IN FAVOUR OF 
 
 THE CHAHTEB. 
 
 BY J. LEACH. 
 
 ‘We are ft numerous pcoplo, am\ we want etrenglh! ^Ye have an excellent soil, and we 
 jslUute of provision ! We are active ami laborious, and we live in indigence I We pay 
 -..nous tributes, and we are told that they arc not sullicient! We are at peace without, and 
 persons and property are not safe within! What, then, is the secret enemy that devours 
 —Jtuim of £mpins. 
 
 M.VNCHESTEU; 
 
 LEACH, PRINTER, MACHINE RULER, &c., 73, ROCHDALE-ROAD. 
 
 PRICE StETSENNY. 
 
1 
 
I.XTRODDCTION. 
 
 “Wlienever any crisis in tlie afliiirs of men is about to take place, there is ever 
 to be found a number of peop'e ready to preach up things as they are. These 
 cliainpious figlit stoutly and cunningly against the innovation of existing in¬ 
 stitutions and modes of acting ; and they endeavour to reason the sensible and 
 alarm the timid into remaining quiet, and enduring meekly whatever evils they 
 may be afflicted with. Belonging to one class, and having in view a common 
 object, these alarmists attempt to convince the people that everything is almost 
 as well as it can be—that few evils are endured by them which are not neces¬ 
 sary consequences of existance—that their governmental burthens may be 
 alleviated by gradual and imperceptible reform—that the present gradations of 
 society, which cause so much discontentment among the poor and the oppres¬ 
 sed, have always existed, and therefore ever must exist—and that any attempts 
 of the productive classes to lietter themselves by interfering with this “natural 
 arrangement of society,” will be attended with the most disastrous results to 
 themselves. 
 
 If it were ever possible to predict what shall be, from a consideration of 
 what has been—if ever the signs of the times gave warning of great trou¬ 
 bles or changes—there is tliat in the present which tells us in a manner not to 
 be misunderstood, that the hour for the final conflict between Bight and Might 
 cannot be far distant. That it is time the event took place, let the wrongs of 
 man for forty centuries testify—that it is time to put an end to the bondage 
 of labour, let the sulferings of the millions of her martyred children bear wit- 
 
 Of all nations on the face of the earth, the people of the United Kingdom suffer 
 the most severely, and are, therefore, the most in want of a remedy. Through- 
 Out the country, distrust or dissatisliiction is universal. Not one class or 
 society is at vest; but a troubled and uneasy sensation—a kind of forerunner 
 of evil or of change—pervades alike the bosoms of both the rich and the poor 
 —the trampler and the trampled upon. 
 
 The productive classes are bewildered amidst the multiplicity of remedies 
 offered for their consideration They have as many remedies as wrongs—one 
 contradicting another, and most of them equally valuless ; for they are alike 
 based merely on passing events, instead of resting on the broad foundation of 
 some great principle. That which appears to be a remedy in one year, turns 
 out, in the ne.xt year, to be no remedy whatever ; for the particular evil which 
 such remedy applied to, is found to have shifted its locality, or changed to 
 some secondary evil. 
 
 There is wanted, not a mere governmental or particular remedy, but a general 
 remedy—one which will apply to all social wrongs and evils, great and small. 
 The productive classes want a remedy for their incessant toil—they want a 
 remedy for their poverty—they want a remedy for the misery, and ignorance, 
 and vice, which such toil, such idleness, and such poverty produce.”— Bray's 
 Labour's WroatjSy and Labour's Remedy. 
 
 THE WORKING MAN’S ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF 
 THE CHARTER. 
 
 THE NATIONAL DEBT. 
 
 Since the year ISl.'i, when the crowning carnage of Waterloo, and' the 
 ceasing of the cannon’s roar, with the dying groans of thousands of England’s 
 bravest sons, proclaimed to her at onpe her victory and her misfortune, men of 
 
c’nol and tbouglitfol mien Lave, from time to lime, i-uidislied to tLe world iliilr 
 tbonjlils 01 ibat wicked, micliristimi, and lihorU-destroying: war, whilst 
 thousands—nay, millioM of the people who, through ignorance, were led to I o 
 lieve that the achievement of British Arnisand Momywould secure toEngland a 
 supremacy in perpetuaty of the trade and commerce of the world, have found 
 themselves miserably deceived ; but, true to their former dclnsitn, thev have 
 looked with anxiety for a retnm of those scenes of blood and devastation that 
 lias BO long disgraced Europe, as tlie cn'y means of restoring onr formir 
 splendour and CI.OBV, as it was called, and slay onr siidting power as a naiiov. 
 (as if the true inlerrsts of England where to be based on blood and carnage ) 
 How far tins class of rensoners 'Lave been very ])ropeily deceived, will be seen 
 from the fact, that within these few months—since the wars and (listurbances 
 commenced on the continent, our exports of maim'acinred goods have Ittllen off 
 at the rate of lifteeit ntillioits a yetir, whilst the wul'i .s of hihnnr are heiug i very - 
 where reduced; and, in a corresponding ratio, Ntilii'iial and Loctil 'raxtilion is 
 increasing.* But what is tbs debt? I'or a nation to be indebted to itself 
 sounds Strang — England owes to Enghind,f'(l-l,(i()S.2t''-l ds. ljd;aud England 
 for the privilege of owing Eimland X7ti4,CUS.2S t ds. l.^d., pays to England 
 tbesmnof,i-27,(i03,22l 17s. 9Jd. as iiitcresr. and whieli intcre.st, takes ten 
 shillings per week from one million sixUj thousand seren hundred and tweii- 
 ti/fire jiersonsll 
 
 Napoleon said truly, when bo characterised Ibis National T)clt as a •‘enn- 
 iiingly devised fraud upon the people of this country.” At the lime it was con¬ 
 tracted, the labouring people produced, by their iudnsiry, all the wealth of the 
 state, as they do now in our own days—whilst onr fathers, relatives and conn- 
 Irymcn, fought and bled abroad—we sweated and toiled at home—thousands of 
 them left their bones to bleach on a ioreign land, others returned home with the 
 loss of an afm or a leg, some blind, and all of them with broken conslitntions. 
 But this was not sacriiise enough ; after all their blood and slangbter abroad, 
 and onr sweating and toiling at home, we are brought in debt, seven hundred 
 and s'Xtif-four million six hundred and eiijht thousand two hundred and 
 'eiijhty-four pounds five shilUngs and one-penny farthiny for our pains, and 
 which money we duly oioe totbosethat never either fonght or worked. Is it not 
 passing strange, that those who do all the labour, should for ever be over head 
 and ears in debt to those who do none ? Truly, it is time hat Joi n Bull 
 assumed the name of John Ass, for what other countrymen would 
 bear with such ass-like patience the frauds and impositions practised upon him. 
 But this is not the worst of this mis-called debt. Notwithstanding the vast 
 amount that is annually taken from a people whose circumstances are sorrow¬ 
 fully realizing the ancient fable of Tantilus, to satisfy the participators in this 
 huge swindle 1 So far from it getting less, is in consequence of the depreciation 
 constantly going on in the value of labour increasing in its crushing weight 
 on the shonlders of industry 
 
 In the j.ear.l804, the weaver received twenty shillings for the work he now 
 receives five 'shillings for: the produce of his labour was, in 1604, sold at Is. 
 per yard,and now sells at 3d, so that the aristocrat get four times as much of the 
 labourer’s wealth for his money, and the labouring man three times less for the 
 
 ■ • It is notorious Ihstas poverty unit opjircssion increases, so doesUietnxntionof the oonnlry, 
 
 as it becomes necessary to employ a gt cater number of mililery, poliee, &c, to stille the com¬ 
 plaints of ibe people, wbo will not tamely submtt to the wrongs and robberies committed 
 
5 
 
 performnnee of liis industry. The combination of cbimical and me.,banicnl 
 science, the genius of onr artisans, and the increasing severity of their labour, 
 through the driving rniiious comitedtion of their employers, has equally depre- 
 ciaied in value, every other de.scription of the labourer's produce, and of course 
 has transferred the contents of the scantily supplied cupboard of the industrious 
 producer's, to the well-stored larders and wine cellars of the idle consumers. 
 
 This arguincut applies to all classes excepting those immediately above the 
 wotking man, who now begin to fuel rather remotely the privations that has so 
 long been his lot;. and who, if they could be brought to see their true interests, 
 would at once perceive, that the.ro is no oiher parties to supply the custom he 
 is deprived of, through the oppressive privations the labouring people are made 
 to endure. 
 
 ■ The War c.stimatcs for the present year is iC2l,S20,d00, and takes lOs. per 
 wee-k from 839,(i24 of the people; the very existance of such a force, in time of 
 ]ieace, is tlie strongest evidence of the rottenness and oppressions cl our present 
 institutions This, like all other departments, is infested with a large number of 
 siueciirists, that is, parties who receive pay for doing nothing; whilst the woijc- 
 ing man cannot get snllieient pay for his hard labour. The sinecure colonelcies 
 alone ainonnt to .i:200.;)7.o, aud takes JOs. per week from seven thousand six 
 hundred and sixty-six of the people. 
 
 THE COST OF ROYALTY is iTCO.lO.-;, 
 takes 10s T’' week troni 29,.591 of the people. Surely, it mnst be very gratifying 
 to the loval, lean, lauk, starved, pauper-strickeu meu-skeletons ot Britain, to 
 know that 29,587 of them gives lOs. per week to the support of Royalty, its 
 gem-gaws, aud extravagances. What if their labour is hard and ill-paid, their 
 wiv cs in rags, their children crying for bread, and sometimes dying for want 
 of it, what matter; it is all hnt of small importance compared with the glory 
 and splendour of England—a glory and splendour that can only he displayed 
 by tile profligate and extravagant squandering of wealth raised by the sweating 
 toilers ! 'Verily, these aristocrats are pushing on the day of reckoning.—iMay it 
 
 [Thu expenses of the American Executive, including the President’s salary, 
 - is about Ji:2(),00n :j 
 
 Tlie/nlloiciiif/ Kill afford a prclltj correct estimate as to the diffcrance hctici.vt 
 the rich squanderers and the poor producers. 
 
 Expense of Her Majesty's Household. 
 
 The Editor of the Broad Sheet called 
 the “Mirror of Currnption” observes— 
 This is certainly a rare bill of fare for 
 one year; £2,050 for bread, showing a 
 consumption of sixty-one thousand fire 
 hundred quartern loaves, at Sd. per 
 quartern! ±'4,976 for butter, bacon, 
 cheese, and eggq showing a consump¬ 
 tion of thirty-nine thousand five hun¬ 
 dred and Ucenty pounds of butter,at Is; 
 thirty thousand pounds of bacon, at Sd; 
 
 I Condition of the producers. 
 
 A Snrveyer of highways in Ireland 
 had removed 144 dead bodies that had 
 been famished to death" In otter in¬ 
 stances, when only one of the family 
 has been left, he has crawled to the door 
 of the cabin aud stopped it up with earth 
 to prevent the dogs and pigs from de¬ 
 vouring the dead bodiesol their relatives, 
 and then laid down and died by the side 
 of of their putrifying bodies I! It is 
 considered much under the mark to state 
 
twenty thousand'pounils of cheese, at Is; 
 and two hundred and forty thousand 
 eggs, at Is. per dozen!! Next we Lave 
 i'i.'lVd expended for milk and cream, 
 showing a consumption of twenty-nine 
 thousand five hundred and sixty quarts, 
 at an average of Is. per quart!! Then 
 follows £d,dTZ for butcher’s meat, which 
 sum would purchase one hundred oxen, 
 at .£30 each: seven hundred and fifty 
 calves at £4, onethoxtsand five hundred 
 sheep, nt 21; and thx-ee hundx-ed and 
 fourteen lambs, at 111 Os.!! Think of 
 that j-e swaLowers of ‘-green tails!’’ 
 Next comes £'3,633 lor poultry, show¬ 
 ing an annihilation offnx-ty-eight thou¬ 
 sand nine hundred ai'xd fox-ly foxels, at 
 Is. 6d. each 1 Such a flock in the air, 
 would obscure the light of the sun 1! 
 Next comes £I,9T9for fish, showing a 
 consumption ot thirty-nine thousand 
 fiee hundx-ed axxd eighty lbs., at is. per 
 lb. 1 Larger than the miraculous draught. 
 A little lower down we have £'4,850 for 
 wine, about nineteen thousand four 
 huxxdred bottles, at Ss. each. (No tee- 
 lotalism herel) And also £2,811 for 
 beer and ale. showing a “jolly swill" of 
 fixe hxindi-cd aiul txxenty hogslxeaxls,axxd 
 thirty gallons! —enough to diowu.Pha- 
 ranh and his hosi' 1 'I hen come s i'l, 
 133 for u-ashixxg table linen! by which 
 it appears txco hundred axxd fifty thou¬ 
 sand table cloths, at 3d. each, must 
 have passed through the hands of the 
 washerwomen I—about enough linen to 
 envelope the whole world It Now is 
 not all this a treat for the “swinish mul¬ 
 titude r" No wonder we are too thick 
 upon the land !! Contrast this with 
 the other colume. 
 
 Commerce! beneath whose poison-brcMhiug 
 
 No solitary virtue (lares to spring; 
 
 But poverty and wealth with eciual hand 
 Scatter their withering curses, and unfold 
 'Xhe doors of premature and violent death, 
 
 To pining famine and full-fed disease, 
 
 To all that shore the lot of human life, 
 
 Which poisoned, body and soul, scarce drags 
 the chain. 
 
 That lengthens as it goes and clanks 
 
 that half a million have died of starva¬ 
 tion in Ireland, during the last eighteen 
 months. The state of England may be 
 judged from the following, which may 
 be relied upon as correct:—lu London 
 there are upwards of 50,000 people that 
 rise every morning, without knowing 
 where their first meal is to come from 
 —that there are upwards of 40,000 
 prostitutes—that there are upwards of 
 15,000 bouses forreceivingstolen goods, 
 from an old rusty nail to the richest jew¬ 
 ellery—there are 14,000 under four¬ 
 teen yeax-s of age, that live by theft and 
 prostitu'iuu 1—ihere are also a great 
 number of houses kept as decoy-dexxs, 
 to where youug unsuspecting female.s 
 are decoyed. These places arc known 
 to the middle and higher class ruler.s, 
 but are tolerated that they may supply 
 victims to the lusts and debaucheries of 
 the aristocratic class.—Lords, both 
 spiritual and temporal parsons, and 
 members of parliament, have often been 
 known to ptttronise these pests. In ad¬ 
 dition to this, there are thou.sands of 
 honest labonring men, who, for want of 
 eniployraenf, are perambulating the 
 streets, in pining want and wretchedness, 
 and this, too, in tlui richest city in the 
 world 1 This gloomy picture has of late 
 been made more gloomy still, by the 
 ignorance and avarice of our legislators, 
 iu allowing the produce of foreign low- 
 taxed labour to be brought into the 
 English market, to ])Ut down and under 
 sell the produce of the highly taxed 
 labourer of England. Well might 
 Shelley exclaim— 
 
 Commerce has set the mark of selfishness, 
 
 The siguel of its ill euslaving power, 
 
 Upon a Rhiniug ore, and called it gold ; 
 
 Before who.se image, bo^Y the vulgar great, 
 
 The vainly rich, the miserahlo proud, 
 
 The mob efpeasants,nobles, priests, and hings; 
 And with blind feelings reverence the power 
 That grinds them to the dust of misery. 
 
 Bur, in the temple of their hireling hearts, 
 
 Gold is a living god, and rules in scorn 
 All earthly things but virtue ” 
 
 ! behind. 
 
SALAUIES AND EXPENSES OE THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT 
 
 f 1,787,TSS. mid (ilkos 10s. per week from .. 01,872 of the people. 
 
 Out of this department. Lord John Uussell reeeives . ,i'j,000 
 
 p&r pear, and takes lOs. per week from S30 of the people. 
 
 Charles Wood, M. P. for Halifax, receives .. .. L‘o,000 
 
 per pear, which sum takes 10s. per week from 192 of the people. 
 
 Lord Palmerston .. .. .. .. i‘.u,000 
 
 With under Secretarp at .. .. .. £2,000 
 
 Earl Grep .. .. .. .. ' .. if.o,000 
 
 With under Secretarp at .. .. .. £2,0('0 
 
 There are various digrees of reraunertions amongst these gentlemen, until we 
 come to the worthp jHis-represeiiter of Manchester—Mr. Milner Gibson,—who 
 has reeeived £2,000 per annum, and which takes the entire wages of 308 of 
 the factorp children he has so industriouslp misrepresented, since their masters 
 Rent him to parliament. 
 
 In addition to these pickings, whilst in office, this patriotic order of legislators 
 geuerallp contrive to get themsevles upon the “Pension List,” altho' to a man, 
 (no doubt from verp disinterested and philanthropic motives,) thep oppose that 
 part of the “People’s Charter,” that provides for the Papment oi Members. 
 
 EXPENSES OF OUR “COURTS OF JUSTICE” AS THEY ARE CALLED 
 
 £1,6-10,602, and takes lOs. per week from .. ,, 63.108 
 
 Judges salaries £.103,032 takes 10s. per week from .. 15,103 
 
 Pensions, after receiving salaries from 3,0007 to 8,001)/ per pear, .£71,71-1 17s. 
 lid. Total £2,116,778 17s. lid. takes 10s. per week from 8I,41'1 
 of the people! This is not bp any means the cost of this depanmeut of our 
 civilized barbarism. In addition there is an innumerable spawm of the verp 
 worst description of the Vulture genii, from the highest cormorant in hermiue, 
 down to Jack Catch and the bumbailiff. 
 
 FOR THE SUPPORT OF OUR FOREIGN DIPLOMATISTS 
 
 £344,275, and takes lOs-per week from 13,615 of the people. These are a 
 sort of spies of the higher class.—In that respectable vocation, thep are the 
 class that figure pi ettp general in the Pension List, the numbers of which re¬ 
 
 ceiving over one thousand a-pear, amounts to .£1,688,371 
 
 and takes 10s. per week from 64,975 of the people. 
 
 Rural Police. —This is one of the late reform jobs, and cost 
 
 the countrp', . .. .. £190,635 
 
 or 10s. per week from 7,5G3 of the people. 
 
 County Court Establishment.—This is another of their late 
 
 reform jobs, and cost the countrp last pear . £265,435 
 
 The compensation given, bp wap of pensions, after the late Re¬ 
 form in the Chancery Court, .. .. £76,000 
 
 Then there is a few pickings from the Crown Lands, amounting to £560,000 
 From the Droits of Admiralty .. .. .. .. £120,000 
 
 (These last items ought to go to lessen the taxes, but thep afford only nick- 
 nacks and sugar-plums for the sleek and well-fed paupers, who, in return, abuse 
 and oppress the class whose labour affords them the “plunder.”] 
 
8 
 
 Tiioseliistfe« items amonut to .€1,021,000 auiUakcslOo. jier week from 
 39,3(0 of the people. 
 
 THE COST OF THE CHURCH £10,-183,69/ 
 and takes tea sUilliags per wetk from 403,219 of the people. 
 
 This “Give us this day oar daily bread” coaipaay, take care their prayer ia 
 heard, whatever become of the poor, for whom they profess to eare so much. A 
 great number ot these gentlemen, ia addition to the proofs they give their “Hocks 
 of their fleecing propensities,” have of late assumedpi good deal of the literarv 
 character, and stands prominently forth as the defenders of the most cnrrup't 
 and oppressive institutions in Europe. The result of this system of vile oji- 
 pressiou and plunder will be seen from the fact that, our Poors’ Hate for the 
 present year, will amount to £8,900,000 [formerly paid out of the Church ju o- 
 perty] which will take 10s. per week from 307,690 of the peojde. 
 
 How is it passi'ule the labouring class can ever know peace or contentment 
 whilst such a swarm of locust are continually preying on the vitals of their 
 rights and liberties ? 
 
 THE ARISTOCRATIC HOUSE OF C03I.MCHS. 
 
 The following is a list of the rotten and currupt House of Commons, that 
 misrepresents the people, and supports this system of fi tiiul and extravugimee: 
 
 How it werks is rendered clear enough by the compl.'.xion of the 
 lower house of parliament, which ccut.ains about 250 persons inimedialely or 
 remotely related to the Peers of this Realm 1 It coulaius U manjnises, 7 earls, 
 21 nscounts, 34 lords, 25 right honourables, -47 houourablcs, 5(j baronets, 9 
 kuigbts, 3 lord-lienteuants, 74 deputy aud vice-lieutenants, ;)3 magistrates, 03 
 placemen, lOS patrons of cb’urcb livingsand then there are the military pen¬ 
 sioners in addition to these, for whom large and increasing staiidiiig armies are 
 to be kept up in time of peace, namely—3 admirals, 3 lieutenant-generals, 3 
 major-generals, 22 colonels, 28 lieutenaut.coloncls, IG majors, 4.3 captains in 
 the army and navy, 21 lieutenants in (he same, and 4 cornets ! In short, these 
 are scarcely 900 out of the (158 members, who have not either titles, office, 
 place, pension, Church patronage, or immediate relatives deriving large sums 
 annually from the established government abuses. 
 
 This “starch” and “hnekram” class affect to look down with contempt upon 
 the working order, and censure their groveling propensities, when they talk of 
 electing and paying their representatives to defend labour against their igno- 
 rance,aTarice,frauds, and oppressions of these impudent usurpers, who consider 
 any. sort of crawling toadism aud fawning sycophancy as no more than a 
 compliance with the rules of civilised hypocrisy, provided their object is 
 gained, and they got the first bite of the working man’s “cherry 1” 
 
 ■\Vorking men,—^Let not a moment he lost in organising yourselves in the 
 great struggle of Eight,—^yours is the duty to defend the rights of labour,— 
 until you do so, you never will, never must, audnever can, possess those rights 
 and liberties which nature and nature's God proclaims to he your own. 
 
 These Tracts are intendca to meet the vile trasljy falsehoods that are so plentifully leeining 
 from the Press, in support of this “crying” system of oppression nnd fraud. They will appear 
 from time to time, and be published at as cheap a rate as possible, so that they may have n 
 wide circalalion amongst the people. 
 
 Julrlcs iccf/t, Prill 
 
 c., 73, Sochdak-road, ilandiakr.