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Leader (1850-1860), 23rd October 1852, Edition Country of 2, Page 10, ^uhlit MaitB.

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      The Following Is An Extract From A Lette...

      would perish under the blows of the democratic horde . My prediction has been promptly and literally accomplished . At present I am only the echo of a very general feeling- in affirming' that the great European Powers will pay the penally , sooner or later , of their cruel indifference towards Switzerland . What has passed in that country for the last ten years Avill give a serious and a painful lesson to posterity . The hypocrisy and pitiless tyranny of those false Liberals may be studied at leisure , and -with that desire of vengeance which is found everywhere , but of which the primitive type is in Radical Switzerland . The apostles of democracy and of human progress may there be seen employing imprisonment ,

      exile , iines , confiscation of property , military execution , and persecution in every shape , against their oppressed fellow countrymen . Universal suffrage may be seen there proclaimed in principle , but shamefully vitiated in practice—the ' sovereignty of the people , ' affixed to all cantonal constitutions , but trampled under foot by the ' brothers and friends' of the neighbouring cantons . J 3 ut , if I mistake not , the world will be confounded at the strange infatuation of that diplomacy which calls itself Conservative . Yes ! history will scarcely believe that France and Austria , the two greatest Catholic powers in the world , should have permitted a handful of demagogues to crush at their very door religion and property , justice

      and liberty , as personified in the most ancient Republics and the purest societies in Europe . The neutrality and hesitation of 18-17 may be conceived in the midst of the dangers , the illusions , the uncertainties of that period , in presence of an opposition formidable by its numbers and determination , and already intoxicated at the approach of the triumph in which it was to be buried . But in 1852 , when all is silent , when all bend the head , when experience has proved that it only requires to advance boldly against tlie danger , in order to dispel it , and to place the hand on the monster , in order to annihilate it , nothing can excuse or explain such an abdication of the rights and obligations of a protecting and victorious Government . A man in private life , strong and

      tranquil at home , who would see from his balcony a child strangled in the street , and who would close his window to avoid going to the assistance of the victim , would be justly the object of general reprobation , and would deserve to be abandoned by all in the moment of danger . Monarchical Europe , which could lately deliver the captive Kings of jNTaplos , Piedmont , and Spain ; which re-established even the Duke of Modena on his throne , would probably not have suffered the j > etticst Prince to be so treated ; and , if the revolution had triumphed in 1848 , we may be certain that it would nowhere have suffered an affront similar to flint which the representatives of public law in Europe and the oldest allies of France are now suffering beyond the Jura . "

      A letter from Sinigaglia , in the Papal States , of the 3 rd instant , mentions the execution of twenty-four political prisoners in that town . Eight wore shot on the first day , six on the second , and ten on the third . They refused to accept the consolations of religion , with the exception of five . Amongst the latter was a merchant , mined Sinumcelli , the only one belonging to the wealthy class of society , lie expected to have received his purdon up to Ihc last moment , the brothers and nephews of the Pope having interested themselves in his favour . I > efore he died , he requested the commanding officer to order his soldiers not to fire at his head , but at bis breast . The others marched to death shouting for Aljizzini and singing the Marseillaise .

      The governor of Warsaw 1 i : ih given notice thnf the properly of Ihe refugee 1 ' oles abroad , who have not accepted Hie amnesty , will be confiscated . The elections for | , he renewal of the gninc ! council of the ciinlon of the Vainis , which wns one of ( he cnutons of the Swiss Soii ( Jerhuii ( l , have jusl ( alien place . The liberal party Jinve gnined a small majority . The Urussels journals of Wednesday contain nothing t « . account for ( he delay in publishing the decrees for the reeonsfil iilion of the i > elgian (' iihinct .. The Nation stales ( hat its snle td all ( he stations of Ilio railroads has been interdicted in consequence of its articles aj ' -uinst > the l'Yencli ( iovernmeiil .

      A telegraphic despatch from Trieste , dulcd Oct . 12 , supplies the follow ing unintelligible rumour : Nine thousand English Iroop . s have landed near Herat , in the 1 'ersian ( itilf ; if in . supposed I hat I he olijcct , of I lie presence of those troops in lo cause I he l ' er . sians io respect , the independence of Herat , which they threatened . " | Herat is hundreds ol miles from the Persian Cull "! The road to if lies through Cabu l-I The Iliird annual ( list rihut ion of pri / . es in connexion with

      the Windsor Royal Association , took place yesterday in ( he lloine I ' ark , and was attended hy an immense assemblage of sj ^ eclators , including all the resident nobility , genlry , and clergy , and many of the members of Hie royid household . At two o ' clock ( lie successful and unsuccessful candidates , lo ( lie number of I IO , sat down lo dinner , in u commodious boolh at . ( he back of ( lie oriental pavilions , creeled hv the command of her IMiijcslv lor the accommodation of the subscribers and ( heir friends . A I . three

      n clock I nnee Albert arrived on horseback . I he distribution of flic prizes then commenced . As fho inline : ; were culled I he candidales ascended Ihc platform and received their prizes from Hie hand of flic I ' rince , who signed a wrillen lest iinoinal lor each .

      1014 The Leader. [Saturday,

      1014 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

      Tim Directors Of (He Australian I Nlauim...

      Tim Directors of ( he Australian I nlauiM ' iirry in ^ (' onveymiee (' c > m | iim _ y uro fulfilling Mui e \ pee tut ions we hud formed of IJiem . Our readers will ohnorvo thai they have necurcd tho Hervieen of two of ( , lm IMeHnrn . I'Wd , Iho wellknown earriorn of tho Weut of Mn ^ huid .

      9fp, %C J2e?Pit It £ T 1 ^ R .

      9 fP , % c J 2 E ? Pit it £ T ^ r .

      Saturday, October 23, 1852.

      SATURDAY , OCTOBER 23 , 1852 .

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      There Is Nothing So Revolutionary;, Beca...

      There is nothing so revolutionary ; , because there is nothing' so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dk . Aknold .

      The Meeting Of Convocation "For The Desp...

      THE MEETING OF CONVOCATION " FOR THE DESPATCH OF BUSINESS . " The Times of Monday startled tlie country with an announcement " not without foundation , " that Ministers liave " resolved to advise Her Majesty to permit "the Houses of Convocation to sit for the despatch of business , and that the Royal license will be accordingly issued , empowering those ecclesiastical assemblies to enter upon the consideration of such matters as may thereby be submitted to them . " At the same time , the leading journal denounced the measure as " rash and abrupt , " as " perilous to the Church of England , and inimical to the order and tranquillity of society , " as " one of the wildest freaks that ever passed through the brain of a

      statesman , " as a " trick of the grossest kind ; " and garnished its article with phrases far from complimentary to the clergy of the Church it so haughtily upholds . The Times was extremely angry , and it menaced Lord Derby with " a storm whicli neither that noble Earl nor his colleagues could allay . " In short , the Times accompanied the lightning of its revelation with the peculiar thunder of Printing-house-square .

      People waited for the morrow to read the Herald and the Chronicle . In a foolish article , the former declared the report " preposterously untrue , " while the Chronicle observed that it had been cognizant of the reporb for some little time , and it charged the Times with withholding a material part of the rumour , —namely , that the deliberations of Convocation would be strictly confined to a single point—that is , " to devise and recommend a scheme for self-re form and

      reconstruction , according to the altered condition of the Church and society . " Writing on tho bare report of the Times , the Daily News declaimed with great indignation against the whole scheme , as something positively awful , whicli , if attempted , must bo put down in tlie Laurie fashion , by Act of Parliament . Following out its previous views , and talcing up the addition made by the Chronicle , the Times on Thursday retorted , that to niaku Convocation , a " Coiist ' daoit Assembl y' would be " not merely datigcrouH , but revolutionary , " taunted the Church Avitli if . s Act of Parliament origin , mentioned the Act of Submission , and rejoiced that tho Church in Convocation , winch claimed ,

      " after the manner of churchmen , . something of a divine commission , " lay " bound hand and foot by flic limitations of human statutes . " The " . status quo" was also highly applauded , and Hafety was asserted to consist— " in tlie lina and equal maintenance of tho present adjustment . " Meanwhile , Uu * ( llohc had been executing daily a , running commentary , and being a WIlig journal , had consistent ly : uid spiritedly taken Whig views . Tlui ( i ' lohe looks upon and treats the Church as a political machine , considers that Lord Derby is only trying to make capital out ol the concessions , depreciates tin' clergy ; like the Times , it levels in the fact that the Church is in temporal chains , and with obvious relish it calls for the interference of Parliament . . Audio ! at the

      last hour , the Herald , " on authority , ' denies the whole of the story ! Hut the ministerial journal has a great deal to do before it can command our belief of its assertions . ( Suppose the report to bo accurate , and the Koyal license only wanting the Koyal signature , what , is the present position of tilings ? It is thiH : — The Church is at war within itself . Not all the eH ' orls of all the journalists can conceal the / act . Hut they propose to evade it , as they try to evade so many other evilN , by ignoring it on the one hand ; whilo they darkly hint at Parlia

      mentary interference on the other . Now , Par liament is a civil power , notoriously composed of persons variously affected towards the Church and it is reasonably asked—can these with nro ' priety legislate for the Church , of England ? And as Parliament is notoriously incapacitated certain churchmen demand church government by the Church as the only resource- left for mak ing theory accordant with practice . They profess to be prepared for the consequences ; and , almost in our own words , the Guardian accepts the onlv

      honest alternative . " Whatever difficulties there may be , " writes that journal , " there is no choice " " It is getting clear that the Church of Eng land must , in the present course of events , either bo restored sooner or later in practice to what she is in theory , or else sink , and become changed into something very different from what she has hitherto been—somethfng very much like the mere red-tape department of the Home Secretary's office . " So far have we arrived .

      It is said , that the result of the action of Convocation would narrow the limits of the Church and that such narrowing would be a calamity ! But that is begging the whole question . It involves , too , a fatal dilemma . IFor if the Church be not a specific thing , capable of containing only a given number of persons , wlio hold a specific creed ; and if it be a good thing to make it capable of containing the greatest possible number of persons—of having the most extensive and elastic limits—why not increase those limits instead of maintaining them within the old termini . And thus the argument used against restriction becomes one in favour of extension .

      There is another view of the question equall y damaging . The bitterest foes of Convocation now insist that it is an Act of Parliament Church ; that it was created by and subjected to the civil power ; that Henry VIII . was its William the Conqueror : in short , that it is a political machine—a spiritual police establishment . So that , according to thi 3 view , the majority of

      churchmen are told , that they hold their faith by civil sanctions—that an act of a tyrant ratifies what , nevertheless , they consider as revelation ; that the Bible , the Sacraments , and the virtue of the sanctions of the Christian religion are dependent on a majority of voices in a Legislature , under the fiat of a person who murdered his wives , and plundered Churchmen for the behoof of

      courtiers . Conscientious churchmen very naturally cannot , dare not regard their Church in this light ; and if there be ' any churchmen who do , wo unhesitatingly say , that they are recreants to the faith they profess , and guilty , unconsciously it may be , but still guilty , of the grossest moral dishonesty . If the Church of England be not something quite independent of Acts of Parliament , it is one of the grandest impositions ever practised upon a

      nation . . . . For our parts , it behoves us to say that lt ^ is not as a " States General , " tho precursor of a involution , that we regard Convocation ; and in this the Globe has , no doubt unintentionall y , quite misrepresented our advocacy . As we claim for ourselves the right of free development , so wo claim it for all others . That is , ami always has been , the strong ground on which we build our advocacy . It is because the only path for <¦<>» - scientious members of the Church of . Kntf l »» a lies through the ordeal of Convocation ; > ; 1 )(! " cause we are anxious for honesty of opinion , oh .

      all sides , that we have supported this domain » the Church . The ground we take up in , lUil [ l tho Church is in a false position ; that tin * element of falsity in the Church is a bane to th <> nation at large ; that no calamity could anno onof open strife in Convocation no great as <<' . " calamity which exists , without Convocation , " tho shape * of the bitterest strife concealed un < le : i shameful pretence of Conformity . That tln 'j " iil

      are hostile antagonisms in tho Church <>><>< y denies . Tim bishops admit it ; lh « iirch ( l ««««)»» admit it ; the controversy of tho week in } ^ public : journals has extracted the likw admins "" u from the Times , the Globe , and Uio Jteity " <¦''•; And the question to bo resolved is , who lu great scandal like this , which must noutrau ^ much of whatever good there may be m fetching of the clergy , ought to ^ T ^ Z-M . mini one day without a remedy being Him * , Convocation is the obvious remed y—the ion ^ J Hiiggesled by ( ho most earnest men m ¦ lJhuiv . il itself . By the issue thoy are pr « l » to stand or fall , " like honest men- - > ut I ( U

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 23, 1852, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23101852/page/10/