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M$O - THE LEAfp, [No. 294, Saturday .
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DISMEMBERMENT. The dismemberment of Russ...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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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-
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Citation
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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/
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