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Leader (1850-1860), 6th April 1850, Edition 1 of 1, Page 27, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      ticular religious principles can . hear advocated the continuance of a system which endows Roman Catholic , and Unitarian , and Presbyterian , and Episcopalian , and Methodist all alike . { Cheers . ) But Mr . Stowell tells us that all education should be of a Christian kind . I suppose he means by Christian education the peculiarities of his own particular sect or party . " ( Cheers . ) " Mr . Stowell : The religion of the Bible . " " Mr . M'Kerrow : The Bible . I am glad to find we have that concession . ( Cheers . ) We have been told that it is the duty of the state to establish religion ; and Mr . Stowell has quoted a passage of scripture ( very little applicable ) in support of his argument , that the powers that be are ordained of God . And he intended to show , I suppose , that these powers were in duty bound to impart to us a religious education . Has he forgotten that the powers of which the apostle Paul was speaking were heathen powers ; and , if there is any force in his argument at all , those powers were bound to establish t he heathen religion ; and not only so , as the state must only establish that which it believes , it may establish any kind of error , or any class of religious opinions . " Mr . M'Kerrow went on to advocate the rights of conscience . Every man should think for himself with , regard to religion . That was a matter which , lay between conscience and God . "Where could they find infallibility ? " Unless Mr . Stowell can work some miracle on behalf of those evangelical sentiments that he and I hold together , and unless he can give some sign from heaven that he and I know better than our neighbours what is the truth , I contend we must allow freedom of opinion , and let every man stand or fall to his own master . We have , for example , Jewish subjects . Are we to introduce the whole Bible into our public schools , contrary to their wishes and right to judge for themselves . They reject the New Testament . Well , I ask , if we are to have the Bible , which version of it are we to have ? I see no right we have to exclude the Douay version , and to insist on the authorized one ; and therefore , finding we cannot agree about this , I say let us have simply a scheme of secular and moral instruction and education . Is it absolutely necessary to introduce the Bible into our national schools , or into any class of schools supported at the public expense . Secular knowledge is a subject in itself . We all recognise the advantages of reading and writing , and being able to carry on the correspondence and business of life . I hold that a philosopher is better than a savage : and that an educated man is less likely

      to become a vicious man and a disturber of the public than the man who has been trained in ignorance and vice . I object to the reasonings of our opponents in reference to the forcing of religion upon the community ; because I hold it absurd to maintain that we are to give no enlightenment to a people unless we can give religious knowledge and opinions along with it . Have we not duties which we are bound to perform to our fellow-subjects in that misgoverned and oppressed land of India ? We have millions of Hindoos and Mohammedans there ,

      and is it to be said that we are not to communicate to them secular knowledge , and endeavour to civilize , elevate , and improve them until we are able to force our religious opinions upon them ? They will not , as heathen or Mohammedan , receive our religion ; and the arguments of our opponents , if worth anything at all , come to this , that we are to allow India to become a scene of carnage , desolation , and oppression , and that we are to bring out from the people all we can obtain , and communicate to them no secular knowledge , because , forsooth , we cannot give them along with it the Christian religion . "

      Instead of holding , as Mr . Stowell did , that religion would suffer from the establishment of a secular system of education , he felt persuaded such a measure would greatly tend to promote the extension of sound religious instruction . In conclusion , he told them that it was vain to oppose this great popular movement in favour of education . The Reverend John Byewateb spoke for the amendment : much confusion prevailed now , the meeting having become very impatient .

      Mr . Peter Rylands supported the motion . They had been told by Mr . Stowell that they were asking for an untried system ; but his reply to this was , that it had been tried in the New England states , the most enlightened democracy in the world , and it had answered exceedingly well there . Dr . John Watts supported the motion , speaking through considerable interruption . In reply to Mr . had

      Stowell , he said that gentleman pointed , as a warning against what he called an irreligious system of education , to the fate of a neighbouring countryto France ; but never let it be forgotten that the national education of France was under the priesthood up to the time of the great revolution . Revolutions are not the consequence of secular education , but of ignorance and the increase of population where there was no bread .

      The Mayor proceeded , after a stormy debate of five hours , to put the question . The result was , that the amendment was negatived , and the original motion carried by a large majority . The announcement of this result was received with deafening clioors During the chief meeting , in the hall , there was a larger meeting outside , by which the petition was adopted almost unanimously .

      Untitled Article

      THE GORHAM CASE . The clergy assembled last week at the rural deanery of Wakefield agreed to a series of resolutions , asserting that the power now existed in the Privy Council

      to interpret the formularies of the church by a final judicial sentence is " an infringement of the fundamental right of the church , and at variance with the law of Christ ; and that for the redress of such grievance it is necessary by Act of Parliament to exempt questions of doctrine and other matters purely spiritual from the cognizance of the Privy Council , and refer them to an appellate tribunal to be devised by the church in convocation , —the judgments of such tribunal to be binding in the temporal courts . " The clergy of Bristol and its neighbourhood have presented an address of sympathy to the Bishop of Exeter , supporting the prelate . The following protest has been affixed to the doors of Christchurch , St . Pancras : — " In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity . Amen . " Whereas the Catholic faith in the article of the remission of sins in holy baptism hath been lately publicly denied ; . " And whereas the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has , in the case of Gorham v . the Bishop of Exeter , reversing the judgment of the Court of Arches , declared a priest of the Church of England , guilty , as we believe , of such denial , fit to be instituted by the bishop to the cure of souls ; " And whereas it has become necessary , in consequence of this decision , that the Church of England should free herself without delay from the guilt of participating in any denial of the Catholic faith in respect of such article ; " We , the ministers , churchwardens , and others , of the church of Christchurch , St . Pancras , do hereby , on the grounds aforesaid , protest against the institution of the said priest to the cure of souls , and do appeal to a lawful Synod of the Church of England to declare , without delay , the doctrine of the Church of England on the Holy Sacrament of Baptism , and we do hereby most earnestly beseech our bishop to use all means in his power to obtain the immediate assembling of such lawful Synod . ( Signed ) " W . Dodsworth , M . A ., Perpetual Curate . «« E . Stuart , M . A ., Assistant Curate . \\ ™ HN DAV , CaAMBBBS ' } Churchwardens " William Lyon , y " Christchurch , St . Pancras . "

      Untitled Article

      SIR CHARLES NAPIER AND MINISTERS . A lengthy correspondence of Sir Charles Napier with Sir Francis Baring and Lord John Russell , referring to Sir C . Napier's letter to the Times on the abuses in the navy , has just been published . In the first letter Sir Francis Baring intimates his official disapprobation of the admiral ' s newspaper exposures , considering that he set a most unfortunate example to the service ; and he winds up by saying that he doubted Sir Charles ' s " discretion . " Sir Charles replies that he had attacked bad measures , not men ; he instances Captain Berkeley , the Duke of Wellington , and others , as having set him the example of plain-speaking ; and rebuts the doubt of his discretion as an opinion not held by any other member of the Admiralty . Unsatisfied , Sir Charles addressed a letter to the Admiralty , complaining that his second in command had been placed over his head , which he believed to be in consequence of Sir Francis s doubt . To remove this doubt he says that he called on Sir F . Baring , who treated him with great indignity ; that he had been affronted and insulted , and that no officer of his rank and service had been so treated . He imputed Sir F T . Baring ' s impression to the scurrilous attacks of a morning paper . To this the Admiralty replied that they doubted his discretion in troubling them with the matter . The next of Sir Charles ' s letters , also to the Admiralty , reiterated the complaint of Sir F . Baring's treatment , and repelled the censure of the Admiralty . Merely the receipt of this was acknowledged . Failing to obtain redress from the Admiralty , Sir Charles Napier appealed to Lord John Russell , who replied that he concurred in the opinion of Sir F . Baring . The correspondence concludes withanother rejoinder from Sir Charles , correcting certain points in the Premier s letter , and thanking him for remembering services in Syria , " after what has passed not likely to be again wanted in a hurry . "

      Untitled Article

      RETRENCHMENT IN GROG . The committee appointed to inquire into the grog question in the navy has recommended several measures of effective reform . In the first place , the present allowance of spirits or wine is to be reduced one half , and the reduced allowance is to be issued at dinner-time . This will have a powerful effect in lessenning the number of cases of drunkenness . By way of compensation for this subtraction from their grog , an allowance of 2 s . 6 d . per man per month is to be paid to second-class seamen and landsmen , and ot 3 s . 6 d . per man to able and ordinary seamen . Ahose who wish to give up the use of spirits entirely will receive a further amount of compensation equal to the cost of the reduced allowance . As it is plain , from the evidence given before the committee , that the evening allowance of spirits now issued to the navy , is not fairly consumed , and that , instead of each man drinking his allowance , most of them abandon it in favour of the cook and Ins mate , they are not likely to complain much at the change .

      It cannot be said to be any deprivation to the seamen ^ to take from them that which they plainly show they * do not require , whilst it would be a great boon toq give them £ 2 2 s . per annum in lieu . How many j comforts for an aged and poor parent , the honest , 4 hard-working , respectable wife , or a sister , would t these two guineas provide ! ; Admirals , captains , and superior officers are not j to receive any payment for the reduction in theirrations , and no raw spirits are to be issued to any * one , except under special circumstances at the dis- j cretion of the captain . have

      As bearing on the temperance question we been much struck with some remarks in a letter from . Dr . " Vaughan of the Naval Hospital at Aden . He states that during last year he has had a very great increase in the number of cases of scurvy under iris charge ; " several ships have almost been disabled from it , and the worst cases seem invariably to ^ be in , such vessels as do not allow a portion of spirits . " This is a startling fact for the advocates ^ of total abstinence , and ought to be carefully inquired into . In the conclusion of his letter , Dr . Vaughan " would most earnestly suggest to charterers and owners of vessels the propriety of allowing a portion of spirits daily . " Nothing is said as to whether the ordinary allowance of lime-juice was served out to the men on board the vessels in question .

      Untitled Article

      ASPECT OF IRELAND . So far as one can gather from the scattered items of information in the Irish papers , the general aspect of affairs is not quite so black as it has been ; but the view is still checquered . In many parts of the country the farmers are planting potatoes to a larger extent than ever was known before . In Galway , the quantity is said to be enormously beyond the average . In Tipperary evictions are still as numerous as

      ever . Two-thirds of the tenants in the North Riding of Tipperary will , it is said , be turned out of their farms this year . As a natural result the exasperated tenantry revenge themselves by sending Rockite notices , and these they follow up now and then by shooting an unfortunate steward , or a new tenant who has been guilty of the unpardonable offence of taking a farm which its former tenant had no wish to leave .

      The tide of emigration still continues to flow from , all parts of Ireland as strongly as ever . From Deny there has been a considerable increase in the number of emigrants during the first quarter of 1850 as compared with 1849 . A large proportion of those who go to America have been enabled to do so through the assistance rendered to them by relatives or friends who have already settled there . The cholera appears to be still very fatal in some parts of the South . In the hospital at Valentia the number of deaths this year from that cause has been seventy-seven . It is to be feared that its ravages will be more widely extended as the weather becomes warmer ; especially as the next three months of the year are those in which distress generally falls heaviest on the peasantry . _

      The Repeal Association still continues to hold itg weekly meeting , but the attendance is very slender , and the rent proportionately small . The amount collected last week , was £ 12 15 s . lid . The young Ireland party displays much more vigour . The Kilkenny Moderator mentions that the democrats of that city , in total disregard of the denunciations of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Ossory from the altar , on the two last Sundays , have arranged with the metropolitan directory to hold " a great aggregate meeting of the Democrats of Ireland , at St . James s Green , Kilkenny , on Sunday next . " It is rumoured that Ledru Rollin and Feargus O'Connor intend to be present on this occasion .

      Untitled Article

      EASTER IN LONDON . The usual Easter festivities were inaugurated at the Mansion-house on Monday , by an entertainment in the Egyptian Hall , at which 350 gentlemen and ladies were present . The Lord Mayor was hospitably fervent in his delight at entertaining so excellent a company . M . Drouyn de Lhuys expressed his anxiety to see the friendly feeling at present existing between the French and English nations preserved and extended . The American Minister in the same strain declared that he had , that evening , partaken

      of the loving cup in the name of the twenty-two million inhabitants of the United States . The festivities of the evening were prolonged till a late hour . By the working classes Easter Monday was celebrated with more of mirth and enjoyment apparently than we have witnessed for many years , ihis was , no doubt , partly owing to the marvellous improvement in the weather , compared with the previous week , and partly to the cheapness of food during the past months , which had enabled those who are emuloved to save a little out of their earnings for a it

      day ' s recreation . Whatever the cause , however , was pleasant to see the endless crowds of people bent on mere enjoyment , who thronged to the parks , and every other outlet from the smoke and bustle ot . London . As usual , large numbers wont to Richmond , Hampton-court , and other pleasant spots along the

      Untitled Article

      i Aprii 6 , 1850 . ] ® & * ZLeatott . 27 jj

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 6, 1850, page 27, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1839/page/3/