New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1842-10-22
WHOLE no. 479.

IS TIER labor subsist the ,rages they receive
n Another writer remarks that, in the road whic
Inc English laborer must travel the Poor House
II the last stage OR his way to the grave To this
d add the startling fact that the annual income q
some nobiemen amounts to n, least $500 ,O0O-
ms terrible system is sustained by the poten, au
: monty OF law. by close confederacy of thos,
VINO are alone benefited by lis preservation, arc
1 oy Inc Whole influence OF strong government
Z Soouid we feel single emotion of surprise there
lore when we Rear of riots, mobs, burning. tu
NUTS, disturbances in this rich and fertile island
The few cahnot be thus exalted and pr, sed and
protected, but at the expense of the many, and ii
Is not to be wondered at that they should in mere
desperation, display their disquietude in acts OF
violence. As one illustration OF the rigid tenacity
with which they cling to the most odious laws. il
'ney nave the charm OF antiquity, Biz may be men
tiosea' that II was long the law Of England, that
the land OF person dying could not be taken from
MS heir 10 pay his simple contract debts and that
The perseveting efforts of Sir Samuel Romillv to
alter the law on this subject, were defeated again
and again in the House of Lords And the mea-
sure was carried at last only by an sdIot lcgsla.
tive rnse de gnerre; by bill subjecting the
lands OF tradesmen TO be thus TAKEN which passed
without Objection, and it was afterwards extended
to other persons
Such is brief sketch of the condition of the two
great classes into which society is divided in some
OF the principal countries of the Old World 1t re-
qulres but slight knowledge Of human nature to
assure US that there neither is nor can be any genu
Inc sympathy between them. And when l assert
that :" the former history of the world is chiefly
occupied with the struggles os Freedom against
| Bondage, the efforts of Labcrious Industry TO
emancipate itself from the yoke of Aristocratic
Power" employ emily the language of most en-
ightened and philosophic historian of the presen
day, Alison. What are the glitterng pages OF
Livy, for the most part, but vivid records Of bitter
teuds between the Patricians and Plebeians-oi
tumults, Instructions, secessions, violent thai
they were only appeased, at times by the fact that
the enemy were assauting their gates
Every country in Europe has been witness to fire.
quent popular outbreaks, because of intoerabe OPP
pressions. France saw what desperate men would
do in the war OF the Jacquerie-and she felt,
later day, that mighty wrongs were revenged by
mighty crimes. In England, the much-ridiculed
insurrec,ion of Wat Tyler-in Germany, the war
of the Peasantry under the gallant Philip Van
Artavelte-in Spain, that Of the Communeros were
only the legitimate result of an unnatural policy
Wherever such monstrous inequalities are created
and fostered by law, there must in the nature of
things be deepseated irreconcileebc hostility be-
tween the privileged and the unPrivileged classes.
It may be smothered for time, like volcanic fires
it may be kept down by the tremendous machinery
OF courts and jails, by armies of police officers and
regiments OF horse guards but the feeling exists
and will speak out with startling distinctness when.
ever and wherever it finds opportunity Imagine
TO yourselves obscure citizen, who casts stolen
glance upon his starving wife and children, as he
goes abroad to seek tcork- the most pi,iabe spec
tacc under the sun'-meeting the coroneted chariot
of some hereditary Noble, and his train attendant
distinguished for nothing but his wealth his extrava
gance and his vices. He is gaunt with famine--
his sinews are hardened by toll and esposurc-his
heart is scared by suffering-he feels that he is
doomed TO whole eternity of bondage, and he
mutters to himself, :" His wealth and my poverty
are the results of unjust laws" He is ripe and
ready instrument for revolution and mischief. And
ten thousand such men are in the heart of every
European kingdom ,-and their ceaseless agitations
are the unquiet heavngs Of the ocean--the cry of
their children, the wall of the sea-bird-that fore
tel the coming storm.
II has given me no pleasure thus to speak OF the
condition and institutions of the Old World. Nor
has it been done in spirit OF ostentatious prde,to
which, it is said, we Americans prone, but for
the purpose of better understanding own, by
making ust comparison between them. But,
phanthropist, it give. me no pain to iorssee
or foretell the mighty changes that await these
ancient States-in the upward prayers of these
CENTRALIZED millions. The overthrow of all these
cruel and unnatural systems is among the things
that we predes,inated and every year is bringing
nearer the term of its accomplishment. Banner
after banner is giving way and those massive
castles within which ancient privilege has en- !
trenched itself, will yield at last neyer-ceasing
assault, like the doors of Reginald Front de Bout
10 the ponderous battle-axe of the unknown knight
We turn with Joy, from this sad and dreary pic. |
TUE of human degradation and suffering, country
in which there nothing Anticipated except the trees
Of the prmeya forest; and, in the first place, to the
actual situation of the wealthy classes of society 10
this county.
In most cases colonsts have carried with them
the laws, the institutions, the usages and The re-
lgion as well the language OF the perent state;-
but our ancestors appear TO have acted from hrs'
to last by the rule of contrares Ii is scarcely pos
sibc to conceive stronger contrast than we pre-
SEMI in our form of government, and in all outlaws
and feelings in regard to wealth. father land.
1t is counterfeit presentment Of. two brothers.
The earliest efforts of Mr.. Jefferson in Virginia,
were directed TO the abolition of entails and the
law of primoge niture, and there is not now, be-
eue solitary State in the Union, in which they |
are permitted to exist. A writer on real proper |
~ who has colated the laws of all the States re-
marks, 'that it is the general it not the universal
policy of the law, to make the whole OF mans
property lighe for the payment OF all his debts,
oo,h during his life and after his death. They
are as uniform, too in prohibiting the perpetuaton
Of property in families by any otherform or ins,ru-
ment The general rule is that all restraints upon
the alienation Of property that exceed the itc OF
person living and twentyone years after, are ut
terly void After death, the property which man
leaves is first appropriated to the payment OF ms
debts and then distributed equally among BIS heirs.