be

fidelity. Thus they become Drawing Books and Colouring Books, as well as Reading Books. Any abortion in drawing, any medley in colouring, have hitherto been considered sufficient for a child. Here it is intended to carry all the beauties of nature and refinement of art, not found in the palace, to the fireside of the mechanic and the cottager. These Books are the design of the artist who executes them, and may described as the tribute of genius and love to the education of children. The language, too, is simple, the verses playful, and the ideas pure. Some books by Mr. Holyoake, illustrated by the same artist, are to appear in the series. The prices of the various books will be various as the books themselves, from a penny upwards. Possibly some will be out by Christmas, but an account of their progress will be found rendered in the advertising columns of the People's Review. They can be had through Mr. Watson.

'BLACK REPUBLICANS!'

SIR,-Driven from the columns of our local press, we seek in the pages of the Reasoner an expression of our grievances in justice to ourselves, the Black Republicans,' as the miners of the north are reproachfully termed. You will perceive the disadvantageous position which the simple, uneducated miners occupy in reference to their wealthy and intelligent employers; and that not only in our inability to state our side of the case with equal strength and justice, but also in fact that the medium of its effective expression is mostly in the possession, or under the influence of our masters.

You will probably, to some extent, be aware of the great discontent which originated the strike among us a few years ago. It was productive of additional suffering, only equalled by the silent heroism which bore it, and of which nothing has been either said or sung; and although it starved us into compliance, it did not alter our judgments as to the justice of our cause. But it convinced many of us of the general inefficiency of the means employed in the removal of such a great and common evil. Suffering compelled us to return to work; but the winter of our discontent was neither softened nor subdued by the result. The late strike proceeded from a just cause of complaint, not from any excitement occasioned by Chartist demagogues, as was alleged. You know man and society too well to believe that forty, or fifty thousand men of all shades of opinion could be wrought upon to endure hunger and ejectment, to encamp on barren heaths, or in lanes, for a slight or an imaginary grievance, especially on a question which neither enlisted our faith nor our prejudices. It is purely a question of, and a dispute for, simple subsistence. Would we permit our wives, daughters, and sisters, to wander about the country in search of bread-to pass the nights in a hovel, barn, or stackyard, and, with a knowledge of all these privations fixed in our memories and in our constitutions, again leave our employment, unless goaded to it by the blind avarice of capital, and the reckless injustice of competition?

From many complaints, we will select one which involves a principle of some importance, and which will be readily appreciated by the readers of the Reasoner.

In the western part of the county of Durham an extensive mining company, composed principally of members of the Society of Friends, employ some thousands of workmen. The population of the entire works is variously estimated from eighteen to twenty-four thousand people. In 1844-5, an arbitrary rule exacted sixpence per fortnight from the wages of each individual, man or boy, who earns 10s. per week, to support a school and medical assistant; and this was exacted without the consent, and against the protests of the workmen.

To aggravate this grievous impost, the company refuse to produce any account of the receipts and disbursements up to this time. They fre quently, through our local oracles, inform such as are not in the immediate vicinity how they care for the spiritual and temporal necessities of their workmen, taking especial care to keep all mention of the black mail' in the back ground, in order to produce the impression that they do such things gratuitously.

Here we have certain members of a sect which has waded through the mire of persecution and intolerance, with a consistency deserving admiration for stern adherence to principle, no sooner obtaining possession of property, by the practice of a rigid economy, than they abuse the power it confers by filching the wages of their workmen to endow religious schools after their own persuasion.

If any disruption in the money market should occasion the concern to pass into other hands, say Rothschild's or the Sultan of Turkey's, and they either of them conceived the idea of appropriating a part of the wages of the workmen to teach or propagate their respective creeds, what a pious din, what a holy sirocco would sweep over their devoted heads! Yet does it alter the principle of justice whether the teaching be of Christ or Mohammed, or whom else, so long as the contribution is compulsory? But then some object, the contribution is optional in this way, you can leave the employ of the company. That is voluntary. Yes, in the same way the Friend may avoid the payment of church rates, by breaking up his house and taking lodgings, or leaving the country. That, too, is voluntary. Do you forget what your own moral essayist, Dymond, observes on extortions? When the creditor apprehended the dead body of Sheridan, in order to extort the demand from the deceased's friends-that was voluntary as the world goes.

The surplus revenue of the Bishop of Durham, principally derived from the mining operations in these church lands, amounted in 1847 to the round sum of 13,000l., not a penny of which was expended on the revenue producers of Consett Iron Works. The cost of their moral and religious teaching is filched from their hard-earned wages, and 13,000%. surplus revenue goes to enlighten the heathen. Surely, sir, if we are to have a spiritual education, of which we are by no means entirely destitute, it is not too much to request that a part of this surplus revenue be substituted in the place of our wages. It is surely not too much to ask, if this contribution is to continue, that a committee of masters and workmen should be formed to regulate the affair, and produce a yearly account of the expenditure to the subscribers.

* Dymond's Essays, page 41.

If we cannot obtain any of this surplus revenue, then give us our wages whole, and leave us to select our own religion, education, and physic. Such is the prayer of obedient servant, Darlington, Dec. 4, 1849.

your

TUBAL CAIN.

CHARACTER OF A PROGRESSIVE PAPER.

-

DEAR SIR, We have been dilatory in this place in forwarding our contributions this year, but they are now in course of collection, and will be forwarded in a short time by our secretary, Mr. Motherwell.

The Reasoner must not go down, if it at all can be prevented; because it is calculated to do a great deal of good, both as regards the matter it contains, and the manner in which it is conducted; and I am quite willing to double my amount, and will give more if it be required to insure its existence.

At the commencement of the present series it was intimated that an alteration would take place in the conducting the Reasoner, as regarded the literary matter presented to its readers. You will now be enabled, by its circulation since that time, to judge whether it has given satisfaction or not. But, however it may have pleased in other parts of the country, I am sorry to say that the change has not given satisfaction here; and likewise, I understand, the circulation has fallen considerably in consequence.

Along with others I feel that it does not now yield me the satisfaction that it formerly did, because its pages are now more devoted to political articles and discussions than in the old series, and theological questions and criticisms are held in abeyance.

The readers of the Reasoner, in this part of the country, consist of two classes, viz., the Socialists, and the liberal and intelligent among the Christians. The latter class read it for the sake only of the theological questions and discussions that it contains. The importance of the subjects interest them, and the manner in which these are written (especially editorial articles) are such as not to offend their feelings, while the principles enunciated are done in an open, firm, and uncompromising manner. This class does not want politics, and it would increase, provided that proper food was administered to it.

The Socialist will assist in forwarding all necessary political reforms, but he cannot, for one moment, make the great work of Social regeneration subordinate to the attainment of these. He has a higher and harder task to perform, which requires his utmost attention and most unremitting perseverance. The Socialist sees the physical condition of a great mass of society wretched in the extreme, but he does not see that it is necessary for him to become the advocate of physical force measures to compel the removal of that misery which exists out of the way. He sees that the moral condition of the people must be raised to a higher standard, and he thinks that that can only be done by moral means, and that these also would be perfectly sufficient to raise society to a state of physical comfort.

The Socialist sees a vacillating and degrading theology, inducing a false code of moral duties, standing in the way of progress: he would remove

it out of the way, and erect in its place a standard of morality in consonance with the constitution of man, and surround it with a code of duties rising spontaneously therefrom-which would be religiously observed and cheerfully performed, because these would be in harmony with the feelings of his mind, and calculated to insure him throughout life competence and comfort; and when the last solemn scene of life was being closed-that great bugbear of the present system-it would afford him a rational resignation to that imperative law of his nature. The discussion of mere party politics will not now satisfy the Socialist-he wants a practical religion, based upon the laws of his nature, unsectarian in character, that it may be universal in its applicability. He wants associations formed to constitute and foster that religion, as well as institutions to send forth missionaries to propagate truths connected with it-to instil these into the minds of the rising generations, and to illustrate them to the adults in all their force and simplicity; he wants also written organs to come out in all their power to aid in diffusing truth, that it may reach the fireside, the closet, and the reading room.

Socialism is a principle; it wants now the strength of a party, and proper leaders to bring it to healthy vitality, likewise a suitable organ of communication to diffuse and circulate far and wide whatever may be found necessary for its maintenance. The Reasoner has been heretofore a most efficient pioneer in the cause, and it is much to be wished that it would continue its useful labours in the re-formation of the social organisation of society, and leave the politics to those who think the rearrangement of these sufficient for their purposes.

With the highest respect for your arduous labour for the benefit of your fellow beings, I am, dear sir, yours truly, DAVID GLASSFORD.

Paisley, November, 1849.

[We publish this letter-which has been to hand three weeks-because it illustrates the wants of the most intelligent of Mr. Owen's disciples, and is written by one whom it is not possible to know without very much esteeming. The answer to its requirements is brief. There can exist no such paper as is here described. A sufficient number of earnest men of these opinions do not exist to sustain it.-ED.]

PACIFIC REVOLUTION.

MY DEAR SIR,-Accept my thanks for your letter to the editor of the Times, and especially for your repudiating, on behalf of English democrats, any approval of the sentiments contained in the extract quoted from M. Heinzen's paper.

I entirely agree with you as to the causes which generate such doctrines, and I desire to judge charitably of those who utter them; but I cannot help saying-looking simply at the extract-we scarcely do ourselves justice, in speaking of the sentiments it contains merely as 'disastrous sentiments.' The word does not express all we ought to say. Had you called them by a harsher term I could have forgiven you. But you are a merciful man, and never use ungentle words-and for this quality, I confess, I much respect you.