The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 354: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

1 was even ferocious. “By the living God!” he ex- claamed,. in a. tone of wild exuitation—his eyes fiashing fire, his nostrils dilating, and his whole form appearing to expand into the dignity of god-like proportions; so that this son of to:l—this man of the people—this obscure and starving mechanic became an object terrible to gaze upon in the glory of his wrath and the subliinity of his indignation :—“ by the livinz God!” he cried, “I will sabmit to all shese wrongs no more! Patience is exhausted—and endurance has reached that point when it becomes a crine! Whence are we to obtain food save from those who have self-appropriaced the frhits of the earth? Who shall dare tell me that starvation is a doom for which we have no right to reproach our fellow-creatures? Against whom, then, must oar reproaches be levelled? Not against the Al- mighty——Oh! sno—we cannot perpetrate such a trenrendous impiety nor give utterance tosuch an appalling blasphemy! Aud yet, since the earth yields enough to maintain all who are upon it, there is a diabolical injust ce somewhere when a whole family is perishing through want. Tell me then, wife—you who say that my language is dreadful— tell me in which direction we are to look for the ' fountain of that injustice. I nave already said that we dare not complain against God: and therefore we must accuse Man. Yes—the favoured few are our enemies—the oligarchy are our foes. The bread which by right belongs to my chillren is now in the mansions of the rich: they have stolen it from me! Oh! my beloved babes,” exclaimed the man, in a voice of rending agony mingled with savage vindic- tiveness, “the food te which ye are justly entitled, has been snatched away from you by the usurpers and the tyrants who have imonopolised all the. elegances of life and refuse us even the necessaries! But this shall endure no longer: I will not kisa the band that strikes ine! Forbearance becomes a flagrant cowardice—and I am resolved how to act. Hear me, therefore, my dear wife—thou partner of my woes and sufferings,—hear me also, ye well- beloved children, victiins of an aecursed condition of society which blesses the few at the expense of the many,—hear me, I say,” continued Melinoth, raising his voice until it filled that dismantled garret like the rage of the whirlwind aud the fury of the storm,—“ bear me while I proclaim a war to the knife against those shom J regard as my enemies—a crusade without quarter against the oppressors of the millions and the usurpe:s of their rights—a coubat to the death ayzainst the miscreants who have made God's earth a paradise for themselves and a heli for all the rest!” “James— my God! he is raving!” cried the wretched Mra. Melmoth, now falling upon her knees befure her husband—an example which was instantaneously followed by the two boys and the young girl; and, sobbing bitterly, they all ciung round the half-maddened man, who still remained standing in the midst of that starving, woe-bevone, perishing family. “No, wife—l am zoé raving,” he exclaimed, his countenance suddenly softening into an expression of boundiess compassion and love, as ha bent his lovks upon those who tius knelt around him. “ But I have awoke trom a dream—an idle dreatsr—the dream that what the world calis Aoncety was indeed some- ig and plunderers of the millions to 4nvent that word honesty—to prociaim it as a cardinal -virtue—to in- vest it with even a halo of divine sanctity—to have it preached from the pulpit, written in the laws, and advocated hy the press,—oli! it was a master-piece of ingenuity for ensuring to the few the safe possession and the secure enjoyment of all that they have plundered from the many. But henceforth I dis- card the doctrine—I scatter to the winds the mo- rality which it inculeates—and I will beceme what the world denominates a robber and a thief!” “Ob! no—recall that dreadful menace—recal] it, Timplore you!” shrieked forth the almost heart- broken wife. “ Add not to the misery of our present condition ——”’ “ Father—dear father—do what mother asks you!” exclaimed the children, in united entreaties of an- guished fervour. “ Pray do not tell us that you will become a robber. It is wicked to be a thief~—and you yourself have often told us so, dear father !" “ Yes—but I was a fool—an insensate fool!” cricd Melmoth, driven to desperation and pursuing the terrible current of thoughts which had sprung up in his fevered brain and had acquired a complete mas- tery over his imagination. “ Do not fancy, my be- loved wife—do not suppose, my dear clri!dren—that I will any longer suffer myself to be the vietim of those theories which the nch have invented as a pro- tection for their ill-got gains. They have plundered us—and yet they dare to maintain that it would be dishonest were we to take back from them the fruit of their own rascality: they have practised a‘tre- memndous system of spoliation against ourselves—and yet we are told that it will be wrong to assume the aggressive in return! The word Avnesty constitutes the barrier with which they have surrounded the ac- cumulated produce of their own misdeeds: and the word dishonesty is the bugbear with which they seek to frighten away all those who might endeavour to molest them in the enjoyment of their usurped pns- sessions, They have taken away the bread from me—from you—from all of uss;—and I will recover back a portion of what is our due. They have made laws to justify their apoliation and their wrong; and I shuuld be a coward were 1 pot to set those faws at defiance. From this moment, then,do I proclaim War against our oppressors—ravayve azainst the ravagere—invasion against the invaders—desolation against the desolators; yes—by the living God!" thundered Melmoth, now worked up to an appalling state of excitement, and gesticulating ferociously,-— “IT will plunder the plunuderers—I will despoil the spoliators—I will play the brigand against the titled and proudly-born banditti of this realm !” And exhausted with the violence of tone and ges- ticulation which had accompamed this dreadiul harangue, Melmoth sank upon the empty chlies;, gasping for breath and eyery vein in his forehead swollen almost to bursting. Then piteous and heart-rending indeed was it to behold the anguished wife and weeping children yathering around that man on whose nead lay the heavy responsibilities of a husband and a father,— yes, gathering around bim with despair depicted upon their wan and emaciated countenances —ex- tending towards him their thin and tleshicss hands —and addressing hin in prayers of the most pas- sionate entreaty! Tne wo:nan beld up towares nim thing to ve admired, practeed, and persevered in, | the poor, frati, halt farusued bahe, as she adjured Gol it was a grand sirace Of puicy for the Syouesiers | bin to discard the wisn de thous ite to work h: had Gq Eno haa> Gre ew m= Sper «ae wee 2 ew «2 - a] — ei ep Gaye .sum aan 4 =-@2 ._ eae- COMIC OOO ( 1?) SS co ae a |