Star.
London, England, 1831-07-04 00:00:00

TO EMMET OWEN, ESQ.
" On the best means of improving Society."
MY Dm. SIR, July 1, 1831.
A genuine respect for yourself, and an ardent
affection for the cause in which you are engaged,
induce me to trouble you with some animadversions
upon the method you are pursuing for the attain-
ment of the common object of our wishes and
exertions, the entire amelioration of society.'
It often has appeared to me, and still continues to do
so, that you have mistaken the direst for the cause,
in almost the whole of your proceedings. It is very
possible that I may be wrong ; but this reflection is
ever being suggested to my mind, that the state of
society which youcontemplate with so much delight,
which you advocate with so much ardor, and which,
in the warm and dazzling light of your imagination,
appears to you as on the eve of accomplishment, is
still at an immeasurable distance. Do not conclude
from this that I suppose it will never arrive.—On
the contrary, I confidently and fully believe that it
will come in the fulness of its glory. I have
within me an intellectual faith that it will come
with healing upon its wings to save uncountable
generations of men from misfortune and misery.
This faith is to me an evidence of things not seen,
the substance, as it were, of thing, hoped for. But
I am compelled also to believe that existing so-
ciety, even that of the most advanced countries
in Europe or America, cannot at once jump from
its present state of irrationality, folly, and vice, to
the promised land of hope, " flowing with milk
and honey." And this reflection brings Me at once
to the point of difference between us. Agreeably
to my view of the doctrine of circumstances, I am
forced to believe that the re-action of man upon the
arrangements of society is dotty: equal to the
action of outer and inner circumstances upon the
man. To take an illustration of this important law of
human proceedings, circumstances of various kinds'
had been operating for a series of years, perhaps,
for centuries, to engender a spirit of toleration in
the minds of Englishmen towards the various shades
and colourings of one particular religious dogma,
namely, the Divine Mission of Cu amt., but on no
account to any other religion, or the absence of
religion, and as a consequence of the action of
these circumstances upon a sufficiently extended
scale, an equal re-action has been made by man
upon the laws of this country, in the shape of the
repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts and the
Anti-Catholic Statutes. But the re-action has
gone no further, simply, because the action
bad gone no further, and Jews, Dlahome-
dans, Deists, and Infidels, or non-religionists,
will continue to be excluded from the British
House of Commons, although British citizens,
until circumstances shall have operated an action
upon society commensurate to the proposed re-
action of society upon itself. Now, compared
with any of the changes which society, from its
commencement to the present hour, has experienced,
the " Rational System," which you propose to es-
tablish, is decidedly the grandest, most important, I
and momentous of all. It is not merely a radical
overthrow of the present classification of men,
but it is the greatest reaction of society
upon itself ever contemplated by man, and
were it to take place immediately, would be the
most sudden and abrupt movement society ever
experienced. The elements of the first French re-
volution had been preparing for a long period ;
society was abundantly acted upon, as well by in-
telligence as oppression, before the reaction pos-
sibly could commence ; and when it did take place,
the surface alone was changed, the inner work of
society remained nearly as before, and the right of
individual accumulation was recognized as one of
the rights of man. The second French revolution,
and indeed all revolutions, political, religious, and
civil, hare been reactions of society upon itself,equal
to the action of certain circumstances upon society.
In vain do I look abroad among the great body of
any people for those circumstances which can pro-
duce an action upon society commensurate with,
and sufficient for, that mighty re-action of men
upon all their external and internal arrangements
which the rational system requires, so as to bring
it about within any very short period. Perhaps 1
am blind, perhaps these things are hidden
from me, but are manifested to you in all
their realities and bearings. It appears to
me, however, that you are inconsequent to
your own philosophy in supposing the new system
will begin to germinate, much less to fructify in
your own time, or even in my time.
I am compelled, by your philosophy, to believe
that while to-day is the child of yesterday, it is
also the parent of to-morrow—that while man is
the creature of the circumstance now impelling him,
he is also the creator of many circumstances which
will impel him, and that his power of creating
rational or irrational circumstances depends entirely
upon the rationality or irrationality of those circum-
stances which have acted upon him. I am compelled
to believe, therefore, that a social system so truly
glorious and excellent, so intellectual, so really
moral, and so genuinely happy, must be preceded
by a state of society not many degrees inferior to
that which is to succeed it, and that certainly it
cannot follow immediately the present state of so-

that, although all that you do is useful (as what is
there in the great chain of moral sequences, that is
not useful ?) yet that a more useful cause is con-
ceivable. I beg therefore to propose to you, (and
I do it with a full sense of my own inexperience),
whether, instead of carrying on an institution for the
establishment of a new form of society, and directing
men's attention to so distant an object, itwould not be
better to form an extensive union of the people for
the overthrow of those obstacles, which not merely
stand directly in the way of the social system, but,
by their deteriorating power, prevent even the
growth of those principles which are to give birth
to the rational system. For what are those prin-
ciples, but intelligence and genuine morality mutu-
ally blending and blended ? And the great obsta-
cles to the growth of these principles, what are
they ? Are they not the fiscal and other impe-
diments to the circulation of knowledge ; a pro-
perty qualification for the electors of members of
Parliament—a rel'gious establishment—and the
various monopolies which prevent free intercourse
between nation and nation ? These, Sir, are some
of the obstacles to that ardent Love of Truth—that
full liberty of conscience, and mutual toleration of
opinion, which are the essential pre-requisites to
the secure establishment of the rational system of
society. You will tell me, perhaps, that others
are doing this, that a sufficient number are en-
gzged in pulling down the old fabric, and
that it is your august mission to erect a new
and a better building. I must grant you
that many are so employed, but unfortunately they
do not work in the right spirit, and while liberality
and tolerance are their motto, illiberality and into-
lerance are too frequently their practice. They
cannot separate the system from the men, neither
can they distinguish the actor from the action. In
attacking an establishment they cast a slur upon
its professors, and invade the liberty of conscience
in others, by making too free a use of their
own, in hostilely attacking the• most sacred
recesses of thought. For while I admit the
propriety of always speaking what we think
and feel, and never wha t we do not conscienti-
ously think and feel, yet I do not, cannot, admit
the propriety of speaking upon all occasions all
that we think and feel. Genuine politeness (which
I grant has seldom or ever existed in any country,
its place having been usurped by a mixture of gross
flattery and grosser hypocrisy) seems to me to
consist in consulting the feelings of others, in all
that we say or do, as well as our own, and
never, intentionally, to wound the consciences
of any. Conceiving, therefore, that the present
pullers down, are not the best adapted for our pur-
pose (though they in their sphere are useful, as who
is not ?) I suggest whether you could not form a
grand " association for the general improvement
of the people," whose object should be the removal
of the obstacles to the well-being of mankind.
But you will say our mission is to build up, and
here I think you are mistaken, through the false
analogy employed. It appears to me, that in the
case of society, pulling down is at the same
time building up, for by every error that
is expunged from the human mind so much
is gained for the cause of truth ; and by
every erroneous institution that is obliterated from
society, so much is achieved for the cause of good;
and the truth and good already existing, gain as
much strength from the o -erthrow of the enemy,
as the enemy itself loses. The minds of men,
when freed frcm many of their errors and preju-
dices by the overthrow of their causes, would then
frame and execute an organic structure of societyl
in accordance with, and indeed out of the spirit
of the age—a spirit of which we can have no pos-
sible notion. To frame at the present moment a
code of laws in all its details for an age not merely
so remote, but so highly intelligent and so widely
dissimilar to the present, is at least premature;
and if you tell me that your code is for the existing
generation, then it appears to me impracticable
and inapplicable. It assumes for its very founda-
tion, what does not and cannot yet exist, a truth-
loving, tolerant population ; and even you yourself
admit that unless a community be formed of choice
materials, the experiment will certainly fail. The
question which I would thank you to resolve is this,
are you in your present proceedings and with
your abilities doing the greatest possible quantity
of good in the least possible time ? Excuse this
hastily-composed letter, and believe me, my dear
Sir, to remain, your my sincere friend,
AN ENQUIRER.

Hiss Majesty, the Duchess of Gloucester, the
Duchess of Cambridge, and Princess Augu►ta of Cambridge,
attended Divine Service at the Chap.l Royal yesterday
morning.
1) EAT II OF M R. ROSCO E.— Accounts from Liver-
pool announce the death of Mr. Roscoe. This venerable and
distinguished man died at Torteth Park, near Liverpool, on
Thursday last, in his eightieth year. Mr. R. was known
to the literary world by his valuable and elegant histories
of Lorenzo and Leo the Tenth, and by various poems.
Among the latter we may mention the most :beautiful of all'
political songs, O'er Use vismonsred hills, At. The latter
grotto of his mind wets devoted to the consideration of the
impottant question of penal jurisprudence.