The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1848-05-12
rna,.nd and ,ts Revolution.

the English government VIII, py timely cohces-
sions to the people, survive the revolutionary tenn
pest which is now raging in Europe. The opinions
thus expressed are founded principally upon the no.
tons and speculations of the British aristocratc
press, and upon the success which has heretofore
attended such moderate changes as the passage of
the Reform Bill Of 1880, and the recent modifca-
ton or repeal of the Corn laws. Men are apt to
believe what they desire, and we cannot be mis-
taken when we assert, that with many of the in
habitants Of large Cities the preservation of our
present commercial relations with England, is an
object of more importance than the enfranchse-
ment of her peope-these relations would be dis
turhed by violent revolution, and thence many
have persuaded themselves that no violence VIII
be attempted no subversion of the existing ofder
of things effected. This easy, hopeful opihioil' Is
founded upon mistaken view of the work OF re'o,
luton which is now going on in Europe. foiitical
changes the government of England might MAKE
t6 any extent with ease and impunity. 1t mght
grant-an independent parliament to Ireland DIS
solve the Union with Scotland sever the conhe4-
ion between the Church and the State, perhaps
or depose her majesty Victoria the First:an SEND
her good looking husband to sympathlse Win his
friohtened cousins of -Saxe-Coburg- Gotha; with
out materially changing its relations with foreign
States or the condition of its subjects at home. But
such ia not the revolution which the people want,
or which will bring peace and quiet to the realm.
The evils complained of are not political. They
are social ills that set the masses in motion. To
Ireland, what is the repeal of the Union! Or what
a native parliament! But an misunderstanding
more. 1t is proposed by means of the power which
may be conceded. to affect the tenureof the lands
.-xl-x ,I,k,e
politely called tenant-right, but which in fact
would be to dispossess the present propretors, who
hold by conquest or the caprice of the conquerors,
and give the soil ito the men for whom heaven de-
signed it, and whose toll and care alone make it
valuable. This may not be what the Irish pollti-
clans desire to accomplish but it is what the peo
pie want, and what they will obtain before they are
quiet and contented.
In England, the Chartsts only ask for universal
suffrage-and some among us are foolish enough to
think that the Government will give it to them
What care the agricultural laborers, the miners, or
the factory Operatives" for vote! Is 1t to sell
it to the candidate who pays the most! Is it to
send some of their own number to the House of
Commons to be rdiculed and sneered al by the
aristocrats! Be assured they look to their votes
for something more than mere personal influence Or
political advancement They have mighty and
an earnest purpose. Blindly they may go to work
and destroy much of good well of evil in
attempting to gain their ends; but those ends are
plain-they wish to throw off the tax-consuming
debt, to Danish the worthless swarms of place-hod
ers who eat out their substance; to destroy the
monopoly OF the soil by few privileged houses.
and to secure for labor fair participation in the
nf tl,oto al hat q
ders productive. The revolutions of the day, are
social revolutions; any change in England, Scot
land or Ireland, must be eminently so. The evils
of which the. people complain now, art, but aggra-
waited forms Of those which led to the wars of the
Jacqurie i'll France, and to the instructions Of
Wat Tyler and Jack Cade in England. But upris-
ings at this day cannot be suppressed in the same
summary manner that they were in those good old
times of feudal supremacy The steel-ciad knight
and man-at-arms cannot ride with impunty, rough
shod, over hundred haifclad and half-armed
slaves. Gunpowder, the greatest of Jewellers, has
placed the combatants upon an equality. and given
to the masses arguments to which it would be
wise and safe to listen. Even large standing armies
have been found unwilling to stfle the swelling
cry of suffering humanity. and the contests IN the
streets of Paris, Berlin Vienna, Milan and Paler-
mo, prove that the power has departed from what
was once the stronger side. With such purposes
in view, and such motives and means of carrying
them OUT there any good reason for the hope that
the people of England and Ireland can long be
kept under, or can be satisfied by any concessions
that the Government will make. What can be ex-
pected from the Government! Certainly not that
the classes who now hold the power should volun-
tarily resign their control, and with indifference
consent to an entire reconstruction Of the social
system-such supposition would involve a sudden
ard radical change in the opinions of men, and the
motives of human action, of which none but a
poet or a mailman could dream. Will they go on,
conceding little by little, with the hope that the
people, having felt their power to force their
Titles, will be satisfied without obtaining all.
This would be simply weakness. which by chance
might for short time postpone the convulslon, but
which would nevertheless render it inevitable.
For our part We cannot believe that Government
will ever have the will to grant, or that it will long
have the strength to refuse those thorough, radical
reforms whch'the masses desre-we can not con-
ceive how those reforms can take place peaceably-
how they can even be begun without producing
the most terrible confusion, and leading to general
arrangement of all the social, commercial and
political relations of Great Britain The patching
policy of the English school of politicians has done
very well in past times but it has had its day The
systems Of like measures to meet the exigencies Of
the hour will not suffice for the present crisis.
Wapole, and Pitt, and Peel did well enough in their
way-bribery, humbug, concession, would answer
where only administrative measures We're concern
ed-but more is wanted now, and what is wanted
is utterly inconsistent not only with the maintenance
of the British Government, but with the forms and
organization of British society.
The great issue between the existing and coming
order of things may not be tried this month or this
year, but the parties will never be at peace until
it is tried and decided When the contest comes
on it may affect the exchanges, knock down the
price of cotton, produce commercial failures, cause
the operative and capitalist, the prince and the
beggar the taxpayer and the fund-hoder to change
places But these are temporary evils, which one
generation, at the most will cure while the result
ing good will be eternal in its duration, and per-