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    ^ 0 . ^ 04 , Nov . 19 , 1859 ] THE LEABEB , 1275

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    by their abstinence from useless commotion ; but Lord Brougham still condemns Sardinia for offering them a better chance of liberty than Maaszinian revolutions could afford . If England will do her duty there is no reason to believe that , the general peace of Europe -would be imperilled even by another Italian or a Hungarian campaign . We con , without danger to ourselves , make it safe for France to continue supporting Italy until Italy is strono- enough to take care of herself , and if . maintain the rights of nations to self-government , we need not grudge to Napoleon III . the honour of overthrowing the wicked work of 1815 .

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    THE ARCHI-DIACONAL REVIVAL . Archdeacons are a mystery . How , or why they exist at all—what they do , or are expected to do . ^ rhere they come from , or where they go to , are are all mysteries . Theological Dodos , they can be accounted for by no recognised system ; and cLassified under no generic specification . They wear no distinctive dress , occupy no distinctive residence , and perform no distinctive duties . We all know what majesty , stripped of its externals is , but an archdeacon has no externals to strip him of , neither lawn sleeves nor cassock , not even a shovel hat . If , therefore , an archdeacon be a jest , he is still an abnormal jest , a sort of . clerical . Joe Miller , the point of which has been lost by age . Liike the Mayor of Garrat , or the Three Kings of Brentford , an archdeacon is an abstraction , an idea , not an entity . Junius was only the shadow of a name ; but an archdeacon is the echo of a sound that has died a-way .

    Thus our feelings of astonishment are not unmingled with apprehension when we learn that the archdeacons of England are alive and stirring . Rip Van Winkles of theology , they have aroused themselves from their life-long slumbers . The course of the archi-diaconal resurrection is obvious enough . If , by any chance , a cargo of antediluvian Methu-r selahs , escaped from the flood , were to turn vip some of these odd days , the first , thing we should expect them to do would be to . protest against

    the existence of the rainbow . Exactly in the same way , the resuscitated archdeacons make use of their brief return to existence in order to protest against the abolition of church rates . The Church is in danger , and three-score-andodd archdeacons have . rallied round her rates . In solemn conclave assembled , they have made their protest . They hope , rather than expect , that this protest may be of use ; but , having made it , they have discharged their conscience , and are content . ' Faithful to the traditions of a

    forgotten existence , they know of no compromise . Wulpolo and Miull are alike hateful in their eyes . They arc for rates , full rates , and nothing but rates . The master hand of the archdeacon of Taunton , that " last of the archileaconsj" can , we fancy , bo traced in the composition of the protest . If the reasoning is of ordinary clerical calibre , the Iangunge is surely of Denison—Denisonian . ^ The pi'Otest is contained in four pithy propositions . The language of thoJirst seems to us too irreverent to quote . If ever there was a controversy which was of the earth it is that of church rates , and the

    loss tUo nnmo of thy Deity is drugged hito the controversy the better . Tlic argument , however ^ when deprived of its spirit mil terrors , comes simply to this : —Churches lire built for the purposes of religion : church rates are used to repair churches ; therefore the rate is necessary to tho existence oi religion . You might argue with equal justice that omnibuses would nover run if nobody tipped tiro driver , or that letters would never be delivered if nobndv mivi > n Christmas-box to the postman , The nobody gave n Christinas-box to the postman , lhc

    second proposition in really a stroke oi' genius , "We loarn that c : \ iurch-Tt \ tos arc especially the inheritance of tho poor , Many a time have wo searched in vain through tho columns of the Times to see' if wo wore not advertised for , as lioir to somebody , and now we learn that we , too , have an inheritance . Like Esuu , wo might liayc sold it unawares to hoiuo designing Jacob . It is true , wo never had a sixpence ironv tho church-rate fund . Somehow wo must . have been deA'uuueri of our

    rights . Hope deferred has long made us incredulous . If tho aroh-doaoona will only show us a way to enter into our inheritance , why we will out-Donieon Dontaon in our vehemence for churchrates ; but , till then , tvo must really look upon the promise as tho advertisement of a clerical " Joseph Atly , " Wo are too old to bo caught by

    an announcement that we shall " learn something to our advantage . " The third proposition is hot argumentative , but enunciatiye . AH persons , it is stated , who buy or rent property do so knowing it is subject to church-rates . Nobody disputes the fact . The admission of the fact , however , . does not establish the inference that the holders of property have no right to complain . If our archde aeon ever goes on a railroad , which we do not believe , he takes his ticket subject to the risk of accidents , but we doubt whether this consideration would deter him from claiming compensation in case of collision . The fourth proposition contains the remarkable conclusion that , therefore , the legislature is bound , not to repeal , but , on the contrary , to maintain church-rates in full

    integrity . 2 now , if this is all our friends , the extinct archdeacons , have to say , we really think the sooner they go to sleep again the better . We dispute their first statement ; . we dispute their second ; we don't see the force of their third ,, and ^ we utterly deny their conclusion . Evidently , logic is not their forte . They should think better of it , and go to bed . When they next wake up they will find that church-rates are forgotten and that religion gets on as well , perhaps better , without them . Who knows if by that time the use of arch-deacons may not have been discovered , and the end of their existence made intelligible to themselves ? Who knows , indeed ! '' Che sara , sara . " ¦

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    EDUCATION IN ITALY . During the time occupied in bringing the Zurich Conferences to a close , and pending the European Congress , which report says is to beheld at Paris , the Sardinian and Central Italian Governments have been far from idle . The Legations have made vigorous preparations to oppose their return to the Papal authority , and arrangements have been made there , as well as throughput the rest of Central Italy , to carry out the general armament of the country . The Tuscan Assembly has met at Florence , in the famous Palazzo Veechio , the beautiful hall constructed by Cronaca in the fifteenth century , and appointed the Prince Savoy Carignan as Regent of Tuscany . The most ardent desire is manifested on every hand for the union of Upper and Central Italy . This passion increases in intensity every day , and was unmistakeably proved at the meeting of the Tuscan Assembly by the fact that one sole dissenting vote was given to the Regency . Though Prince Carignano has been withheld , doubtless in obedience to high authority , from actually accepting the Regency , he virtually exorcised the power conferred upon him by delegating another to fill the office . The Chevalier lioncompagni , wliom he named as his substitute , undertook the

    administration of the affairs of Tuscany as the of the King of Piedmont after the fli g ht of the Grand Duke . Having at once assumed the Regency offered to him , at the instance of , Prince Carignano , it is to be . hoped that his efforts will materially tejid to the consolidation of the union of the Central States with each other , and with Upper Italy . The Piedmontese Ministry have published the changes and reforms to be introduced into tlio organic laws of the country , in order to adapt them to the increased ' territory of the Sardinian kingdom , and regulate the union between the old and new States . TUat ^ these changes aro simply temporary and provisional , and that tlic laws will soon have to bo

    revised again to adapt them to a more extended sphere of action is greatly to be hoped and desired . Though the ch anges made in existing laws are rather nominal than real , the } ' hnve _ kept in view municipal traditions . In tho division of Piedmont and- Sardinia into ten provinces , and Lombardy into sevon , tho possibility is recognised and tho probability provided liny of the rovival of tho ancient centres of municipal freedom in a united and independent kingdom of Italy .

    The distinct existence of Lombardy ia recognised , and this renders tho change of the law , notwithstanding its transitory charaqtor , one of groat importance . The concessions which tho ministry wore obliged io make in deference , to the wishes of the newly annexed provinoo may not unlikely become the basis of the reorganisation of Italy . A ministerial crisis was , for some days , thought to bo imminent at Turin . Count Casati tendered his resignation on account of a clause in tho « ow

    law , about to be promulgated on university teaching . He wished that any individual should be at liberty to open a school 'for teaching the higher branches of science , provided he is furnished with an academical degree , previously granted by any university of the State . On the other hand , the committee , which drew up the law , declares the faculty of teaching shall only be valid in the city in which the professor took his university degree . Some mutual concessions were made ; the city of Milan was added to the other university cities and the minister ' s scruples were overcome . Count Casati is a -Milanese , a hio-hlv honourable and honoured citizen , who service in 1848

    rendered his country good , and the father of the talented author of " Milan and the Princes of Savoy , " The provisional governments have occupied themselves energetically with university reforms and appointments . One great improvement to be looked for in the suppression of the tyrannical rule to -which Central Italy has been subjected is the spread of education , hitherto kept down to the lowest possible ebb by the mean spirited desire of the Austrian princes to suppress intelligence and thought , and the dread of the clergy lest their influence should be lost if learning became general among the masses . Fears are entertained that the temporal rulers of the Duchies will be

    found to have gone into the opposite extreme * appointed so many new professors in the universities , that they will almost outnumber the students for some time to come- But this is a difficulty which will remedy itself before long . Let freedom of action be the rule here as in every other branch of administrative and social economy , and supply and demand will quickly be found to correspond , and strike an even balance . The autocrats of Italy have avowedly and unblushingly acted upon the principle that the mental darkness of their subjects was essential to the stability and permanence of their own rule . They have known and confessed that , as a matter of necessity , brutal io-norance must be maintained among the people ,

    if they would preserve their thrones . The intellectual powers and thinking faculties of their subjects have ever ' been their terror , and they have exhibited the utmost jealousy of any institution whose tendency , direct or indirect , was to raise men above the level of brutes or idiots . The fears of the despotic pfrnces , and the want of enlightenment and the bigotry of Rome , have reduced systematic education to the lowest grade compatible with the inevitable laws of progress , which can never be wholly suppressed . The north-west portion of the Peninsula has , for years past , offered a notable contrast to the rest of Italy . The attendance at the minor schools is one of the most manifest symptoms of the tendency of Piedmontese neonle towards advancement and greatness . In

    1850 , after a period of great political agitation , the numbers of children who attended schools in the Sardinian states amounted to upwards of two hundred and sixty thousand . Five years later the amount had nearly doubled . Nor can this _ augmentation , which still continues , be ascribed simply to increase of population , since it is nearl y in the proportion of five to one greater than the latter . At the present rate of progress , m a very tew years , Piedmont will equal Switzerland , Havana , Saxony , and Wuftomburg , and it will be the exception to meet with a , . person ¦ who cannot read ! Those fltfttres would not , however serve _

    for tl . eisland of Sardinia if taken sopamu'iy . unfortunately this portion of Victor J 3 . mim . iuol 8 donn " on X * until lately boon held in tho grossest Swmnco by the priests , who have been more f , norous l . jl-e , in proportion to the population , tli . n in almost any othorof tho Italian state ... But t o p " ui-ow inado of lato years is most striking . Count Savour ' s admirable laws boarma upon eduction iinanco , international troalicfl , and tho foil u > in ofduties , have worked wofidim . in the island To introduce progress and enligl ; tonmont nto this obscuro and ignorant corner of Europe

    was little short of performing a miruclu . It was Hilary to undo everything and begin airosh , while i . n . orance , united to prejudice , opposed a , lew obstacle at overy btop . tfet suolx lias boon ho dotorminud march , of Victor Emmanuel and his advisers ia tho path of progress , and improve * ont in everything connected either with moral or material development , fthut tho changes wrought in this beniffhtod priest-ridden island are most narked . When the uottloment of th . 0 present

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 19, 1859, page 1275, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2321/page/15/