Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Social problems
"To forward which glorious consummation, will it not be well, O indigent
friends, that you, fallen flat there, shall henceforth learn to take
advice of others as to the methods of standing? Plainly I let you know,
and all the world and the worlds know, that I for my part mean it so.
Not as glorious unfortunate sons of freedom, but as recognized captives,
as unfortunate fallen brothers requiring that I should command you, and
if need were, control and compel you, can there henceforth be a relation
between us. Ask me not for Indian meal; you shall be compelled to earn
it first; know that on other terms I will not give you any. Before
Heaven and Earth, and God the Maker of us all, I declare it is a scandal
to see _such_ a life kept in you, by the sweat and heart's-blood of your
brothers; and that, if we cannot mend it, death were preferable! Go to,
we must get out of this--unutterable coil of nonsenses, constitutional,
philanthropical, &c., in which (surely without mutual hatred, if with
less of 'love' than is supposed) we are all strangling one another!
Your want of wants, I say, is that you be _commanded_ in this world,
not being able to command yourselves. Know therefore that it shall be
so with you. Nomadism, I give you notice, has ended; needful permanency,
soldier-like obedience, and the opportunity and the necessity of hard
steady labor for your living, have begun. Know that the Idle Workhouse
is shut against you henceforth; you cannot enter there at will, nor
leave at will; you shall enter a quite other Refuge, under conditions
strict as soldiering, and not leave till I have done with you. He that
prefers the glorious (or perhaps even the rebellious _in_glorious)
'career of freedom,' let him prove that he can travel there, and be the
master of himself; and right good speed to him. He who has proved that
he cannot travel there or be the master of himself,--let him, in the
name of all the gods, become a servant, and accept the just rules of
servitude!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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