GLIMPSES INTO HISTORY

Maoriland Worker, Volume 12, Issue 303, 20 December 1922, Page 6

GLIMPSES INTO HISTORY

George Beaumont

ONE OE THE FOREEUNNEKB

.. Iα tlie :£dniirable bibliography: fey; J I S. ■¥&ss&[. writes Ridiard-'Hew-i in in the|?'Spfcialist Review^ , ' which; | ts provide& : aMan appendix to Meager'S RIG&T TO THE WHOLE PRODUCE! OFi%ABOUR appears an item under the ty|?iV 1812: "(Beaumont) j L 'The Beggafl* jCcmplaint against Rackj FRe-at Corn Factors, Great '* Farmers Monopolisers, Paper" Money j f Makers and War. . . . Also some Ob- | servations potv the Conduct of the Luddites inSreference to., the destruction of machinery, etc., etc' By one ''who p { .tie|k -'.Uie Oppressed. The | 'second esf|k>ki, greatly, enlarged, j ' Sheffield, lgjjjSffi , - . ' j '■ George the author of tins j f rein-arkabl6'"i)4iiiphlet has no mention j 'In the DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL j {'BIOGRAPHY Sor does it appear that j Phis liaino ;M:lnpwn among those oil 'iUio peopleJf-:whV laid the foundations 'of tlw greatl revolutionary movement j 'of our tinieSviAll I know of fi ? m is ■that he was .■-■ a m'niister, Methodist. I ' ihink, who wasrin ISI3 connected with j jlSbesiezer £hapeVm Ber Street at j /Norwich. £ •;• '■"::'■■. .<■.>...■] & Two moveipainplilets written by j him I liavG:;:beeit successful hx finding, j :JThe first was. published in 1803 and i "lias the t7tle FIXED STARS: OR \ '■ AND: REFUTATION j OF ASTROLOGY, ETC. . A ■ second I edition in Norwich in ISI4. In .180*5, Beaumont published j at Shefiielcf-a »&nphlet with real-| ,ly given jin full:j THE WARlliaßS' r LOOKING ;GLAS3: j ISIvStOWN FROM MANY [HIGH AUfH&RITiES THE TRIVIAL CAUSES, CRXJELJ NATyRK, \I>IRKFUL EFFECTS AND ANTI-CHRIS-; ,TIAN SPIRITJAND PRACTICE OFj .WAR. By G.-r-Ccaumont, Muyster ot j the Gospel'ot-Peace. . | On June ; 22r1513 ; appeared the fivst- : mentioned, (the .correct; date appears .on-the cover, ap-1 V parently FoxwelL did not see), de- j -scribed as ?bein& /'a. second-.edUion, j : 'greatly So far as I know j no copy first edition has sur- j ,-vived To it Beaumont was cautious. .'enough npf, to life namcj 'tliougli xa?" information is that lie was j liiiuseli responsible for selling the. 'copies that, were/ sold. There was '■■■■ need for caution, for not only was i Beaumont defending the Luddites, but 'one of his chapters has the significant and embarrassing title:.. RECIPE j FOR THE DESTRUCTION OB' THOSE QL'RSED VERMINE CALL\ED HEROES. Fortunately ,tho at--1 Mention of D.O.R.A. was not called to jthis T)ook dur-ng the war, or pro>'ably no copies,.of., it would_ Jtave been j to s.urviyc.. . . j , On tha first page the author lays down eight propositions, which he says are the "ground plot" of his ; pamphlet. The., following of them: anay be quoted:. j ' 11. That, the sufferings of the j poor are not! ho effects,of a Divine dispensation-.-but the offspring of i wicked men and bad systems. lII.' That it is possible for monopolisation and paper money to make dearth and distress, .-ey on in the, midst of wealth and abundance. j IV. Tbia-t much trade and commerce are not so beneficial to a station us many aro disposed to afllvm. VIII. That there is no moral orpolitical evil in the world which iocamyiiot remedy if they choose. In this last sentence may be found ■wliat I. call Beaumont's great discov- j fcvy. - This eighth proposition of his puts the stamp, on him as a man who saw clearly and distinctly through the maze of things by which he was surrounded. -It might well be written up-now in many a Trade Union meeting room; and be given utterance to many a Socialist meeting.- Be.au- -.. - mont fottnd out this fctt of. truth a nd publisbicd it in ian age which was taught with sickon'ug reiteration to ibeUeve taat-from God alone could deliveraaoe come-. "There is no moral or political evil in the world which . men may not .remedy it they choose" ■—the rwords leave a fine flavour in the mbulli, •'■■■•••■ About the Luddites, Beaumont lias ebnie rather important'things to say. • He us-tuat if was-about the latrter end of the year 1811 .that the etocldng and' lace weavers ,ot Not--tingUam, "having been for a long time harassed by abridged -was-js.. and v;ant of employment, in whole dr in part, and consequentiy with want of bread, entered into a combination (as report \..Jttys, u&on''-bata.) ..to break certain pre^ ' scribed, But it ' shou'd here fee observed that the interdicted fijanKJS were not ail of a new invented kind, there being many destined to /destructipn.for the,sake of tliefr own.er; the owner having rendered him-

self notorious by abridging the workmen's wages and underselling other manufacturers; therefor© -r . many frames of aii ordinary:' were broken." - - It was on January ,10,, I§l3, that fourteen men, who. had been cqaylctr •ed on the charge,that they,.were Luddites, walked on to .the scaffold ,at York staging 3* well-known., Mechodist. hymn. They were hanged, and there' were not half-a-dozen people in -EJngland who would have said'a W6rd in thejir defence. The poet Shelley and Lord Byron were among tlie excep-r tions, and with them also must he numbered this Minister Beaumont, 'who writes" thus: .■■■■■•- ---r . When the Luddites began, first to .'"break- machinery, the news': printers, and especially those of London, abused them in the most unqxialified language, calling them infatuated men, deluded men, wicked men,' and 111-designing men. But I"" dkl not observe that any of these ;"infalu ; at~, ■fed" printers had the candour to j call the poor Luddites empty-bellied men, ragged men, or -.worn-put, .em.-. aciatefl, half-starved, dying men! A few words of this kind might have been slipped in without any injury I to the truth: though, indeed, it I might have been greally detrimenti al to the interests of those, who, deI rive a considerable revenue from i t'ho sale of truth and conscience, I and who make their fortunes b3>dej ceiving and poisoning the .public mind, and who are principals' in bringing 011 ixa.tionalrruin;;"and who, strange to tell, arelipaid; for- their !- villainy out-of the'hard eariiingßM)f L - those they ruiu!.. <A~) C-' ■■.'" > * . k . :; I —~ There: is aißGerity-111 xvery word [•-of * tttis writing- It repeals -.Beaumont ; to : us ■ more "'than* portrait- could jxver'do. If we' have: regard toi's ; position, if we think-him.; as selling ■ fiis own books with his own.hjonds to I those who would buy,-them, if we re- : member with what cruel force tho.so I >vho epoke of injustice and I were crushed out in Beaumont's- days, ! wo, shall feel our hearts., burn towards this itinerant preacher who spoke out ! the truth that .was ; in" him with, passionate sincerity. He .. imagines -an ! .angel leaning over, the edge of a cloud I and looking down upon a l judge v/iili ! a salary of -'-three' pounds'.a year passing sentence of death uponja "few poor wretches . who have teen hurried into one desperate act-on ! through the pressure of pinching poverty. 7 ' And he flames out: . "I j Imagined that the angel knew that 1 the judge's salary amounts to more tlya.n fifty-seven pounds a week, and that some of the-poor..wretches whom he so solemnly condemus and consigns to the gibbet would never have transgressed against- v the- laws had [they been capable - of procuring by hard labour, not fifty-seven, pounds a *voek, but fifteen shillings a week!" . We hjaye hardly been able to jper•;uade our judges and magistrates of J the truth of what Beaumont wrote a [hundred and nine years after' it appeared in' print. His outlook was per--1 haps not altogether scientific; he read jihe Bible for his economics, and be- [ lieved in - tho literal truth of what it I told him, but ho had. ill great nieai mi what is required by every man ii.nd woman wh o woulfl fight against ignoranca and greed, an intuition which enabled him t o sense the truth. Beaumont was a man who hated and despised war. He wrote at a iime when Napoleon was making himself master of Europe,-.and. when j English mothers frightened their j children by telling them that "Nap. yould come down i'love'r hoil ajid carry them off," but for all this his .testimony was clear and straightj forward. War was the cause of povj'crty and distress, and for this reajsdn he condemned and hated war. 1 (There are some professors at Oxford and Cambridge sret5 r et who might learn something from our writer.) -His recipe for desti'oying "the vermvn called heroes , ' is simplicity itself. The surest way of destroying any kind of, vermin, he says, is to find out its proper food, and if that food can be withheld the vermin -.will die, of course. 'As. far as I can comprehend," he goes on, "after close investigation, the food of heroes consists of staring, shouting, huzzaing, ringing of bells, burning* candles in. windows,' firing of squibs, and crackers, a few toasts a t a grand \ rUnnor with three times three—a few j fulsome paragraphs always • written by either fools or knaves L -a jhic-coat, erossbarred and filleted with gold lace until it becomes like a fool's coat—' a piece of red netting " round.--- the | waist, and a very grand and costly military .whittle, called a svwrd! These, I" think, constitute all, or nearly .all. the articles of food by which heroes are fed and cherished" It is perfectly plain from this that Beaumont, when he writes of heroes.

is not thinking of tho ineß, whom h« describes as being stolen from their families, who d o both.the, fighting aud the dying, but'of *thoso l ?t large pensions for staying* btSblcMThe Unes. I fear I am only giving a very partial idea of ' Beaumont's naiagn.ifice.at attack upon war* which he !iad extended aud developed in ttik sepo|i?t of l>is published writings. I v plib /, tiling is quite certain." Any attempt t o put into circulation a reprint, of .this book during the..years of the ,war, "would Jiave met with " .'imprisonment", with hard labour, i£* not with"/penal servitude. ".' '■''' r '."' ,;: .

But in the meantime why is it, O, why is th'»j all this slaughter of liuman beings should go on, and continue to go on, from year to yejar, and no one put on the bowels of compassion for h-'s fellow creatures, no one stand up between the living, and, the dead, s no one seems willing to risk a finger or a farthing for the salvation of ; his poor, suffering countrymen, .;" who are mostly- taken away in fheir youth, land led. away in their simplicity and inexperience, to Jmj slaughtered '.with far more rueful circumstances of .cruelty than aro e-ver.r-practised by butchers in •a-.slaugh'teivliouse! Ye Ministers of the; Gospel, what are you doing? Did ever the great Shepherd tell j-ou to stand quietly looking oil whilst the wolves destroy t3iQ sheep?

Here we may teave Beaumont, his question still unanswered. Did he, vve "wonder, in his loneliness and anguish of spirit, realise that he was one of the forerunners, of a', revolution that wUI yet establish'-his dreams upon the-earth? It m,ay be that this is the,first occasion on : ■■which his writings have received any recognition at all, but he sleeps -in Wμ grave none,-;the "less soußi|i^, r ;. : .fci.r-; : all; that It-is- the. spirit that; ]K<s .ejrtxredf;:in^o; :i us and bids us fight .in which there fis no With all h?;s sorrow :: au.d ?; agoiiy r;.he was yet tho type of warrior; "Whom every man in arms .would wish to bs." ■ ■ ' ■ ..': r ..