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    992 THE LEADER. [Saturday,

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    THE THIRD SAINT LUKE. Eveey member of th...

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    THE SPIRITUAL INSOLVENCY OF "THfc CHURCH...

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    William, The "Miles Gloriosus" Op East S...

    nowP Trust to yourselves—look to your own exertions — procure machinery : consider yourselves manufacturers of farming produce , make science your " protection . " Is not all this precisely what the " enemy" said , long ago ? Between the professed friend and the abused " enemy , " it is , then , a question of honesty ; nothing more . On the eve of the session which is to fulfil the

    long-deferred hopes of Lord Derby ' s supporters , many are the meetings in country towns : the farmers hang on the lips of their representatives ; they ask for bread and they are offered a stone 1 William , Miles , the Protectionist member par excellence , has nothing to say about " burdens on land , " " re - adjustment , " " fixed duty ; " but plenty to say about the British Constitution , the Church in Ireland , Lord John Hussell and the Pope ' s " Brass Band . " A lecture a la Blackstone , an essay a la Deiolme , to fill the gaping mouths of Somersetshire farmers !

    In July , the " enemies" of the farmers warned them that Lord Derby would throw them over to remain in power . They have waited to be convinced . Lord Derby is the Boomerang of the political world . He started as a Radical-Reformer , and to Reform ( perhaps even Radical-Reform ) he returns , and the farmers—O ! fortunati aqricolce 1

    992 The Leader. [Saturday,

    992 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

    The Third Saint Luke. Eveey Member Of Th...

    THE THIRD SAINT LUKE . Eveey member of the Romanist Church in this country must feel shamed by the vehement and impudent nonsense which Mr . Frederick Lucas has put forth in a prominent organ of the party , the Dublin Tablet . We have always drawn a distinction between the great body of the Roman Catholics in this country , and those who are impelled by zealotry , or a low ambition , to enter upon agitations and intrigues against the influence of religious freedom . We can sympathise with the large number of intelligent men born and trained to the tenets of that faith which centres

    in the capital where Christianity first took up its European abode . We can sympathise with their reluctance to abandon the faith of their forefathers , when , as we freely admit , no absolute intellectual test can establish the perfectness of the many other " truths" cdfcnpeting for their allegiance . Most especially and deeply do we sympathise with those men of the Church , who , raising no casuistical questions on matters of doctrine , have been steadfastly working to introduce amongst the men and women of their communion a spirit of greater freedom in political , social , and intellectual matters , reconciling the habit of observance in a certain ceremonial rendered venerable

    by antiquity , with a participation in the progress , the scientific search , and the enlarged practical piety to which the present day aspires . Our sympathy Avith men of that stamp is so great , that any injury inflicted upon them through an unfair advantage taken of an } r thing that may be in a literal sense illogical in their position , we feel as we should an injury to n brother . No set of men can be more deserving of liberal

    constructions , and no stale policy is clearer to us than that of supporting them . It is not for us to deny even that some of the arguments employed in support of . Romanist doctrine and usage have a weight and value of their own ; and we are no more m love with a vulgar and obtrusive Protest ant proselytism , than we are with Mr . Lucas's inquisitionisrn . Upholding absolute freedom of discussion , we must maintain , jis strenuously as we have maintained any other right ., perfect freedom to read and circulate ! the Bible , a volume which so lar ^ e a section of the Internal Church has made its

    text , book . But when . Roman Catholics represent that the volume contains many things , especially in relation to human conduct , and aberrations , which are unlit for the uncontrolled perusal of the young , we are bound to admit ; that the arguments on that head have a very great force . The mere obtrusion of the Bible , or of " tracts , " therefore , upon any given population , educated or otherwise ; the thriiHting of clasped

    volumes from the " Society for the Distribution " into the hands of a , peasantry ho unlettered and so far uncontaminated as that of Tuscany—we say nothing of the towns—is a mission which we regard , not with sympathy , but with a sombre antipathy . It is n stupid kind of tyranny to make the text-book of the national faith a pretext for imprisoning those who read it like the Madiai : it ia right in Protcs ^ anta—wo wore

    manding the liberation of the Madiai . The Roman-Catholics of Ireland had provokingly laid themselves open to the'taunt ; but there is many an opportunity afforded for a witticism or a practical joke which any gentleman will avoid , because he knows that , while it might raise a laugh , it would damage his character for discrimination and good taste . The taunt implies a confounding of functions , and it shows that he who makes it as little knows his place as the man at whom he casts it . ?

    going to say " like Sir Culling Eardley , " but we doubt whether he is a creditable specimen—who stand up for the defence and liberation of the Madiai ; but we cannot admit that this Biblemongering presents a case wholly unequivocal , or unmixed with very questionable matters . The Roman-Catholics of Ireland have lately been endeavouring to push their doctrines under the claim of " religious equality . " Sir Culling Eardley invites Mr . Lucas , a leader in that movement , to "join a Protestant deputation ,

    de-It is not from any sympathy with his antagonist , therefore , that we feel especially bound , as we do , to record ouu protest against the reply of Mr . Lucas . Nor , though we should not venture to level at the Protestant mission in Tuscany , such epithets as " souping , swindling , and mammonproselytizing , " is it the insolence of Mr . Lucas ' s language which calls us forth : we should

    have been content to leave that as a set-off against the impertinence of his challenger . That which we have to do , is to point out the bad spirit , the logical foolishness , the transparent impudence of the position which Mr . Lucas deliberately takes up . We use the word impudence in its literal sense , meaning the culpable want of shame in avowing that which is foolish , unjust , or ungenerous . We quote his words : —

    " When yon dare to suggest to me a similarity between Tuscany and Ireland—between the Madiais and the ^ Catholics of this land—between your souping , swindling , mammon-prosgjytism , the whole practical aim of which is directed to root out the Christian faith , and to plant infidelity in its stead ; to disturb , destroy , disorganize , break , and tear asunder an ancient and virtuous society by foreign influences and foreign gold ; to make men devils , or anything , if it were possible , that is worse , rather than allow them to save their souls in the pure way in which their fathers worshipped God ;—when you dare to suggest to me a . parallel between resistance to the first beginnings of such revolutionary innovations , and of such hostile invasions from without , and the efforts of the Tory bigots here to

    maintain their plunder and their ferocious gripe upon the throats of a famished people , I turn from the suggestion with a contempt which assuredly there is nothing either in your letter or in anything I know of your career to modify or diminish . " In other words , when Mr . Lucas and his faith are out of power , he is the- champion for religious equality , freedom of discussion , and so forth ; but when he is in power , he and his faith become

    " the truth , " anything but that is " gangrene , and he Avill extirpate and destroy . The stupidity of the avowal is not less surprising than its impudence . When I am down , he cries , I am all for forbearance and generosity : set me up , and I Bhall be an uncompromising tyrant . When I am in manacles , \ am all for freedom : when j / oio are in manacles , I shall treat the proposal to unlock them as gangrene .

    I Tow IVlr . . Lucas ' s brother Catholics like the proclamation of this covert intent , we do not know . It defeats itself . The first St . Luke , drawn from a more accomplished class than most of the first preachers of Christianity , has supplied one version of the gospel of Love : in his capacity of physician , ho in appropriately the nominal patron of the well-known metropolitan asylum for those who are afflicted with mental disease ; hence the second St . Luke connects the two

    ideas of the religion of Christianity and madness . The third St . Luke , of Dublin , supplies the missing wing of the triad , and represents only the madness ,- ^/ . veonnected from the religion of Love ; he represents the polemical mania—the persuasion of . Hatred . Startled at . tl | o transparent avowal of a , double dealing , which would use freedom to re-establish tyranny , many Englishmen accept the War declaration of the Dublin St . Lucas , as a reason for reviving coercion of the . Roman-Catholics . If we don't coerco them , it is said , they will coerce us ; if we don ' t keep them clown , l 1 u \ y will put us down ; and in making them free , freedom commits suicide , The argument is specious ,

    butunsound . Fear is mostly foolish , and has natural propensity for tyranny . This fear im . plies a want of faith in our own conviction . If We believe _ that freedom of discussion is better than constraint , we can confidently let discussioa be free , even when it includes the preach ing of restraint . Put fetters upon discussion , and you only substitute Protestant Popery for the more venerable Popery of the seven hills . The triple shovel hat would be as cruel as the triple tiara but not so picturesque . '

    Free discussion is as capable of self-maintenance as coercion is—more so . The state of Ireland proves it . While discussion and education are free , the tenure of bigotry becomes everyday more precarious ; the foolishness of the Dublin St . Luke has no final and irresistible attraction for the human mind ; and if it swaggers freely in the open atmosphere of discussion it does but serve as a volunteer Helot , with *

    which sound sense can point the moral of its tale to an amused public . While sectarian proselytizers are squabbling to get over their paltry gains , counting a " convert" here , and a " pervert" there , education and science , set free , are rapidly taking possession of Ireland and its people . This is a process too great to need that the new spirit should establish its tenancy by any formal livery of seisin .

    But there is more at stake than the liberty of Ireland , great as that stake is : so long as discussion is free , England is able to maintain before the world an open field in which the Catholicism of Rome meets practical education , unfettered science , and political freedom , and profits by the meeting . The fact is , that the emigration is drawing away from the priests , by yearly hosts , tliose believers upon whom the revenue of the priests depends , in order to convey their believers to that land of long established freedom ,

    America , where dogmatic incorporation rapidly melts away . Seeing themselves thus abandoned , seeing Ireland itself yielding to the influences to which it is thrown open , the priests of an intolerant regime foresee their doom ; they understand that from a reproach Ireland is being converted into an example ; nay , the ground is so rapidly departing from under their feet , that they are at last forced to step on to the firm rock of open discussion , to avail themselves of the privilege

    of freedom for preaching intolerance , and to be themselves the refutation , the scoff , the laughingstock of their own doctrine . It is no wonder , then , that a few of the more hot-spirited give vent to inflamed language , or get a little incoherent in their anger , like our friend St . Lucas ; but how inconceivable the folly of England , if irritation at the unblushing but instructive outspeaking of a Lucas could provoke her to forfeit that great field of open discussion , on which sho is so gloriously winning her way .

    The Spiritual Insolvency Of "Thfc Church...

    THE SPIRITUAL INSOLVENCY OF " THfc CHURCH . " Of all wonderful institutions which have survived the necessity for their existence , the Church ot England is the most astounding . Look at it in what way wo may , from what absolute or theoretical point of view avo will , it presents the same insane anomalies , the same unaccountable appearances , the same Protean shapes , alternating unity and division , harmony and discord , wealtu and indigence , untruth and veracity , conformity with the wants of the time , and the most determined retrogression and obstructiveness . one - tering under its sacred mantle men of every Htiunn , of every degree of goodness and vilcnesH , of spiritual earnestness and low earthly ambition —in one place the friend of the people , m »» - other their scourge—now the haughty impiwHiWO Lamlianthen the le cringing Kriistian

    , supp presents itself to any mind which trios honeBuy to hoc it . with all the facility and all tho ovasivrness of Harlequin . Who can tell us what it }» Who can lay his linger on it , and sny hero it hi Who can set down its pretensions on ono ng and its performances on another , and wiy ' ' the balance is on the right side P hiflcullV , rally , spiritually , the Church is a sham ; ' << . not / do for the nation what it professes to ao ,

    one word , it is insolvent . Tlioiv We set down facts as we find < 1 »< ; »' ; J " ¦ , thev are glaring before tho eyes of tli « « ^ world : for thorn wo are not responsible ' ' the stake played for is as much to uh as u ' tho Church , wo are only performing our bouu

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 16, 1852, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16101852/page/12/