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    60 The Leader and Saturday( Analyst. [Ja...

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    BELTGIOUS- DESECRATION

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    ..Effects Of This Description May Be Spe...

    the Emperor ' s letter is one of the ablest and most important state papers u'e have ever read , , ¦ . ¦ ¦ . ;" . V * ¦• -. ' Ifes declarations , cannot be undone .. He sees that without competition industry remains , stationary , and commodities are scarce and dear . He is sensible of the great truth , that the growth of manufactures is necessary to . the development of agriculture . He declares that the benefit of those who work is impeded by restrictions , and that industry to succeed must be released from aU internal fetters . He lays / down broadly the great principle that for society to flourish all honest ¦ . exertions must be free . He can never stifle that truth , and never erase from the records of all Europe , upon which it is already engraved , his adhesion to it . Even if he could do so , he cannot efface from the inind of the nations the effects of his declaration . in its favour . The deed is done . All France , all Europe , all the civilized world , will read his words and see in them the seal of the highest authority set to the doctrine of tree trade . It is becoming , and must become , the policy of all nations . Nothing in its progress is so wonderful as this last step . He who- was supposed to be the enemy of freedom is its best friend . If he were sent to curse , he has remained to bless . The lesson which this great event teaches would not be half noted if we did not add , that the Emperor has been convinced by ' the effects of free trade here , and . that his mind has succumbed to the general ' opinion which influences the minds of all . His conduct is peculiarly instructive , as an illustration of the general progress , and of the general law ' s to which all are alike subject .

    60 The Leader And Saturday( Analyst. [Ja...

    60 The Leader and Saturday ( Analyst . [ Jan . 21 , I 860 ,

    Beltgious- Desecration

    upon a person present to assist in turning him out of the ctmpel ; but finding that he received no assistance , left in a very excited manner and gave orders to lock the doors of . the chapel , ms he should have no service / . . This was pretty well for Christmas Day but the climax remains to be told . The churchwarden , finding the great door of the chapel . was locked , rose to retire through the vestry door . On finding the vicar there , he tried quietly to explain his reason for any course lie might have taken . The vicar said he wanted to have no explanations from him . He then tried to pass the . vicar to g et out of the chapel ,, when , the vicar assaulted him again with great violence , attempting to

    push him back again into the vestry . In answer to the charge it was contended that the chapel was the vicar's freehold ; and after some further proceedings in the case the magistrates decided that they had no jurisdiction , and dismissed the summons . It came out , however , in the course oi ' a discussion on another summons , which the churchwarden had taken out against his co-church warden , that . " on the following Sunday ( New Year's Day ) he went to the chapel and found several of the vicar ' s friends standing before the chancel with , their hands joined , to prevent him getting to the communion table ; three or four of them set upon him , and his co-churchwarden ,. who was one of the leaders , took him by his collar and by the seat of his trousers , knocked him violently about , and ' so .-grazed his arm that he had not since been able to carve his dinner . He

    remonstrated with the vicar for employing those men , and he ( the vicar ) at once p laced himself in a threatening attitude , and ordered him to be turned out . " " The matter has caused , " says the reporter ( and well it may ) , "the greatest excitement in the town and neighbourhood , and there seems to be no probability of a speedy settlement of the dispute . " Now this account of the doings at Enfield , if it were not fur the desecration which it involves of what is too solemn to . be

    made a laughing matter , would certainly cause the risible muscles ofthe faces of most readers to perform the part for which Nature designed them : the churchwarden collared by the parson , the crushed hat , the summary ejectment by what is called the '" ucck and crop" process , the incapability of the gallant captain to . cut his victuals , arul the rest of the description , equal in ludicrous effect the fictitious pencillings of our best comic novelists . Ho \ v the bench of magistrates came to t he conclusion that they In id nojurisdiction in the matter , is not set forth . The plea of " mollilur manus imposuit" when , a naval commander is summarily ejected by the application of hands to his collar and the seat of hid

    trou-RELIGIOUS DESECRATION . 4 SCANDAL , of recent intrusion , but which , considering jnL the time it has had for its development , seems likely to become somewhat formidable ; from its rapid growth , has attracted riot - only the attention of the town and the suburbs , bnt is spreading into the rural districts , alarming the peaceable , and" supplying the scoffers with ¦ subject-matter for derision and mischief , unsettling : men's minds-, creating much ill-will , and exposing , in . no favourable point of view , those who ought to be particularly ca reful in their conduct ) and who should be the last jiersons to countenance ,,, much less to support such unseemly and pernicious interruptions of the general harmony of the community .

    " We do not think we arc mistaking our functions if we offer a' few words of advice to those most nearly interested in what we are about to allude to , and to our readers generally , who , we are sure , will acquit us of all pretence of interference , and all impertinence of dictation . AVe come then at once to the subject , and wilf endeavour with all delicacy to show forth the evils which are being inflicted upon true religion and morality by the disgraceful scenes witnessed in some of our public places of worship , Sunday after Sunday , for many weeks

    past . . Whether or not those persons by whom certain alterations ( and what to the million appear as innovations ) have been introduced in the manner of celebrating Divine service , have " warrant" for their proceedings , we shall not stop to inquire . They may be within the letter of the Church ritual ; they nitty ' take refuge in the ambiguity of interpretation , and , by so doing , defy the diocesan , distract ; th . e congregation , disturb the parish , disseminate the seeds of schism , if not of infidelity and indifference , empty the church , and . help to fill the reports of the police offices

    with contests fit only for a prize-ring , and with language disgraceful to a pot-house . They may do all this , and by so doing gratify their own complacency , gain notoriety , and at the same time consider themselves as conscientiously performing their duties as the " ministers anil stewards of the mysteries" of Christianity ; but , admitting the sincerity of-their convictions , and giving them cvedit to the utmost extent for their good intentions , it must be very obvious to the unsophisticated intellect of every unprejudiced and right-thinking man that they ore taking a wrong method to support religion , and engender respect for its ministers . To illustrate what we have said of the disgraceful

    scenes which this conduct produces , it will not bo necessary to go back to tho repeated exhibitions in Chelsea , St . Georgo's-inthe-East , and other places ; it will be sufficient to rovert to the doings whioh occurred on Christmas Day last at En-field , - the facts of which came out before a bonoh of magistrates assembled in that town on Saturday , the 7 th of this month . It appeal ' s that the vicar wns , present-, on a summons charging him with an assault , on Christmas Day , upon the churohwardon ( a captain in the royal navy ) iu the chapel of St . Jojjm , Clay Hill , The captain haying been seated in the chapel some time , ' tlio vicar came from the vestry , and asked hjin if he had removed anything from the communion-tablo P He replied that , as churchwanion , ho had removed the supeiwiltar . The vicar immediately seized him by both his hands , dragged him forcibly IVom his chair , and palled

    sers by a churchwarden would hardly be . pleaded with success m the Courts of Westminster Hall , unless a more determined resistance had been made to the uncouth assault than appears from the report to have been the case . But be that as it may , it is announced that a solution of who is right and who is wrong isaboxit to be decided by a higher tribunal than the Abcthdius of Enfield ; and , what is still more to the purpose , it is understood that , on the meeting of Parliament , a bill will be introduced into t , he House of Lords for amending the Book of Common Prayer , and making such alterations in , the performance ' of the Church services as shall prevent the propensity for pantomimic display

    which unfortunately prevails m too many places . And npw that the word " pantomimic" has been made use of , it may be some excuse for the employ merit of such a term to advert to the newly introduced practice of turning theatres into torn pies of worship / and exhibiting , in such edifices as " Sadler ' s Wells , " the " Britannia , " the "Gar-rick , " & c . performances for which those edifices are certainly in no wise adapted . If the religious feelings of the public require such stimulants as have been ' administered by certain 'Boanerges in music-hails anil dancingrooms , religion must bo'in . ft" more deplorable i-state than we can conceive it to bo . There are , suroly , sufficient churches and legitimate places of worship to contain " the congregations of tho

    districts in which they arc situated ; and though it must unfortunately be admitted that the popularity of many prone hers is in proportion to tho singularity of their deportment , there tire hosts oi able , worthy , and indefatigable ministers who , by tho orthodoxy of tho doctrines they preach , tho simplicity of their behaviour in the pulpit , and tho purity of their lives , arc quite capable oi guiding their flocks , without the grotesque , exaggerated , and pestilent novoltios lately introduced by wjuch notoriety is

    obtained . Any man ( a fact , tho truth of which may be witnessed every day ) will attract more attention , and draw more people to staro at him when he does what ho ought not to attempt , tlinn wh « n ho sticks to hispropcV profession , Paui , ' Bfjda'oud would draw a larger audience to tho Adclphi Theatre if ho advertised im ovoning service at that houso , and himself as tho preacher , I ^ Iion over his histrionic talent can secure in ' his legitimate culling ; and , wo spoak with duo rovorenco of tho primuto of all . Rugliuul , when we assort that his Graeo would attract a mob ton Liuos us

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 21, 1860, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21011860/page/8/