people, and giving a right direction to their in-
dustry, see Ireland in misery, and agitated from its centre
to its circumference ?

Shall we see the middle classes rapidly sinking into the
lower, and the lower incompetent, by their utmost exer-
tions, to secure a reasonable support? And shall we see
the whole population, from the highest to the lowest,
educated under false notions, and surrounded by the most
vicious or futile circumstances, and not attempt to remove
these evils, when the means of removing them for ever
from the world have become obvious ?
Shall we see nations opposed to nations, striving to
obtain some small territory, when the earth is still a wil-
derness for want of people to cultivate it ; or contending
for the privilege of disposing of some of their useless
productions to distant countries, while their industry
would become tenfold more beneficial to themselves if it
were wisely applied at home ?
Shall we see nations inflicting, through war, almost
every kind of evil upon many millions of their respective
populations, for the mere chance of obtaining some un-
certain commercial profit, while these nations possess the
most ample means to gorge the world with the most va-
luable and substantial wealth ?
Shall we, I ask, see these enormous evils advancing
day by day, many of them hourly increasing, and dis-
tinctly perceive the cause which generates these suffer-
ings, and, from fear of an ignorant interested public
opinion, take no open and effectual measures to remove
that cause ?
Whatever circumstances may exist to prevent others
from now coming forward to aid in this great work for
the regeneration of mankind, none exist to deter me
from thus performing the highest duty that man can per-
form for man. Perceiving the extent of the evil, its
cause, and its remedy, 1 can no longer refrain from

placing them before the public ; and from calling upon',
all nations and people to put far away from them the
cause of their ignorance, their imbecility, and their vices,
and to apply the remedy in their power for the innumer-
able sufferings proceeding from these evils.

For man is incompetent to think as he pleases, or to
feel as he likes ; yet all the moral and religious systems
known have been made to rest solely on the contrary
supposition. This single error is the origin of evil among
mankind, and alone generates all the evil existing at this
hour among the human race. If the supporters of these
systems can discover error in what is here advanced, let
them now openly come forth and prove wherein that error

Deists.

_The time has arrived when it has become unavoidable
that the question should be for ever set at rest, and that
the truth or error of these respective system:-be made ma-
nifest to the world.

If it be true that man is forced to believe according to
the strongest. conviction made upon his mind, and to feel
according to the impressions which external circumstances
make upon his individual organization, then a very supe-
rior moral, political, and commercial system, for the prac-
tice of the world, may be immediately adopted, and evil
and suffering may be altogether removed from human
society. But if, on the contrary, man does possess the
power to believe as he likes, and to feel as he pleases,
then must the present wretched condition of the human
race continue without ceasing ; for experience has abund-
antly proved how man, under these notions, has thought
and felt, and how necessarily evils and suferings have
followed from these thoughts and feelings ; and thus
no hope would remain for the future.
But a new day is opening in Britain, which will extend
its light from these islands, until it shall illumine every
continent and every island where man dwells.
For the first time in the history of Britain, truth may
now be publicly spoken on subjects the most interesting
to man, without the individual being liable to be burned
or imprisoned, or without his experiencing any other in-
convenience than the being called, by ignorant or inte-
rested persons, a visionary or a madman. And when
truth can thus be publicly spoken, and have a fair chance
of being heard, it will be seen how soon error will di.4ap-
pear before it, and how rapidly every mind will advance
in the acquisition of real knowledge. Man must believe
according to the strongest conviction tbat can be made
upon his mind, and truth must, therefore, sooner or later,
prevail over error.
Under the impression, then, that every fact connected
with the subject will prove that all human evil proceeds
from the erroneous supposition that man has been formed
with powers to believe as he likes and to feel as he pleases,
and that this origin of evil must now give place to the
superior knowledge that man is forced by the unchanging
laws of his nature to believe in obedience to the strongest
conviction that is made upon his mind, and to feel an
obedience to the impressions made by external objects
upon his individual organization, I have developed a new
moral, political, and commercial system for the British
dominions, founded on this change of moral principle ;
which system will, in the first instance, be submitted to
Government for their calm consideration, and afterwards
be laid before the public, as it must, ere long, he
adopted, to relieve you from the dire effects of immo-
rality, and of misdirected scientific power.
The plan recommended is, to supersede the vicious
circumstances which pervade the moral, political, end
commercial system now in practice, by other circum-
stances of a more favourable character, formed in ac-
cordance with the now-ascertained law of human nature,
that belief and feeling are alike independent of the will
of the individual. Such a combination of circumstances
would at once relieve the world from all the misery en-
tailed upon it by the consequences arising from a con-
trary supposition; which supposition could only hays
been upheld, through past ages, by reason of the igno-
rance which pervaded the human race upon these all-
, important subjects.
No such change, however, as that which I propose
can be established unless borne out by the sanction of a
majority of the reflecting part of the population.
I therefore thus address you, that you may at leisure
consider the principles upon which the proposed change
is founded, and that all who may deem themselves in-
terested in opposing that change, or its principles, may
have an opportunity of bringing forward their objections
with the least delay. I say with the least delay, be-
cause the sufferings of a large part of the industrious
classes in Great Britain and Ireland, are now almost
greater than they can submit to, without seeking a re-
medy for themselves, unaided by the non-producing
classes; and because, while the existing moral, political,
and commercial systems shall continue, these sufferings
must unavoidably increase.
Bedford-aquae, Jan.

ROBT. OWEN.

Lord Ex wrEft's racing speculations in the last seaon
were more fortunate than those of the Duke of GRA TTON
in his best days. Taking the winnings of Greenmantle,
Varna, Patron, the Ada Colt, Enamel, Acacia, Redgaunt-
let, Mahmoud, Folly, Pere, and Father Long Legs, the
aggregate is 12,4251 And winnings by betting, the No-
ble Lord's incomings from these two sources cannot be
less than 25,0001. _ _

Coals have been delivered from on board the ships, at
Southampton, all the winter, at 345. to 365. and aro now
selling at the latter price.
Last week a distribution of coal, given by the Viscount
Clive, was made to the poor in the neighbourhood of
Powis Castle, when upwards of six hundred families were
supplied, receiving different quantities according to their
respective wants.
The fall of snow on Monday night and yesterday
morning was heavier than in any preceding part of the
winter.

The excessive cold of which we have lately com-
plained, is a spring temperature compared with that of
the arctic regions in which our gallant -countryman
Ross is now, we trust, successfully employed; for
during the sojourn of Captain Parry at Winter Island,
the thermometer for months never indicated a higher tem-
perature than 17i deg. was frequently at 50 deg. and once
at 55 deg. below Zero, and that, too, during a night which
lasted nearly three months It is amid such scenes,
such a temperature, that our sailors under Captain Roes
are now, perhaps, employed in their steamer. We are not,
however, without oar sanguine hopes, that whilst we are
writing they may have effected their passage around the
north coast of*America, and, by Behring's Straits, have
visited the grave of Clerke, the companion and successor
of Cook. The report of the whale fishermen is decidedly
favourable ; they never remember the sea so clear of ice
as it has been this summer, or the weather so warm.
We think, too, that a steamer presents facilities in those
dreary seas of which no former explorer had the ad-
vantage ; and though we could have wished the vessel
employed by Ross to have been of greater speed, yet still
the power which he now possesses of going-fearlessly into
bays, and amid floating islands of ice, without dread of
being becalmed, is one never possessed by any former
navigator.—Magazine of Litererture, No. I.