Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1849-02-28

could be- found that sensitive and restless commas
sion winch has, in our time, extended a powerful
protection 10 the factory child, TO the Hndoo widow
to the negro slave, which prizes into the stores and
water casks Of every emiurant shin. which vince,
at every lash laid on the back of a drunken soldier
whch VIII not suffer the thief in the huks TO be
| ii-ied OF over'worked, and which has repeatedly
endeavoTod To save the life even OF tho murderer
IL IL true That compassion, like all other feelings
ought to be under the government of reason, and
cas- LOT war' oil such government produced some RI
dicuious aud some deplorable effects But the more
we study the annals of the past. the more shall we
rejoice ihat we live in merciiul age i'm an ace i'm
which cruelty ls abhorred and in which pain even
when deserved, IS Inflicted reluctantly and from a
sense OF duty. Every class doubtless. has gained
largely by this great moral change; but the class
which mas gained most is the poorest, the depend
ent. and the most defenceless
The, coral effect of the ovidanc2 which b,s
been submitted 10 the reader seems hardly to admit
oil doubt yet, IN spite Of evidence many still
Image TO themselves the England of the S,uarts as
more pleasant country than the England in which
we i've II may at first sight seem strange that
society, while constantly moving forward with ca
/ ger speed should be constantly LOOKING back ward
with tender regret. But these two propenses in
consistent as they may appear, can easily be re-
solved INTO the same principle. Bo.h spring from
our impaience of the state in which we actually
are That Impotence, while it stimulates MS to
surpass preceding generations, disposes us to over
rate Their happiness. Ii is, in some sense, unrea-
sona6ie and ungrateiui in 10 be constantly dis.
contented with condition which is constantly i'm
proving. But, in truth, there is constant improve
ment precisely because there is constant discomfort
II we Were perfectly satisfied with the present. we
should cease TO cOntrive 10 labor, and to save with
view to the future. And ii is natural that, being
dissatisfied with the present, we should form a too
favorable estimate of the past
In tr,fb
which mlseads the traveller in the Arabian desert
Beneath the caravan is dry and bare but far in ad
vance and lar IN the rear is the sembance of refresh
ing waters The pilgrims hasten forward, ard find
nothing but sand, where an hour before they had
seen lake they turn their eyes, and see lake
where, an hour before, they were toilng through
sand similar illusion seems 10 haunt nations
through every stage Of the long progress from nov
erty and barbarsm to the highest degrees Of onn.
lence and civilization. But, if we resolu,elv chase
the mirage backward, we shall find il recede before
us into the regions of fabulous antiquity tits now
the fashion To place the Golden AGE of ENGLAND in
times when noblemen were destitute of comforts
the want of which would be intolerable to n mod ;
ern HOFFMAN, when farmers and shopkcepers break
tasted on oaves the very sight of which would raise
not IN modern workhouse when men died fast
or In the purest country air than they now die in
the most pesential lanes of our towns, and when
men died faster in the lanes OF cur towns than thew
now die on the coast of Guinea. We TOO shall in
our turn be outsripped, and in our turn be enyied
1t may well be, in The twentieth century, that the
peasant of Dorsetshire may think himself miserablv
paid with fifteen shllings week that the carmen
Ter a. Greenwich may receive ten shllings day
that aborlng men may be little used to dine with
out meat 40 siey now are to cal rye bread tina
sanitary police and medical discoveries NAV have
added several more years TO the average length Of
human life that numerous comforts and luSuries
which ere now unknown, or confined to few. NAV
Ne within Inc reach of every digent and thrifty
working man. And yet it may then be the mode
to assert that The increase of wealth and the pro-
gress of science have benefited the few at the ex
pense of the many and talk of the reign of Queen
Victoria as the time when England, was truly mer
ny England; when all classes were bound toGethe,
by brotherly sympathy; when the rich did moi
grind the faces OF the poor, and when o. poor die
not envy The spendor of the rich