Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 67, No. 411, January 1850Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 67, No. 411, January 1850
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
One word in conclusion to our friends. It is the policy of those
who are against us--and indeed their last desperate chance--to
promote disunion among the ranks of those who draw their subsistence
from the land, and whose welfare depends upon the agricultural
prosperity of Britain. They are trying to set the tenant against
the landlord, the labourer against the farmer; and their efforts
have been assisted, to no inconsiderable extent, by the folly of
weak men, who, in their terror, are attempting, by all the means in
their power, to shelter themselves from the consequences which they
thoroughly foresee. Our policy, as well as our duty, is to maintain
a firm and united front. It would be madness to suppose that among
the three great agricultural classes, there can be any disunion of
interest. Landlord and farmer depend upon each other; the one class
cannot be prostrated without the other falling a victim. And both
of them have a duty to perform to the labourer, which must not be
disregarded. He, as the lowest in the scale, is often the first to
suffer; but woe to our land if the labourer should be trodden under
foot!
We repeat that we have no fear for the future. We see on all hands
the unmistakeable signs of a mighty reaction, which cannot but
defeat the designs of that grasping faction for whose benefit alone
this ominous experiment has been made. Deeply as we deplore the
misery which has overtaken us, we must regard it as the penalty
incurred for having swerved from the old path by which Britain
attained her greatness--for having listened too readily to the
suggestions of selfish and incompetent men. The experience of
each succeeding month shows the error of the course we have been
pursuing, and demonstrates the necessity of a return. Why should
we fear? England--that noble country which stands pre-eminent
among the nations of the world for its loyalty, enterprise, and
independence--for its regard to sterling worth in the lowest,
as well as the highest sphere--has awakened from its momentary
trance. The voice of the people, before which that of faction must
be silenced, is proclaiming, in clear and articulate language,
that the virtual possession of its free and unviolated soil shall
not be yielded, through fraud, to the foreigner, who never could
have taken possession of it by force of arms; and that the English
yeomanry will not submit to be sacrificed or annihilated for the
wretched interest of a handful of manufacturers, whose gains are
dependent upon the extension of a foreign market. We rejoice to see
that the men of England are up and doing. Their energy, if rightly
directed, nothing can withstand. Cobden may bluster, as demagogues
always do; and Bright may insinuate revolutions which he has
neither the courage nor the power to attempt; but the day for such
trashy vapouring has gone by, and England will no longer allow her
greatness to be perilled at the bidding of such miserable upstarts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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