80 Non Sum Qualis Eram. 



It is not in human nature, that a large body of men should voluntarily 

 surrender any portion of consequence or profit, which they have once been 

 allowed to enjoy. There is absolutely no precedent to be found for 

 such conduct throughout the whole range of experience. No historian 

 records an event of the kind. The wildest speculative politician never 

 dreamt of its being possible to induce a large class of wealthy men to make 

 willingly any concessions, under any circumstances, to any entreaties or 

 demands, no matter whether reasonable or otherwise, if those concessions 

 should involve the slightest diminution of the pomp, and parade, and profit 

 of their existing condition. Individuals in such classes there have always 

 been, who would gladly have borne their share in such sacrifices; but a 

 number large enough to influence the general feeling of such classes, and 

 direct their conduct, has never existed, does not now, and probably never 

 will, exist. 



With this conviction constantly present to us, discouraged and grievously 

 discomforted in the inmost recesses of our anxious souls should we be, 

 did we not confidently reckon upon the continued demonstrations of a 

 paramount providential necessity towards a still further depreciation of 

 upper-class consequence. 



In common with all reflecting men, we know gross ignorance and abject 

 poverty to be so obstructive of man's moral energies, that they may be 

 said almost to destroy them. When, therefore, we look around us upon 

 the masses of our fellow creatures, depraved and rendered miserable by 

 such ignorance and poverty, religion, philosophy, conscience, reason, 

 humanity, force us to wish above all things, that these prevailing sources 

 of mischief may be, as far as possible, and as soon as possible, stopped. 

 We cannot suffer any claims of privilege through law or custom ; any 

 regard for the mere indulgence or convenience of any men, or set of men, 

 in the community, to deter us from wishing, that the whole catalogue 

 of other political evils might be let loose upon society, rather than that 

 gross ignorance and abject poverty should continue to disqualify the masses 

 of our fellow-countrymen for the moral purposes of life, and deprive them 

 of that degree of enjoyment in the possession of it, without which it must 

 be deemed a curse rather than a blessing. We disdain all notions of the 

 possibility of equalizing moral and intellectual acquirements and enjoy- 

 ment of life amongst the several classes of the community : the most 

 thorough conservative alive is not more sure than we are, that there must 

 always be classes comparatively uninformed and poor. But we maintain, 

 in vindication of the Creator's goodness, and in obedience to our own 

 reason and observation, that all civilized nations possess within them- 

 selves the means of averting intense and demoralizing poverty from all 

 classes; we know, that it is owing to short-sighted, selfish man alone, 

 wherever the means of sustaining life in adequate vigour, intelligence, and 

 comfort, are not within the reach of the industrious members of any civi- 

 lized community. 



A case might be supposed, in which, owing to the pressure of external 

 circumstances, such as war, or foreign tyranny, national resources 

 should be so exhausted, as to leave the upper classes in an impoverished 

 state, whilst the lower would therefore necessarily be reduced to extreme 

 distress. This is not our case. England abounds in resources. No 

 circumstances are operating to diminish the aggregate wealth of the 

 nation. No cause from without is chargeable with any portion of the 



