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Leader (1850-1860), 23rd October 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 19, ANTI-CONFESSIONAL AGITATION. The meeting...

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      To Reign Policy Op Napoleon Iii. Waxt Of...

      had his eyes open to what is going on during the last two years in the Turkish Empire well knows . The Russians have long pursued a similar system among the Greek population , with what success the war of 1854 and 1855 too manifestly revealed , bro where you will ,, whether on the-main land or m the islands , and enter the churches where the Greek ritual is celebrated , and you will find upon the altar or in the sacristy tangible proofs of the interpenetrating sympathy of the Czar . Vessels of gold for the sacrament , substantial embellishments ot the edifice , and not uufrequently valuable tokens ot triarchal care for the comfort and dignity of the

      pa ministering priest , are pointed out to you significantly . To countervail all this in the interests ol Western Cathoh ' city may be a legitimate act of French ecclesiastical zeal . We can even understand the sincerity of politicians , whatever we may think of their wisdom , who would advise the systematic expenditure of French treasure into similar ways for the sake of political ends . But then we should expect to hear those ends avowed , and we should not expect to find the application of the means disclaimed . France has no doubt a right to do what she will with her own ; and failing to exercise her discretionary will , while she entrusts her purse to

      an irresponsible ruler , neither England nor any other nation would be justified iu quarrelling with the lavish expenditure in the Levant on consulates , schools , factories , convents , churches , monks , and nuns . What does , however , cast a sinister view over the whole , is , that whenever observation or inquirer is directed by English diplomacy to these matters , broad and general denials are uniformly given to any insinuations of privity or cognizance on the part of the French Government . But what is more important than all this is the sort of masked policy of Napoleon III . respecting Italy . From the hour when the French and English Ministers were withdrawn from Naples in

      1 S 50 , all real confidence between _ the two Governments in Italian affairs virtually ceased . ' Louis Napoleon refused to give any pledge against the reestablishment of the ^ family of Murat , unless Lord Palmerstoii would give an equally unconditional pledge not to recognise any other constitutional regime in Southern Italy . King Bomba has thus had the opportunity of setting us at defiance , and now that we are iu the arms of Austria , he naturally feels comparatively secure . Meanwhile , the breach between Sardinia and Austria becomes daily deeper and wider as the influence of the Tuileries becomes greater at Turin . It was at the pressing invitation

      of the French Emperor that M . Cavour visited him at Plombieres , and- the tone taken since his return by the Piedniontese Government , and all those who are subject to its influence , has been more and more indicative of designs which the battle of Novara ten years ago suspended but did not extinguish . That Napoleon III . has held out to Victor Emmanuel the crown of Northern Italy as the reward of his friendship and fidelity it is impossible to doubt . The Cabinet of Turin cannot , ot course , be advised to admit the fact , though we can hardly excuse their , general denials when questioned , that the proposition has been made , and not rejected .

      Yet , what are they to do ? To avow that they only wait for an opportunity to send nn army into Lombardy , there to fraternise with its inhabitants , for the expulsion of its foreign garrison , would be to draw down upon its head prematurely tho serried might of tho Austrian Empire , and > tins before it had , or could have , any security of adequato aid from Franco . With a French army of eighty thousand men , tho expulsion of the Germans boydnd the Alps would , indeed , be secure ; and it is hard to believe that to such an event Napoleon III . is not looking forward . That tho Austrian Government apprehends tho struggle as an inevitability we aro confident ; that tho English Cabinet looks upon it as probable , if not imminent , we arc sure .

      That Ko. 448, October 23, 1858.1 The Lea...

      Ko . 448 , October 23 , 1858 . 1 THE LEADER , 1131

      The Promised Reform Bill. The Quiet Aspe...

      THE PROMISED REFORM BILL . The quiet aspect of tho people just now must hot bo taken as imlioativo of apathy on tho subject at tho promised Reform Bill . The ' external tran q uillity that prevails is duo mainly to the uncertainty that exists as to tho oxtent of tho change and tho character of the principles which will guido Ministors in their manufacture of tho new Constitiition , and to tho fact that all parties are disposed to rcservo their energy until they have something : tangible before thorn to oxpond it upon . But the Government niuat uot underrate tho nmgnitudc of tho task before thorn , nor tho momentous

      consequences which a false or feeble step in the wroiif direction may bring upon themselves and perhaps oh the future destiny of the empire . Above all it must be prepared to satisfy the expectations of the people at large—not the several cliques , political , aristocratic , and mercantile , which will have to be propitiated , but the millions—the masses who have risen into consequence from the spread of intelligence , who have hitherto had no adequate , no

      honest representation , who know their rights , and who will bo found in the coming struggle prepared to demand them . The new Reform Bill must not be a mere scries of compromises between parties and factions—it must be a fair adjustment of power between the various interests hig h and low , and sufficiently comprehensive and satisfactory to do away with the necessity of another change for at least a century to come . task

      Government , we have said , has a grave before it . Government must not seek to throw dust in the eyes of the country by a sham Reform Bill ; nor must Ministers attempt to model their course on that presented to them by the Bill of 1 S 31 . The Bill of 1 S 31—only extorted from its opponents by the menaces of an actual revolution—was cunningly framed and devised by its authors to yield the minimum of justice to the unrepresented . It was artfully contrived by its Whiff framers to strike a blow at Toryism , and to

      increase the power of Whiggism—at that period the only two parties between which the line of demarcation was broad and defined . The people and the people ' s rights were all subordinated to this occult purpose ; the result , as time has shown , is , that after the trial of a quarter of a century , the Bill of 1832 is found to be a sham , and to have worked with less effect in favour of real liberty and public honesty thaii the anomalous system which it superseded . Lord John Russell very soon perceived that the hollow pretexts of the concoctei-s of the Bill became sessioiially

      more obvioiis ; he saw that symptoms were manifesting themselves of the creation . of a party in the House of Commons which would speedily demand another and a real Reform Bill . It was this perception that led him to make his " finality" declara tion , which he has now been obliged to recant , and to assert that he would not consent again to " lift the anchors of the monarchy "—an assertion which he has conveniently forgotten and abandoned .

      A great and mighty change has come over the condition of society since 1832 . Old constitutional landmarks have been removed or obliterated—old traditions have exploded of themselves—old party cries have ceased—and new parties , new rights , a new order of things , have all simultaneously sprung up to demand a new Reform Bill that shall correspond and be in harmony with the progress of the mre . Government ; will have to look its

      difficulties—and they are great and manifold—steadily in the face , and it must be prepared to meet them manfull y and honestly . The ill-received assertion of the Prince-Consort that " representative institutions are on their trial" may not be so wide of the' mark as the offended British public were then inclined to believe . Government may find to its surprise that in its new Reform Bill ifc will have to give a confirmation or a refutation of that unexpected declaration . Certainly , this is the ago of change— - not of superficial , but radical change . That this is the age of real " progress" may be fairly doubted , but that this is the age of absolute " change" is indisputable . Graduall y , power and tho seat of power have bocn changing positions . The checks and balnnocs of oiu constitution have been

      steadily but surely alternating and disappearing . The relative positions of State , Church , Crown , Aribtoerney , and Commons , have shifted and are shifting . Everything appears to tend towards tho centraliyi ' ng principle , but at the same liiuo fo practical Republicanism . Power is concent rating in the House of Commons , tho Crown and the . Lords have already been shorn of half their nulliorily , and one constitutional branch at least c : in hope to bo no gainer by any Reform Bill that any Government may initiate . The middle classes and the working classes in proportion as they have becomo nioro wealthy and inoro enlightened , have crept up into power , not . perhaps actuaVbut moral

      power . |\ o jLvciorm . niu win uaiu to ijjuury mo rights pf these classes to bo fully and , fairly represented . ,, Hereditary , honours , woalth , coininoroo , possibl y " have their sharo , and . nioro than tlioir share , in tho , government , of the country . Intellect and labour have unquestionably less . It is intellect

      and labour that will make themselves heard , that will be prepared to demand their full share in the government of the country when the Reform Bill is divulged . The country , we have said , is quiescent , and apparently apathetic , now . By-and-by the mutterings of a rising storm may be heard , and . by-and-by we may find the masses in a glow and ferment that will prove as irresistible as the profitless insanity of l . S' 32 . Another new difficulty will be in the way of Government . We speak of the press , and the vast difference there is between the condition of the

      press in 1 S 32 and what it is in 1858 . In 1832 the press exercised very great influence , but insignificant compared to the influence exercised by the press of 18-58 . In 1832 the power of the press was more diffused among the whole of the leading journals , which were generally prosperous , and , being so , they were , to a certain extent , independent . Now , influence is virtually concentrated in two or three journals which have weathered the inroad of the cheap press . But on this question the whole of the press will have a voice , and by no means a subdued one ; and here we suspect Government will encounter a formidable and an unmanageable element . We have only touched upon a few of the salient points of the difficulties which will be found to environ Ministers in their important task . In itshands is the future of this empire .

      Anti-Confessional Agitation. The Meeting...

      ANTI-CONFESSIONAL AGITATION . The meeting of metropolitan vestrymen at St . James ' s Hall on Monday last , on the subject of the confessional , may be looked upon as the inauguration of a movement having a far wider scope than the defeat of Belgravian Puseyism , or the removal of Belgravian scandals . The practical view of the ease is this : —A number of clergymen , ostensibly affiliated and professing members of the Established Protestant Church of this country , avail themselves of their ecclesiastical position to teach , suggest , and practise things which the majority of her members

      hold to be at variance with the doctrine which their forefathers , who established that Church , intended , to bequeath to them , to have . and to hold- ^ -at variance , as they believe , with the language , and as certainly with the spirit of the Church ' s written law as well -as of her tradition . The innovating , or , let us say charitably , the differing party , decline to retire from the community , and turbulently insist , on the promotionjof contiuual scandal , and thus interfere with the decency and good order of thebody . The Church authorities are in the majority of cases stalemated , or elect so to be . The Crown , nominal head of

      the Church and Defender of the Faith , moves not . It is perhaps considered that there is no dignus vindice nodus ! J 3 ut , at all events , the situation has hitherto permitted the dissatisfied majority no resource but bitter complaint or abortive reference to inefficient or inactive power , while the minority virtually tyrannises . Under such circumstances , nothing so naturally suggests itself to the exhausted patience of' the strong as the employment of their force . Now the mighty exponent of force in our days , thank God , is public opinion . The appeal to the people , through the municipal organisation , is a fine move , for which its originators deserve thanks . On the face of itit is perhaps rather vulgar : it

      , will certainly be proclaimed so . But Puritanism always was vulgar until long after it had triumphed . It will gather together all sorts of insincere , and ignorant , and foolish , and possibly even knavish , partisans ; but such atoms were over borne upon the winds of popular agitation , and being found in equal abundance on both sides , may be allowed to " cut out . " In conclusion , if only tho financial sinows , necessary in controversial and political as in military strife , be as liberally contributed as their rhetoric by tho promoters , a very telling response may be looked for . Tho ultimate result to be hoped lor—and , if men be resolute , to

      bo won—is the gradual purgation of tho Church by tho institution of more soarohing tests , tho excision from tho Prayer-book of rubrics now used as a cover by tho malignant ^ ' and tho more aeourato . adjustment of tho ocolcsiostioal maohinory for Church regulation which , to say the Joasr , runs unkindly , if it is not out of gear . An . Established Churoh Health Amendment Act has long boon wanting , and a stop has . certainly been . laWon towards obtaining it . Tho names of Wcsterton and Verekor may never figure at tho back of euoLi a bill , but wo know enough of men and parties to bo

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 23, 1858, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23101858/page/19/