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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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Notice has been given by the authorities of several of the metro politan parishes , «« that the cholera having entirely ceased , burials will take place as heretofore in the burial-grounds attached to their respective parishes . The committee appointed by the Society of Arts , to obtain a reform of the patent law , held their second meeting , at the society ' s house , in the Adelphi , yesterday The Right Honourable T . Milner Gibson , M . P ., was in the chair , and the other members of the committee present were Professors Forbes , Boyle , Lyon Playfair ,
Bennet Woodcroft , and Edward Solly ; Mr . H . Cole , Captain Ibbetson , Mr . Highton , Mr . Brace , Mr . Newall ( of Gateshead ) , and Mr . Prosser ( of Birmingham ) . The committee have decided on issuing an extended statement of the evils of the present system , and of the principles which should guide legislation , and in preparing which we understand they have been assisted by a large mass of documentary information from members of the working classes and others , sufferers from the existing evils . _
William Stewart Sheridan , formerly a clerk in the Inland Revenue-office , but now an inmate of Limehouse Workhouse , was brought up at Bow-street Police-office yesterday , charged with sending a threatening letter to Lord John Russell . It appears that Sheridan waa examined at the Police-court , Worship-street , in the month of December , 1847 , on a charge of having administered poison to his aged mother , to avail himself of the amount of an assurance upon her life , from the effects of which she died . After a lengthened trial at the Central Criminal Court he was acquitted of the charge , it appearing in evidence she was of very intemperate habits , the result of which might have been her death . The Board of Excise , however , dismissed him from his situation , and since that time he had been memorializing the Treasury , and taking other steps of the usual kind to obtain redress . All these having been unsuccessful , he had addressed the following letter to Lord John Russell : —
" To the Right Honourable Lord John Russell , &c . —It is evident that some misfortunes are so wrapped in mystery as to lead to a belief in destiny . The world seems a complete contradiction . Might overcomes right . There is no redress for grievances . The oppressed are mocked ; and , when , they remonstrate , they are hunted down . Spies let upon them because they seek for justice . A conspiracy is formed to overthrow a man . He is marked out for persecution . Some pretext is made to attack him . A false charge is made , and the bread is taken out of his mouth . After a long service , Mr . Sheridan has been deprived of his situation on unjust grounds . In fact , he is the victim of persecution . How often have wrongs led to fatal results ' I History confirms it . The appeal is made to his Lordbe done for Sheridan
ship in the hope that something may Mr . , who is sinking with depression . If no notice is taken of this , serious consequences may ensue . —No . 2 , Ernest-street , Stepney , Nov . 19 , 1850 . " The prisoner confessed that he had written the letter , but denied that any threat against Lord John Russell was conveyed in it . The " serious consequences " went to imply that , if driven to despair , he might destroy himself . Mr . Jardine was not quite sure of that , and , even if it were so , it was the duty of the magistrate to interfere . He , therefore , ordered him to find bail , himself in £ 100 , and two sureties in £ 50 each , that he would be of good behaviour to all her Majesty ' s servants , and particularly towards Lord John llussell , for the next six months .
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The news from Germany is again of an alarming character . The Berlin correspondent of the Daily News , iix a letter dated Nov . 2 G , says : — " The Austrian note communicated by telegraph this morning is of a very threatening character . The evacuation of Hesse Cassel is again required . Prussia is asked whether she will oppose further impediments to the proceedings of the army of the Bundestag in the electorate . An answer to this question is required to-morrow morning , and , unless the answer be satisfactory , the Austrian ambassador has received instructions to demand his passports and to leave Berlin forthwith . The Austrian note contains guarantees to Prussia that , if the electorate be evacuated , the military roads shall at all times be open to her . Many alarming rumours have been in circulation . Herr von Prokesch Osten was reported to have
already demanded his passports and to have left Berlin . The same was said of the Bavarian ambassador . Her von Prokesch Osten has sent to his tradesmen , requiring them to forward their bills instantly , as he did not know how much longer his stay in Berlin might last . At the embassy everything has been prepared for instant departure , and report says that a train has been ordered to carry the Austrian envoy to Oderburg . The Krettz Zcitung says that the ambassador of another great power will leave Berlin at the same time with the Austrian . I suppose that Baron Budberg , the representative of Russia , is alluded to . I am informed that the Government has concluded the preliminary negotiations necessary for procuring a loan in London to the amount of £ 10 , 000 , 000 . The interest ottered is five per cent ., and the terms on which the London capitalists are willing to conclude are ninety-six .
" The military preparations of this country will be complete in a week ' s time from this date ; the several armies will be concentrated on the ^ different points assigned them , and will be ready for immediate action . It is reported that an army of 115 , 000 men is to be concentrated in nnd around Berlin . " The chief masses of the Austrian troops arc directed towards Bohemia , Moravia , and Silesia ; the greater portion of these bodies left Vienna some days ago , but letters from that city inform us that large military transports continue at intervals to pass through the Austrian metropolis , and that the private trnffio on the northern railway , which wsir entirely suspended for some days , has only been partially resumed . The two corps withdrawn from Italy number ( So . OOO men . Eighteen battalions of recruits from the frontier regiments arc on their march to Venice and Lombardy . The whole of the fortresses and fortiiicd towns aro to be provisioned for four months . "
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PROTESTANTISM VERSUS LUTHER AND THE POPE . So much is heard of Protestantism in opposition to Popery , that a plain statement of their relative positions may not be without service . Catholicism is a grand , a colossal system , the first great incarnation of the Christian Doctrine , and represents one phasis of our social transformation . Whatever abuses may have crept into the Church , the historical development of Christianity did undoubtedly assume that form , and no impartial student of
history can tail to discern tne astonismng good which , during the Middle Ages , that Church exercised . From Protestants , who only look at the imperfections of the system , no rational word can be expected ; but those who have emancipated themselves from Protestant , as from other prejudices , will assign to the Church of Rome its true position as an agent of progress in civilization . Auguste Comte — whom no one will suspect of
any religious partiality — does that system greater justice than even its most illustrious modern defender , Joseph De Maistre . And when we think of the real grandeur and beneficence of this system , and of the many lofty intellects ifc numbers among its adherents , we cannot wonder if it still maintains a formidable position , though we think that position inimical to human progress .
The principle of its organization is simply this Assuming that the Truth has been handed over to the Church by its apostolic founders , it claims absolute Authority , and admits of no spiritual independence among its members . Nothing can be more logically coherent than its pretensions . Now , let us turn to Protestantism . It also has rendered vast and enduring services to the cause of progress . View it , as we have just viewed Catholicism , in its greatness and its vitality , not in its accidents and meanness , think of what it has done for freedom , of the lofty intellects that have espoused its doctrines , and every impartial student will admit that it also represents one grand phasis of social transformation . It has democratized Religion ; it has declared that every human soul has the sacred right of freedom ; it has wrested authority from the Church to rear that authority upon Convictions : hence the multiplicity of sects—divisions of parties produced by divided opinions . We are speaking here of ideal Protestantism , not of its actual state . That is its principle , its vital
force . Hegel , with his keen analytical glance , perceives the distinction between Catholicism and Protestantism to arise in the spiritual relation which every man , according to Luther , stands with Christ—Christ is present in every faithful soul , not in the Church as an outward fact , but in the very temper of the mind as an inward fact . Consequently there can be no difference between Priests and Laymen in the possession of this truth : the humblest heart filled with faith is as much a receptacle of the divine truth as the whole of the Church can pretend to be . Whoever fully seizes this principle will understand the significance of Luther ' s disregard of works in contrast with the absolute necessity of faith . The right of private judgment follows as a necessary corollary . Hence the vitality of Protestantism has been its proclamation of the validity of the claims of every human soul , and a protest against the domination of a Church pretending to infallibility .
But now observe the distinction between the Reformation and the New Reformation , between Protestantism as it is and as it will be . When Luther rose against Rome there was a standard of Truth accepted by all Europe . The soul was free to interpret Scripture ; but no one doubted the authenticity of Scripture . That the Bible was the word of Ciodj written by men " inspired , " and furnishing the absolute and indisputable Truth ,
was the universal conviction . Men were to be guided not by what the Church said , but by what the plain texts said . There was the letter of thelaw , which men were free to interpret . The various interpretations created various churches ; and instead of the infallibility of the Pope we had the irritable infallibility of Sects who , while they regarded with pity those from whom they separated , regarded with aversion and horror those who separated from them . A change came ; free enquiry by calling reason into court altered the whole condition of the question . Rationalism was the inevitable product of
Protestantism . Men began to doubt respecting the authenticity of Scripture . Accustomed to appeal to reason , when they saw reason at variance with creeds , they began to examine the grounds on which those creeds were erected . Finding the Scriptures in open contradiction with other Truths made patent by science , —finding that Astronomy , Geology , Biology , and Ethnography were daily making this contradiction greater they naturally began to doubt the absolute truth of Scripture . Even the Church itself was forced to admit that the
physical science to be gathered from Scripture is untrue , that the book of Genesis cannot be accepted as true cosmogony , and that it was written as an adaptation to the ignorance of the Jews . This explanation was first given by GiordanoBruno . The ungrateful Church of Rome roasted him , nevertheless ! The progress of Rationalism , however , could not be stayed . If one part of the Scripture was false , all might be false ; at any rate there was no criterium whereby men could distinguish the true from the false—none but the Church of Rome , and that Protestants renounced by placing the sole criterium of truth in the soul of the faithful
Rationalists might ask , if the physical doctrines in the Bible were adapted to the ignorance of the Jews , why may not the moral doctrines have equally been adapted to the low social condition of the Jews ? In point of fact they were . Christ himself came as a reformer , replacing the old by the new law . But Unitarians and Rationalists
further ask , what proof have we of the divinity of Christ ? Their answer is , none . They accept him as divine , as inspired , but only in the same sense that they accept the inspiration of all great teachers . They think him more perfect than all other teachers , but they do not believe he was more than man . They protest against Protestants .
Such is the historical outline of our religious history with reference to principles . The existence in the present day of such vast numbers of sceptics —as negative Infidels or as positive Spiritualists , and as Rationalists or Platonists—men who utterly reject the pretensions of Scripture to authenticitychanges the whole aspect of the Protestant question . They are working for a New Reformation , which ,
by carrying out the Lutheran principle of the liberty of private judgment , will cut the ground from under the feet of Protestantism , and stand up in open contest with its real antagonist—Rome . The arena should be cleared for those two principles— Absolutism and Democracy ; Whiggism only halts between them and endangers both .
Protest , therefore—protest with earnestness and zeal ; but protest for absolute freedom ; protest against all Popery , whether in Rome or England ; declare that no Church shall arrogate to itself possession of infallibility ; declare the human soul free to accept whatever form of belief it really can believe , and strike from your Thirty-nine Articles that Article XVIII ., which says , " They also are to be had accursed that presume to say , that every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth , so that he be diligent to frame his life according' to that Law and the light of Nature , For holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the
name of Jesus Christ whereby men must be saved . " Believe , rather , that in the sight of our Heavenly Father it is not the Tightness so much as the vp » rightness of our creed , not our dogmatic truth so much as our moral truth , not the form of our belief so much as the sincerity of our belief , that can make the earnest and religious man . Call upon men to cease hypocrisies and timid compromises , daring to give utterance to what they do think in their heart of hearts , and not with lip-service acquiesce in dogmas they disbelieve . That would be true Protestantism . That would be the liberty of private judgment .
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POLITICAL LYING . A lib would be an excellent thing but for one little circumstance—it is certain to be found out . If it would only stand a little wear and tear it would rival the utility of truth . But plated forks unhap-
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There i . 3 nothing so revolutionary ; , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dr . Arnold .
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850 2 C |) 0 &e& 1 iet * [ Satohday ,
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w SA . TUE . DAY , NOVEMBER 30 , 1850 .
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 30, 1850, page 850, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1861/page/10/
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