fit and pleasure will ultimately arise from such a beginning. Some of you, perhaps, are very ready to buy a White Dwarf now and then, but find it difficult to make the purchase: save the two-pences which you give for other pamphlets: two savings of that kind, you know, will enable you to obtain one of our books, and though we cannot promise that it shall prove as vio lent and blasphemous as some others, we do promise that it shall afford you much more instruction and profit than all the revolutionary trash put together. Perhaps you do not believe us,—be it so; still you can purchase and make the trial,-the expense is not very great to any of you, and if one cannot buy a dozen can; it may be read by any individual among you; and to say the least of it, you will be thought impartial, and do yourselves honour by taking an account of both sides of the question. If you want a precedent, as the university gentlemen did, and object to purchase the White Dwarf, because none of the friends to publications of an opposite nature have purchased it, we will give you hundreds. There is one man in this city who has supplied you with Cobbett, Wooler, Hone, Sherwin, and the rest of these turbulent gentlemen, to a great extent: he was so well known in this way that he has derived a considerable sum from his trade; but at length he has seen his error; he still, indeed, sells those little books, but does not recommend them, and if he is asked which is the best, he replies, that which has the whitest and purest title. We know many others who will tell you the same thing; though to be candid, we must confess, that all will not; for instance, one says it is a ministerial book-though, by-the-bye, that's-we were going to say, a lie ;— another thinks there's too much for the money to be good for any thing; and a third returns the copy because it is too religious. You see well, that like the man with his ass, we cannot please every body, so we'll e'en take our own way, and try to please ourselves: let us, however, request you to read our book, and then if you do not like it, to toss it into the fire. You have been told, that you have an importance in society which is not acknowledged as it ought to be: this is true, for it is as impossible that the state should. exist without your co-operation and support, as that your mouths should be fed without the assistance of your hands. Many shrewd, but bad fellows have taken advantage of this truth, to impose upon your judgment, and tamper with your feelings. You have indeed had reason to complain, that in a long and arduous war, you have felt privations and necessities from which your more fortunate neighbours were exempt; but you must not suppose, from what this lie-monger crew have asserted, that your interests have been despised, or your comforts neglected, by those members of the community who have had power to relieve you. Recollect, that there is no society without its bad as well as its good members; and if we do not condemn all men who profess PATRIOTISM, because a few scurrilous blackguards have disgraced the word, by the mischievous use that they ADDRESS TO THE LABOURING CLASSES OF SOCIETY, 25 have made of it, so you must not censure, as corrupt and unfeeling, all who differ in opinion with the turbulent democrats of the present day, merely because a few persons have acted improperly. Your minds have been disturbed, and your tempers irritated, by a set of designing fellows, who have endeavoured to infuse into you a spirit of vanity and conceit, which you ought not to possess ; while they have overlooked the good sense and probity which you really do possess, and that too, in a most important degree. You do not require to be told, that of all people on earth, the British are the most noble, but you are to be told, that being the most open, they are the most irritable; and are therefore exposed to all the mischief which must arise from a belief in the assertions of impudent and unblushing impostors, who flatter only to betray you, and urge you to assert independence only to render you dependent upon them for life and liberty.These fellows would make the same use of you, as the ape did of the cat's. paw:-the ape ate the chesnuts; but the cat being caught in the act of stealing them, was beaten to death by the cook maid. your With a recent and melancholy proof in our minds, and almost before our eyes, how can we say that this would not be your fate?-Have we not beheld three victims brought to the scaffold, by false and blasphemous pamphlets? Have we not seen the blood streaming from their heads, while the authors of these pamphlets and of their misery, their real murderers, are still at large, laughing at the credulity of the people, and insulting our understandings by the exposure of their pictures in the print shops of the metropolis?-These wild and mischief-making men have, indeed, attempted to shift the blame from their own shoulders, by laying it upon another scoundrel, called Oliver, but in this particular instance, their shift has proved most miserable. Now, though we sincerely detest the very name of this fellow, and heartily condemn the choice which could single out such an agent, we contend that he was not employed until the seducers and betrayers of the people had rendered some such step necessary; and though we deplore with you, his unfeeling conduct, and believe that there is not one among the reflecting and independent part of society, who does not deprecate a character so vicious and abandoned; yet if we draw a line, we shall find him infinitely more innocent than those writers. This man, Oliver, was, it is said, employed to watch the suspected classes of the community; but inflated with his employment, and considering himself an ambassador extraordinary, with discretionary powers, he instigated to acts of hostility the unfortunate men, whose conduct and movements he was appointed to investigate. Oliver was a foolish, and a vain, as well as a wicked man, and his infamy was sudden and not preconcerted; but the instigators, betrayers, and seducers, whom we allude to, have all the wickedness, and more than the wickedness of that individual, without his weakness. They have poisoned the sources of social enjoyment-corrupted the channels of public virtue-polluted the order of our holy religion--and changed the face of human nature. One man, led away by their false and perfidious reasoning, has attempted to commit murder, and is now wandering in a strange country, without home and without virtue: another has committed murder, and expiated his crime upon the gallows; and God only knows how many more will fall, if you do not rouse yourselves, to drive these disturbers of your peace-these enemies of your tranquillity, from your society. Recollect, that the officiousness and unsought services of those who have done wrong, with the mistaken view of ingratiating themselves in the favour of the ministry, are no excuses for your attachment to men of NO RELIGION, NO VIRTUE, AND NO PRINCIPLE; and remember also, that though you may believe them incapable of misleading you, it will avail you nothing to plead the purity of their motives, should they succeed in plunging you in error. That nothing less than a revolution is the aim of these men, is too evident to be disputed: mark this, and if you have ever read of revolutions, or heard your fathers talk of them, if you have ever seen accounts of babes murdered, and wives and daughters violated, in hot and dark rebellion, you will shudder at the very idea of proceeding with men, who having nothing to lose, wish to gain every thing through your means, and by your instrumentality. Who will say that they will not desert you, as one of them deserted a party which he had formed against the soldiery at Burdett's imprisonment, taking to his heels, most manfully, at the sight of a wounded hand, and leaving his troop to get out of the scrape as they could; or as another has done, crossing the Atlantic to save himself, and leaving you to pay the reckoning? Let these patriotic leaders obtain their own end, and they will sacrifice you with as much indifference, as that with which the cruel emperor Nero wit nessed the destruction of his subjects, while be amused himself with the sound of a fiddle. We will suppose that these leaders succeed in their efforts; and unlike most wicked men, who employ agents, only to destroy thein, that they shouldspare your lives; what have you to expect from them, and under their government ?-Some of you complain of a ruler, and say that all governors are tyrants: now if this complaint were as true as it is false, as it respects this country, and you have one tyrant, what would be your situation if these men, who are all-tyrannical, should become your rulers? You would then have a republican government, composed of tyrants, the least of them more despotic than the Dey of Algiers. One of these Deys, by-the-bye, has been strangled because he was too lenient and humane; but this will never be the case with our false patriots should they succeed; for it would be difficult to find one, among them, who would not realize the most blood-thursty ideas of the most blood-thirsty people on the coast of Africa. Let this crew become your rulers, and you need strangle none of them for possessing too much humanity. This wants no proving is there one among them that has ever been known to you by a good action?—is there one of them who has a character for independence?-Not one! There is an old saying, and a very common one, but it is none the worse for its age, that promises are frequently made to be broken." Now if this say-ing was ever true, it is true as it respects the promises made to you by these false prophets, who endeavour to seduce you from your duty, we mean, from your homes and families, as they seduced the poor men at Derby; and who, when they can make no further use of you, will trainple upon you, and treat you more like asses than men ; knowing, that although you may not all have the same talent as they have, there is in your hearts a spirit of attachment to God and your country, which never can accord with their tyrannical and despotic principles. They are aiming to poison your understanding, and undermine your virtue; calling upon you, to assert your free dom, with no other view than to make you all slaves; and if they succeedin this detestable undertaking, they will goad you, and stripe you, worse than the poor blacks were goaded and striped by the white whippers-in, ADDRESS TO THE LABOURING CLASSES OF SOCIETY. 27 who were of the same kidney as themselves. If you will only give yourselves time to exercise your reason, aye, reason! for although these fellows talk to you, and write to you, as if you were all brutes and vagabonds, you have much sound reason, if you will but use it, you will agree with us in opinion, and ask yourselves this question, "Who, and what are the reforming gentlemen, who undertake to make us all free men, as if we were in bondage, when all the world knows, that we were born free, and are free, and will be free, and that if any restraint has been placed upon our freedom, it has been forced by our seducers and hetrayers, who have had art enough to avoid dungeons, which they have plunged others into, and wickedness enough to bring necks to the halter, when it is well known that they deserve to have the noose fixed round their own." We say, that if you will enquire a little into this question, you will find, that of all these men there is not one that has honesty enough to be trusted with a farthing of your money; if, indeed, their mad schemes should leave you a farthing for their use and service. Of all these good and virtuous cha racters, has any one among them assisted you in your wants and necessities, or contributed to your comforts? Not one! Did any of them, when they raised such a clamour about the Soup Kettle, give you part of that good Roast Beef which they talked to you of, and with which their own tables were abundantly supplied? None! Did you ever have a supply of money. from them on Saturday night, when your wages were insufficient to provide for the little extra commodities of Sunday? Never! When you were sick and in affliction, did they go to your bed-side and comfort you, or send a doctor to cure you? Did they, in the cold and bitter days of winter, when: the wind whistled through your crazy walls, and your hearth was fireless, seud a blanket to cover you, or contribute to any of the societies, which were. formed for the purposes of supplying you with clothing for yourselves, and fuel for your fires? When Hunt, the noisy, and Cobbett, the false, convened meetings in Spa-fields, and took you from your labour to attend to their mis chievous doctrine, did they pay you for your loss of time; and when many of you left your employers, and followed these disturbers, did they give you a shilling to help you in the sudden want which they had occasioned? They saw hundreds dying with hunger in the streets-did they raise them up, and, having done so, set any of the good Porter and Rump Steaks, that they made such a noise about, before them? When your wives and children, whom you love so dearly, had nothing but thin gingham to cover their backs, did they send good stuff gowns, and warm cotton shawls? And when our of these fellows was at a place called. Botley-where he could sit by his fire-side, drinking his wine, and devouring the good things of this world, as if they had been created for him, and him only-did he mount his horse, and ride. round to every poor man's cottage, to take a peep at his wants, and supply bini with a good round frock if he stood in need of one ? Answer us all these questions, and, if you say Yes, we promise never again to agitate your minds against them; but you will not say, Yes-a loud and expressive Vo will reach us from every quarter, and prove the value of our questions. We will now tell you what they did, and what they are still doing. At, as times, when all that could be said of your misfortunes fell far short of reality. when the honest and bold-hearted Englishman could find no means of em ploying his industry, and was pining in wretchedness, these seducers, like the Devil, who is always waiting to catch the unwary, shot their poisonous arrows against you, to corrupt your minds, and to pick your pockets of thes few pence which you sometimes obtained for the purpose of providing bread; for your suffering families. One drew out four-perce, another two-pence, and a third, twice as meau as the meanest of the others, had the IMPUDENCE, the VILENESS, and the CRUELTY, to take the very pence from you, to avoid thes payment of a fine inflicted upon him, for his misconduct. The pence which would have purchased bread for those who wanted it, and tobacco for those 12 to who like a pipe to wind up the evening, and cheer the heart from thoughts of sadness; the poor PENCE were extorted from you, who could ill spare them, to pay the forfeit of one who could do without them, and that onewe are ashamed to name it, "a Lord and a British seaman." When good men were inviting you to labour, and establishing banks to receive your little savings, which in a few years were to enable cheerful and independent, as the true inhabitants of a free country, these men unhinged your minds from virtue, and dragged you from your business into public houses, that you might become as unprincipled as themselves. When a very worthy gentleman, who had your interest at heart, published: a little book, about the dangerous effects of dram drinking, every hound in the pack barked in unison, and it was all down with Poynder, and up with gin shops. When good men, who love you as fellow-countrymen, are exhorting you to leave the public house, and to take your porter by your own fire-sides, with your wives and your pretty little prattlers around you; and when religious and virtuous characters are endeavouring to improve your condition of body and mind, by calling upon you to labour cheerfully.in the week, and to attend your church on the Sunday, inviting you also to read your bible now and then, to shew each other that you are really christians, these infidels are crying, no labour,-down with the church, and up with blasphemy! They are all venal, corrupt, and vicious, and they would make you as much so as themselves:-they would drag you from your fire-sides-strip you of the little that you possess,-starve you in their mad pursuit, and leave you to die unpitied. They are ashamed of their cause, and require your countenance as much as your assistance. Do you not see the soldier, though he detests his occupation, persuading others to embrace it?-Do you not behold the abandoned prostitute enticing the spotless virgin into her den?and does not the impressed seaman join willingly in impressing others?-Do you know the cause of all this?—They are unhappy themselves, and by a strange vice, common to human nature, they endeavour to make others equally so. Countrymen, have your wits about you, and shew these men that you are not the fools they take you to be. We believe, with you, that there are many things which might be altered for your comfort and advantage; but we would rather see them remain as they are-nay, we would rather see them worse," than have them reformed by men who would blend our ruin with their aggrandisement. Unite with us in checking the aspiring hopes of turbulent and seditious characters, and all good men will unite with you, in demanding that improvement which can only be perfect, when obtained by honest · and regular means. Thus far we have talked to you chiefly of political consequences and effects; but convinced that you all love your God, and value, as you ought to do, that blessed doctrine, without a belief of which, we have no inducement to do good, and no fear in doing evil, we appeal to you as men, and as christians; and we ask you, whether it is consistent with your views of religious matters, that you should, openly or secretly, encourage any efforts which must tend to overthrow you and your religion together. Now, perhaps, you do not know that all this designing and self-interested crew are infidels, that is, that none of them attach any credit to our ideas of christianity, and treat with ridicule, all who are weak enough to believe in that impostor Christ, as they call him; and that some of them even deny the existence of God himself, contending, that we were created by chance and knocked together nobody knows how. Now, you, who have much sound sense, will wouder how these men, cunning and wise as they are in other matters, should be such fools in this. You will say that they are not fools, but knaves and scoundrels, who reserve their new doctrine to increase their own importance, (when they shall |