Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-02-12
LONDON RIOTS AND THE EN-
GLISH ARISTOCRACY

LNNLfNAN IlOI - 4 ~ AsAN7
GLISH ARTSTOCRACT.
The London emeute is probably the
most serious and widespread mutiny
against the authority Of the state since
tha anti-corn-law riots Of almost half a
century ago. In the beginning some un-
employed workmen, who were perhaps In
actual want, met to unite their protests
against condition of affairs that left
them In need OF the necessaries of life,
and to demand some method Of relief.
Probably none of them thought of forcible
demonstrations. No programme had
been agreed upon, and it was far from
them to think of heading a riot. Bnt
their gathering together drew others to
the same point, who quickly perceived
that an opportunity was at hand to pre-
cipitate an outbreak There were Social
lists, hostile to the present organization OF
society and ever ready for a pretext to
make war upon il; there were thugs, out
casts, incendiaries and land pirates,
whose vocations bring them IN constant
collision with the law, burning for the
chance to plumber that II riotwould bring.
These, with the persuasion OF a few glib
tongued takers who maddened the suffer-
ing workmen with their harangues,
quickly infamed the crowd to the neces-
sary pitch for its subsequent action.
The riot began, and the owners of prop
erty suffered. The thieves robbed right
and left, and ran off with their booty.
The Anarchists rejolced for destruction's
sake. The real workmen gained nothing.
Some OF them will go to jail for punish
ment, and nope Of them are any better
off. Their violence has brought them
neither work nor bread.
While the rioters are condemned, they
are not without provocation A govern
ment so organized as to impose upon the
country hereditary arlstocracy, exact
ing its support from the earnings of the
poor is constant excitement to discop-
tent among those who bear the burden,
or think they do. They contrast the
grinding poverty that Expresses them
with the aflluence of the nobility, who en-
Joy every comfort that wealth can pur-
chase. As they tread the streets afoot,
searching for an opportunity to earn the
means to sustain life by hard work, they
see the equipages of the titled rich dash
by in all the splendor of unbounded
riches. They emerge from their own mis-
cradle novels and hear, for they are not
permitted to see, the sounds OF revclry in
the palaces of the great. ON tho strocts
they are jostled by staggering and inso-
lent dudes, whose accidental birth makes
them lords, and gives them special priv
lleges, but cannot give them brains or
breeding. Seeing these things, the la.
borer broods over his lot and grows to
hate the government that he identifies
with the system that Expresses him, But
little art is needed, when the opportunity
Is at hand, to work the passions of dis
contented men up to mutiny. The leayen
of Socialists and thieves among the Lon
don workmen was amply sufficient to fire
their passions and send them on a career
of havoc.
Men will respect the aristocracy of in
tellect. Whoever, starting equal In the
race with no special advantages
except such as nature endowed
him with, reaches the goal of
wealth or distinction and stands up
above the crowd, may be enyied, but he
is not hated. If he has won great riches
by his own efforts, by superior skill or
unusual self denial, it is rightfully his to
enjoy as he will. But the man who is
born to wealth, and position, and to the
possession of special privileges; who, by
virtue OF invidious laws enacted by repre-.
sentatives of his own class, is able to
sustain prerogatiyes that put him above
the competition of intellect in men who
are not noble by birth; whose pos
sessions, the aggregated plumber OF cen
turtles OF oppression, are secured to him
- i~'sS5 NhPt hltuOul Tue uNNtnLl-
tious patronage Of his position, would be
nothlngi such man is well calculated to
excite the hate and contempt of the thou
sands who feel that they are as good as
the class which, without an effort, enjoy
things that they cannot reach by any
exertion. And when the lower orders
see the multiplication of shlitless mobiles,
each q burden on the country, the won
der Is, not that there is occasional riot.
ing, but that there is any peace.
With the political power in their hands,
the common people of England have little
Justification In violent outbursis against
the nobility. They can abolish titles and
mobiles by peaceful means, II they want
70 and as long as they have this power
1t is foolish TO resort to force to show
their resentment at a,conditlon OF affairs
that only their own sufferance allows 10
exist.
Hard a., Cass.e..