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CHAPTER III.

LITERARY STATESMEN.-FACTORIES.

Ir cannot be supposed that all our statesmen are desirous of cultivating literary pursuits, or that they be all possessed of the "furor scribendi:" but, although we are not at liberty to blame those noblemen who are not literary, we certainly, by the same rule, are allowed to praise those who employ their leisure hours in enriching our libraries, enlarging our understanding, and expanding our hearts. Not only do statesmen rationally employ their time by penning their well-digested opinions, but they also raise literature to that

standard from whence too many persons are willing to pull it down. They evince by their example that cultivated minds are they who ought to pen the immortal page; they show

that they have sympathy, feelings, and

thoughts, which none save the educated can possess; the mere nobleman is unheeded, or rather the man of letters has raised the nobleman still higher.

No one can better understand at the same time the essential worldly difference, and yet the bond of paternal equality, between the rich and the poor, as those who make literature their pursuit.

To write well, we must think; and to think well, we must be just; to be just, we must be generous; and to be generous, we must have the conscious feeling of the equality of all flesh.

There are many, too many poor authors,

leading a life of unrequited labour, dying a death of undeserved misery; but that circumstance should not deter the man of wealth and aristocratic birth from following the same industrious career. He need not fear to lose caste, for the distinction between the classes of society has ever been acknowledged. Those who put down the sovereign and the nobility are not only foolish, but egregiously selfish,— look at all republics, ye lovers of national equality, and tremble for the consequence!

From ages past statesmen have been busy in recording the annals of their time, or how do we learn that Theseus was to Athens what Alfred the Great was to Britain, and we are told that both acknowledged the necessity of dividing society into classes.

Statesmen need not fear that the word "Author" attached to their name can possibly detract from the highest nobility.

All authors may do more or less good or harm from the tendency of their works; but political writers should be more careful than others; they should bear in mind, that as in domestic life the sum total of trifles comprehend its happiness or misery, so their pen can be the means of public annoyance or benefit. The English constitution is as free as any man can possibly wish to see it; laws are as lenient as they are consistent with due regard for the right of property and liberty, and men in power ought to make justice the purest principle upon which to found their politics. A clever pen may be as despotic as a clever orator; Aristotle's favorite virtue prudence is never more essential than in political writings. Let every politician remember, that if he show the people any particular grievance, he is the man to whom they look for redress, and a man must therefore ask himself if he can

reform ere he sets the abuse before the

people. The old saying might be applied,— "What the eyes do not see, the heart cannot feel."

Take, for example, Mr. D'Israeli's 'Sybil ;' how boldly grand is the pencilling, how impartially true the revealings, how fearlessly Mr. D'Israeli has brought forward that great national sin in our land—namely, the treatment of the poor in the factories!

A foreigner, if he asked, "What is a factory?" would probably be answered,—

"A factory is a public place where industrious hands are employed in honest toil, where children are kept from idleness and bad example; where young men and women have learned a useful trade, and can consequently settle in life without fear of starvation. They cannot be reckoned the useless part of an overgrown population." Thus a factory ought to be

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