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

Ta Carl andbis"e Latter-Day Pamphlets."
what of those great statesmen of the AmericanSenate whose names will pass to distant years
as they now exist over all Europe and the globe,
tie symbols of patriotic hearts and mighty inteltects?
America is doing a cheering feat under the
sun with her hammers and axes "but not yet
with much finer implements." Does Carlyle
recollect the edition of Ralph Waldo Emerson's
writings which he edited, or the assertion in his
Miscellanies that "American Cooper is among
the greatest miuds now lighting men to their
amusements?"
America,according to this writer, is "anarchy
pls a street-constable"-restrained that is, if
we understand it, by obedience to constituted
authority-the laws. America then is nothing
in herself-on account of her Democracy she
has produced no great soul or thing-and when
her waste lands are filled, and the obedience to
law brought over from England (like the American Constituton,) shall have slowly disappeared,
then America will have her battle and her agony!
After this extract which we consider very amusing, we will retum to finish in a few words the
plan of the author.
It seems perfecdtly evident after the preceding
passages that Carlyle has no intention of letting
the people meddle with electing the "Real Kings"
who are to govern them. Not by hereditary descent, not by election-how then? Plainly by
force and intrigue-by these means are the political regenerators to mount the popular wave
and withstrong handstake the helm. Now comes
the grand curiosity of this most curious performanco. What is the plan which Mr. Thomas
Carlyle (being a peaceable pen-holder and not a
hero,) will recommend for the salvation of England. It is found in those remarkable pages purporting to be Lord Russell's address to the
"able-bodied paupers of these realms."
He is filled he says with despair at seeing
them-," idleness is-their death"-freedom is not
for thethey have no rights!-they are 8/aves!
"Brazil holds nothing more authentically slave."
To his "indigent incompetent friends" he has
"sorrowfully, but with perfect clearuess"' to repeat what is undeniable that " they are of the
nature of darve." He-then exhorts them to enlist in his "Industrial Regiments," his "Regiments of the new Era," to- come and he wil
give them work...
,"'Work, was I siaying? My indigent unguided friends, I shou-ald — think some work might
be discoverable for you. Enlist, stand drill;
become,/from a nomadic Banditti of Idleness,
Soldiers of Industry! I will lead you to the
Irish Bogs, to the vacant desolations of Connaught, now falling into Cannibaism; -t mis
tilled Connaught, to ditto Munster, Leinster, Ulster, I will lead you; to the English fox-covers,
furze-grown Commons, New Forests, Salisbury
Plains; likewise to the Scotch Hill-sides, and
bare rushy slopes, which as yet feed only sheep
-moist uplands, thousands of square miles in
extent, which are destined yet to gross green
crops, and fresh butter, and milk, and beef without limit (wherein no' Foreigner can compete
with us'), were the Glasgow sewers once opened
on them, and you, with your Colonels, carried
thither. In the Three Kingdoms, or in the Forty
Colonies, depend upon it, you shall be led to
your work!
"'To each of you I will then say, Here is work
for you; strike into it with man-like, soldier-like
obedience and heartiness, according to the methods here prescribed; wages follow for you without difficulty-all manner of just remuueration,
and, at length, emancipation itself follows. Refiuse to strike into it; shirk the heavy labor;
disobey the rules-I will admonish and endeavor
to incite you; if in vain, I will flog you; if still
in vain, I will at last shoot you, and make God's
Earth, and the forlorn hope in God's Battle, free
of you. Understand it, I advise you!"'- -
This it will be recollected is the graveand se —
rious political theory of a philosopher of the
nineteenth century. The poor are to till the
wilds of Connemara, Salisbury Plain and the
Stottish uplands, under regular military lawif they disobey they are to be shot. Did it never
occur to the author of this unique plan that the
"able-bodied Lackalls" in number some millions,
might object to being shot?*
We shall now notice briefly "MODEL PRisoNs"'-the second pamphlet of this sepies-a
series which may continue indefinitely inasmuch
as the public do notseem wholly prepared to follow at once all the author's directions. In
"Model Prisons" the writer's aim is to enforce
two prominent ideas.
I. That the Philanthropical movement in England which has the improvement of jails and
general amelioration for its object, is a hollow
and ridiculous affair carried on by loud mouthed
demagogues little better than March hares.
II. That Capital Punishment should be rigorously enforced and in a spirit of Hatred and
Revenge.
If there is any principle sanctioned by the
unanimous suffrages of all mankind, this author
as-sumes the task of combatting that principle
and proving it a delusion and a blunder. Now
we are-taught to believe that executhons are
meant to deter others from offending the laws.
What says Carlyle? (The condemned is represented as addressing his executioners.)
"Why make an example of me, a merely ill ~ ar obige to eiti li oteo -"Peet
*We are obliged to omit in this notice of the "Prese*nt
Times" any view of the autnur's crusade against emancipation.,
. loan.]
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