THE WEEKLY RECORD.

THEIR MOST UNMAJESTIC MAJESTIES. THE ROYAL PANIC. Since the foundation of the world never did Kingcraft receive such a shock! Never were the solemn hums of royalty so cruelly exposed. At a moment when the kings were sitting, as they thought, securely on their thrones, there came an earthquake which shook them to their bases. It would seem as if God himself had bared his arm for the freedom of the nations; had declared that the time of his decree had come, when all the rotten mchinery of monarchical government should be torn down, and the course of civilization be left free for all mankind. The Almighty had protested in the most decisive terms against the introduction of Kingship amongst his chosen people, and told them what kings were and would do. That they would take their sons for servants and soldiers, and weapon-smiths; to reap their harvests and run before their chariots. Their daughters for apothecaries, and cooks, and bakers. "And he will take your fields, your vineyards, and your best olive trees, and give them to his servants. And he will take your men-servants, and your women-servants, and your asses, and put them to his work. And he will take the tenth of your sheep, and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out at that day because of the king whom ye have chosen, and the Lord will not hear you at that day."-Samuel viii. 12-18.

Never was the world so severely punished for disobeying the will of the all-wise God as in the idolatry of Kingship. The multitude must have something to worship. First they worshipped stocks and stones, and most hideously ugly bits of wood as savage and half-savage nations do still. When they got a little farther they worshipped the golden calf-and last and most fatal worship of all-they worshipped their fellow worms. They set them up, and arrayed them with all sorts of gaudy paraphernalia, and surrounded them with a crowd of base adulators, and fumed them with servile flattery, and styled them Your Most Gracious, and Most Christian, and Most Illustrious Majesty-and pretty dearly they have paid for it. Instead of having their national business conducted in the simple, rational way of all other business, they have had these unnaturally elevaed, and bedizened, be-worshipped individuals, everlastingly at the game of war, of taking their sons and their daughters, their fields and their cattle! and they have been at an everlasting strife with them for the little that was left them --for the simple functions of doing, and saying, as they pleased, and of keeping their money in their own pockets for their own decent purposes.

These poor

The farce of royalty has been grandly kept up. people set up aloft have looked as solemn and as big as if really brothers and sisters to the sun and moon, and their armies, and their ministers all covered with stars and lace, and their ambassadors have paraded about in a way to make the poor deluded people imagine that really these were something very high and adorable, and themselves as only too happy to be

trodden on.

If ever this delusion recovers itself after the present wholesale exposure, mankind may give up all claim to being anything but a better sort of apes. Never was there such an unweaving of old enchantments. Never was there such a doffing of lions' skins, and scampering about of undisguised asses. Never was there such an undignified abandonment of all the old solemn assumptions. Emperors and Kings at the first report of the French Revolution, and the instantaneous erection of their subjects' heads, lost as by the stroke of an enchanter's wand, all self command, all decency of resistance. They who for a score of years had been as deaf as posts to all the demands of their people, who, with immense loftiness of language and demeanour, had declined to accede to the very rational request most humbly laid at the foot of their thrones, that people might open their mouths without leave from a policeman, now in a terrible trepidation, flung freedom and constitutions at their heads. It is laughable in what a hurry they were to be most obedient and obsequious. From France to Denmark extends the pitiful exhibition of trembling monarchs, and commanding people. Metternich, the old manufacturer and arbiter of kingdoms has lived to see all his system shattered to atoms. Thank God for it! As for the King of Prussia, we heard one of his subjects the other day say that "if he had not ordered the soldiers to fire upon the people, he meant to endeavour to get an omnibus conductor's place for him,-but now he would not do it." It is time, however, for the friends of the old superstition of royalty, to be putting together their funds, and

thinking where they shall build the extensive alms-houses that will apparently soon be needed for discarded kings, and nimble-footed ministers. Probably, however, kings henceforth may be contented to be men and magistrates, and not a silly sort of gods, and then both they and the people may be the better for it. We have no objection to them if they only would behave themselves like rational creatures, and remember that they are the servants of the public, and not mischief-mongers.

As a contrast to all these humiliating spectacles, let us notice one act of the people worthy to be set side by side with any fact of Grecian or of Roman history.

Hanau, a little town of Hesse Cassel, sent a deputation of its leading citizens to demand of their ruler a free constitution. They were commanded to remain only three days; and if their requests were not then granted, not to remain another hour at the peril of their heads. They were commanded also to state that if their request was not granted, at the same moment that this refusal was announced to the citizens, they would go over to the adjoining state of Hesse Darmstadt.

The embassy delivered its commission, and waited its time in vain. The hour for return had arrived; the carriages were already drawn up in the square-the gentlemen of the embassy had taken their places, and they gave the word to drive on. But the people of Cassel were assembled in crowds. They held the horses' heads, and implored the gentlemen to wait while another appeal was made to the Duke-but their orders were too peremptory. They drove on, and had reached the city gate, when the gallop of horses and the acclamations of the crowd announced that the demand was conceded.

Meantime the women and children of the town had resolved that should the military be called out to put down the multitude who were urgent for the concession of the demands of the Hanau deputation, and the people fired on, they would place themselves in the front rank to cover their sons, husbands, and brothers, and to render the deed of the tyrant-an eternal ignominy!

How noble is nature, how mean is artificial power whether in prosperity or adversity!

CORPORATION OPPOSITION TO THE PUBLIC HEALTH BILL.

The corporate towns are now exerting themselves to oppose the extension of the Health of Towns' Bill to them. They talk much of the danger of centralization in conferring the powers of the bill on Commissioners, and not on themselves. We are no friends to centralization in general, but in this case we see a greater danger than that, which is that, if left to the corporation, no Health of Towns Bill will ever be carried out at all, Let the working classes be awake to this, and bestir themselves by petitions to the House of Commons to defeat this interested opposition. It concerns them nearly. Let them look at the condition of their dwellings, undrained, ill-lighted, worse ventilated, built in dense masses and unwholesome spots-without the conveniences often, most necessary to health, decency, and morality. If left to the towns themselves, when will the necessary improvements be made? When will corporations voluntarily put their hands into their own pockets for the benefit of the working classes. How long have they neglected them already? What have they done for them? And when will they do it? It is to be feared never until by act of parliament, enforced by proper authorities, who have no interest but to effect the necessary changes the most completely. If the labouring classes ever hope to have wholesome and commodious dwellings, with a constant supply of water at a cheap rate, they must at once oppose this corporate outcry, by petitions. If they will see what needs doing let them read such a report as that on the present condition of Sheffield.

What is said by the report of the Statistical Society of London just made, of the condition of Church-lane, St. Giles's, may be said of hundreds of localities, not only in London, but in populous provincial towns.

"Your Committee have thus given a picture in detail of human wretchedness, filth, and brutal degradation, the chief features of which are a disgrace to a civilized country, and which your Committee have reason to fear, from letters that have appeared in the public journals, is but the type of the miserable condition of masses of the community, whether located in the small, illventilated rooms of manufacturing towns, or in many of the cottages of the agricultural peasantry, In these wretched dwellings all ages and both sexes, fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, grown-up brothers and sisters, stranger-adult males and females, and swarms of children, the sick, the dying, and the dead, are herded together with a proximity and mutual pressure which brutes would resist; where it is physically im

possible to preserve the ordinary decencies of life; where all sense of propriety and self-respect must be lost, to be replaced only by a recklessness of demeanour which necessarily results from vitiated minds; and yet with many of the young, brought up in such hot-beds of mental pestilence, the hopeless, but benevolent, attempt is making to implant, by means of general education, the seeds of religion, virtue, truth, order, industry, and cleanliness; but which seeds, to fructify advantageously, need, it is to be feared, a soil far less rank than can be found in these wretched abodes. Tender minds, once vitiated, present almost insuperable difficulties to reformation; bad habits and depraved feelings grow with the growth and strengthen with the strength. It is not properly within the province of your Committee to offer suggestions, but they cannot refrain from expressing their belief, that the surest way to improve the physical and moral condition of the labouring classes, and to give education a fair field, is for wealthy and benevolent individuals throughout the country, to form local associations, and by the aid of Parliament, to possess themselves of all such buildings as we have described, whether the house in the town, or the cottage in the country, to rebuild suitable roomy dwellings, properly drained, ventilated, and supplied with water, and to rent them so CHEAP to the poor, that they shall have no excuse for herding together like animals. In this way the great evils of over-crowding may be remedied for that large class of our labouring population which is prepared to adopt habits of cleanliness and decency: but nothing short of compulsory legislation can meet the case of the low lodging-houses and rooms sublet after the manner of those described in this Report.

Nothing can be conceived more mischievous than the system of sub-letting in almost universal operation in the houses inspected by your Committee. The owner of the property lets his houses to a sub-landlord, this sub-landlord lets his rooms to individual tenants, and these tenants let off the sides or corners of the rooms to individuals or families. Cheap houses will go far to give the death-blow to this fatal system; and to build cheap houses, deserving of the name, appears to your Committee a work of preventive charity worthy of all encouragement."

SALE OF THE PEOPLE'S JOURNAL.

It is due to ourselves to notice the upshot of this Journal, which was declared about this time last year to be "commercially established and perfectly safe," and to be circulating from 35,000 to 40,000 copies weekly. To those who were led to believe the charges of Mr. Saunders against us, it may be as well to consider how his assertions have proved in other respects. This Journal was so "commercially established," that we have now been assured by the creditors who have inspected the books, that at no time did it ever circulate 17,000 per week, and the printer assures us that for a long time they have not printed more than 8,000, and about the end of the year 4,500, while it required a circulation of 20,000 copies weekly to pay. It was, in fact, at the time of this impostor's daring assertions, sinking at the rate of £4,000 a-year, and more; in the two years of its continuance, it sunk upwards of £9,000. We were also assured, the other day by one of the creditors, who wrote a note during the controversy to justify this man, that "the only thing that he was amazed at was, our ever stumbling into the connection with him, as his character was already so well known in the trade, that they would not have given him credit for £10, -it was us to whom they gave it." Thus the man, it appears, not only traded on our literary influence and friends, but on our credit.

The desperate exertions made by this most malignant man, on finding that we were resolved not to be tamely ruined, may be gleaned from what took place on the other side of the Atlantic.

The Liberator of February 25th, the great organ of the AntiSlavery party in America, says "the attacks of Mr. Saunders were prodigally circulated in various forms on both sides of the Atlantic." And it adds, that from the moment they saw the "unfriendly, coarse, and unjust attack, they burned to protest against it, and to pay a richly merited tribute to the Anti-Slavery sagacity, zeal and fidelity of William and Mary Howitt.' And they add this most expressive passage. "The result of Mr. Saunders's ruinous conduct in the People's Journal,' which Mr. Howitt predicted would be the case, and his leaving Mr. Howitt to pay for all the attacks made upon him, vividly illustrates the story told by Dr. Franklin of not only having a red hot poker thrust down the back, but being compelled to pay for heating it! This is monstrous indeed!"

It has always struck us as remarkable, that of all the people

who were so ready to listen to this man's base and baseless assertions, at the time when he was boasting of the vast success of the Journal, and advertising industriously for a partner, that not a man of them would join him. If the man was so honest and estimable-if his periodical was so flourishing, what an opportunity! Not a man, however, would prove his sympathy by giving him that aid and countenance. No! in their hearts they did not believe him at all; they knew him to be all that we pronounced him-but they were delighted to have the shadow of a plea for maligning those whom they never could find an excuse for maligning before. There is a class of people who hate your Aristides, and are eager for an ostracism. Much good may it do them. With good consciences, spite of the way in which this knave has robbed us and our children, we still sleep sound and trust in God and good men.

The stock

The upshot of the sale was as might be expected. sold at about 9d. per volume, and the copyright not at all—it was bought in, and another attempt is made by another publisher now to continue this unfortunate speculation.

We are glad to have to announce that Douglas Jerrold has repeatedly assured us and our friends that his note which was published by Saunders, and of which so much was made-was never meant by him to be printed-that it merely echoed Mr. Howitt's own opinion of the squabble into which he had been dragged-that it was simply intended by him to withdraw his name as contributor from both journals, and,—as he has written to a friend of ours-" that he never for a moment had the most distant idea of setting himself up as a censor on Mr. Howitt's conduct." Let others be as generously candid. There are some who have great need of it; but if there be any who have indulged in a petty malice from whatever cause, let them be satisfied. If we ever offended them, they have been amply avenged; and they may enjoy the pleasing thought that our children will suffer for the aid and countenance they gave to this adventurer, as well as ourselves. Can the most refined malice desire more?

FREE EXHIBITION OF BRITISH ART MANUFACTURES, ST. JOHN STREET, ADELPHI.

Sir and Madam,

St. Patrick's day, 17th March, 1848.

The work-people of several large factories in the metropolis-being subscribers to your journal, beg to offer through your columns, and by your favour, their acknowledg ments to the council and members of the Society of Arts, for their exertions and attention to the interests of native talent, by establishing an annual exhibition of British manufactures and decorative art, they respectively solicit your insertion of this in your next record, and earnestly entreat all your readers within reach, to visit (with their friends) the exposition without delay, of which the following are some particulars. I am, for them and self,

Your obedient,

Bishop's Coffee House. H. B. This is the second exhibition, containing seven hundred specimens of decorative art; and is now open without charge, every day except Saturday, between the hours of ten and five, by tickets, to be had from a member, or at the following parties :-Ackerman and Co., Strand; J. Cundell, 12, Old Bondstreet; D. Colnaghi, 18, Pall Mall East; Dean and Co., London Bridge; J. Hetley, Soho-square; J. Mortlack, 250, Oxford-street; J. Tenant, 149, Strand; Mr. 1 hillips, 358, and 359, Oxford-street; R. Henson, 70, Strand; W. Mortlack, 18, Regent-street.

WILLIAM HOWITT.

CONTENTS.

Letter from Paris. By GooDwYN BARMBY-Banvard's Adventure-February Stanzas. By FERDINAND FREILIGRATH. Written in London, February 25th, 1848. Translated by MARY HoWITT-Facts from the Fields. The Depopulating Policy. By Extension of the English Manufacturing System, by which Men are worked up into Malefactors. The Meldrum Family. (Continued.)-Scenes and Characters from the First French Revolution. Translated for 'Howitt's Journal,' ,' from Lamartine's Histoire des Girondins-Child's Corner. The Story of Little Cristal, by MARY HOWITT-Germany at the Present Moment-Sonnet. On Free Trade promised in 1849. By EBENEZER ELLIOTT-Record.

PRINTED for the proprietor by WILLIAM LOVETT, of 16, South Row, New Road, in the Parish of St. Pancras, County of Middlesex, and published by him at 291, Strand, in the Parish of St. Clement Danes.

POETS OF THE PEOPLE.

No. III.

THOMAS COOPER,

Author of "The Purgatory of Suicides." THOMAS COOPER is one of those Poets of the People who have embodied their poetry in their lives, and their lives in their poetry. He has acted, suffered, written, and through the medium of endurance or performance become what he is, or rather shewn what he is. We may here repeat what we have said on another occasion in speaking of him and of the true poets of his school. The true vocation of the poet unquestionably is to animate the human race in its progress from barbarism towards virtue and greatness. He is appointed by Providence to arouse to generous exertion, and to console in distress, There is nothing so full of the elements of poetry as the fortunes, and aspirations, and achievements of the vast human family. Its endeavours to escape from the sensual into the intellectual life: its errors, its failures, its sorrows, and its crimes, are all prolific of poetry and dramatic matter of the intensest interest, To guide and encourage humanity in its arduous, but ever onward career; to assist it to tread down despotism and oppression; to give effect to the tears and groans of the suffering to trumpet abroad wrong in all its shapes; to whisper into the fainting soul the glorious hopes of a still higher existence-these are and have ever been the godlike tasks of the true poet, and therefore he has been styled a prophet and a priest.

By the very force of circumstance the working man of England has been enrolled in this sacred prophetic band. The very light which is poured upon us only lays more bare to our astonishment the social evils that have long walked about in darkness. We see the multitude thronged together in misery, and the few only "fare sumptuously every day." From factories and pits and dense alleys, the weak and young cry out of oppressions that destroy body and soul, and they are the poets with the words of fire and feeling, at the head of preachers, literary and public men, who must be the great prophets of social sympathy, the heralds of justice and christian kindness between man and man, if they do not desert their heaven-appointed post. One true word from them goes like an electric flash through all the joints and sinews of society. It is on the subject of human right and christian love, that they are great only to their possible extent. It is not the particular evil which they strike at and destroy which measures the limits of their benefaction. They propagate a spirit which goes on operating the same moral changes from age to age. This spirit has now infused itself deeply amongst the people, and the poets which arise out of it will gaze over the whole field of busy and struggling humanity, and pour forth their song of defiance to the banded tyrannies of social convention. Foremost amongst these is Thomas Cooper. The two great facts of his life which stand out conspicuously beyond all others are his imprisonment and vigorous self-defence on his trial at Stafford in 1842. and the publication in 1845 of his "Purgatory of Suicides," his great poem written during that imprisonment. From his defence on the first trial for it appears that he had two on the same charges, we draw his own account of his life up to that time. (To be continued.)

THE EVILS OF THE GAME LAWS. BY A LAWYER.

moralization to individuals to the present hour, when they present an amount of public evil which demands their utter abolition.

In England, previous to the passing of the late Act, 1 and 2 William IV. cap. 32, no person could legally possess game unless qualified by an income from land or an equipollent. On the passing of that statute, the possession of game was legalised on payment of an annual duty of £4 10s. By the same statute any person, in the day time committing a trespass in search of game, is liable to be tried in a summary manner before one or two justices, and fined in sums from £2 to £5, and failing payment, imprisonment from two to three months, either with or without hard labour, at the discretion of the justices trying the cause; and, by a later statute, half of the penalty is made payable to the informer. By the 9th George IV., cap. 69, any person, by night, unlawfully taking and destroying game or rabbits in any land, whether open or enclosed; or who shall by night enter or be in any land open or enclosed with any gun, etc. for the purpose of taking or destroying game, may be taken before two justices, and, for the first offence, imprisoned for any period not exceeding three months with hard labour, and at the expiration thereof to find sureties, himself in £10 and two sureties in £5 each, for not so offending again for a year; failing these sureties being found, an additional imprisonment of six months. For the second offence, the penalty and sureties are doubled; and for the third offence, transportation for seven years, or imprisonment with hard labour not exceeding two years at the discretion of the judge. If three or more persons commit the trespass, transportation not exceeding fourteen years nor less than seven years, or imprisonment with hard labour not exceeding

three years.

In Scotland the law is different. The qualification for killing game is the having in property a ploughgate of land in Scotland. The above Acts 1 and 2 William IV., cap. 32, and 9th George IV., cap. 69, have counterparts applying to Scotland, in so far as relates to the offences and mode of conviction and punishment; but these Scots the present state of the law, it is understood that a quaActs do not license the sale of game as in England. In lified person only may buy or sell game; and such a person by his qualification may communicate to an unqualified purchaser a right to buy game; but he cannot authorise an unqualified person to dispose of it to him. would appear that if he have a right from a qualified Hence in the case of an unqualified seller of game it person to buy his game, he may purchase that, and he may sell it to any other qualified person; but he may neither buy from nor sell to any unqualified person.

The state of the law being this in the two kingdoms, makes farmers occupy very different positions. In Engthe other natural fruits of the farm, and he may destroy land it seems that the game passes to the tenant with it at pleasure if possessed of a game certificate, unless the landlord reserves the game in the agreement: while in Scotland a tenant cannot kill the game on his farm without the authority of his landlord; and he cannot hinder his landlord, or those having the latter's leave, from shooting or hunting over his farm, at least if they do not go through standing corn, or where injury may be anticipated, but he has a claim for actual damages done to his property.