mation, if a man is bent on doing his best. Become a teetotaler. Starve yourself to death rather than drink yourself to death. Become a teetotaler, and you will not only infinitely benefit yourself, but delight your friends, and benefit the cause of truth and righteousness.

Your's respectfully,

JOSEPH BARKER.

TO MR.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

I am sure there is some one in your family that takes too much drink. I should be sorry to betray any one's confidence,-I should be sorry to reveal family secrets,I should be sorry to give any one unnecessary pain; but a sense of duty compels me, a regard to yourself and a regard to the faulty-one in your family obliges me, to make this communication. What course you ought to adopt in order to cure the evil, and to rescue the faulty-one from danger, you must judge for yourself. I can only say, the evil exists; the danger threatens; and I write, not so much to counsel, as to rouse your attention, and to stir up your mind to devise and apply a remedy. But teetotalism is, in my judgment, the only and you should set the example of teetotalism. Your's very respectfully,

cure;

JOSEPH BARKER.

ON MAY FIRST WILL BE PUBLISHED,
No. 5 OF THE

REFORMER'S COMPANION TO THE
ALMANACS.

THE REFORMER'S ALMANAC for the year 1848

Price One Penny.

The Reformer's Companion to the Almanacs for January, February, March and April, One Penny each.

Review of the Bible, Sixpence.

Claims of the Poor, One Penny.

O'Connell and Ireland, One Penny.

A Review of Wesley's notions respecting the Primeval State of Man and the Universe, One Penny.

WORTLEY NEAR LEEDS: PRINTED AND SOLD BY JOSEPH BARKER,
AND MAY BE HAD OF ALL HIS AGENTS

The Aristocracy, and their eternal and infernal Plottings.

The Government seem disposed to pursue a very wrong course with respect to the West Indies. The owners of the large estates in those Islands are making loud complaints, because they cannot get as much money by them now, as they could before the abolition of slavery; and the Government seem disposed to listen to their complaints, and afford them help at our expense. What does all this mean? D will tell you. Since slavery was abolished, the poor people in the West Indies have been working a little for themselves. Many of them have got patches of land, and begun to cultivate them on their own account. Many of the parents send their children to school, and allow their wives to stop at home to keep the house, and the consequence is," that the owners of the large estates cannot get people to work for them, unless they will give them decent wages ; wages by which a man can support himself and his.family in comfort: so the aristocratic landowners want the Govern-> ment to import, at our expense, great numbers of Africans, bring down wages, and to reduce the people to such a condition, that they shall be willing to work for next to nothing. This is the explanation of the matter. And how is the evil to be prevented? Perhaps a public remonstrance may pre

vent it. But why in the world should the people have to remonstrate continually against the acts of the Government? Why cannot we have a Government in which we might place a little confidence ? The truth is, that things will never go right long together, unless the present race of Aristocrats be excluded from the Government: in other words, things will never go on as they ought long together, until the race of Aristocrats shall cease to be. The Aristocracy ought to be abolished. We ought to demand the abolition of the Law of Entail and Primogeniture, and thus bring about a speedy and general division of estates, and effect something like equality amongst the people. Our Aristocrats are mixed up with all kinds of abuses, both at home and in the colonies; and they have unhappily the principal part of the power Government, and their leanings are all to the side of oppres sion and wrong. They seem as if they cannot be happy, unless the working people both at home and in the colonies are miserable. They are not content with having more than enough themselves, unless those who produce the super abundance are over-worked and ill-fed. They are the most ill-natured, ungodly and inhuman set of mortals on the face of the earth; and to let such creatures retain the power of Government, is both a folly and a sin. It is no use bothering ourselves perpetually about half and quarter measures. no use perpetually rousing the people, and endeavouring to get up a general excitement on every particular legislative measure. We must have a Government that will be somewhat trustworthy; we must have men placed at the head of affairs who have some regard to right and reason; who have some affection for their fellow-men, and some dispo sition to labour for the improvement and happiness of their race. It is impossible to excite the people, year after year, or month after month, and to call forth their energies so frequently in opposition to Government measures. ought to be one grand effort to awaken the people to a sense of their condition in general, to instruct the people with respect to the general character and conduct of the Aristocratical power, to call forth their energies in one grand and long-continued struggle for the utter destruction of Class

It is

There

Legislation, for the annihilation of the Aristocracy, and for the establishment of such principles of law and government, as are in harmony with reason, with natural right, with the safety and interests of our country and our race. The annihilation of the Aristocracy should be the cry of every man who loves his country and his kind. The annihilation of the Aristocracy should be the object of all our political efforts. We ought to favour every other measure of reform, however partial and imperfect; and we ought to oppose, as we have opportunity, every form of evil, however secondary but this should be the one great object of our attention. The Aristocracy is the great evil of which we ought never to lose sight. The destruction of the Aristocracy is the great reform, for which we ought especially and constantly to labour; and never till we have effected this reform, shall we have done anything effectual towards the general and lasting improvement of our country. Then Down with the Aristocracy! Down with the Aristocracy! Let the cry arise from every part of the kingdom at once,

it

may

be;

DOWN WITH THE ARISTOCRACY!

We propose no violence; we deprecate violence: all we propose is, the quiet annihilation of the Law of Entail and Primogeniture. Abolish this, and lay a reasonable tax on land, whether cultivated or uncultivated; lay a tax on the transmission of land from father to son, increasing in proportion to the amount of land transmitted, and decreasing till it comes to nothing when the amount of land transmitted is no more than two or three acres. I say quietly abolish the Law of Entail and Primogeniture, and lay this tax on land and on the transmission of land, and the work is done. Estates will instantly be divided; the Aristocracy will fall to pieces, and by their extinction as a body, the nation will be relieved of a murderous incubus, and again spring into life and energy. By the extinction of the Aristocracy, a way will be opened for the country's regeneration and the world's

salvation.

THE THOROUGH REMEDY IS A BRITISH REPUBLIC.

KINGS!! KINGS!!!

What is the USE of kings? What GOOD do they do? What good have kings EVER done? What good have ANY kings done? Was there ever a TRULY GOOD OF USEFUL king? Was there ever a king that loved his people-a king that did his best to promote the comfort and welfare of his people? Was there ever a king that did justice? Was there ever a sober, chaste, benevolent, and honest king? Was there ever a king that really deserved to be called a MAN? Was there ever a king that did HONOUR to humanity? What is the HISTORY of kings? Is it not the history of pride, of violence, of robbery, and of blood? Is it not the history of licentiousness, and drunkenness, and of all abominations? Have not kings, from the beginning of the world, been the greatest enemies of the human kind,—the greatest disturbers of the peace of the world, the greatest destroyers of property and life? Have they not, as a class, done dishonour to human nature? Have they not uniformly made use of their power for selfish purposes? Have they not, first, robbed their own people, and then done their best to rob each other? Have they not murdered countless millions? Have they not destroyed an immense amount of property? What are the kings of the present day? What are they doing? What are they good for? Where is the country that is better for its king? Where is the republican country that is the worse for not having a king? What are the sentiments and feelings of Europeans with respect to kings? What are the sentiments and feelings of the masses of the people of England with respect to kings? Do not the masses of the people despise them? Do they not hate them? Do they not wish for the day to come when kings shall be no more? Do they not look upon kings, and queens, and princes, and princesses, as incumbrances, as nuisances, as unmixed evils? Do the people in any country in Europe expect any GOOD from their kings? Do they feel any RESPECT for their kings? Would they care a straw if all the kings of Europe were to perish in a day, or, rather, if all the kings in Europe were to become plain working men? Would they not rejoice in such a change? Do the masses of the people rejoice when new kings are proclaimed or crowned? Do they really mourn when old kings or queens leave the world? Do they give the editors and publishers of newspapers credit for their pretended regrets on the death of kings? Do they give the editors and publishers of newspapers credit for their pretended unusual joy at the birth of princes or princesses,-or at the coronation or proclamation