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Leader (1850-1860), 29th March 1856, Edition 1 of 2, Page 300, Untitled Article

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      throne of the Swedes is married , and has a family . The uncle of the ' King of Denmark is to succeed to his mutilated dominions , perhaps to a convulsion and a war . The Low Countries possess a constitutional throne , of which the heir apparent is a youth of sixteen years of age ; but the Government of Holland stands in a sfcafce of almost complete isolation , takes little or do part in the political affairs of Europe , concentrates its attention on the Bast and West ladies , and

      the representative of electoral majorities . Way then is the public disquieted by the prospect of a Prussian alliance ? After the war comes the duty of Reform , when it will be for the real liberal party to see that the educated opinion of the country obtains a true representation . When that task is accomplished , what , will it signify whether Prussian influence thrive at the Court of St . James , or whether the royal family is inclined to favour the intrigues of Berlin in preference to the intrigues of Prance or Austria 1

      Prussia has for some years pursued a policy which renders it very important to establish relations of sound friendship between her government and that of Great Eritain . Since the battle of Jena it has been obvious to her statesmen that a geographical position such as hers , inviting invasion is a cause of

      perpetual danger and weakness . Thus , Prussia has been compelled to seek new outlets on the sea , in addition to her confined and inconvenient ports on the Baltic coast . From Oldenburgh , therefore , she has obtained the cession of the harbour , the mole , and the site of a £ ortress , at the mouth of the Jahde , in the North Sea , where at this moment the foundations of an effective

      marine , military , and commercial , are being prepared . In this way a new maritime power may grow up in Europe , competing at least With either of the Baltic kingdoms . Great Britain can entertain no jealousy by such a development on the part of Prussia ; but other States , which have profited by her geographical isolation , may not witness without regret such preparations as these of a new basis of

      her military independence and commercial prosperity . It is for England , while the continent is in the possession of irresponsible monarchies , to cultivate the alliance of the most liberal , and among the most liberal decidedly is Prussia . Besides , the Overmans are not in a political lethargy ; a great national party is in formation , at the head of which the young Pbinoe may , or may nob , be found .

      Whatever may be his disposition , whatever the political influences dominant in Prussia , where else could a . husband be found for the Princess Royal ? Or , is it essential to our constitutional liberties that she should remain a spinster .

      rarely corresponds with the British Cabinet , except in a tone of expostulation or jealousy The German Courts , with their exuberant growth of princes remain—the pantomime royalties of Hesse , Gotha , Coburg , and Brunswick . There is Baden , where the young prince ITkederick reigns as regent in the name of his incapable brother ; Wurfcemberg , where two Russian princesses have found husbands Hanover , with its perpetual crisis , and its heirapparent , a child of eleven years ; Saxony , which

      Russia once proposed to in corporate with Prussia , and which Prussia considers as half her own ; Bavaria , which gave a miserable king to Greece . This king , the puppet Otho , will , in default of personal issue , bequeath his crown to Prince Adalbert of Bavaria . Which from this procession of royal names would the liberal and suspicious public select to bestow on the Princess Royal ? For our part , while royal families are of importance to the commonwealth of England , we desire to see the union

      of strength with strength , and cannot discover any advantage in linking an English princess io some obscure dangler of a German Court , without a name or a heritage . Prussia is a great military power , with maritime tendencies , and it may not be long , before Great Britain will "be solicitous to gain her friendship . Day fry day , the Russian influence strikes root in Paris ; day by day , France is more closely knit to Austria j ultimately , the policy of

      England may be strongly counteracted fcy a undeclared confederacy of the absolutist powers . [ Now Prussia , notwithstanding her natural leanings to a Russian policy , has never abandoned the forms of constitutionalism . The King , whatever his disposition may be , finds it impossible to suppress the authority of the Chambers , and lie , being now aged , and not in vigorous health , must sooft , in the course of nature , leave the throne vacant for his

      successor . That successor , presumptively , is his brother Willuwt , a military pedant , who despises the press , the academies , the liberal partiesv of - the kingdom , and who , in , all probability , will have to contend with a Revolution , or to establish an absolutism inherently hostile to all that is educated and intelligent in Prussia . He has never consented to take the oath of the Constitution , not being versed in the casuistry taught to exiles

      by our semi-official press , which explained lasb week , that refugees swearing allegiance to the French Empire were by no means prohibited from perjury . He himself , however , is neither a young nor a healthy man , aad his son Frederick William Nicholas Charles , twenty-six years of age , who is said to derive many liberal traits of character fr * m his accomplished and amiable mother , is his natural successor on the Prussian throne .

      It | s the disaster of Europe that the policy of nations should depend on the character of 1 * $ fe ^ k 1 *>»< : the Great British people has Iteelf tovblame if any family ever again enjoys ^¦ powor of endangering its safety or honour . W hat with Cromwjkm / 8 axe and the Bill of Jtoghta , something haa been done in this coun-W ; to « hongo Prerogative from a reality to a ¦¦ 'S jWiTr * * * authority is now only the ^^ th ^ aialputeof the Constitution ; it

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      We can scarcely boast of more unity in this country , where the newest manifestations are certainly not favourable to concord . Some gentlemen , clerical and lay , of high positio n and earnest enthusiasm , have been for some time engaged in the endeavour to frame a plan for re-uniting various nonconformist bodies to the Established Church . They propose to begin with the Wesleyans , and they have actually constructed a memorial to the two Houses of Convocation , suggesting a plan for the

      redemption of Wesleyans to the Established body . The drift of this memorial is , to beg from Convocation the removal , not of obstacles to the a . dmission of Wesleyans , but of objections which the Wesleyans may entertain against the Establishment—the want of sufficient sanctity in the ministers of the Church ; the necessity of discontinuing class-meetings ; the necessity of separating from the Wesleyan body : and the

      delay in actually obtaining orders under the Established Church- —three years . The gentlemen who framed this scheme held their meeting in the fashionable rectory of St . James ' s ; they are understood to have the approval of the Bishop of LondoSv ; and how ate they met by the Wesleyans % The Watchman ,, organ , of the Wesleyan Conference , speaks thus of the plan , with a studied charity :-

      —THE SIGN" AT BANGOR . If there be a thing to which Christian communities cannot be brought , it is concord in conduct and unity in creed . There is scarcely a quarter of the Christian world that is not at the present moment stirred by the most vehement agitation—vehement , in proportion as the power of the ecclesiastical bodies has declined . We have watched the proceedings of the Pope under favour of the Austrian Government . " The

      PoNiiFFhas procured from theEmperorFiUNois Joseph a new permission to exercise despotical authority throughout the Austrian dominions , and the priests are exercising their power with so minute , aa well as imperious a demeanour , that their rulo becomes instantly intolerable , even to the Government — . except in Italy . The Austrian Government is obliged to apply some kind of moderator to the newly-stimulated zeal of the priests .

      In a email way the same kind of spirit is shown in Ireland , where Archbishop Ouxlen is putting down even journals favourable to the papal sway ; driving them out of readingrooms , and otherwise endeavouring to abolish them from the world . He has visited with his displeasure the Nation and the Weekly Tehgraph ; and tho Tablet is only rescued from extinction by acquiring a new proprietor and editor in Mr . John E . Wallis , an Englishman who haa boon converted to tho Koman Church . Tho exiled papers are faithful to the Popu , but not enough so—not slavishly enough .

      Few , indeed , are the members of the Chureli of Methodism who could be transplanted Into the consecrated ground of the Chui'ch of England without injury to tTxeir inner life . We refrain from saying more . The crude report of the committee we do not wish to fling in the face of then * Church . We are unwilling to permit ourselves an allusion to the doctrinal divisions , the portentous heresies , the Romanism and Rationalism , which , darken large spaces in the tenitory

      of the Church of England , and which sib impersonated upon her Episcopal bench or in her University eh airs . Before even ' individual ministers and other members of the Wesleyan body' are asked to join the ranks of the Church of England and march along with her , they ought to know whifcher she herself is going ; and that we fear is what the sagest ' individual minister or other member' of the Piccadilly committee can ia no wise tell . "

      What does this language mean ? We can put it in a very short and peculiar form . When certain members of the Church of England , high in position , and active in spirit , make these overtures towards reconcilement with an outlying Christian body , whose founder himself regretted the schism from the Established Church , the organ of the Wesleyans , putting on an extremely charitable , not to say condescending air , replies—virtually replies , " Go to—I 3 ath !" Let the leader re-peruse the extract , and say if this is not almost the literal meaning of the words which we have quoted .

      Nor is it only withm this country , it is within the body of the Church itself that tho same discord is flagrant , tumultuous . Scarcely a week passes without some proof of the volcanic state of tho Church . We have this "week a Welsh report . The Established Church has extended into Wales as it has into Ireland , and there are its ministers . It was quite late in the day that they discovered tho necessity of preaching to the Welsh in Welsh ; and the Bishop of St . David ' s has earned just respect for his efforts to secure a preaching in Welsh to the Welsh . How would the lloman Church

      get on if its emissaries came over to this country and preached the word , according to their construction , only in Italian or Latin , among the working churches , say , of London or Manchester 1 Not only does the clergyman preach in a foreign language , but tho Ohurch , whioh ought to invite the attendance of the Welsh , remains for them with closed doors , save once in tho week—onoo on the seventh

      day . Is not this absurd ? Soino gentlemen connected with the Principality have been moved by tho Rovorond 1 \ 0 . Ellis , a young clergyman , and assisted , not for the first time , by Mr . W . 0 . Stanley , to aUernpt an im-

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      300 T ' fl-E -LEADER [ No . 314 , Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 29, 1856, page 300, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2134/page/12/