Star.
London, England, 1830-03-01 00:00:00

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ME. OWEN'S EXP 4 ISE.

ROBERT OWEN.

TO THE CONDUCTORS OF THE LONDON JOURNALS.
05NTLI:Nt I:N—Perceiving that the cause of, and re-
medy for, the distress which, after fifteen years of peace,
is unknown to the Members of the British Parliament,
or, if known, that they have not been educated to ac-
quire sufficient moral courage to encounter the difficulties
to be overcome before an effectual remedy can be applied ;
I think it due to all parties to publish the result of my
experience upon this important subject.
I have notice,l the anonymous observations which have
beun prematurely made upon my addresses in some of
your journals; dud, had I discovered that they had pro-
c ceded from individuals who are familiar with these sub-
jects, I would have replied to them. These parties will,
however, now have an opportunity of investigating the
measures by which it is proposed to give relief
to all without injury to any. Your insertion of these
communications, when most convenient for your indivi-
clual nr:angements, will oblige your faithfnl servant,
ROBERT OWEN.

As presented to his Grace the Duke of Wellington for the contd.
&ration of the British Cabinet, containing the cause of, and remedy
for, the distress which now pervades the civilised world, but more
specially the British Empire.
TO lIIS GRACE THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.

31Y LORD Dttaz—Seeing, from the erroneous nature of the
principles on which society has hitherto been conducted, that its
present state is a most unsatisfactory one to all parties, and that the
British Empire, in consequenee of having taken a lead among na-
tions, in the false civilisation which these errors have created, has
attained a perplexing and painful pre-eminence, which it is impos-
sible for it much longer to support, I request en interview with your
Grace, for the purpose of explaining the outline of a system founded
upon other principles—a system, by the introduction of which the
evils that now press so heavily upon the working part of the popula-
tion, may be speedily withdrawn, and by which, without injury to
any, the condition of all classes would be permanently improved.
To this application your Grace replied by suggesting, as a better
mode of explaining so extensive and important a subject, that I
should commit my ideas to paper, as in a written form only could
they be acted upon officially.
In accordance with this suggestion, I now beg to submit to your
Grace for the consideration of Government, an exposition of the rea-
sons which demonstrate the necessity of a general change of system
throughout the British Empire, and of those which render the mea-
sures I am about to propose the only probable means of effectually
relieving all classes from the difficulties in which they are now
ir.volved.

That your Grace and the present Administration may, under his
Majesty's auspices, be the happy instruments of commencing, guid-
ing, and perfecting, such a change among the population of tbis
country, and, by means of Its influence and example, of gradually
introducing it throughout the world, is the ardent desire of, my Lord,
your Grace's faithful servant,

PROPOSALS FOR A CHANGE OF SYSTEM IN THE
BRITISH ESIPIRE, SUBMITTED TO THE CONSI-
DERATION OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT.
RESOLUTIONS EXHIBITING THE NECESSITY Or A GENERAL
CHANGE:
1. That the late proven made in the mechanical arts, chemistry,
and in various other sciences, has rendered manual labour less neces-
sary, and therefore less valuable, in a commercial point of view, than
formerly.
2. That manual labour being, as society is now constituted, the
only medium through which the industrious class can obtain the
n•eans of support, the reduction in the commercial value of labour,
has necessarily produced among them the great and general distress
at present prevailing
3. That the commercial value of manual labour having, in agri.
culture and in many branches of manufacture, sunk to its minimum,
while the extension of scientific power still rapidly increases, cam.
mercial affairs are, in consequence speedily advancing to a crisis;
the approach of which is viewed by the middle and working classes
(a number comprising two. thirds of the whole population) with feel-
irgs of the utmost anxiety and alarm.
4. That, under the existing commercial system, it is impossible
that manual labour should ever again successfully compete with the
powers of science.
5. That the working clue, as the only practicable, and at the
same time peaceable, mode of ameliorating their condition, will be
compelled to adopt a system of mutual exchange of labour for
labour, and thereby render themselves at once independent of; he
p non.:oigucing classes.
6. That this measure, if generally adopted by the working class,
would create great confusion and misery among the non-producing
classes, as their wealth would thus lose the adventitious or relative
value it now possesses.
7. That, although this system, if adopted by the working class
alone, would be attended by the injurious consequences above-men-
tioned, yet, that, if carried into effect by the aid of the higher classes,
and under the sanction of Government, the introduction of the mea.
sure would produce the most permanently beneficial results to the
whole population.
8. That the physical and mental, as well as the scientific powers
of society, are now so misdirected, that enormous evils, moral, poli-
tical, anYcommercial, are entailed upon all classes.
9. That these evils are daily upon the increase ; and that the
sufferings which they have created, are such as to excite among a
large portion of the community an ardent desire for a thorough
change in the system of society.
10. That, without a union of interests among all classes, a right
direction cannot be given to the recently augmented scientific
powers ; and that this union can only be efhtcted by an entire
change in the moral, political, and commercial constitution of
society.

PROPOSITIONS EXHIBITING THE NECESSITY OF A