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976
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SUGGESTIONS ON RAILWAY SAFETY. September...
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HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE WEEK. (From ...
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Pbaise and Blame.—We may take the opport...
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Cmimtmtal Itatra -
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MONEY MARKET AND CITY iNTELtfG*^ ' <¦ On...
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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.
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Rongk On Russian Absolutism And Religiou...
. 7 pft » nie -with the Austrian rules m S pl ? Sd stirs ufli 8 rensions in Ireland . Indeed , of ita hierarchies can we safely defy the Czar and His ^ Th ? e a enSes ° 4 o England accomplished an historic ^ SS ^ of r ^ ig ioui p- ^ err i ? ? ors struggles with Popery V ^^ Ust ^ Sl SftgSsSssssand of ald "lf , * This ff » o time for delay ; for the put the w ° rld . 1 his w n & nd darknesg and Srfotrheir tlcT I think it here necessary slavery « " *«* . prevailing errors , which "ilS ? heVe » o f Protestantism , and of J tneir xtorts
""" " *' . '' , nf humanity , in e against foJTaZn fanned ft profitable account b y the JesuiS . I mean the erroneous notion of toleration , and of the principles of religious liberty In the commencement of the Papal aggression controversy , it wS argued , on the Continent as well as in England , tw a relieious toleration of Catholicism requires that the Pope should rule freely over the Roman Catholics of England , and appoint bishops at will declared that if
Cardinal W iseman , in his appeal , the principle of religious liberty is to be a venty in England , the Pope , as the spiritual head of English Catholics , must have the right to carry out his hierarchy in all its completeness . It is , however , notorious , that the Church of Rome proclaims itself to be the only pathway to salvation , and that it anathemizes all who dissent from its doctrines . Everv Roman bishop is even bound by oath to
persecute all such persons as heretics , and to bring them back by every sort of compulsion , to the pale of his Church . Is toleration quietly to permit the cruelties , the persecutions , the intellectual despotism of this hierarchy and its dogma that the aim sanctifies the means ? Does toleration mean the sufferance of Jesuitical craft and violence ? Is the law which insures religious liberty to one sect , to authorize it to oppress the religious liberty of all the others ? Religious toleration is the recognition and respect of ever } ' sincere and independent religious conviction .
The recognition of equal religious rights is its result . As soon as a Church fails to recognize these equal rights , it violates the first principle of religious freedom . This has been the uniform characteristic of the Church of Rome when unchecked by the supreme power of the State . The persecutions of the Free Church in Germany , need only be referred to as a case in point . If religious liberty is to be understood as Cardinal Wiseman claims it for Popery in England , it would give with one hand what it takes with the other . It would be tantamount to a law
which should permit to English subjects , as a consequence of their personal liberty , to keep slaves ; or aa a result of Free Trade , in time of peace , to equip privateers . Catholic bishops are , by virtue of their oath , ecclesiastical privateers . Such a doctrine of religious liberty would even involve the toleration of a Church which might deem it a duty to sacrifice all those who dissent from it as victims on its altars . Every liberty , however , finds its legitimate limits , and its inherent power , in the moral system of the age
from which it sprang . Popery in its very essence is opposed to religious liberty , based ub it is on the principle of a blind obedience . The Pope only has religious liberty within the Catholic Church . It is both falsehood and hypocrisy on the part of the Roman hierarchy to pretend that they are animated by a desire to procure a larger measure of religious liberty for the Catholics of England and Ireland . They would have best proved their sincerity by divesting themselves beforehand of their own privileges within the palo of their Church , by ceasing to treat the Cutholic laity as dependant minors without religious rights , and by permitting them , like the first Christian communities , to choone their pastors , to determine their confession of creed free from dictation , to regulate the worship and to administer the property of the Church as their
own . This view of religious liberty does not involve that I should advocate the revival of the oppressions and injuries to which the Catholics of England were subjected in former times . I only oppose the spiritual despotism which Popery exercises both within and without the Cutholic Church . Having been a Catholic priest myself , I had ample opportunities of learning -what craft and practicus were employed by the Catholic clergy to keep tho laity , and especially the
youth , in slavish subserviency . But , because I deemed it a moral suicide and a crime to Buffer myself lo bo u « ed an an iuhtrument for the degradation of my fellow men , 1 broke the yoke . For that reason I know that there is a great differ once between the Catholic hierarchy and laity . AhIc an intelligent Cutholic layman if ho approve of the cruelties and heretic persecutions of the Catholic clergy , and ho will tell you that there is u distinction to bo madobetweon Catholioiamand priestly Jesuitism .
I am also convinced that the intelligent porUon of the English Catholics discern the designs of Cardina ] Wiseman and of his superiors m Pro P J * ° ; V ^ that t hey know and feel that they can gam nothing from them . Their patriotism will doubtless Prevent their being used to bring Popery ^ *™»«* Absolutism into England . ^* * ™ £%°£££ * will , as in Germany , obey the call of thenew Reformation , and form Free Congregation s independent of Rome and priestcraft . The ascendancy of Popery over the progress of religious knowledge mainly depends on its perfect organization throughout the globe , and on its ability , to to
wherever a religious movement appears , bring ; bear on that one point all the Catholic power of the world to crush it . To oppose it with success , all religious communities and intellectual powers , which consider it as the root of spiritual evil , must concentrate their energies throughout the world against it . This union can be based , without respect to differences of creed , upon general principles . Preeminently qualified for the attainment of this great purpose will be those religious communities which recognize perfect religious freedom , active love , and unchecked fundamental of their
religious progress as points creed . The presiding committee of the Free Congregations of Europe and America , now in London , has taken steps in the United States of America for the accomplishment of this object . May no one tarry who can now discern the present dangerous position of Europe ! May we learn to unite our powers , and we shall yet be able to break the power of Popery and hierarchy , though they triumphantly exult on the approaching downfal of Protestantism in England , and to raise an impenetrable barrier against the barbarism of Russia in an intellectual and moral
regeneration of nations . I remain , Sir , your obedient servant , Johannes Ronge
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t % t ) e & ££ &**? [ Saturday ,
Suggestions On Railway Safety. September...
SUGGESTIONS ON RAILWAY SAFETY . September 23 , 1851 . Sir , —Reading the other morning , as the Train screamed under the Claycross-tunnel , your admirable notice in your summary ( of September 13 ) of Railway Accidents , and passing afterwards by the Cottage where still lies one of the mangled victims , I was struck by the strange truth of youT remark , viz ., ' * Butchers grieve to see mutton bruised , horsedealers grieve over broken knees , but railway passengers are a live stock not thought to be lowered in market value by any amount of knocking about . Eels in a Hamburg boat , lobsters in a fishmonger ' s tub , passengers in an excursion train—perhaps it is an exaggeration to presume a perfect equality ; for in the strict letter passengers h ? ve no saleable value . Look at the accidents recorded this week at Bicester , Hornsey , Nottingham , Leith , and Gateshead . " And , reflecting upon it , I find that passengers are really worse off than horses and oxen . Cattle have clover time of it compared with travellers . You never hear of a smash of sheep , or of six or seven hunters being killed , or the bones of twenty nags being broken . It must be because quadrupeds fetch
something in the market , and men and women nothing ; and so in a commercial age only commercial things are cared for . Had not passengers better place themselves at the disposal of the Railway Company to be sold at the end of their journey at a moderate tariff ? Any person would be happy to redeem his frienda or relatives at some moderate sum , if offered in the Railway Market unmnngled . The proceeds of the sales , if divided among the Directors , Station-masters , and Engine-drivers , might be influential in procuring common safety .
"Very soon there will not be a tunnel which hns not been choked up with human beings—nor a station ¦ which has not been the scene of a tragedy , nor a part of any line which has not its reminiscence of a diHaster . Private travellers tell us that the banks of the Mississippi are strewed with the graves of emigrants who perish voyaging on it—not a little owing to the recklessness , tho go-ahead habit of the American captains—and in not our own Railway becoming one interminable Golgotha ? Some find satisfaction in the recentverdict which gave £ 4000 to the widow of the gentleman killed near Derby . But poor people have not the legal advisers to instruct them how to bring actions—nor the means to do it if they had—nor would juries he likely to
regard their claims very liberally if they could bring actions . County MagiHtrates , and County Juries arc rather apt to be impreBned with a ( sense of , surplus population , and not to regard as a serious evil every diminution of it . Will the families of the slain at Bicestor get proportional compensation for the Iohhcb they have HiiHtained ? We tthall Bee . The jury seem to have got Bomewhat mystified in acquitting tho Company in one clauHe of their verdict , and objurgating about the " Hhrino of profit and dividend" in anothor . If the Company deHerved to be acquitted , the y ought not to be rojHouched by iuuendo . Meanwhile , we uro told for our convolution , that the rutio of ucoidcnlB to tho number of travellers in very mnall . But in it necessary in tho Railway aystom that there should bo a
certain proportion of disasters ? It will make littl difference to me , when my turn comes to be crushed to be assured that the ratio of death is very low . An excuse is found for those r esponsible fo Railway management , in the fact that the public still continue to rush to the line and accept the temptation of " cheap " rides , although they may foresee that the Excursion may prove one to the Hospital or the grave . But , Sir , it ought not to b e overlooked that at least in densely populated , and hard-working anufacturindistrictsthe ublic is
m g , " p a poor and ill-educated creature , so limited in means that " cheapness" must seduce it , and so seldom seeing a pleasant sight that a " Great Exhibition " must tenant it . If , however , the " public " were wholly cul pable it would form no proper excuse for the greater culpability of Railway Directors , who being gentlemen of fortune and education , we have a right to expect from them strict honour , active consideration , and humanity , as the attributes of their character and position .
In my former letter , in reference to Railway Insurance , it is said that the Railway Assurance Company , in St . James ' s-street , assure the amount of £ 50 for life for 53 ., it should have been £ 100 which can be assured for that small sum ; and I learn that that Company is now actually negotiating with several of the leading Railway Companies to effect the insurance of their Officers in the way suggested , the successful result of which the public would be glad to learn . One who almost lives upon the Line , G . J . Holyoake .
Health Of London During The Week. (From ...
HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE WEEK . ( From the Registrar-General ' s Report . ) In the week ending last Saturday 1014 deaths were registered in the metropolitan districts . In the 10 corresponding weeks of the years 1841-50 the average number was 980 ; but if the population in which this mortality occurred had been equal to the present number of inhabitants , the average would probably have been 1078 . In the previous week , ending September 27 , the deaths were only 958 , compared with which the last week has apparently produced an increase . It must be observed , however , that the present return has been unduly augmented by coroners' cases , many of which properly belong to antecedent periods , but have been accumulating till the end of the quarter , when their registration was ultimately completed . By far the larger proportion of deaths on which the coroners hold inquests are produced by violent means , and fall under the general denomination " violence" in the table of fatal causes .
Pbaise And Blame.—We May Take The Opport...
Pbaise and Blame . —We may take the opportunity to notice a popular fallacy into which many persons have fallen who have but imperfectly mastered ihe doctrine of philosophical necessity ; a fallacy so often repeated by Robert Owen that he may be said to have made it his own , but which we find put forward as an original conception in the Letters on Mans Nature and Development It is , that as man is the freature of circumstances , he is not properly-th e subiect of praise or blame , reward or punishment . Now , tkDrSelv because man is the creature of circum' tancSTw f- no other reason , that prrnsc and blame reward and punishment , are applicable to lus case FoTwhat , among other things , are the dreamstances of which he is the creature ? Why , ] gaisc and blamereward and punishment W ' £
, ^ ma ^ aid he is influenced by our commendation-. We blame him , and he is affected by our censure he were not thus influenced and affected , our ^ ra e and blame would of course be thrown away .. W J not , therefore , praise or blame an ichot nor one o « hardened a nature as to be insensible to tie a gu h of kindness or reproach . The root oi the ^ ) the use of the abstract term " circumstances v £ out a previous analysis of its meaning . < - ^ stances , " in reference to the human clmracttr , motives . Man is the creature of motives ¦ ™™ J as arising from our own observations and rent" . or as auggested to us by the minds of others . " d in which considerations of praise and blame ., r puniahment , are largely mingled . — From IVestmu Review for October . _ aor-
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Cmimtmtal Itatra -
Money Market And City Inteltfg*^ ' <¦ On...
MONEY MARKET AND CITY iNTELtfG *^ ' <¦ On Monday the Board of Trade cnimed BO" \ C ' ' " !!" u » tion in the English funds , and Coiwoto *" j tttilll ,, l . 97 J 1 ; but the improvement ha « not been m t () By successive depletions they dropped on , [ rH , luy to 9 < U 97 ; on Wednesday to 96 J |; and on l j « ' r £ t ( . 9 Gg i , subsequently recovering the prevu . ua « y The opening price this morning was-Consoh . , J >* « ^ The fluctuations in Co . ihoIh have been : —fr « ¦ 974 ; Exchequer Billa , from M » . to 47 h . pre . niui . K ^ Foreign scourities wore brisk at the b « K " " ; K lint week . Yesterday tho transactions m the otn < ^ . comprised : —Mexican , for account // , / (> A > " ji ^ lf ltussian Five per Cent ,,., Ill * ;<*« * ° T *^ Vi ; per Cents ., for money , 101 d and fi ; tho 8 n ?' ' h Wdlnlan Frvepw C « U » ., 83 ; the Scrip , H » na
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 11, 1851, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11101851/page/20/
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