To bring these Captainless under due captaincy?The anxious thoughts of all men that do think are turned upon that question;and their efforts,though as yet blindly and to purpose,under the multifarious impediments and obscurations,all point thitherward.Isolated men,and their vague efforts,can do it.Government everywhere is called upon,--in England as loudly as elsewhere,--to give the initiative.A new strange task of these new epochs;which Government,never so "constitutional,"can escape from undertaking.For it is vitally necessary to the existence of Society itself;it must be undertaken,and succeeded in too,or worse will follow,--and,as we already see in Irish Connaught and some other places,will follow soon.To whatever thing still calls itself by the name of Government,were it never so constitutional and impeded by official impossibilities,all men will naturally look for help,and direction what to do,in this extremity.If help or direction is given;if the thing called Government merely drift and tumble to and fro,whither,on the popular vortexes,like some carcass of a drowned ass,constitutionally put "at the top of affairs,"popular indignation will infallibly accumulate upon it;one day,the popular lightning,descending forked and horrible from the black air,will annihilate said supreme carcass,and smite it home to its native ooze again!--Your Lordship,this is too true,though irreverently spoken:indeed one ks how to speak of it;and to me it is infinitely sad and miserable,spoken or !--Unless perhaps the Voluntary Principle will still help us through?Perhaps this Irish leak,in such a rotten distressed condition of the Ship,with all the crew so anxious about it,will be kind egh to stop of itself?--Dismiss that hope,your Lordship!Let all real and imaginary Govers of England,at the pass we have arrived at,dismiss forever that fallacious fatal solace to their do-hingism:of itself,too clearly,the leak will never stop;by human skill and energy it must be stopped,or there is hing but the sea-bottom for us all!A Chief Gover of England really ought to recognize his situation;to discern that,doing hing,and merely drifting to and fro,in however constitutional a manner,he is a squanderer of precious moments,moments that perhaps are priceless;a truly alarming Chief Gover.Surely,to a Chief Gover of England,worthy of that high name,--surely to him,as to every living man,in every conceivable situation short of the Kingdom of the Dead--there is something possible;some plan of action other than that of standing mildly,with crossed arms,till he and we--sink?
Complex as his situation is,he,of all Govers extant among these distracted Nations,has,as Icompute,by far the greatest possibilities.The Captains,actual or potential,are there,and the million Captainless:and such resources for bringing them together as other has.To these outcast soldiers of his,unregimented roving banditti for the present,or unworking workhouse prisoners who are almost uglier than banditti;to these floods of Irish Beggars,Able-bodied Paupers,and adic Lackalls,stagnating or roaming everywhere,drowning the face of the world (too truly)into an untenantable swamp and Stygian quagmire,has the Chief Gover of this country word whatever to say?hing but "Rate in aid,""Time will mend it,""Necessary business of the Session;"and "After me the Deluge"?A Chief Gover that can front his Irish difficulty,and steadily contemplate the horoscope of Irish and British Pauperism,and whitherward it is leading him and us,in this humor,must be a--What shall we call such a Chief Gover?Alas,in spite of old use and wont,--little other than a tolerated Solecism,growing daily more intolerable!He decidedly ought to have some word to say on this matter,--to be incessantly occupied in getting something which he could practically say!--Perhaps to the following,or a much finer effect?
Speech of the British Prime-Minister to the floods of Irish and other Beggars,the able-bodied Lackalls,adic or stationary,and the general assembly,outdoor and indoor,of the Pauper Populations of these Realms .
"Vagrant Lackalls,foolish most of you,criminal many of you,miserable all;the sight of you fills me with astonishment and despair.What to do with you I k ;long have I been meditating,and it is hard to tell.Here are some three millions of you,as I count:so many of you fallen sheer over into the abysses of open Beggary;and,fearful to think,every new unit that falls is loading so much more the chain that drags the others over.On the edge of the precipice hang uncounted millions;increasing,I am told,at the rate of 1200a day.They hang there on the giddy edge,poor souls,cramping themselves down,holding on with all their strength;but falling,falling one after aher;and the chain is getting heavy ,so that ever more fall;and who at last will stand?What to do with you?The question,What to do with you?especially since the potato died,is like to break my heart!
"One thing,after much meditating,I have at last discovered,and k for some time back:That you can be left to roam abroad in this unguided manner,stumbling over the precipices,and loading ever heavier the fatal chain upon those who might be able to stand;that this of locking you up in temporary Idle Workhouses,when you stumble,and subsisting you on Indian meal,till you can sally forth again on fresh roamings,and fresh stumblings,and ultimate descent to the devil;--that this is the plan;and that it never was,or could out of England have been supposed to be,much as I have prided myself upon it!