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    JjmMt^lB^ ' . T ] #fe li^BAiDtefe. ¦ 39

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    . UNDERNEATH THE PALL. A MTrapEBOTTS fit...

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    MEMOIR ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR. [The f...

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    The Dil^Gher-Denisolt Case. Once More Th...

    to the point , that £ ke Commissioners think the doctrine taught in the sermons contrary to the doctrine of the Church jof England , and , therefore , heresy , a conclusion as easily arrived at without as with an inqujk-y . But here is the peculiarity of the hiisiness : the ObTrrmissidners , while putting forward the accusation of heresy , feel bound to state that in these very sermons Mr . Denison gives his assent and consent to the doctrines of the Church of England , and expressly repudiates the Roman doctrine of transubstantiation .

    Could anything more nicely illustrate the charming ambiguity of the world-famous doctrines of this English Church of ours ? Mr . IXejstisois" clearly believes what he utters , and it cannot be questioned that his sermons contain , not his own views self-evolved , but what he conscientiously thinks he finds in the Articles of Beligion . "We are bound to believe that the five Commissioners are

    equally conscientious and equally learned , yet they arrive at an opposite conclusion Such is the Church of England . "Whether Mr . IXemtbon' is justly or unjustly accused we cannot say . It is not our province to decide on doctrinal or on legal questions . But there are one or two other points on which we may speak—the motives of the chief movers in this matter . Is it true , as alleged at the inquiry , that one or more of

    the inquisitors was personally hostile to Mr . Deitisok ; is it true that the whole of them are known to entertain doctrinal opinions contrary to those of the accused ; is it teue , as the grocer stated , that Archdeacon Law urged him , almost prompted him to act in the matter ; is it true that Mr . Dehtsoh " , some years ago , mortally offended Mr . Law by removing a monument from the church of East Brent which Mr . Law had caused to be

    set up there ? Is it not true that only two years ago Mr . Law publicly prescribed , as a remedy for the evils of the Church , the calmant " repose ; " if so , how is it that we find this apostle of " repose" suddenly becoming alert and aggressive as the promoter of contention ; this rector , too unwell to do his proper duties , yet who suddenly awakes , engages in active converse with that most distinguished of grocers , Mr . Evebett ,

    and stands two days in court , witness at an exciting inquiry P Is it true that more-than one Low Churchman round about the neighbourhood of Wells would willingly abolish both the sacraments , and yet still retain their hold if they could upon those goodly benefices they received to teach the doctrines of the Church of England ? Certainly there would be more " repose" if there were fewer conscience-troubling dogmas and duties .

    For our part , we have no personal interest in this matter , other than that which every citizen has in the triumph of justice . Clearly somebody is wrong down in those pleasant western places . Clearly the doctrines of the Church of England are not definite , but indefinite things ; for if there be two , why not three or four interpretations of the articles ? Yet men of the two or three or four

    interpretations all sign , we will not say subscribe , the articles ! As we have often said before , such proceedings cannot promote the moral health of this nation ; cannot help to sustain its conscientiousness ; cannot strengthen its honesty , but the reverse ; cannot olevato the spirit and purify the substance of the whole

    people . It' a Dtjnison be found heretical and subjected to deprivation , how many more ought ' to quit the Church voluntarily who think with him ; but if Denison should not go forth an excommunicate , ought Law and Ditcher to remain ?• Do"they beliovo in the whole of the articles ; do thoy revere both the sacraments as sacraments ? Yet it is "with those vital differences existing within her

    that the Church of England parades herself before the nation as the one true Church , through whose portal alone lies the narrow path that leadeth into eternal life .

    Jjmmt^Lb^ ' . T ] #Fe Li^Baidtefe. ¦ 39

    JjmMt ^ lB ^ ' . T ] # fe li ^ BAiDtefe . ¦ 39

    . Underneath The Pall. A Mtrapebotts Fit...

    . UNDERNEATH THE PALL . A MTrapEBOTTS fit seems to have come over the community , and the domestic tragedy which places a Barthelemy before the court of justice- —which affrights a neighbourhood with the suicidal murder of a Buranelli , and renders police-officers familiar with the pistols of maddened and melodramatic lovers—fre quently reveals something beyond the crime committed . We discover Borne anomalous

    relations of the criminals with then ? victims , of the victims with others , and of those others with persons beyond . There is commonly " a lady in the case "—or more than one lady . Indeed , these exposures seldom rend the surface of society without disclosing a Btate of custom amongst us yery different from that which is recognised on the surface . We have commonly insisted upon this distinction between the fact and the theory , as showing that neither custom nor theory could be quite correct . I ? or a theory which cannot be carried out must contain a moral as well as

    logical blunder in it ; and that which is unrecognised receives the taint of lawlessness , if no worse taint . It is time that society should gravely consider whether it acts as it professes , and professes correctly . It does not always follow , however , that in the worst of these cases the bad is unredeemed by something better . The last " domestic tragedy ' * will serve as an instance of what we mean . We do not seek to redeem

    the culprit fronrthe consequences of his act . If in the former case Barthelemy stands convicted of a cold-blooded murder , unredeemed by the necessity of self-preservation , he deserves to be hanged , so long as hanging i & the appointed retribution of murder ; and we have seldom felt so little desire to rescue any particular man from the fate that he has sought . Buranelli , too , dealt death upon others , and braved it for himself , ; and we cannot readily discover any reason why he should not be treated as one who has cast

    away every claim to release . His story is perfectly . intelligible :, ; , whether _ it M true or not , a judicial investigation may determine . Supposing that it were true , however , it would leave the culprit a murderer still , an assassin , yet not unredeemed by some traces of a better nature . His affections were trifled with by those who seem to have had none but a calculating interest in the object of his regard , who thwarted hini ; and if hia story can be trusted , persuaded her to violate the

    laws of nature , and his instincts as a father . His blood rebelled against that which is unquestionably maluin in se . If his hand was r . eddened , it was in mutiny against something in its essence worse than his own crime . It is thus frequently that when we penetrate beyond the latest act , and beneath the surface , we find that convicted criminals are not devils , and that there are elements in the recesses of their nature which might have made them , under happier conditions , better men . Nor is it conceivable that a man

    impelled by the motives which Buranelli protosses to have obeyed , could have passed a life unvisited by gleams of happiness and hope . We see him only on the stage of murder , and in the court of justice ; but he has not lived in that room tainted with crime , in that prison , or that police-court . His sense of existence , for a far longer period , has been' drawn from other sources and other

    scones . And whatever weaknesses , errors , and misdeeds may even before this have rendered him culpable , he appears to have had

    strong affections ; and therefore , Tie ]] must have had strong enjoyments , strong sympathies with what is right . Poetical justice is not only the creation of fiction . It exists in real Kte . It is the life of real life . Man ' s life is in great part what he- makes ffc . His mistake usually lies ; in taking the part for the whole . The miser who hoards succeeds in hoarding , and it is poetical justice which reduces him to the condition of a strong box whose vitality is concentrated in a nervous sense of its own contents .

    The man -wbo devotes himself with sufficient application and self-knowledge to the business of " getting on in life , " succeeds ; and it is poetical justice which makes him , when he comes to the end , discover that " there is nothing in life ** —when he has made for himself nothing in it , except -the " getting on . " But men who often seem to fail , succeed most perfectly . The scholar cannot pay his milk bill , but he can command the intellectual riches of cerituries . The mttn tb & t loves , may

    command neither intellectual riches nor dairy , neither get on , nor hoard , —but he has tasted life . We must know the whole story before we can judge it ; iand if these " domestic tragedies " often tear uj > the veil and disclose to us what is underneath , there are many places in which the veil is not torn , and many things live and palpitate tmderneath as real

    as the things we see . " Trust not appearances" is the commonest of the rules which society makes for itself—and breaks . Pass down any London street and say in what house there may not be a . tragedy , in which not a domestic poem ; but it is the tragedies only that are brought out at the great theatre in the Old Bailey ; the poemtf remain traptibliahed .

    Memoir On The Conduct Of The War. [The F...

    MEMOIR ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR . [ The following Memoir lias been seat to 'usjby a friend in Paris . It is the substance of the opinion of a distinguished foreign General < on the conduct of the military operations of the Allies . It is , we think it right to assure our readers , essentially a military , not a political , criticism . —E » . Leader . ^ The war which is now carried on against Russia has been un dertaken with the object of preserving the European equilibrium ; that is to say , to maintain the actual partition of Europe into small states ^ oppressed , and into great and ^ strong states the oppressors . Nevertheless it is proclaimed every day by the Governments of the two great Western Powers that the purpose of the war is the civilisation , the independence , and the liberty of Europe . According to these Powers , therefore , the Turk—that is the despotism of the sabre , the slavery of woman , and the oppression and degradation of the Greek population , in short , the Koran , represents civilisation and liberty 1 The Government of the House of Hapsburg , the chivalrous Government of Francis Joseph , which rules over the most beautiful and the richest provinces of Italy , over Hungary , and over many and various Sclave populations , presents the symbol of liberty and independence for

    the peoples of Europe J What irony is this ! ^ It appears , then , that morality , justice , and political ¦ wisdom have disappeared and'been falsified , as well as logic ! In fact the allied Governments on the subject of Turkey argue thus : It is necessary , they contend , to sustain the equilibrium of the Great Powers in Europe ; but this equilibrium would bo broken were Con stantinople occupied by the Russians : and Constantinople is not secure so long as Russia prevails in the Blnck Sea . But Sebastopol is the key of the Black Sea , and therefore it is necessarv to destro y Sebastopol in order to

    preserve the balance of Europe . . Does it not appear to you that this argument resembles that ot the Grecian ' orator , who reasoned thus : Greece rules in the ' world—Philip commanda Greece-Alexander , son of Philip , commanda hw fothertherefore Alexander commands the world . & xa . ctly such has boon , and is now , the logic of the two groat Western Powers . ' m Even if this argument -weire just , oortam it is that the modo of making war ia erroneous

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 13, 1855, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13011855/page/15/