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Leader (1850-1860), 10th October 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 5

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      The Fast Day. Wednesday Was Pretty Gener...

      SURREY CHAPEL , BLACKFRIARS-ROAD . The Rev . Newman Hall ,, ¦ JLL . D ., preached in the morning to upwards of two thousand persons . He ¦ was of opinion that" The conduct of Englishmen had been a reproach to Christianity . He referred to our toleration of the practice of suttee ; our . throwing impediments in the way of native conversion to Christianity , by sanctioning the loss of caste and property upon such conversion , and dismissing the converted Sepoy from the army ; our application of a portion of the imperial funds to the maintenance of heathen temples ; and in doing reverence to their false gods . We had dishonoured God for the

      purpose of saving an empire ; and , by so dishonouring God , we had lost that empire . It seemed to him that we were suffering manifest retribution because of our sins , which had drawn down the Divine displeasure . What , then , was our present duty ? It was , upon grounds of benevolence , to suppress the mutiny ; for , if that rabble of fiends went through India unchecked , the whole of the country would be deluged with blood . Let them not , however , confound justice with vengeance . How terrible , yet how natural , was the cry for more vengeance ! But there must be justice ; there must be a suppression of the mutiny ; but let it be done in a . calm , God-fearing spirit , and not in the spirit of base retaliation . " THE JEWISH SYNAGOGUE , ALDGATE . The Chief Kabbi , U . M .. Adler , delivered a discourse proper to the occasion , pointing out that , though that day was the Feast of the Tabernacle , they had made it a day of public prayer because they wished to obey all the commands of their sovereign . " England , " he said , " is the mainspring of civilization , and , should the rebels in India succeed , the whole machinery would for some time be brought to a standstill . But the nation had only to wait a little while , and the wrath would be over . History teaches them that the state of anxiety will not endure ; that the people will enter into their chambers—the chamber of legislature—to correct past errors ; and that the mutiny will ultimately lead to blessings for mankind at large . The present state of the world is depicted by the prophet Zachariah , chap , xiv ., v . 7 , as being neither night nor day , a mixture of light and darkness , of belief and superstition , of hatred and love—the East struggling with the West : but in the evening there shall be light ; the living waters will go out from Jerusalem , and the Lord shall be King over over all the earth ; He one and His name one . " MR . SrURGEON AT THE CRYSTAL TAI-ACE . The payment of a shilling at the doors of the Crystal Palace on Wednesday admitted some 27 ; O 0 O persons to hear Mr . Spurgeon preach . After insisting on the necessity of putting down and punishing the mutineers , he continued : — " The sins of the Government of India had been black and deep ; and those who have heard the shrieks of the tormented natives and the cries of dethroned princes , might well prophesy that it would not be long before God would unsheath his sword to revenge the oppressed . He considered that the Indian Government should never have tolerated the religion of the Hindoos ; hut they had aided and abetted the folly , for which God . now visited them with his punishment . It was said that

      one part of the cause of the evil was the sin of the English people themselves , and there are certainly sins in . the community that should never have been allowed . The horrible nuisance of Holywell-street had been long allowed to exist , though it is now pretty -well done for ; but what did they see in Regent-street and the Haymarket ? They knew likewise that lords and ladies flat in play-houses and listened to plays that were far from decent ; and those sins of the community had in part brought the rod upon them . The evil might also be attributed to the acts of those who only think of their fellows as stepping-stones to gain . The Christian Church , in his opinion , had been remiss in its duty ; but he hoped that its revival had begun , because last year had seen more preaching than any year since the days of tho Apostles . "

      Large collections were made at all the churches and chapels . A very pertinent and reasonable sermon on the last Day is communicated to the ' Times by a lady signing herself ' Eleanor . ' She says she is an ' unfashionable person in a country village , ' and that she thinks , ' being merely a looker-on ut the game of lasluonable life , she can sec and judge of its movesbetter than the players themselves . ' Therefore she implores her fellovv-countrywonien , when at church oil the Fust Day ( her exhortations appeared in the ¦ j « M € « of Wednesday ) , to reflect on their own wrongdoings , rather than on those of the East India Company , or the Home Government , and especially to call to mind their inordinate love of dress .

      1 his , " « hc says , " has risen to such a height , and "as spread so widely through all classes , that it can no 'onger be called a wenkneus—it ia a win . Is this expression too strong , when ball dresses for 100 / . each are publicl y advertised for sale , when ladica have been known w talk of limiting their personal expenditure to 1 OO 0 J Per annum , when largo fortunes arc impaired and small

      ones wasted in the endeavour to keep pace with the daily increasing extravagance of fashion ? Those "who are very rich , will perhaps say , ' We can afford a large expenditure in such matters without exceeding our income or neglecting other claims , and those who follow our example without possessing our means must do so at their peril . ' But let me ask such to reflect for one moment whether it can possibly be right to expend on mere personal decoration sums of money which , if differently applied , might save so many fellow-creatures from misery and viceV " The money thus spent in dress , argues Eleanor , might be given to charitable institutions , reformatories , the building and endowment of churches , & c . She continues : — " But perhaps some of the richest of my sisters will here exclaim , ' No one can afford to give liberally to all these things ; they would soon cease to be rich if they did so . ' Undoubtedly they cannot at once give largely in charity and spend largely on themselves . No one can give freely towards the building of a new church , of an hospital , or a reformatory ( however grievously either may be wanted ) , who thinks it necessary to weai dresses of ' rich moire antique' ranging in value from 101 . to 20 / . ; who requires ' pearl trimmings' for an evening dress , and ' gold brocade' for a Court train ; who would sigh fora ' flounce of " Venice point' at 84 £ , or a ' pointlace parasol' at 18 i . That there are fashionable ladies who thus squander their riches a recent trial has informed us . No doubt there are many more who would condemn and avoid such utterly reckless expenditure ; but , if they themselves habitually spend on their dress twice the sum they thought necessary only five years ago , they are lending their countenance to the very excesses they condemn . " She concludes "by expressing a hope that ladies of ' conspicuous position' or of strong character , and the wives of the clergy , will set a good example to their sisterhood , and that the Past Day will see the commencement of a reform of these things . '

      Ko. 394, October 10, 1857. J The Leader....

      Ko . 394 , October 10 , 1857 . J THE LEADER . 965

      Public Meetings. Sir John Pa1ungton On T...

      PUBLIC MEETINGS . SIR JOHN PA 1 UNGTON ON THE INDIAN CRISIS . A speech having reference chiefly totlie Indian mutinies was delivered by Sir John Pakington , M . P ., on the occasion of the annual dinner of the " Worcestershire Agricultural Society , which took place at the county town on the evening of Friday week , when the Hon . Frederick Lygon , M . P ., was the chairman . Sir John said "he thought that the greatest fault the Government had committed— -and here he spoke of the Government of India rather than , of her Majesty's Ministers in this country—had been in underrating the magnitude of the rebellion , and in speaking of it as only a military mutiny , and a passing outbreak which would speedily be subdued . ( Hear , hear . ) They might depend on it this was not a mere passing military mutiny . He believed that , instead of its being a mere military mutiny , it was a deeply-organized , long-matured , conspiracy , with the object of exterminating the English in India . ( Hear , 7 iear . ) In this aspect they ought to "view it ; and in -viewing it in this aspect was ou r greatest safety . " Far from being despondent , he was very sanguine of success . AVe had already shown that our superiority over the Asiatic is as great now as it was a hundred years ago when Clive won his victory at Plassy . u There was another fact on which he grounded a strong hope , and he formed it in a private letter received a few days since from the Governor of Ceylon , who said we had great reason to be thankful that the matter was not worso than it is . The Governor of Ceylon wrote that we in England had hardly yet a full conception of the danger which we had escaped—( A Voice : ' Oh , oh ! ' ) — for that India had been saved by theprcmaturo outbreak at Mcerut . In another fortnight , had not that outbreak taken place , there would have been a simultaneous massacre of all the Europeans in India . ( JSensatio / i . ) And his correspondent used this remarkable expression , that ' he verily believed there would not have been a European left to tell the tale . ' We had been saved that danger by the premature outbreak a t Meerut . This , then , he would say , was the time for Englishmen to prove their loyalty , and at all events to support the throne ; and this being done , he believed the triumphant result would bo to re-establish our dominion in India . With regard to the atrocities of the Sepoys , justice must bo vindicated , crime must be punished , the power of England must ho asserted , and the horrible deeds committed must be treated as they deserved . Englishmen , demanded this ; but he would say , let it be done in no vindictive spirit . Let justice bo tempered ¦ with mercy ; for our own hands are not clean . India had not been governed ns it ought to have been . It was only the previous < hiy that he had submitted to the astonished cyca of a largo party in a country-house ofliciul proof tliut , in collecting the revenues of India , there had been practised , in the name , of England—ho would not say by the authority , but ho fcurcd not without the knowledge , of Englishmen- — tortures little loss horrible than those which wo now deplore . This must bo borne in mind in th 6 day of reckoning ; and in deuling with this question let them boar in mind these two great cardinal objects—mat , that as a grout nation w « must rc-catabliah

      the authority of the sovereign ia India ; and , secondly , that , when that authority is re-established , India must be better governed . ' * ( Hear , hear . ) A . MISSIONARY PREACHER ON INDIA . A public breakfast of the Baptist Missionarv Society took place at the New Hall , Leicester , onTuesday morning , when the "Rev . J . Smith , a missionary recently returned from Northern India , made some remarks on the present crisis . He said : — " For sixteen years he had lived amongst the natives ; night after night he had sat round their fires ; he knew their actual thoughts , and their minds had been opened to him time after time as they seldom were to Europeans . He had seen them hundreds of times when one of our generals , or judges , or magistrates had come amongst them . They had come forward and bowed before him , but had been laughing him to scorn directly his back was turned . Such was their character that individuals connected with Government

      would never be likely to get from them what really were their opinions . He had , of course , been in their bazaars , and had met every class of people in conflict and argument . The Mahometans had ever manifested thorough hostility in every sense of the word to the British Government and people , because we had dispossessed them of Hindostan , and had freed the Hindoos from their tyranny and oppression . QITear ; kearJ ) There are a number of generals in India only fit to take command of a

      Bath chair . " Mr . Smith spoke hopefully of the progress of Christianity in India , and said that all that was wanted was that the English Government should neither endow nor repress any religious system , but give all fair play , and then the truth would prevail . He likewise strongly condemned Mr . Vernon Smith s tendency to reverse that course of legislation which had put an end to sutteeism , infanticide , the destruction of human life under the car of Juggernaut , & c- Rather than again permit such horrors , he would abandon India .

      AN EDUCATIONAL MEETING . The annual conference of the Hants and Wilts Educational Society was held in the Town-hall of Basingstoke on Monday , and it was attended by a large number of the clergy of the two counties . The Very Rev . the Dean of Salisbury occupied the chair , and there were seated near him the Lord Bishop of Salisbury , the Earl-of Carnarvon , the Rev . Canon Woodroffe , of Winchester , Sir Edward Hulse , Bart ., Mr . G . Sclater , M . P ., Mr . W . W . Beach , M . P ., the Hon . and Rev . S . Best , Mr . W . L ,. Sclater , Mr . Chute , the Rev . S . Chermside , Dr . Booth ( of the Society of Arts in London ) the Rev . J . Temple , inspector of schools , & c . The Dean of Salisbury addressed the meeting at some length , and , after

      alluding hopefully to the progress of education in Hampshire and Wiltshire , said tliat one great obstacle to the better instruction of the children of working men is the impossibility of keeping them long at school . They are wanted to assist the income of the parents by their labour , and in the agricultural districts they can earn from two to three shillings a" week , while in London and the manufacturing disti icts they are often paid at the rate of seven shillings a week . About one-fourth is thus added to the earnings of the father ; and to ask him to sacrifice this is to demand that he shall pay too much for his child ' s education . Are the middle and upper classes prepared to pay so large a proportion of their incomes for the instruction of their offspring ?

      " We are , I fear , " said the Dean , " too apt to use an unreal and lofty language in talking to the poor about the blessings of education . Beyond all doubt , we cannot insist too strongly upon education exerting a lofty influence , and that it is of immense importance to train up the young early in habits of morality and religion . But tho working man requires something more than that . He requires that the instruction to bo given to his child should be that which would bear on his future calling —that it should , in fact , bo productive of solid and tangible advuntage . To recur to the upper classes for otic moment , we shall find that the children aie educated with special reference to their future professions or positions in life ; why , therefore

      should not the poor man , in like manner , desire his child to be fitted to pursue Iiis humble calling ? The union of school teaching with industrial employment has been carried out most successfully , as wo all know , in parts of London and the manufacturing districts , especially in cotton factories , by what ia called the halftime system , where children from eight to thirteen years of age are required to bo at scliool , not half of the -whole of the day , but half of tho time required for worknamely , they arc required to be at work six hours , and they nro required to be at school at least three hours per day for live days a week . There nre many instances of

      tlic successful operation of this system in largo towns , but I may be permitted to mention two cases only . The first is thut of Price ' s Patent Candle Company , and the other that of Messrs . Spottiswoodo and Kyre , printers to the Queen . With regard to tho latter establishment , there is a rcmarlcablu corroboration of what I hnve said of the immense advantage of having education combined with regular work . In that establishment there lire four classes or lads employed , all of whom , to tho renders , from thirteen to fifteen years of ago , aro required to supply the places of apprentices—tho highest order of lads employed . The ruudora are employed from nine o'clock in the day , but they are obliged to attend school

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 10, 1857, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10101857/page/5/