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Leader (1850-1860), 19th July 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 679, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      THE CAPE AND THE GOVERNMENT . Let " men of action" look at . the state of Cape affairs . Trifling maybe said to characterize the Imperial Government and Parliament , as com pared with the behaviour of the Cape itself . Ministers have taught the Colony , b y implication , that it may have that for which it will rebel ; but that , short of rebellion , it shall not obtain its wishes . Ministers volunteered the promise of an "English" Constitution ; they nave just done enough to set the Colonists quarrelling , and now they promise the Constitution " when the Kafir war shall be over ; " said war having been brought bout , not by the Colonists , but by the Governorservant of Downing-street .

      The Earl of Derby carries the case by appeal to the House of Lords ; with the aid of Lord Lyndhurst , and certain counsel learned in the law , he shows that the recent conduct of Ministers has been illegal , inasmuch as they have attempted to revoke concessions made to the colony ; for Lord Mansfield decided , in the case of Grenada , that constitutional privileges , once granted by the Crown , cannot be retracted , except by the authority of Parliament . Lord Derby also exposed

      the principle of the political manoeuvres of Ministers—the shuffling off of responsibility upon any who could be made to bear it—upon the Governor , the popular Members of the local Legislature , or the Board , of Trade ; whereas Ministers might at once have framed a bill in accordance with their own promises , the expectations of the Colonists , and the necessities of the case . Ministers , therefore , brave illegality , but shrink from action—they are tyrannical , but cowardly .

      How was he answered ? Lord Grey , aided by Lord Chancellor Truro , pleaded for the legality mainly on the ground that no privileges had been granted , but only a promise to grant them at some future day ; and that Lord Stanley , when in office , had exasperated the Anglo-Dutch by emancipating their slaves , and the Van Diemen ' Land people by his convict policy . The official answers are pettifogging specialties and recriminations 1 But the replies to which we take the strongest exception are those of " independent " Peers . Mr . Fairbairn , although appointed by the Governor , declared that he should sit for the colonists at

      large ; for saying whicU the Duke of Argyll thinks that he was "disloyal and ungrateful ; " and because the four popular members acted together " to stop legislaiion , " they were * ' factious and contentious . " The Duke of Newcastle did not oppose Lord Stanley ' s motion for Parliamentary interference , but he evinced great reluctance to censure the Government , or to do more than the needful act of legislation . It is evident that the two Dukes consider it advantageous policy to get on with a minimum of change ; to compromise the matter with a bad Government , rather than to get rid of the question and of the Government once for all . The same kind of fastidiousness clings to politicians of al l classes in this country "; and what is the result ? In the Cape , the Colonists went straight to their object ; in the convict case , for example , they demanded the total removal of the convict ship ; without it they would hold no intercourse with the Government , happen what might—be the Governor starved , or they themselves visited with loss , they stuck to their text ; aud they gat what they wanted . In this country it is a princii ^ c of action tQ do nothing that ahull be detrimental to a Government which all despise ; Members are alwaya ready to " withdraw their motion , '' nnd the iinal result is , that we get nothing of what we want . Men will talk , promise , accept promiHca , c ompromise , huddle out of Might , hush up—do anything that ia not action . The Cupe gets ita will —• greut and powerful England goes wi&QUt !

      Let us continue to watch this Colonial contest : the Colonists get on better than our men in Parliament—©* out of Parliament .

      Untitled Article

      THE FREEDOM OF THE CHURCH . The cry has gone forth—** Cot the Church asunder from the State ; set her free ; leave her to regulate , without let or hindrance , her own concerns . Take away from her the humiliating reproach of being merely a bridle on the passions of men ; a patent drag-chain which steadies the political locomotive j a useful superstition hanging m terrprem over the heads of the unscrupulous . Let her have , at least ,

      a voice in obtaining unity of doctrine and unity of ceremonial . Let her members be honest . Nominal harmony ia dearly purchased at the expense of actual discord . Seeming soundness , even in days of peace , never outweighs the value of actual healthiness : and is still less defensible against a sleepless foe . Free the Church , so that we may get more honesty and health into the life of the State thereby . "

      Heartily we respond to the cry . Heartily we answer—Yes , let us have freedom and conscientiousness even in the Church of England . No corporate body , mueh less a religious corporate body , can be " useful , " in the highest sense , while it has no actual united corporate life , and while its outward surface id only a mark which conceals a chaos of duties neglected * of doctrines sworn to while disbelieved in , and of whole lives wasted in mere worldliness , and worse , the plunder and spoliation of the poor . With all our hearts we

      say , Let the Church be free . From this pointof view we look upon the debate on Lord Redesdale ' s motion of Friday night last . We take peers and prelates at their words : all parties will gain by the proposed step . We assume that , for once , noble Lords and reverend Bishops actually said what they meant . We pin them down to their professions—free , vigorous , and rigorous life for the Church , at all hazards . Never mind the scandal , never mind the shame , to which

      restored synodical action may give rise . It is never too late to ** repent and believe" and act uprightly . Even the Church can become great , if she will become honest . And while political , and especially aristocratical inconvenience is the only ostensible obstacle , the Church has a right to say — Surrender your usurped controul ; restore to us that principle of vitality , organic action , without which honesty of life is impossible , for sincerity and slavery cannot coexist .

      How stands the question after Friday nighf ' s debate I * So . That party in the Church which first led the reaction from apathy to action , demand , through Lord Kedesdale , the resforation of synodieal action to the Church—in other words , they ask for a Lay and Clerical Parliament , to determine the differences , vital differences , which stand out with broad , bold , undeniable relief in the Church . Mark , the demand is made by a layman . Ecclesiastical domination , " pure ami simple , " is entirely given up . The infallibility of the priesthood ia not asserted . Simple corporate action for The Church alone ia demanded .

      And who leads the Opposition to thin demand ? Whoso are the lips to utter words of expediency , of peace at any price—of peace at the price of insincerity ? Who rides forth as the champion of a Sham Church , to do battle with the paladins of a Real Church ? The Lord Primate , Dr . Suinner , Archbishop of Canterbury ; and in that sentence we register the condemnation of the existing Church of England . At present , he aays , we are " certainly useful " 1 We build churches ; we make bishoprics . What would you have ? Are not we embarrassed enough with our eternal differences ?

      II you get Convocation , und it Nueceed , what an " excitement" there will be J If it fail , what u "disappointment " j " | , et us alone , " we are much better as we are . We have a " tunothered tire now , " and . I can " manage" to exiat in that , though it be ' * hotter than ia agreeable j " but touch the Prayer Book , touoli any vital ( jueHtion , » n < J ( ho " Queen ' s Prerogative " will have enough

      to do to put out the <' oonUagrution " ! And , Tie might hav « added , I , decidedly , » h « U evapoWe in the heat 1 jMutt we not call tint * , if we put the moat charitably interpretation on it , the language Of cowardice P or , if we were disposed to put , upon it the worst interpretation , should we not caU it the language of hypooriwy ? If the minion of the Church bear thj » t awful nnd indispensable character to which she lays claim , w * lh what conscience can Pr , Sumner , above all men , come forward and

      urge , as obstacles to the fulfilment of that mission such puny enemies as " great excitement , " or " great disappointment *» ? Well might Lord Lyttleton nobly retort , " Peace is good ; but freedom , and life , and truth are better . " And whencertainly with more frankness than bis prelatical coadjutor—Lord LansdoWne urged , over and over again , that convocation could onl y result in violence , heart-burning animosity , mischievous failure , and anything but " peace , " it was more than competent—it was incumbent on the Bishop of

      Oxford to exclaim : —You object to synodieal action , because there is among you " an entire want of faith in the divine mission of the Church of England . " * Peace in error , " he cried , " is not peace , it is death instead of peace . " And even the cautious Bishop of London , a man so skilful in his motions that he often seems in two camps at once , fixed his position in this debate , though upon lower grounds than th <« e adopted by the Bishop of Oxford . Dr . Blomfield thinks it is a choice of evils—he prefers sy nodical action as the lesser .

      We support the demand for Convocation , because truth at any price is better than compromise of truth . We support the demand for Convocation , because the Church draws to itself a large portion of the life of England , and it is essentially necessary that that life should be sincere . Representative Government would soon determine the parties in the Church , and bring them to an issue ; we should know who they were . Vital reform is incompatible with the gigantic shams among which we strive to exist ; the Church of England is a reality , a great national fact ; since it is natfora 1 , we are all interested that it should be sincere ; and if a Convocai ion will reduce that gigantic sham —its present state—to a reality , we say , Let a Convocation be summoned without delay .

      Untitled Article

      NO PEACE . On the part of Austria , Russia , and France , who detain Abd-el-Kader , Kossutb , and Bakoonin , an Irish correspondent answers with a tu quoque against England that she detains Mitchell and Meagher , O'Brien and M'Manus ; and from the fact that their exile is suffered , he argues that there is neither patriotism nor English people . " There is a conglomeration of human heings living in England , a confused Babel of conflicting humanity , " he says ; " there is no English people . " This is true , and w « would it were otherwise ; but his answer is not quite applicable , and we are not sorry for a challenge which enables us to grapple with some delusion on this subject . There is no real parallel between the cases of the men we have mentioned and the Irish exiles . Abdel ^ Kader was a prisoner of war , and he is detained by a gross violation , not onjy of honour , not only of express stipulations , but of those rules of war of which the profession of arms boasts —of those rules which secure to officers of any civilized government the pr ivileges accorded to prisoners capitulating , or prisoners upon parole . The detention of Abd-el-Kader lowers the standard of honour in France , not only for the nation at large , but m at especially for all their military officers , who submit in silence to the indignity .

      Kousuth ' * ease is of a totally different kind : he is detained in Turkey at the dictation of Russia , and the wrong which he suffers consists in the fact that the dictating power has no kind of claim upon him , and that Turkey herself , who is forced to detain him , shares the wrong . The nations that stand by andsufferthis . conniveatone of the grossest infractions of international equity ever committed before the world . England prqfesseH to protest against that infraction ; she has the power to enforce her protest ; but her Minister does not inforce that

      protest . We have already expressed our opinion that Lord Palmeraton betrays tho interests of the people of Europe and the honour of England in his subserviency to tho eaprit do corps and technicalism of Diplomacy . We havo already said that England puts nn indignity upon herself in permitting that treachery in Lord Palmcr $ ton . Th « oftsft of Bakoonin again , is totally diwslmilar from th « other two . It is very hara upon the

      viotirn | ( h « more so because some of the nation ** who wore instrumental to his fata , had no claim upon his mitffiance . Nevertheless , t h * most striking fact in hia case Is , not th « hardship to him , who braved the fate he encountered by an act of open war , but th * proof wbioh it involves of the compact crowned ooiinpw aoy aroori tf th « Power ** of the North against the Peoples of fcJuropo . In our rofsrcooa to those atfkiri * wo did not flatter

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      Untitled Article

      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 . — De . Arnold .

      Untitled Article

      SATURDAY , JULY 10 , 1 <*^___

      Untitled Article

      July 19 , 1851 . ] W >* **«***? 679

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 19, 1851, page 679, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1892/page/11/