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Leader (1850-1860), 31st October 1857, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1040, 10iQ ¦-,__^. -—^ ¦ _.____¦; T JLg.,_.,Jk...

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      Continental Notes. France. The Trial Of ...

      Sustchuk , and it has accordingly demanded cxplanaious from the Russian Ambassador at Constantinople , rhese have been given , to the effect that the object of ihe vessel was the same as that of the French steamer Lyonnais ; that she had no more guns on board than the latter ; and that therefore she could not he consiiered a vessel of war . ^ The commission for settling the Turco-Russian frontier in Asia has returned to Constantinople , with the exception of the Russian commissioners . The Times Constantinople correspondent , in giving an account of the xesults of their mission , says that , but for the accurate Russian surveys of the ground , the work could

      not have been done . The Turks do not possess any survey . " The want of this became fatal during the last war , and I can tell it you as the opinion of a competent judge that , had there been a knowledge of that country like that w hich can be acquired by the Russian maps , Kara might have beeu relieved . As it was , all the plans for a campaign had to be made from inaccurate maps , and on a scale altogether insufficient for military operations , and the English Government , when it considered the possibility of a campaign in those parts , had to send Major Cathcart to find out whether there was any possibility of advancing with an army from Batoum to Erzeroutn . The commission first visited the southern part of the frontier , towards Mount Ararat . The summit

      of little Mount Ararat forms here the limit between the three empires of Russia , Turkey , and Persia . The line , passing then over the Great Ararat , follows the highest ridge of the [ chain , with scarcely any variation , up to the junction of the Araxes with the Arpa-Chai , winch coming down due south forms the frontier between the two empires , until it touches near its source the spur which unites the mountains of Asia Minor with the Caucasus . To the north of the plain of the Arpa-Chai , the frontier follows again a succession of mountain chains running from south-east to north-west , which rise in some places to a height of 10 , 000 feet . Gouriel is the last province towards the sea which forms the frontier between t"he Turks and Russians . "

      ITALY . The house of Balabio , of Milan , has failed , -with liabilities to the extent of about 300 , 000 / . sterling . Signor Balabio has recently dealt a good deal in Lombardo"Venetian shares , and is said to have made ' time bargains' to a very-large amount . The house has been crippled for a long time past ; and the fall in the price of silk has hastened the catastrophe . Matters remain as bad as ever in Naples . The persons seized on board the Cagliari are still kept in custody without trial ; and among the crew are two Englishmen , engineers , who are described aa being in a state of desperation at the manner in which thev have been

      treated . One of the prisoners , whose name and nationality are not mentioned , has made two attempts on his life . Our countrymen have not been allowed to see the English Consul , or any of their friends , and money fient for their relief has been returned . All English residents , indeed , are scandalously used , neither their lives nor their property beiug safew The murderers of Mr . Blandford , -who was killed in the streets early in the spring , have never been arrested ; and two English merchants , usually resident at Naples , are now in London , urging on our own Government certain complaints

      against the Neapolitan Ministers . The Neapolitan people are utterly sick of their present Government , are ripe for any change , an < l are looking with some degree of favour on the pretensions of Murat . Those who reflect gravely on the matter are opposed to the French Prince ; but a ¦ writer from the spot says that popular sympathy inclines towards him . It appears that the possibility of the Emperor Napoleon at some future da ^ y openly favouring his cause gives constant uneasiness to the King of the TwoSiciiies ; the more so aa the French Government has for some time past made a demand on the Neapolitan Government for a considerable amount of property which belonged to King Joachim at his death .

      lha Governor-General of the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom has j ust permitted thirteen political fugitives to return to their homes .

      GREECE . The King of Greece has contributed 300 / . to the Fund for the Relief of the Sufferers in India .

      10iq ¦-,__^. -—^ ¦ _.____¦; T Jlg.,_.,Jk...

      10 iQ ¦ -, __^ . - —^ ¦ _ . ____¦; T JLg ., _ ., Jkg A PJPA _ ... [ No ^ 397 , October 31 , 1857 .

      The Late Earl, F1tzha.Rdinge. Mn. Guahtx...

      THE LATE EARL , F 1 TZHA . RDINGE . Mn . Guahtx-ey F . Berkeley has published a statement in the daily papers , with reference to his sudden disappearance from Berkeley Cuatle on the morning of the funeral of the kite Earl , and his absence from the ceremony . He states : — " Shortly after the death of Lord Fiti & hardlnge , I received a civil note from Sir Maurice Berkeley , who had not spoken to me for many years , asking me to Berkeley Castle on the Friday , and to attend the funeral on the following day . The note being addressed to mo in the usual atyle of brothers when on good terms , I took the opportunity in accepting the invitation to say that it pleased mo much to come , and to think no more of past hostility . It was natural to suppose that those who Attended for months around the death-bed of a man who hod asked my forgiveness , and who tvaa eaid to have repented of his hostility , persecutions , and pecuniary

      oppressions towards me , would have been glad to have buried all family feud in the grave ; but I am compelled to say that neither in the living nor the dead were the behests of St . Paul attended to : impenitence of a desire to injure me and mine was still rife , and the greeting I received but tlie echo of the words engraved upon the coffin plate . " He then gives an elaborate account of a meeting of the various members of the family at the Castle , just previous to the funeral , at which the old quarrel with respect to the succession to the titles and estates was revived , and Mr . Grantley Berkeley , according to his own account , was taxed by all present with falsely assuming to be the heir presumptive , and

      with having attacked Sir Maurice Berkeley anonymously in the papers . Mr . Grantley Berkeley is the second son of the hite Earl of Berkeley , born after , the public and undisputed marriage , and lie claims the titles and estates for his own line on the death of the first son so born ; but the elder brothers born before that marriage , and whose legitimacy is not clearly established , oppose this arrangement , and it would appear that they unduly influence the eldest legitimate son . Mr . Grantley Berkeley asserts that the meeting was packed , and tha . fr he was received with clamour and unfair treatment . He therefore departed as soon as the funeral was over . —The solicitor to the family has denied the truth of these statements .

      An admirable letter has been published in the Bristol Times and Felia : Farley ' s Journal , severely , but most justly , criticizing a ' riunkeyish . " sermon with respect to the death-bed of the late Earl . The evil embodied in that sermon is so widely diffused through societj ' , and is of so disastrous a nature to all true morality and religion , that we make no apology for transferring to our own columns the excellent remarks of the Bristol editor ' s correspondent : —

      " Sir , — For the sake of society , and to prevent the injurious effects which such statements may have upon it , I must beg your permission to record my solemn protest against a part of the Rev . Moreton Brown ' s sermon in Cheltenham , on Sunday week , while ' improving' the death of Earl Fitzhaidinge . The Doctor is reported , in the Examiner , to have said that ' during his twenty-six years' experience in the ministry , he had never witnessed so tranquil an end , '' and that' it was a scene which he ( Dr . Brown ) should never forget to the last day of his life . '

      " Dr . Brown seems to have been so impressed with the honour of attending a lord in his last moments , that , in his eagerness to make the most of it , he lost sight of a long life of ( to use a mild term ) uselessness , for a lew months , in which approaching death compelled a man to think and talk of something different to those . objects and pursuits to whicli he had devoted the freshness of his youth , -the maturity of his manhood , and every year and day of his life , up to that moment when an accident , occurring at threescore years and ten , prevented him continuing any longer a career , one month of which he never disinterestedly devoted to the benefit , religious , moral , and physical , of his humbler fellow-creatures .

      "Now , sir , do not mistake me ; I do not claim the use of your columns to say wantonly uncharitable things of tlie dead or the living either ; but I do raise my voice against any such doctrine going forth from the pulpit , as that propounded by the Rev . Moreton Brown—namely , that a nobleman with 40 , 000 / . a year , whose intellect and opportunities did not allow him to plead ignorance of his duty—who had that duty set before him by precept and remonstrance—should spend the active part of threescore years and ten as a selfish voluptuary , as a libertine -with women , and overbearing towards men—wanting in

      that generosity and tenderness , whicl ) , even in some of loose lives , extort for them from the virtuous a mitigating excuse , —I say , sir , 1 do protest against its being publicly averred from the pulpit , that a few months at the close of such a life—months in which a man , whatever his nature , was obliged to abstain at least from active vice—should furnish grounds enough for a minister of religion to set up the death-bed of the deceased as an example of spiritual tranquillity , surpassing anything he had known in the course of a quarter of a century of ministerial labour .

      ""If , sir , it shall go forth to the world , that not how a man lives , but how ho dies , is regarded by that jiitit and holy Being , who is said to reward every man according to his works , who will do their duty in this world ? What rich man will recognize his duty to the poor man ? What plans to alleviate Buffering and lessen ignorance will be conceived or carried out—what sacriiicea made for philanthropise purposes ? "What weight will social obligations have in the social body ? "Who will , in short , caro for anything but sensual enjoyment , Boltiah gratification , if they think threescore unprofitable jears , devoted either to indolent UBclessneas or active miuchicf , can bo all atoned for by a few months of bedridden acquiescence in the viows and exhortations of a minister of religion , however pious ! What is all this , in fact , but rank Popery ; for there is more than , ono kind of extrome unction . Wo owe many of our Aneat churches to tho Berkoloys of old , who , after spending livoa of

      violence , wrong doing , and lust , compensated ( as their monkish confessors doubtless made them think they might do ) for all this injury to felW-men , ail this impiety towards Heaven , by making at the last a sup . posed peace offering of stone and mortar to that God who , being of purer eyes than to behold iniquity , is not ' like a corrupt judge , to be bribed from justice b y a present made to himself . "See the effect of such an example as that set forth by Dr . Brown , if other rich men , and powerful men , shall be encouraged from it to think that they may follow the

      life of the sensual voluptuary , until disease or accident deprive them of the power to pursue such a career any longer , and then that they can call in some minister , and get doctored up for Heaven in a few months . Had a certain personage , who , according to the couplet , ' when sick , a saint would be , ' departed in his notable illness , Dr Brown would probably have put down his end as the most tranquil he had kuown for a quarter of a century . But there are people who require to know , ere they accept such assertion , if there were any fruits of repentance to justify so ecstatic an assurance . May I ask . sir , * what restitution to society did Earl Fitzhardinge , ere

      ' The family vault received another lord , ' make ; what restitution to the parishioners of Berkeley for standing between them and proper religious ministrations for so many years ; what restitution to the locality for the ill effects of the immorality in high places , ay , and in holy places , which he countenanced ; what restitution to the young and the old , for the means of improvement withheld or never afforded , and the pernicious example set them ; what restitution to the men who have suffered from his violent temper , and to the women who have suffered from his licentiousness ; what , in fine and in short , did he in these last days to warrant

      Dr . Moreton Brown in holding him up as a saintly example , on account of a few months of partial insensibility : or to warrant the reverend gentleman in calling the end of such a man the most tranquil he had ever witnessed for a quarter of a century ? Good gracious , sir , if it be preached up that the expiring moments of a life like that of Lord Fitzhardinge are those of a saint , every Berkeley that ever inherits the Castle and tho 40 , 000 / . a year may go on for threescore years and ten living as he lived , provided he have only a Dr . Moreton Brown in his neighbourhood to send for , when he has met with a mortal accident in crossing a field or leaping a gate in pursuit of a fox .

      * ' What a contrast to the funeral gloge of the Presbyterian minister was the conduct of the martyr monk Savonarola , when called to the death-bed of Leo the Magnificent ; he refused to give tho dying Medici false comfort , or promise him heaven , unless he made restitution to the people of Florence of the rights of which he had robbed them . The Prince prayed to be assured of beatitude without making a sacrifice , and pleaded hard for the monk ' s benediction , but Savonarola left the chamber sooner than deceive the dying man , or wrong society , by promising forgiveness for injuries unrepaired while reparation wore possible . " If , sir , the evil of this imprudent sermon of Dr . Brown's were interred with the Earl ' s bones on

      Saturday last , I should not have written this letter ; but honesty and tlie principle of self-defence forbid society to accept tlie doctrine involved in that discourse . There are some natures that can only be kept from doing mischief , or compelled to fulfil their social obligations , by the knowledge or the fear that they shall have to render an account of their stewardship , as men , to whom God has committed the power of doing good to their fellow-creatures , if they will . If , therefore , ministers of

      religion will lay down the doctrine that seven months of bedridden seriousness , or a terrified or semi-torpid joining with a minister in prayers , out of seventy years devoted to self , are sufficient to entitle the deceased to bo preached up in the face of the world as a dying saint , then , sir , I am afraid , we should have a world composed entirely of dying saints and living devils . There may bo exceptions , but I doubt if any man , in the course of his ministerial experience , can say that he has seen persons otherwise than serious and anxious for their souls

      on their death-beds . When a man ' s night is coining , and ho feels himself gradually descending into the deepening twilight of the grave—when be knows assuredly that tho world is receding from him , and as assuredly that eternity is at hand—that liis eye will soon close upon objects here , and that he -will awakeMi in another state—a stato to bo for ever and ever—he must be a fool or a madman not to listen to words which give cournge or comfort , or not to repeat from tho lips « f t »« spiritual guide by his bedside , phrases which ho tlunK : * know

      have safety in them . 13 ut , sir , nil this is no new - ledge to the patient : God , and man , and his own conscience havo told him the flame , truths a hundred times when ho was in health—have whispered his obligations to him when he could perform them , and ua he before ignored his noble life duties for selfishness , so I can iook upon tho last scene , so lauded by Dr . Drown , afl mtio better than another form of aelfishnesfl ; for J luivo no doubt that Dives , after a life of luxurious enjoymem , wus as anxious as Lazarus himself to have a pl » co

      Paradise . —I am , sir , yours , •' Plain Smcakbb . "

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 31, 1857, page 1040, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_31101857/page/8/