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Leader (1850-1860), 21st December 1850, Edition Country of 1, Page 14, %ittTRtnxt

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      Social Reform. Dec. 10,1850. Sir, — Allo...

      of society and Government to individuals is , as generally expressed , fraught with the most fallacious and dangerous consequences . Instead of teaching reliance upon society and Government , far wiser and more benevolent would it be to insist upon the duty and necessity of self-reliance and self-help . By the former doctrine we encourage idleness , improvidence , pauperism , and crime ; by the latter , industry , energy , and prudence . To the almsgiving and compulsory relief of the past and the present may , I believe , be traced the greater portion of the pauperism that has now encieased to so fearful an amount . J . B . Barton .

      926 1&I)T 3l$Aiiet+ [Saturday,

      926 1 & i ) t 3 L $ aiiet + [ Saturday ,

      The Testimony Of Mr. Lucas Of The Nation...

      THE TESTIMONY OF MR . LUCAS OF THE NATIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL ASSOCIATION . Dec . 19 , 1850 . Sir , —One who knows the clergy well , " Publicola , " of the Dispatch , and whose private name is a guarantee for the fidelity of his statement , says " Experience has shown that neither the Catholic spirit , the scientific truth , the generous morale , nor the historical honesty of education are safe , unless all priesthood be kept at arm ' s length . " The perversion of Owen's College at Manchester is a striking instance of this , recent and near . Sharing the appiehension here described , I was anxious that the sense in which secular education is understood by the National Public School Association should be explained by some one entitled to speak with authority on the subject . If the word secular was interpreted in what I should consider its legitimate sense , it would mean that perfectly neutral instruction , which the Freethinker or the Atheist could conscientiously accept . That this was intended I had presumptive evidence in the fact of the Lancashire Public School

      Association having had from its origin the cordial and able cooperation of my friend Dr . Watts . This presumption is now converted into agreeable certainty by the letter of Mr . Lucas , who writes those welcome words in No . 35 of the Leader , which sets the question at rest . He declares emphatically that the object of the National Public School Association is to provide a national system of free secular instruction , of which all Englishmen may avail themselves for the benefit of their children , without distinction of class , sect , or party . ' '

      I have waited four weeks to see if this explanation would be questioned by any competent to do it , and as neither Mr . Cobden nor any other person whose influence might disturb such a declaration , has impugned it , I am perfectly satisfied of the generous and liberal spirit by which the Association is animated , and myself and friends will consider it written down both in our duty and gratitude to render whatever aid may be in our power for the success of an agitation important beyond measure , and liberal beyond precedent .

      Secular education , in the sense in which it is at length defined , will , no doubt , meet with wider acceptance than some who have been fearful of that term suppose . The middle clnss commonly select such schools where they can . When lately in Leeds I was taken to a secular school , where Mr . Edward Buines , of the Leeds Mercury , has for years sent one or more of his sons , and is , therefore , probably himself sensible of the intellectual and moral advantages of it . In London such schools . are popular . The

      other day I heard a clergyman object to secular education thus : How can teaching children that two and two make four lead to morals or religion ? " But if justice to those who cannot in conscience accept the clerical addition , is to be interrupted by such reasons as these , may we not , on the other hand , put the converse cuso thus : " Granting that moral and religious efficacy come not by teaching that two and two make four , will it come by teaching that three make one ?" Yours respcctfullj r , G . J . Hoia'oake .

      Political Economy. Dec. 17, 1850. Sir,—T...

      POLITICAL ECONOMY . Dec . 17 , 1850 . Sir , —The last edition of Mr . John Mill on " Political Economy , " haH not unfvoquently been referred to us containing a passage indicative of a change of opinion on the principle of association as contradistinguished from that of competition , but in recommanding the working classes to form companies without any moral basis , he merely advises them to do that whirh other classes have done almosc from time immemorial for the purpose of gaining greater advantages over the rest of mankind , without indiu'inu : any higher motives .

      Political economy asscits that every individual is the best judge of his own interests , and in proHucuting them ho indirectly promotes tin ; good of society . The Christian principle of lovo to ( rod and man admonishi's thu individual to sn > k lofty inspirations and study the : good of the whoh-, ami ho will find as a consequence that his own welfare in ndvanc'd in a far greater dogiTi 1 , morally , inti'lloi'tually , ami physically . This , however , is so well explained in the following ox tracts from " Haxu-r ' s ]> yini ; Thoughts , " thutl hope you will diem them worthy an insertion in your interesting columns : — " And if I ani any way useful to the world , it is

      undeserved mercy that hath made me so , for which I must be thankful ; but how long I shall be so is not my business to determine , but my Lord's . My many sweet and beautiful flowers arise and appear in their beauty and sweetness but for one summer ' s time , and they murmur not that they flourish for so short a space . The beasts , and birds , and fishes , which I feed on , do live till I have them die ; and as God will be served and pleased by wonderful variety at once ( of animals and vegetables , & c ) , so will he by many successive generations . If one flower fall or die , it sufficeth that others shall , summer after summer , arise from the same root ; and if any pears , apples ,

      plums , & c , fall or serve me when they are ripe , it sufficeth that ( not they , but ) others , the next year , shall clothe same . God will have other generations to succeed us . Let us thank him that we have had our time ; and could we overcome the grand ( too little observed ) crime of selfishness , and could love others as ourselves , and God as God above all the world , it would comfort us at death , that others shall survive us , and the world shall continue , and God will still be God , and be glorified in his works ; and love will say , I shall live in my successors , and I shall more than live in the life of the world , and yet most of all in the eternal life and glory of God . contraction

      " Were there now no more by egoiety or propriety ( property ) among men , nor mine and thine did signify no more , nor the distance were greater than that of the several drops of water in the sea , or particles of light in the illuminated air ; but I had all my part in such a perfect unity and communion with all others , and knew that all were as happy as I , so that there were no divisions by cross interests or minds , but all were one , certainly it would make my own comforts greater by far than they are now . Are not an hundred candles set together and united , as splendid a flame as if they were all set asunder ? So one soul , one love , one joy , would be . " Your obedient servant , J . M . Morgan .

      Justice To Catholics. London, Dec. 17, 1...

      JUSTICE TO CATHOLICS . London , Dec . 17 , 18 . j 0 . Sir , —As one of your correspondents appears to have slightly misunderstood the object of my recent letter on " Justice to Catholics , " or the feelings which dictated it , will you do me the favour to insert a few lines in support of my original position ? Mr . Phillips Day says that he can look with satisfaction upon the present ' excitement , because ho regards it as a fervent and tinmistakeable evidence of a growing hatred of Priestcraft and Church Dominion in the hearts of Englishmen . Even if I could , indeed , look upon it

      in this light , I could scarcely join in any feeling of complete satisfaction , because I should still consider that the means used by the denouncers have been unjustifiable ; but I firmly maintain that this movement has been almost exclusively the work of one set of priests against another . The trumpet-call that rang from the pulpits of the orthodox pierced the stout hearts of churchwardens and nerved them to valiant deeds ; the contagion spread , and public meetings clustered round the " drum ecclesiastic , " where

      energetic advocates of church-rates with a small sprinkling of Dissenters , horror-struck at the prospect of an Inquisition , availed themselves of so favourable an opportunity for a burst of native eloquence . Coarse invectives , unworthy suspicions , and wild intolerance , held a perfect Saturnalia as they poured from tho lips of men who compromise the groat questions of religion by holding to authority only when it suits their ends , and brand their boasted reason with the stigma of infidelity when it interferes with them . The Boanerges of

      Liverpool , Dr . M'Neile , in a moment of . excitement let loose the feelings of his heart , and would impose a sentence of death upon the supporters of the Confessional . He has certainly gone a step further than his brethren , but only gives the culminating point to ix mountain of intolerance . Is censure from such men as these to be regarded as a triumph of pure religion ? or should wo not rather look on their " indignation" as the fire of bigotry fanned by the bellows of a rival pi'iesthood ? Where arc tho men of tho People ? Where are the leaders in science and literature ? Where are tho men of

      calm judgment and , unprejudiced views , whom the intelligent of tho lmul have delighted to honour ? Have they swelled this clamour ? They are firm in the strength of their own convictions , and know that truth will prevail with far more credit to itself by gently winning its way with the force of argument , than by opposing with a blind and reckless fanaticism . They scorn to insult those whom they cannot convince . Nothing can eradicate superstitious error but a sound and liberal education ;

      it is ot' very little use to knock down one s »«» t of superstitions and set up another , not quite so gaudy , in their room ; to trample underfoot the Cardinal ' s hat , and laud the mitre of Canterbury to tho nicies . As long as ibrimiiism is eneouraged , men will not ccasi ? t > fi ^ ht over its p < euliiirities , and entirely lose sijjht of that charity which was intended to be the keystone of the Christian world ; but let tho people bo morally and physically cleansed , let purity and kindliness of heart be sown in the abundant soil around us , and Ponrry , with many other modiruval mystifications will gently disappear in the ; vortex of public opinion . Such is the only victory over Popery that can be looked for , or that ought to be desired . A Ca . mhridc ; e Graduate .

      %Itttrtnxt

      XliiTbixitt .

      Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...

      Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them—Edinburgh Review .

      This Christmas Does Not Promise Such Gai...

      This Christmas does not promise such gaieties in literature as we have been of late accustomed to ; but there is Mary Barton's charming story—noticed elsewhere—and Thackeray has not disappointed his expecting public . The Kickleburys on the Rhine , though not to be compared with Mrs . Perkins ' sBall , is a gay and pleasant book , with fifteen of his Michael Angelesque illustrations . That of the

      German Peasant Maiden is worth the price of the whole book—a picture which produces first a shout of Homeric laughter at the irony of the title and the maiden , followed by a feeling of sadness springing up from such an example of overworked , underfed humanity : the German peasant girls have to toil under burdens which in England press only on the more stalwart shoulders of the men , hence

      their premature old age and ugliness . The writing of the Kickleburys is easy , satirical , and humorous , with some of Thackeray ' s peculiar touches , notably that of the fond assiduous husband attending on his exacting wife ( " she is all intellect , sir , " ) and rebuffed by her with "Don't teaze , Horace , " and when not wanted " the gentle creature subsided on the bench by his wife ' s feet , and was sick in silence . " We have spoken elsewhere of Thackeray ' s love of antithesis ; can anything be more complete than this antithesis of sentiment and sickness , so true yet so unexpected ?

      We hare glanced over some proof sheets of a work which will make a noise in the world—Letters on Man ' s Nature and Development , by Harriet Mabtineau and Mr . Atkinson — which for boldness of outspeaking on subjects usually glosed over , and for power of philosophic exposition , has few equals . The marvels of Mesmerism and Clairvoyance are stated with

      unflinching plainness , as facts admitting of no dispute . Materialism is unequivocally and even eloquently avowed ; and Phrenology assumes quite a new aspect from the observations and discoveries here recorded . The printing of the book is not yet completed , so that we speak from an imperfect acquaintance ; but the sheets we have read excite in us the most eager curiosity for the remainder .

      The Pedantic And Lively Lerminier (Only ...

      The pedantic and lively Lerminier ( only in Frenchmen can you meet with the combination ) has just published a volume De la LittZ-rature R / ivalu tionnaire , in which he vents hisgail against contemporaries who have espoused the cause of the People . Victor Hugo , Lamartine , and Lamennais sit for their portraits , and their figures do not look heroic on his easel . We must do him the justice to say that , amidst much that is perverse and erroneous , he draws some real though unflattering features . But it is worthy of note that in this very

      facturn against the writers he vituperates for their change of opinion , he furnishes an unconscious testimony in favour of the cause he opposes . He proves that Chateaubriand , Victor Hugo , Lamartine , and Lamennais started in their career with a devotion to Royalty and the Party of Order little less than chivalric ; and that in the course of that career they deserted their ranks to pass into those of Democracy . Chateaubriand was a Royalist by sentiment and a Democrat by conviction . Lamennais be # an as the

      most illustrious ornament of the Church , and has lived to become its illustrious opponent . All this is very distressing , doubtless , and must proceed from corrupt motives , for who forsakes the Party of Order except from disappointed ambition ? The Cause of the People only seduces men of restless vanity—so Lerminier and his school believe . But is there not something significant in this conversion of the most remarkable men of France ? Is that cause

      despicable which owns for chiefs the most illustrious of tlie nation ? Just consider for a moment that the greatest thinker , the greatest poets , the greatest litterateur , the greatest priest , and one , at least , of the greatest historians of modern France—AlIGUSTK COMTB , LaMAUTINB , HUGO , BbKAXork , George Sand , Chateau « iuand , Lamknis a is , and Miciielkt—names of the veiy ^ highest rank , and representatives in Europe of the intellectual eminence of France—arc all on the side of the

      People ; and docs that mean nothing ? There arc considerable names on the other side , but none to rank with these except Gcjizot . " Shakspenre was of us , . Milton was for us , Burns , Shelley , were with ua—they watch from their graves . "

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 21, 1850, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21121850/page/14/