furled, not only on account of their dissatisfaction with its inscription, but because of the half-heartedness manifested by some who are nominally gathered under it. When one redoubted captain sends a message to a central gathering, intimating the heroism with which he will head the reserve in a future year, and prophesying that it will take many years to win the victory-who can expect the common rank and file to show zeal in swelling the available force? Much less can it be expected that general confidence should be shown in the declaration that a real fight is intended, when instead of a union of all the leaders for the main battle,-a distraction of purpose is devised and warmly followed up, by some of the chief lances in the roll of enlistment. Mr. Cobden stands Vice President' of the new association; but all the help he has been known to render it was the sending of his valorous and prophetic message to the great central meeting,-while he displays all his usual zeal in aiding the Freehold Land' scheme-a plan which inflicts sickness of the heart on tens of thousands, whose irremediable poverty under the present system forbids all hope of their joining it,-and raises just and natural indignation in others, who feel that it is an insult to be told they must buy the inalienable right of which they have all their lives been robbed.

Of such leaders'-for the truth must be told-the 'masses' in the manufacturing districts are now speaking out their opinions with a bitterness which can only increase in strength till it amounts to open hostility,—if some decided course be not taken by men in your own position. You, my lord, have no connection with the manufacturing interest, and could, therefore, head a determined movement for the Franchise, without any possibility of your sincerity and disinterestedness being doubted by the millions. You have not paltered with the question of Manhood Suffrage: you have spoken plainly out for it. It only remains that you use your influence with the Council of the new party, for their adoption of it, and, if you cannot move them, that you leave them, and plant the flag yourself. Do this with all the energy of your character, and you will, even before the opening of Parliament, find yourself surrounded with a host that will outstrip in numbers, a thousand times, the companions and adherents of Hampden, the immortal hero of your eloquent history. You were instrumental in erecting a monument to his memory-(dearer to the hearts of our order, my lord, than to any of yours)— on the field of Chalgrove where he so gloriously fell; but if you step forth and head this enterprize for giving every toiler a share in electing those by whom the laws are made, you will build yourself an enduring monument in the grateful love of a whole People.

I am, my lord, with real respect, yours,

THOMAS COOPER.

THE "TIMES" PUTTING ON ITS SPECTACLES.

WITH all its raving against Red Republicanism; its vile pandering to the crimes of foreign tyrants; its calumniation of such men as Mazzini and Kossuth -the two highest models of political virtue existing; and its characteristic sycophancy towards titled power-the "Times," now and then, does make admissions which set Reformers a-wondering. Three days before the close of 1849, it put forth these thoughts in a 'leader':

"What can be done with half a million a-year? It is high time to ask the ques

tion, for we are annually expending upon a certain hobby this identical sum. With such means at our command we could provide 50,000 persons every year with a new home in our transatlantic colonies, thereby releasing so many of our fellow countrymen from want and misery, and lessening to a proportionate extent the pressure on those who remained behind. We could complete, on the largest scale and with the most liberal details, the great work of charity on which Mr. Sidney Herbert is now engaged, nor need there after such a subsidy remain in London one unbefriended sempstress to sink under penury and toil. We could carry out the benevolent project of Lord Ashley with such effect that at least 10,000 poor families might be annually provided with cheap and wholesome lodgings, and a corresponding diminution effected in those crimes which domestic wretchedness originates. We could snatch from the street every young or redeemable outcast, and supply him with the means and the motives for mending his ways. We could establish and maintain exactly as many industrial and ragged schools as the exigencies of the population demanded. If we pleased to distribute the sum over the kingdom at large we might endow 500 grammar schools with an income of £1,000 each-a sum sufficient to secure 500 of the very best masters who could thus gratuitously convey the very best instruction to at least 25,000 scholars. We might establish in every single county of England and Wales a hospital with an endowment of £10,000 ayear-a sum abundantly sufficient to provide for every sanitary want of its population, to protect them all in sickness, to maintain them in convalescence, and even to carry to each private door the aids and comforts of medical science. We might build asylums for the deaf, the dumb, the lame, the blind, and the superannuated. What is now scantily and poorly done by scrapings and subscriptions might be then done with a medieval grandeur and profusion. We might recover all the spoils of the church and the inheritance of the poor. The sum of half a million a-year would be no sorry representation of all the charities which perished under King Henry VIII. It would enable us to redeem all impropriated tythes, to build churches wherever they were required, to reconstitute almonries and hospitals, and to place Protestant England above all the Catholic countries of the continent. Any one of these objects might be effected with £500,000 a year.”

"We are sure that any person acquainted with the sufferings of the metropolitan, or manufacturing, or agricultural poor would unhesitatingly acknowledge that a Government grant of £500,000 a-year, judiciously appropriated and employed, would keep 10,000 families, of five members each, above the starving point at which they now linger; and that, too, without establishing any preposterous rights of labour,' or infringing any principle of sound economy."

"Again, this yearly sum represents a present available capital of 15 millions, and what could not 15 millions do for us? It would supply every house in London with abundant streams of fresh water, would purify our river, would take off our drainage, and would still leave millions undisposed of. Carried abroad, it would cover Canada with railways, would call forth all the wealth of India, and would secure Manchester in a certain and unlimited supply of its staple material. Is there any project of charity or benevolence, or national duty or imperial grandeur, which could not be executed for 15 millions? It is as much as was asked for regenerating Ireland. It is twice as much as was paid for saving it. We are accustomed to deal with large sums, and our very obligations, unhappily, habituate us to formidable arrays of figures; but half a million a-year would be no inappreciable contribution towards even the reduction of our national debt. It is almost as much as we get from the Post-office, and four times as much as we get from the Crown lands. It is considerably more than the whole civil list, twice as much as the total of public salaries and allowances, more than the whole of all annuities and pensions for civil, naval, military, and judicial services, charged on the consolidated fund, and more than all the miscellaneous charges on this fund taken together. Such an annual sum far exceeds the aggregate income of all the metropolitan hospitals, and we believe we may throw into the scale even Chelsea and Greenwich. It exceeds the funds of any twenty charitable institutions in the kingdom, however Royal, magnificent, or useful. Such are some of the capabilities of half a million a-year; and now what is the object on which we choose to expend it?

"We consume it in maintaining on the coast of Africa, for the suppression of the slave trade and the presumed benefit of the negroes, a squadron of vessels which neither do, nor can, materially obstruct the traffic, but which do augment the sufferings of the slaves both during the voyage and before it. The object, whatever may be its essential character, is simply impossible, and the money is therefore wasted, to say no worse. We are led, however, at the same time, into innumerable inconsistencies and contradictions. We strive by all the means in our power to prevent the importation of slaves into Brazil, though they would there be occupied on those very plantations which we have selected for the supply of our markets. We buy Brazilian sugar because it is cheap, and we intercept Brazilian labour to make it dear. With one hand we gather the produce, and with the other we destroy the cultivation."

Pretty well, for the old hack of Toryism, Conservatism, and Protection,— Whiggism, Liberalism, and Free Trade, the Blue to-day and Orange to-morrow, the Every-thing-by-turns-and-nothing-long advocate! So then, the 'disaffected' have been right, all along! We, really, have had cause for disaffection. Poor men linger at the starving point,'-work, pay taxes, and still starve,-to furnish half-millions for their governors to waste on worse than folly. Why, this is what the starving have been saying for years: this is what many of us have been gaoled and dungeoned for saying-and now the Times' says it is true!

And yet this Times' writer would not, perhaps, so easily grant that halfmillions wasted on other follies could also be employed wisely and beneficially for the People. Nevertheless, the principle is one. Good government consists in making the People happy; and 'money is wasted, to say no worse,' which is drained from their want and suffering to be expended on 'impossible' schemes, or useless purposes. How many half-millions might be saved, then, by abolishing the gew-gaw pomp and barbarous splendours' of royalty,-the allowances' for 'civil, naval, military, and judicial services, charged on the consolidated fund,'-the keeping up of armaments for murder, (and if they are not wanted for murdering, serving as gigantic training establishments for pride and insolence among officers, and lick-spittle slavery among the men,) -how many half-millions might thus be gained for good government? The 'Times' will need more powerful spectacles before it can see the propriety of making its half-million into ten millions by such wholesale saving.

There is cheering hope, however, in the fact of these admissions being made by an organ which, with all its many-sidedness, represents so large a portion of those who hold power in this country. Good government is thus proclaimed not to consist solely in 'punishing the evil-doer'; in collecting taxes and defending the state from domestic and foreign foes; in keeping up armies of policemen to preserve 'order'; and magistracies and gaols to punish crime. It is among its duties to "keep families of the metropolitan, manufacturing, or agricultural poor above the starving point," to "reconstitute almonries and hospitals," to "build churches wherever they are required," to "redeem all impropriated tythes,"—to build asylums for the deaf, the dumb, the lame, the blind, and the superannuated,"-to "provide for every sanitary want of our population, to protect them in all sickness, to maintain them in convalescence, and even to carry to each private door the aids and comforts of medical science," to "provide poor families with cheap and wholesome lodgings," to "snatch from the street every young or redeemable outcast, and supply him with the means and the motives for mending his ways," to "establish and maintain industrial and ragged schools," to "endow grammar schools, and secure the very best masters to convey to the scholars, gratuitously, the very

best instruction,”—to "supply every house in London with abundant streams of fresh water, purify our river, and take off our drainage," to " provide persons every year with a new home in our colonies,"-in a word, to use all and every means that science and philanthropy can devise for relieving the whole population of misery, and endowing them with happiness.

Some of us may think that a new home in old England's uncultivated lands would be better than one in the colonies, and others may object to different items in the Times' list of objects of good government; but every thinking working-man must feel a degree of pleasure in seeing a European authority -for such is the Times-thus unmistakeably opposing itself to the barren doctrine, that the duties of a Government are only negative.

And to whom are these changes in the tone of 'leading journals' owing? The true answer is-to men whom the Times sneers at and reviles to Robert Owen and Fourier, to Cabet and Louis Blanc: to the Utopian dreamers,' whose thoughts have reached the minds of thousands in France and England, and other countries of Europe: lastly, to working-men themselves, who ponder on the long course of folly and crime, of wastefulness and wickedness, pursued by Governments, and who are fast approaching the intelligence which will enable them to unite, and reconstruct Governments for the welfare of ALL, instead of the misery of the Many and the corrupt and vitiated enjoyments of a Few. The bourgeoisie in Paris are beginning to think with respect of the very doctrines they lately treated with disdain. Marrast, and his National declare for a modified communism. The President Pretender's regime is thus endangered by the increase of union among republicans. The Times knows that another shake must come in France, fears it may affect our 'excellent institutions' next time, and would stop the mouth of disaffection if possible. THOMAS COOPER.

Correspondence.

Hall of Science, Manchester, January 4th, 1850.

MY DEAR Sir, I have read with great attention and delight your proposal relative to the formation of a Progress Union. I believe some such plan is absolutely essential, if we would raise our enslaved brethren, who by thousands are starving in the midst of the abundance which their labour has created. You ask those who are favourable to your views to send you their resolve. Here then, Sir, is mine: I not only feel myself honoured in grasping your hand as a brother and a co-worker in the glorious cause of free thought and political enfranchisement, but I promise earnestly and faithfully to co-operate with you in this matter: knowing that the end of all your exertions is now, as it ever has been, the enfranchisement and enlightenment of our enslaved order.

Last night, the Mutual Instruction Class, which I had the honour of forming here, three months ago, held its first soiree. About 130 sat down to tea: all went merry as a marriage-bell: wives, daughters, and sweethearts being with us. It was indeed a glorious night; and when I announced your Journal, it was received with shouts of delight. You may be quite sure the young men of Manchester will work with you, heart and soul, in this movement. Wishing you all success in the cause of progress, I remain, yours truly,

Mr. Thomas Cooper.

WALTER COOper.

January 4th, 1850.

MY DEAR SIR,-I have, in the first number of your Journal, read a proposal for the establishment of Progress Unions. As to the desirableness of such societies,

there cannot, I think, be two opinions. Mr. Roebuck, on a recent occasion, thus described the object contemplated in the formation of Mechanics' Institutions:"Some time since, there was a great and a good, a beneficent and a benevolent man. I am sure I may so speak of Dr. Birkbeck. He saw the new element which was introduced into society, and he wisely said, 'Let us see if we cannot enlist this new element in favour of good government, peace, and happiness.' And for that purpose he endeavoured to introduce Mechanics' Institutes. He did so-for what purpose? For this, sir:As in ordinary life we get combined powers to serve our other interests; as we have clubs and various other means to provide for our physical and our social recreations,' he said; 'let us combine the many-headed monster, as it is called, of the people. Each in his small might maintains that which we desire to advance; let him contribute to the education of his class, thus combining that which the increased knowledge of mankind has enabled us to do: bringing together all our separate powers in that which is called a Mechanics' Institute: thus bringing together the various and varied interests of society to the maintenance and the increase of knowledge.'”

The object aimed at was praiseworthy: it has only been partially realized. Mechanics' Institutions have not combined all the various and varied interests of society for the increase of knowledge; yet they have not been without their uses; they have been and are serviceable to the middle classes. The working classes seldom think of joining a Mechanics' Institution; but, so far as my experience enables me to judge, they prefer institutions for themselves. And if the Progress Unions you desire to establish will tend to combine the various and varied intelligence of the working classes, they will be of great service to the present and future generations. Some questions have taken deep root in the public mind, and require distinct movements on their behalf. The Suffrage is one of these questions. But my being a member of the National Charter Association, would not at all prevent me from being a member of the Progress Union. My association with other men of the party of progress, would not lesson, but increase, my usefulness as a Chartist, as it would tend to deepen and widen my knowledge, and for that reason increase my ability to do good.

My arrangements for some months to come prevent me from devoting my whole time to carrying out what I must call your broad and comprehensive plan for the improvement of English society. Yonr intentions meet with my most hearty approval, and so far as my time and circumstances will allow, I will gladly assist in the formation of Progress Unions. I am, dear Sir, yours faithfully, Mr. Thomas Cooper.

To Correspondents.

SAMUEL M. KYDD.

Correspondents will please address, "THOMAS COOPER, 5, Park Row, Knightsbridge,

London."

W. L.-The course of Orations, on Wednesday evenings, at the Mechanics' Institute, Gould-sq., will occupy Jan. 16, 23, 30, and Feb. 6, instead of the dates stated in last No. M. O. Much obliged. I have sent out, to various country agents, 40,000 small handbills; but I yet need the addresses of Agents in Norwich, Plymouth, Devonport, Portsmouth, Bath, Halifax, Bradford, York, Wakefield, Barnsley, Macclesfield, and Derby. If any News-agent in these towns (or any other considerable towns) will be kind enough to send me his address, and the name of his London bookseller, I shall be glad to enclose him some small handbills in his weekly parcel. Agents are also respectfully iuformed that plenty of large posters will be printed weekly, and if they are not furnished with them, I will take care that they shall be-if they will kindly send me notice.

A. W., Birmingham; T. S., Manchester; W. T., Hexham; and E. W. J., Chelsea.-I will, in an early number, draw up a list of questions, in history, morals, politics, &c., out of which Discussion and Mutual Improvement Classes may select some of their subjects; but, surely, a little ingenuity will enable members of such classes to devise questions sufficiently fertile for discussion.

F. H., Exeter. No wonder that you were prejudiced against glorious old Greece, by reading the prejudiced Tory, Mitford. Your prejudices against Mazzini and Kossuth, Ledru Rollin and Louis Blanc, must, surely, have been gathered from the Times. If you had weighed their own defences, from time to time, of their own actions and characters, -if you had candidly noted their procedures,-your conclusions would have been very different. I fear the air of your old city is unfavourable to real Progress. You will have everything to learn over again, if you get among the working-men of the manufacturing districts.