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3mx % 185&;} ^BEE . LEADER. 01*7
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CONVOCATION UNDER WEIGH. The Convocation...
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THE CIVILISATION WE DEFEND. The last pre...
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INQUIRY INTO THE CONDUCT OF THE POLICE. ...
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.
The Debt To Raglan. Lobd Raglan Has Depa...
tf geeePP . Itr is due then to Raglan to carry tfceJSng ttsh flag victoriously against Rrassia ; lai ^ if ^ 'caBWot be d one m that corne r ofi ? be odn * H «* it j then to raise the red cross high in the very cemfcre of Europe ; rascrifoixig his nawe upon the national ensign , where he would have planted it if his -wiser counsels had hero oTtteyecL
3mx % 185&;} ^Bee . Leader. 01*7
3 mx % 185 &;} ^ BEE . LEADER . 01 * 7
Convocation Under Weigh. The Convocation...
CONVOCATION UNDER WEIGH . The Convocation of the province of Canterbury bas resolved to ask the Queen for leave to consider and agree upon a constitution . That is the most momentous fact in the modern history of the so-called Church of England . At its previous sitting certain coimnittees were appointed to inquire concerning several matters—church discipline , church extension , and what not . But they WBve met on the threshold of the business by th ^ fact that the clergy forming the Lower House imperfectly represent the great body of the clergy of the Church ; and , mindful of this obstacle in the way of any effective legislation , they determined that it would be wise to reform the representation of the Lower House before attempting anything further . Accordingly the Bishops of Oxpord and [ London brought up a report to i > hat effect ; it was adopted in spite of the reclamations of the Archbishop of
Canterbury , and the address to the Crown was resolved upon in the Upper and accepted with som $ important modifications by the Lower House . Surely , these proceedings speak strongly for the progress of that movement which we foresaw from the beginning must be successful if carried out with spirit and determination . The war has overshadowed , but has not stayed the agitation in the Church . Iiike many other questions—parliamentary
reform among the rest—this one has not floated noisily on the surface of society ; hut nevertheless it lias gone on accumulating strength with what result we now see . How well we remember the outcry raised in 1852 , when Lord Derby ' s Government first intimated that Convocation might meet for the despatch of business . How well We remember how that first real meeting was sneered at by the journals , who will have none other than things as they are—the
partisans of a Lion and Unicorn system of state Teligion . The Times likened Convocation , then , to the French Marquise , acted about that time by Dejajset , who , having taken Strong drink in her old age , talked with " improper unction of the sins of her youth . " And so , thought the leading journal , here are Churchmen under the influence of the strong drink of ecclesiasticism , dreaming and raving of their hot youth when they had councils « nd played a part in the state . We have always said thnt this Convocation
movement is the test of what real sincerity there is in the Church of England ; and that fey this the Church must stand or fall . There are many within and without the Church who We nothing in the movement but a sort of intoxicated reminiscence of past timea—a Ort of Church Jacobinism revival , got up for no other purpose and wit . li no other motives ttiau an uneasy desire for power ami notoriety . In real truth , those who look deeper than the surface will see that this \» a movement tfcat cannot bo evaded ; tliat it is at least as tyiuteh ono of the great questions , of the day
m education , or adinini . st , mt . ivc reform , perl ^ ps as the war iUolf ; for it springs diiMbly out of that anarchy within the Church t ^ 'Mi cn honest men can no longer tolerate . The oth and easy persuasion of the past , that creeds and doetriiioh ot ' tlio Church are so 'Pile as to include believers * uul unbelievers ,
and almost every shade of belief and unbelief , ; will hold together no longer ; TV « i take the Church agitation as a sign that we Ihs © in sincerer days , when the best anen in England , and especially those among fclaem who undertake to administer her spiritaal affairs , will no longer consent to live in temporal fetters , under mere royal patronage and . parliamentary sanction . That noble feeling is , we trust , the strong drink under which the leaders of convocation are acting . And whether her Majksty grant the prayer of the address adopted last week , or refuse it , this is certain , that there will be no sort of rest in the Church
until the great question involved in that demand is answered . For what is the question ? Nothing more nor less than the moral honesty of the spiritual teachers of at least three-fifths of the English people . The Church of England is not what it pretends to be ; and if it cannot be made accordant in principle and practice by Convocation , the fabric will split asunder never to unite again .
The Civilisation We Defend. The Last Pre...
THE CIVILISATION WE DEFEND . The last prerogative of a dependent and degraded Government is the power of cruelty . The protected Indian prince , who cowers before a British captain of engineers , retains the authority and the spirit to flay alive a defaulting tax-payer . The King of Naples , abhorred by his own people and despised by every other , can still immure and torture the
noblest citizens . The Papal Government , with a spasmodic energy which is qoiite consistent with its prostrate imbecility , continues to enact its tragedy of pusillanimous and vindictive despotism . Its last crime may rank among its worst . The Piemonte —liberal Italian journal—contains particulars of recent executions at Fermo , which , with the late transactions in Naples , we conanieiid
to Mr . Gxadstoue s attention . The affair is not a secret in liome . It has been promulgated by official placards , declaring the fiat of the Sacred Council . Within the present month the town of Permo has been excited by a proclamation , announcing the capital condemnation of five young men , who have since undergone their sentences . Their names were Hossetani , Smerilli , Venezia , Testort , and Cassellini . The crime imputed to them was that , " inspired by the malignity
of faction , " they had assassinated Michael , Consi , a canon of Ferino , \ i \\ o died on the Oth of February , 1849 . Corsi had himself affirmed , in ' articiilo mortis , that he had been murdered by two persons , whose names , with a magnanimity which would have done credit to his avengers , he refused to disclose . This fact , perfectly well known throughout the Papal territories , proves thnfc three , at least , of the young sufferers were innocent , unless they had formed a " plot of the dagger , " commissioned two of their number to put it
into cxeoution . . But retributive justice in Formo is not so swift as in Paris . The blow which smote the Canon Consi was not expiated so speedily as the shot whii-h missed the Majesty of Franco . During six yours the live accused languished in a papal dungeon ; but , in May last , ^ political com mission , presided over by Cardinal A-nokms and by Siujnor Moiucr , cited
these half-forgotten captives to appear before it , and doomed them to the death of assassins . The evidence adduced consisted of mere conjecture , " based , " savs tlio Piemonte , " on the ideas of nn individual . " No direct testimony was oilorod ; not even the show of corroborative i ' uetH . A person , pretending to have been an accomplice of Tjwtori—one of l \ w | ivo—clmrged him and his friends with the crime , ami upon this wretch ' s evidence ,
tiSb & s a lapse of sux yeaee * they were conidemaed to , decapitation . B * ii > the sentence partly explains itself . The accused—so runs the bloody placard—were " confederates , no * torious Liberals , meaabere of political clubs . " To a . depraved and cowardly Government like that of Some , nothing more was necessary to constitute them criminals of the first order . But the occasion was not barre ** of great results . It gave birth to a . Papal ^ epigram , which is now the bitter jest of every Piedmontese reformer . When the commission
had . pronounced its decision , his Holiness was requested to ratify it . He perused it steadily , and . seemed to reflect on the value of his signature attached to such a . deadly warrant . The Italian journal adds , " He addressed himself to a person of great eminence who was near him , and confessed his doubts as to the culpability of the condemned . ' Yet , ' he said , ' I know not what course to pursue . If I execute them , I shall appear cr \ t # l ; if I pardon tlvetn , I shall he The advice
taunted with Liberalism ? " which the " eminent person" ventured to give was to the effect that the Pope should divest the question of its political bearings , and act upon the dictates of his conscience But he offered no reply , and shortly afterwards , when pressed to sign the paper , yielded , and left the five young Italians to their fate . It was in vain that the public advocate , Signor Bbuni , of Genoa , " protested before God that his clients were in no
way implicated in the assassination of the Canon Cobsi , " and offered especial proof on behalf of Casselxissi . The courts were closed against every appeal . The Government was implacable ; the day of execution arrived . It was a day of mourning in Fernio . The five victims went to the scaffold calmly , protested solemnly against their doom , and cried revealed
" Viva Italia ! " with , a spirit which the true grounds of their punishment . But the town was more gloomy than a sepulchre while its people spoke of these latest victims , and of the two hundred citizens of Fermo and of Ascoli who had been condemned to the galleys for political offences within six years , in addition to twenty who had suffered death .
Not long before these miserable scenes were enacted in the Papal States , fifty political p risoners had been marched in chains from Montefusco to Monte Sarchio , in the kingdom of Naples . Poebio was among them . Mr . Gladstone ' s letters and Lord Palmebston ' s remonstrances had no effect on the paltry Caxiguxa , who sits in trembling ferocity on the throne of Naples . The perpetual and systematic oppression of Italy by this perfidious bigot in one quarter , and by the College of Cardinals in another , by Austrian soldiers fund graud-dukes throughout the peninsula , is a reproach to Europe , and a significant commentary upon the
ebullitions of our libor-al sympathisers . The Papal Government , which retains only tl * e power to afflict and corrupt the nation , and the Neapolitan Government , which imitates Caraffa in ite inventions of cruelty , are types of the civilisation that now spreads over the greater part of Europe . French bayonets uphold the one ; Austrian policy overshadows the other . The Bouapartiat alliance forbids us to pity the Koman ; would not " assistance from Austria" teach us to sneer at the sufferings of the rest of Italy ? . So vaguo as yet are ' the principles of a uutiuu . that professes to light for mankind .
Inquiry Into The Conduct Of The Police. ...
INQUIRY INTO THE CONDUCT OF THE POLICE . Tiikuk ia a motive which no doubt actuates the Government in refusing inquiry mto the conduct of the police during the disturb *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 7, 1855, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07071855/page/11/
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