The Victims of Whiggery - George Loveless - Part 5
I now feel it a duty I owe my fellow labourers, to offer a few remarks respecting the present system of transportation. Fain would I be silent, but that truth, justice and humanity, demands that something of its nature should be unfolded.
When a ship leaves England with prisoners, she generally takes in as many as possible, men of all ages, stowing them down together in a prison, with about twelve square inches for each man to eat, drink, and sleep: at least, so it was in the ship that took me out. Besides the complication of diseases which is incident in consequence of such a number of men being crammed close together for so long a time, there is the liability to accident by the ship being wrecked, which would prove almost certain destruction to the lives of the prisoners, even if they were in sight of the land. For a proof, look at the unfortunate vessel, the 'George the Third', which struck on the Actean Rock, a few miles only from Van Dieman's Land, April the 13th, 1835. A young man who was sent out a prisoner in that vessel, and was one of the few that escaped with his life, gave me the following information respecting that dreadful catastrophe. “When the ship struck on the rock, the prisoners were all locked below immediately. The bottom of the ship was fast filling with water; they called aloud to have the hatches opened, but to no purpose; and when they were up to their middles in water, they rushed forward and burst open the hatches, and endeavoured to ascend the ladder; the soldiers, however, at the top fired on them and killed several; others were killed with cutlasses. The man, “said he,” who was going up the ladder by my side, was shot, but I escaped. When the soldiers, with their wives, got into the boat, two boys (convicts) jumped from the ship into the boat; one of the boys was thrown overboard by the soldiers, the other a soldier's wife hid under her petticoats, and he was carried safe on shore. Only eighty-one of the whole ship-load was taken on shore alive, and a great number of them was so emaciated and crippled, that they were obliged to carry them to hospital.”
The man who gave me the above statement was stationed at the government domain garden.
When landed they are sent to different parts of the country, not sold to masters, as many suppose; but I think, let out on loan, as government can call them in at any time. Government has the first choice of the best workmen; government officers next, their friends next, and the residue are distributed generally. A seven years' man has to serve four years from the time he arrives in the colony, with good conduct, before he is entitled to the least indulgence, such as a ticket of leave; fourteen years' man, six years; and those who are sentenced to life, eight years. Had the same men remained at the hulks in England , they would be altogether free at the periods specified. Some few get kind masters, who consider that prisoners are men, and are possessed of feelings similar to other men, and treat them accordingly. But the greater part are so situated that, bad as government usage is, they are far worse off; treated like dogs, worked from the dawn of the morning till the close of the day, often half naked, and all but starved. If men have any stirring spirit left in them, they cannot lie down and die; no, they abscond - they run away - they are reported as absentees - two pounds reward is offered to any man for their apprehension, by the government. Few escape; they are taken, sentenced to be flogged, and sent back to their masters; and I have seen the flesh of men thus punished, before they have received as many as twenty lashes, fly from their back into the air. They are treated, if possible, worse than before. They again abscond, are taken, punished, and sent back, with no better treatment, most probably are sentenced to work in irons at a road-party, from one to three years. Here a number of them begin to think that life is a misery; they either steal to satisfy hunger, or run away; in either case, they are next sent to a penal settlement, and here their punishment is dreadfully augmented; they work from light to dark, up to their middle in mud and water; they have no changes; they lie down at night wet and miserable; in the morning they put on their wet clothes, and proceed to their dreadful work again, are abused and flogged, until numbers of them, worn down by exhaustion, expire. Others, who are more hardy, wish for death but cannot find it, and at length resolve to commit some foul deed for the purpose of getting hung, to end, as they suppose, their wretched misery. In more than one instance, during my stay in Van Dieman's Land, has it been known that men thus situated, wretched and weary of life, have taken an axe and murdered their companions for the sole purpose, as they have declared, of being hung.
These are not mere fictions, but real acts. I lived twelve months with a man, by name James Pocock, who as soon as he arrived in the colony, was assigned to a Mr. George Woodward, and in Woodward he found a bad master. I here give Pocock's own tale: “He promised when I went to him, that if I worked well, he would reward me; but let me do as much as I could, he was never satisfied; he was always abusing me; he did not give me above half food enough to eat. One day he told me, if I did not do more work he would take me to Hobart Town and get me flogged; this I dreaded, and that day I worked until I could go on no longer through weakness. My master, as usual, said I had done nothing, and swore he would get me punished in the morning. I did not know what to do; I walked away from the house; my master took up a loaded gun and followed me, and swore he would shoot me, if I did not come back. I still went on, for I did not at that time care whether he shot me or not. The next day I was reported as absent, and after remaining four days in the bush with nothing to eat, I was taken by a constable. When before the magistrates, my master said how well he had behaved to me, and what an idle fellow I was; so that the magistrate would not believe a word I had to say, and sentenced me to receive fifty lashes. I was punished and sent back, and my master put me to carry logs of wood on my back, which I could not endure. I ran away again, and gave myself up to a constable, and was again sentenced to fifty lashes, and sent back. My master was more cruel than ever. I then determined I would not stop with him if they hung me. I went away three times more, and got fifty lashes each time. I then told the magistrate that I could not live with my master, and that I hoped he would not send me back again. But Mr. Mason said he would see who would be master, either I or they, and I was sent back. I instantly started, was taken, and sentenced to fifty lashes more; to go to Bridgewater chain-gang for three months, and then return to my master. When I was tied to the triangles this time, my back was in such a dreadful state, the doctor ordered that I was to be flogged over the breach. After I came back from the chain- gang my master seemed a little better to me for a week or two, and then began as bad as ever. Often when he and I have been out in the night shooting opossums, I have levelled the gun, and put my finger to the trigger. I hardly knew which to shoot, the opossum or my master.”
Pocock was a willing, able, and good workman. The above is not a solitary instance of cruelty, but one out of many that could easily be enumerated if required.
At one period, prisoners could soon make themselves comfortable; they were expected to do a certain quantity of work every day, and when they had done it to work for themselves if they could find a master. Now no task work is given. Formerly first class prisoners were allowed Saturday for themselves, and others, Saturday afternoon, to wash shirts, &c., not so now; they must do it, but no time is allowed them to do it, and if any should be found working they are liable to be punished, and the person that sets them to work to a heavy fine. If you inquire the reason of this, you are told it is 'an order from home for the punishment of convicts.'
The daily allowance of provision, when I left the colony, for prisoners employed on government or public works was as follows. The dinner varies according to what sort of vegetables is supplied by the contractor: the medium of the weight is reckoned from potatoes or carrots: two ounces of onions are considered equal to eight ounces of potatoes or carrots, and to sixteen ounces of cabbage or turnips. They breakfast at half past five in the morning, and go out to work at six o'clock ; dinner at noon ; and leave work at six in the evening as long as the length of the days will admit it. These rules will apply also to those who are assigned off to masters. The masters are not expected to give their assigned servants less food or clothing than is allowed by government, and to work them the same hours; but if the master give any little extra, say a small quantity of tobacco or sugar, then the time of their labour is unlimited, and the masters can work them at their pleasure. What the scale of rations are at the penal settlements I cannot say, but they are considerably worse.
The meat is of inferior quality. Very few sheep that are killed for prisoners exceed twenty five pounds in weight, and many not twenty pounds; hold it up to the light, and you may see through it. But it has been asked cannot you offer complaints and seek recompense? I answer, yes, you can complain to the commissary, and he will inquire of the storekeeper, and the storekeeper, who generally receives 'an allowance' from the contractor, will declare that the provisions are storable, and that there is no room at all for complaining. What, then, is the recompense you get for complaining? Why, to use a colonial phrase, 'you get married to the three sisters', or in other words, you are tied to the triangles, and your flesh flogged from the bones for being discontented.
In all that has been said, I had almost forgotten that hell upon earth, ' Norfolk Island '. Whoever goes there they are no longer prisoners of hope. In every other place, however dreadful and melancholy, there is a hope that springs up in the mind that some day may bring deliverance, and that a future period, however remote that period may be, you will be restored again to your friends. Not so at Norfolk Island; for all that are sent thither are sentenced for their natural lives; so that every hope is gone of ever obtaining deliverance, or of enjoying any other society, or seeing any other but their miserable companions in infamy, wretchedness and woe. Thus they are left to drag on their miserable existence, until death ends their sufferings. I have seen and conversed with men that have been at all places of punishment, except Norfolk Island , but I never saw one returned from thence. If all were guilty of the crime laid to their charge, their punishment is dreadful: but there are many that are not guilty of the charges brought against them, at least so they have declared to me; and I am the more easily led to believe the truth of this when I consider the circumstances connected with my own trial and sentence. If a prisoner is a good, serviceable, honest, trusty man, and nearly due for a ticket of leave, this too often entices the masters of Van Dieman's Land, a little before prisoners are entitled to receive this indulgence, to entrap them by some means or other to get them punished, that they, the masters, may not lose their services. It has been asked is there no alternative for the prisoners - is there no way for them to seek recompense? Yes, they have a chance of making complaints to the magistrates, but the master's word generally is taken in preference.
Female prisoners I can say but little about. After they are landed they are assigned off to fill different situations, and if they offend their masters by being insolent, neglectful of their duty, &c.&c., they are taken and charged before the magistrates, who sentences them, not to be flogged, but to have their heads shorn, and to be sent to the factory from one month to three years, to work at the wash-tub, according to the nature of the offence. They have lately built a treadmill for them.
While there ought to be laws made for the protection of life and property, at the sane time those laws should give to every man a chance to live honestly. Unfortunately laws are often enacted which compel men either to steal or starve, and no reasonable man will suppose that the latter will be adopted in a land of plenty. Under the present system of misgovernment men are driven to violate the laws, and then transported and sent to perpetual bondage and slavery: this is dreadful, and yet too true. I can assure my Lord Stanley, who boasted a few years since that he would make transportation worse than death, that his cruel and diabolical purpose is more than accomplished; for it would be doing such unfortunate men a kindness - a favour; it would be granting them an unspeakable privilege to hang them in England, and so prevent their exposure to the cruelties, miseries, and wretchedness connected with the present system of transportation to the Australian colonies.
But I have been told it is done “for the good of society, and to uphold our most holy religion!” Good God, what hypocrisy and deceit is here manifested! The most cruel, the most unjust, the most atrocious deeds are committed and carried on under the cloak of religion! If I had not learnt what religion meant, such practices would make me detest and abhor the very name. And yet, strange as it may appear, those hypocrites who pretend to be so scrupulous, that rather than submit to have their most holy religion endangered, they would starve hard-working, honest husbands and fathers, and who have solemnly pronounced, “What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder,” are some of the first to separate man and wife, to send some to banishment, and others to the Poor-law prisons; to oppress the fatherless and widow. From all such religion as this, “Good Lord, deliver us!” But, again, we are told it is intended to lead to a reformation of their characters, and to make them useful members of society. I much question whether the present system is calculated to have such an effect on the moral conduct of men in general; as far as I have had an opportunity of observing, it has the contrary effect. Nothing can be more absurd than to suppose that you can keep down the conquered for any length of time, by pouring out upon them judgement without mercy. Although I was sent out of the country, and have been subjected to privations, to distress, and wretchedness, transportation has not had the intended effect upon me, but, after all, I am returned from my bondage with my views and principles strengthened. It is indelibly fixed in my mind, that labour is ill-rewarded in consequence of a few tyrannizing over the millions; and that through their oppression thousands are now working in chains on the roads, abused by the overseers, sentenced by the comitants, and punished by the flagellator; young, and once strong able men, now emaciated and worn almost to skeletons. Is this the plan to reform men? I say, no; if they were bad before, they are tenfold more the children of hell now. It has a tendency to harden the heart, stultify the feelings, make them careless, and regardless of consequences; and they rush forward, plunging headlong into an abyss from which they are not able to extricate themselves: the groans and cries of the labourers ere long will bring down vengeance on the heads of those who have been, and are still, the authors of so much misery. I believe that nothing will be ever be done to relieve the distress of the working classes, until they take it into their own hands: with these views I left England, and with these views I am returned; not withstanding all that I have seen and felt, my sentiments on the subject are unchanged. Nothing but union will or can ever accomplish the great and important object, namely, the salvation of the world. Let the producers of wealth firmly and peacefully unite their energies, and what can withstand them? The power and influence of the non-producers would sink into insignificance - the conquest is won - the victory is certain.
Nor is Van Dieman's Land the garden of Eden for emigrants that the deluded people of England imagine. I would just mention a few words in reference to the young females that are sent to this part of the world. About two ships arrived yearly, with young women, while I was staying in the country. I speak more particularly in reference to those that arrived by the ship 'Boadicia', in the month of February, 1836, as I had opportunities of talking with several of them: but what is said of them, may, with propriety, be said of others also. In their passage out, I was told, they had not the best usage given them. When they arrived they were put into a house provided by the government; advertisements were circulated throughout the colony, giving notice of their arrival, and requesting all who were in want of servants to make early application for them. Applications being made, a number of them were soon scattered over the colony; others for a long time could not get situations, and above fifty were found to be under fifteen years of age. The principal inhabitants of Hobart town were talking, when I left for the interior, of making a subscription to send them home again; but whether they succeeded or not I do not know. Soon, however, many of those who had situations lost them; for a number of the young women that emigrate to that country have not been bred to hard work; others who have been accustomed to it find it something worse there. Dissatisfaction arise between them and their employers - they talk of leaving, “You may go is the reply; “we can get plenty of government servants without paying them wages.” They leave and try for new situations, but few of them can obtain any for want of recommendations from their last employers. They are destitute, and none are found to pity them. They wander without friends and without home, until they are driven, by dire necessity (a greater part of them) upon the town. I have conversed with several of them, who have wept and lamented over their folly, in having listened to the flattering and enticing offers of the emigration agents; and decoyed from home and all that was dear to them, to be rendered miserable in a distant land. I have heard some of them offering gentlemen at Hobart Town, or rather their ladies, to come into their house and do anything required for their food, rather than follow the general example; and wishing they could enter the service of some gentleman's family going to England, and serve them for only a little food on the voyage.
Nor are women alone thus deceived. A number of free men soon find out their mistake after they arrive: unless they are the bearers of letters signed by some right honourable gentleman or right reverend name, they wander long enough before they can get situations. Many, under an idea of bettering their condition, give up what little they possessed in England, in hopes of turning it to some advantage in the colonies; have purchased commodities in London, and after paying freightage &c., to Van Dieman's Land, have been under the necessity of putting their goods into the auction marts, and selling them for less than prime cost. A gentleman that left England in August, in 1836, in the ship 'Fairlie', was one of those speculators. He arrived at Hobart Town about three weeks before I left, and after lamenting his foolishness in bringing his family there, told me he must sell his goods as above described, and go into the interior to purchase a little farm, in order to support his family. This a man may do, provided he has plenty of money, but not else; for a man with a few pounds would have no chance of buying land, as land cannot easily be obtained. Although there are millions of acres of land, that might be cultivated with advantage to individuals as well as to the colony at large, still lying in its wild, rough, natural state; and thousands of people would be glad to purchase it for cultivation; such is the system of management, that it is next to impossible to purchase a few acres. It was formerly the custom for people wanting to purchase land, to be allowed to have it by paying a minimum price for it; but now, the great landowners - and great they are, for some possess no less than thirty to forty thousand acres - have it in their power to prevent others from purchasing. All lands are now sold by the auction, and as soon as allotments are advertised for sale, they, the wealthy, attend the auctions, and will bid three times the value of it, in order “to keep off intruders,” and so join it to their almost endless sheep runs; and through such means the poor man has no means of becoming independent. The land remains the same as ever, covered with rocks and trees, yielding nothing that may be said to be useful to the colony; and here is one grand reason why so much distress and misery prevails among the inhabitants of Van Dieman's Land - with the numbers that are daily emigrating to that part of the world, besides the vast quantities that are yearly transported, and few of them ever returning. Some are continually becoming free through servitude, others gaining tickets of leave, and thus servants are increasing in number almost daily; but there is no increase of masters to employ them. I need not mention the natural result of this; but I will confidently affirm, that there are many hundreds in Hobart Town who cannot get sufficient bread to satisfy the wants of nature; and out of upwards of two hundred thousand that have been transported to the Australian colonies, I can ask, can fifty thousand now be found? No.
Free people are a sort of prisoners in Van Dieman's Land. Constables are set in all directions to watch and preserve peace and order. These constables are selected from among the prisoners; and those generally are chosen to fill such offices as have been the most expert in their roguery, and are long sentence- men. But how annoying to free people is it, when walking, to be taken in charge by these faithful servants of the government, on suspicion of being runaway convicts, to have a night's lodging in the watch house, to be brought the next day to the police office, and examined before the magistrates; often charged by them for being found drunk, and, whether guilty or not, to be fined five shillings to the king. The liability, also, that those janizaries, for the sake of some favour or indulgence, will bring charges against people that will cause them to be sentenced to transportation and death, while instant. For instance, Robert Bryant, Esq., who was sentenced to die, for cattle stealing, on the evidence of two convict constables, and is now in chains in Port Arthur , after the public have again and again declared his innocence. A short time since, the king's attorney general, Alfred Stephen, Esq., declared in the open court at Hobart Town, that for five shillings he could get a case brought against any man in the colony that would hang him! Under such circumstances, and others to numerous to mention, I ask, are not all that are exposed, prisoners? Van Dieman's Land is a prison house; a jail on a large scale.
But a question has been put to me, “How is it that so many send home good accounts of the country and how well they are doing there?” To which I answer, as far as I have had a personal knowledge. When in the colony I wrote numbers of letters for different men to their friends in England , and they all directed me to say that they were doing well. I inquired their motive for so sending; “for,” said I, “I am confident you are as miserable as myself, and if I say you are comfortable I know I shall write falsehoods.” They told me they did not wish to increase the trouble of their friends on their account, and that they should be ashamed to acknowledge they were so bad off.
Van Dieman's Land, however, is a fine-looking country. As you come up the Derwent River from the west, hills rise in regular succession above each other, covered with trees of various descriptions, such as the stringy bark, honeysuckle, box, lightwood, cherry, black, brown, and silver wattle, blue, red, and white gum, oak, peppermint, pine, cedar, &c. &c.; and all of them evergreen. A number of them shed their bark annually. As you anchor before Hobart Town , its appearance is not very inviting; for a considerable part of it seems to be lost in a flat betwixt the harbour and Mount Wellington , whose summit is covered with snow eight months out of the twelve. The town, however, is rising in importance and grandeur, and is of considerable extent. The streets are wide, and several of them macadamized; and many of the lately built houses and shops, in Elizabeth and Liverpool streets, are not inferior to many in London . It contains at present about sixteen to seventeen thousand inhabitants. There are three churches, on Wesleyan chapel, an Independent chapel, a Scotch church, and a Roman Catholic Chapel, a soldier's barracks, and the prisoner's barracks, which will contain upwards of a thousand men; a jail, court-house, police-office, custom-house, storehouses, &c. &c., all conspicuous places, and about a mile from the town, at the foot of Mount Wellington, is the factory or jail for the female prisoners. On the top of the mount is a fine lagoon that issues out of its waters in different directions, and sends a rich supply to the inhabitants of Hobart Town , and the country round for several miles.
As you proceed to the interior, the country everyway has a wild and romantic appearance; a regular, unbounded, unbroken forest, excepting here and there a few acres of cultivated land adjoining the settlers' dwellings, which are “few and far between;” mountains, hills, and plains, are covered with lofty trees and shrubs; and, far from the habitations of men, you may travel over the mountains, descend between the hills, be surrounded with gloomy horrors, walk through the dreadful shade, but never find the way to fertile vales and dewy meads,
Where the peaceful rivers, soft and slow,
Amid the verdant landscape flow.
You may, perchance, see some rich and elegant looking flowers, fall in with the numbers of beautiful-plumage birds; but, as though providence had designed that nature should add and contribute to the gloom and dreariness of the country, the trees are without fruit, the birds without song, and the flowers without smell! The climate differs considerably from England ; the winters are much more mild; severe frost is never known. The hardest frost I ever saw in that country did not exceed some that I have seen in April and May in England . Very strong winds are prevalent, especially in summer. Hot winds prevail, which commence about Christmas, and generally blow very strong from the north-west; so hot, oftentimes, as to cause a difficulty of breathing and very hurtful to the wheat crop, burning it quite black when just in bloom, rendering it useless but for hay. The weather is very changeable, especially in summer, one day being very hot, and the following day cold. The rainy season sets in about the middle of June, and continues the whole of the winter and part of the spring, up till the latter part of October, or some time in November, when the drought generally commences, and so scorching, that frequently in two or three weeks the green herbage is burnt up; nor can you expect any quantity of wet before the following June. The principal months of harvest are January and February, although sometimes it will hold out to the end of March. The soil is good in many places, especially in the low lands, and it will grow almost anything that will grow in England . English fruit trees planted there will bear abundantly. Peaches grow in orchards, like apples at home; grapes in beds; geraniums and sweetbrier will form quick hedges. Wheat is equal in quality to, and weighs on an average 4lbs. per bushel more than, the English wheat.
Van Dieman's Land might be made a fine agricultural country; and, under a wise and judicious government, produce ten times as much food as the wants of the inhabitants require; but now wheat and flour are carried to them from Dantzic and America , and thousands of cattle are annually exported to thence from Sydney and Port Philip. Farmers in the interior only aim at growing as much grain as will serve for domestic use; if they grew more it would be of no service to them, as they could not take it to market for want of passable roads.
The colony is divided into districts; and houses, cottages, and huts are scattered here and there, though not one fifteenth part of the land is yet cultivated; and even where it is, there is no regular system of management followed; they plough and sow over and over, without attempting to manure, until it is worn entirely out, and then break up new land. A great portion of the land I consider to be perfectly useless; it can never be penetrated by the ploughshare. There are also a number of townships formed throughout the country, and if no other buildings should happen to be there, you may generally find a church and a jail! I have often thought that these edifices may prove beneficial to many some day; the one, where the ignorant will be instructed to know the law, and the other, where the law will be executed or finished upon them. The greatest possible ignorance prevails, and many things are practised which are a disgrace to human nature. They prepare their bread in the following manner; put water and flour together and mix it into a dough, make it into a thick cake, put it in an oven and cover it over with hot ashes, and when baked it is called a 'damper'. This practice prevails throughout the country, and is seen in the highways, on the mountains, the bush, and the hut. A number do not know the difference of one day from another, but by counting or numbering them, and with many that abstain from their usual work on Sunday, the day is occupied in washing and mending their clothes, baking of bread, &c., or hunting the kangaroo.
The country abounds with various animals, such as the forester and brush kangaroo, tigers, wild cats, bandicoots, ringtail, black and grey opossums; these last subsist on the leaves of the peppermint trees, and was part of the food that the aborigines or native inhabitants used to eat. The manner in which these poor creatures take their food, is not unworthy of notice: they are completely naked, and go in companies; when they eat, the man seat themselves on the ground, and form a circle: the women, or jins, as they are called, crouch behind the men's backs, and eagerly fix their eye on the top of their shoulders, reminding one of animals that are waiting to pounce upon their prey. In this position they remain until the men have taken according to their will, then, without the slightest notice or turn of the body whatever, they toss it over the shoulder, and instantly it is seized by the women who are in waiting and ready to devour it. These unhappy, uncivilized human beings are nearly all taken and transported across the water to Flinder's Island ; and, according to reports, from some means or other, numbers of them die like rotten sheep, and in all probability, a few more years more and their race will be entirely extinct.
England has for many years been lifting her voice against the abominable practice of negro slavery; numbers of her great men have talked, have laboured, have struggled, until at length emancipation has been granted to her black slaves in the West Indies . When will they dream of advocating the cause of England 's white slaves? How long will it be, ere they cease to grind to dust, trample under foot, and tread down as the mire of the streets, the hard-working and industrious labourer? How long will it be, ere they will cease to 'join house to house, and field to field, until there is no place;' to oppress the hireling in his wages, and to keep back by fraud that to which he is so justly entitled? When will they attempt to raise the working man to that scale in society to which he can lay claim from his utility? Never - no never, will (with a few honourable exceptions) the rich and great devise means to alleviate the distress, and remove the misery felt by the working men of England . What then is to be done? Why, the labouring classes must do it themselves, or it will for ever be left undone; the laws of reason and justice demands their doing it. Labour is the poor man's property, from which all protection is withheld. Has not the working man as much right to preserve and protect his labour as the rich man has his capital?
But I am told that the working man ought to remain still and let their cause work its way - “that God in his good time will bring it about for him.” However, this is not my creed; I believe that God works by means and men, and that he expects every man who feels an interest in the subject to take an active part in bringing about and hastening on so important a period. Under such an impression, I would call upon every working man in England , and especially the agricultural labourers, who appear to be the lowest, degraded, and the least active, to shake off that supineness and indifference to their interests, which leaves them in the situation of slaves. Let every working man come forward, from east to west, from north to south; unite firmly but peaceably together as the heart of one man; let them be determined to have a voice in, and form part of, the British nation; then no longer would the interests of the millions be sacrificed for the gain of a few, but the blessings resulting from such a change would be felt by us, our prosperity, even to generations yet unborn. Such a measure I am well aware, would be dreaded, reviled, and reprobated by the monied part of the nation: they would devise all those schemes, stratagems, and policy that the art and cunning of man can invent to thwart and retard it. But let the working classes of Britain, seeing the necessity of acting upon such a principle, remembering that union is power, listen to nothing that might be presented before them to draw their attention from the subject, alike despising and conquering party disputes and personal bickerings; and they will accomplish their own salvation and that of the world. Arise men of Britain and take your stand! rally round the standard of Liberty , or for ever lay prostrate under the iron hand of your land and money-mongering taskmasters!
George Loveless
Tolpuddle, August, 1837
