"Well, I am now busy with Frederick the Great; I am not now astonished
that Carlyle calls him Great, neither that this work of his should
have had such a sad effect upon him in producing it, when I see the
number of volumes he must have had to wade through to produce such a
clear terse set of utterances; and yet I do not feel the work as a
book likely to do a reader of it the good that some of his other books
will do. It is truly awful to read these battles after battles, lies
after lies, called Diplomacy; it's fearful to read all this, and one
wonders how he that set himself to this--He, of all men--could have
the rare patience to produce such a labored, heart-rending piece of
work. Again, when one reads of the stupidity, the shameful waste of
our moneys by our forefathers, to see our National Debt (the curse to
our labor now, the millstone to our commerce, to our fair chance of
competition in our day) thus created, and for what? Even Carlyle
cannot tell; then how are we to tell? Now, who will deliver us? that
is the question; who will help us in these days of _idle or no work_,
while our foreign neighbors have plenty and are actually selling their
produce to our men of capital cheaper than we can make it? House-rent
getting dearer, taxes getting dearer, rates, clothing, food, etc. Sad
times, my master, do seem to have fallen upon us. And the cause of
nearly all this lies embedded in that Frederick; and yet, so far as I
know of it, no critic has yet given an exposition of such laying
there. For our behoof, is there no one that will take this, that there
lies so woven in with much other stuff so sad to read, to any man that
does not believe man was made to fight alone, to be a butcher of his
fellow-man? Who will do this work, or piece of work, so that all who
care may know how it is that our debt grew so large, and a great deal
more that we ought to know?--that clearly is one great reason why the
book was written and was printed. Well, I hope some day all this will
be clear to our people, and some man or men will arise and sweep us
clear of these hindrances, these sad drawbacks to the vitality of our
work in this world."
"57, Nile Street, Sunderland, Feb. 7, 1867.
"DEAR SIR,--
"I beg to acknowledge the receipt of two letters as additions to your
books, which I have read with deep interest, and shall take care of
them, and read them over again, so that I may thoroughly comprehend
them, and be able to think of them for future use. I myself am not
fully satisfied with our co-operation, and never have been; it is too
much tinged with the very elements that they complain of in our
present systems of trade--selfishness. I have for years been trying to
direct the attention of the editor of the _Co-operator_ to such evils
that I see in it. Now further, I may state that I find you and Carlyle
seem to agree quite on the idea of the _Masterhood_ qualification.
There again I find you both feel and write as all working men consider
just. I can assure you there is not an honest, noble working man that
would not by far serve under such _master_-hood, than be the employe
or workman of a co-operative store. Working men do not as a rule make
good masters; neither do they treat each other with that courtesy as a
noble master treats his working man. George Fox shadows forth some
such treatment that Friends ought to make law and guidance for their
working men and slaves, such as you speak of in your letters. I will
look the passage up, as it is quite to the point, so far as I now
remember it. In Vol. VI. of _Frederick the Great_, I find a great deal
there that I feel quite certain, if our Queen or Government could make
law, thousands of English working men would hail it with such a shout
of joy and gladness as would astonish the Continental world. These
changes suggested by Carlyle and placed before the thinkers of
England, are the noblest, the truest utterances on real kinghood, that
I have ever read; the more I think over them, the more I feel the
truth, the justness, and also the fitness of them, to our nation's
present dire necessities; yet this is the man, and these are the
thoughts of his, that our critics seem never to see, or if seen, don't
think worth printing or in any way wisely directing the attention of
the public thereto, alas! All this and much more fills me with such
sadness that I am driven almost to despair. I see from the newspapers,
Yorkshire, Lancashire, and other places are sternly endeavoring to
carry out the short time movement until such times as trade revives,
and I find the masters and men seem to adopt it with a good grace and
friendly spirit. I also beg to inform you I see a Mr. Morley, a large
manufacturer at Nottingham, has been giving pensions to all his old
workmen. I hope such a noble example will be followed by other wealthy
masters. It would do more to make a master loved, honored, and cared
for, than thousands of pounds expended in other ways. The Government
Savings Banks is one of the wisest acts of late years done by our
Government. I, myself, often wish the Government held all our banks
instead of private men; that would put an end to false speculations,
such as we too often in the provinces suffer so severely by, so I hail
with pleasure and delight the shadowing forth by you of these noble
plans for the future: I feel glad and uplifted to think of the good
that such teaching will do for us all.
"Yours truly,
"THOMAS DIXON."
"57, Nile Street, Sunderland, Feb. 24, 1867.
"DEAR SIR,--
"I now give you the references to _Frederick the Great_. Vol. VI.:
Land Question, 365 page, where he increases the number of small
farmers to 4,000 (202, 204). English soldiers and T. C.'s remarks on
our system of purchase, etc. His law, (620, 623, 624). State of Poland
and how he repaired it, (487, 488, 489, 490). I especially value the
way he introduced all kinds of industries therein, and so soon changed
the chaos into order. Again, the school-masters also are given (not
yet in England, says T. C.). Again the use he made of 15,000_l._
surplus in Brandenburg; how it was applied to better his staff of
masters. To me, the Vol. VI. is one of the wisest pieces of modern
thought in our language. I only wish I had either your power, C.
Kingsley, Maurice, or some such able pen-generalship, to illustrate
and show forth all the wise teaching on law, government, and social
life I see in it, and shining like a star through all its pages.[A] I
feel also the truth of all you have written, and will do all I can to
make such men or women that care for such thoughts, see it, or read
it. I am copying the letters as fast and as well as I can, and will
use my utmost endeavor to have them done that justice to they merit.
"Yours truly,
"THOMAS DIXON."
[A] I have endeavored to arrange some of the passages to
which Mr. Dixon here refers, in a form enabling the reader to
see their bearing on each other more distinctly, as a sequel
to the essay on War in the 'Crown of Wild Olive.'