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1058 THE LEADER. [SAgtm;DA Y,
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PRINCE ALBERT'S SPEECH TO THE MAYORS IN ...
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DE. PLAYFAIR AT SHEFFIELD. Sheffield has...
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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 Latest Accounts From Turkey Are Comp...
of Theological History . We understand , indeed , that whatever may be the decision of the Council , this judgment has not been made without calling forth an emphatic protest from Church dignitaries infinitely higher In ranV and influence than Dr . Jelf ; amongst the students there is the bitterest anger at the expulsipn of so favourite a teacher j and out of doors the friends , of the Church , who do not belong to the " Low" party , deeply regret a manifestation which implies that the Church must repel from itself the services of its most eminent divines .
The effect produced by Lord Palmerston s letter , however , is both direct and collateral , and can scarcely be overrated . The Presbytery at Edinburgh , whose proceedings we mentioned last week , presumed upon the acquiescence of the Home Secretary ; because , whenever any established religious body professes to claim some observance , whether of humiliation or thanksgiving , in the most exalted of all names , the cant of conformity obliged official men to fall in and acquiesce ; or at least their own
subserviency made them suppose themselves to be obliged . For some time amongst enlightened men , whose number is every day increasing , this conformity was regarded , at first with a sarcastic amusement , but more latterly with vexation and contempt . It has been reserved for our own day to restore a more religious feeling to the higher classes of educated and scientific men , and this true sense of religion imparted a graver revulsion to the acquiescence in cant and superstition . The question was , How long shall the submission of better knowledge to ignorant bigotry go on ? Lord Palmerston has replied ,
! No longer ! He has not only stopped a superstitious practice , but he has shown the relation which practical science bears to a true religious view ; he has even shown—for the conclusion is involved in his letter—that sect is no longer to be paramount in regulating the executive administration of the country . " While the Church of England , through its Jeifishness , is rendering itself more sectarian , Lord Palmerston is practically enunciating the doctrine that the administration of a State like England is not to be regulated by sect , but is to derive its spirit from a religion infinitely larger and higher than any sect in existence . This manifesto from the
Itomeoffice has given a courage to opinion , vand made many men come forth and declare that for a long time they have thought so too—only they left bolder people to say it . Nor is it to be regarded as an impulse on the part of the ablest man in the Government . It would be quite possible , we believe , to trace in Lord Palmerston's own speeches , and in speeches of his colleagues , a continuity of thought which might be connected with the noble speech delivered by Prince Albert at the meeting in the Mansionhouse , on the 21 st March , 1849 . This speech
was delivered nine days before our own journal was in existence ; but the speech itself has been no nine days' novelty ; it so thoroughly belongs to the doctrines which wo have laboured to extend , and to the religious and intellectual movements of the immediate woek , that we have reprinted tho principal portion in another column . It has been proposed to erect a statue to Prince Albert before the time for such monumental compliments . The statue should commemorate an entire man , and tho entire man is not yet ,
before history . But whatever errors might be regarded aw a set-off before- we sum up the judgment ou a fellow creature , erring like ourselves , nothing can unsay tlio « o noble words . If the Lord Mayor wishes to immortalize his royal friend , ho could not do it better than by having those gi-ffftt words printed in letters of gold , and placing- thorn in the centre of tho metropolis as a text to mark the emancipation of religion from the trammels of sect for tho solace and benefit of mankind . "We talk of the dulnofls of thoso
times , but really there ih a progress going on which we can aw littlo measure as wo can tho ground that we traverse in an express train . Tho strike which continues in LancaHliire—tho masters showing moro obstinacy than tho menlias boon carried ¦ to violence and bloodshed . Wigan lias thus far boon the principal scene of disorder ** . There was a riot on Friday night last week , affcor a meeting of coal-ownora , who had resolved to make no concessions , and who wore fruifcloHsly pursued by n large number of colliers , bailing to catch the " firm , " but flying coalownors , tho rallying colliers attacked , first tho
Eoyal hotel , then the lamps of the town , and . ultimately , various unpopular shop fronts , which " suffered" severely . The gallant Mayor faced the rioters with a force of nine policemen , and thug proved to the colliers / experimentaUy , the utter incompetency of the local authorities ' to defend , the iown . The detachment of military from Preston secured the peace on the Saturday . On the Monday evening , however , a renewed attack was made upon a party of Welch colliers , secretly brought to supply the place of men who
had turned out from the works of Lord Balcarres , at Haigh : the rioters were repulsed , with a loss of seven wounded ; and the military again secured the tranquillity of Haigh , But now the demand for soldiers began * to exceed the supply . Wigan wanted more ; but Preston could not spare them , and Manchester had to furnish a detachment of dragoons . The strike continues ; patience on both sides is evi-r dently failing ; and it is probable that re-inforcements will be required to cure the disaffection of
the working classes . Queen victoria has taken her uncle Leopold to see the gigantic palace and gardens which are making for the people at Sydenham ; and a body of United Irishmen , united by art and industry , have performed the final scene of the . Dublin Exhibition , by giving a dinner to William Dargan . These are the fe"tes of that private enterprise of which we boast so much , we Great Britons . Say what we like about patronage , it is a pleasant and a useful thing to find royalty setting the seal of its approbation on works calculated to lead the multitude from evil courses ,
and to cultivate their taste for the beautiful at the same time . The meeting in Willis ' s Eooms , to set on foot the subscription for the Bellot testimonial , carried out the expectation : the room was crowded to excess ; the leading men were high in rank , social , official , and scientific ; the spirit was exactly such as might have been expected . This is saying everything .
While London , we might sav England , meets While London , we might say England , meets to commemorate the name of Bellot , Lynn keeps festival on the return of its hero , Cresswell , from the perils of the Arctic Seas , in the presence of his father . Sir Edward Parry was there also to place the chaplet of his approbation on the brows of the young man ; and while Norfolk can produce her Cresswell s , as in the old time she produced her Nelson , England will not want for defenders on the seas .
Scotland meets at Edinburgh , and in solemn form , and with due bitterness , claims her " rights " from us Southrons with proper Scottish emphasis . We get all the money , we manage Scottish business , we paint and paper and gild our palaces while Holyrood is open to sun and rain ; we give the Londoners Kensington Gardens , while the gardens at Holyrood are let to grow cabbage for the Edinburgh market ; we monopolize all the harbours of refuge , and , above all , we insult the Scottish Lion ! A pretty long list of grievances . What can we say in answer to them P What !
1058 The Leader. [Sagtm;Da Y,
1058 THE LEADER . [ SAgtm ; DA ,
Prince Albert's Speech To The Mayors In ...
PRINCE ALBERT'S SPEECH TO THE MAYORS IN 1849 . In March , 1849 , Prince Albert met the Mayors of many towns , and made unto them a speech on behalf of the Great Exhibition , then only a project . Some part of the speech referred to the special occasion ; but tho greater portion referred to trutlm which belong to all time , and are in striking unity with Lord Palniorston ' H letter . That portion of the speech we now reprint . " 'I conceive if . to bo the duty of every educated person closely to watch and study the thno in which ho lives , and , ns tar aw in him lien , to add his humble mite of individual exertion , to further tho accomplishment of what ho believes Providence to have ordained . Nobody , however , who has paid any attention to the particular features of our present iwru , will doubt for a moment that we aro living 1 at a period of mont wonderful transition , which teiuln rapidly to accomplish that great end , to which indeed all history points , tho realization of the unity of mankind , —not a unity which breaks down the limitH , and levels tho peculiar < iliiimetorJHl , ien of the different natioiiH of tho earth , but rather a unity the rc-Hult and product- of thoHO very national variotioH and untugoniHtic tiualitioa . The distances which ' depurated tho different nations and parts of tho globe arc ; gradually vanishing before the achieveiuentu of modem invention , and we can traverse thom with incredible eutio ; tho languages of all nations aro known , and their acquirement plucod within tho reach of everybody ; thought in communicated with tho rapidity and oven by tho power of li ghtning . On tho other hand , the great principle of division of labour , which may bo called tho moving- power of civilization , ih bein g extended to all branched of woienco , industry , and art . Whilst formerly tho greatest mental energies strove at universal knowledge , anil < Mt knowledge
was confined to the few , now they are directed to cialtieg , and in these , again , even to the minutest tioin ? ' but the knowledge acquired becomes at once the pro ™ H of the conun , un \ ty at large ; whilst formerly discnv « was wrapt in Beorecy , the publicity of the present a causes that no Boonei is a discovery or invention m / than . it ia already improved upon and surpassed bvZ ! potto * effort % e- products of all quar tos of the ffi are placed a * our disposal , and we Lave only to *!! which is the hest and cheapest for our purposes . I the powers of production a * e entrusted to the stimuli ™ £ competition and capital . So man is approaching « incomplete fulfilment of that greftt and sacred miisifn ^ h he has to perform in this worlds Ms reason beina- c » 2 after the We of God , he has to use it to Sover K laws by which the Almighty governs his creation and by making those laws his standard of action to eon quex nature to his use —himself a Divine fratni-J-T
Science discovers these laws of power , motion and tranrfpnnation . Industry applies the m to the raw matter which the earth yields us in abundance , but which become valuable only by knowledge . Art teaches us the innnut able laws of beauty and symmetry , and gives to our nro " ductions forms in accordance to them . Gentlemen the Exhibition of 1851 is to give us a true test and a Kvincr picture of the point of development at which the whole of mankind has iarrived in this great task , and a new startin ? point from which all nations will be able to direct the ! further exertions . '
De. Playfair At Sheffield. Sheffield Has...
DE . PLAYFAIR AT SHEFFIELD . Sheffield has an independent spirit , and we are not at all surprised to hear that the People ' s College is in a flourishing , self-supporting state , nor that '' the men of Hallamshire" invited Dr . Lyon Playfair to preside over their anniversary meeting , and make a speech to them . The People ' s College has educated , more or less , 2500 persons—men and womea—in five years . It has refused help from the rich , and has existed by its own vitality . Dr . Playfair delivered an admirable address , showing the increasing value of intellectual cultivation , and the decreasing value of hand-labour and the raw material describing how much better it would be both for industry and science , if industry remembered that science was her best friend , and made more provision for the learned class by whom manufacturers profit , instead of squeezing all the good possible out of the men of science , and then letting them starve ; inculcating a noble motive , —that of cultivating science for its own sake , —and speaking with all the weight of his own experience of the joys of scientific study , and the jncrease of dignity and .-self-respect which it entails . Here is a specimen of his oration : —
"There are two classes of objectors to the diffusion of this higher class of instruction among the artisans of this country . The first class object that if the artisans be educated in science , they will soar above their position , and neglect manual labour . Admitting that this is the tendency of such education , an adjustment on the principle of supply and demand would soon be effected , for un ] es » they found a demand for their intellectual , instead of their manual labour , the disposition could not be gratified . The same fear was expressed when the Eoyal Waval School at Greenwich began to educate sailors . Those who feared that an insubordinate spirit would arise with education , kept it at a low ebband a miserable amount of reading
, and writing , with the additional variety of being attached to tho whipping-post , was thought to he tho orthodox education for the truo British seaman . But singularly enough , tho Greenwich boy , in spite of this severity and ignorance , became a bad and insubordinate man , and captains of ships were thoroughly dissatisfied with tlio Greenwich contributions to then- vessels . A bold change waa then , introduced , and tho boys gathered up from tho sweepings of Wapping and Portsmouth were treated with kindness , and viewed as fit subjects for intellectual training . They wore now actuall y taught mathematics , chemistry , mechanics , and navigation , in addition to this elementary instruction . The lattor did not suffer , but waa much
improved by tho opening out of the faculties by tho sciences ; and at tho same time reading , writing , and geography were learned moro efficiently . JNay , more , tho boys were taught , as if they were to be captains , to take latitudes and longitudes , and to navigate ships ; and at fifteen they were drafted , as of old , into the navy and into merchant vcbsew . Did this high education unfit them for their position a » ordinary seamen P On tho contrary , they were much moro fit . Thero were far fewer deaortiona than lormerly , aim Hcarcely any records of bad behaviour ; and the captain " , who declined their services before , now oagorly aemauu thorn . It i 3 true they rise in life , and from conjmon aoamo ^ becomo warrant officers , or oven mates and mastersi BhipB . But thin is just as it should be , and is a Io f HJ , " of their increased knowledge . Depend upon it that Ku lodge will never unfit a man to be a citizen ot "ie woi Ignorance will lead a man astray , and aa the father »*»' . wvtm .,,, > ., ; n , » Ur , » i . ;» fi » fi > nn imt'inv to socialI > rogrest ) , i
truo knowledge can only produce loyalty , V * txw U » m , > of order , and love' of duly . The second class of <> 1 > 1 * T [ who aro now rare indeed , dislike tho «» ontili « H « 0 n ** of our population , because they fear that it w apt i «¦' man sceptical to the truths of religion . in rt ' £ ' .,, ' ' objectors , I have neither 8 ympathy with their J « i . arfl , ^ inclination to argue tho point with them . Xhe opuw ^ fact , reaolvea itaelf into an apprehension that , a u / . God ' MwiHdom is likely to » ubvort God » truito . . « ' ' fact , to think that the contemplation oi tho ^ l " " ® ™ „;„ ,. and power of the Creator i » likely to ^ ^ X ,, ' ' or , ia But if you aro still told that tho study o « ods pow displayed in creation is likely to depreciate your ^ toT veneration for the Creator of nil thing * wto * the og ^ to that iiwpirtid Word which givoa you « . wwramy
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 5, 1853, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05111853/page/2/
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