On this page
-
Text (7)
-
180 ®!> * 2LeaiteV+ [Saturday,
-
IS THE SUFFRAGE A RIGHT? May 10,1850. Si...
-
LOVE AND MARRIAGE. The Temple. Sir,—In y...
-
THE LAWS OF NATURE: POPULATION. May 14,1...
-
REEMIGRATION FROM CANADA. April 30, 1850...
-
• I believe tho "moral sense" to bo grea...
-
THE NEW MARRIAGE BILL. Regent's Park, Ma...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Vital Religion. Llectory, Burton By Linc...
trinal matters . These , too , must necessarily be made public ; and from the intensity with which the immediately contending parties engage in them an opinion is produced that the really religious world takes much more interest in the quarrel than is actually the case . On the contrary , let Mr . Thomas be assured that the vitality of Religion is shown by the way in which the existence of these unhappy divisions is deploredby the great majority of Christians who delight in the practical results of religious systems rather than in their doctrinal subtleties , and thus endeavour to " keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace . "
I will , with your permission , speak hereafter on the question of Mr . Thomas as to ' how we are all to be united under one creed ; " perhaps clearer answers than I can give will reach you from others on that subject . But I must intreat your correspondent , before he condemns Religion , to reflect on what it has done and is doing to society ; and what an active and fruitful future lies before it for the elevation of humanity and the fulfilment of our noblest aspirations , when its first principle shall be fully reproduced and
realised in practice . Arguing from , its effects under its present comparatively imperfect development , we may be justified in predicting that when we shall work as did the first Christians , and revert , as we are gradually doing , to their customs and institutions , the Life of Religion will be shown forth beyond all dispute and cavil , and its influence will be as universal as when it was first proclaimed with " demonstration of the Spirit and of Power . " I remain , dear Sir , yours most faithfully , Edmund R . Larken .
180 ®!> * 2leaitev+ [Saturday,
180 ®!> * 2 LeaiteV + [ Saturday ,
Is The Suffrage A Right? May 10,1850. Si...
IS THE SUFFRAGE A RIGHT ? May 10 , 1850 . Sir , — -The Suffrage is held by many to be an absolute natural right ; and it is inferred that , from that , t ought to be granted immediately to all male adults is something that is due to them , and unjustly withleld from them . It appears to me that there are no rich rights , and that the advocates of an extension of he franchise rather injure than assist their cause by tssuming such high ground . Will you allow me , through your columns , to subnit the following brief propositions on the subjectis mere results or theses—without at present occupyng any space in argument or illustration ?
1 . There are no such things as unqualified natural ights , pertaining to all persons and adapted to all
. 2 . All rights are subject to qualification and limitaion , according to circumstances ; and the whole question regarding them is a question of expediency . 3 . That may come to be a right at one time , or mong one people , which is never dreamed of and trould be quite unsuitable for another age or another eople . 4 . That is a right which the generality of men feel trongly as such , and which can be granted with lore general benefit than would result from withholding it .
6 . The rights of man expand as his capacities and vants expand , and must be determined in each age or the people of that age . 6 . The Suffrage is the right of those who desire it , ind can use it advantageously for the community to -vhich they belong . Yours , & c , II . R .
Love And Marriage. The Temple. Sir,—In Y...
LOVE AND MARRIAGE . The Temple . Sir , —In your last number Mr . G . H . Lewes ' *• Apprenticeship of Life , " Chap . III . ) , makes his overs touch on the morals of marriage . As this is a iubject on which much mistake still nervades soiety , and as the lovers leave the topic in an inconlusive state , it is apt for your " Open Council . " The lady is a Mary Wjlstoncraft , a St . Simonian , ho enamoured youth is for safe orthodoxy . The ady adopts the doctrine that " the bond of love a the only bond of marriage , and that it is an unsacred thing to force two human beings to live together as man and wife after all affection has died out , "
But it seems that the gentleman " crushed her oloquence about the ' legalized hypocrisy' of that union , and the necessity for only a moral bond bctwepn man and woman . " He replies that man being a social animal , with love is connected a responsibility , and that is marriage . It appears that " this metaphysical view did not convince Hortonso . " It wore strange if it did .
She would know how marriage fulfils or enforces a just social responsibility , and how it negatives her assertion and St . Simon ' s . She feels that the union of the sexes must bo that of lovers , must have a moral foundation in the concord of the affections , and that the murriage form without them is sacrificing the spirit to the letter . She feels that the religious ceremony cannot consecrate an union otherwise immoral , though it may desecrate religion .
The objection to the religious ceremony is , that it Seceives tho consciences of people into immoral unions where no love is , causing an immoral state of
strife , and the neglect and woe of the offspring , followed frequently by desertion , infidelity , and its attendant infamy ; while a true , and therefore hallowed , union of hearts is falsely regarded by the world as infamous because without the ceremony , which as society deems alone suffices to moralize . Paley , in his " MoralPhilosophy , " asks , if faithful cohabitation be the same as marriage , why not marry ? Because we are thereby taken to acknowledge that the union is made pure by the form , even to the sacrifice of the hallowing spirit of love ; that in the form is the hallowing power . We therefore abjure a ceremony which can have no moral efficacy , but which brands the affections as impure without it , while it tempts to the most corrupt
. The infamy on woman consequent on the nonobservance of this form induces child-murder and prostitution . The pure in heart fly an ordinance so prostituted by society , and which is falsely endowed with a hallowing efficacy which can exist in the heart only . Yet we condemn not " holy matrimony ; " we would only unblind society as to its nature . There is no institution on which a grosser ignorance exists ; to abuse it is a most besetting sin . Openly to talk of fortune-hunting and " marrying for money , " and to sneer at " marrying for love , " is commonplace .
In courts of justice we impress on witnesses a more solemn obligation to speak the truth , by an oath in which God ' s aid is invoked . So in an union on which the happiness of two lives depends , it is well to invoke the Maker's blessing , and deepen the sense of mutual obligation . This basely done adds blasphemy to perjury . Francis Worsley .
The Laws Of Nature: Population. May 14,1...
THE LAWS OF NATURE : POPULATION . May 14 , 1850 . Sir , —In the review of " Laing's European Social Life , " in your last number , I find a reference to the Malthusian theory of population , on which I should like to make a remark . The reviewer says : —" The theory contradicts our moral sense ; outrages our strongest instincts ; it is a social blasphemy . It must be wrong , though the fallacy may escape detection for the present . "
I desire to protest against the principle of the sentimentalists ( of which the Leader seems to be the organ ) , that " feeling" or " moral sense * ' is to be considered the test of truth—the criterion of " the Laws of Nature "—because it is likely to lead to much error . It cannot be denied that it is a " law of Nature" that life should be supported by destruction—that animals should prey upon each other . This surely " contradicts the moral sense" of the civilized mind , and yet is not the less on that account a law of Nature .
The fact is , though sentimentalists are apt to forget it , that Nature is no sentimentalist—she is , on the contrary , rigidly stern—nay , often , according to the morbid sensibility of civilization , unjust and cruel . That a doctrine " contradicts the moral sense" * is no proof , therefore , that it is " false and blasphemous . " With respect to the unpopular doctrine that " Population will always press upon subsistence , " I believe it to be a law of Nature , and one which , as must be the case with all general laws , necessarily produces evils which are inseparable from the lot of man , and which no philanthropic schemes can possibly remove . This conviction is based on the following facts , as I believe them to be , that population always increases as the means of subsistence increase , but in a greater ratio , and , therefore , unless kept down by " checks , " will always exceed the means of comfort * able subsistence—that the land is limited—that the produce of the land , however much it may be increased , as Mr . Laing seems to suppose , must at length reach a limit , beyond which it cannot bo carried . It is a curious fact that the most violent
opponents of Malthus , so far as I have read , are compelled , after all , to adopt his conclusion , which is the moral of his famous work—that some " checks " on population , physical or moral , must exist . But these " cheeks" necessarily produce evils , physical or moral , or both ; hence the inseparability of evil from the lot of man , which is so painful to wellmeaning philanthrophists , and which , if they consulted the laws of Nature more , and their own amiable but mistaken " moral sense" less , they would see no scheme or system , however plausible , can possibly remove . F . 13 . Bakton .
Reemigration From Canada. April 30, 1850...
REEMIGRATION FROM CANADA . April 30 , 1850 . Sir , —Having a few days ago received an American newspaper , sent mo by my friends there , I have enclosed this scrap out of it for you : — " Emigration of Canadians to the United States . —The Reverend Arthur Chiniquy , the great Canadian Apostle of Temperance , having recently been on a tour through the United States , has addressed a
latter to the Melanges Religieux , in which he says : — « I do not exaggerate when I say that there are no less then 200 , 000 Canadians in the United States ; and unless effiacious means are taken to stop this frightful emigration , before ten years 200 , 000 of our compatriots will have carried to the American Union their arms , their intelligence , and their hearts . It is no part of my present plan to examine the causes of this deplorable
emigration ; but it must be always true , that when a people en masse quits its country , it is because that unfortunate country is struck with some hideous plague—is devoured by some cancer . God has placed in the heart of man love for his country , and when a man turns his back upon his country , and with the eye moistened by tears , bids it an eternal adieu , it is because something essential has been wanting to him in that country . It is because he has wanted bread , room , or just liberty . '"
I do not pretend to know the cause of such numbers of her Majesty ' s subjects emigrating from the British possessions and locating in the United States , but as a lover of . my country I feel convinced in my mind that these facts should be generally known , and that our present Ministers are in duty bound to investigate this affair . I quite agree with the comments of the American writer , that when , as it clearly appears , so many of the inhabitants have left and are leaving the Canadas , there must be a real cause for
their doing so . If this is to go on , which it seems it will , what can be the use of our Poor-Law Unions sending their poor to an English colony where they will not stay . It appears by our public prints that our Government is strengthening our military force in the Canadas , which may for a time prevent the talked of connection . Be that as it may , it is evident they must have a cordon of troops , if the sore is not probed to the bottom , and a proper cerate applied , to prevent so large a portion of the population deserting them . S . N .
• I Believe Tho "Moral Sense" To Bo Grea...
• I believe tho " moral sense" to bo greatly dependant on education .
The New Marriage Bill. Regent's Park, Ma...
THE NEW MARRIAGE BILL . Regent ' s Park , May 7 , 1850 . Sir , —In all probability , this is the last time I shall have the opportunity of addressing you on this question before the bill is removed from the House of Commons to the Upper House of Parliament . No new fact has transpired in favour of those opposing the bill ; and it may be fairly supposed , that the great majority in favour of it will not be less than it was on the late factious division . The High-Church party , however , are in high spirits , and , odd as it may
appear , still cling to Scotland ; to the land of John Knox and the Covenanters—as their final suppoiters in favour of " black prelacy , " and the canons of the fourth century . On the other hand , it is calculated by the friends of Mr . Wortley ' s Bill , that the majority to lift it into the House of Lords must be larger , through the brushing away of the gross falsehoods by the instrumentality of the Press , —the too glaring untruths , which have been the great cause of any petition whatever having been presented against the bill .
One of these untruths was , that a man s marrying the sister of his deceased wife was contrary to the law of God . The other falsehood was , that all such marriages had always been condemned by the ancient Jewish nation . Now , sir , if I really believed that a man ' s marrying the sister of his deceased wife was contrary to the law of God , I should feel ashamed and humiliated if , for any amount of reward which could be offered , I
wrote a single line in favour of it . It is , however , precisely the reverse . The following petition , which in the last session was presented to the House of Lords , cannot be too extensively read ; and it is a complete answer to the wicked assertions of the High-Church party in their opposition to this bill . It was signed by 500 clergymen of the Church of England ; and amongst the number are some of the greatest ornaments the Church possesses .
{ Copy . ) " The humble Petition of the undersigned , Clergymen of the Church of England , most humbly " Sheweth , —That in the opinion of your petitioners , the existing : law which prohibits marriage between a widower and his deceased wife ' s sister , is an expedient law and ought to be repealed , for the following
reasons : — " 1 st . That there is no divine command to be found in the Scripture , either directly or indirectly , prohibiting such marriages . " 2 ndly . That there is no consanguinity or kindred between the parties which makes such marriages undesirable in a physical point of view , or which disqualifies the parties according to any of the received notions of mankind upon such subjects . " 3 rdly . That it seems to your petitioners natural for a widower who finds in his wife ' s sister congenial habits , feelings , and temper , to regard her as the most fitting
substitute for the wife whom he has lost . " 4 t . hly . That , in many instances , no person is so well qualified to discharge the duties of the deceased towards her surviving children as the sister , who is already endeared to them by the ties of affection and kindred , — who in most instances has acquired , as their aunt , a certain degree of influence over them , and who can , therefore , exercise the necessary control of a stepmother without incurring the odium or exciting the jealousy which the authority , however leniently , exercised by a stranger , usually creates . " dihly . That among the poorer classes , a prohibition
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), May 18, 1850, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18051850/page/12/
-