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enlivens and enlightens it . The power of the despot , the menace of his minions , the cajolery of his courtiers , the heart sickness of deferred hope , the prospect of persecution and death , and the gloomy terrors of superstition are all powerless against the idea , it contemns them all , and marches fearlessly on to its own fulfilment . When the hosts of the first crusade were pressing onward to regain the Holy Sepulchre ; when
city and hamlet , castle and cottage , were deserted for the camp of the cross , one idea possessed the hearts of the myriads and bound them together as the heart of one man ; and to those myriads , under the influence of that idea , famine , sword , nakedness , and pestilence were as nothing . That idea , the conviction that they were God's instruments , and that they would be , on that account , invincible , found utterance in their war cry , " God wills it ! God wills it !"
And the idea which at this day possesses the Many will urge them onward to the reconquest of their own rights , as theirs impelled the crusaders to the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre . The more obstacles multiply , the sterner will be their determination ; at every repulse they will gather fresh strength : fresh friends will rally round them at every fresh proof they give of their conviction , their devotedness , and their zeal : for , however delays may tantalize , however false friends may deceive , timid friends discourage , and open enemies oppose , nothing can resist those who believe in , and work with and for " God and the People . "
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THE POPE , OR FREE THOUGHT ? Every man really anxious about Truth should rejoice at the present commotion in the religious world . War is better than apathy , intolerance more respectable than indifference . The pretensions of the Catholics on the one hand , together with the indignation of the Protestants at the " aggression , ' *
will have the effect of rousing men from lazy acquiescence , and force them to reconsider the grounds of their acquiescence . In this struggle our " Mother Church" must he roughly handled ; a prospect which does not fill our minds with any immeasurable grief , although its anticipation has already made the lawn sleeves flutter with episcopalian horror .
The Bishop of London ' Charge , which rambles over eight columns of the Times , is peculiarly significant as the expression of Church of England philosophy ; more than half of it is devoted to that foolishest of squabbles , the Gohham squabble ; the rest is thunder against Catholicism and Rationalism — the two Nightmares which disturb episcopal repose . The Times bids us admire the " vigorous logic" of the Charge ; we do " admire " it : our wonderment is excessive that intelligent men should accept such logic . Having alluded with superb scorn to the " mummeries" " histrionic practices " which dazzle the
weakminded , the Bishop then declares that the Church of Home has other agencies with which to captivate the stronger minded : — " For those whose education and habits of mind require something like argument and evidence , she has her subtle dialecticians and persuasive orators ; " but then the alarmed Bishop earnestly hopes that ' * none of you will give the least countenance to their proceedings , nor run the risk of impairing the strength of your own convictions , and of weakening your attachment to the Church , of which you are members , by attending any of their services , or listening to their lectures . "
The Bishop is right . What can be move dangerous than listening to arguments and evidences ? How are we to keep our convictions unimpaired , and our attachment towards the Church blind and devoted , if we hear what is to be said on the other side ? We have consecrated Nonsense : we have made belief in shocking absurdities an integral portion of respectability , and on that we have built a Church ; if , therefore , we listen to the lectures of subtle dialecticians , do we not obviously imperil our attachment to those absurdities , do we not run
the risk of finding out what it is we have consecrated , and why we have done so ? Right , the Bishop undoubtedly isj but what queer logic in his vailing against the blind obedience demanded by Rome , and then claiming blind obedience to the 1 lnrty-nino Articles ! The difference between Koine and England is curious . Home claims the obedience of Faith ; England the obedience of Fear . Rome assumes infallibility ; England is so conscious of her weakness that she warns her sons not to listen to arguments and evidences lest their convictions be impaired !
The master-principle of Protestantism—as we often reiterate in these columns—is the liberty of private judgment . It is the protest of the free Soul against the authority of man . Without this principle Luther would have been impotent ; with it he consummated that dissolution of dogmatism which Abelard commenced when he proclaimed the abstract right of Reason to be heard in the elucidation of Faith . Rousseau expressed it
in one luminous phrase . " If any man could this day prove to me that I am bound in matters of faith to ' submit to the decision of any authority beyond my own , to-morrow I would become a Catholic , and every truthful and consistent man would do the same . " Now , mark the logic of the Church of England ! She uses this principle of free thought to oppose the pretensions of Rome ; but she deand
nies the use to all who oppose her , warns you not to listen to arguments against her , confessing her weakness to be such that if you do listen your belief in her will waver . Plato makes the licentious but astute Alcibiades run away from Socrates , declaring he is afraid to listen to the sage lest he be weaned by arguments from his career of intrigue . Bishop Blomfield , who has read Plato , seems to think Alcibiades a model of respectable prudence , and wishes clergymen to imitate him .
Really the confession of weakness in the Bishop ' s charge is quite pathetic . Terrified as he is at Romanism he is still more terrified at Rationalism . The former he thinks must disgust the " good sense" Englishmen , and can only hope for support from ' * uninquiring ignorance" ( how , then , about the subtle dialecticians ?) the latter he declares " most likely to find favour with a trained and scientific generation . " Now , of course , a system likely to find favour with a trained and scientific generation is on the face of it absurd , and , what is worse than absurd , fatally dangerous to a Church not in favour with well-trained minds : accordingly
he warns all men against that as against a moral plague . But the philosopher , more sedulous for truth than for bishoprics , is bound to ask these two questions : Has human reason any right whatever to test religious dogmas ? and , if we admit the right , should we not claim for it absolute freedom , so as to secure all the advantages of rational enquiry ? To answer the first question affirmatively is to condemn Popery ; to answer the second affirmatively is to condemn the exclusive privileges of the Church of England ; since , if Reason has any right to interpret dogmas it has equal right to interpret the grounds upon which they repose .
A more accurate survey of the present condition of the religious world would , we believe , have shown the Bishop that the great danger of the Church lies less in Rationalism than in the active Spiritualism on the one hand , with the passive Itidifferentism , the reckless Don'tcarishness among the clergy , and the " respectable" conformists on the other—the public being perfectly cold all the while . Had he seen this he would scarcely have suggested as a remedy the astonishing plan he proposes , namely , of a more rigid adherence to the Creeds , Liturgy , and Thirty-nine Articles , with a strenuous opposition to the separation of secular from religious instruction !
But , bad as times look , the Bishop has one consolation . God has not forsaken the Church . That is something . Are you curious about the proof ? The proof to his mind—risum teneatis ?—lies in the providential ' fecundity of Bishops ! We are not hoaxing . You shall have the ipsissima verba : " Have we not thankfully to acknowledge the goodness of God towards the Church of this country in permitting it to send forth within the
last ten years fifteen additional bishops to preside over its distant and too long neglected branches !" It is always comfortable to have a standard whereby to measure divine favour ; formerly it used to be the wholesale slaughter of enemies 01 abundant harvests , now it is " More Bishops . " Mitres are crowns of glory , hulos of divine favour : blessed is the nation that rejoices in Bishops !
To return to our main position , the stir which is now made by the Catholic " aggression" will be useful in rousing men from indifference , and forcing their attention upon first principles : the great battle that is to he fought is that between Authority and Liberty , and men must declare themselves cither for the Pope or for Free Thought . This is just the preparation we desire for the New Reformation .
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LAND SALES IN IRELAND . Tub rate at which a number of estates have been sold in Ireland , during the last fortnight , renders it more and
more evident that a large profit might be made by a jointstock company for the purchase of land in bulk , to be sold in small lots . In many cases we find that the entire sum paid for a large estate does not amount to so much , per acre as an Ulster farmer could easily obtain for the tenant-right of his small piece of land , irrespective of the rent paid to the landlord . Where large estates can be bought for £ 15 or £ 20 per acre , and readily sold to small farmers at an advance of forty or fifty per cent , upon that sum , we are surprised that no English capitalists seem as yet to have embarked in the speculation . Even at
£ 40 an acre , an intelligent industrious farmer , who could purchase ten acres of fertile land near a good market for his produce , would find it well worth his while to give that price . Were he to sow one-half of his farm with flax , that alone would sell for £ 60 , exclusive of what he would get for the seed . We perceive that a large company is about to be formed , which undertake to purchase , at the rate of £ 12 per acre , the produce of 100 , 000 acres of flax . There would be occupation for 20 , 000 small farmers , at an average of five acres to each . In addition to that extent of land under flax , they might have several acres devoted to green crops and potatoes , so as to
produce food enough , including plenty of milk and butter , for their own consumption . Political economists will stand aghast at the bare idea of encouraging the growth of a race of small yeomen in Ireland . They need not be alarmed at the prospect of that class of the population ever being multiplied too rapidly . Even supposing that 100 , 000 families could be placed upon their own comfortable little freeholds , averaging ten acres each , this would not swallow up much more than one hundredth part of the soil of Ireland . And yet , what an incalculable amount of good might be realized by such a disposition of the soil , in the hands of thrifty enterprizing men !
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THE PJROSPEKOUS LANDLORDS . Whatever the landowners may say to the contrary , we question if ever they were much better off than they are at the present moment . Here and there , indeed , an unfortunate individual may possibly find himself in a worse condition than he has been at some former period ; but , taking the landlord class generally , we deny that they are suffering , or that they have just cause to complain .
The truth is that they are much more comfortable than they deserve to be , as most of them would frankly admit , were it not somewhat dangerous to speak their minds freely . Does any one question this ? Let him only ask the first grumbling Protectionist landowner whom he happens to encounter if there is any intention to petition Parliament , during next session , for an enquiry into the extent and cause of agricultural distress . Dppend upon it the answer will be in the negative ; a conclusive proof
that the grumbling landowner knows too well that his case will not bear investigation . Up to the present time no class of persons in England has derived more benefit from free trade than the landlords have done . We do not say that they will continue to do so , nor do we think that they would be so very comfortable if the farmers had justice done to them . Whether the latter class will submit much longer to pay the same rents as they did when com was fifty per cent , higher , begins to be very doubtful . As a tenantfarmer remarked at the annual meeting of the Leominster Agricultural Society the other day , the landlord
saves nearly fifty per cent , upon most of the articles consumed in his establishment , and , as the price of farm produce is also much lower , " the difficulties of the farmer ought to be met by a permanent reduction of rent , instead of temporarily returning ten per cent ., which is a very prejudicial system . " But if the farmers wish to see anything done to improve their condition they must make up their minds to act independently of
the landlords . They must send two or three thousand petitions to Parliament , praying for the appointment of a committee to enquire into the causes of agricultural distress . Let them only do this and entrust their petitions to the care of Mr . Cobden , with a request that he will lay their statement fairly before the House , and they may rest assured that he will put the case in such a way as will frighten the great body of the landowners into granting justice to their impoverished aad ill-used tenantry .
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SOCIAL REFORM . EPISTOLiE O 3 JSCUROHUM VIBOBUM . XVI . —Lb Dboit au Travail . To Thobntojt Hunt , Esq . Bawd en , near Leeds , Oct . 2 i , 1850 . Dear Sir , Your letters on the land and the landless have set me musing , as I doubt not they have many another who has not as yet learnt the art of walking blindfold through the world , which art I take to be the true realization of the faith of this age , the practice of its theory , the ethics of its philosophy , as , indeed , of every philosophy which is epicurean . But the misery of the landless , though we cannot lose sight of it , is no spectacle for us to bandy words
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760 Qtt ) 9 % tbilt X * [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 9, 1850, page 780, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1858/page/12/
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