Thomas Carlyle and His "Latter-Day Pamphlets" (review) [pp. 330-340]

mas Carlyk aid kl 4" Lar-Day Pampan ts."
which. hangs over the - precipice" sustained by
the working population. In Ireland, the potato
"has died," and the inhabitants are giving a last
look
"For corn ships in the offing,".
before devouring each other. In Connemarn,
Ulster, Connaught and many other counties things
are desperate-sad is wanted and if noteupplied
a civil convulsion will ensue. "In Connemara
tilere has sprung a leak since the death of the
potato; and but for Treasury grants and rates in
aid, Coannught would have to recur to Cannabijem. The "able bodied paupers" of Eng.
laad are represented as coming out of the workhouses and roving about like Bauditti-doomed to
misery and woe and "ultimate descent to the
"-England; as I persuade myself, stil contains
.' The others that still stand- ha theii'e owh in it Indny kings; possesses, as Old gome ld
difficulties, I can tell you! But'you,:by iper- many men not needing' elction to command,
feet energy-and reduu-ant bappefe;by'0oiugitbo but eternally elected for it by the Maker,imiself;
little work andidnki ng -too much beer, you (I E_ngland's one hope is in these just now. They
bid voui obieehave roved that jou can not do are among the silent, I believe; mostly far away
it! You tie: t there plainlyi atheditch. And I fromplatforms andpublic palaverings; notspeak am to pick you up again on these mad terms''ing forth the image of their nobleness in trausiboip you ever again, as with our heart's blood, tory words, but imprintingit, each on his own
to do what, once for all, the gods'ha'e made im- little section of the world, insilent facts, in modpossibSte? To load'the fatalchain Wi'th yourp er- est valiant actions, that will endure for evermore.
petuataggers arid prwllng, -aiid ever They must sit silent no longer. They are sumagain load it, -ill we afiii spi awlitg....Myihdi- r moned to assert themselves; to act forth, andargent incompetent friends, I ~l not! l a6 thK lat, ticulately vindicate, in the teeth of howling mul,
whoever may be' sons,of freedom,/.you; foryour titudes, of a world too justly maddened into ah
part, are not;and cannot be such. Not'fee' manner of delirious clamors, what of wisdom
you,I think, whoeovr may )e free" they derive from God. England, and th Eter -'~ nal voices, summon them; poor England neyer
This is the state of England, says Carlyle. So needed them as now. Up0 be dong every
But how is the "leak" to be stopped? An arti- where! the hour of crisis has verily come!
ele appeared lately in Fraser's blagazine on the In all sectins of English life, the God-wade
ofr - a l king is needed-is pressingly demanded in most;
properties aofIin me, cnan narlot longer, without peril as of conanonymously, but known as C-arlyle's for the flagration, be dispensed with. He, wheresoeveri
reasons already mentioned. Indian corn, he he finds himself, can say' Here too am I wanted;
says, (and he speaks of it as he might of some here is the kingdom I have to subjugate, and inoutlandish product of Australia or the Feejee sl- troduce God's Laws into-God's Laws, instead
of Mammon's and M'Croudy's, and the old
lands, not a-plant-whichis found in every Sttae Anarch's! Here is my work, here or nowere.'"
in the Union,) Indian corn,-says Carlyle, isnotthe Are there many such, who will answer to te'
bitter, gravelly, unwholesome apology for wheat call, in England? It turns on that, whether
represented to him by certain persoas who hadl England, rapidly crumbling in these very years
representd tohim y certai perso'~who had and months'.shal go down tO th Ays as hr
no mill stones hard enough to grind the sturdy and mnthsshall go don to the Ab s h
American grain, but an excellent meal, making neihbors have alldone, orsurvive to new graid
l er destinies Without solution of contin'uity! "'
excellent bread, exceedingly sw etand rich, "like e -sii -
the kernel of a nut." Indian Corn, then he "Here is the kingdom Ihave to subjugate!" The
thinks, may be-fely recommended as a cheap strong and powerful minded are to take posseand wholesome-article for the hungry paupers. sion of authority and "sabjugate" England,But this, he thiuks, cannot l-tt. England is al- that is, be a unumviraoraentumvirat e or of Dicready -athe mercy of America for hor cotton tators. But how diseover-those men who are to.
that is for the employment, subsistence, quietness, lead in the coming avatar of all political g6od?'
hr artisans and to depend for corn on Amer-. By proclamation or sound of trumpetT It is veryr
ica would be precario. -possible that Napoleon and Cromwell, it the
No!-the evil is de.ear and requires more ri- French or -English people ha demanded "the
al remedies-ud her e comes thw-acuriosity of strongest man to govern u," might have prteeo
the work, the Utopian, rutn-mad, onutrn ue tbory, which.wil ata hpese Latte Iay:P
phlets" to all time, as then - p/e -tra of i~
cal extravagaaa. Carlyle strikes at the rotl
the matter. To have a nation -well-governd,
thilat is, to say, powerfully, sagaeiowy goverd,
there must be at- the helm the strong ams nand
firm hearts. Hitherto these have given place to
"platform orators," " talking machines,"-'&bandlies of Parliamentary eloquence,'-the, "Ral
Kings" must rise in their power, reveal.themselves and after kicking out " Mr. Hesperus Fiddlestring" and his crew, take command. "'Ti
Real Captain," he exclaims, "unless it be some
captain of mechanical industry. hired by Mn -
mon, where is he in these days: Most likely in
silence, in sad isolation somewhere, in remote
obscurity."
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