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THE TUSCAN QUESTION: ITS TRUE PROPORTION...
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THE POLICE OF RELIGION. Eqtjalitt for al...
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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.
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The Tuscan Question: Its True Proportion...
THE TUSCAN QUESTION : ITS TRUE PROPORTIONS . Tuscany , we are told by Lord Malmesbury and Mr . Disraeli , has been brought to account . Sir Henry Bulwer has extracted , ample satisfaction —a full admission of responsibility , and an ample expression-of regret-, Somuch pro forma ; and it is good . We remember , indeed , that Sir Henry Bulwer is a pupil of Lord Palmerston ' s ; but it is some credit to the Malmesbury-appointing Government that it has done so much . We
observe , indeed , moreover , that the damage to a British subject is still rated at the same amount as before ; still it is something , in these mincing days of ours , to obtain an admission of responsibility , and an expression of regret . At one time Governments would have felt the humiliation deeply , and would have regarded the admission of responsibility as a practical matter ; perhaps in our day , since forms have been brought into so much perfection , the humiliating part of the effect has been smoothed away , and as the responsibility is not enforced , and not to be enforced in any practical form , it amounts to
nothing but a clause upon paper . It is a kind of form that Governments do not like to undergo , but which , for profitable objects , they will submit to , as Lord M'Cartney submitted to the Kouto in China . It was a sine qua tion , that he should knock his forehead on the ground , or come back from China to England without having done anything ; and , as a practical man , after some discussion , he elected to knock his forehead on the ground ; the more so as he could do it so gently as not to make a black mark .
In like manner , they cut the gordian knot of embarrassing questions . Tuscany descends to expressions of regret , and accepts responsibility . The Duke of Casigliauo writes the words , probably with not so much as a wry face , and there the matter ends ; meanwhile , if there is a Mather or a Baggs to be mauled again , Austrian officers can have at him , because they know that Tuscany pays the piper , acknowledges the responsibility , and expresses the regret : nay , a Schwarzenberg can also add his modicum of humane
chagrin that the rules of the Austrian service should prove to be so inconvenient to the bones of an inoffensive English passer-by . It is all a question between the Governments . Had it , indeed , been carried somewhat further —had the English Government felt itself bold enough to demand justice from men even in authority to a man even without authority—had it appealed to the intelligent people amongst whom the offence occurred , as from one nation
to another , we can have no doubt of the result . Small as it may be in territorial extent and statistical numbers , Tuscany has not filled a small place in the history of civilization . As she merged from the middle ages , her capital was the scene of the first developments of popular freedom , and then , as in Sicily , until they were deprived by the treacherous protection of England , the working-classes enjoyed an actual share in the Government .
Although m Tuscany the landed gentry presented some obstacles , still it is the fact that under the rule of Leopold I . free trade was developed at a time before the bare theory was born in England , In the same small state the germ of church reform was put forth by Rieci ; and there can bo no doubt that / if the freedom of tho people and the independence of the state had been suffered to grow , every question of papal aggression on tbis country , or even of _noo-Catholicism in Germany or Ireland , would have been superseded by fhe regeneration of the Catholic ! Church in a form more consonant with the general development of education and science . *
If fhe Mather question had been brought fo a rougher issue ; if the Tuscan Government had been forced more strictly to account ; , and had been thrown buck upon its Austrian protectors , it is possible that wc of England-might have had yet Home work to do , but , we should have found in that State ; Jong prepared fo our hand , a large amount of sympathy with _English feeling ; a large knowledge of English opinion ; and a strong disposition to act with _England .
Tho alien sceptre of the Palazzo Pifti is not Elorcneoi any more than Downing-sfreet is _ICngland , and if we had a real , national Government , authorized to speak from people to people ; , wo Bhould have found that the Tuscans were prepared , not only to do justice to _Erskino Mather ,
The Tuscan Question: Its True Proportion...
but to stand by England in resisting the encroachments of absolutism : for , as Tuscany , through the long lapse of ages has several times vindicated national freedom , civic freedom , commercial freedom , and religious freedom , so the same race now lives upon that southern soil with the same bright eye , and kindling heart , and abundant genius . The Mather case may have been hushed up , and our fanatics of the peace party will reckon that we have gained by
avoiding more decisive measures ? but if it would be a gain to this country to throw open a direct trade with Italy as with Hungary ; if it would be a gain to the English monarchy to establish outposts of constitutional government in Europe ; if it would be a gain to religious freedom to give the still surviving spirit of Ricci a political existence in the capital of Italian arts and letters , then we doubt whether this ready hushing up of the diplomatic squabble be all honour or all profit to England .
The Police Of Religion. Eqtjalitt For Al...
THE POLICE OF RELIGION . _Eqtjalitt for all varieties of religious sects , is that , upon which we insist , not less than political and social equality . We have from the first day of our existence insisted upon religious equality , absolute , without any exceptions whatever . We have received remonstrances on all sides , for there is not a single party that does not desire religious equality , except in its own case . There is not a single religious party that does not desire to have some peculiar privilege of its own , and that privilege which we seek to withhold from all , we seek also to withhold from each . More than one
correspondent has written to us claiming absolute freedom for free-thinkers , but desiring us to insist that all upholders of Christian doctrine must be ignorant , prejudiced , bigoted , stupid , and worth nothing but utter denunciation and exposure . Exposure is the word ; it implies everything bad , and the assumption that mere ~ " uncovering will suffice for total annihilation . We cannot follow these rapid controversialists so fast . On the other hand , earnest Catholics of the Romanist school have said sometimes , twice under the same hand , to us , that they have dropped a journal
which vindicated their equality with the rest , because it abstained from propagating their doctrine , or from shielding their doctrine against the free discussion -which we invoked for all . Yet again , Protestants accuse us of Catholic tendency , because they say , and we have letters in the same tone this week , toleration is well enough for all other sects ; not good indeed , for most something more is needed than toleration—absolute right ol self-development—for every sectbut the Romanist . _TheRomanist , however , according to those extreme advocates of freedom , has no right even to toleration any more than bears and wolves . Because
self-mistrusting minds are subjected to the influences which the Romanist missionary can exercise , exactly in the same way that they arc subjected to the influences of tho _Wesleyan , or have been subjected to the influences of tho Mussulman , we are called upon to aid in raising once more the standard of extermination against a particular sect ; thoso who make fhe claim not perceiving that the true safeguard against every religious bigotry or tyranny is freedom of discussion . _Freedom of discussion , however , loses its real life , its complete power and its value as soon as it ceases to bo absolute , and without qualification .
" Great is fhe truth and it will prevail , " says the controversialist , repeating fhe maxim until it becomes a wearisome emit ; and yet there is no advocate of any 'particular version of tho truth that does not desire ! to prop if up with some extraneous assistance ! . Tiio Church of England man , high in authority , declares that thi ! truth will prevail , when hacked by the policeman magna est Veritas , _magntisijue policeman , el pnevalebunt . Christianity has from time
immemorial assorted its right . to ' preach the word in highways and byoways ; and il , believes that its doctrines will carry all before if , ho long as other doctrines are kept out of tho straight and narrow path . The most distinguished member of the present Government was wont to reproach the Whigs with being an organized hypocrisy . Tho present Government allied us it is , ax officio , with _, the Church of England , us by law established , must be a Christian Government ; if must recognise the right , nay , fhe duty , of Christians to _ju'ouch the word in the highways ; but , when tho
The Police Of Religion. Eqtjalitt For Al...
word is preached in Bonner ' s fields as it has been by certain gentlemen more enthusiastic in that behalf than befits the tepid official temperature , bodies of mounted and armed police have been employed to drive away the preachers . It is true that on the same ground , named after the respectable bishop , Christian doctrine had to encounter the antagonism of a totally opposite doctrine , propounded by a new sect called the Secularists , who deny the proved existence of any divine origin for religion ; but of course in an open field the truth must have prevailed , and we are not to suppose tbat any Christian authority
should fear the conflict . It might be said that the working-classes could carry on discussions of the kind on w eek-days , but political economy tells us that we must not interfere with the rules of employment , which call upon the workingclasses to devote every hour of the week day to hard labour . The Sunday alone is left ; but when they meet on that day to discuss in the openest manner subjects deeply interesting to their temporal and eternal welfare , then they are told that that day is sacred . It appears to us that the ministry of a free religious country thus supporting free religious discussion must indeed bo an organized hypocrisy .
They rely , indeed , on the Bible—under the interpretation and protection of police law . They permit freedom of discussion—excepting face to face , in the open air ; and there it is hustled off the ground by police . The Roman Qatholics , it is said , are making head in this country . The late Government fulminated a statute against the bearing of ecclesiastical titles : the present Government , not
perhaps daring to go quite so far , but yet not liking to forego the electioneering cry of doing something on that side , fulminates a proclamation against processions and costumes of the Roman-Catholic order . We who have great faith in the power of the truth , believe that it will 155 " best vindicated by securing for it a fair and open field ; but the official guardians of truth and morals hold that it will not be safe unless it be
protected against a particular order of walking in the streets . Great is the truth , they say , and it will prevail—so long as we remove from its path the encounter with a certain Hat that has in itself an all-conquering power . Truth cannot be thrown down by error , but a particular species of broad brim may be fatal to it . Truth is a rock that can withstand every assault , except tho flutter of a cassock . A gentleman in a strangelooking hat , with a singularly simple piece of
white linen round his neck , and a remarkably unimpassioned form of coat , is so formidable to the believers in the established doctrine , that they dare not permit him to walk down the Strand , lest ho should positively crush the truth beneath his footsteps . Nay , highly Protestant minds are so alarmed at his aspect , so seductive , do thoy think it to the female branches of their family , that oven the sight of him from their windows is too much for the human virtue to withstand
and the only mode of protecting domestic peace , or doctrinal truth , is to forbid the appearance of that gentleman on the London pavement . Wo are not advocating the Secularist ' s doctrine ; on the contrary , those of our readers who have honoured us with their attention for any lengthened time , will be as able as ourselves to testify that , according to our interpretation , of history , there is a principle in every form of national religion which mankind is slowly but progressively working out , according as it developes its own faculty for the perception of that
truth ; and the Secularists , in our apprehension , in common with a very limited number of inquiring minds , have suffered themselves to be blinded fo that common truth of humanity by au exaggerated perception of tho absurdities which have accompanied the endeavours to render it morn specific . We are not advocating Roman-catholicism , or established Protestantism ; we aro simply , according to the best of our ability , recording certain historical " events , Iho elforfs
made by particular persons , or bodies of men , to enforce their own doctrine in a manner chosen for themselves , and we are pointing out what tho selection of that manner implies . We say that when a party in power declares by its acts that the orthodox version of doctrine can only bo maintained by tho help of the policeman , it implies a diffidence in tiie power of truth whieh wo do not share . We flay , that when the government of a country is appalled at the , aspect of *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 3, 1852, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03071852/page/14/
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