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Leader (1850-1860), 26th August 1854, Edition Town of 2, Page 803, Untitled Article

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    • WARMING-PAN-THEISM

      WARMING-PAN-THEISM

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      some particularity the theory of education from such a source . Cardinal "Wiseman laments that our agricultural population have not the same benefit of "all the great discoveries and improvements of modern times as the mechanics living in great cities , who have access to reading-rooms , libraries , and lectures . " He lias a natural sympathy for that wholly unlettered class of the population " dispersed over the valleys and uplands , " and "in sequestered nooks , " in whom we find the

      Roman Catholic church so warmly interested throughout the continent . Ah ! it is precisely this class of the population who make the best Catholics under proper auspices , and whose pious ignorance is a "bulwark of the church in an unbelieving age . "We can easily believe that the Cardinal would be glad to take the peasantry in hand , and to educate them ' tip to the mark . ' When his Eminence turns to compare our education of the poor with that in Prance , Ms allusion to

      the system of hawking or colportage is peculiarly- infelicitous just now .. The whole system of coljiortageT is at this moment under reconsideration in Prance , arid ' all moderate find , rationallovers of liberty in that country are opposed to the organisation which the Cardinal _ suggests . If , therefore , the Cardinal desires to speak in England as an

      advocate of education and not as a Cardinal , he would do well to change his mind or his words ., and to abstain from recommending a plan condemned after experience by all but those who desire to arrest the curreaii of opinion , and to monopolise the inind of the people . The Cardinal laments that the 8 , 000 , 000 or G , OOOjOOO volumes annually hawked about in the rural districts of France

      contamed a vast proportion of books ^ filled with supei'stitions , and t 7 ie exploded fallacies of astrology were still preserved in them as scientific truths . '' How touching and sincere is this disgust at " superstitions and exploded fallacies , " this championship of scientific truths in so eminent a director of the College of the Propaganda and of the Congregation of the Index ! " What will his Grace the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin , Dr . Cullen , who was wont to teach thab the

      Ptolemaic s ystem was , if not true , at ; least not disproved , say to this new defender of the Copernican system ? Credo qida impossibile is , it seems , not inconsistent with a horror of superstition and of " exploded fallacies . " In November , ' 52 , when the system of government now flourishing in Prance and so wortliy of all imitation began to bo tolerably established , it was resolved by tho French

      Goto suggest a parliamentary committee to " inquire into the literature of the poor , examining , analysing , and classifying the works produced . " A parliamentary committee is the only practicable substitute His Eminence reminds us , with an air of sincere regret , our imperfect institutions canfiiidfor the more " summary process adopted in France . " " We really must take the liberty to ' assure His Eminence that we don't want any " summary process , " or any Parliamentary inquiry at all on the subject . He mistakes his latitude altogether when he proposes a censorship by way of

      promoting education . If he would deign to be a little more attentive to contemporary politics in England he would be led to observe that the days of all restrictions upon the activity of the Printing Press are numbered : the last taxes are doomed to early extinction , and men of all parties are persuaded that with the healthy competition of absolute freedom , the npsjLous and foolish literature , of whose ' slow poison' he complains * 'will find in the public conscience the severest censorship . What the < noxious and foolish " may include , according to the Cardinal , we are at no loss to conceive : at Borne

      we know ; three-fourths of the books we ; are accustomed to revere and to cherish in this benighted country , from the Bifcle down ' wards , are ofiicially condemned . There is an odour of ecclesiasticism and a theory of governmental organisation about these suggestions especially repugnant to the

      genius of English liberty , and we must not pei'mit the Cardinal to suppose thait we have failed to detect , under the cloak of liberality and moderation , an insidious and pernicious attack upon that absolute liberty ¦ ¦ : of '' unlicensed printing , " which a true Christian and patriot , by name Jo its" J \ Iilt on , taught Ha countrymen to conquer and to defend .

      vernment to weed this mass of " noxious and foolish" literature , which had " infected every cottage in Prance" for 300 years . A commission was appointed , consisting of n notorious official editor , who had sold his pen to « 11 parties and opinions , and of three or four insignificant litterateurs . Out of 7500 works submitted to their scrutiny , throefouvths were refused permission to bo put in circulation . But tho withdrawal of these

      works occasioned a void which must he filled . How ? By tho Governmont starting as author , publisher , and hawker on its own account . . Now this Bohemo , not yot carried into effect , ia universally repudiated by all independent opinions in Franco . In the first place , it ia subversive ) of tho liberty of commerce ; it annihilates

      tho book trado ; it creates an onormoua contraband market ; it is economically absur d and politically false . Already the stump has boon found practically power-Joss , and this proposition of credit moral et mtclleotucl is likely to remain au unintelligible formula , invented by a political charlatan uuder tho inspiration of tho priests . . Nevertheless , the Cardinal 1 ms tho sagacity

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      EMIGRATION—THE MEA-KS OF GOINGLike many other things emigration is good when it is voluntary , bad when , it is involuntary . Tho involuntary emigrant ia mischievous aliko to himself and to the country which ho joins . Tho working man who is exiled because ho is poor , is punished for the crimo of poverty ; tho convict who is exiled becauso he is criminal , punishes tho colony for tho crimes of tho mother-country . Both kinds of emigration , it is to be hoped , aro

      discontinued for ovor . Wo wholly discountenance organised attempts to force emigration upon tho working chissOfl becntiso thoir trade has decayed , or because thoir wages are falling and they aro an ineuinl > mnco upon , tho business to Avhich they have belonged . It manufacturer * introduco improvements that throw Uanda out ; of work , they ought , na tho Stato iIocsh , to compensate existing interests . There ia no legal compulsion upon them to do so : but tho moral claim is evident .

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      to forbode destruction , we might reasonably expect that they would take these evils ia hand of their own accord , before the roused strength of the people settled the mattec for them : even those who acquiesce blindly , and take things indolently as they are , vrould be startled if they were , told that their altars are supported upon a system of black mail—differing from the maintenance provided for the medicine-men of the Indians only in the violence -with which , the contributions are levied . 33 ut the truth is , that three-fourths of Churchmen are ignorant of

      these facts , and the remainder quietly salve over their consciences by saying that it is the law that vicars must be supported , ani by the use of other arguments equally conclusive . Some , indeed , go so far- < as ' . to assert , that because vicara of parishes do a great amount of general good , benefiting all sects alike , therefore these levies are legal ; but nothing can be more illogieal than , this assertion ^—first , because the claim is made upon no such pretence ; ancl secondly , because if it were , the . serviceSj Being unsought , should in their nature be gratuitous .

      We cannot say that we ^ adoatre the manner in which these martyred . Quakers resist the claim ; we think that a systematic agitation , against the evil would be more respectable and more efficacious ; moreover ; , it seems likely that the dragging of hams and warming-pans into the ¦ dispute , may have the effect of covering Doth sides with ridicule ,. The vicar , having got possession of the hams and pans , will > of course , be callous to this ; but the cause for which these gentlemeia are fighting cannot afford to be treated otherwise than seriously ...

      We have heard that in maiiy instances ( possibly in . ¦¦ this ) vicars are in the habit of farming out these dues , thus delegating to others the odium of levying them . This only adds a deeper dye to the transaction ; for it proves that the delinquents are fully sensible of the . shame , and seek to rid themselves pf it by shifting it upon . , other shoulders . This will not do ; qitifacii per alium facit per se is a principle both of law and of reason , and we can by no means acquit the vicar because he robs the larders by proxy .

      WARMING-PAN-THEISM . TJ 3 TDEE , the significant heading Seizures for Easter Dues , the Preston Guardian furnishes the following item of ecclesiastical intelligence : — " Oh Monday last , Police-constable Breakell , Sergeant Walmsley , and Police-constable Dunderdale visited several houses and shops in Preston , belonging to members of the Society of 3 Triends , and made seizures at each for the payment of ' Easter offerings , oblations , suid obventions , ' due by the owners to the Rev . J . O , Parr , vicar of Preston . The sums originally charged in payment of the due varied from 6 |< l . to 8 3 d ., but with costs in addition , amounted to 15 s ., to cover which sum , goods were seized as

      follows : —From "W . Clemcshea , Avenham-road , two hams ; from Isaac Fearon , Bank Parade , a sugar loaf nnd a ham ; from Michael Satterthvaite , Bank Parade , two hauis ; from Joseph Jesper , Bank Parade , a copper kettle and a warming-pan ; from Da-vid Wilcoekson , Friargate , a canister of tea ; from It . Benson , jun ., Bushell-place , three brass pans , and from M . Graham , Friargnte , two sugar loaves . In some cases tlic value of tho property thus seized amounted to nearly \ l . 109 ., to cover a claim originally made —> uppn what grounds it ia difficult to say —for 8 i

      Surely now , the bitterest and most determined contoninor of the Establishment could devise no severer stricture upon its system than is contained in these simple matters-ofl ' act . Hero aro men oppressed into tho support of a Clmrch which they not only ignoro but actively diasont from . " Hero is a respectable clergyman , backed \ ip by so much of tho law as may " bo represented by three policeofficers , ontox'ing into private houHes , making a razzia among tho larders , and walking oil ' with property worth from fifty to sixty times tlio amount of tho original claim , lloro is tho law itself adding its screw to tho force of oppression , l > y augmenting a claim of 6 J a -d . into fiff . ( ton shillings , under pretemco of coata . If tho supporters of such practices wox'C not strickon with that folly which is said

      Upon the indifferent and the halting these doings are not without effect . Comparisons will be instituted , and these ¦ will sometimes be odious . For our part , we shall never look at Landseer ' s picture of Bolton Abbey in the Olden Time , without contrasting the fine old portly gentleman , whose eye displays a scholarly epicureanism , receiving the williug tributes of lish , fruit , and flesh , with the Vicar of Preston , backed by three policemen , prigging hams and warming-pans out of the kitchens of his unwilling parishioners .

      Untitled Article

      August 26 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 803

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 26, 1854, page 803, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2053/page/11/