Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser – Saturday 07 February 1852
BIRTHDAY FESTIVAL TO THOMAS PAINE.
A public tea party, to celebrate this event, was held on Sunday afternoon, at the Literary Institution, John-street, Tottenham-court-road. Prior to the chair being taken, and during the intervals between the sentiments, appropriate music and suitable choruses were executed with the usual ability displayed by the Apollonic Society. The Hall was crowded to excess.
Shortly after seven o’clock Mr. James Watson was called to the chair, and opened the business of the meeting by reading letters from Mr. Owen, Mr. Saull, and others, apologising for their non-attendance.
The Chairman then gave as the first sentiment:—“The People—may they not relinquish the struggle for social and political rights until the whole population have obtained them.”
What would Thomas Paine have said, could he have witnessed a Sunday gathering like the present, to celebrate his social, religious, and political views? They had advanced greatly to procure this freedom. This was what Paine had thought, wrote, and fought for. Honour in an especial manner was due to Thomas Paine, for being the first man that took superstition by the beard and give it a sound shaking, regardless of the calumny and persecution to which he knew he should be subjected. It was to Paine mainly that we owed the liberty of thought and expression on religious subjects, which we now enjoyed; and yet many professing similar views were apt to speak of his writings as coarse and sarcastic, forgetful that the liberty they possessed was owing to the energy of his attacks upon their common foe.
Mr. S. Kidd responded to the sentiment. Nothing that he could say could add to the long tried and tested character of Paine. His authority and reputation as a political writer was settled by the general consent of all Europe. Those who abused his writings were generally but slightly acquainted with them. His character for humanity was equal to his other qualities, and thus the name of Paine was appropriately connected with the sentiment to which he was responding. Thomas Paine was a Social as well as a Political Reformer. This was particularly evidenced by his work called “Agrarian Justice;” and his name and works would live when those of his calumniators were buried in oblivion. Paine took an enlarged view of human nature. Instead of adoring the views of the great or noble, he called upon all men to think and act for themselves. The truth of his view were being daily more felt. Our modern civilisation was every day proving itself more incapable of realising the good of society. Their life were equally ignorant and culpable with the poor—one class was rendered miserable by the excess of wealth, whilst the other class was miserable from its poverty. Men were asking why these things were. Mechanical and scientific inventions were daily being impressed into the service of man; but they only tended to increase his misery, to render him the slave of labour. The pale-faced weavers, the swarthy miners, the low-paid artizans, were, by thousands, thinking that to return to barbarism was superior to this state of civilisation. They looked up to the rich, and said this may be a true system of civilisation to you, but it is a false one for us; and with this moving in their hearts, it was idle to tell them of the prosperity of their country. Such scenes as were every where occurring in England were sufficient to break the bonds which held society together. Ships were wrecked daily on our shores, because they were not sufficiently well manned, owing to the shipowner wanting to increase his gains. Everywhere health and life were being sacrificed to wealth. If they had not a civil war, like that in France, raging in England, they had one equally as fatal in its results. There was a civil war between capital and labour—the employed and the employer. The working men of England were not free agents—they did not stand on equal terms with their employers. One favourable circumstance in the present day was, that the circumstances of the age were beginning to force all men to take part in the struggle. Heretofore they had much false philanthropy and mock humanity, mixed up with a little genuine benevolence and much hypocrisy, but, until now, no real interest was felt by society in the workman’s struggle. This change was hopeful, and would ultimately tend to change the present relations of capital and labour. Mr. Kidd concluded a long and able speech, amid much cheering.
Mr. G. J. Harney also spoke to this sentiment. Ever since he was a boy, he had heard that sentiment re-echoed, and he hoped, at no distant day, to hear it altered to the one of “May we zealously guard the liberties we have obtained.” Nevertheless, in spite of the toast being so hackneyed, they must persevere. The perseverance of the people of this country was of an effervescing nature—it did not continue. They broke from the object of their desire, because the views of this leader, or that man, did not consent with their own. Baffled as they had been they must not despair. Perseverance never failed of success. Paine, in his life, left to them an example of the sublime effects of perseverance. He first conceived the idea of turning a simple insurrection into a struggle for national independence, and, notwithstanding all the seeming obstacles to his views, they at length achieved a glorious realisation. His career in France was a proof of his undaunted energy. When imprisoned in a dungeon during that period of excitement, with death in all probability near, he penned the glorious thoughts on religion contained in his “Age of Reason.” On the views of that book—whether they went too far, or not far enough—he would not dwell; but it was a grand example of his spirit of perseverance. On his return to America, notwithstanding the ingratitude of the American nation, equally with Washington he was the saviour of America. On every occasion until his death, when his advice or presence was necessary, there was he present. Let them imitate this spirit. If they had not the genius of Paine, they could at least be imitators of his perseverance. It was the will—the spirit alone—that was necessary to ensure success. Without this, all plans or programmes were useless.
Mr. Hart was pleased with the opportunity of recording his sentiments on this great man. He did not agree with Paine in his religious opinions, still he felt it his duty to give his meed of admiration to his fame. His religious opinions were the result of his convictions, and were uttered amidst difficulties and danger. A man who asserted the right of free thought was equally useful with the man who gave a great thought to the world. It was only by the exertions of such great and fearless men as Paine that any great cause was made to triumph. We owed our present political and social position to the exertion of such men. They had set the current of free thought running, and it was impossible that the people could resist struggling for its advance. They had struggled from one position to another; first, the barons against the king, then the middle class against the barons; and, finally, the operatives against the capitalists. In all things, except the possession of wealth, the people had progressed to become the equals, if not superiors, of all other classes. He endorsed the sentiments glanced at by Mr. Kidd. If the intelligent men of the present day were to remain victims to the present system of civilisation, better return to barbarism. There was something chivalric and generous in the times of feudalry; the feudal serf was a superior being to the slave of a machine. Look at the present struggle going on between Capital and Labour. The masters had issued a pamphlet stating their right to do what they liked with their own. This was opening up a new subject—one which the working men had not previously entered upon. This would lead to the question of what was their own. The masters said, “Our money, our time, our capital, our labour, our every thing, yes, our hands.” They were hands, and not men with hearts; things with five fingers, not human beings. These men claimed all things, even the thoughts of the labourer, his time, and the manner in which he should spend his evenings. When Ledru Rollin first read the inscription on the Royal Exchange, he translated the word “Lord” and “Peer,” and read it “the Earth is the Peers and the fullness thereof.” This was the view of the masters. They were the true disorganisers. Their liberty was license; their will would be robbery. Mr. Hart then, in eloquent language, dwelt upon the political and social question, and sat down amid loud cheers.
Mr. H. Knight gave the following sentiment: “The Memory of Thomas Paine, may his ‘Age of Reason’ speedily effect the destruction of the two great superstitions, ‘the divine rights of Kings, and the right divine of Priests.'” He believed these were the two greatest evils that ever afflicted the earth. All honour to Paine, who, in an age of comparative darkness, had dared to aim the shafts of reason at these superstitions. All honour to the men of the present day, who dared to meet and celebrate the fame of this every famous and much celebrated man. Owing to the writings of men like Paine, the bubble of divine right had burst, and out therefrom had come the sweet flower of the natural rights of the people. During a long logical address Mr. Knight was much applauded.
Mr. Lee Bond responded. Paine asserted the right of all mankind to entertain the convictions of their minds; this he gave equally to those who differed from, as to those who assented to, his doctrine. Hence men of all shades of religious views could stand on the same platform and do honour to his memory as the great advocate of free thought. It was to him they must ascribe their present comparative freedom. Still, freedom of thought, though not legally punished, did not escape all punishment. The professed Atheist was still under the ban of Society. But the time was approaching when all men would not only be allowed, but encouraged, to give free vent to their convictions. He trusted the shade of Paine would visit and afflict all who would not act, as well as talk, in defence of these opinions.
D. W. Ruffy, in an energetic address, supported the sentiment, and called upon those to give honour not only to Paine but to Carlile, to their respected Chairman, and others who had continued to struggle amid all the persecution to which they had been subjected.
The meeting concluded at a late hour by a vote of thanks to the Chairman.