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March 1, 1856, j THE LEADER. 205
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THE PEOPLE'S SUNDAY: HOW THEY CAN SET IT...
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EDUCATION FOE OFFICERS. One fact made ap...
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.
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Transcript
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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.
Sadleir Our Witness. " It Is An Exceptio...
at festival or state meeting , and say if many a radiant presence there does not triumphantly establish our position .
March 1, 1856, J The Leader. 205
March 1 , 1856 , j THE LEADER . 205
The People's Sunday: How They Can Set It...
THE PEOPLE'S SUNDAY : HOW THEY CAN SET IT I"BBB . The representatives of the nation have , by 376 to 48 , decided against Sir Joshua Walmsley ' s motion for opening the British Museum , National Gallery , and similar places , on the Sunday ; and this , it is said , is the decision of " the country . " In one sense the assertion is true . There is a mode by which any man may join in dictating to the people of England . Whether he has taken orders in the
established Church , has attained a ministry in some dissenting " persuasion , " or has only appointed himself on the " mission " " to convert tlie heathen " at home as well as abroad , he has but to put on a black coat and a white neckcloth , to quote clipped phrases at random from a sacred volume , and- he is licensed to speak as presumptuously as he likes , nobody daring to gainsay him . We all know that the Christian Sunday is not the Jewish Sabbath ; and yet all manners of texts derived from the
Old Testament can be flung at a public meeting by a loud-voiced , or a thin-voiced , Pharisee , in white neckcloth and black coat , and the meeting ducks its head , submitting The dictation comes in the name of the Church , but we must not , therefore , accredit the better observance to the whole body of the people in churches and chapels on a stated Sunday , —for among even those congregations are numbers of neutrals , indifferents , and submissives . The majority of the people are not inside
those buildings at all—they are outside . If they did not go to the National Gallery and British Museum , they could not go into the churches and chapels , because there is no room provided for them . And why is no room provided ? Because their eoming- is so totally out of the question , that it would be a simple waste of money to provide church-room for them . This is the manifest interpretation of the fact , that no church-room has been provided . Neither the Government , nor the Church , nor the white neckcloth class has
thought it worth while to give churches for that majority of the English people . There is , therefore , a large aggregate majority of the people , in and out of Church , who do not at all agree with the grounds for the better observance ; but they suffer judgment to go by default — they have been brought up to consider conformity in matters of faith as so identified with respectability in society , that they dare not stand up and state their own opinions , in opposition to the white neckcloth interest .
What the people would do if they were free we know , because when there are no laws to restrain them , they choose the mode in which they would observe the day . When Hampton Court is open to them , th « y flock to Hampton Court in large numbers ; and they would continue to do so if it were not for the opportunity which the white neokcloth interest has had of starving them out by closing the houses of refreshment on those days .
In Scotland the anti-Sabbatical spirit was at one time so far roused that it broke down , bodily , the barriers constructed to exclude the people from a pier near Glasgow . Even in Presbyterian Scotland , therefore , tho public is beginning to resent tho dictation which makes tho seventh day a day of gloom and seclusion , instead of being a free day for tho enjoyment of Nature and the restoration of vitality .
One speaker sot forth tlie true spirit of those who are dictating to the English people . It was Mr . Tiutton , at Exeter Hall , last week .
He said that " not one single . hour of God ' s blessed day ought to be polluted by pleasure . " Luckily Mr . Teuton did not preside at the creation ; neither "has he had sufficient influence to get the sun , and the breezes , and the flowers , and the living creation , to be suspended even on the seventh day . It is remarkable that the divine Creator should have been so totally regardless of the observance of the Sabbath on the great principle enunciated by Tritton . But the fact is so . We know what
would have been the case if Teuton had been substituted to give a law to the universe . He is quite correct in the statement of the position on his side ; but we claim to act according to the law of the creation , which is directly opposed to his law . The House of Commons , however , has given its vote on the side of Tritton against the Universe . There is , indeed , one qualificati on which we must make in accepting this decision as the decision of the country . We must remember that in this , as well as in other matters , the country is not represented in the House of Commons , but only one-sixth bf the
country . There is also another consideration . The House of Commons has a perfect right to say that it is not the dictator of opinion to the public—that it is not the originator of conviction—is not the theatre in which first principles are struck out , or public opinion shaped . It is at the best only the registrar of the wellunderstood wishes of the constituencies . The
real formation of public opinion is out of doors . The elected chamber , which registers the edict of a sixth of the people , naturally finds the settlement of the Sabbath question beyond its power . The real settlement of the question lies in the hands of the people itself . Whatever may have been the case fifty years ago , the bulk of the English people is no longer sanctimonious , no longer slavishly submissive to sectarian tyranny . Nothing is more remarkable than
the progress of opinion m matters of religion , even during the last ten years . As bigotry has declined , a natural piety has taken the place of sanctimoniousness on the one side , and of scoffing on the other . There is a conscientious desire to spend the day , both of labour and of rest , more in accordance with the law which , after all , necessarily governs organised beings—healthy industry for one day , healthy rest for another ; not torpor on either . The custom of the time , therefore , is gradually accommodating itself to this more enlightened opinion . It is quite clear that ,
although the House of Commons has not the moral courage to face a white neckcloth , it would have quite as little courage to face a healthy resolution on the part of the pecFple . There has recently been an attempt to enforce the Sabbath at Preston , by a fine ; but this antiquated law could aot be called in force often without provoking such an outburst of public opinion as would destroy it altogether . Of all classes the working classes are , as a body , the least enslaved under the dominion of cant , and to them we look most especially for the true legislation on this point .
The defeat of Sir Joshua Walmbley , last week , should be to them a signal to settle this question by a great act of self-government . It can be so settled . It is a principle , recorded in history , that all our most boasted liberties have been taken first , and statutably recorded afterwards . The same course of legislation is open now . Let tho people make their own arrangements for spending their holiday according to their own will and senae of right . They may defy the ministers of sect or faction to restrain them . They may , indeed , find that sect has stolon
a march upon them , by placing lawless restraints upon those houses which minister to the feeding and rest of the "wayfarer ; but if houses of public entertainment are closed against them , the working classes have shown that they possess both the ingenuity and the energy to provide for their own comforts . The law which tries to entrap them by
literalities can easily be set aside by literalities . There is one place of public entertainment on the river which is constantly open on the Sunday , and which may remain so . Even if hocuses that trade in refreshment were closed , the working men can form their own associations , and could , we have no doubt , obtain the gratuitous use of many grounds around large towns or further in the country .
When the public shall thus have made laws for itself , it will find the House of Commons elected by the sixth , willing enough , to register some statute suitable to the actual circumstances of the time . The working classes are apt to say that they are unenfranchised , because they do not possess a right of ^ returning members for Parlianaent . Perhaps the vote-possessing class is not the freest in the country . If enfranchised in a
Parliamentary sense , it is enslaved in another sense . In many respects the class not possessed of the vote is the freer ; but it will not , we know , grudge the exercise of its own freedom , because there is a possibility that it may lead the way for a greater freedom of the poor sect-ridden " enfranchised" class . We appeal for legislation on this vexed Sunday question , then , from the usurping House of . the Sixthj to the real Commons of England .
Education Foe Officers. One Fact Made Ap...
EDUCATION FOE OFFICERS . One fact made apparent by the "war to the vulgarest mind , is the military deficiency of our officers of every rank , high and low . Nobody questions their bravery ; everybody reflects on their skill as a body . That we should have no general of transcendant -qualities is a misfortune , not a fault ; : that we should not have plenty of officers , in all ranks , above the average , is a fault and not a misfortune . Whom we shall blame for it , whom we shall hang for it , are idle questions now . You can ' t grow a crop of educated officers as you could a crop of mustard and cress . Those who have gone before should have bequeathed military institutions to us ; theirs was the omission . Some indeed are alive , but many are in their graves ; it would be useless to frame indictments against the dead ; we have to deal with the living alone . The British Army is a very peculiar institution . It is , or has been , partly a snug preserve for the aristocracy , into which younger sons were sent to seek their fortune ; partly a brilliant plaything with which military dilletanti did disport themselves ; and partly a political institution—a sort of police , with red coats and bayonets , sustaining administrations like that of Lord Liverpool , and supplementing defective municipal management . It was called a profession ; but it never was a profession , except with a few earnest man wlxo are to be found in every class , It was called a profession , but it was a pastime . As you bought a box at the Opera , so you bought a commission in the Army . You purchased the privilege of commanding your fellow-crea- * tures in moments when life or death trembled in the balance ; and you actually were not called upon to show that you had any qualification whatever for the task . In fact , almost your sole qualification was the gold , the cheque , or the notes you handed over to the outgoing-tenant as the purchase-money of the property temporarily held by him . No education , no talents , no character required—
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 1, 1856, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01031856/page/13/
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