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770 T H E ^EAD E R. [No. 334, Saturday,
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Sift idjSCHIBALD ALISON ON THINGS IN GEN...
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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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¦ » Scanty As The Political News Is, At ...
the existence of men upon the earth long before the thick crust which formed above those relics , alarm is created lest the belief in the Scriptures should be imperilled . The . theologians do not yet perceive the sublime focfe 3 & at * he more <*»•*& - vance into a knowledge of the ttiseation , thte moK we study the autograph of the Creator , the nfiwett we come to the great and univiMBal truth . i On the contrary , i * t « not * frp * t » t and ttftOpWeal truth that is upheld In this country with anf firm confidence , but the Thirty-nine Articles . Dr . Lushington has positively laid down the law at Bath , sitting there as judge for the Archbishop of
Canterbury , that the Thirty nine Articles axe the standard of creed for the teacher , and therefore for the flock , of the English Church . He not only forbids you to consult the great autograph , but also the Bible ; the Thirty-nine Articles being a superior authority to either 1 Having preached doctrine on the subject of the " real presence" in ih % consecrated wafer , repugnant to Articles 28 and 29 , the Venerable George Anthony Denison , Archdeacon of Taunton , is pronounced to be so far heretical ; and he is warned by a suspended sentence that , unless he recants before the J st of October next , he shall be deprived .
"The Archdeacon ' s heretical opinions are to us strange ; but they are not so repulsive as the declaration of another Archdeacon — Archdeacon Thorp— -that he cannot close the church at Hartlepoolj which has been the scene of a chronic " row . " Our readers know this case . The incumbent and the patron differ on points of doctrine ; and to estop the incumbent , the patron sends into the body of the church , at periods of divine service ,
crowds . who make such a scene in the edifice as they would in a booth at a fair . That is the kind of divine service which is carried on . Certain of £ he parishioners apply to the Archdeacon to exercise his authority in closing the edifice ; and he replies with a platitude—that he does not think it consistent with his duty to close any church for divine service so long as it can be kept open ! The Archdeacon ' s sentiment is either most gigantically sublime , or most contemptibly ludicrous .
Hut we cannot wonder at the aberrations of the clergy when we find " the best possible instructors , " the press , so far at sea . The Leading Journal , helped by divers others , sustains the new proposition that the stage must not hold the mirror up to vice , but only to virtue . For the great Traviata controversy has continued , and has received new elucidation from the pen of Ltjmi / ey " . He / hopes to disarm the controversialists by sacrificing the Traviata as a lost creature who is destroyed before the eyes of a virtuous audience , in
o ' rder . to prove the total perdition of vice . According to XiTJMttfT , Violetta is a Magdalen , only not pardoned . The other persons of the drama are appointed for the very purpose of stoning her to death ; the audience—of course without sinassisting . The audience , however , has given the beat answer to the controversialists , by going to the additional performances in increased numbers . 9 the Times can * lo much , but it cannot stem tiho Very triid-strejam of public opinion . The Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland has
held its gathering m Athlone , Lord Cart . isi . ts chairman and Spokesman . The constabulary and tkb farmers , combining m the annual returns , enabled him to give a glowing account of Ireland ' s prosperity — a continual increase in land-culture , in produce , and 'in tho value of wages . < £ n tittft centre of Connaught , where the old Irish ¦ 'ftefitott ; t % lb ¦ ' English monarch and forbnde the ad-Vfcnee f of his representatives , the Viceroy of the 13 hglifih fnbntifrcjh h now -the welcome advocate of JErilh dnteroata . '
A public meetingihwB been held in Edinburgh fc > disavow the late verdict in the Scotsman case , and to pay the fine ; the Bdhtborgh public thins tofcing upon itself to disclaim both tire law as it h
laid down fiiteoiartandots application , and to remit the fine . flUie public of the modern Athens makes thj » Question one between itself and the Court tfSession ; and th &> Scotsman , with * its pr « - prietar m . n & ^ writers ,- mUwB ¦ exaoerat << grom any liabiSfy in Ike matter . VfoSmveflfhe report « dfand » her reformatory in full wmck . ttt is not mm , though newly faMftgbt under « fcfc « t ) tice < HAe pwMfci . It is tftfc ® elvidere Crescent Reformatory ; established by Mr . William Driver , a volunteer , who some time back
conceived the idea of redeeming the boys in the streets by a plan , of tuition and industry combined , which should be self-supporting . dHe found a big house in a poor neighbourhood , which he rented for himself ; he took a few boys out of the streets , and taught them while they were making boxes for their mutual support . The trade succeeded , and the teacher succeeded ; he obtained other assistants , and the reformatory was enlarged . This week , on sending out nine boys as emigrants to Canada , he invited their companions in the school—ay , and their
companions in the streets—to a parting visit , while he uttered a few words explaining the principles of the reformatory . They are simple enough . He makes duty the prime object of solicitude to the boys ; but also he makes the boys themselves feel that they are practically , at each moment of their service with him , —at the very moment of -takin" leave of him for Canada—in the most literal sense of the word , volunteers . Volunteers , they persevere ; and Driver has proved that the reformatory principle may be made self-supporting , as we are convinced that all reformatory and penal discipline may be made .
Let us contrast this real discipline of our race with the miserable exhibition of 'Dove strangled before the public , after a maudlin confession paraded as evidence of his penitence . Let us compare it with the butchery , before the public , of Master Brown , who had slain her husband in a fury worked up by his cruelty ; cruelty being the beginning , the middle , and end of the whole lesson .
The fact is , that death is not the penalty that deters the ignorant and the reckless , otherwise we should not have , while the inquest on the Cymmer Colliery is sitting , another colliery explosion . Otherwise , indeed , we should never have had the Cymmer explosion ; for the whole course of the evidence proves that , from the manager to the workman , it was impossible to make those who risked their lives feel the risk they ran , although they frequently saw the gas playing in flames round their naked candles I
As little can death restrain that kind of ignorance as ruin and disgrace can restrain the madness of gambling in commerce . Another bank , at Newcastle , has just turned out to be one more among the instruments of John Sadi . eik , actually placing itself at his service for operatyns in London and Tipperary . And Lord Maidstonh is figuring at Guildford Assizes as defendant in a case where
he is sued upon accommodation bills . The noble viscount , had given five bills collectively for 6100 J ., to the Hon . Francis ViijMkbs ; and he had had Bome part of the proceedings himself . His name has thus 'become mixed up , unconsciously to him-• sel'f , with the forgeries of tho Hon . Fiiancis ; Lord " MAtDSTowrB ^ s name alone being forged to some sixteen or seventeen accommodation bills . And
in this 'trial three noble names are Freely ban'tlied about as engaged in the spurious trade carried an'by means of a person -who did business " on commission . " Two "df the three noble young gentlemen have left the country . Tho third , less implicated , defends himself successfully , though he has smarted bitterly for his commercial relations with a Vimjcerb . This trial nlarks assuredly tho
most fTrMKaaftvplace in the community , where high bLaodi trade , usury , and " sport , " combine to be thtitanfimaidens of swindling .
770 T H E ^Ead E R. [No. 334, Saturday,
770 T H E ^ EAD E R . [ No . 334 , Saturday ,
Sift Idjschibald Alison On Things In Gen...
Sift idjSCHIBALD ALISON ON THINGS IN GENERAL . £ Che men & drs of the Seaham Mechanics' Institute ¦ ° w . uHi til Wfuttday addressed in a discursive speech ijgr ^ Sir Archibald Alison , who Js at present staying at the residence of the " Marchioness of Londonderry . He said he wished to educe three truths from passing events , and he then proceeded : — . The first of these is the absolute need of all the country—and , above ell , of the middle classes—being impressed with the imperative necessity of maintaining our national armaments on an adequate scale , if -we would avoid , not a repetition of our late Crimean disasters , but
the advent of disasters infinitely greater , and , perhaps , the ultimate and not distant ruin of the empire . { Hear hear , " ) Another subject upon which I wish to address you is the great and important change which has taken place , not in this country alone , but in the whole world , arising from the discovery of the vast gold mines of California and Australia , the effects of which it is impossible to over-estimate . I propose to conclude with a few remarks upon the effects which these changes will have on the relationships of society around us . { Hear . } Now , gentlemen , if there is any one point -which the lessons of experience show us in the most clear and lucid colours , it is the immense danger we have run during
the last forty years , consequent on the reduction of our national armaments . So great have been these dangers , and so enormous the perils we have incurred—so inconceivable the infatuation -with which the nation was driven forward in the course which imperilled its very existence—that , really , when a person comes to look back on the history of the last forty years , he feels as if he were following the steps of some sonnambula , treading , with her eyes blinded , on the edge of a precipice . I will give you one or two examples of the danger you incurred in consequence of this desire to lessen our national armaments . At the conclusion of the last war , there was no person "who ventured to show himself upon the
hustings to solicit the suffrage of a constituency -who did not begin directly by saying that his principles embraced unflinching economy and unsparing reduction in every department of the State . That was the universal cry . No one ventured to gainsay it . The advocates of retrenchment were entirely successful , and they reduced the armaments of the country to the very lowest point . I will tell you what were the dangers we incurred in consequence . In 1835-6 , in consequence of the prevalent cry for economy and for reduction , our army in India was reduced by 100 , 000 men . The army , consisting of 260 , 000 men , was reduced to 150 , 000 . Attend to the consequences of this . The Russians knowing this , and
that -wo had dismissed our , old soldiers , who were the nucleus and the strength of our army , immediately began to encroach upon Northern Asia . They conquered Persia , and moved forward to Afghanistan . They besieged Herat , the key of Hindostan and our possessions in India , and we were obliged , therefore , to extend ourselves into Affghanistan , in order to repel the power of Eussia , which then threatened us in the East , as it has recently threatened us in the "West . Now , attend to this . The Afghanistan chief , Dost Mahommed , had command of the passage that led from Northern Asia into India , and tuat chief offered for 60 , 000 / . a year to enter into a close
alliance , offensive and defensive , with Great Britain , and exert his whole strength to repel the Northern invader . They -would not give him the money ; and what was the consequence ? The Russians succeeded in establishing their influence among them , and we were obliged to send an expedition to Affghanistan to endeavour , at the point of the bayonet , to regain that influence , which we had lost from false economy ( hear , hear ); und that expedition , and the war which followed , cost our Indian Empire 10 , 000 , 009 / . sterling , and occasioned a loss to our army of 6000 fighting men , and 19 , 000 camp followers , ol whom only one escaped the terrible disaster . Twentyflve thousand lives were thus sacrificed .
Various other instances to the same effect were mentioned by Sir Archibald ; among them , the fact , as ho alleged , of our having dismissed 10 , 000 men from our army in India , tho consequence oi which was that they all took service with the Sikhs and Runjeet Singh . To the gold discoveries , the speaker attributed our unexampled national prosperity since 1850 , prices having been rinsed by cold beeominor cheaner—a result beneficial to all
orders . ; He warned the working clnsseH against u recurrence to the fatal impolicy of strikes ; ami , again glancing at tho Russian war , ho oxhibiteu that , had wo at once taken Sobnatopol , Russia would J » avo retired unscathed to her interior , ana the war would have been protracted perhaps lor twenty years , instead of being brought toaupccdy close by tho immense loss of Kussian troopH during tho campaign in tho Crimea .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 16, 1856, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16081856/page/2/
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