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    1040 _ __ TJgE JLE^PJ^R._ _ [Nq 397, Oct...

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    THE LATE EARL FITZHARDINGE. Mu. Grantxey...

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    Continental Uotes. France. The Trial Of ...

    ftustcb . uk , and it has accordingly demanded explanations from the Russian Ambassador at Constantinople , rhese have been given , to the effect that the object of the vessel was the same as that of the French steamer Lyonnais ; that she had no more guns on board than the latter j and that therefore she could not be considered a vessel of war . The commission for settling the Turco-Russian frontier in Asia has returned to Constantinople , with the exception of the Russian commissioners . The Times Constantinople correspondent , in giving an account of the results of their mission , says that , but for tbc accurate Russian surveys of the ground , the work could not have been done . The Turks do not possess anv

    survey . " The -want of this became fatal during the last war , and I can tell . it you as the opinion of a competent judge that , hud there been a knowledge of that country like that which can be acquired by the Russian maps , Ears might have been relieved . As it was , all the plans for a campaign had to be made from inaccurate maps , and on a scale altogether insufficient for military operations , and the English Government , when it considered the possibility of a campaign in those parts , had to send Major Cat heart to find out whether there was any possibility of advancing with an army from Batoum to Erzeroum . The commission first visited the southern

    part of the frontier , towards Mount Ararat . The summit of little Mount Ararat forms here the limit between the three empires of Russia , Turkey , and Persia . The line , passing then over the Great Ararat , follows the highest ridge of the [ chain , with scarcely any variation , up to the junction of the Araxes with the Arpa-Chai , which coming down due south forms the frontier between , the two empires , until it touches near its source the spur which unites the mountains of Asia Minor Avith the Caucasus . To the north of the plain of the Arpa-Chui , the frontier follows again a succession of mountain chains running from south-east to north-west , which rise in some places to a height of 10 , 000 feet . Gouriel is the last province towards the sea which forms the frontier between the Turks and Russians . '

    ; ITALY . The house of Balabio , of Milan , has failed , with liabilities to the extent of about 300 , 000 ? .-sterling . Signor Balabio has recently dealt a good deal in Lombardo-Venetian shares , and is said to have made ' time bargains' to a very large amount . The house has been crippled for a long time past ; and the Fall in the price of silk has hastened the catastrophe . Matters remain as bad as ever in Naples . The persons seized on board the Cagliari are still kept in custody without trial ; and among the crew are two Englishmen , engineers , who are described as being in a state of desperation at the manner in which they have been treated . One of the prisoners , whose name and

    nationality are not mentioned , has made two attempts on his life . Our countrymen have not been allowed to sec the English Consul , or any of their friends , and money sent for their relief has been returned . All English residents , indeed , are scandalously used , neither their lives nor their property being safe . The murderers of Mr . Blandford , who -was killed in the streets early in the spring , have never been arrested ; and two English merchants , usually resident at Naples , are now in London , urging on our own Government certain complaints against the Neapolitan Ministers . The Neapolitan people

    are utterly sick of their present Government , are ripe for any change , and are looking -with some degree of favour on the pretensions of Murut . Those who reflect gravely on the matter are opposed to the French Prince ; but a writer from the spot says that popular sympathy inclines towards him . It appears that the possibility of the Emperor Napoleon at some future day openly favouring his cause gives constant uneasiness to the King of the Two Sicilies ; the more so as the French Government has for some time past made a demand on the Neapolitan Government for a considerable amount of property which belonged to King Joachim at his death .

    The Governor-General of the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom has just permitted thirteen political fugitives to return to their home * .

    GREECE . The King of Greece has contributed 800 / . to tli-e Tund for the Relief of the Sufferers in India .

    1040 _ __ Tjge Jle^Pj^R._ _ [Nq 397, Oct...

    1040 _ __ TJgE JLE ^ PJ ^ R . _ _ [ Nq 397 , October 31 , 1 S 57 .

    The Late Earl Fitzhardinge. Mu. Grantxey...

    THE LATE EARL FITZHARDINGE . Mu . Grantxey F . Beiuceley has published a statement in the daily papers , with reference to his sudden disappearance from Berkeley Castle on the morning of the funeral of the lute Earl , and his absence from the ceremony , lie states : — " Shortly after the death of Lord Fitzhardinge , I received a civil note from Sir Maurice Berkeley , who hud not spoken to mo for many years , asking me to Berkeley Castle on the Friday , and to attend the funeral on the following day . The note being addressed to Tne in the usual style of brothers when on good terms , I took the opportunity in accepting tho invitation to say that it pleased mo much to come , and to think no more of past hostility . It was natural to suppose that those who attended for months around the death-bed of a man who had asked my forgiveness , and who was said to have ropentod of his hostility , persecutions , and pecuniary

    oppressions towards me , would have been glad to have buried all family feud in the grave ; but Iain compelled to say that neither in the living nor the dead were the behests of St . Paul attended to : impenitence of a desire to injure me and mine was still rife , and the greeting I received but the echo of the words engraved upon the coffin plate . " He then gives an elaborate account of a meeting of the various members of the family at the Castle , just previous to the funeral , at . which the old quarrel with respect to the succession to the titles and estates was revived , and Mr . Grantley Berkeley , according to his own account , was taxed by all present with falsely assuming to be the heir presumptive , and with having attacked Sir Maurice Berkeley anonymously in tlie papers . Mr . Grantley Berkeley is

    the second sou of the late Earl of Berkeley , born after the public and undisputed marriage , and he claims the titles and estates for his own line on the death of the first son so born ; but th £ elder brothers boru before tliat marriage , and whose legitimacy is not clearly established , oppose this arrangement , and it would appear that they unduly influence the eldest legitimate son . Mr . Grantley Berkeley asserts that the meeting was packed , and that he was received with clamour and unfair treatment . Hc'thereforc departed as soon as the funeral was over . —The solicitor to the family has denied the truth of these statements .

    An admiTable letter has been published in tho Bristol Time * and Felix Farley ' s Journal , severely , but most justly , criticizing a ' thmkeyish' sermon with respect to the death-bed of the late Earl . The evil embodied it » that sermon is so widely diffused through soeiet }' , and is of so disastrous a nature to all true morality and religion , that we make no apology for transferring-to our own columns the excellent remarks of the Bristol editor ' s correspondent : —

    "Sir , —For the sake of society , and to prevent the injurious effects which such statements may have upon it , I must beg your permission to record my solemn protest against a part of the Rev . Moreton Brown ' s sermon in Cheltenham , on Sunday weekj while ' improving' tl » e death of Earl Fitzhardinge . The Doctor is reported , in the Examiner , to have said that during his twenty-six years' experience in the ministry , he had never witnessed so-tranquil an end , and that ' it was a scene which lie ( Dr . Brown ) should never forget to the last day of his life . '

    " Dr . Brown seems to have been so impressed with tlie honour of attending a lord in his last moments , that , in lii * eagerness to make the most of it , he lost sight of a long life of ( to use a mild term ) uselessness , for a few months , in which approaching death compelled a man to think and . talk of something different to those objects and pursuits to which he had devoted the freshness of his youth , the maturity of his manhood , and every year and day of his life , up to that moment when an accident , occurring at threescore years and ten , prevented him continuing any longer a career , one month of which he never disinterestedly devoted to the benefit , religious , moral , and physical , of his humbler fellow-creatures .

    "Now , sir , do not mistake me ; I do not claim the use of your columns to say wantonly uncharitable things of the dead or the living either ; but I do raise my voice against any such doctrine going forth from the pulpit , as that propounded by the Rev . Moreton Brown—namely , that a nobleman with 40 , 000 / . a year , whose intellect and opportunities did not allow him to plead ignorance of his duty—who had that duty set before him by precept and remonstrance — should spend the actt % -e purt of threescore years and ten as a selfish voluptuary , us a libertine with women , and overbenring towards men —wanting in

    that generosity and tenderness , which , even in some of loose lives , extort for them from the virtuous a mitigating excuse , —I say , sir , 1 do protest against its being publicly averred from the pulpit , that a few months at the clos « of such a life—months in which a man , whatever hia nature , was obliged to abstain at least from active vice—should furnish grounds enough for a minister of religion to set up the death-bed of the deceased -as an example of spiritual tranquillity , surpassing anything he had known in the course of a quarter of a century of ministerial labour .

    " If , sir , it shall go forth to the world , that not how a man lives , but how he dice , ia regarded by that jiiBt and holy Being , who is said to rowurd every nut it according to his works , who will do their duty in this world V What rich man will recognize liis duty to the poor man ? What plans to alleviate suffering and lesson ignorance will ua conceived or carried out—what uacrincea made for philanthropise purposes ? What weight will social obligations havo in tho social body ? Who will , in short , care for anything but sensual enjoyment , selfish gratification , if they tliink threescoro unprofitable years , devoted either to indolent uaelessness or active mischief , can be nil atoned for by a few months of bedridden acquiescence in the views and exhortations of a minister of religion , however pioim ! What is all this , in fact , but rank Popery ; for thcro ia moac than ono kind of extreme unction . Wo owe many of our finest churches to tho Berkoloys of old , who , after spending lives of

    violence , wrong doing , and lust , compensated ( as their monkish confessors doubtless made them think thev might do ) for all this injury to fellow-men , all this impiety towards Heaven , by making at the last a supposed peace offering of stone and mortar to that <} od who , being of purer eyes than to fcehold iniquity , is not ' like a corrupt judge , to be bribed from justice by a present made to himself . " See the effect of such an example as that set forth by Dr . Brown , if other rich men , and powerful men , shall he encouraged from it to think that they may follow the

    life of the sensual voluptuary , until disease or accident deprive them of the power to pursue such a career any longer , aud then that they can call in some minister , and get doctared up for Heaven in a few months . Had a certain personage , who , according to the couplet , ' when sick , a saint would be , ' departed in his notable illness , Dr . Brown would probably have put down his end as the most tranquil he had known for a quarter of a century . But there are people who require to know , ere they accept such assertion , if there were any fruits of repentance to justify so ecstatic an assurance . May I ask , sir , what restitution to society did Earl Fitzhardinge , ere

    'The family vault received another lord , ' make ; what restitution to the parishioners of Berkeley for standing between them and proper religious ministrations for so many years ; what restitution to the locality for the ill effects of the immorality in high places , ay , and in holy places , which he countenanced ; what restitution to the young and the old , for the means of improvement withheld or never afforded , and the pernicious example set them ; what restitution to the men who have suffered from his violent temper , and to the women who have suffered from liis licentiousness ; what , in fine and in short , did he in these last days to warrant

    Dr . Moreton Brown in holding him up as a saintly example , on account of a few months of partial insensibility : or to warrant the reverend gentleman in calling the end of such a man the most tranquil he had ever witnessed for a quarter of a century ? Good gracious , sir , if it be preached up that the expiring moments of a life like that of Lord Fitzhardinge are those of a saint ,, every Berkele 3 * that ever inherits the Castle and the-40 , 000 ? . a year may go on for threescore years and ten living as he lived , provided he have only a Dr . Moreton Brown in his neighbourhood to * send for , when he has met with a mortal accident in crossing a tield or leaping a gate in pursuit of a fox .

    What a contrast to the funeral eloge of the Presbyterian minister was the conduct of the martyr monk Savonarola , when called to the death-bed of Leo tlie Magnificent ; he refused to give the dying Medtci false comfort , or promise him heaven , unless he made restitution to the people of Florence of the rights of which he had robbed them . Tlie Prince prayed to be assured of beatitude without making a sacrilice , and pleaded hard for the monk ' s benediction , but Savonarola left the chamber sooner than deceive the dying man , or wrong society , by promising forgiveness for injuries unrepaired while reparation wi-re possible . " If , sir , tlie evil of this imprudent sermon of Dr . Brown ' s were interred with the Earl ' s bones on

    Saturday last , I should not havo written this letter ; but honesty and the principle of self-defence forbkl society to accept the doctrine involved in that discourse . There arc some natures that can only be kept from doing mischief , or compelled to fulfil their social obligations , by the knowledge or tlie fear that they shall hsivc to render an account of their stewardship , as men , to whom-Goil has committed the power of doing good to their fellow-creatures , if they will . If , therefore , ministers of

    religion will lay down the doctrine that seven months of bedridden seriousness , or a terrified or semi-torpid joining with a minister in prayer ? , out of seventy years devoted to ' self , arc . sufficient to entitle the deceased to bepreached up in the face of tho world as a dying saintr then , sir , I am afraid , we should havo a world composed entirely of dying saints and living devils . There may be exceptions " , but I doubt if any man , in tlie course ot hia ministerial experience , can say that ho lias seen persons otherwise than serious and anxious for thuir souls

    on their death-beds . When a man ' a night is connngT and lie feels himself gradually descending into tho deepening twilight of the grave—when lie knows assuredly that tho world is receding from him , and as assuredly that eternity in at hand , —that his eye will soon close upon objects here , and that he will awaken in another Btatc—a state to bo for ever and ever—he must bo a fool or a madman not to listen to words which give courngo or comfort , or not to repeat from tbc lijia of the spiritual guide by his bedside , phrases which ho think * know

    huve safety in them . Hut , sir , all this in no new - ledge to tho patient : God , and man , and his own conscience have told him the same truths n hundred timeswhen he was in health—huve whispered hia obligation 9 to him when he could perform tliem , and « a » bof (> r & ignored hia noblo life duties for selfishr-eHa , so 1 can loo'c upon tho last scene , bo lauded by Dr . Brown , as littler better than another form of sclfwhncsB ; for 1 have n » doubt that Dives , after a life of luxurious enjoyment , whb as anxious as Luzarua himself to havo a pluco lQ Paradise . —1 am , air , yours , « Plain SncAuun . "

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 31, 1857, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31101857/page/8/