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Leader (1850-1860), 1st January 1853, Edition Country of 3, Page 12, r 12 THE LEAD E R. [Saturday,

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      Sir William Molkswortii For Sout1iwark. ...

      • worth to share in his councils , to aid in the wol ¦ which he has undertaken , we then understanc that the declaration of a political truth is to hav < a substantial result , and that Lord Aberdeen * ! Ministry must be large and true indeed in iti purpose , when _stauJKy maintained convictioni : like those of Sir _Vpliam Molesworth , are in eluded in the scope of its action . Upon the constituents of Southwark is now thrown a duty superior even to that of electing a good representative . There have been little differences between them and their old Member , chiefly ascribable , perhaps , to the somewhat overstrained independence of his manner , when a little explanation would have made his constituents understand how thoroughly they were still of accord in all essentials . But they have not forfeited their right to return one of the most effective members of Parliament ; and they have now the opportunity of appointing a Minister for a Radical constituency . They have the opportunity of decreeing that the direct representative of one of the most Radical constituencies of the kingdom shall be sitting in the Cabinet . We cannot but regard that as a great advance for . Radical opinions . The constituents have the power of cementing the union between the most advanced shape of reform yet seen in Parliament , with executive power , by continuing to their representative the confidence of a Radical constituency after he has acquired the confidence of the Crown . That union we regard as most important for the progress of Liberal power in our institutions . Sir William Molesworth ' s return by the constituency of Southwark is something much more than an ordinary election , and by their decision the electors cf Southwark will have effected a much more than ordinary gain for the cause that they have at heart .

      R 12 The Lead E R. [Saturday,

      r 12 THE LEAD E R . [ Saturday ,

      1 Church, But A Probable Opponent Of Lor...

      1 Church , but a probable opponent of Lord Derb and Protection . The Duke of Wellington died in Septembei and foremost in the van of those who flung uj their square caps for Lord Derby as Chancello of Oxford , was George Anthony Denison . I must be admitted that this was a _questionable mode of showing that a " churchman should have no politics . " We impute no interested motivei to Mr . Denison ; we simply state the fact , ant that is , that next to Dr . Simmons , of Wadham probably the warmest supporter of the Minister who declares that his Church is a compromise was the Archdeacon of Taunton Lord Derby has not been a Chancellor three months before he falls from office . A new _ministry is formed , of which Mr . Gladstone is a member Mr . Gladstone is a gentleman , and he deliberately believes that he can act for the public benefil with Lord Lansdowne , Lord John Russell , and Sir William Molesworth . But Mr . Denison , who believes that a " churchman should have no politics "—who accepted Derby , and Disraeli , and Pakington—who approved of their " morality " at the last election , in appealing to the country with one loose set of principles for the towns , and another for the counties—who personally helped in July in the attempt to bring back a bread-tax , objects to the present " coalition" ministry . He , who trusted the Chancellorship of the University to Derby , can now " place no confidence" in Mr . Gladstone , either as a representative of Oxford , or a public man ! Rash in his trust , he is now rash in his suspicions ; and he thrusts aside the facts of Mr . Gladstone ' s whole life , and assumes that he has allowed himself to be willingly blinded by the foes of the Church , in order that he may join them in office . " Any amount of guarantee , " he writes to Mr . Gladstone , " which may have been taken by you in accepting office in the new Government for non-aggression upon the Church of England , or for the concession of her just claims , is , in my judgment , absolutely valueless when weighed against the fact of the coalition . " And the writing of this to his " loved and respected friend" formed Mr . Denison ' _s occupation , before or after church service , at East Brent , on Christmas-day . But this is not all . " D . C . L ., " a well-known writer on Church matters in the Morning Chronicle , has approved of the Ministry ; whereupon Mr . Denison writes a letter to the Morning Chronicle , which will be found elsewhere , and in case the editor should not publish it , he sent a copy to the Morning Herald—so anxious was he that it should be printed . In that letter he declares that " Churchmen who support the ' coalition' Government will be hard put to it to defend their support upon any recognised moral principle . If they are content to look to the possible action of such a Government , putting aside all considerations of how it came to be a Government at all , this may be expediency of a low kind , but it is not morality . " Now we put it to the reader , whether a Churchman who has supported the Government of Lord Derby is in a position to accuse any one of immoralit y in joining or supporting any practicable British Government whatever . As we have , under a different phase of his shifting character , admired and praised Archdeacon Denison , and led our readers to believe that he was a Churchman without politics—a new ecclesiastical character in . England , at least imong active men—so we have thought it right Lo show that we trusted too much in professions , ind that the metal we thought true , ut the first est , proves to be sadly alloyed .

      ARCHDEACON DENISON'S POLITICAL CHURCHMANSH IP . Loed Derby's Ministry seems to have been fatal to nearl y all the persons implicated in its origin , involved in its wonderful developments , or engaged in its support . And prominent among the fallen in the last category is one whom we had learned to respect and admire ; whose conduct , previously to February , 1852 , seemed a guarantee for future steadfastness in the path he had chosen . All our knowledge of him up to that period led us to expect a perseverance in the attainment of his unselfish objects ; and an unfaltering adherence to the principles which made them legitimate . We looked upon him as impulsive , it is true , but brave , conscientious , and simple-minded . We never dreamed that anything approaching to Jesuitry could find a place in his mind . We deemed him a high , straightforward Churchman , not a crooked politician . Judging from his conduct , but without sympathising with his ultimate aims , and even prepared to oppose them , we believed and hoped that he was only one of a large party in tlje Church of England prepared manfully to carry out her principles , make the best of them , and accept tho consequences , be they what they might . We have been deceived . The Archdeacon of Taunton is not a hero of a new party ; Erastianism , the Dalilah always courting ihe ; professors of a State religion , has vanquished him . He is the Peter of Tractarianism . Ere the twelvemonth has gone round , he has thrice denied his principles . ho

      When Lord Derby entered ofiice , proclaimed in the City that the ; Church of Kngland was a compromise . Mr . Archdeacon Denison , whose whole teaching was adverse to the dictum of Lord Derby , accepted and supported the Ministry of the man who copld find ne > better epithet than compromise to describe the religion of Mr . Denison . Was not this an admission of Erastianism in its boldest form ? But then it had been bruited abroad that Lord Derby and Mr . Denison ' s old opponent , Sir John Pakington , would meddle with the management _claused ; anel not content with accepting the barren fruit of that act , Mr . Denison flung aside bis avowed principle that a " churchman Bhould hav _» no politics , " and enlisted in tho Derbyite brigade . Once on the Hlippory path leading downwards , Mr . _Deji _^ _wrwMjouJd not stay his steps . At the _S oi _^ i _^ _Mi ™ _- _$ _ttetion in July , he doffed his _cftgtf _^ _r' _^ _S _^^ ' _^ 10 Tory _<" 0 < rktt < _* ° _« ° P ' 7 8 U J _^ _jfflK 2 _^ 2 _ffl _^ _^ politicians , Miles and _^^ _^ fy _^^ W _\^ _/• known friend of the _•^ UK" nvA \] A _^\ C A A — - _LJ I -. ' < Wr < yyya _¦—»

      Struggles Of Protestantism In Piedmont. ...

      STRUGGLES OF PROTESTANTISM IN PIEDMONT . It did not . need the argument which is said to have been used to frighten the Grand Duko Leopold into renewing punishment of death _jji Tuscany for proving the strong moral influence of England— " E poi Lord Minto b a Genova "" And then Lord M into is at Genoa . " The story is evidently made up ; but it shows that the very name of aii English statesman has an effect in Italy , in spite of the past . And , indeed , thatpast has been terrible for the good fame or good influence of our country in the land where temporal and spiritual despotism is now doing its worst against civil and religious liberty . Beforo we consider those struggles , one word must be given to the past . England has appeared in Italy only to betray *

      _r the hopes she raised . In Sicily , thrice has Em land helped to incite the people to take the , own cause into . their own hands , thrice to betra > them—in 1812 , 1821 , and 1848 . Twice und ( Lord Castlereagh did England support th . Sicilians , until they relied upon her and he > advice , and then she handed them over to th . mercies of the King of Naples . We hav already told that tale ; and told how , in th first-named year , Sicily consented , on the advic of England , to give up her old Parliament fo one which Ferdinand afterwards retracted with out restoring the constitution of the Normans In 1848 , Lord Palmerston persuaded the Sicilian to give up their republic and their united actioi with Italy , in order to adopt a King and _Englisl principles ; and then he left them to the merciei of Filangieri and Ferdinand . In Tuscany _anc Rome , Minto showed himself as an apparition o constitutional hope , shouting " _L'independenzj d'ltalia ; " and then , after a conversation in whicl Lord Minto thought the Pope meant all that England could desire , and the Pope _thoughf England meant all that the triple tiara could desire , the father-in-law of Lord John Russell , now our new foreign secretary , then Premier ) disappeared . Lord Palmerston protested on behalf of Sardinia , and then protested ; and there it ended . English opinions have had great influence , especially in Tuscany , in developing free thought ; English authors are read , English examples are emulated ; but no advantage is taken of the English influence . On the contrary , our Government made a great fuss about that " aggression" which Lord Minto condemned by anticipation ; our Government passed a Bill to coerce and offend Cardinal Wiseman—specially withholding coercion and offence from Archbishop M'Hale ; and then , in conjunction with the French republic , England restored the Pope to his spiritual and temporal authority . But the last appearance of England in that duchy has been a deputation from Exeter Hall to intercede for a courier and his wife , who have turned evangelical—and to intercede in vain . Such is the manner in which England has wasted her Italian influence .

      So much for the past—preface to a period when the influence of England might have been most valuable . In Piedmont is now proceeding a struggle that ought , above all others , to interest the people of the most Protestant country in the world . The Government of Piedmont , under d'Azeglio , introduced into the Parliament a Bill exactly , in its main purpose , like our own law , making marriage a civil contract , and leaving the religious ceremony to be performed at the dictate of conscience ; the ministers well knowing that in almost all cases , as with us , the contracting parties spontaneousl y invoke a religious benediction . Of course the priesthood resented this abstraction of their right over the A ery initiation of the home and the family , and the Bill was made the subject of a contest between the Vatican and the Court at Turin . The Pone , whom wo have replaced , under the . viceroyalty of the reactionary cardinals , has adopted a course insolent towards King Victor Emanuel , oppressive towards Italian Protestants in Piedmont . He has mado the Bill a caso of war spiritual , he has formally refused the request of the King of Sardinia for a statement of the reasons on which his refusal in based , and he has upheld the exiled Archbishop Franzoni in resisting the authority of the Sardinian Government . Pius the Ninth has done _meire than what would have been equivalent to upholding a Wiseman against the Ministry and the Sovereign of England , for Franzoni is moro like our a Becket . The Archbishop has shown in what contempt he holds the Government of Turin , by addressing to the clergy an insolent letter against the Act of Parliament , which declares that marriages contracted under _tliafc act ares not valid . civil

      And what , in their _struggles to maintain and _religitius liberty against an alien church h » H been the condition of the Government of _Piedmont ? One of unaided endeavour . Eng land has been as nothing to the Piedmont esc _Vrolestants , for such they are ; and per force they begin to yield . The Senate—their " House o Incurables "—has destroyed the main principle ot the Bill ; the Government has for the time g ivon way , by withdrawing the measure , although tho Lower Chamber might have restorod it ; » n Protestantism has received a severe check 'J _Piedmont . Such is tho way in which Eng hsn

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 1, 1853, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01011853/page/12/