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SUNDAY OBSERVANCE AT FULHAM. In the shor...
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TIME AND WAGES. The promises held out by...
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TO CORRESPONDENTS. Among other letters w...
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There is no learned man but will confess...
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THE POPULATION QUESTION. London, May 20,...
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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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Carlyle On Parliaments. Talk And Twaddle...
function of Governor , can lead us only into No-Government which is called anarchy ; and the more ' reformed or Democratic you make it , the swifter will such consummation be . " And this conclusion Carlyle enforces with such searching penetration , such amplitude of unfolding , and such force of eloquence as he alone commands . But these in their fulness may not be transferred to our columns ; so that you , reader , must even # o to the pamphlet itself , if you would do justice to the said Carlyle , or possess yourself with what is in him on this behalf . Here we would
utter a protest against his conclusion as insufficient ; as leading to nothing at present , excepting through the anarchy which he predicts , and which verily is coming , if men do not forestall it . But there are ways , we think , more ready to hand than he allows , more forward in preparation than his melancholy sight will see . We do not join in the idle complaint that Carlyle is destructive , and not constructive—that he points out an evil without finding a remedy . Nothing is more cowardly and foolish than to avert the eyes from an evil , even though you have not your remedy cut and dry . We may , at least , do our best to
avoid the evil , that we may be urged the more to find our remedy . We do not ignore the existence of hydrophobia and mad dogs because we have no specific at hand . When evils are great and overruling , it inevitably happens that the destructive process comes first , and perchance we do our work the better for having only one tool in hand at a time ; and in the earlier process we do not want the constructive tool but the demolishing tool . A pickaxe is not a trowel ; and when we are pulling down it is not trowels that we want . In Carlyle , therefore , we look rather for the denunciation than the new law ; and what we complain of in his latest manifesto is that the denunciation is
not complete . He finds that Parliament talks too much , and that it cannot govern ; and straightway desires a King , because Kings have governed , — when other bodies were weaker than kings , he should add . He asserts that Parliament , even by universal suffrage , cannot be the collective wisdom of the nation , but only the collective folly , because men are mostly fools , and , therefore , the more universal the collection , the less will it be wise . Also
men being fools , and not masters of themselves , nor of such circumstances as may be under human controul , are also mostly slaves , whereas it is the free man , he who is loyal to the laws of this universe , that has in him the faculty of command;—which is in part true , and in part false : false because men are not mostly fools , meaning by the term such as are palpably below the average of noramon sense . But it is true that the multitude
cannot govern ; true that the body whose function is described as limited by the multitude , also is debarred from governing ; therefore universal suffrage parliaments can less govern than limited suffrage parliaments , though they may more authentically advise . But why have we come to this talking , actionless pass ? Because , Carlyle will say , " we have not been loyal to the laws of the universe . " Will he tell us what are the laws of the Universe ? We
have in this life-pilgrimage not consecrated ourselves to obey God and God's servants , " nor to disobey the devil and his . " Who is the devil ? Will Carlyle give us a pamphlet identif y ing the Prince of Darkness that we may know him as he stalks abroad ? Will he describe to us the livery of God's servants that we may know them and pay them our willing obedience ? Truly , if that were done , no more would be needed ; for God ' s servant in a well-known livery would at once be voted King — aye , even voted—but there lies the very difficulty .
We have departed from the . laws of the universe , as it seems to us , because the clergy , the sacred body called upon to explore the said laws , and their relation with the instincts and consciences of men , have become depraved by the modern bigotry for the intellectual spirit ; or by the modern faithless devotion to the commercial spirit ; or by the iu > less modern sybaritic love of comfort and peace rail Kir than truth and power , for that is the present
iorm ol efleminaey amongst us . We are slaves to comfort : we dread disturbance . We prefer talking in ambiguous mediocrity to raising a question . Hence our language has become meaningless ; and we multiply it in vain . We are without a Doctrine and without present means of elevating one in the market-place . That is why we are without guide , why our Kings arc without inspiration , why they have lost their power over
the multitude , and why we are drifting into anarchy . If the many have gained power by the march of intellect , and the spread of information , it behoves our kings to gather to themselves a corresponding larger power , to acquire greater faculties ; whereas our present condition is , that a working weaver , as in our own Open Council to-day , is so far ahead of our priests that he can teach them their function , and our prime minister—our ex offido king—can be set right on almost any subject which he ventures to touch by intelligent
members of a Mechanics' Institution . How can he govern them ? How can it be otherwise than that he should be governed by them ? The thing we want is a doctrine , a doctrine that may open our understandings to a faith in the eternal powers , a faith which we once had even in spite of our ignorance , and have stupidly lost in spite of our boasted knowledge . But we shall not gain it while
the true pioneers of the age remain content to utter vaticinations that find their most eloquent and pregnant passages in equivocating language about God and the devil . Some of us have forsworn that equivocation , and are bent upon trying what plain sincere language can do . If Carlyle will not help us in that behalf , inferior men will pass him . But he has , if rumour be for once right , some six more pamphlets to come . Will they be explicit ?
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Sunday Observance At Fulham. In The Shor...
SUNDAY OBSERVANCE AT FULHAM . In the short conversation which took place in the House of Lords , on Monday evening , on the Sunday Trading Prevention Bill , the Bishop of London does not appear to have delivered any opinion either adverse or favourable . There can , however , be little doubt as to which side he will take in the discussion of such a measure . Much as he seems inclined to revive old doctrines and ceremonies in the church , he is one of the last men from whom we should look for any attempt to
revive the Sunday observances which prevailed in those " good old times" to which the Anglo-Catholic Reformers wish to carry us back . One of his predecessors , Dr . Aylmer , who was Bishop of London during the latter half of the sixteenth century , was blamed by the Puritans of that day for not observing the Sabbath according to their Judaical notions . "This charge , " says Strype , in his life of Bishop Aylmer , " was founded on his playing at bowls on Sunday : a recreation he delighted in , and used for the diversion of his cares and the preservation of his health at Fulham . "
Historical parallels are often no more than historical paradoxes , nevertheless as there was a Bishop Aylmer and there is a Bishop Bloomfield , suppose we institute a parallel ? Was the ancient bishop less orthodox , less pious , less admirable than the modern ? Would it greatly deteriorate society if Bishop Bloomfield , instead of vainly endeavouring to infuse galvanic life into the doctrines and ceremonies of a bygone age , were to take Bishop Aylmer as his exemplar , and in the pleasant grounds of Fulham revive the healthful game of bowls ?
The lusty old Bishop whose example we now cite was plagued by the Lord Ashleys and Sir Andrew Agnews of his day , who were alarmed at such " profanation ; " but he doughtily replied that he " never withdrew himself from the service or the sermon on the Lord ' s day ; that Christ , the best expositor of the Sabbath , said that the Sabbath was made for man , and ru » t man for the Sabbath ; that man might have his meat dressed for his health on the Sabbath , and why might he not have some
convenient exercise of his body for the health thereof on that day ? " The biographer adds , that it was the general custom on Sunday , in those days , in all Protestant countries , after service was over , " to refresh themselves with bowling , walking abroad , and other innocent recreations ; and the bishop followed that which , in his travels abroad , he had seen ordinarily practised among them . " And so it is to this day : only Scotland and Geneva keep the Sabbath with the rigidity which suffices the sticklers for purity . France , Germany , Sweden , Denmark , and Norway know of no such
qualms respecting innocent enjoyment or indispensable employment . Are they less pious than Scotland ana Geneva ? or are they only less addicted to formalism ? In Switzerland you may tell at once whether you are in a Catholic or Calvinist canton by one very simple and significant trait—by the cheerfulness on all the faces that you meet . True , the Puritans would say that cheerfulness is sin . We should not rejoice , for " we know not how long it may last ; " and , as David Scott ' s parents
repressed even the smile on their children ' s faces hecause it betokened a painful " levity , " so would our wise , religious , and sincere legislators repress all recreation on the Lord's Day , because it betokens a want of due " seriousness " and respect for the Eternal Father .
Time And Wages. The Promises Held Out By...
TIME AND WAGES . The promises held out by the more ardent advocates of the Ten Hours Bill , that wages would not fall with the shortening of the hours of labour , have not been fulfilled to the letter , at least in Manchester . From a statement in the Daily News , of the average wages of factory workers in Chorlton Mills , for the last five years , it appears that the average weekly wages for man .
woman , and child , were lls . 6 | d . in 1845 , and 10 s . lljd . in 1849 . If the reduction in other mills is not greater than this , the operatives have no reason to grumble at the result , seeing that they have gained two hours a day , for recreation or self-improvement , at an expense of only 7 d . a week . Surely this is not a bad exchange to any one who knows what a glorious heritage two hours a day may become , if pleasantly and fruitfully employed .
To Correspondents. Among Other Letters W...
TO CORRESPONDENTS . Among other letters which have been unavoidably postponed there are two which we shall make a point of giving next Saturday , —one respecting prize essays on the comparative merits of Common Labour , or Association and Competition , as the future basis of society ; the other on a simple and easy mode whereby the Cooperative principle on a sufficiently large scale may obtain a fair trial . We shall have some observations to make respecting both communications .
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There Is No Learned Man But Will Confess...
There is no learned man but will confess he hath much profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his j ud <* ment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversary to write . —Milton .
The Population Question. London, May 20,...
THE POPULATION QUESTION . London , May 20 , 1850 . Sir , —In the last number of your paper Mr . Barton , asserts that " population , unchecked , will always exceed the means of comfortable subsistence . " If the intellectual and physical powers of the population could always continue to be as inefficiently cultivated and applied as they have hitherto been , there might be some foundation for this assertion . But it is not at all probable that this will be the case , for society is rapidly growing wiser , or , rather , less irrational , than it has been ; and when the gross folly of the existing system shall be generally understood , it will necessarily be abandoned . For it is in the nature of man to act more wisely as he becomes more
wise . Every acre of land of average quality , well cultivated , will produce a plentiful supply of food for from two to four persons . Allison calculates that the soil of Groat Britian and Ireland will support 120 millions , about two persons to each acre . Lord Lauderdale , 180 millions , about three to each acre . And in Lance ' s Cottage Farmer , I find it stated that
" one pair of hands , properly directed , can till and keep cropped during the year three acres ; and these three acres will give food for twelve persons ; " that is , four to each acre . And this is not taking the extreme case , for it is said that in Ireland an acre of potatoes will feed twelve persons . But as the Irish acre is nearly twice as large as the English acre , this number is only equal to from six to seven persons to the English acre . based
These statements , however , are upon only the ordinary and known processes of cultivation . To what extent the productive powers of the land may be increased in future centuries it is impossible to foresee . At the rate of two persons only to each acre , Europe and America alone contain land enough to support more than four hundred times their present population with an abundant supply of food . Add to these , Asia and Africa and the Islands of the Pacific ocean , and how many times must the population of the earth be multiplied before the earth will be ' replenished r "
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 8, 1850, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08061850/page/12/
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