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    M$O - THE LEAfp, [No. 294, Saturday .

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    DISMEMBERMENT. The dismemberment of Russ...

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    Th E Church Of Th E B Lue Vault . Anothe...

    Most certainly the Dean of Ripon , the Earl of Ai . bemab £ e , and Sir John M'Neiia , do not mean to call forth any subversive movement of the working class . They do not intend a revolution ; and what is more , we do not believe that they will produce a revolution ; and yet , taking what they say together , it is impossible not to say they are assisting in the very movement which has been called revolution ; and what is more , they are combined in a work which tends to supersede not only the Established Church , but other churches , unless the orders of all hues—black , white , and grey- ^ -take a thought , find mend .

    We pointed out two missionaries of the new vocation last week , the Dean of Kipon and Lord Grey , but we cannot explain the true magnitude of the movement , its thoroughly spontaneous character , its drifting tendencies , and probable effects , unless we take all the workmen together , and see what they are doing . The Dean of Ripon places the working-classes in possession of two powerful and pregnant ideas . The first is , that practical science has not only subdued innumerable

    substances and natural agencies to its service , but has shaken down the old presumption that changes cannot be at once vast and rapid . We live in , a world , says the Dean , totally unlike the world of our immediate forefathers , with our railroads , our gas-illuminations , our steam navigation " , our electric telegraph , our practical chemistry — the last alone enabling us to test the variety of things we consume , and teaching us how to cure the vice which we detect . The

    second idea taught by the Dean is , that by the extension of intelligence down to the humblest class , a continuous way is formed from those lower classes to the very highest in society ; admission even to state employment is made conditional upon merit alone . It is true that we may have corruption in the highest official ranks ; "true , that we have not yet extorted national

    education from a reluctant state , but the workingclasses now know what they may have . They have it on the authority of the Dean of Ripon . They know that , wise , practical men like him , are not afraid , and for some of the good fruits resulting from this knowledge , we need not wait the slow steps of education and school to issue . Instinct jumps to the appreciation of a truth , and the man who understands the relations of

    fellowcreatures to each other , as the Dean of Ripon understands them , will expect , or give , that aid which one brother expects from the other—that equality of help , although the distribution of their knowledge may be unequal . Then came Earl Gret , teaching the benefits of union , and telling the most commercial classes the falsity of the trading dogma that one man ' s gain is another man ' s loss . It does indeed happen ,

    in some stages of our manufacturing activity , that numerous classes are enticed away from wholesome fields to diseased towns , and are made to lose the xery salt and savour of their lives , if not life itself , for the gain of the manufacturer ; but this is because the manufacturer has been as ignorant as the worker , in not knowing that to secure his profit in tho most enduring and most profitable form , he must consult and foster the welfare of the workers also . As Lord Grey

    says , tho true exchango of commerce , -whether it be an exchange of labour for wages or of money for goods , can never bo thoroughly beneficial to either side until tho exact equivalent of the benefit be given to the other side . When a workman is made prosperous , comfortable , able to command a progressive improvement in his own condition , then tho manufacturer will never bo obstructed by strikes or driven to glut the market with over-make , or tremblo for the safety of tho mill whence ho and his workpeople draw their subsistence . Then wo have Lord Albemarle stalling up in Norfolk , not only to toll the labouring classes ,

    as a brother tells his kith and kin , that they should mend their ways , and abandon drunkenness , but confessing that his own class have neglected their duty in separating themselves from their countrymen . Then -we have Sir John M'Neiix back from the Crimea , at Edinburgh ; from the battle-field , to the lecturer ' s table , explaining the real sources of the weakness which we have endured in the East . The division of labour , he tells us , has brought the extreme of civilization back to barbarism . It has made us

    teach each worker one thing , and one thing only —to make a pin , to dig a ditch , to carry a hod , to build a wall , to spin a yarn , but has left him ignorant and helpless in the business of providing for his own life—unable to mend his clothes , repair his shoes , cook his food , or even light his fire . The helplessness of the citizen is carried by the soldier into the field ; and the sons of a mechanical and a scientific country find themselves as unable to contend with the hardships of a campaign , as if they were so many fine ladies . It arises , says Sir John , from over-doing our division of labour . " Combination of labour , and division of employment ! " says Edward Gibb « n Wakefield , who saw deeper into that matter .

    And Lord Goderich , who has studied such things profoundly , and who is actively teaching his brother-men , can tell Sir John that labour cannot be combined , and employments be divided , so that each man ' s gain shall be the gain of all , unless there be a concert between those who are carrying on the work ; and Lord Goderich belongs to an order who are labouring in the enforcement of that principle of concert , after it has ceased to be fashionable with Members . Lord Goderich , and his admirable friend Maurice , apply that very principle to tuition itself , and are labouring to show that the interests of the wealthier classes

    are essentially engaged in enlightening the working class , so as to know their position , their claims upon society , the felicities that await them , the stores of knowledge that they may command , the better life to which they may rise ; but none of these things is possible without the principle of brotherhood and concert . Given , the advancement of practical science which we have already attained ; given , the mechanical means that we employ ; add concert , and we find not only that the individual is at once released from a state of debasement and misery ,

    but that the body to which he belongs is powerful and successful . Colonel M'Murdo completes the moral . Describing the appliances that have been conveyed to the Crimea , tho organization of the Land Transport Corps ; the establishment of the Floating Factory in the waters of Balaclava , he says , that the British army could not have existed in the Crimea without the aid of science ; but that now he has Woolwich at his hand instead of three thousand miles off , and the soldiers hold in their hands the implements of mechanical coercion , as well as the means of their own health . What have the military commanders been at there ? They have brought to the Crimea the

    last resources of practical science ; they have collected from their country the means of subsistence for the men ; they have assiduously fostered the health , comfort , cheerfulness of each individual in tho force , as if tho well-being of each woro wanted to the success of all ; and what has been the result ? The result has been , that in so far as they have done those things , they have not only enabled one English soldier to do tho work of five Russians , but they have applied as a vice , such r mechanical forco upon the semibarbarous strength and magnitude of Russia , that she shrinks within herself , and continues to shrink as the vice pressos its screw upon her .

    In all those things these mon are but teaching laws which they find at work in tho creation . They are , in fact , engaged in opening tho groat Book of Nature to the uninstructed . It ia a

    noble division of employment , which enables the leisurely to consume their leisure for the profit of their fellows . All these men belong to the aristocracy . It is impossible not to see that these . titled persons are performing a work which goes further than any in our day to restore the influence of " the upper classes , " to make them the leaders of the " lower , " their guides , their Duces , or Dukes . It is a new aspect of the aristocracy .

    But what , taken collectively , is the meaning of it ? What are they at ? They are engaged in teaching their fellow-countrymen the way to live . They are teaching the laws by which we may earn for ourselves subsistence , happiness , progress , and power . They are leading their congregation to understand the laws in fidelity to which alone we can live , prosper , and be powerful . They are showing to each man how his own work , done in workmanlike style , in sincerity of heart , and in generous desire that the benefit shall flow on to those around him ,

    best secures his own welfare . They are teaching men how to live with men , class how to live with class , individuals how to subserve the prosperity , power , and greatness of their country . What is this , however , but practical Christianity ? What is this but a religion which extends beyond the narrow bounds of creed—embracing all ; for , if men live in accordance with the laws of the Creator and the creation , they must live in harmony with the great truths of every

    religiondispute as men may about the distinction of creed . These men , then , whether they wear the dean's gown , the peer's robe , or the soldier ' s uniform , are the real effective clergy of our day . Happy is it for the Church that she is represented in that new clergy ; happier still that many of her cloth have long been in effect of the order which they have assisted to found ; happier still , when understanding the great possibilities that lie before every community , the majority of the clergy shall have enrolled themselves in this order of an universal Church .

    M$O - The Leafp, [No. 294, Saturday .

    M $ O - THE LEAfp , [ No . 294 , Saturday .

    Dismemberment. The Dismemberment Of Russ...

    DISMEMBERMENT . The dismemberment of Russia is not an object of the war , as defined from , the naost liberalor democratic—point of view . What would be the advantage to liberty , and what would not be the loss to civilization , that would arise from such dismemberment ? The Poles have a clear right , if they have the power , to restore themselves as a separate nation ; and , once restored , they might present an example of free * institutions and social culture to the less

    developed races around them . Some of the Scandinavian kingdoms , "if they coalesced against the Czar , would require , and could not well be refused , the restitution of certain territories . In the East , whether by the establishment of new states , or by the redemption of conquered districts , the Russian Empire , if the war be carried on desperately , and with prodigious success , may be fractionally diminished ; but whatever bo the result , Russia must be left united and powerful . An immense and compact dominion must remain .

    When we speak of a general revolt of Europe against Russia , it is not to propose the dissolution of that incorporated mass of communities which constitutes the Russian Empire . The Empire must live ; it has tho vitality of youth . If it were to bo decomposed into a multiplicity of Mongol , Cossack , Tartar , and Lithuanian Stages , if the Slavonian world were to bo redistributed , or isolated , so aa to create new political frontiers , what would humanity gain ? It is official Russia—the Russia which eways by intrigue as far as the Mediterranean , and by its protection of German princes as far as the Rhine j—it is this Kussia that embodies despotism , and must be de-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 10, 1855, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10111855/page/12/