On this page

• Text (3)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    not sufficiently " practical" for the daily work of life , and in point of fact stand aloof from it , public opinion criticises rather than directs the conduct of affairs . More within the business circle we find that class of public opinion which is sometimes designated by the word " Manchester , " sometimes by the . word " Utilitarian , " and sometimes in a more partial form , by the " Peace Party . " Perhaps that form of opinion would pronounce itself to he the most perfect type of practical English intellect ; and jet we see , at this moment ! that it is , to a considerable extent , set aside in the management of the country .

    There is another country in which public opinion , public administration , and public force , all accord . Franldin Pierce has been appointed to the Presidency of the United States , by an election as nearly like unanimity as any very great number of men could attain . His election is so decisively a national act , that the party which opposed him was broken to pieces in that last effort ; and , as we said last week , the party of the majority is merged in the party of the nation . Franklin Pierce essentially belongs to the more cultivated class of intellect in that

    country ; for he sympathises with young America , the party that comprises a very large proportion of the most active intellects of the States . His elevation to the Presidency is the result very much of a general movement in favour of enlarging the Republic , both in its territories and in its influence . The Republic that thus appoints him possesses one of the least numerous and least expensive armies in the world ; but at the same time it has been careful to provide the means

    of furnishing a highly scientific nucleus of an army , aud as to the numbers , the manhood of the Republic is its own army . Public opinion , public liking , and public force , are thus all at o . ne in the great Republic of the West . We find , therefore , that the most perfect form for organizing the physical force of a country is possible with the greatest amount of freedom , and also with the greatest application of public opinion to the conduct of public affairs . In the great Republic of the West we find a state which can briny to

    bear the largest amount of human sympathy , the largest amount of available public opinion within it , and the largest amount of physical force in proportion to its population which any state in the world can furnish . There is consequently no state in the world which is at this moment so capable of maintaining its position among the nations , Iry the force of its own inherent conviction , of its national action , and of its organized strength .

    There is still in JUiropc one power of which we have taken no account , because at the present moment it does not stand forth , and is not recognised—it is the power of destruction . We do not know to what extent the revolutionary government of Itlurone lia . s been damaged by the adverse skirmish at Milan , but we do know . thnt the numbers of all the peoples in . lOurope greatly exceed the number . ! of all the standiny armies on the

    n ; uno ground . We do know that long-standing tyranny of { . he government , that insolence of . soldiery , ( hat ( he immunities of privileged classes , will at last provoke ( he most abject people in the world . The continuance of Austrian rule , therefore , as cerl . ainly lends lo a . servile revolt as the continued fall of writer will excavate ; the atone . Hut , a . people may be tso oppressed as to retain within itself no power of subsl ilut ing an ordinary rule for the one which it violently casts oil " , an example of which we had in the first great , I'Yench revolution . At that ( hue the people could destroy , but , they could noi , replace . Perhaps Austria is reducing . some of the provinces under her command to 1 , 1 in same condition ; and the longer , the more ; extensive , the more stringent the rule of Absolutism in Kurope , the nioro purely destructive will be the popular power w hen ' it bursts forth . A I . present . 1 , 1 ml , anlagouisLic power . might be used as a force , both lo displace despotic ; rules and lo replace ! constitutional rule ; and there is no practical reason why thai , process should no ! , be ediclod . The most educated classes in Ktirope , lho . se which have most busied themselves with developing public opinion , . have divorced themselves from all connexion with tho physical force , which really , us we see in practice , rules these stales . The particular stiite which moid , represents hit'' | ligent opinion in ICuropc , has proportionntely divorced itself from practice in . military polity " . In deference to influential sects of our own citizens , LJiorulingclnpsoB of

    England have neglected that branch of practical government ; and the consequence is , that when the crisis of ^ Europe approaches , in which the result will be determined by the balance of physical efficiency , England is unprepared with her proper share of resources in that respect . Thus , it happens that the country which best represents public opinion in Europe , is unable to exercise her proper influence on behalf of constitutional order , on behalf of freedom of science or of religion—on behalf of public opinion , and of peace itself .

    Untitled Article

    THE CRATERS OF SOCIETY . It should be remembered that all misdeeds do not come before the courts of criminal justice . " Murder" will out , it is said , although the murder of Eliza Grim wood , or of Westwood , has never been discovered ; but there are many conventional infractions of the law that by their nature do not come under the cognisance of the tribunals save in comparatively rare instances , and then the detection is less a certain visitation of justice than a casual discovery of a thing for the most part hidden .

    The trials for infanticide that have been brought to recollection by the spring assizes do not in any degree enable us to say that whosoever attempts ^ l ! o avoid detection of concealed indulgence by disposing of its fruits , shall be chastised , but rather enable us to see , in the casual breaking of the surface , the crime which is raging beneath . Thus , again , such cases as that of the Jones divorce are exceptional , in the flagrant and shameless conduct of the woman ; but at the same time the evidence in such cases invariably discloses a number of participants , a degree of sufferance on

    the part of those who observe , and a sort of prurient curiosity even in those who object , which indicate a state of society and of moral feeling very different from those which people agree to regard as the real state and feeling . Women who get outrageously intoxicated , and who court a shameless publicity known only to the lower animals , are comparatively rare , although , there are scenes in many a haunt of the uneducated classes which would outrival anything disclosed in trial or in fiction ; but those , even of the respectable classes , who witness such irregularities and are not astonished , are not so very

    uncommon . Two other cases before the public are of a peculiarly painful kind . In that of Adcock versus Russell , there is an extraordinary promptitude to believe calumnious reports against a bridegroom elect , a wonderful publicity of discussion respecting his qualifications for the conjugal relation , an astounding perseverance in holding him to his bond after ho hadbeensubjected to the mosthumiliating scrutiny , that make it diflicult to understand the sort , of moral feeling or refinement that can prevail amongst the members of the circle to which he was to be admitted . Yet they were highly respectable , and we are not at all to presume

    that the feeling was exceptional ; only tho occasion that drew the feeling into view was peculiar . In the case of Delafosse versus Fortescue , we have on tho one side , on o'ath , an elaborate tale of amours between a young governess and an elderly gentleman , remarkable only for the excessive publicity which scanned the tendercst feelings of the lovers ; and on the other side a point blank denial on oath . Perjury and meddlesome calumiiy , or disregard of present law and perjury , cither one is necessarily the conclusion to which tho reader comes from the evidence Y " et who can gainsay the " respectability" of tho parties ? lint a more serious disclosure comes before the

    public in the story told at the Lambeth police court , that there is a certain house over " Waterloo-bridge to which ladies resort for temporary lodging , and where they are always attended by the same medical gentleman , and always with tho namo result—the birth of a still-born child . Thin hind of offence against Cod and nature , as well as against statute and common law , is precisely one of Uk ; kinds most dillicult of detection , and therefore detection must bo very rare as

    compared with the instances of the o /[ cn <; o ; yo < Mic practice ; at which the evidence , points is suspected with great probability in all groat towns , and truly it is sometimes found out . Truth in stranger than fiction , and our own columns illustrate the proverb ; flic unintended disclosures of . society itself excel Lho . se of l , he " Vagabond , " whose experience docs not seem to jienoLrale to tho darkest places of which society in conscious in itself .

    Untitled Article

    THE FRIENDS OF CHRISTIANITY . It is most unfortunate that those who call themselves the special friends of Christianity always do discredit to their protege . This self-appointed guardianship is seldom happy . The " farmers ' friend" taugnt him to rely upon " Protection ;" and it was not until Free-trade , the " enemy , " had kicked down that machinery to check production , that the farmer discovered how much better a plan it would be to scourge his fields rather than his labourers , and to imitate the mechanical improvements of the manufacturer . (

    It was " the friend of the negro" who converted the West Indies into " an example to be avoided" in the way of emancipation . It is the friend of the poor man who preaches to him tobe content with his lot—to put his trust in tracts , and not to keep his powder dry , but to give it up altogether . But it is Christianity that has suffered most from its friends . In the late discussion between Mr . Holyoale and Mr . Brewin Grant , it was the " infidel" who exhibited the Christian virtues of meekness ,

    charitableness , and common sense : the friend of Christianity was its bully , who supported its truths with personal attacks on opponents . When the working man desires " a better observance of the Sabbath" than that which is to be performed in a working man ' s close home , or in the public house , —his ordinary refuge from , domestic discomfort , the friend of Christianity steps forward to forbid him . The working man desires to visit a great collection of specimens of God ' s works and man's—to see what nature and art have done to make the world beautiful .

    Civilization indeed , which presents itself to him in the shape of endless toil , bad drainage , corrupt building , dear food , and stifled life , shuts him off from nature , and does not admit him to its human companion , art ; even if he had access to the wild elements of nature , his in-door life and enervated frame would unfit him in great part to enjoy the opportunity at all times : his wearied legs flag on the hill side , and he " takes cold" if the breath of heaven comes upon him in . its pure stream . But in the Crystal Palace , Nature was caught and caged for his solace :

    the truths of the mountain and the valley were to be companioned with the truths of the easel and the chisel ; and in lieu of spending his sacred day , or its brightest part , in . an atmosphere of bad tobacco and worse beer , lie was to linger amid the thoughts of the great in all ages . We are for better observance of the Sabbath ; and in a right state of society we can dream of a day set apart to contemplate in grateful peace the beneficent wisdom which orders the universe .

    But that is not a Sabbath of tedious conformity for luxurious crowds at one end of a city , and of bar-parlours at the other . The working man desires to bring his leisure , scanty though it be , as near to divine thoughts as he can : but the " friend of Christianity" tells him that religious truth and that happy devotion of a day are incompatible ; more so , of course , than tho present and actual observance of tho Sabbath , or the

    " friend" would not object to the change . I ruth , they say , lies at the bottom of a well ; but from the practical conduct of tho friend , it would appear that Religious truth lies at the bottom of a vat , to be discovered by him that drinks until he reaches it . Orthodoxy and tho contemplation of science , or of pictured and sculptured beauty , or of the blossoming truth strai g ht from tho hand of the Creator in our lovely fellow-creatures of tho vegetable kingdom , aro incompatible ; more so than orthodoxy and cocculus indicus . Servico and sermon from eleven till one ; pint and pipo to follow—thosci are the established faith .

    Christianity , says its friend , which can survive the barparlour , abhors the , Crystal Palace . Christianity is equally obliged to its rival " protectors" in the . rGast . Three Kings are there coining to pay fealty to it , in presence of tho dismayed Turk , and they are worth observing . One , memorable for . slaughtering Ilio fellow-countrymen whom he Hvvore to protect , and did surpriso at midnight , in tho hereditary " Protector oi tho

    Holy I'laces" —( hose apocryphal antimiitics in Syria which aro ignoranlly assigned jib the scenes of sacred events in Christian history . The friend of Christianity in this region conceives it to be a boon to his protege if ho trws- ^ - for lie cannot succeed - to protect the miserable monks who drag on a , wretched existence ia prison-fortress monasteries , and keep up a , Bale of relics and miracles for tho benefit of travellers . Jlis rival

    Untitled Article

    298 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 26, 1853, page 298, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1979/page/10/