THE Wellington Independent "NOTHING EXTENUATE; HOIt SET DOWN AUGHT IN MALICE." THURSDAY MORNING, 9th MARCH. AN ADDRESS TO THE WORKING MEN.

Wellington Independent, Volume XIX, Issue 2177, 9 March 1865, Page 3

THE Wellington Independent "NOTHING EXTENUATE; HOIt SET DOWN AUGHT IN MALICE." THURSDAY MORNING, 9th MARCH. AN ADDRESS TO THE WORKING MEN.

On many occasions, but more particularly at election times, it has been the custom of a certain class of writers to address highly exciting appeals to " the Working Man." He is made acquaintedby his disinterested friends with a variety of things which he would never otherwise have discovered for himself. He is called " a hereditary bondsman" who would he be free, " himself mu«t strike the blow ;" he is informed that the iron heel of despotism is planted on his neck ; he is entreated to rouse himself lest the birth-right of his children should be snatched away to swell the revenues of a corrupt and bloated aristocracy ; and finally, he is called upon to rise in his might, confront his oppressors, and teach those in high places, that vox popidi, vox Dei — the voice of the people, is the voice of God. Mixed up with all this there is a good deal of flimsy assertion, shallow reasoning, and clap-trap declamation. In the colonies, where with almost universal suffrage, the working classes actually are tho rulers, it ia the most utter j bunkum, — nay, it is a positive insult to their common sense— to address them in such a manner. A pseudo " working man" has recently been doing this in the Advertiser. We have read his effusion, which is the veriest trash, and would have touched upon it in detail, but that our purpose has been forestalled by the following address which has been handed to us. Wo gladly publish it, and trust that the telling facts and trenchant logic which it contains will completely neutralise the assumptions and false reasoning ofthe other production to which itrefers.