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    August 26, 1854.] THE LEADER. 803

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    WARMING-PAN-THEISM. U^der t he significa...

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    EMIGRATION—THE MEA^S OF GOING-. Like man...

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    The Oakdinal At Home And Abroad. "All Th...

    some particularity the theory of education from such a source . Cardinal "Wiseman laments that our agricultural population have not the same benefit of " all the great discoveries and improvements of modern , times as the mechanics living in great cities , who have access to reading-rooms , libraries , and lectures . " He lias a natural sympathy for that wholly unlettered class of the population " dispersed over the valleys and uplands , " and "in sequestered nooks , " in whoni we find the Roman Catholic church so warmly interested throughout the continent . Ah ! it is precisely this class of the population who make the best Catholics under proper auspices , and whose pious ignorance is a "bulwark of the church in an unbelieving age . "We can easily believe that the Cardinal would be glad to take the peasantry in hand , and to educate them * up to the mark . ' When his Eminence turns to compare our education of the poor with that in Prance , Ms allusion to the system of hawking or colpcrtage is peculiarly infelicitous just now . The whole system of colportage is , at this moment under reconsideration in Prance , arid ' all moderate find , rational lowers of liberty in that country ate opposed to the organisation which the Cardinal suggests . If , therefore , thV Cardinal desires to speak in " Ehigland as an advocate of education arid not as a Cardinal , he would do well to change his mind or his words , and to abstain from recommending a plan condemned after experience by all but those who desire to arrest the current of opinion , and to monopoli . se the mind of the people . The Cardinal laments that the S , < X ) 0 , 000 or ^ jOOO i OdO volumes anriually hawked about in the rural districts of jFranee contained a vast proportion of books "filled with supei'stitions , and the exploded fallacies of astrology were still preserved in them as scientific truths" How touching and sincere is this disgust at " superstitions and exploded fallacies , " this championship of scientific truths in so eminent a director of the College of the Propaganda and of the Congregation of the Index ! " What will his Grace the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin , Dr . Calien , who was wont to teach thab the Ptolemaic s ystem was , if liofc true , at ; least not disproved , say to this new defender of the Copernican system ? Credo qxtia impossibilc is , it seems , not inconsistent with a horror of superstition and of " exploded fallacies . " In November , ' 52 , when the system of government now flourishing in Prance and so worthy of all imitation began to bo tolerably established , it was resolved by tho French Government to weed this mass of " noxious and foolish" literature , which had " infected every cottage in Prance" for 300 years . A commission was appointed , consisting of a notorious official editor , who had sold liis pen to all parties and opinions , and of three or four insignificant litterateurs . Out of 7500 works submitted to their scrutiny , throefouvths wore refused permission to bo put in circulation . But tho withdrawal of these works occasioned a void which must he filled . How ? By tho Government starting as author , publisher , and hawker on its own account . . Now this Bohemo , not yot carried into effect , is univorsally repudiated by all independent opinions in Franco . In the first place , it it subversive of tho liberty of commerce ; ii annihilates tho book trado ; it creates an enormous contraband markot ; it ia economically absurd and politically false . Already the stamp-has boon found practically power loss , and this proposition of credit moral a tntcllcotuel is likely to remain an unin . telliffible formula , invented by a politica ohnrlutan under tho inBpirationof tho priests . Nevertheless , the Cardinal 1 ms tho uagaciti ¦

    to suggest a parliamentary committee to " inquire into the literature of the poor , examining , analysing , and classifying the works produced . " A parliamentary committee is the only practicable substitute His Eminence reminds us , with an air of sincere regret , our imperfect institutions can find for the more " summary process adopted in France . " We really must take the liberty to ' assure His Eminence that we don't want any " summary process , " or any Parliamentary inquiry at all on the subject . He mistakes his latitude altogether when he proposes a censorship by way of promoting education . If he would deign to be a little more attentive to contemporary politics in England he would be led to observe that the days of all restrictions upon the activity of the Printing Press are numbered : the last taxes are doomed to early extinction , and men . of all parties are persuaded that with the healthy competition of absolute freedom the noxious and foolish literature , of whose ' slow poison' he complains * 'will find in the public consoieiLce the severest censorship . ^ What the *' noxious and / foolish " niay include , according to the Qardbial , we are at no loss to conceive : at Koine we know ; three-fourths of the books we are accustomed to revere and to cherish in this benighted country , from the Bible down ' wards , are officially condemned . There is an odour of ecclesiasticism and a theory of governmental organisation about these suggestions especially repugnant to the genius of English liberty , and we must not permit the Cardinal to suppose that we have failed to detect , under the cloak of liberality and moderation , an insidious and pernicious attack upon that absolute liberty : of " unlicensed printing , " which a true Christian and patriot , by name Joior JVfii / ron , taught his country men to conquer and to defend .

    August 26, 1854.] The Leader. 803

    August 26 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 803

    Warming-Pan-Theism. U^Der T He Significa...

    WARMING-PAN-THEISM . U ^ der t significant heading Seizures for Easter Dues , the Preston Guardian furnishes the following item of ecclesiastical intelligence : — " On Monday last , Police-constable Brealcell , Sergeant Walmsley , and Police-constable Dunderdale visited several houses and shops in Preston , belonging to members of the Society of Priends , and made seizures at each for the payment of ' Easter offerings , oblations , and obventions , ' due by the owners to the Rev . J . O , Parr , vicar of Preston . The sums originally charged in payment of the due varied from 6 |< L to 8 3 d ., but with costs in addition , amounted to 15 s ., to cover which sum , goods were seized as follows : —From W . Clemcshea , Avenham-road , two hams ; from Isaac ITearon , Bank Parade , a sugar loaf nnd a ham ; from Michael Satterthwaite , Bank Parade , two hauis ; from Joseph Jesper , Bank Parade , a copper kettle and a warming-pan ; from David Wilcoekson , Friargate , a canister of tea ; from It . Benson , jun ., Bushell-place , three brass pans , and from M . Graham , Margate , two sugar loaves . In some cases tlic value of the property thus seized amounted to noru-ly 1 / . 109 ., to cover a claim originally made—oippii what grounds it ia difficult to say —for 8 & y augmenting a claim of C 5 J a -d . 1 into Jifteen shillings , under pretenco of coata . If tho supporters of such practices wore r not strickou with that folly which is said '

    to forbode destruction , we might reasonably expect that they would take these evils ia hand of their own accord , before the roused strength , of the people settled the matteis for them : even those who acquiesce blindly , and take things indolently as they are , would be startled if they were . told that their altars are supported upon a system , of black mail—differing from the maintenance provided for the medicine-men of the Indians only in the violence "with which , the contributions are levied . 33 ut the truth is , that three-fourths of Churchmen are ignorant of these facts , and the remainder quietly salve over their consciences by saying that it is tho law that vicars must be supported , ani by the use of other arguments equally conclusive . Some , ind eed , go so fax * as to assert , that because vicars of parishes do a great amount of general good , benefiting all sects alike , therefore these levies are legal ; but nothing can . be xnore illogieal than this . assertions—first , because the claim is made upon no such pretence ; and , secondly , because if it were , the . services / Being unsought , should illtheir nature be gratniitous . We cannot say that weadrnfre the manner in which these martyred . ( Quakers resist the claim ; we . think that a systematic agitation , against the evil would be more respectable and more efiacacioiis ; moreover ., it seems likely that the dragging of kams arid varming-pans into the ¦ dispute , may have the effect of covering both sides with ridicule .. The vicar , having got possession of the hams and pans , will ; of course , be callous to this ; but the cause for which these gentlemen : are fighting cannot afford to be treated otherwise than seriously ... " We have heard that in many instances ( possibly in . this ) vicars are in the habit of farming" out these dues , thus delegating to others the odium of levying them . This only adds a deeper dye to the transaction ; for it proves that the delinquents are fully sensible of the . shame , , and seek to rid themselves pf it by shifting it upon other shoulders . This will not do ; qitifacii per alium faeit per se , is a in'icciple both of law and of reason , and we can by no means acquit the vicar because he robs the larders by proxy . Upon the indifferent and the halting these doings are not without effect . Comparisons will be instituted , and these will sometimes be odious . For our part , we shall never look at Landseer's picture of Bolton Abbey in the Olden Time , without contrasting the fine old portly gentleman , whose eye displays a scholarly epicureanism , receiving the willing tributes offish , fruit , and fiesh , vrith the Vicar of Preston , backed by three policemen , prigging hams and warming-pans out of the kitchens of his unwilling parishioners .

    Emigration—The Mea^S Of Going-. Like Man...

    EMIGRATION—THE MEA ^ S OF GOING-. Like many other things emigration is good , when it is voluntary , bad when it is involuntary . Tho involuntary emigrant ia mischievous aliko to himself and to the country which ho joins . The working man who is exiled because ho is poor , is punished Tor the crimo of poverty ; tho convict who is exiled becauso he is criminal , punishes tho colony for tho crimes of the mother-country . Both kinds of emigration , it is to be hoped , aro discontinued for ovor . Wo wholly discountenance oi ' gauisecl attempts to force emigration upon tho working chiBSOfl beoatiso their trade has decayed , or because their wages are fallin'r and they are an ineuuibraneo upon , tho business to which they have bolongod . If manufacturers introduce improvements that throw Uanda out ; of work , they ought , us the Stato does , to compensate existing interests . There ia no logul compulsion upon them to do bo ; but tho moral claim ia evident .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 26, 1854, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26081854/page/11/