by M. P. Shiel
XXXVIII
THE MANIFESTO
The last effort of Europe to resist the Sea was made on the afternoon ofthe 14th of October, when the British Prime Minister refused to concludea treaty of peace.
"Your master is only a pirate--on a large scale", he said to a Ministerof the Sea.
That was on the 14th.
On the 15th there was a stoppage of British trade nearly all the worldover.
On the 20th England was in a state of _emeute_ resembling revolution.
On the 28th the Treaty of Peace was signed.
Its principal conditions were: (1) The undertaking by the Sea not toraise sea-rent on British ships without certain formalities of notice;and (2) The undertaking by Britain not to engage in the making of anyrailway or overland trade-route, or of any marine engine of war, withoutthe consent of the Sea. And similar treaties were signed by the Sea withthe other nations.
Then followed the rush of the Ambassadors to the _Boodah_, and thefrivolous round of Court-life revolved, _levee_, audience, dinner,drawing-room, investiture; the Lord of the Sea descended from the thronebefore the Court to pin a cross upon the humble breast of his best shotand give him the title of Praeceps, gave fanciful honours to emperors,received them of them--wore when throned a brow-band of gold with onlyone stone, the biggest of the meteor octahedrons, that glanced about hisbrow like an icicle in whose glass gallivanted a fairy clad in rags ofthe rainbow.
Now the old gaieties recommenced, but more Olympian in tone, as befittedthe ruler of rulers, terrible now being the lifting of Hogarth's browsat the least lapse in ritual; and only the chastest-nurtured of theearth ever now stalked through gavotte or pavane in those halls of thesea.
The world now lay at his feet. The dependence upon him of England, ofFrance, of that part of Austro-Germany called Germany, was obvious: hecould starve them. But over Austria proper, Russia, Italy, his sway wasno less omnipotent: for the panic cheapness of scrip which followed thedestruction of the _Kaiser_ had, of course, been foreseen, and used byhim; Beech had bought up, easily ousting the Rothschilds from their oldfinancial kingship: by tens of millions the process had gone on; andstill it continued increasingly, for the wealth of Hogarth now, ascompared with that of other rich men, was like a ship to a skiff. If hethrew upon the market, the bankruptcy of several nations might follow:it was doubtful if the United States could survive; certainly, Austria,Russia, South America must go under.
Nor was the East less his slave: Japan a mercantile nation, China andTurkey in his fiscal net. So, looking round the globe toward the middleof November, he could observe scarcely a nation which he could not, byscribbling a telegram, crush out of recognition.
It was precisely then that Richard Hogarth revealed himself.
On the 15th of November appeared his Manifesto.
This Charter, which everlastingly must remain one of the Scriptures ofour planet, simple as a baby's syllables, yet large like the arch ofHeaven, has left its mark on the human soul.
On the morning of the 16th its twenty clauses occupied in _pica_ a pageof every newspaper, and it was posted up big in the streets of cities.
The document ran:
Richard, by the Will of God....I do hereby discern, declare, and laydown: That:
1. What is no good cannot be owned: only goods can be owned.
2. "_Good_" is _well_, or pleasant; goods is _well_th (wealth) orpleasures: thus, a coal-mine, being no pleasure, cannot be owned.
3. Coal _becomes_ goods after being moved, or taken. Moving does notmake it good; its nature does not make it good: moving-_plus_-Naturemakes it good, ownable. At the pit-head, already, it is a pleasure,fewer pains being now needed to move it to a fireplace. Thus, Natureapart from motion cannot be owned, being no good, as a cave is no goodto a caveman outside it: rain is wetting him; if he takes it, moves in,it is good.
Animals and plants, by taking things from the planets presented to them,by moving things, raise Nature into wealth, and own things.
4. For Jack to _own_, have a thing for Jack's _own_, Jack must by his_own_ force have subdued Nature, must have taken the thing by movingthe thing's atoms, or moving something relatively to the thing, or,negatively, by not evading, but accepting, the thing in motion--a wind,tide, light-wave; else Jack must have taken something (by as much work)to purchase the thing from its (true) owner, or accepted it as a favourfrom Nature in motion, or from its (true) owner. To say "own" is to say"take"; to say "take" is to say "motion", i.e., the doing of work: "workdone" being FD, i.e., Force used into Distance moved-over. I cannot ownthe air: it is no good; I own the air in my lungs, having taken, moved,it, done FD on it: it is very good; and I own the air which, doing FD,moving to my face, I do not evade, but accept, take: it is very good.
I say to Jack "take a cigar"; he loudly says "yes!", but does not moveit to his mouth, nor moves his mouth to it; instead, he moves a pen tohis mouth; this makes me laugh: he has not taken a cigar.
Jack is catching fish in a boat; Tom owns the boat: so Jack gives fishto Tom, until Jack's FD done on the fish is equivalent to Tom's FD doneon the boat; and now Jack owns the boat. If "the law" says that Tomstill owns the boat, this makes me laugh: for how can Tom come to owntwo boats' good by the FD done on one only?
Jack is ploughing the sea with a ship: just there he owns the sea, hastaken, is moving, it for his good. He does not own the sea before, northe sea behind, him: for the motions behind made by him have ceased todo good.
Jack is ploughing soil: he owns the soil ploughed, has taken it, andwill own it while the motions he has made do good: so that, if Tom whohas not moved it says "I own the soil, for 'the law' declares that Ihave taken it by moving a pen two inches", this makes me laugh. Or, ifJack says "I own it for ever", this makes me laugh. Or, if anyone says"I own both the soil and the site" (relative position), this makes melaugh: for what can one man move to make a relative position good? Hecan neither move a field toward anything nor move much toward a field.If many men move railways that way, or move things to rear towns roundthe field, this makes the site good, moving it from outside a communityto inside a community; and the many who make it good own it.
5. The site is the field's chief good: so the plougher owes something tothose who, making it good, own it, This something is named "rent".
6. Suppose that the plougher, or dweller-on, is an Englishman: he owesrent to the English. And, since the site of England is made good bymovements made in America, he owes rent to the Americans.
7. This the mind readily descries to be true: it is a "truism", andis necessarily the Fundamental Principle of Society throughout theuniverse. So that, summing up, we may define: "Rent" is "right", basedon truth when paid to those by whose movements a site is made good.
8. One might readily guess (if there were no example of it) that anyviolation of a Principle so fundamental would be avenged by Nature uponthe planet which violated it.
9. Our planet is such an example: for here Two Separate Violations ofthe Principle appear; each great in itself; but one small in comparison.
10. Accordingly, for the small violation Nature has not failed to sendupon Man a small penalty; and for the great violation great penalties.
11. The small violation consists in the claim by nations to have taken,without having moved, sites called "countries".
12. For this Nature has sent upon man the small penalty of War.
13. To abolish War men must remove its cause.
Therefore let the site-rental of England (i.e., the excess of Englishgoods over what English goods would be, if no other country existed) behanded over to a World Council; and the site-rental of America to thesame; and the World Council shall disburse such funds for the majestyand joy of Man: and War shall terminate.
14. This way the Lord of the Sea indicates to the world, though with itsinitiation he is not personally concerned.
15. Beside the small violation of the Fundamental Principle of Society,there is a great on the earth.
16. The Great
Violation consists in the claim by individuals tohave taken, without having moved, sites and soils called "estates","domains", "plots": for, as rent tends to rightness when paid to thefifty millions of a nation, _fifty-millionfold_ is its wrongness whenpaid to one; and as rent is right when paid to the thousand millioninhabitants of a planet, _a thousand-millionfold_ is its wrongness whenpaid to one.
17. For this Great Violation of the Fundamental Principle of SocietyNature has sent upon Man great penalties: poverties, frenzies,depravities, horrors, sorrows, lowness, dulness.
18. Lowness, dulness: for by far the greatest of these penalties is arestraint on Man's development. Man is an animal, Man is a mind: andsince the wing of mind is Pride, Assurance, or Self-esteem, and sincethe home of an animal is a Planet, and an animal without a home is athing without Assurance or Pride, so Man without Earth is a mind withoutwing. Even so, a few, having Assurance, make what we call "Progress",i.e., the discovering of truth--a crawling which might become flight,had all minds but the wing of Pride to co-operate in discovering truth.But Man lacks assurance and foothold, founded home and domain: his soleheritage, though he is neither fish nor fowl, being sea and air.
19. This is a great violation.
20. And with this great violation of the Fundamental Principle ofSociety the Lord of the Sea is personally concerned. In the name ofHeaven and of Earth he urges upon the nations of men to amend it inthe month of the promulgation of this Manifesto: and this summons hestrengthens with a threat of his resentment.
As the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, I will see to it.
RICHARD.