The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-08-23 00:00:00

MR. BRINDLEY'S LECTURE ON " SOCIALISM."

On Tuesday evening last, a most numerous and respectable
meeting of the friends of religion, morality, and " social"
order, took place at the Music-hall, to hear Mr. Brindley,
the talented and energetic opponent of the system denomi-
nated "Socialism," deliver a lecture in exposition of the
insidious, immoral, and atheistical principles promulgated
amongst the ignorant and unwary by the arch-leaders of that
anti-Christian and abhorrent system.
The room, soon after the hoar appointed for the chair to
be taken, became filled in every part by a respectable assem-
blage, including many ladies. Amongst the gentlemen pre-
sent we noticed the Revs. Fielding Ould, Fallcon, R.
_Young, Squance, J. M` Crea, W. Maynard, 'and Power.
There were also on the platform, General M`lnnes, T. Sands,
Esq., Dr. Sleigh, and many, others.
The Rev. FIELDING °nen was unanimously called to the
chair, and stated that the object of the meeting was, first,
to hear an address, to be delivered by Mr. Brindley in oppo-
sition to the systein misnamed " Socialisni," and in exposi-
tion of its fallacies and Rernicious effects, with a view (on
the conviction of those present of the truth of the statements
advanced, of which he entertained no doubt) to procure the
signatures of the ladies of Liverpool to an address to the
Queen, on the late insulting presentation to her Majesty of
Robert Owen, the father of Socialism—a system founded on
atheism and immorality, and which in practice fostered and
induced all species of licentiousness.. He had seen a publi-
cation denying this ; but, to satisfy himself, he had searched
" The Social Bible," and found therein his worst impres-
sions fully verified. [The rev. gentleman here read extracts,
laying down the principles—that it was ridiculous to worship
anything heavenly ; that the correct practice of life was for
man to abide by truth" towards each other; and that" the
only means of human happiness was a " community," in
which the irrational sounds of " husband and wife," and
similar distinctions, would never more be heard. (Shame !)
[Here Mr. FINCH, the Socialist, who had found his way
into the room, and had seated himself near the chair, ex-
claimed, That book is not authorised by, Mr. Owen,"
"He has protested against it," &c.] This gratuitous and,
as it was known, unfounded disavowal, was received with
hisses and laughter.—Mr. SQUANCE said, that the meeting
was one called for a peculiar object, which admitted of no
discussion, and consequently of no interruption.—Mr. Finch,
though frequently requested to leave the room, and as often
pacified by those near him, continued to wince under the
lash lustily wielded againit Socialism and its promulgators,
and continued to interrupt; the speakers, by ejaculations
contradictory of the statements made, or applausive of the
principles of Socialism' at which the meeting expressed its
abhorrence. He was tolerated with great, patience. and, his
denials briefly but triumphantly refuted lay Mr. Brindley,
until towards the close of the meeting, when he foolishly
rose to propose an amendment to the address. _Tim force of
patience could no further go, and he was ejected. This pre-
fatory explanation will supersede the necessity of our recur-
ring to Mr. Finch's interruptions in our necessarily brief
report of the proceedings.]
The CHAIRMAN resumed. The poor, be lamented to say,
would become the especial victims of Socialism,' and. was
it not checked, it would spread infidelity and misery on the
land. He had read that very day of a poor man who had
imbibed the principles of Socialism, and had become insol-
vent : when his case was brought up for hearing before the
commissioner, the poor debtor was not allowed to take the
necessary ' oath, as his belief precluded it, and lie was
in consequence remanded back to prison. The system
went to sap the very foundations of Christianity itself;
to destroy all its admirable and humanizing effects ; to de-
priye those afflicted of the balm of its consolations. What,
he would ask, was a more delightful, a more blessed sight,
than a poor but pious, family, offering up their prayers and
adorations to the throne of the Most High ! (Cheers.) Yet,
of this Ptivilege, would Socialism deprive them. He,had
seen, too,)he wife of an industrious man, who was heart-
hrtikenlay hee hugband attending the meetings of the Social-
ists. For himself, he was resolved so far as his church was
concerned, to preserve all around him, to the utmost of his
,power,froM the baleful contamination of Socialism. (Cheers.)
With these opinions, he could not bet feel the utmost indig-
iiationa'when he learned that the man who was the very type
sand 4:wider of this infamous system had been presented to
her MairestY.' The' Socialists should take shame to them-
selves ,for.haaiag thus dared to insult their young, virtuous,
and uniu4Pecting Sovettign. (Cheers.) It might be asked,
what had the ladies of. Liverpool to do with this. But he
tbougha'ahat none could, on such an occasion, so fitly rally
round the throne, to which, such 'an indignity had been offered,
as the IaSII4 of England ; who so competent by their indig-
nant condeeinatioe of the principles of Socialism, to preserve
the dignify of that illustrious female. (Cheers.) He would
not farther tresPass upon theihne of the meeting, who would
now hear the address of Mr. Brindley. (Cheers.)
Mr. BRINDLEY then stepped forward, and was received
with great applause. He said that the subject having been
so ably introduced by their respected chairman, enabled him
to proceed at 'once to prove what he had said against Social-
ism, and bow far it was dana'erous, as had been alleged, to
join such a meeting as this. The system was one that in-
volved infidelity in its worst form. Infidelity was nothing
new : it had been inculcated in various ways from the time
when the aiicient mythology prevailed ; but it was left for
Socialism to scrape together all its worst and most demoral-
izing qualitie, without any of thoe refinements that in earlier
ages imparted to it a graCe and an allurement. It was a wicked
and shameless system of debasement—a system the most
wicked, the most demoralizing that had ever entered into the
mind of man. (Cheers.) His attention had been called to
sa letter signed " John Finch,". in the Albion. In this letter,
he (Mr. B.) was charged with uttering gross falsehoods and
mirepresentatiOns these"assertions he should be enabled to
refute. The letter. was ,addressed "to the ladies of Liver-
pool," and its object was to deter them from signing the pe-
tition lihich wouldhe presented that night. Mr. Finch, in his
" letter," says, " Ladies, before
.you engage in so infamous
ae, undertaking, / wish you to ascertain who the parties are
who put Mr. Brindley forward, &c." to ascertain the facts
relative to the late presentation of Mr. Owen at court, and
the address he delivered, because I feel confident, ,that if
these things were known, no lady who has any regard for
her character will have anything to do with' this notable ad-
dress and meeting." The object of Mr. Finch had not, been
accomplished ; he had made a mistake in his calculations ;
the ladies have come to the meeting ; and that, too, in un-
precedented numbers ; and whether they Lave any regard for
their character, I leave for Mr. Finch to settle.—(Cheers.)
Alluding to his,(Mr, Brindley's) late successful exposition of
the socialist system in Liverpool, Mr. Finch proceeds to say,
" If he-(Mr. B.) call it a victory, we hope he will gain a few
more such victories, as it has increased our subscriptions,
and made our audiences larger anaa Laaa.sasso 13"
who are the parties wise fait Mr. Brindles, forward in Liver-
pool? 'Let them give the names, and, inhey are sufficiently
respectable, we will appoint an individual, officially, from
our body, to meet Mr. Brindley,,or any other individual, in
public discussion, upon fair and equal terms." Equal terms,
indeed ! (said Mr. Brindley) ; that meant, no doubt, the
pocketing of the cash.—(Laughter.) Mr. -Finch, on a pre-
vious proposition for a discussion, had very modestly made it
a preliminary that they (the Socialist) should have the cash.
The same letter endeavoured to cast a stigma upon him (Mr.
B.), by insinuating that he was actuated by mercenary and
unworthy motives—that he wanted money. , Yes ! he con-
fessed it; he wanted bags of money—not for himself—but to
put down this abominale system of Socialism.—(Cheers.)
With respect to who it was that put him forward, he would
tell Mr. Finch that he put himself forward ; that he was
backed by no public Society; that he proceeded on his own
responsibility ; and that he hoped yet,,hy.a few; more " vic-
tories," to increase." the numbers, the subscriptions, and
the audiences !" of the Socialists.—(Cheers and laughter.)
Mr. Finch next accused him of having excited his audiences
in several places to acts of personal violence against the So-
cialists. He defied them to the proof of this. On the con-
trary, he had protected Mr. Finch and, others from violence,
which their conduct and principles had excited, and which
would otherwise have fallen upon them. The Socialists had
not so treated him. They had gone in a body into the room
in which he was to lecture in Worcester, had broken up the
meeting, and destroyed his furniture to the amount of £lO.
(Shame.)—This amount the Corporation of Worcester had
handsomely refunded, but he had lost the receipts of the
meeting and was saddled with all its expenses. Mr. Finch,
in his letter next said, " We challenge Mr. Brindley and his
friends to name a single individual, in this or any other
country ; or in this or any other age of the world, more be-
nevolent, more virtuous, more disinterested, or more per-
severingly useful to mankind than Robert Owen," and
he goes on to say—" The Queen insulted by receiving at
court Robert Owen! Why, future generations will consider
it the brightest gem on the crown, that she governed a
country in which Robert Owen was born !" (Loud laughter.)
" Yes, but says Mr. Brindley, (continues the letter,) the
ladies ought to be indignant because Mr. Owen says, ' that,
in his New Moral World, marriage will be abolished, and the
irrational sounds of husband and wife will never be heard.'
Mr. Brindley has been repeatedly told, that thig is a malici-
ous, wicked, and wilful falsehood." He (Mr.. B.) would
reply to the writer of the letter. Mr. Owen himself has ex-
pressed, stated, and published, that marriage was an iniqui-
tous satanic ordination, and that there would be no happi-
ness on earth until it were abolished. (Loud cheers.) He
(Mr. B.) would show that Socialism was at once an ignorant,
an irrational, an atheistical, and blasphemous system. He
should show this from their books and other evidence. With
respect to the ignorance which it involved, in their " Book of
the Moral World," it was laid down, that in their Social
communities, that there should be a perfect freedom of
thought and action; that they might act, and express their
thoughts and fellings, as they pleased. Mr. Owen, the pro-
jector of this scheme, said, that no two individuals were
alike in organization, physically or mentally, and that the
object was to train them to amalgamation. Yet, he said in
another of his writings, that no two were alike, and no hu-
man art could make them so. Thus, after all, the " Social
communities" would only be so many Babels, each consist-
ing of 2000 or 3000 individuals. It was laid down, too, that
each individual should, in infancy, be imbued with true ideas,
without any admixture of error,—yet Mr. Owen himself,
became, in his own estimation, the wisest, and most virtuous
man on earth, although he had lived amongst all the imputed
" irrationality, ignorance, and insanity" of this world, till
he attained ten years of age, when he was roused to a sense
of his ignorance and debasement by scalding his throat with
red-hot flummerty. Mr. Owen, however, contended, in op-
position to his own case, that if individuals were not imbued
with true ideas from infancy, without any admixture of error,
they could not possibly, be redeemed from error in after life.'
If so, why come to them who had grown old 'in error to'
endeavour to redeem them ? or why blame them who had not
had the advantage of Social system (a laugh) for being
irrational, unsocial, and insane. (Cheers.) Socialism (con-
tinned Mr. Brindley,) was an unnatural, unsocial, and un-
just system. It inculcated the doctrine that so holy a
name as husband and wife should no longer be heard. (Mr.,
Finch said—" No." A gentleman in the room said—" I
heard him state the fact in the Queen's Theatre." (Cheers
followed this statement.) He (Mr. B.) had heard Mr. Owen
say, that so long as children were brought up with their
parents, there would be a mutual desire to assist and favour
each other to the exclusion of the community at large,
and that, therefore, a separation must take place in early life.
Thus a Socialist " Community" could not exist without an
abrogation of all the dearest ties of family and domestic re-
lationship. It wawa mostunnatural system. It would ren-
der mankind not social beings, but mere gregarious animals,
like flocks and ,herds, all to be served up with food such as
their overseers or rulers chose to dispense. The sympathies
between parents and children endured to the latest period of
life ; and how strongly were they excited in a dutiful child,
even after years of separation and the influence of new ties
and connexions, on learning that a parent was on the point
of death. Yet Socialism went to dissever all those chords
of affection. One of its propositions was, to take their chil-
dren from their parents when they were but two or three
months old, lest children should be too loving to their pa-
rents, or parents love their own children better than those of
others. Another abominable regulation was, that married
men might, by application to the " directors," become single,
if they wanted a change. The system was immoral ;' for they
were to be allowed to express their sentiments as they liked,
and there was to be no modification of affection. The Bazaar
of the Socialists in London was a scene of the grossest fraud,
infamy, and immorality.. Even the notorious Richard Car-
lile had stated that it was replete with prostitution and
wickedness. lie (Mr. B.) had visited it, and could corrobo-
rate the fact. Their social festivals were iniquitous and dis-
gusting. 'One of their books, written by Robert Owen the
younger, was so thoroughly indecent and disgusting, that if
he had it—(be had thrown the copy he saw into the fire)—
he could not venture to read a line of it to such an assem-
bly as that. Even Mr. Finch would shrink from reading it
before any company. Mr. B. read some extracts from a
Socialist work, to the effect, that, marriage was an unnatural
and artificial system, and was the cause of all crime and
misery ; and that those who were married lived for the most
part in a state of deception and prostitution. (The reading
of this extract produced .a sensation of strong indignation.)
Yet the father of this, systein.was presented to our virgin