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    Here , then , we have a third sect on the point of secession . We can sympathize with the indignation of Mr . Minster ' followers , in being debarred from rites which they believe to be spiritually healthful ? but looking to the whole tenour of English orthodoxy , we cannot agree that their tenets are those of the State Church , and we do not see h ow they or their leader can honestly remain in that Church . Grant a convocational power of redefining the doctrines or discipline of the Church in a more

    rigid sense , and there can be no doubt that , by the mere force of such a process , you would squeeze forth from its narrow bounds , on the one side , bodies like the congregation of St . Saviour ' s * Leeds , and on the other the extreme Evangelicals ; and in another direction still , the numerous but disorganized number of Platonists , Rationalists , Universalists , and other unsettled persons who remain within the Church upon self-sufferance , reconciling an exoteric practice to an esoteric doctrine , by classical or Germanizing refinements . Portents of such movements reach us every day .

    But considerations of this kind ought not to intimidate honest or truly religious men . Let us have an answer to that now unanswerable question —What is the Church of England ? Let the Church , completely endowed with all the attributes of a Church , step forth in its perfection from the midst of the state-endowed sects , amongst which it is lost ; let us see what it can do for humanity , for religion ; but to do that , it must stand clear of the parasitical sects which now share itt State abode , which render its doctrines confused , distract its counsels , and expose it to the contempt of the world through the weaknesses so feelingly described by its own sons .

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    THE " POST " ON IOW PRICES . Considering the course which the Morning Post has always taken on the Free-Trade question , we hardly expected to find the proprietor of that journal the first to reduce the wages of its compositors . For many years our courtly contemporary has contended for Protection to the landlords , and no one has been more bitter in denouncing the modern " cheap and nasty system produced by competition . " It appears , however , that the Post has no objection to " cheapness" in the case of its own workmen . Dear food and high rents are to be advocated

    by every possible kind of sophistry ; but , when it comes to the payment of wages , the case is altogether different . Here we have the capitalist employer taking advantage of the competition for employment which prevails among compositors , as in all other trades , to break down the wages of the workmen . " If any person offered to do the paper cheaper , such offer might be entertained . " ThiB is the very rule which Messrs . Nebuchadnezzar and Co . have always followed in reducing the wages of needlewomen , till they have at last brought them down to a point at which humanity is outraged .

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    SOCIAL REFORM . EPI 8 TOLJK OB 8 CURORUM VIRORUM . No . XXV . —On the Party which Cries Down aix Party , and Repines that Nothino is done . To Thornton Hunt . Jan . 15 . 1851 . My dear Thornton , —If , when it was first found impossible to put down free thought and free speech among the people , some shrewd enemy of progress had said to Kings , "Let us no longer make ourselves suspected by opposing knowledge : let us lead it to its own destruction . An extravagant philosophy , which shall captivate the people more than moderation , may do that which power cannot accomplish . Let us go down to the people in the guise of progress , and dictate the language of their friends "—if this had been suggested and executed , it would precisely account for what leaderH of the people have since said and done .

    No one has been hailed among modern disciples of progress more than that Editor who declared that " his paper was devoted to no one idea ; was the servant of no sect ; the organ of no party ; the defender of no faith ; the establisher of no creed ; the expounder of no constitution ; the interpreter of no oracle ; the instrument of no dictator ; the mouthpiece of no dogmatist ; the advocate of no exclusive interest . " Finally , you expect to hear the Editor avow himself of no stature , of no complexion , of no country , and of no colour , not knowing where he came from , and not able to find

    his way home—for , if he carried out his principle , he would at least have no name and no paper , seeing that such things are exclusive , and not universal . I might refer you to the writings of one popular b oth in the Old World and the New , the late Margaret Fuller , whose pride it was " to belong to no party , to no school in literature or philanthropic effort . " And one of the foremost expounders of European Democracy , Louis Blanc , has told us that " he owes it to himself to

    declare that he belongs to no class , nor caste , nor sect , nor party . " If this advice did not come from people whose patriotism I cannot doubt , I should suspect that this pretended philosophy was the expedient of men who wished to escape the duties of citizens and the odium of reformers , under the plea of a patriotism too lofty to work and too refined to suffer . For if it be unphilosophical for the few to have an opinion , it is unphilosophical for the many to have one . If it be disgraceful for the leader to

    belong to a party , it is disgraceful for the People to be of a party ; and if it be disgraceful for anybody to be anything , or do anything , when , I demand , will anything be done ? Thus , by a strange and unexpected inversion of free thought and philosophical liberty , definitive action is ignored , and all the strength of union given over to tyranny . This teaching , I need not say , has not been lost upon

    the People . They have not been slow to learn the lesson of pompous isolation , and have become as impracticable as any one could wish , and their unions as much like ropes of sand as their greatest enemies could desire . The prescience of poetry , which oft outruns that of logic , induced Shelley to foretell and individualize this race by which we are surrounded , in that memorable stanza on Peter

    Bell" To Peter Bell all seemed one hue ; He was no "Whig , he was no Tory-No Deist and no Christian he : He was so subtle , that to be Nothing was all his glory . " Yet these are the people who complain that nothing is done—who revile the age for its want of purpose , and reproach reformers because they are disunited .

    Whoever proposes to create a Party of the People may usefully ponder on the difficulty herein set forth . It is not necessary to specify what objects , Home or Foreign , the Party of the People should set before them . It will be time to do that when the intellectual possibility appears that a party can exist . Eighteen years ago how many trusted that out of the then prevalent enthusiasm a political chivalry would arise which would permeate and elevate the nation ; but instead , patriotism has

    risen no higher than the calculations of 1 rade ; the People have been abandoned by the wise and subjected by ardent imbeciles . The British Democracy , instead of enjoying a free juvenility , a natural growth , has been prematurely stunted by having to bear the weight of an un-English mendacity and blatant incoherence . But the blame does not , however , rest with those who imposed such a yoke so much as with those who permitted it : for I have no sympathy with those whose only vocation appears tQ , be deploring an evil which they have not the virtue or the courage

    to prevent . In this country—self-sustained in its genius as in its mercantile resources—in this country , which invents nothing political and borrows nothing , solid liberty grows only out of our Saxon soil . We work by the light of precedent , as they do in law ; and this habit is that which is meant by that term—that enigma of politicians—our " constitution . " It is

    on this account that the formation of new parties is felt instinctively to be a fault , unless warranted by two conditions , namely , that the object is original , and such as no existing party will combine with theirs ; and , secondly , there must be no machinery capable of carrying out the isolated purpose . These rules applied to current designs may serve to light us to results not otherwise evident .

    This brings me to the last difficulty I will enumerate , which relates to the prejudices of coworkers . Time was when a man who was bad was incapacitated simply by his badness . Now a disreputable leader , or a confident charlatan , is the most powerful man in the nation . He can monopolize a party—he can engross progress—he can rule the multitude—because everybody leaves him undisturbed . To how many bodies could I point you where one or two strongmen , of indifferent wisdom and indifferent character , disgust all good men around them , drive them away , and reserve

    the mastery to themselves—and the good men are weak enough and foolish enough to allow it . Where now is the National Hall , once the hope of a new party ? The difficulty there lay only in combating men who did not understand popular progress . What now is the Whittington Clubonce so redolent of promise and liberality , that might have been the precursor of untold social improvements ? But so soon as an adverse motion was carried , one after another of the liberal party , in each of these institutions , withdrew and abandoned everything to the narrow or the mistaken . We

    ought to hide from ourselves no longer the truth , that our Democrats have all Conservative instincts , and retire from the arena they have sought , unequal to the contest they have provoked Democracy is the battle ground for ascendency of opinion , where , whoever has the strongest truth will be the final conqueror . On ^ this field courage is only one of the conditions of success . In order to win a man must be indefatigable as well as brave . It is a condition of Democracy that all may rise , and where all may rise it ought to be expected that the bad will sometimes come to the

    surface . But as soon as they appear they should be superseded . Legitimate means are always available to the indefatigable , whereby they can put the impediments down—the incoherent by the force of logic ; the extravagant by demonstrative moderation ; and the immoral by better example . Where any institution has a Democratic basis , such I have mentioned , the victory of the r ight party is inevitable—if the right party have but courage aad industry . The reputation of the Chartist party in this country has sunk so low that few men believe it capable of elevation , or care to attempt it . One would suppose

    that no men of reputation or political knowledge have existed among the working classes for the last twelve years . Yet there has been no lack of them : but they have betrayed their order . It is a harsh word to write , but treason is the appropriate description of the course they have chosen for themselves . They who desert a cause are as criminal as they who betray ; if by the desertion the cause is ruined . It is too often overlooked that they who desert a democratic contest give up the cause of democracy to its enemies . It is saying that the right cannot get to rule in democracy , and to say this is to condemn it .

    A publicist , therefore , who has no interest to serve , nor vanity to gratify , will pause among existing parties before attempting the formation of new ones , it being better for progress and example to work with existing elements if possible . The Parliamentary and Financial Reform Association works in that portion of society who have legislative rights , but no public enthusiasm : the Chartist Associations , on the other hand , operate among that extreme of the People who have ardour without influence . If a man , therefore , has generous spirit , he sees where it is wanted—if he be wise , he sees where he can work . The indoctrination of Chartists with Socialist

    principles , and the reexpansion of Socialists into political Reformers , will necessitate the junction of the two bodies , or the institution of a Democratic and Social Propaganda . This latter seems almost inevitable— -but it will only be justifiable when it proves inevitable . In any case , let all earnest men choose their cause and take their side . Let us have the force of party without its vices of servility and acrimony . Let us , if we stand on the side of Democracy , let us lay aside the paralytic instincts of Conservatism , and fight the battle of opinion with the constancy of men who comprehend the

    conditions of their choice . And if , in passing from this subject , I may , without egotism , say a word to the inactive Reformers , who choke up the path of public progress , I will do it in the words of Colonel Thompson , whose years and experience better entile him to use the language of admonition : — " Once more let me try to impress on all who dream of amending their condition by political reform , that the thing is not to be done by running their heads into a corner , and declaring that they will sulk there till Heaven sends them what they want . They

    must do as their fathers did . They must submit to be politicians , and to think that nothing passes in the universal world which an enemy cannot twist to their harm , or a friend to good . They must permit themselves to be thoroughly persuaded that the busy men are always taking care of themselves , and that unless they will consent to be busy too , they must be content with so much of the cake as nobody « 1 hc can swallow ! " Yours , in private affection and political faith , ( jrKOKGH JaCOII HoLYOAKK .

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    j Ak . is , 1851 . ] « tr « Heafret . « _

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 18, 1851, page 61, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1866/page/13/