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Wiiitk and lliiACic Si.AVioH.— I have no...
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dtym Cntraril.
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[iJT THIS DEPAHTinmT, AS ALL OPINIONS, H...
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There is no learned man but will confess...
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THE LATE CO-OPERATIVE CONFERENCE. (To th...
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LETTER FROM MR. E. VANSITTART NEALE ('i'...
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VON BECK AT BIRMINGHAM (To the Editor of...
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ME PROVINCE OF TOLERATION (To the. Edito...
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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.
Hie Dangers Of The Temperance " Cause." ...
to poison your skin , and he will no more suffer you to enter his house in a great coat than the Teetotaler would allow you to bring in a bottle of wine . A third friend invites you to a Christmas festivity , and lets all his fires out , as he conscientiously objects to poison your lungs by the relaxing effeminacy of warm air . Another refuses to give you coffee at breakfast , or your wife tea in the afternoon , as he conscientiously objects to poison your nerves with those deleterious drugs . You fall ill under such unexpected usages aud the want of the accustomed conditions of your life , and send for your medical adviser . But you cannot have
him at your friend's house . He is a decided Homocopathist ; and unless you will swallow certain globules of " arsenicum , " " belladonna , " " nux vomica , " "lycopodium , " or " toxicodendron , " in which you have no kind of faith , you may perish . Your friend ' s conscience will not condescend or consent to let you poison yourself by allopathic mixtures and compounds . What is this rule of conduct but the old Papist , Protestant , and Dissenting intolerance , which dictated the form and spirit in which men should worship God , under the pretence that they could not conscientiously allow men to poison their souls by creeds and doctrines unapproved by them . This is a principle which , instead of making you respect
conscience as the beautiful rule of a man s own life , makes you curse it as the source of public fanaticism and of private rudeness , as that which converts the table of friendly hospitality into a bear garden of contending and intolerant sectaries . " No , sir , " added the outraged litterateur , " if this is your doctrine , may it perish , with you . Order my cab , and direct the driver to some inn where there is more civility and less pretension to public virtue . For they are more excusable who put an enemy into their mouths to steal away their brains than they who , pretending to a virtue others have not , put a dogma into their heads to steal away their manners . "
Here was the instance of an educated gentleman , of unblemished private habits , of remarkable abstemiousness , treated with Vandal coarseness , and forced , at a late hour , into the streets , to seek some other public asylum , where he could be supplied with the ordinary conditions of his own health . And these cases are of common occurrence . It will be said this gentleman ought not to have been directed to such a place . Granted ; but may it not be asked why such places , with the title of Temperance Hotels , should be conducted so as to disgust everybody with that wholesome name , and to make it impossible for a public speaker to revert to it , who otherwise might extend its influence among the people . There are some
few Temperance Hotels in the provinces from which this intolerance is banished , but the gentlemen who keep them are all tabooed by their worthy colleagues of the Teetotal Committee . We have no right to complain of false professors , who bring true religion into contempt—of violent democrats , or denunciatory republicans , who endanger public freedom and the cause of popular government by their excesses—while we affect silence , if not approbation , with regard to a bod y of men who arrogate to themselves the virtue of sobriety and good will to the populace , and all along display the very intoxication of imputation and _uncharitublejie . _ss , and demoralise in new respects the manners of those whom thev aflect to save .
We claim to he considered tho _truo friends of this said Temperance cause , to write for its reformation , and to save it from the dangers to which it exposes itself ; and we believe that many of its intelligent napporters will agree that there is some truth in our _representations , anel some cause for our remonstrances . The present writer has the pleasure of knowing many active , eminent , and liberal friends of this cause , who deplore , with him , the exaggerations nnd extravagances which deface it .
We will pursue this subject further , and devote a few paragraphs also to the Anti-Slavery advocaey ( a most noble cause ) , whie-h is open to the same objections , anel which , in the name of a very noisy Immunity , contrives , year hy year , to rivet , the fetters of the poor negro faster than before . Ion .
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Wiiitk And Lliiacic Si.Avioh.— I Have No...
_Wiiitk and _lliiACic Si . AVioH . — I have no doubt there are many shrowel people in your country who say , and many shallow people in both countries who echo the Haying , that there is very little substantial difference between the condition of the _Knglish labourer and that , of the American slave ' . There is , however , even in our poorest , districts and in the worst of times , all the difference that exists between humanity and barbarism between the _dignilicd Hollering of a man oppressed by untoward circumstances , and tho abject wretchedness of another driven about like a beast--hi short between manhood and hrutehood . — Fraier ' s Magazine . — August .
Dtym Cntraril.
_dtym _Cntraril .
Pc01611
[Ijt This Depahtinmt, As All Opinions, H...
[ _iJT THIS DEPAHTinmT , AS ALL _OPINIONS , HOWEVEB _EXTBEME ABE ALLOWED AN _IXPBESSION , THIS EDITOB _UECESSABILT . HOLDS HIMSELF _BESPONSIBLE FOB _3 _TONB . _1
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 nis judgment sharpened . If , then , itbe profitable for him . to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversary to write . —Milton .
The Late Co-Operative Conference. (To Th...
THE LATE CO-OPERATIVE CONFERENCE . ( To the Editor of the Leader !) London , August 9 th , 1852 . Sir , —A paragraph having appeared in the Leader of Saturday , August the 7 th , stating , " It may satisfy inquirers to know that we did not exclude the report of the Co-operative Conference—which we had prepared last week—because of its sectarian and exclusive character , so damaging as we conceive to the interests advocated by that conference , " & c , —permit me to remark , that if it be meant by the above that the report
you had prepared was of a " sectarian and exclusive character , " you acted wisely in withholding its publication j but if it be meant that the Conference itself was of a sectarian and exclusive character , I think the remark could only have been made under some misapprehension of the character and proceedings of that body . I should therefore feel much obliged , and I am sure the delegates who attended that Conference will also be glad to learn from you , in the next number of the Leader , in what the sectarian and exclusive character of thc Conference consisted . Waiting your reply ,
I am , Sir , your obedient servant , Thomas Shobteb , Secretary to the Conference . [ Our correspondent ex officio labours under a gratuitous difficulty in not being able to divine whether the report we prepared , or the Conference , was " sectarian and exclusive . " We applied those terms to the Conference . We received a letter from Mr . Shorter , on July 13 th , requesting us to give publicity to the fact of the Conference being about to be held , but no invitation to
attend its proceedings reached this journal . As this discourtesy was not put upon some of our contemporaries , who have laboured less than ourselves in the same cause , we presumed that , with respect to us , the omission was intentional . On the other part of the constitution of the Conference we do not now enter . Mr . Vansittart Neale ' s letter , which we give bolow—so much moro explanatory and courteous in tone—will bo read with satisfaction hy the friends of universal cooperation , —En . I
Letter From Mr. E. Vansittart Neale ('I'...
LETTER FROM MR . E . VANSITTART NEALE ( 'i ' o the . Editor qfthe Leader . ) August 11 , 18 ( 52 . Dear Sir , —In your paper of the 7 th instant there are sonic observations relating to tho late Co-operative Conference which impute to it a " sectarian and exclusive eharacfer , damaging to the interests it , advocated . " I presume that these observations take tbeir rise in the circumstance off . be greater number of _associations represented af that Conference , and of the persons who took part in if , happening to be connected with the body known as Christian Socialists . You must , however , allow mo to state , from personal knowledge , that this circumstance arose , not from the want of
invitations having been sent to other bodies of an associative diameter , nor from any attempt made to exclude persons not connected'With the Christian Socialists , but simply because few comparatively of those invited to send delegates chose to do so , and these were principally the associations more especially connected with the Society for Promoting Working Men ' s Associations . Invitations were sent , to every co-operative body of which the address was known to tliose who convened the meeting ; anel if on this first , occasion the greater number of the associations which answered the invitation happened to be acquainted with the invito ™ , this ia a circumstance to be expected at the commencement
Letter From Mr. E. Vansittart Neale ('I'...
of such an undertaking , and one which will not I h recur on a future occasion , when the intention of _hS ing a Conference will be better known , and the localit selected for holding it will be in the neighbourhood f a great body of co-operative associations . It was tl hope of the conveners of the Conference that most if the leading characters known to be favourable to as « ciative views in London would have been present and sit as delegates from different associative bodies , wh by the terriis of the invitation for holding the ' Co ° ' ference , were not confined in their choice to members
of their own associations . On another occasion T trust that we may find as members of the Conference all , or most , at least , of those whose names are connected by public repntation with the advocaey of co " operation , as the representatives of associative bodies and that by their presence all appearance of exclusive ness in the constitution of tbe Conference will be _effectuahy removed . Those who were present at the meeting know that the _exclnsiveness was in appearance only : from beginning to end the discussions turned
entirely on practical subjects interesting to all associative bodies , and were as devoid of all sectarian character as it was possible for them to be ; and if the circumstances which I have mentioned gave to the Conference an appearance of exclusiveness , the conveners of it are not fairly chargeable with a result which they endeavoured to avoid , and individually regret . I am , Sir , yours truly , E . Vansittabt Neaxe .
Von Beck At Birmingham (To The Editor Of...
VON BECK AT BIRMINGHAM ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Birmingham , August 10 , 1852 . Dear Sie , — ' In your impression of the 31 st ult ., appeared a leading article on " The Von Beck Case , " with which I fully agree , and regard it as one of the fairest summaries of the facts of the case the press has yet issued . "An Old Subscriber , " dating from this town , in making some remarks on a passage in that article , says , that Mr . Dawson's brother-in-law gave , as the medical adviser of the " Baroness , " his opinion , that " any sudden excitement , or the exertion of walking up stairs , might cause her death , " and therefore implies , that the fatal issue might have been foreseen .
On this I would beg to remark , that after this opinion had been given by Mr . Crampton , the pseudo Baroness had so far recovered as go out both in a carriage and on foot , that on the night previous to her arrest she was dancing , and on the same night would have taken part in private theatricals—rather exciting amusements . * Now , I would ask , with these facts before tlicm , and with the full conviction that the woman was an impostor , what else could the defendants have done but agree to her immediate arrest .
It is much to be regretted that , with only the ex parte , statements at present before the public , persons should be so rash , so forgetful of the dictates of common justice and fair play , usually considered tho especial characteristics of the English people , as to prejudge a case in which tho character , reputation , and honour ol their fellow men arc involved . I am , Dear Sir , yours truly , Anotiieb Om > _SunscitiiiER-
Me Province Of Toleration (To The. Edito...
ME PROVINCE OF TOLERATION ( To the . Editor of the Leader . ) Sib , —I am often surprised at the forbearance yon exercise towards your enemies . I admire your toleration of those who , however much they abuse you , recognise your right to the opinions you may hold ; but towards those who _sacrifico all individual liberty of thoug ht _<<> an idea of conformity , I think toleration is at once dangerous and wrong in principle . With those who admit private judgment , the freedom of speech or propagandism ia mutual liberty . Hut the case is far different with those who ignore and anathematize all opinions but those which priests _inflyeoi " ,, " ' orthodox ; I hold , then , that he who ignores my _<¦»» _' ' science has no rig ht , to expect bin own to be respected-I have been led to these remarks by yoiu - short
paragraph of last week , on " Mutual Toleration ; »" whatever version you may put upon " free thong" > free speech , free development for all , " I consider _inyHoH a consistent , advocate of free thought when 1 deny ( another the right to usurp my liberty . 1 think tna liberty does not consist in such proceeding , . a » y , 11 (> 1 < _^ than true honesty consists in giving to yonr neig h '' goods to which he lias no claim . I know not but this position may be false or _Ji »» ' doxicid , but , I feel that some distinction oug ht to l »» drawn between the _admitters and _deniors of p « va o judgment . —Yours , truly , _EabneSX .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 14, 1852, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14081852/page/16/
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