New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-07-23


diminish it, and to drag down the laborer
into bondage and degradation from which
he is now escaping, slowly indeed. but with
constantly augmenting momentum. The
doctrine of The Times is accordant with
the oppression and plumber of the laborer'
not with his independence and advancement
in social equality.
But man is drug and population a nui-
sance Man a drug The master-work
of God. the appointed lord of Nature, the
most valuable and efficient of productive
machines, a nuisance of whom there are
too many in the nation if not in the world :
This may be i fit and natural expression
fer the organ of an aristOcracy OF landlords.
shopkeepers and usurers, whose business Is
rot TO produce for themselves and honestly
enjoy the fruit of their own labor. but to
live and fauen by appropriatlng the labor OF
others But it is none the less false and
nhuman So far is Man from being too
numerous in the British Isles, that they
could easily support in abundance one hun
bred millions of people, while they now
contain but little more than quarter of
that number. The population has thus only
commenced growing toward its normal linn
it. which Will never be exceeded because
Nature will interpose. and by her own d.
vine laws. prevent it. And yet. while the
productive power Of the British soil has
hardly begun to be developed, and
while so great a part of it Is not cultivated
at all. we are told by the leading journal of
the Kingdom. that population is nuisance
and man a drug! Verify here is a blind
leader of the blind what wonder that they
should wallow in the ditch
We shall not follow all the surprising as
scrtlons of The Times, but our readers will
not fail to notice contradiction into which
this aimless wanderer in the night of land
lordism and shopkeeping is betrayed. We
are told that labor has been cheaper in Eng
land for half century past than N any
other country of Europe statement we
are ready on occasion, to dispute. This
cheapness has contributed to the improve
ment and the power of the country; and at
the same time it has put the labOrer most
efectually under the heel of money and of
power That is to say, the greatness of
England is based and built up on the degra-
dation and enslavement of her people. and
has gained in breadth and firmness In pro-
portion as the latter have sunk deeper and
deeper into the state in which they are a
DRUG and nuisance Either this is a con-
fession that the greatness of England Is
most unsubstantial and worthless sham, or
else it is nonsense for a nation can really
be great and powerful only as the mass of
its people are independent and prosperous,
not enslayed BY land nor by money, but owning
the one and having the other in their pockets
Now, we are anything but admirers of the
English system, and are perfectly aware that
it has hindered and prevented the improve
ment and power of the country to an in
estimable degree we are perfectly aware
too, that the shopkeeping policy, which
neglects the culture and improvement of the
soil at home in order to plant colonies and
monopolise the trade of distant regions is
utterly foolish and must finally collapse in
universal disaster, yet we see no way to
Justify the assumption that there is nothing
whatever that Is true and permanent IN the
growth of England during the past half
century. On the contrary it is a fact
that agriculture has been greatly eX-
tended and ameliorated, and means of cheap
and rapid internal communication opened,
and thereby great deal accomplished
in improving the general intelligence and
condition of the people. How much more
the English laborers know at this day about
their political and social rights than they
knew fifty years since. How much larger
and more radical are their demands. The
work vet to be done is indeed immense, but
the progress already accomplished is cheer
ing. For already the British people have
surely laid the foundation for another and
better England, after the great and inevita-
BILE crisis has passed and the present system
has disappeared in It's own ruins.
How profoundly does the concluding SEN
tence of The Times betray its detection at
the prospect it sees in the future. The
best it can promise itself is that the quarrels
of master and servant will increase, and
that more and more Britons will thereby be
induced to expatriate themselves. But such