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THE

RISE, PROGRESS AND DOWNFALL

OF

ARISTOCRACY.

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL VIEW OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF ARISTOCRCT IN THE HISTORY OF NATIONS.

It is an incontrovertable fact, and cannot be contradicted, that the working part of the community are those that produce the wealth of any country. It is equally true and self-evident to the most superficial observer, that a certain class of the same community are non-producers, and that these latter do monopo lize to their own use almost all that is produced. These drones and wasters in the political hive, I would designate by the appropriate name of ARISTOCRATS. These sagacious ones slily insinuate that the working class have not time, nor is it necessary, for them to think for themselves, in religious or political matters. "We," say they, "that have leisure, are alone competent to think to rule and govern, for this reason it is, that the few must be educated to qualify them for high places. The peo ple can work and labor without education, and to make them good workmen, laborers, citizens and mechanics, it will be best for them and their descendants to follow the same occupation. Hence arose Caste and distinct orders of men. But as it will be difficult, if not impossible, for us the few, to manage the ma ny, we must make use of every stratagem that ingenuity can suggest. Two points we must never deviate from, that is the working class, must be kept in ignorance and poverty, and we must not fail to make use of the strongest prejudices of the hu

man heart, a sentiment of religion in every human breast; but pure and undefiled religion will not do for us, it will expose all' our unhallowed schemes, of fraud and treachery. We must have false prophets and corrupt priests, and we must have kings and standing armies, our priests and prophets will teach the divine right of kings, and if the people should prove too refractory, the sword will teach them. Thus, out of aristocracy, arose kings-craft and priest-craft, and all the false religions since the world began. Cain, the first priest, and second aristocrat, (the serpent being the first,) because he could not lord it over the mind and conscience of Abel, and would not, like himself, corrupt the worship of God, slew him. And wherefore slew he him?because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. So exceedingly wicked, and abominable in the sight of God, did the Antideluvian world become, by the aristocra cy and tyranny of the mighty men, which were of old, men of renown, that the earth, also, was corrupt before Gol; and the earth was filled with violence; so that Enoch the seventh, from Adam, and the other holy patriarchs labored in vain to reclaim the people to the true worship of the or ly living and true God, till there was none of the righteous left but Noah and his family; whom the Lord saved in the Ark, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. And tho' this awful catastrophe was in full view, soon after the deluge, aristocracy again commenced its horrid usurpations and tyranny among the wicked descendants of Ham and Canaan, who peopled the fertile plains of the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Nile and the plains Jordan.-' One of the first acts ofthe tyrant Nimrod, ard his companions in iniquity, was to abolish the true worship of God, and enslave the people.

From then till now, aristocracy or the rule, or rather misrule, of the few over the many, has been not the remote, but the immediate cause of all the wars, persecutious, rapire, devastation, and blood-shed throughout the whole world; arcient and modern, whether civilized or savage. A history of every nation,

tribe and people, is nothing else but a history of the execrable exploits of aristocracy. Let us view the ruins of the stupendous monuments of oppression, tyranny and slavery of gypt, Babylon, Ni eveh, China, India, Balbec,Palmyra, Greece, Rome, in every part of Europe, in Africa, and even in Mexico and Peru. The sp endid remains of the labors of mighty multitudes for the gratification or amusement, of the few cruel and unfeeling taskmasters. Observe the mad ambition of the aristocratic gov ernments of Rome and Carthage, what scenes of carnage, death and destruction, it brought on both countries; and the blindness, obstinacy and cruelty, of the aristocratic faction, that betrayed the immortal Hannibal, and his brave veteran army, to to the entire ruin and subversion of their own country, when he might have co: quered Rome. Let us observe the rise progress, a ddownfall of this iron empire. Her object was to enslave the world and be free herself. Her foundation was aristocratic. Both her theory and practice were wrong. In the days of her meridian glory, Lerpopulation was about one hundred and twenty millions, one half of whom were slaves. Ey the continual encroachments of aristocracy, her sages, patriots, and philosophers were sacrifieed; even Cicero, fell avictim to aristocra tic tyranny and domination. Her citizens lest their liberties, and consequently their attachment to their country, the voice of reason and justice could no longer be heard, and the repub lic bleeding at every pore, her rights and liberties trampled under foot, by the jealousy, treachery and intestine feuds and strife, of different aristocratic factions, the once invincible Rome fell an easy prey, to the undisciplined hordes of the

North.

The first victims of aristocratic cruelty, in all ages, and pla ces, have been the wise and good. Behold the treatment of Lot in Sodom, of Daniel and the the children in Babylon, of Mordaica, also; of Socrates in Greece, of Cicero in Rome. Of all the holy apostles and prophets. But the climax of all the ar istocratic turpitude, andfiendlike cruelty was summed up, in the

untiring and never ceasing persecution, from the manger to Gethsemane and Calvary, and crucifixion of the Lord of life and glory. It was a combination of kings-craft, priest-craft and aristocracy, that perpetrated this most horrid of crimes, for the common people heard him gladly. But the Scribes, Pharasees, Saddusees, the chief priests, Lawyers and Doctors, said among themselves, this is the heir, let us kill him and seize on the inheritance. And again they say, "perceive ye, how ye prevail nothing; if we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him, and the Romans will come and take away our place and nation." And perceiving that the innocent Lamb of God, their victim, who was holy,harmless,undefiled,and separate from sinners, would be set at liberty;(for Pilate, the Roman governor, was convinced of his innocency,) they immediately resort to kings-craft. "If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsars friend." The diabolical wickedness of these same aristocrats, brought the most uparalleled ruin and destruction on their own nation (as we read in the celebrated Josephus, their own historian,) and was the direct and literal fulfilment of the prophecy of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Chirst, some forty years before. We may behold the fate of ancient Greece, divided and subdivided into little aristocracies, hostile to each other, their energies wasted and paralized. After a long and unsuccessful struggle for liberty, they fell victims to the blindness and wickedness of their own aristocratic oppres

sors.

Behold the direful effects of aristocracy in Turkey, in India, in Persia, in all the kingdoms of Europe and in Africa -the petty tribes making war upon each other, to satiate the avarice of their Rulers and supply the slave market, and to carry on the most disgraceful traffic that ever stained the page of history. Behold the conduct of the Jewish and Roman aristocrats, in raising ten general persécutions against the unof fending and unresisting Christians, until the reign of Constantine the Great,-aristocracy, ever vigilant, ever active and restless, soon assumed a new modification, under the

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name of Bishops and dignitaries of the Church. After the most shameful and wicked manoeuvreing, intrigue and management, the Bishop of Rome succeeded in completing that mighty system of apostacy and anti-christian aristocracy, that has been the plague and curse of the civilized world to this day.This arch-impostor arrogates to himself infallibility, to be the vicar of God on the earth, claiming divine horors, and such is his wicked ambition, and lust of power, that he not only claims dominion over the whole human race, but impiously pretends to hold the keys of heaven, of hell and of death. And • 80 numerous are his spiriiual and temporal agents, and emissaries, that they exceed in number the swarms of locusts, or lice of Egypt. This grand apostacy has deluged the world in blood, and tears and groans, at whose atrocities the human heart bleeds, becomes sick, and turns away from it with loathing and disgust.

While this mystery of iniquity, was progressing in the west another terrific imposture arose in the east, under the daring aristocrat Mahomet, and his co-adjutors. These rival impostors differing in some things, but exactly agreeing in corrupting the christian religion. And, like Cain, the second aristocrat, and the first founder of false religion, they demand unconditional and blind submission or death, to whatever they choose to call religion; till by fraud and force they almost extinguished the light of science and religion in the world. Aristocracy, wonderfully consistent with itself, and rightly judging that their strength, lies in the ignorance and poverty of the common people, wield every engine in the compass of their power, to prevent them from being enlightened, "knowing that knowledge is power" and if the people have the power of cultivating their intellects-say they, "our impositions will be short lived." Does any intelligent and ingenious mechanic or artizan, make any useful invention or discovery, observe with what avidity, aristocracy turns it to their own purposes, observe the treatment of Gallilio. Is the art of printing discovered? Soo

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