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    of Theological History . "We understand , indeed , that whatever may be the decision of the Council , this judgment has not been made without calling forth an emphatic . protest from Church dignitaries infinitely hig %$$ i ^ ranjfc an 4 influence than Dr . Jelf ; amongst the ^ students there is the bitterest anger at the expulsion of so favourite a teacher ; and out of doors th § friends of the Church , who do not b elong to tjtiev" Low" party , deeply regret a manjfestatibQ . which implies that the Church must repel from itself the services of its most eminent divines .

    The effect produced by Lord Palmerstons letter , however , is both direct and collateral , and can scarcely be overrated . The Presbytery at Edinburgh , whose proceedings we mentioned last week , presumed upon the acquiescence of the Home Secretary ; because , whenever any established religious body professes to claim some observance , whether of humiliation or thanksgiving , in the most exalted of all names , the cant of conformity obliged official men to fall in and acquiesce ; or at least their own subserviency made them suppose themselves to be

    obliged . For some time amongst enlightened men , whose number is every day increasing , this conformity was regarded , at first with a sarcastic amusement , but more latterly "with vexation and contempt . It has been reserved for our own day to restore a more religious feeling to the higher classes of educated and scientific men , and this true sense of religion imparted a graver revulsion to the acquiescence in cant and superstition . The question was , How long shall the submission of better knowledge to ignorant bigotry go on ? Lord Palmerston has replied , No longer ! He has not only stopped a

    superstitious practice , but he has shown the relation , which practical science bears to a true religious view ; he has even shown- —for the conclusion is involved in his letter—that ; sect is no longer to be paramount in regulating the executive administration of the country . While the Churcli of England , through its Jeifishness , is rendering itself more sectarian , Lord PalmerBton is practically enunciating the doctrine that the administration of a State like England is not to be regulated by sect , but is to derive its spirit from a religion infinitely largor and higher than any sect in existence . This manifesto from the

    Homeoffice has given a courage to opinion , and made many men come forth and declare that for a long time they have thought so too—only they left bolder people to say it . Nor is it to be regarded as an impulse on the part of the ablest man in the Government . It would be quite possible , we believe , to trace in Lord Palmerston ' s own speeches , and in speeches of his

    colleagues , a continuity of thought which might be connected with the noblo speech delivered by Prince Albert at the meeting in the Mansionhouse , on the 21 st March , 1849 . This speech was delivered nine days before our own journal was in existence ; but the speech itself has boon no nine days' novelty ; it so thoroughly belongs to the doctrines which wo have laboured to

    extend , and to the religious and intellectual movements of the immediate woek , that we have reprinted tlio principal portion in another column . It has boon proposed to erect a statue to Prince Albert before tho time for hucIi monumental compliments . The statue should commemorate an entire man , and the entire man is not yet before history . But ^ whatever errors might bo regarded as a sot-ofl' before we Hum up the

    judgment on a fellow creature , erring like ourselves , nothing can unsay thono noble wor < ln . If the Lord Mayor wishes to immortalize his royal friend , he could not do it better than by having tliOHO great words printed in letters of gold , and placing them in the centre of tho metropolis as a text to mark the emancipation of religion from tho traininclH of weet for tlio Bolaco and benefit of mankind . Wo talk of tho dulness of these

    times , but really there is a progress going on which wo can n » little measure as wo can tho ground lhal we traverse in an express train . The strike which continues in Lancashire—tlio masters showing more obstinacy than tho menhas been carried to violence . ! and bloodshed . Wigan lias thus far been the principal hccho ol disorders . There waft a riot on Friday night last week , after a meeting of coal -own era , who had re-solved to make no eoncesnionn , and who were fruitloHaly purnucci by a large number of colJiern . failing to catch the " firm , " but flying coulownera , the rallying colliers attacked , first the

    Royal hotel , then the lamps of the town , and ultimately various unpopular shop fronts , which " suffered" severely . The gallant Mayor faced the rioters with a force of nine policemen ^ thus proved to- the copiers , experimentally , itjie utter lnpompetency of the local authorities to defend the teym . The . detachment of military from Preston secured the peace on the Saturday . On the Monday evening , however , a renewed attack was made upon , aj pairfgr of Welct colliers , secretly brought to supply the place of men who had turned out from the works of Lord Balcarres ,

    at . Haigh : the rioters were repulsed , with a loss of seven wounded ; and the military again secured the tranquillity of Haigh . But now the demand for soldiers began to exceed the supply . Wigan wanted more ; but Preston could not spare them , and Manchester had to furnish a detachment of dragoons . The strike continues ; patience on both sides is evidently failing ; and it is probable that re-inforcements will be required to cure the disaffection of the working classes . Queen Victoria has taken her uncle Leopold

    to see the gigantic palace and gardens which are making for the people at Sydenham ; and a body of United Irishmen , united by art and industry , have performed the final scene of the Dublin Exhibition , by giving a dinner to William Dargan . * T ? hese are the fetes of that private enterprise of which we boast so much , we Great Britons . Say what we like about patronage , it is a pleasant and a useful thing to find royalty setting the seal of its approbation on works calculated to lead the multitude from evil courses , and to cultivate their taste for the beautiful at

    the same time . Themeeting in Willis ' s Hooms , to set on foot the subscription for the Bellot testimonial , carried out the expectation : the room was crowded to excess ; the leading men were high in rank , social , official , and scientific ; the spirit was exactly such as might have been , expected . This is saying everything . While London , we might say England , meets to commemorate the name of Bellot , Lynn keeps festival on the return of its hero , Cresswell , from the perils of the Arctic Seas , in the presence of his father . Sir Edward Parry was there also to place the chaplet of his approbation on the brows of the young man ; ami while Norfolk can produce her Cresswells , as in the old time she produced her Nelson , England will not want for defenders on the seas .

    Scotland meets at Edinburgh , and in solemn form , and with due bitterness , claims her " rights " from us Southrons with proper Scottish emphasis . We get all the money , we manage Scbttish business , we paint and paper and gild , our palaces while Holyrood is open to sun and rain ; we give the Londoners Kensington Gardens , while the gardens at Holyrood are let to grow cabbage for the Edinburgh market ; we monopolize all the harbours of refuge , and , ab ove all , we insult the Scottish Lion ! A pretty long list of grievances . What can we say in answer to them P Wliat !

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    PRINCE ALBERT ' S SPEECH TO THE MAYORS IN 1849 . In March , 1849 , Prince Albert met the Mayors of many towns , and made unto them a speech on behalf of the Great Exhibition , then only a project . Some part of tho Npeech referred to tho special occasion ; but the greater portion referral to truths which bolong to all time , and are in striking unity with Lord PalmerHton ' a letter . That portion of the speoch wo now reprint . " 1 conceive it to bo tho duty of every educated person clooely to watch and study tho fciino in which ho liven , arid , fis Car as in him Hoh , to add Inn huuihlo raito of individual exertion to i ' urthen the accomplishment of what ho believcs Providence to havo ordained . Nobody , however , who haa paid any attention to tho particular features ot" present mm , will doubt for a moment that we aro living at a period of most wonderful transition , which tends rapidly to accomplish that great end , to which indeed all history points , the realization of tlio unity of mankind , —not n unity which brealcH down the limits , and levels the peculiar characteristics of tlio different nitt . ionH of tine earth , but rather a unity tlio rcHult and product of those very national varieties nnd antagonistic qualitjpM . The distances which Huparated tho different nations awl parts of tlio globe are gradually vanishing before the achievements of modern invention , and we can traverse them with incredible case ; the languages of all nations aro known , and their acquirement placed within the roach of everybody ; thought in communicated with the rapidity and even by the power of lightning . () u the otjior hand , the great principle of division of labour , which may be called the moving power of civilization , i « being extended to all branched of Hcienee , industry , and art . Whilst formerly tho greatest mental enorgioB otrovo at universal knowledge , andthat knowledge i

    was confined to | he few , now they are directed to ime ciaMeByand in tljese , again , even to the minutest points but the knovrled ^ e acquired becomes at once the pronertv of the cqawpypity at large ; whilst formerl y discoverv was wrapt m . Bepreey , the publicity of the present da ^ causes that no SLPoner' is a discovery or invention made than it | isr ah-eady unproved upon and surpassed by com pefcinff eiforta ; The . products of all quarters of the > lob « are placed at . ovp ? disposal , and we have only to cho wliich is , the h $ rt and cheapest for our purposes ¦ an ! the , papers of titod ^ ction . are * entrusted to the stimulus ^ cojnjjetition and csap ^ tal . Sol man is approaching a more complete fujfibnenfc of that great and sacred mission which he to erform in this worldhis

    Has p : reason being created after the image of God , he has to use it to discover the laws by which the Almighty governs his creation and by making those laws his standard of action , to con ' quer nature to his use—himself a Divine instrument " Science discovers these laws of power , motion and transformation . Industry applies them to the raw matter which the earth yields us in abundance / but which becomes valuable only by knowledge . Art teaches us the immutable laws of beauty and symmetry , and gives . to our pro ! ductions forms in accordance to them . Gentlemen the Exhibition of 1851 is to give us a true test and a livmopicture of the point of development at which the whole of mankind has arrived in this great task , and a new starting point from which all nations will be able to direct their further exertions . '

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    DR . PLAYFAIR AT SHEFFIELD . Sheffield has an independent spirit , and we are not at all surprised to hear that the People ' s College is in a flourishing , self-supporting state , nor that ' ¦ ? the men of Hallamshire" invited Dr . Lyon Playfair to preside over their anniversary meeting , and make a speech to them . The People ' s College has educated , more or less , 2500 persons—men and women—in five years . It has refused help from the rich , and has existed by its own vitality . Dr . Playfair delivered an admirable address , showing the increasing value of intellectual cultivation , and the decreasing value of hand-labour and the raw materialdescribing how much better it would be both for industry and science , if industry remembered that science was her best friend , and made more provision for the learned class by whom manufacturers profit , instead of squeezing all the good possible out of the men of science , and then letting them starve ; inculcating a noble motive , —that of cultivating science for its own sake , —and speaking with all the weight of his own experience of the joys of scientific study , and the increase of dignity and self-respect which it entails . Here is a specimen of his oration : —

    " There are two classes of objectors to the diffusion of this higher class of instruction among the artisans of tliis country . The first class object that it' the artisans be educated in science , they will soar above their position , and neglect manual labour . Admitting that this is the tendency of auch education , an adjustment on the principle of supply and demand would soon be effected , for unless they found a demand for their intellectual , instead of their manual labour , the disposition could not be gratih ' ed . The sumo fear was expressed when the Koyal N aval School at Greenwich began to educate sailors . Those who feared that au insubordinate spirit would arise with education , kept it at a low ebb , and a miserable amount of reading

    and writing , with the additional variety of being attached to the wliipping-post , waa thought to bo the orthodox education for the true British seaman . But singularly enough , tho Greenwich boy , in spite of this seventy and ignorance , became a bad and insubordinate man , and captains of ships were thoroughly dissatisfied with tho Greenwich contributions to their vessels A bold chango was then introduced , and tho boys gathered up from tho sweepings of Wnpping and Portsmouth were treated with kindnoBs , and viewed as fit subjects for intellectual training . They were now actuall y taught mathematics , chemistry , mechanicsand navigation , in addition to thin elementary

    , instruction . Tho latter did not suffer , but was much improved by tho opening out of the faculties by tho sciences ; and nt the name time reading , writing , and geography wero learned more eflicieiitly . JSlay , more , the boys . were taug ht , iw if tluty were to be captains , to take latitudes and JongitudeH , and to navigato ships ; and at fifteen they wore drafted , n » of old , into t ) io navy and into merchant vckhcIh . ! Did this high education unfit them for their position as ordinary Hc . unen P On tho contrary , they wore- much more fit . There were far fower dcHortione than formerly , ana scarcely any records of bod behaviour ; and the captain " , who' declined their services before , now ungorly demaiui

    them . It is true thoyriHO in life , and from common seamen become warrant oflicors , or even mates and masters <» whips . But this is justaa it ahouldbo , and in a logical ) roHiu * of their iucreuHod knowledge Depend upon it . that Kno - ledge will never unfit a man to be a citizen of the won . Ignorance will lead a man oatray . and nu tho father ol wu notioiiH , will give birth to an enemy to social progress , true knowledge can only produce loyalty , P' ^™ ™"' " * of order , and love of duly . The Bccond ohmi ol W'J ^ 'J who are now rare indeed , dislike tho boioiiIjIkj inH . lru ^ , i of our population , because they fear that it » apt i *> » «\ man HcopticaU to tho tvutha of religion . In regurd Ml * objectoiH , I havo neither Nympathy with their <«/»"•" . inclination to , irguo the point with them . Tho «> 1 >» » ' fact , resolves itself into an apprehension tjiat o «<¦ " 3 Uod ' n wiHdom iH likely to Hubyort Uod hi truth- it » , fact , to think that tho «> ntomplat » on ol < h « m <"" ™? : , » . miiw io --

    power < u ™™ .. «^ 'y * linlvM m liut if you aro still told liiat tfic » Ludyol Ood « V ^ d lisplayed in creation its likely t <» < lop « owlo W" Itciov venerat , i , ) , i for the Cr # » r of all things , refer tl « objcc " to that inapired Word which & *»» you « worrimty lor

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    1058 - ^¦— ; - : T H E ^ E E AtM : V - [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 5, 1853, page 1058, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2011/page/2/