and Societies are well and widely understood? At
this time there is much maudlin sympathy expressed on behalf of the
working classes. They need it not. They are stout enough and strong
enough to take care of themselves. The Freehold Land Movement has given
them an investment, and they have become saving men. The money that
would formerly have been spent in the public-house has given many a man a
freehold and a stake in the country, such as even a revising barrister
must admit. The present system of revision of votes by barristers is
bad. Members of Freehold Land Societies have been much wronged in
consequence. One worthy disfranchised several claimants last summer, on
the ground that the forty-shilling franchise, in all cases, should cost
50 pounds. It ought to be in the power of no man to arrive at such a
decision. The question should be left to a jury--not to a barrister,
eager of promotion, and for that purpose desirous to please the powers
that be. But still a man may thus obtain wealth and a vote. And the man
thus taught self-denial and providence will not be contented with
remaining merely a freeholder; he cannot make himself that without
becoming intellectually and morally a better man. He will be a better
father of a family, a better citizen, better in his public and private
life. Workmen of England, Ireland and Wales, we call upon you to rally
round the Freehold Land Societies. They exist for your benefit alone.
They will give you all that you require--desirable investments for your
savings--habits of economy and political influence. You have no need to
cringe and beg. All that you want, you have it in your power to obtain.
Never was there a more favourable time for you to avail yourselves of the
Freehold Land Societies now springing up in your midst. You have now
money you can put by. When the Corn Laws cursed the land, it would have
been mockery to have asked you to do so then. Now the case is altered,
and you must each one of you seek to elevate yourselves. As Mr. Cobden
aptly remarked, half the money annually spent in gin would give the
people the entire county representation, and thus also provide desirable
investments for the money that you are morally bound to lay by against a
rainy day. The man who refuses to make provision for the future cannot
expect to prosper. Not to do so when a man can is a folly and a crime.
Now then is the time to support the Freehold Land Societies. Thus wh