Vous pretensions of infidel philanthropy. We therefore beg leave to subjoin one or two comments of our author, on the Secretary of State for the Home Department. They are ludicrously egotistical, (if we may use the word,) and highly characteristic. Having been in Newgate on a particular occasion, he saw a young man, 16 years of age, subjected to the punishment of double irons, for some atrocious offence. Without any inquiry into the circumstances of the case, he commits to paper, and publishes, the following impertinent strictures his Lordship. "The chief civil magistrate of the country, in such case, is far more guilty than the boy; and, in strict justice, if a system of coercion and punishment be ra. tional and necessary, he ought rather to be doubly ironed, and in place of the boy. The Secretary of State for the Home Department, has long had the power, and ought to have used it, to give that and every other boy in the empire better habits, and to place them under circumstances that would train them to become moral.""Let ministers attend here, and they will discover that the most powerful instruments of government have hitherto been dormant in their hands, and in those of their predecessors.""The Secretary of State for the Home Department is pursuing, and for some time to come, I fear, must pursue, a course which creates, in its consequences, more cruelty and injustice than may be obvious to him and to many others: and, therefore, notwithstanding I feel a real regard for the individual, I must oppose, WITH ALL MY POWERS, the errors of the system under which he acts; and I hope the time is not far distant when he also will lend his utmost ministerial aid to introduce a better Thus he looks down upon the ministers of the country as a kind of good-natured, well-intentioned, ignorant, inefficient beings, infinitely below him in the science of go vernment. The only credit he allows them-a miserable one truly is, that " they are now as conscious as any other class in society, that No. I. New View. the way in which they find themselves fast advancing, is the high road to confusion and misery." But of the OPPOSITION he entertains not the faintest glimpse of hope, that any thing beneficial to the country will ever be produced by them. That is the clear import of the following extract. "The OPPOSITION have involved themselves in a maze of false intelligence, somewhat gratifying to discourse about, because it possesses the appearance of much learning; but, when examined accurately, it possesses no substance; it cannot be rendered of any practical use whatever; and, were they to be placed in power to morrow, they would be found, with the exception of Lord Grenville, and a few adequate to the task of removing the disothers, to be mere theorists, and quite intress of the country +." These few particulars may serve to give a general idea of what Mr. Owen means by New View of Society. The view is, certainly, as moralists and reformists, in all a whole, a new one: for though ages and nations hitherto, have proceeded upon the undeniable fact, that the great mass of mankind are ignorant, and addicted to vicious and immoral habits, not one of them appears to have even conceived the idea of bringing the whole human race under a sentence of insanity, irrationality, wickedness, &c. with the solitary exception of his own self-illuminated self-not one of them appears to have systematically and daringly withheld all recognition of Almighty God as the governor of the world, whose laws have been violated, and whose displeasure has been incurred-not one of them appears to have stigmatized, without one solitary exception, every man's religion, every man's class or station in society, every man's party or political bias, and every man's country, as forming around + No. II. New View. him an atmosphere of prejudice and error. No, that was a measure of folly and infatuated raving, of which the weakest, the wildest, the most ignorant among them, were thoroughly free. It has been reserved for our author. He has acquired thereby a notoriety which, in his imagination, places him on the pinnacle of human greatness, and must make him the polar star of infidel or semi-atheistical reformists; but which, in our apprehension, can only make him be gazed upon, and guarded against, as an ignorant pretender and a dangerous innovator. Before we enter on the subject of his NEW STATE OF SOCIETY we beg to make a few remarks on the following singular passage in No. III. as it seems to be intended to point out the origin of vice and virtue, what has occasioned the Old, and what, under his superintendence, will produce the New order of things. After stating, somewhat allegorically, that "charity, demonstrable truth, and sincerity," are to preside, as the active agents, over the whole dominion of the New State of Society, he thus proceeds: "They decreed it to be just that as Nature was always passive before birth, in infancy, childhood, and youth, and was made beneficially or injuriously active by the treatment she had previously experienced THAT NATURE COULD DO NO WRONG; and, therefore, could never become a proper subject for punishment that the cause of all her errors proceeded from the powers that acted upon her in her passive state— and that, if these were consistent and proper, NATURE WOULD BECOME ACTIVELY GOOD, and, in consequence, UNIVERSALLY but if they were irrational and BELOVED; improper, NATURE WOULD BECOME DISGUSTING AND WICKED, and, in consequence, DISLIKED AND HATED ALL BY Here we are told that human nature (for no other nature can be meant,) can do no wrong; the reason of which is, that it is always passive before birth, in infancy, childhood, and youth-Wonderful! Farther, that, though human na. ture can do no wrong, it is chargeable with errors, and may become disgusting and wicked-more wonderful!! Nay, that it is made be neficially or injuriously active by the treatment which it previously experiences, i. e. experiences before birth, in infancy, childhood, and youth-still more wonderful!!! We have heard of a man in Carluke parish, whose mind was so peculiarly constructed that he relished those writings only which, he said, jumbled the judgment and confounded the understanding. If he be still alive, he will find, in this paragraph, something exquisitely adapted to his taste; for it has few equals, and no superiors, in the compositions of modern amateur visionaries and paradoxical theorists. It is needless to waste time in showing, that, by Nature, Mr. Owen must, if he meant any thing at all intelligible to mortals, have meant MANKIND, and for this plain reason, that it is to them on ly that what he here predicates of it can possibly apply. Let us then set aside, for a moment, the imaginary character Nature, and give place to the proper one Mankind; and, with this legitimate alteration, read the quotation over again, and we shall see it in all its immaculate STOLIDITY. They decreed it to be just that, as MANKIND were always passive before birth, in infancy, childhood, and youth, and were made beneficially or injuriously active by the treatment they had previously experienced-THAT MANKIND COULD DO NO WRONG; and, therefore, could never become proper subjects for punishmentthat the cause of all their errors proceeded from the powers which acted upon them in their passive state-and that, if these were No. III. New State. consistent and proper, they would become actively good; and, in consequence, universally beloved; but, if they were irrational and improper, they would become disgusting and wicked, and, in consequence, disliked and hated by all. We verily believe, that "charity, demonstrable truth, and sincerity," have decreed, that all this is stark who nonsense; and that the person has had the assurance to ascribe it to them, is not possessed of the clearest understanding; and that, if he has any followers, he must be "a blind leader of the blind." But we do not mean thus to cast away this notable paragraph. That would be dealing unfairly by our author; who, by the formal introduction of large Roman and small italic letters, distinctly intimates that he considers it an overpowering display of original thinking, to which all should give attention, and from which all may derive a knowledge of truth heretofore concealed from mortal ken. Let us then attend to it more closely. It certainly contains this position, That human nature can do no wrong during infancy, childhood, and youth, because, during these periods, it is in a passive state. Our author has not said how long the period of youth continues. But as he has stated that he saw in New. gate a boy sixteen years old, he must allow that it continues till at least boyhood be passed. The position, then, stands thus: That man's nature, (which, let it be observed, is necessarily moral and intellectual,) is passive for at least the first sixteen years of his life; and that, consequently, whatever be his conduct, no charge of immorality or crime can be justly brought against him, so as to infer the infliction of any expression of displeasure, either of look, word, or action, which may operate upon him as a punishment. A single example will illustrate both the nature of this doctrine, and the de moralizing lesson, which it conveys We feel ourselves, therefore, called upon to express our execration of it in the most unqualified language; and the more especially, as the spirit of it runs through the whole of Mr. Owen's system. He may attempt to obviate this reflection by alleging, that he does not deny the importance of keeping up the OLD SYSTEM OF INDIVIDUAL REWARDS AND PU NISHMENTS, while the present state But this is of society continues. just as weak as the other is wicked; for his assertions are broad and general, and reprobate, as irrational and unjust, the moral maxims at present received and acted upon in the land. We might appeal to the most infatuated devotees of the system in Lanarkshire, NOBLE AND IGNOBLE, if any thing more pernicious to the good order of society can be introduced among the people than this, which they are made instrumental in circulating, viz. that the punishment of youthful delinquencies is unjust. But the paragraph contains another position which we must speak to, viz. that human nature can do no wrong, and yet becomes wicked, when the powers which act upon it in its passive state are irrational. Here there is a contradiction of the first water. Was it ever before conceived by a boy of two consecutive thoughts, to say nothing of a man who palms himself on the world as the wisest oracle which has appeared since its creation, that that which can do no wrong, i. e. is impeccable, can in any circumstances become wicked; or, which is to the same purpose, that a person can become what he cannot become? But this nonsense, our author, with all the formality and gravity of a senator, has not only averred, but put on record, and, withal, has stamped it with the seal of DEMONSTRABLE TRUTH. But we cannot leave the matter in this unsettled state. We there fore ask him, seriously, where is his demonstrable evidence that human nature can do no wrong? He has none to produce. We flatly deny that any such exists. We challenge him to produce even the shadow of a probable evidence. Where, we ask-where are we to find, not what it may have been, or what it may become, but what it really, and at present is? Not surely in any of those visionary systems which our celebrated MoDERN PHILOSOPHERS have founded on the idle whim of mental energies and perfectibility-no-but in the lives and conversations of mankind generally. Our knowledge of it, if correct, must rest on FACTS, and not on speculations: and these facts cannot be furnished from any other quarter. "Collective man," says the acute and energetic Foster, "Collective man is human nature, and the conduct of this assemblage under the diversified experiments continually made upon it, expresses its true character, and indicates what may be expected from it." Survey then, every quar ter of the inhabited world, civilized and uncivilized-examine every history which has been produced of the transactions and manners of nations in ancient and in modern times, and what do we obtain ? not one proof of this said impeccability of human nature-nothing but what proves to the fullest extent the verdict of the sacred Scriptures ; that it is in a fallen corrupt statethat "the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked"-that "there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not." Now, if our readers will reperuse some of the extracts which we have made from the NEW VIEW, they will at once observe, and it is worthy of being observed, that Mr. Owen's own description of OLD SOCIETY substantially coincides with this verdict of the Scriptures, and forms as complete and conclusive an evidence as can be sought for, that what he has said of human nature is unwarranted and false-that, so far from being impeccable, or incapable of doing wrong, it is corrupt and incapable of doing right. Thus, in his endeavour to establish his position, he unwittingly disproves it. He may perhaps allege that nature's becoming "wicked" is not owing to any thing in it, or done by it, but to the "irrational powers which act upon it in its passive state." To this, our answer is summary-if nature can do no wrong, no irrational power whatever can prevail against it. This is plain common sense, and he who is not satisfied with it deserves not to be reasoned with. Thus then, according to the New View which Mr. Owen takes of mankind, they are enveloped in four dense atmospheres of error and prejudice, viz. Class, Sect, Party, and Country. In consequence of which, they are vicious, superstitious, and hypocrites-afflicted with an ever-changing insanity-suffer ing particularly from the dominion of FAITH, i. e. religion generally, and Christianity especially-all creeds whatever being " a horrible crew"-opposed in their way to happiness by the "ignorantly devised institutions of society," and, in a high degree in this empire, which is governed by a ministry composed of men " of kind and amiable dispositions" indeed, and whom Mr. Owen "well knows," but" without sufficient energies and practical knowledge," while "their political opponents possess still less," and "are quite inadequate to the task of removing the distress of the country." Mr. Owen is of no class, of no sect, of no party, and of no country. He is consequently neither vicious, nor superstitious, nor a hypocrite. But he is opposed in his way to happiness by the ignorantly devised institutions of society." That opposition however, he is about to remove in due season, notwithstanding the inefficient ministry of the empire, by placing mankind in circumstances heretofore unknown. This leads us to II. New State of Society, or the circumstances in which mankind are about to be placed by him. "In it," says our author, " as in the OLD, man will be born in ignorance. He will be trained from earliest infancy to acquire only kind and benevolent dispositions. He will be taught facts. These will en able him, very early in life, to understand clearly how his own character, and the character of his fellow creatures, have been formed, and are forming. He will thus be secured from being enveloped by any of the evil and demoralizing atmospheres, with which every man yet born has been surrounded. No circumstances will exist to compel him to acquire feelings of disunion and separation from any other human being. On the contrary, his heart will be open to receive, and his hand ready to assist, each of his fellow creatures, what ever may be his class, his sect, his party, his country, or his colour. Anger, hatred, and revenge, will have no place on which The pabulum, on which all the to rest. VOL. XXII. NO. III. evil passions feed, will no longer exist. Unity and mutual co-operation to any ex tent will become easy of execution, and the common practice of all....... Look now at the drawing exhibited, and compare the scenes, which it but faintly represents, with the situation of the existing poor and working classes in the manufacturing towns, and yet the expense and trouble of the latter are tenfold those of the one represented. In the proposed villages, the poor and working classes will live in dwellings formed into a large square, rendered in every way convenient, and usefully ornamented. They will be surrounded by gardens, have abundance of space in all directions to keep the air healthy and pleasant: They will have walks and plantations before them within the square, and well cultivated grounds kept in good order around, as far as the eye can reach." No. I. NEW VIEW. How paradisaiacal must be the abodes of Society in its NEW STATE! They will prove an almost complete realization of Baron Swedenborg's habitations of angels. "The angel's habitations," says that visionary," are like to our houses on earth, but far more magnificent and beautiful; having rooms, chambers, and apartments in great variety, as also spacious courts be longing to them, together with gardens, parterres of flowers, fields, &c. where the angels are formed into Societies. They dwell in contiguous habitations disposed after the manner of our cities, in streets, walks, and squares." The Baron's angels required no such food as mortals partake of. He therefore says nothing directly or indirectly upon that point. But Mr. Owen, knowing that his squares and paralellograms, however "conveniently and usefully ornamented," will not be fit abodes for his "children of light," unless supplied with the staff of mortal life, is very particular in the specification of " a public kitchen, mess rooms, and all the accommodation necessary to economical and comfortable cooking and eating." He accordingly reports to the county of 2 B |