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

  • 

    PEACE MAKERS

  • 

    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

    > v . emment , and -when the -Government xves lamentably weak , we mxisfc make good , tii < &ur liv . es and our earnings , every deiency . The Executive has onl y slowly awakened : the importance of tills Bengal mutiny . erything has been done "by halves , by the > west possible process , and with apparent Luctance . Such 3 it appears to ua , is . misvernment . But at present we may almost said to have no government . The nation in mourning ; -week by week intelligence

    cives of appalling horrors in the East . We ve , at this moment , more « ause for . grief id alarm than ever before in our history , lit . all goes merry at Balmoral . Themaost ustrious personages in the realm are notinnvenienced . Txhey enjoy -their Highland elusion , and no doubt they warmly hope . at the Bengal Sepoys will shortly be presnted from cutting children in two ,, flaying ie faces of dear English igirls , . and permeating such atrocities as to compel a lionjarted man to become the Vibginius of a

    jung wife , the mother of two infants , layig her dead at his feet , that she may not die Diluted . Of course these ' poor people * have Le sincerest regrets of the galaxy that illuinatesthe Cotirt Circular . So also a majority \ the governing classes are grouse-shooting ithemoors , anddiscussingthe latest massacre * antlered or feathered game . There are a sod many . Romans to fiddle while Bengal is liming . Lord Paj ^ mebston himself , we are > ld , stops in town , and we give him credit for

    eing actually m earnest , and putting forth his aergies now he has been convinced that the adian mutiny is not a contemptible affair , iut where is the Cabinet ? Where the Privy louncil ? We do not aslc , Where is the Opposition ? seeing that during the session ot a single suggestion of value emanated 'om the Tory phalanx ; hut it would not be nreasonable if , with an awful conflict to arry on , the administrators of public

    busiess were to remain in their official places , ' erhaps one Secretary of State might object bat India is not his department . Exactly o . India has been treated as a department pon departmental principles , and we see the onsequences . If the public were alive to the ierils that press upon the empire , they might e induced to act systematically upon the Government , and assemble in convention to patch the Ministers at their work . But aisgovernment during the session , and nojovernunent during the recess , is an old aBhion , and we jjerceive no likelihood of a peedy change .

    Untitled Article

    THE CIVDL GOVERNMENT OF INDIA . The East India Company is a corporation consisting af about eighteen hundred Proprietors , who divide among them the two thousand five hundred votes for which the stock forms a qualification . Perhaps a seventh of the votes are held b y natives of India ; many are possessed by Jews ; a still larger / number by ladies . Formerly , in selecting the Directors , this electoral body exercised directly almost a supreme power over the British possessions in the East . By the law of 1883 , however , the entire system was modified ; the Court of Proprietors ceased to act as a political body . They were deprived

    of their commercial property , of their right to trade , and of their independent prerogative . The standing capital of six millions was made a primary charge on the revenues of British India , and the State provided itself with the means of extinguishing 1 , when necessary , the wliole amount of stock . Nevertheless , the Directors , as representatives of the Proprietors , retained certain political privileges which wero renewed in 1854 , and , should theBO bo cancelled , the Proprietors would bo entitled to the repayment of their capital at the rate of two hundred pounds sterling for every hundred pounds of Block . In 1871- tho reserve fund will have

    accumulated to such an extent that n largo proportion of the East India stock may be purchased without any chargo upon tho revenue . Meanwhile , tho duties of tho Proprietors consist in receiving their dividends of ten-a-hnlf per cent ., and in electing a certain number of tho

    Peace Makers

    day last , one "Whilijam : Baxter was placed before the m ^ g istiate in the « Gruildball policeoffice , accused of laeing in . St .. JSepulchrs ' s Church * with the intent to commit a felony . ' The word is harsh , . and does not appear to be justified by the facts . The man , however , was found by the sexton of the iparish church in the pulpit , alone 3 repeating the Iiitany aloud . On the altar he bad placed some artificial flowers , for he is an . artificial

    flowermaker by trade . He pleaded , however , a high mission . When the sexton questioned Ms right to be there , he declared that * he was sent into the church hy the Almighty .. ' . Moreover , he assailed the official with texts from the Book of Common Payer : he read the passage from Isaiah , —• " Behold the Lord will help me ; twho is he that shall condemn axe ? " The sexton was ' he / and his ability to turn "WiiiiiiAM Baxter out of St .

    Se-¦ OQ ' itbe -frame . of mhad' in which Hanna and his congregation must have conducted the religious service : iKtrange framework , indeed , do we see in the . oonfliets of the forty carpenters ,-the thousands of * he rabble , the constabulary headed by the . mayor , and ( the hussars galloping about amongst the excited |> opulace , who answered to the firing of the infantry in kind , ; for blood was shed rthat ; night in Belfast !

    Truly may Sir Petee La-ITBIe say that the ¦ man who is subject to calls to go and pray and ( preach . a secmon without any authority delegated to Mm by Bishop , King , or congregation , is a . dangerous man . Eor , be it observed , Hanna was preaching to a congregation which had not appointed liim , without warrant froin Bishop or Eresbytery to thrust his doctrine upon the jcabble of Belfast . : For it is stated that the P-resbyiery ^ had already determined not to continue these

    . "If you will forgive me this time , " « aid WiLiiAM Baxter to Sir PetesLia . tjb . ie , "I will-endeavour not to offend again .. " Baxter decidedly stands in contrast with HajstN-A , who insisted upon his t rights ; ' and Sir Petee ' s rejoinder might have been addressed ,

    with much . greater force to Haetna than i ; o Baxteb . " If you act upon impulse , " said SirPjsTEB , " you may have no control ov ^ r your feelings , and might commit murder . " Why , Haniu . ' s trumpeting 7 ias ended in bloodshed and death . Yet the military acted on ± he side of Hanna ., who was brought before no Sir Pere& Laurie to account

    for his ' religious enunciation . ' Sir Petek Laurie * cautioned the prisoner against future attempts at [ preaching to imaginary congregations , and believing him to be a little wrong in his mind , directed tho officer to take him home . ; ' ¥ e ean only infer from tlie facts that Hanna is very ' wrong in his mind ; ' and it appears to us to be far less dangerous to preach to imaginary congregations than to real congregations , such as that which the Presbyterian collected in Belfast , and then left onayor and military to disperse .

    pulchre ' s Church certainly implies that the artificial flower-maker did mot have the assistance he anticipated . Thus convicted of an insufficient commission , he was taken by the sexton to Guildhall police-office , and placed before Sir Pexer . Laurie on a charge of felony . Sir Peter Laurie : "What did jou want in the church ?" Baxter : " I found it open , and I always understood a church was free to every one . I am subject to religious enunciations , and this -was one of them , -which came upon me and directed me to go into the iirst church I found open , and I accordingly went into St . Sepulchre ' s because I found the door open . "

    ¦ Sir Peter : " What do you meanbya ' religiousenunciation ? ' " Baxter : "It was -a religious feeling which induced me to go in . and pray and preach a sermon . " Sir Peter : " I consider you are a very dangerous man if you are subject to such calls . " It is not the first time that-Sir Peter has delivered an undoubted truth . A man who is subject to such calls' is * a dangerous man , ' and we have an example only too ready to our hand . The Reverend H . Hanita , of Belfast , is such a man . He is subject to

    ' * -religious enunciations , ' and he has ' a religious feeling which , induces him to go out and pray tind preach a sermon '—namely , in ¦ the streets of Belfast . Now Hanna is a Protestant minister , evidently of highly pronounced Presbyterian sentiments . He is endowed with all the energy of youth , and has a strong sense of his . duty . This was shown in a very striking manner . On Sunday last , he preached a sermon in front of the Custom-house at Belfast , choosing for his

    text , " How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation ? " Perdition has a greater terror for him than anything that ean be brought in this present world . Roman Catholics had already taken their stand on the steps of the Custom-house , but he was not daunted , and his example made his congregation , both male and femnle , stand by him . A . great ' rabble' approached , but Hanna . and his friends stood firm . Forty

    'PEACE MAKERS / jVhen we have preached the beauty of ' the Church of the 'Blue Vaults we did not reommend the Church of ,-the Black Vault . Nowhere , perhaps , can the voice of religion nore clearly direct its worship to the ruling Power of the creation than in the natural athedral of the woods , or under the vault of teaven itself ; but under the vault of town imoke , amid the din and bustle of -th « mnrlr «( :-

    uace , the simple truths find difficulty of ut-; erance , and preaching degenerates into scolding , sometimes into scuffling . If men nust live in towns , the proper plnce'for them ; o hold communion with each other and with iheir Maker ia one consecrated to the purpose , and walled in against tho conflicts of ; he outer world . Nor ia it every man who ; an be regarded by his fellow-creatures as intrusted to speak the words of religion ; for although we nil draw our being from tho mmo Author , our gifts are not equal , and we lo not always preserve tho gifts with which svo aro endowed at birth . A moral is often seen beat in a story , and we have more than one to tell . On "Wodnea

    Protestant young men , shi p carpenters we conceive , formed themselves into a band , and armed with staves kept ofF the thousands of the rabble . ' The magistrates took alarm , not only , of course , for their personal safety , but for the peace of the town , and they urged Hanna to desist . Wo all remember the fable of iho Trumpeter who was taken pi-isoner , and who pleaded that he never used the sword himself . « But

    you nmke others use a sword , " answered his captors ; and they treated him on the qui jitoit per alium principle . Hanna was decidedly the -first soldier in Belfast on that day ; for the light thickened . Tho forty carpenters did not auinec ; the mayor had to read tho liiot Act , to call oub tho constabulary , then troops ; four regiments contributed several companies to tho defence of the peace , while cavalry scoured -tho streets oven till nightfall . An Irish paper comments justly

    Untitled Article

    Sfo . 3 »<> , SagpaaaMBEB 12 , 185 ? . ] fHE IE AD 15 R . _______^ f * 9

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 12, 1857, page 879, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2209/page/15/