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nstitutional pigments; is the Death's…head that discloses itself。 I can only say; if all the Parliaments in the world were to vote that such a thing was just; I should feel painfully constrained to answer; at my peril; 〃No; by the Eternal; never!〃 And I would recommend any British Governor who might come across that Business; there or here; to overhaul it again。 What the meaning of a Governor; if he is not to overhaul and control such things; may be; I cannot conjecture。 A Canadian Lumber…log may as well be made Governor。 _He_ might have some cast…metal hand or shoulder…crank (a thing easily contrivable in Birmingham) for signing his name to Acts of the Colonial Parliament; he would be a 〃native of the country〃 too; with popularity on that score if on no other;he is your man; if you really want a Log Governor!
I perceive therefore that; besides choosing Parliaments never so well; the New Colonial Office will have another thing to do: Contrive to send out a new kind of Governors to the Colonies。 This will be the mainspring of the business; without this the business will not go at all。 An experienced; wise and valiant British man; to represent the Imperial Interest; he; with such a speaking or silent Collective Wisdom as he can gather round him in the Colony; will evidently be the condition of all good between the Mother Country and it。 If you can find such a man; your point is gained; if you cannot; lost。 By him and his Collective Wisdom all manner of _true_ relations; mutual interests and duties such as they do exist in fact between Mother Country and Colony; can be gradually developed into practical methods and results; and all manner of true and noble successes; and veracities in the way of governing; be won。 Choose well your Governor;not from this or that poor section of the Aristocracy; military; naval; or red…tapist; wherever there are born kings of men; you had better seek them out; and breed them to this work。 All sections of the British Population will be open to you: and; on the whole; you must succeed in finding a man _fit_。 And having found him; I would farther recommend you to keep him some time! It would be a great improvement to end this present nomadism of Colonial Governors。 Give your Governor due power; and let him know withal that he is wedded to his enterprise; and having once well learned it; shall continue with it; that it is not a Canadian Lumber…log you want there; to tumble upon the vertexes and sign its name by a Birmingham shoulder…crank; but a Governor of Men; who; you mean; shall fairly gird himself to his enterprise; and fail with it and conquer with it; and as it were live and die with it: he will have much to learn; and having once learned it; will stay; and turn his knowledge to account。
From this kind of Governor; were you once in the way of finding him with moderate certainty; from him and his Collective Wisdom; all good whatsoever might be anticipated。 And surely; were the Colonies once enfranchised from red…tape; and the poor Mother Country once enfranchised from it; were our idle Seventy…fours all busy carrying out streams of British Industrials; and those Scoundrel Regiments all working; under divine drill…sergeants; at the grand Atlantic and Pacific Junction Railway;poor Britain and her poor Colonies might find that they _had_ true relations to each other: that the Imperial _Mother_ and her constitutionally obedient Daughters were not a red…tape fiction; provoking bitter mockery as at present; but a blessed God's…Fact destined to fill half the world with its fruits one day!
But undoubtedly our grand primary concern is the Home Office; and its Irish Giant named of Despair。 When the Home Office begins dealing with this Irish Giant; which it is vitally urgent for us the Home Office should straightway do; it will find its duties enlarged to a most unexpected extent; and; as it were; altered from top to bottom。 A changed time now when the question is; What to do with three millions of paupers (come upon you for food; since you have no work for them) increasing at a frightful rate per day? Home Office; Parliament; King; Constitution will find that they have now; if they will continue in this world long; got a quite immense new question and continually recurring set of questions。 That huge question of the Irish Giant with his Scotch and English Giant…Progeny advancing open…mouthed upon us; will; as I calculate; change from top to bottom not the Home Office only but all manner of Offices and Institutions whatsoever; and gradually the structure of Society itself。 I perceive; it will make us a new Society; if we are to continue a Society at all。 For the alternative is not; Stay where we are; or change? But Change; with new wise effort fit for the new time; to true and wider nobler National Life; or Change; by indolent folding of the arms; as we are now doing; in horrible anarchies and convulsions to Dissolution; to National Death; or Suspended…animation? Suspended…animation itself is a frightful possibility for Britain: this Anarchy whither all Europe has preceded us; where all Europe is now weltering; would suit us as ill as any! The question for the British Nation is: Can we work our course pacifically; on firm land; into the New Era; or must it be; for us too; as for all the others; through black abysses of Anarchy; hardly escaping; if we do with all our struggles escape; the jaws of eternal Death?
For Pauperism; though it now absorbs its high figure of millions annually; is by no means a question of money only; but of infinitely higher and greater than all conceivable money。 If our Chancellor of the Exchequer had a Fortunatus' purse; and miraculous sacks of Indian meal that would stand scooping from forever;I say; even on these terms Pauperism could not be endured; and it would vitally concern all British Citizens to abate Pauperism; and never rest till they had ended it again。 Pauperism is the general leakage through every joint of the ship that it is rotten。 Were all men doing their duty; or even seriously trying to do it; there would be no Pauper。 Were the pretended Captains of the world at all in the habit of commanding; were the pretended Teachers of the world at all in the habit of teaching;of admonishing said Captains among others; and with sacred zeal apprising them to what place such neglect was leading;how could Pauperism exist? Pauperism would lie far over the horizon; we should be lamenting and denouncing quite inferior sins of men; which were only tending afar off towards Pauperism。 A true Captaincy; a true Teachership; either making all men and Captains know and devoutly recognize the eternal law of things; or else breaking its own heart; and going about with sackcloth round its loins; in testimony of continual sorrow and protest; and prophecy of God's vengeance upon such a course of things: either of these divine equipments would have saved us; and it is because we have neither of them that we are come to such a pass!
We may depend upon it; where there is a Pauper; there is a sin; to make one Pauper there go many sins。 Pauperism is our Social Sin grown manifest; developed from the state of a spiritual ignobleness; a practical impropriety and base oblivion of duty; to an affair of the ledger。 Here is not now an unheeded sin against God; here is a concrete ugly bulk of Beggary demanding that you should buy Indian meal for it。 Men of reflection have long looked with a horror for which there was no response in the idle public; upon Pauperism; but the quantity of meal it demands has now awakened men of no reflection to consider it。 Pauperism is the poisonous dripping from all the sins; and putrid unveracities and god…forgetting greedinesses and devil…serving cants and jesuitisms; that exist among us。 Not one idle Sham lounging about Creation upon false pretences; upon means which he has not earned; upon theories which he does not practise; but yields his share of Pauperism somewhere or other。 His sham…work oozes down; finds at last its issue as human Pauperism;in a human being that by those false pretences cannot live。 The Idle Workhouse; now about to burst of overfilling; what is it but the scandalous poison…tank of drainage from the universal Stygian quagmire of our affairs? Workhouse Paupers; immortal sons of Adam rotted into that scandalous condition; subter…slavish; demanding that you would make slaves of them as an unattainable blessing! My friends; I perceive the quagmire must be drained; or we cannot live。 And farther; I perceive; this of Pauperism is the corner where we must _begin_;the levels all pointing thitherward; the possibilities lying all clearly there。 On that Problem we shall find that innumerable things; that all things whatsoever hang。 By courageous steadfast persistence in that; I can foresee Society itself regenerated。 In the course of long strenuous centuries; I can see the State become what it is actually bound to be; the keystone of a most real 〃Organization of Labor;〃and on this Earth a world of some veracity; and some heroism; once more worth living in!
The State in all European countries; and in England first of all; as I hope; will discover that its functions are now; and have long been; very wide