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Leader (1850-1860), 16th August 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 776, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      have polluted , in no form whatever can you expect good government . " These are bold expressions ; but they strike home . The sentiment that tyrants ought to be called to account by the nations whom they misgovern will , we believe , find an echo among the countrymen of Hamp den and Cromwell . King Ferdinand of Naples , brought before a court of law , tried openly by a Neapolitan jury , and , if found guilty , punished by the penalty for the gravest crimes , would be a spectacle of justice . He might , in a highly enlightened court , get off on the plea that the prisoner , like his family , had been weak in mind . For a Jury might be a protection to those tyrants who repudiate every responsibility , save that which is enforced by the arm of the assassin .

      Untitled Article

      MEMORANDUM . C 0 NT&A . 8 TS are freely drawn just now between the conduct of the Governments in Rome and Naples , both of ^ hich refuse permission to the Protestant residents for fitting places of worship , and the tolerance shown in our own country to Roman Catholics . But the contrast is idle . In one sense it is what logicians call an identical proposition : you are contrasting what we have always boasted to be tolerance with what we have always known to be intolerance , only changing the general n ames into particular names . And so much force as may be in that old contrast is diminished by eo much force as there may be in the Anti-Papal Bill—whatever that may be .

      To make the contrast available you should make the things compared equal in other respects . If Rome were under a popular constitution you could contrast it with England : but there was no charge of sectarian intolerance against the Republican Government of Rome . The persons aggrieved in Rome and Naples are aliens : those whom intolerance would aggrieve here are our own # fellow-countrymen . The case reminds us how difficult of application is the lex talionis : how much easiest and safest the law of dealing with all according to our own honour and dignity , as kindly and generously as possible .

      Untitled Article

      THE COttN-FACTORS OUTWITTED BY THEMSELVES . A Dismal practical joke have the corn-factors passed upon themselves . They encouraged as much as they could the admission of Continental flour , expecting to make their profit out of the " free " trade . If the millers were to suffer , was it not good for the consumers ? If , indeed , the millers themselves were to be consumed , so much the better . Cornfactors have their . way , and are all dflight . Trade accrues ; but lo ! the French and Germans plant in London their oion factors ! Do not the

      factors now , admitting the beauties of free-trade as applied to wheat and to flour , think that there ou # ht to be a duty on foreign factors ? Wursc and worse : more circulars , exclaim the appalled factors , are current about London market , on Wednesdays and Fridays , in French or German than in Eii ^ 'li-sh . But worse yrt—the foreign factors propose to sell by auction ! We may expect to see several gentlemen appearing at the " legitimate " theatres this winter , in " first tragedy , " " from the Theatre Royal , Mark Lane . "

      Untitled Article

      T 11 K HOUS U Of IHJDl'OllD , The sole surviving Whig of the London press claims ns a merit of Lord John ' s policy , that wliereau Sir Robert Peel has been vi ^ oroun , kikUUii , thorough , and effective in hia reforms , the- other has been blow , and has so contrived as to reconcile opponents to //*' * measures . The journalist puts it excellently when he Bays— " If you cannot Bleep , the housemaid who made your bed may be in some degree responsible . Now , Lord John Russell

      made a very different bed for the Conservatives from any that Sir Robert Peel offered to his victims . " The Protectionists nee the idol torn out of their Wands , gone altogether ; wherefore , they lire angry , and want to get it back . lJul the bed of Reform wai so made by John KuitHcll—bo softened with ratepaying clauses , Chaudos clauses , and so forth , that the hottest old Tory could lie clown upon it . J . R . is the only genuine Betty to make up beds at the Reform inn , —the Bedford Anna , houseof-call for every clauu of bugman political .

      Hut the friendly critic is wrong . There were people most anxious to get into the place smoothed by Sir Kobert Peel , to go to bed ; and most soundly have these name people been Bleeping there over since . Nothing could disturb them but their own Imd dream—the antipapal nightmare . They were content enough to tfet into that bed , ull of them , fiom Russell to llawes , mid to lie there too . On the other hand , you can scarcely find men -who like to get into it next after thorn . Stanley und others declined pointblank : they suid that the bed was tumbled

      dirty , and not at ull inviting . The contemptuous burden of tlieir song was— " See-Haw , Murgery Daw . " " Good bi-da" are placarded at the Old Original Reform Inn ; but the place is losing itB custom ; it in not mo clean an it was ; and people do not quite like the character of the house . Ui-d-rrwiking , according to the Ulobe , in Lord John ' s forte ; und hw itefonn Ilill id the example cited . lie has hud twenty yeurs' experience , und ia now manufacturing unother ; so that hi « next Reform Hill in to excel the last in uoftneus nnd repose--to bo u more than feather-bedft Reform bed .

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      " Arms give place to the toga "; the battleaxe rusts against the wall , and knightly valour . —roanhood , virtus—seeks eminence in the contests of intellect . Captain Pen has a higher office than Captain Sword . The age of military ascendancy has so completely passed away , that practical statesmen , men without enough imagination to become dreamers , are active at the Peace Congress

      —a scheme which , fifty years ago , would have surpassed in buffoonery the most extravagant conceptions of Rabelais or Swift . Such being the march of history , it is clear that , if the aristocracy do not distinguish itself in Politics , Philosophy , and Literature , it must soon pass away . If Dukes do not lead us , ' wherefore should we accept of Dukes ?

      The young Duke of Argyll has evidently the serious and lofty ambition of becoming ducal . He has distinguished abilities to warrant that ambition . Were he Jones , he would make himself remarkable ; being a Duke , all he does is remarked . This week he has issued a pamphlet on the Twofold Protest , in the shape of a letter to the Bishop of Oxford , the effect of which we are certain will be very considerable , since it not only shatters the preposterous Anglican claims set up by Samuel of Oxford ; but it dives deep into the heart of this vexed question , and exposes the parent source of all the much-lamented secessions from " Oxford to

      Rome . " That exaltation of the Priesthood as a Divine Commission representing the Apostles by " direct unbroken succession , " which is the animating principle of Puseyism , and is in open defiance of Protestantism , the Duke of Argyll , has no difficulty in proving to be the bridge over which men pass to Rome : — " Ask some of those to whom I allude , " he say ? , " how they have overcome all those objections to the Romish worship and teaching which you have often heard them express so strongK '? Ask them how

      they could acquiesce in practices which they used to call , as you now call them , ' idolatrous '? You will always get one answer—' the authority of the Church . ' And when you come to analyse this idea , so powerful to bend the strong and to prostrate weaker minde > , you iiad that in reality it is not one principle but a compound of" two ; one respecting the nature of ' the Church' as regards its government , and another respecting its authority . The first is

      that ' the Church is governed by an Order of Priesthood , perpetuated as such by a spiritual lureditaiy descent overspreading the whole Christian world , and representing by ' diiect unbroken succession' the Holy Apostles . The second is that the authority of the Priesthood is exclusive of every other , and so extensive that the -widest differences of doctrinal belief cannot justify separation from it , or the intrusion of any other Christian ministry . "

      And these principles are held by the High Anglican Church . To them the Duke , as a true Protestant , would oppose the " good old Protestant weaponsappeal to the authority of Scripture against the authority of the priesthood . " But as he is an advocate for thorouyhness , and demands that premises be pushed to their conclusions with unswerving rigour , we would call his attention to the principle underlying Protestantism , deeper and wider than that of a mere appeal to Scripture aguhust Priesthood , viz ., the absolute right of private judgment—in other words , office ; thought . The contest

      is not simply between Anglican and Calvinist , it is the contest between Dogma and Convictionbetween the objective and the subjective CUureheH . The right which Luthicu claimed to interpret the Scripture in his way , we also claim to interpret it in ourH , t . ( - . to reject it ; and our right is equally valid with his own . From the moment you abolish the distinction between Priest and Layman—Lutiikr did so when he insisted that Chkiht wan present in every faithful noul , an si temper of the mind , an inward fact , not in the Church uh an outward fact— - you break down all authority except that of Conscience ; and upon the broad ground of Conscience

      although we may oppose tha claims of the Anglicans , we equally oppose the claims of the Calvinists . There is one sentence in the Duke ' s pamphlet which we read with pain . The opinion it expresse s is common enough , but we looked for higher vie ws , and sterner adherence to Truth from one so earnest and so bold . This it is : — " And here allow me say that it is onlyby pushing such principles to their last logical results that their truth and safety can be tested . They are not like political maxims which maybe consistently modified —in part allowed to guide and in part left to sleep . In respect to principles of religious truth , there can be no such dealing . "

      Here Compromise and half truth are openly avowed as admissible in Politics , though in Religion they justly seem dangerous ! It is , as we said , a common error , a deplorable error . Theologians , indeed , are in the habit of calling religious tru th " sacred truth , " until they learn to think it m ore sacred than other truth . But the Duke of Argyll will , we are persuaded , adm i t on reflection , that in no case is evasion of principles to be justifie d before Truth , and that whatever is " abstractedly " false , can never become " concretely" true . If " expediency" be admissible in Political affairs , wherefore is it inadmissible in Ecclesiastical affairs which are but the politics of the Church ?

      Untitled Article

      Pope , recalling the fate of the social favourite Gay , says or sings : — " Gay dies unpension'd , with a hundred friends !" Gay would be luckier now ; in the caprices of the Pension List , favouritism ha 3 ample sway ; otherwise , we might ask with astonishment , upon what principle the favoured objects are often selected J This week we learn , that Mr . J . Silk Buckingham and Colonel Torrens have each been awarded £ 200 per annum , in consideration of their

      services to literature . Far be it from us to grudge them this reward ; but we cannot help calling attention to the anomalous nature of the Pension List . While the most paltry sums are set apart for the reward of Literature , Science , and Art ( the nation is magnificent to Captains , Generals , Field Marshals , and all the heroes fighting under Captain Sword ) , it is not proper that these suras should be withheld from the most deserving and the most needing . Whatever may be the claims of Mr . Buckingham for literary services , it is clear that he stood in no pressing need of the pension , since he had just been pensioned by the East India Company ; and Colonel Tokrens , as a Colonel , cannot , we suppose , be in want . Of course no man , at least no literary man , is so rich as not to be glad of an extra £ 200 a year ; and were funds plentiful , we should make no comment on the present cases ; but when we think of the men in absolute need , men in failing health and waning years , men to whom the pension would not be an extra , but a necessity , we cannot forbear pointing out the impropriety of giving pensions to those who need them less .

      Untitled Article

      776 . 2 t ft t % t fl 51 V . [ Saturday ,

      Ilittnuttre.

      ilittnuttre .

      Untitled Article

      Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . The } ' dc not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them —Edinburgh Review .

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      Mr . ltusKiN has put forth his Prce-Rap haehtisrn ; but he writes " about and about" the subject , instead of giving an elaborate statement of the aims and claims of the New School . The Pamp hlet is w worth reading for the sake of several pages in it apropos to Art in general , and to Tuknick in particular ; but it will disappoint those who seek for criticism or defence of the P . K . B . ' h . Before lUi'iiM ^ bad dazzled the world , Painters went direct to Nature ; since the splendid achievements of ** " i'Haki , they have been Bervilc to certain technics " rulcH , " and have forgotten Nature in copying Art . That is the gist of what Mr . Ruhkin «» y 8 with great eloquence , and gr eat arrog an , «« usual ; and his manifesto turnu out to be , on whole , a world-old truism , dressed up with excellent advice . We nhall return to the Painp » next week .

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      The " MonkH of old " have much unconHCiouj villainy to answer for 1 They p iously ima ^'" icfl they were doing good service by effacing the g <> pf Greek and Roman Literature from l >» *

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 16, 1851, page 776, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1896/page/12/