pg 399To ALBANY FONBLANQUE, 22 DECEMBER [1842]

¹ A short, sarcastic article published in the Examiner, 24 Dec, not previously attributed to CD. On the analogy of "singing for the million" ("the great reform of the nineteenth century"), CD suggested "a system of Snoring for the Million", with instruction to be provided in Exeter Hall. The system would enable persons of quality to be oblivious of the Reform Bill, and the middle classes of the Income Tax and the Prime Minister. "But it is, in its effects upon the lower classes; upon the million; the labourers and artizans; the vulgar men of toil and sweat, and want and rags; that this system has peculiar claims upon the present Administration. No more complaints of hunger, when the starving poor may sleep and dream of loaves at will! No more pinching of the Landed Interest's corn in its good old gouty shoe! The ravelled sleeve of Care which flutters in the murky streets of our manufacturing towns, shadowing strange shapes in its dreary gambols, will be sewn up by the quickest process in the world. … all will be peace and comfort: there will be forgetfulness for those who have nothing, and undisturbed enjoyment for those who have everything".