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Leader (1850-1860), 31st January 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 106, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      understood by those that looked mto it ; and to revert to that enduring law is progress , bocial reforiners have restored the spirit of generosity and regard for others to the laws of industry—ang no human institution can live without that spirit . J ¥ ade Is decaying * because it tried to do without . And when I see an immense organized class of practical working men assembled , and welcoming as fellow labourers in a common cause the known Social Reformers like John Minter Morgan , whose graceful pen worked in the cause before some of us were born—like Vansittart Neale , who has pledged & fortune to the cause— -like Goderich , who abandons aristocratic ease to master a great social question

      in its practical details—like Henry Travis , the disciple of Robert Owen—when I see a combination like that , I know that we are sending this spirit into the very body of English industry . And observe , we are not going back to the homely methods of the good old times of barbarous industry : no , we are restoring the right spirit , ever young , to a new body . The cooperative workshops , established through the union of the Social Reformers and the working engineers , will turn out models of the best engines—are beginningto do so . We are proving that the spirit of Jesus is not incompatible with the perfect trade of England , nor either with the real liberty of the human beings engaged . Do you not call that progress ?

      The spirit of Jesus * I say—for most devoutly do I wish that the spirit inculcated by that divine heretic against the established faith of his day , the truly Catholic faith which he restored to religion , could be introduced into our daily life and work . How can men goto church , and believe , and yet act as" they do out of church ? To those who are not of the Christian sect in the eternal and universal

      church is it left to call Christians to their <« aith There is indeed a Charles Kingsley in the Church , but he is called heterodox—not , observe , because he shares opinions like all of those which we uphold , for he expressly repudiates them j but precisely because he insists on fulfilling the precepts of Jesus in the letter and in the spirit , as real precepts , to be obeyed , and not as forms to be satisfied by a quitrent of empty observance .

      And yet , exclaim certain friends , you uphold the Church ? I do . I subscribe to every line traced by a brother pen in the paper on " The Church in Distress , " in our last number but one . How can I refuse support to the Church , when I claim absolute freedom for opinion—when I insist that men should act upon their opinions—and when I account it the bitterest reproach and shame of our day that men flinch from their own conclusions , and hold opinions as honorary intellectual distinctions not to be-substantiated ! If men think Church , let them

      act Church j and as a number of men , honest , earnest , learned , and gifted , exist and are a Church —as a Church is but one organized effort towards the truth which becomes manifest to us , with renewed blessings , precisely in proportion to our sincere efforts—in God ' s name , say I , give to every Church full and free action to do its best , and let us see what it can do . Which of us shall say " I am the truth , " " I have got further on towards the truth ? " Not I , for one . I strive for truth , according to my faculties , and get as far towards it

      as I can ; but I will not say that I am further than any other . I only say that I am nearer to it , wherever I may be , than the man who acknowledges any final arbiter but God himself . But there is arising a Catholic assent to leave that appeal as it should be left—a Catholic spirit which is one among men of us who are most diverse in our special opinions—a spirit which I believe to be one in such men as George Anthony Denison , Charles Kingsley , Robert Vaughan , Edmund Larken , Thomas Wilson , Joseph Brown , George Dawson , and many others , not less separated in special tenets ; and such spirit can only be brought out by the freest development of faith and intelligence in every form .

      It is thus through absolute freedom-, of thought , with its companion , trusting sincerity , that we get , through variety , , to unity . Is not that progress f I believe that there is but one God ; that it is ours to stud y his laws in the dictates of sincere conscience and instinct , and in his own works ; and that he serves God best who does his best to carry out yet further the laws of Godj and I believe that the eternal truth might always have been expressedhas always been expressed in Buch terms- -though often in terms better framed . But observe , it is not because we revert to eternal truth that we forego the results of modern science , such as it is 5 on the contrary , the day is breathing into

      laborious science the courage andl zeal of a diviner faith . Is not that progress ? Do I forswear Peace , because I have been forward to raise the cry "To arms ! " ? No ; but I forswear a peace which grows corrupt in sluggishness , which inflicts upon us evils worse tbaawar , and cannot even defend , its . el f * Peace , which is breathing time for Art , security for industry , holiday time for affection—let us earn it , and keep it as long as We can . But I note that we are born with animal energies , impelling us to conquest ; note that , when we are too long sunk in repose , those animal energies "become perverted or stifled . However it may be possible to train our nature to eedul

      a state in which contention shall not be n fto our healthy development , we have not yet achieved that training , nor even established its possibility . Meanwhile the vices of Peace , which history has so often displayed , are again amongst us , corrupting the very sources of life , and , what is worse , the very heart of society . A spirit of chivalry is incompatible with that spirit of meanness which is the bane of our day—a meanness creeping even over the class that has a right to bear , as if ija mockery of its own degeneracy , the heraldic symbols of departed chivalry 1 Meanness is making trade itself commit suicide . Meanness is teaching that callous philosophy which has made men think it wise to let their fellow creatures want ,

      pine , and perish , under the assumed laws of the youngest and most imperfect of the sciences" political oeconomy . " Yes , your advocates of Peace , who shudder at the thought of setting men to fight , do not blush to let their fellow creatures starve unaided ; nay , wiil push competition to the point of destruction ; and when their fellow perishes , talk about the " Board of Nature * ' having ho place for him—as if the Board of Nature were a Board of

      Poor-Law Commissioners ! Peace , that murders our ^ ellow creatures under trading competition , and even : rebukes the hand of help ; Peace , that plays the part of a destructive devil among the flower of out youth , in physical inaction , in vice , and in empirical medicine ; Peace , that permits the whole force of a great nation to be handed over to a standing army—that delegates the manliness of a race to an official manliness ; that mean suicidal Peace I hate and abhor . They tell me that he who dwells among an armed population occasionally sees the arms used in a hasty brawl : what then ? Is that country so

      Unconditioned which occasionally sees a splash of red upon its ground as that which turns pale at the sight ? Is that country most truly endowed' with life which prefers liberty to life , or that which will rather be a little " put upon" than run a risque ? A " South Saxon , " whom I take to be the ohief of these peaceful ceconomists , is trying to persuade the Times to hush up the outburst of manly cheerful defiance to which the sense of danger has reawakened our countrymen ; but the Times , with all its faults , is still too " English " for that . We English have become suddenly but fully awake to

      the fact that the Peace is not going to last much longer ; that England must not find herself at the mercy of any horde of rascals who may choose to make arazzia in our fields , houses , and most tempting banks ; that the exercise of preparation for war is in itself a manly , health-breeding exercise ; that the spirit which pervades it is better than the mere money-grubbing , pauper-hunting , brother-disowning spirit ; the Stock Exchange itself is getting ready its rifles ; Tories and Chartists are uniting to forget bickerings in the one national sentiment ; and really the People of England seems to have roused itself to a consciousness that its men are men ! Is

      not that progress ? And observe , we are not going back to the barbarous days when barons sat in castles and robbed passengers , and kings made war upon neighbouring states ; on the contrary , we are learning that the nation must defend itself ; also , that nations are seldom each other ' s enemies ; but that , come war when it may , the English people , if it seeks , may always find allies in the People of every civilized country ,, whether of America or Austria itself ; for Downing-street is not England , nor Vienna the People of Hungary , Italy , and Germany . Is not that progress ? . ¦ Thornton , Hunt .

      Untitled Article

      RISING JPIUOH OF OORN—A ritOBLEM . While the ! Protectionlsts are muttering between their teeth of a five shilling fixed duty on corn , or worse , moat inopportunely for them the price of corn ia rising—rising even at this usually flat reason of tho year I And it is rising in all the markets of the Continent ; so that we must ; rely on Egypt and America . But Egypt has already ceased soiling ; and it is very doubtful , say Messrs , S . H .

      Lucas and Sons , in their trade circular , "ifAmerica has enough surplus to supply the requirements of this country , and the Continent . " Protection will propose , itg panacea , therefore , at an awkward time . Yet free-trade doea not suffice . It is now found that " unless additional capital , or its equivalent , namely additional credit , is < used . to produce the surplus groiwth of other countries , that surplus will not find its way to our markets . " In other words , " supply and demand " will not do , unless special means be taken to direct the application of capital for the good of the community . In

      default , mere traders encounter failure and bankruptcy . Their means do not suffice to cover the fluctuations of the corn trade , which sometimes overwhelm them with excessive stock , as in 1849 , ' 50 , and' 51 . "The losses sustained precede instead of following high prices" — -a striking and instructive fact , showing that present speculation would be perfectly safe . The thing with which the dealer cannot contend is excessive and protracted prosperity—his means not being vast enough to hold out until scarcity repays him -with compacter dealings and higher prices for vast purchases at a scanty profit . Protection does not meet this case ; neither does free trade .

      Untitled Article

      We think we can solve this enigma . Our contemporary , by an illusion which all readers of Punch will allow to be , natural , has mistaken the morning visit of a domesticated Hebrew for the flying visit of a foreign Dictator . It is possible that he may have been disguised—as a Christian : it is certain that his business was of a private nature , and bur contemporary should have kept it " as such . " " What that business was , " we are able to say . It was " Gle Clo ! Qle Clo!—or was it indeed Louis Bonaparte in the disguise of his uncle , crying for sale the de"froque of tho Empire ?

      IOU 1 S BONAPABTE 1 ST LONDON . A cONTEMPOBA ^ tY not usually given to levity , except by mistake , but who " had ought" to know better , recently contained an enticing bit of exclusive intelligence . Here it is ! A specimen of the contrivance by which an t > ld stager sometimes tries to deviate into News 1—" Louis Napoleon was in London , on a flying visit , on Monday last . We have good authority for stating the fact , incredible as it may appear . He came in disguise ; his business being of a strictly private nature . What that business was , we are of course unable to Bay . "

      Untitled Article

      AGRICULTURAL EXAMPLE TO MANOTACTUIUNG SLOWNESS . . The wise men of the factory look down upon the agricultural districts for antiquated notions , but not always with reason . The Registrar-General—that able "flapper " to our official Laputans—records two examples in the Newcastle district of cases in which the public health has been improved by improved drainage : at North Collingham drainage has abolished epidemics that used to be common ; at North Clifton the influence of " an intelligent farmer " has in like manner banished fevers , and endowed the district with comfort . In Cheshire and Lancashire the mortality is high—the habits and habitations are bad and crowded . Compare the deaths in Lancashire with those in the West Midland divisionneither of them very light in the mortality : — Population . Deaths . Lancashire 2 , 065 , 913 .. 54 , 938 W . M . Division ..... 2 , 132 , 853 .. 49 , 238 Excess of deaths , in Lancashire , with the smaller - population .. 5 , 700 ! " Agriculturists understand , better perhaps than any other class , the effect of external circumstances , not only on breeds of cattle but on races of men ; and it is gratifying to see measures for the improvement of the dwellings and dwelling-places of the people so ardently taken up , not only by the great and enlightened landowners of the country , but by men like this ' intelligent farmer , ' who has delivered North Clifton from low fever , and from the epidemics which were once » o

      common " The excess of sickness and death in Lancashire w constanft-in infancy , in adult age , and in both sexes . Yet the land of a great part of the county is high and salubrious , and the occupation of the people has nothing in it essentially injurious . What , then , is wanting ? Apparently only this one thing : that the leading men of Lancashire , animated by goodwill , should app ly that skill and vigour whioh have been so successful in the use of machinery and the production of clothing for mankind , to tho amelioration , of-the social condition of the two millions of Englishmen around them . "

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      SOCIAL JtEFORM . " notes of a social ceconomist . " THK COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONS OF ENGLANPXIV . " Every man has a right to be in the country whef e . ! ' ^ was born . But , if one landlord have a right to drive all tne people from his estate , every other landlord has the B&me right j and , as all would have the flume right — the nrni driver , all the people except the landlords mig »» ' ° driven into the sea . '—William Coiibbtt . The organs of the feudal aristocracy still clamour for protection to native industry ; but there "

      Untitled Article

      io 6 < ft y- fc » affi y . , . . . V tMfopA * , ;

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 31, 1852, page 106, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1920/page/14/