NOTES
① Sir.-The Speaker of the House of Commons, to whom the speeches are addressed.
② Adam Smith.-Author of a standard work on political economy entitled Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Smith was Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow. He died in 1790.
③ Your predecessor.-This is addressed to the Speaker, and thus means the Speaker of the House of Commons in 1780.
④ The Horse Guards, a building in London, at the east end of St. James"s Park, in which some of the Horse Grenadier Guards are garrisoned, and where the Commander-in-Chief has his office. Two horse-soldiers, in full uniform, daily mount guard under two small arches at its gates.
⑤ Holborn Hill, one of the great thoroughfares of London.
⑥ The Great Plague and the Great Fire.
⑦ Smithfield Market.-In the eastern part of London. It was the great cattle market of London till the new Metropolitan Market in Copenhagen Fields was opened in 1855. The open market at Smith-field was then disused; but a new dead-meat market was built there.
⑧ The riots of Nottingham.-These riots, like those in Yorkshire afterwards referred to, were excited by the introduction of machinery for spinning and weaving. The hand-loomweavers fancied that they would be thrown out of employment, or that their wages would be reduced. An idiot named Ned Lud having in a passion broken some frames at Nottingham, the mob commenced a wholesale destruction of all the machinery in the place. The rioters were called Luddites, and their outrages continued to be perpetrated in the north of England from 1811 till 1816. Several Luddites were tried and executed.
⑨ The sack of Bristol.-The Recorder was obnoxious to the common people, because heopposed the Reform Bill. On his entrance into Bristol in October 1831, the mob destroyed the mansion-house and other public buildings, and burned nearly one hundred private residences. Above five hundred lives were lost.
⑩ Swing.-The name assumed by the writers of threatening letters sent to farmersbetween 1830 and 1833, warning them that if they did not abandon the use of machinery, especially of threshing-mills, their farm-houses would be wrecked. In consequence, many stack-yards, in Kent and other southern counties, were burned; houses, machines, and live stock were sacrificed. Many farmers were forced to submit, and the outrages and terrorism did not cease till some of the ringleaders were apprehended and punished.
Rebecca.-The Rebecca riots of Wales in 1843 arose out of the bad management of turnpikes and tolls. The name originated in a strange distortion of a Scripture text: "And they blessed Rebekah , and said unto her,.... Let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them."(Gen. xxiv. 60.) The rioters, disguised in bonnets and gowns, attacked the toll-bars at midnight, flung out the keepers" furniture, pulled down the houses, and levelled the gates with the ground. Further inflamed by political agitators, they attacked workhouses, burned stacks, and even spilt blood.
QUESTIONS
On what point has there been much difference of opinion among ingenious men?-About the extent of the functions of Government.
What differences are pointed out?-Some have held that Government should meddle with every department of human life; others have assigned to Government a very narrow sphere of action.
On what are all parties agreed?-That it is the duty of Government to take order fox the security of life and property.
What is a most effectual means of accomplishing this?-Education.
What does Adam Smith say leaving the multitude uninstructed is likely to produce?-The most dreadful disorders.
What striking example of such disorders is given?-The riots in London in 1780.
Mention some particulars of the excesses perpetrated by the mob.- Peers were pulled out of their coaches; bishops had to fly over the tiles; the chapels of foreign ambassadors were destroyed; the house of the Chief Justice was demolished; the prisons were opened, and the prisoners swelled the mob; thirty-six fires were blazing in London at once.
What was the true cause of that calamity?-The ignorance of the people, who, in the neighbourhood of palaces, had been allowed to grow up as rude as savages and brutes.
What other instances are mentioned?-The Machinery riots of the Luddites in Nottingham and Yorkshire, in 1811-16; the Reform riots in Bristol in 1831; the agricultural outrages in Kent in 1830-33; the Rebecca riots in Wales in 1843.
What would have made these things impossible?-Opening the minds of the labourers by education; &c., &c.
Sum up the argument.-Government should protect life and property; the ignorance of the people endangers life and property: therefore Government should take means to remove the ignorance of the people.
What is the alternative?-Education, or physical force-guns and bayonets, &c.
What are the consequences of each plan?-Education makes men better, wiser, and happier; physical force makes them infamous and miserable.
NOTES
The answers to the questions on the above lesson are given in full, as the argument may be somewhat difficult for young scholars to follow. They will also serve to show how the main points in a lesson may be gathered up by means of a few leading questions.
