bluster, and the Financial Reformers prove as "decorous" as in the last Session, it can be shewn to mean the "preservation of our venerable Constitution," by simply letting it alone. If this be not undervaluing the worth of the speech Ministers have written for the Queen, there is the greater need that you, on whom the progress of healthful democracy so greatly depends, should, for the ensuing three months especially, exert yourselves in organising the getting up of Individual Petitions for the Franchise-according to the plan I presumed to recommend to you, in the Letter which is now classed as the eighth, in the pamphlet composed of a selection from the 'Plain Speaker.' I cannot forbear to express confidence that pouring into the House of Commons of a commanding number of individual petitions, each bearing the name, age, trade, and residence, of the petitioners, would have an effect, never yet produced upon that House. It would be such a powerful and unquestionable way of backing up the demand made for the Franchise, in the House, that no Minister could have the effrontery again to repeat that there was no desire for the Franchise out of it. And with how little trouble can you young men arrange the machinery for forming companies of 100 Petitioners, or fewer, as the state of population in your localities may demand, or for collecting 100 Petitions in a comparatively silent way, should circumstances pretermit a more public procedure. The holding of public meetings is, however, the more adviseable plan, if you mean your petitioning to have its full effect on all around you, as well as on Parliament. If large meetings cannot be held to propose this plan, a number of smaller meetings might be held, in one town, to advocate it. At such meetings, every young man who is a good penman, possessed of some intelligence, and is willing to perform the little labour which I have before pointed out as necessary to be discharged by the secretary of 100 Petitioners, should offer himself for such service. All who are willing to assist should, then and there, declare themselves; and this, with the speeches which would be delivered in maintenance of the right of every upgrown man to the Franchise, and the open declaration that you meant to persevere in this, and every other legal method of struggling for it, until it was won-would infuse spirit into your undertaking, and convince the listless, or the opposers, that their coldness or aversion would speedily become disgraceful to them. Again: if you think that there is something substantial in the Speech,— if you think that by the recommendation of "amending what is defective," and the sugared phrase "free and happy people,"-there really is ground for concluding that something is intended by the Whig Adminstration,why, then, you have the stronger motive for exertion. Only by such decided demands being made for the Franchise that they cannot, without more than their proverbial impudence, trifle with them and pretend ignorance of them, can these Whigs be driven to make their ambiguous something, a palpable reality. This their child-if it be actually conceived-is yet unborn, at any rate; and you, by energetic endeavour, may help to give a bolder outline to its features, ere it quits the equivocal matrix of Whig contrivance; and may even influence its parents to give it a name that shall have some meaning in it. I will not dwell, now, on other motives for your exertion in carrying out this plan of organizing the presentation of individual petitions. What new changes in continental affairs may take place this year, we cannot tell, or what influence they may have on England. Be in the field of patriotic exertion, and you will be prepared to take advantage of every opportunity that may present itself for advancing our beloved country's liberties. I had intended to address you, this week, in continuance of the hints already given on intellectual culture; but it seemed to me that I could not neglect to remind you of this political duty, at the present juncture, without blame. THOMAS COOPER. A POLITICAL LESSON FROM THE VASTY DEEP.' THE REV. W. Kirby, in the Seventh Bridgewater Treatise, which treats of the habits and instincts of animals, gives an account of a curious little creature of the shell-fish tribe, called the stoneborer. Having spoken of several of the stone species, he thus continues :-" While each of these creatures has a particular and individual end in view, in its several proceedings, its own accommodation, and appropriate nutriment and defence; the Creator, who has gifted them accordingly, makes use of them as instruments, which by their combined agency, though each, as it were, by a different process, accomplish, usually by slow degrees, His general purposes. This object, in the present instance, as well as in numerous others, seems to be to remove obstacles that stand in the way, and prevent certain changes willed by Providence, in the sea-line of any country, from taking place. Rocks may be regarded as so many munitions of a coast, which prevent the encroachment of the ocean, but nothing can more effectually prepare the way for the removal of this safeguard, than its being, as it were, honeycombed by numberless stoneborers, that make it their habitation, thus it must be gradually rendered weaker, till it is no longer able to resist the impetus of the waves; the process is very slow, but it is sure; and it is worthy of remark by what a seemingly weak organ most of these animals are enabled to effect this purpose: a fleshy foot, strengthened by no internal bone or gristle, but upon which they can turn as upon a pivot, and so in due time effect their destined purpose." There is a moral to be drawn from this quotation. There is a moral involved in it which addresses itself to every section and party of political reformers. From it may be learned how great a work may be accomplished by the persevering efforts of united powers, although each individual power may be insignificant, and to all appearance unworthy of notice. It preaches to us in the words of Faith and Hope-in the sublimest of eloquence, the outpourings of Nature's heart. It proclaims to man that the humblest atom in the sphere of creation has still some influence, direct or indirect, on the destiny of the universe. Motion and mutability are eternal laws of the world. There is no such thing as rest. Change is at work on all sides: on the earth, in the earth, and "in the waters under the earth." We can predicate of no existing being that it is a cipher. Nobody, nothing, is absolutely and necessarily a cipher. Everybody, everything, is in its nature a unit. Every unit is a power, slight perhaps, and scarcely discernable, but nevertheless a power. The multiplication of these units multiplies the power, increases its force, renders it more and more an important agent for good or evil. The Atlantic ocean is merely a conglomeration of drops, every drop of water is an ocean in miniature. Despair not, then, man, of thy weak brother! Weak as he is whilst he draws the breath of life, he stands the centre of an active social circle. Weak as he is indivi dually, let him join hand in hand with others no stronger than himself, and he shall generate a strength which shall remove mountains. Let the forces unite and concentrate their efforts upon the fortress, however well garrisoned it be, and at last the beseigers shall carry it. 66 The various factions of radical reformers in the country, more or less numerous as the case may be, are powers, which to produce a grand result, requires consolidation and an unswerving determination to fulfil their designs. They want combination and judicious direction. They are the stone-borers of society-the political pioneers "to remove obstacles that stand in the way" of popular progress. And there are many "rocks" to be thoroughly "honey-combed" and ultimately demolished, before the channel is clear for the ocean-tide of democratic liberty and constitutional regeneration to break through and find its level. The process is very slow, but it is sure." Aristocratic obstinacy is a "rock" that must yield eventually to the influence of the "numberless stone-borers." The tyranny of wealth is another "rock" which the political "stone-borer" must utterly destroy, ere social peace and happiness can be attained. Religious bigotry and narrow-minded prejudice against the people are monstrous "rocks" that education and general advancement will finally dissipate. But the "stone-borers" must work together hand and heart, nor be diverted from their task by the jesuitry of governments, ministers, and monarchs; and then in due time they will "effect their destined purpose." FRANK GRANT. MARRIAGE SKETCHES. "The hearts of old gave hands; But our new heraldry is—hands, not hearts."-SHAKSPERE. UPON few subjects are there more erroneous opinions afloat amongst mankind, than on that of marriage. The vitiating notions of rank and wealth intrude themselves into this and every other subject. : A couple, each possessing a competency of wealth, are united together in wedlock, and, though their dispositions are totally different, the whole parish declares, "It is a capital good match!" A young woman, possessing no property, nor likely to inherit any, but rich in feeling and intellect, is led to the hymeneal altar by a man of wealth,-one well to do in worldly substance, "dressed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day;" but whose mind is as uncultivated as his own barren heaths, and whose heart at best is but a boy, whence nought valuable was ever known to spring and all the relatives and acquaintances of this poor prostituted young woman declare, that "Maria has done well!" A young heiress is caught by a lover of her fortune; the priest declares that "they twain are one flesh;" and their neighbours exclaim to each other, in presence of their children-"What a happy man Mr. Reckless is!" thus poisoning the ductile minds of the rising generation with false notions of human happiAn old baronet's only daughter marries with an honest tradesman, and is disowned by her parents, who invariably look upon her as guilty of some heinous offence. "She has disgraced her family!" say they, "we will never look at her again.' As though she had ceased to be their daughter; or God had not "made of one blood all the nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth," and the courageous eloquence of St. Paul, on Mar's Hill, before the Areopagites, was a mere democratic lie! ness. Again, a nobleman marries the blooming daughter of an upright working farmer; and a wealthy country squire allies himself "in holy matrimony to the fair sister of some poor peasant; and they are excluded for ever from what is termed "polite society." They have married beneath their rank; they have degraded their order! The noble blood of the patrician must not be polluted by mixing with the puddle that flows in plebeian veins !!! With regard, however, to the union of hearts-the sameness of mannersthe congeniality of mind-and the relationship of spirit, all is mute as Death- -as silent as the grave. The moral and intellectual fitness of the espoused pair, is considered as a thing of trifling or no importance. True, that mighty master of the human heart, the player Shakspere, has told us that "Marriage is a matter of more worth, And Saul of Tarsus, writing to the Corinthian disciples of Christ, says- "Be ye not unequally yoked together:" not, mark ye, reader, in worldly gear, but as regards the more important elements of man's happiness on earth, the thoughts of the mind, and the feelings of the throbbing heart. Yet that many are "unequally yoked together," the domestic strifes and miseries daily to be seen, bear awful witness: whilst the tyrant, Custom, proscribes the choice of both man and maid to that circle, or caste of society, in which some lucky or unlucky accident may have placed them. Did people but well consider that the marriage tie is one for life; that upon it, in no small measure, depends their happiness and prosperity; we think that more consideration would be bestowed upon this important subject than is usually the case. What are riches? what is rank; nay, what is beauty itself compared to the enlightened mind, and the kind and gentle heart? Is not the poor, but careful, industrious, honest, well-behaved damsel, without one farthing in her purse, and with scarce a change of raiment for her Sunday's dress in all her wardrobe; is not such an one-(poor in pocket but a dowry in herself)—worth fifty thousand idle, ignorant, proud, extravagant, and ill-natured coquettes, though they be possessed of the wealth of Croesus, and his rank to boot? But such, however, is the corrupt state of public morals, to which the unhallowed systems of monopoly and competition have reduced the human race, that marriages are regarded as mere marketable bargains, to gratify the animal passions of mankind. Even the pulpit, whose especial province it should be to attend to the morals of mankind, seems on this alarming evil to be entirely mute. It is true, some noble minds will always be found, to whom such fetters of Custom are as mere spider's threads to bind an elephant. The noble of Nature is not to be bound by the slavish chains of caste, or station. He walks erect in the dignity of manhood, in the paths of Knowledge and Integrity; and wealth, and rank, and power, are to him as nothing. The "iron opinions" of the world, and its arbitrary customs, cannot bow his mind, nor bend his spirit to its will. But so long as these mock-marriages continue in vogue-these weddings of wealth, and not of heart, of rank and title, not of mutual love-every species of vice, every species of misery, will undoubtedly prevail: for legal prostitutions are they, and not true marriages, where the two hearts have never melted into one. May the onward march of mind--that sure pioneer of Virtue-speedily sweep this, and all other vices, from our pleasant earth, and bury them deep in the dark abyss of Eternal Oblivion. "Then let us pray, that come it may, As come it will for a' that, That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, For a' that, and a' that, It's coming yet for a' that, That man to man the world o'e So wrote and sung glorious Robert Burns, Scotia's inspired plough-boy, and the immortal poet of all humanity. Stokesley. To Correspondents. GEORGE TWEDDELL. 66 **Correspondents will please address, Thomas Cooper, 5, Park Row, Knightsbridge, London." L. M.-It was by an error in the printing that the "Baron's Yule Feast" was advertised at 18., on the last page of No. 4 of this journal. ⚫ Chartist of Sixteen'-Patience! and your first request shall be realised. Your second depends on yourself and other young men one Discussion Class in London would be only a drop in the ocean; they ought to be formed in hundreds of districts throughout the metropolis. F. A. W., Clerkenwell; J. D., Leicester; J. W., Northampton; J. R., Barnsley; W. B., Birmingham. Their poetry is respectfully declined. C. HOWARD.-I have no knowledge of the Poetical Effusion of Wrath, bearing the title of Little Horn.' It must have been either mis-directed, or lost in the Post-office. CHARLES LANGLEY.-Exceedingly obliged by his communication. its hints are not slighted. He will see, in time, that 'Young Mechanic,' Ashford, Kent. Get any system of Arithmetic-Walkinghame's or any other you can find in a shop in Ashford. Nothing is easier than self-instruction in Arithmetic. 'Latin without a Master' is very cheap; and any bookseller can procure it for you. M.D., WILTRIE.-He had better consult one of the two eminent medical men I named : either of them would attend to the case with the greatest kindness. M. PATTINSON.—I am surprised by what he states, and cannot help thinking that his informant was not correct. It would be something unexampled in this country. J. BLACK, North Shields.-The biographies he mentions must, surely, be found in some Mechanics' Institute Library, in his neighbourhood. Bernard Gilpin's Life has been often issued. PROGRESS UNION.-Letters from the Secretary of the "Cambridge Mental Improvement Society" -Joseph Clark, Islington-R. Ramsay, of Heugh Hall-Frederick Bell, Potteries, and numerous others, offering co-operation if the Union can be formed, are received; but since there is nothing new in their contents, I do not think it advisable to occupy space by the insertion of them. J. A., Coventry: Rest assured that George Fox's Journal is an old acquaintance. Chas. Andrews, Soho. So soon as the Critical Exegesis' is completed, I purpose inserting, not only the Orations on the Commonwealth, to which he alludes, but many others. Pamphlets received. "The Secular, the Religious, and the Theological'- What is Competition?' PHONOPEN. As a system of shorthand it is unrivalled; but, for etymological reasons, I am not an entire convert to Phonetic Printing and Phonography. J. JONES, Newark. Thanks for his communication; but he will see, in the course of a few more numbers, why it should not be inserted. Lectures, in London, for the ensuing Week. SUNDAY, Feb. 10, at 7, Literary Intitution, John-street, Fitzroy Square. "Perseverance, and Independence of Character, as exemplified in the life-struggle of Daniel Defoe, the author of 'Robinson Crusoe' "- Thomas Cooper. At 7, Hall of Science, (near Finsbury Square, City Road.) 'Vindication of Carlile and Taylor against the imputations of the Westminster Review'"-G. J. Holyoake. South London Hall, Webber-street, Blackfriars: Southwark Debating Club-Question : "Which is the most important period of British History?" MONDAY, Feb. 11, at half-past 8, Mechanics' Intitute, Gould Square, Crutched Friars. Chemistry of the Gases"-R. Williamson. At a quarter to 9, Finsbury Hall, 66, Bunhill Row. "Medical Aspect of Temperance and Total Abstinence"-Dr. Carpenter, F.R.S. At 8, Temperance Hall, Broadway, Westminster. Wrongs of England"-G. J. Holyoake. At half-past 8, Pentonville Athenæum, 17, Chapel-street. 'Combination, the Progress of Society, &c., &c."-Richard Hart. 66 "The WEDNES., Feb. 13, at 8, Hackney Literary and Scientific Institution. "Shakspeare's Ham let"-T. J. Serle |