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704 IMC &**&**? [Saturday, y . ..
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Mil. CONINOHAM AT HttKJIITOX. Mr. Conino...
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S O C I A L R E F () It M. JIXPANATION T...
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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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Realities. Sometimes The Pensive Public ...
Cation Nouvelle , we surmise , is no physiologist , no phrenologist : his science of man excludes original instincts . But his system of . jjducation includes dolls , who are to stand tip in xlass , and be instructively dressed . And Mr . Cobden joins these gentlemen , as practical politicians ! Exeter-hall was enormously crowded ; as much so as at the Wesleyan reform meeting , or a performance of Elijah ; such is the striking vanity of tastes !
Kingsley preaches a sermon on " Liberty , Fraternity , and Equality , " as the practical teaching of the Bible ; the parish incumbent denounces the doctrine thus delivered , by invitation , from his own pulpit ; the denounced sermon is published , and never was sermon more sought . We have heard of men coming up to town on purpose to buy it , curious to see what had been thus denounced , and learn all about it ; and then much impressed with the contents . This is not apostolical . The Bishops are not meddling to find the concordance between the French revolutionary motto and the doctrine of the Scriptures : they are waging the combat with Mr . Horsman , who is assailing their incomes .
The Peers have been discussing the Papal Aggression , which Lord John Russell sent his father-in-law to Rome to be surprised at , though he knew it all before ; and Lord John was surprised into his Durham letter , poor man ! and now finds out his mistake ; though his father-in-law , being deaf , did not hear at Rome what he went to Rome to hear , and so knew nothing about it when he came back . But Lord Palmerston interfered on behalf of Scicily with such effect , that Sicily was prevented from escaping out of Neapolitan clutches ; and Mr . More O'Ferrall would not admit into Malta
refugees flying from Italian persecution , such as Mr . Gladstone has just been disclosing ; but Lord Palmerston is the " Liberal" Minister of England , always maintaining English influence , always sympathizing with national efforts for freedom , always victorious ; while Mr . Gladstone is a Tory , and in the last Ministerial crisis England all but escaped being under his rule , God save us ! What an escape , too , for Europe and the patriots thereof ! But England is a practical nation ; she knows what progress is , and how needful it is to defend freedom wherever it is attacked . The place to attack
the Pope is London : in Rome , " scatter his enemies . " " Principiis obsta "—keep out Glad * stone and Aberdeen , keep in Minto and Palmerston , or the Pope will ride roughshod over Europe , Naples will resume her tyranny , Austria will again be dominant , and Russia will threaten Europe . From all oi which we are saved now . So keep in Palmerston , keep out the Jews and the Pope ; do not let little girls dress their dolls in finery ; prevent little Britons from learning how to use a sword even in fun , or there may be horrid war , and you may cut your finger ! Think of that , Master Brook !
704 Imc &**&**? [Saturday, Y . ..
704 IMC &**&**? [ Saturday , y . ..
Mil. Coninoham At Httkjiitox. Mr. Conino...
Mil . CONINOHAM AT HttKJIITOX . Mr . Coninoium is to follow up his lecture at St . MartinVhall , on the Working Associations of Paris , ¦ w ith one on the same subject in the Town-hall at Brighton . A small portion of the facts stated in these lectures has already been conveyed to our readers , and we shall be able to give more . We watch Mr . Coningham ' a labours with the greatest interest . The facts which he has collected with so much
industry are of the utmost importance , not only in making proselytes to the great pi inciple of Concert , or in showing the working-classes the key to their emancipation ; but also in showing to other classes how transition can be rendered aafe , as it may be by that principle alone ; and still more , in showing to confirmed Socialists how their principle may be applied , at once , to the existing state of things . In the present stage , no service can be more useful than that now so zealously and ably rendered by Mr . Coninorhani . *
Mil. Coninoham At Httkjiitox. Mr. Conino...
• The Daily A ew * hn » noticed ihtr lectures in mii nlilc controversial urllilf . We thull recur to thin next week .
S O C I A L R E F () It M. Jixpanation T...
S O C I A L R E F () It M . JIXPANATION TO HOMK OV MY OlUKCTOHH .. July * 2 i , 1851 . Not many perhaps have been more favoured with advice and friendly strictures than I have ; and if I reply to some of my objectors now , it is not only that I may testify the thankful spirit in which I receive their counsel , butalsothatthcinore numerous class of friends whom they repreHent may bw furnished with a coup d'oeil of the course which I inn pursuing .
One friend particularly calls for such reply by complaining that , while I object to much that exists , and talk about the principle of Concert as a panacea , 1 am not specific enough in what I recommend for applying that principle . Several object to my meddling at all with the subject of religion , and they object mainly for these three reasons : —That there is no necessity for agitation where the religious world is spontaneously though gradually working out all the change which could be desired ;
that if I were not to speak on the subject at all , I should be able to insinuate opinions on political or oeconomicalsubjectswhere I nowarouse antagonism ; and , thirdly , that it is bettter to omit religion altogether , since it is a perfectly obsolete , exploded , and useless fallacy . One most esteemed friend objects that I am far too hasty ; that haste endangers reaction ; and that all the conduct of progress had better be left in the hands of Lord John Russell , who is the most advanced man of his
day , and who knows precisely the amount of speed which the world will bear . Some object that I do not speak out enough to justify my boast of open speaking , and call upon me for a confession of faith on all sorts of subjects "in your number of next Saturday ; " some , that lam not Democratic enough ; others , that I am too warlike . And one most valued coadjutor in the good cause calls upon me to renew the definition of Communism , reminding me of two that I have already given .
Now , it would be impracticable within the limits of a newspaper letter , to make a new confession of faith on all questions ; and I know that it is very bad journalism to dwell Ett length on subjects that are not brought before the public by the natural course of events . Let me say , however , that I am compelled to deal with the subject of religion ; because the whole of society in France , but still more in this country and Germany , and if less generally not less profoundly in Italy , is disturbed by movements of
inquiry into spiritual truth , and thus religion becomes one of those elements in the events and movements of the day which the journalist is bound to consider . It appears to me that the excessive disruption of churches and sects—which is dividing each one into many , and the so-called National Church into almost as many separate parts as there are sects without her pale—has attained such extremity , that the very number of partitions is beginning to neutralize sectarianism . I find some corroboration of this idea in my personal
experience ; for although I frankly avow , as I have done in previous letters , that my convictions will not let me attach myself to any dogmatic Church whatever , I am far from encountering any personal inconvenience through that frankness ; on the contrary , 1 meet with something more than " charity " and " toleration "—I meet with the frankest disposition to discuss such subjects , when they are handled reverentially , on equal grounds . I am , therefore , firmly convinced that the day has gone '
by when any ( lunger is to be apprehended from open speaking on the subject of religion . ISfay , much more—I find a disposition to act in harmony among men of the most widely severed persuasions ; I am myself habitually permitted to act with men of every conceivable degree in the range of opinions , from orthodoxy and evangclicisin to the most opposite extremity ; I see in all quarters disposition to combined action— -in the otherwise hateful anti-papal agitation , f see Dissenter acting with Churchman on the ground of common
Protestantism ; at one of the most crowded meetings I ever beheld in Kxeter hall , 1 heard the leaders of the Wealeyan Reformers unanimously hailing the cooperation of John Uright and Edward Miall and by the side of the Sovereign , I nee a man whose public speeches , however brief they may have been , indicate : a wise and truly Catholic spirit that might breathe from the pages of the greatest of living philosopher , his countryman llumboldt . In these find ia many other social phenomena , I cannot help thinking that I
dincem , on the one hand . « irriwr-. A f ,. iwl ,., > ,. „ * . cern , on the one hand , a general tendency to overrule dogmatic differences , and to seek unity on the common ground of the hroadeot truths in the in-Htinctn of religion ; and on the other hand n general desire to rcMtore that great influence by ' the only process that is possible in modern times « H > nc o ( the instruments for the elevation and
tonduct of society . Although some fantastical speculators may speak of religion as antagonistic to morals , few practical minds will fail to recognize in a truly Catholic religion—that is , in a conscious sense of the power and beneficence of the Creator —an incentive to well-doing in the creature which is not only strong in itself , but more perfectly compatible than any other element of social guidance with political and intellectual freedom . As a sublime illustration , I would point to the pages of that teacher whom I have already named , where science attains the inspiration of the most exalted piety , and claims for its practical end the good government of man .
If you ask me what practical measures I would suggest , I would say , in the first place , do all that you can to promote that feeling of brotherhood which is so rapidly surmounting the manifold pale of sectarianism . In the second place , do what you can to promote real religious freedom : every Church or sect is an embodied endeavour to attain to the truth ; the progress of the body thus incorporated will be best expedited , if the members are able to work out the proposition for themselves ; and to that end every Church should be allowed the freest and fairest opportunity to develope itself . Exclusive privileges are not very consistent with that
freedombut it is better to proceed by constructive than destructive means : while the Church of England should be supplied with the machinery of Convocation , and all that it needs to assert or define itself , perhaps the day may arrive more speedily than some of us expect , when the Act of Uniformity will be recognized as an inconvenient trammel of sectarianism and a bar to real unity . To sum up—I would cultivate unsectarian fellowship ; I would aid every Church to obtain all that it needs , within itself , for its own development ; and as an ulterior object , I would work for the removal of all factitious barriers to unity , the Act of Uniformity among them .
As to my being impatient and warlike , this I have to say , in brief . Knowing that the greatest number of the people , in this as in every other country , suffer from hardship and privation ; believing that their bad condition arises from causes that are artificial and can be removed ; and believing that a beginning in that amendment might be made at once , I am not disposed to wait for the slow convictions of men who have a less intimate
acquaintance with the wants of the people , or who have studied less closely the removal of injurious causes . I have as yet but little power ; but I do my best to proclaim among the working-classes that their condition is rendered worse than it needs be through causes which subsist by the deliberate intention of their rulers . That is no more than a very naked representation of the fact ; and the working-classes show great aptitude for perceiving it .
Again , I find that in no country , not excepting England , would the working-classes consent to be so downcast , if they were not kept down by physical force —the organized physical force of standing armies ; the several Governments of Europe combining together the better to keep down the peoples in detail . Now , this result would be impossible if the peoples were all aroused to a consciousness of their own position and their own aggregate strength and united for the attainment of a common freedom . The nation that would be free must be strong . All government is power ; and that people will be most popularly governed which possesses the most power within itself .
It is one of the bad results of a standing army that it denationalizes the power of a country trans ferr . ng it all to the possession of a bureau , and placing the People entirely at the mercy of that bureau . In that view , I desire by gradual means to lessen the amount of the standing army , and to transfer a part of the service of defence which is expected from a standing army , ton body of citizens . 1 here w nothing very fierce in that ; indeed , it is the only practicable mode of carrying out the reductions of military expenditure desired by Financial lu'tormerN .
1 he old u-eonomisLs of the books have made two Herioiw preemptions , which have had a grave effect in the practical conduct of Government . Pro-Ijjssedly their doctrine is limited to the theory of the accumulation of wealth , excluding moral considerations ; but they have presumed that the necessary impulse to industry cannot bo given without competition . Some years ago I pointed out that one incentive to industry is the companion under which most men living in society feel to do what is umiul , " including the routine of einployneiit j and in his recent , work on Political { Economy ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 26, 1851, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26071851/page/12/
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