Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Or The Causes Of The Decay Of Our National Morality, And On Some Modern Schemes For Its Renovation.
amongst the lower orders in great towns many who can read , write , and speak well ; some who understand the positive sciences accurately , some superficially , and few who enter into moral and metaphysical disquisition with no mean power , and all have more or less of political opinions . But none of these humanize the heart , nor form topics for conversation with a man ' s wife and family . The arena where such
acquirements are displayed is the public-house ; and we have examples in all ages that the exaltation of mere intellectual powers is but a feeble counterbalance to the allurements of intoxication . There is , however , a deeper reason for the depravity of the class alluded to . Their education has thrown off the trammels of authority , and has substituted nothing in its place . For a series of years the reading population have
been fed with exposures of the vices and errors of the sovereign , the court , the government , the aristocracy , the House cf Commons , the clergy , and the legal profession . These representations were sometimes exaggerated , sometimes correct ; but whether one or the other , the effect was still the same , namely , to make the poor man detest and despise his superiors . The extreme severity of the law against crimes which
necessity in a great measure extenuated , enlisted his feelings against the law , and on the side of crime . The rapacity , real or supposed , of the clergy contrasting with their words , led him to believe them hypocrites
merely , and unfortunately to associate with his dislike of the men contempt for their doctrines . In a word , those who know the populace , know that generally they esteem the government , the legislature , and the administrators of the law , to be playing a solemn and disgusting farce , for their performance in which they are well paid . Now , exhortations from moral instructors whom they believe to be hypocritical ,
and the administration of laws which they believe to be unjust , can improve no people on the face of the earth ; but , on the contrary , will strongly tend to impress them with the belief that virtue , order , and law , are by-words invented to cajole and govern them , and that any attempts to inforce moral practices arise from an envious jealousy of their enjoyments . This is altogether a bad state of things . Are there
any indications wliich may lead to its treatment ? There are clear and obvious ones , we conceive , if we are not too sanguine in our expectations ; if we are content , to amend gradually the condition of the patient without attempting a sudden and perfect cure , which his very morbid state hardly seems to admit of . Before , however , we write our prescription , let us glance at what has been proposed to be done in some recent
consultations . Sir A . Agnew , and the rest of those who have been named the Lord's-day men , _ propose to act by direct coercion . The Sunday being the only leisure period with the poor , they propose to close the public-houses on that day . The extreme severity of this measure raised the public press against a species of bigotry wliich had been received
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Or The Causes Of The Decay Of Our National Morality, And On Some Modern Schemes For Its Renovation.
amongst the lower orders in great towns many who can read , write , and speak well ; some who understand the positive sciences accurately , some superficially , and few who enter into moral and metaphysical disquisition with no mean power , and all have more or less of political opinions . But none of these humanize the heart , nor form topics for conversation with a man ' s wife and family . The arena where such
acquirements are displayed is the public-house ; and we have examples in all ages that the exaltation of mere intellectual powers is but a feeble counterbalance to the allurements of intoxication . There is , however , a deeper reason for the depravity of the class alluded to . Their education has thrown off the trammels of authority , and has substituted nothing in its place . For a series of years the reading population have
been fed with exposures of the vices and errors of the sovereign , the court , the government , the aristocracy , the House cf Commons , the clergy , and the legal profession . These representations were sometimes exaggerated , sometimes correct ; but whether one or the other , the effect was still the same , namely , to make the poor man detest and despise his superiors . The extreme severity of the law against crimes which
necessity in a great measure extenuated , enlisted his feelings against the law , and on the side of crime . The rapacity , real or supposed , of the clergy contrasting with their words , led him to believe them hypocrites
merely , and unfortunately to associate with his dislike of the men contempt for their doctrines . In a word , those who know the populace , know that generally they esteem the government , the legislature , and the administrators of the law , to be playing a solemn and disgusting farce , for their performance in which they are well paid . Now , exhortations from moral instructors whom they believe to be hypocritical ,
and the administration of laws which they believe to be unjust , can improve no people on the face of the earth ; but , on the contrary , will strongly tend to impress them with the belief that virtue , order , and law , are by-words invented to cajole and govern them , and that any attempts to inforce moral practices arise from an envious jealousy of their enjoyments . This is altogether a bad state of things . Are there
any indications wliich may lead to its treatment ? There are clear and obvious ones , we conceive , if we are not too sanguine in our expectations ; if we are content , to amend gradually the condition of the patient without attempting a sudden and perfect cure , which his very morbid state hardly seems to admit of . Before , however , we write our prescription , let us glance at what has been proposed to be done in some recent
consultations . Sir A . Agnew , and the rest of those who have been named the Lord's-day men , _ propose to act by direct coercion . The Sunday being the only leisure period with the poor , they propose to close the public-houses on that day . The extreme severity of this measure raised the public press against a species of bigotry wliich had been received