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    /fiWtf /fTitnttrtl QDflttt GbOttttttl*

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    We have , then , to consider the nature of the provision for the able-bodied , excluding idlers , impostors , and habitual vagrants . The provision would be of two kinds—provision for individuals temporarily thrown out of work by the constant vicissitudes of trade , and that for numbers in periods of difficulty . I have maintained that , so long as man is excluded from the land whence he cou ld obtain subsistence b y the labour of his hands , society , which excludes him , is bound to provide

    him with the equivalent—the opportunity of obtaining subsistence in return for labour . You have very well shown the duty and interest which society has in recognizing the right of labour , and you are justified by the facts in pointing to the Poor Law as the machinery with which that right can be made good . I observe that industrial employment has been tried , with a success proportioned to the completeness of the experiment : the industrial farm of the Sheffield union attains considerable success , in spite of the difficulties

    occasioned by the restrictions of the present law . The more extensive experiment at Cork of fers still more striking results : the workhouse becomes in a degree self-supporting , while the moral discipline of really useful and effective industry is such that paupers , who are discontented and refractory under the influence of idleness or penal labour , become cheerful and orderly under the influence of useful labour . No experience ever made a greater impression on my mind than a visit to Glasgow Bridewell , in the spring of 1840 . I there saw a large

    building so thoroughly ventilated , lighted , and warmed , that the most fastidious person would have felt no repugnance to passing the day or night in any one of the cells ; the health of the prisoners uniformly improved during their residence ; their work was volunteered and diligently continued , under conditions , one of which was , that they should have none , if they idled over it ; and their work was so productive , that the net cost of each prisoner , including the interest of the buildingdebt , and including , of course , all the expenses

    contingent on the penal controul of the inmates as criminals , was reduced to £ 2 a-year . Now , here was a body of picked vagabonds , whose industry rendered the whole establishment self-supporting within that degree . In 1842 the sale of articles made by the prisoners was discontinued , in deference to the clamour of independent labourers , who were suffering under the depression of that terrible season , and I do not know whether it has been since resumed . Such a deference was just , even to

    the unreasonable desires of those who were suffering so frightfully ; but the objection to reproductive industry in prison or workhouse , as an interference with independent industry , is untenable . It has been well answered by Matthew Hill , in saying that the prisoner must be supported , either with the return of his own labour , or with funds derived from the taxes paid by the independent labourer . The fact is , however , that , in this form of prison labour the mischievous working of competition is laid bare to the working classes .

    In lieu , therefore , of any eleemosynary aid to the able-bodied , it would be quite possible to organize a system of industrial occupations , open to applicants for relief . I agree with you that the main employments thus provided should be the simpler and more necessary types of the occupations belonging to the district , so that the productions might be those most needed by the class receiving relief , and might be consumed by them ; thus

    avoiding , as much as possible , interference with extraneous industry . It would facilitate the selfconsumption of produce if the industrial system of all the unions throughout the kingdom were consolidated , as the surplus produce of each district might thus be exchanged with others—agricultural Wiltshire , for example , exchanging with clothmaking Yorkshire and shoe-making Northamptonshire .

    These , then , are the main provisions of the measure I would suggest—a total separation of the Vagrant Law from the Poor Law—the Vagrant Law being rendered , for the first time , strong against the offender , and in some degree remunerating to the State : a pension for the superannuated , with a free provision for the sick and infirm j a standing offer of industrial occupation to the able-bodied . The incidents of the rate , the administration and probable working of such a law , I must discuss in a separate letter . Ever yours most faithfully , Thornton Hunt .

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    There i 3 no learned man but "will confess he hath much profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for has adversary to write . —Milton .

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    THE NEW POET LAUREATE . Miteside , Cumberland , Nov . 21 , 1850 . Sir , —I think I shall not be the only one of your readers surprized at the announcement in your paper of last Saturday , that the Laureateship is given to Alfred Tennyson . Par be it from me to grudge him any honour . I am proud to rank myself among his admirers , rather lovers : for all who admire Tennyson must love him . Moreover , I would say , if there was question only of the poet-nature , that Tennyson has its essentials more fully and thoroughly than any living writer . If a poet soul ( I do not speak now of his works ) is to be the qualification for honour , he

    will grace his new rank far more than "Wordsworth , who , spite of the noble poetry he could sometimes write , was rather a poetic thinker than an inspired seer . But the laurel crown , like an old Greek prize , should be given to the worthiest , —to the winner , — for works rather than disposition or promise , —not to him by nature most capable , but to the master in his art whose efforts have best deserved . Then it would not come to Tennyson . Beautiful , subtle , deepthoughted , full of true insight and rich in expression as his poems are , Tennyson has , notwithstanding , only shown us what he might do . His "In Memoriani " is a noble outpouring of private grief . I find no fault with it on that account . For what it sets out

    to be , it is perfect . But wo could not crown Milton for his "L ycidas , " nor Shelley for his " Adonais . " *• The Princess , " lofty in purpose and felicitous in execution , is yet not a great work , but what Tennyson himself aptly calls it—a medley . Again , I am not finding fault . But , where is the master ' s achievement , or even the endeavour ? Where is the Epic ( with what a glorious sample he tantalized us in his *? Mort d'Arthur" ) , where the Tragedy , to claim the master ' s wreath ? Not to mention less recognized names of those who on bolder wing have dared the highest flights , and not without success , —there is

    one will recur to us oil . Tor , granting all that our warmest enthusiasm may demand for Tennyson , conceding the superiority of * ' Locksley Hall , " the Palace of Art , " and other of his minor poems , to any thing of their class , yet even his grentest attempt , The Princess , " will not take precedence of the " Legend of Florence . " Why ( if the laureateship is an honour worth a poet ' s striving for ) has Leigh Hunt been passed over ? Was the advocacy of Woman grateful to the woman ' s heart , — -Ginevra might have touched it . Were there indications of a more

    courtly tone in the younger bard ? Not so : for which of us is not reminded of the old man ' s graceful flattery of the Queen?—a homage so cordial , tha , t some of us extreme men almost took umbrage at it , forgetting that we had stepped on to Republicanism , not he back from it . One is at a loss to guess the reason for the preference . Tennyson himself would have been so glad to have crowned the gray hairs of Shelley ' s friend , the " gentlest of the wise , " and to have waited , praying earnestly with us all that he might long wait for his deserved succession . I am , Sir , yours faithfully , W . J . Linton .

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    JUSTICE TO CATHOLICS . London , Nov . 26 , 1850 . Sir , —Under the above title , in the last number of the Leader , A Cambridge Graduate gives vent to his indignation in consequence of the present warcry against the Pope and Popery . He observes : — ' My spirit burns within me at the shameless manner in which the Press and the Premier have thrown over all sympathy with freedom and justice , arhilrio popular is aura } . " Now , although my principles arc as far removed from bigotry as those of the writer ( according to his own statement ) are from Popery , nevertheless I can . hail with pleasure the existing excitement—as I believe it to be the result of a nobler and a holier cause than mere superficial observers can attribute to it . I regard , Sir , the " grand onslaught upon Popery , " now being made , as a strong , fervent , and unmistukoable expression of that growing and deeply-seated hatred to Pricstoraft and Church domination which

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    All that relates to the pure exercise of a creed is sacred under the -wide canopy of religious libertythe noblest conquest of the human intellect over the tyranny of body and soul . Roman Catholicism , as a simple form , of worship , has never been dreaded , and never will be in this country ; therefore the mere establishment of Catholic bishops , whatever their name or their titles , never would have been objected to . ^ What produces the sensible dismay universally felt is the supreme hierarchy , or rather the top of the pyramid . It is not the priest , it is the foreign prince that raises the national indignation . And what a prince ! Look at the late events in Rome , and you will see that Prince—believing his royal crown in dangerconcealing his sacred stole under the disguise of a Bavarian servant , and guided by a woman , flying from the flock put by the Almighty under his care , to the court of the tyrant of Naples . The same who , a few months before , treated him as a Jacobin Pope ; and who , a few days previously , had caused his own towns to be plundered and burnt ; his own subjects slaughtered by the soldiery , the women forced , the children torn to pieces . The vicar of the Christ who expired on the cross to redeem the human race should never have deserted Rome . If the Church had been in danger his place was in the "Vatican , his seat the chair of St . Peter , his duty the guardianship of those he calls his children . Had he even fallen a victim to violence , his fall would have been the triumph of Papacy purified by the blood of martyrdom . But the Pope as a priest shrank from bloodshed only when he was solicited to authorize a war against foreigners who invaded the soil of Italy . Not so when he wished to recover his dominions . Then he despised any compromise with , his people , he shut his ears to the prayers of his subjects , and would only consent to recover his estates by the sword and the fire . Then he raised a Christian army to fight his Christian subjects , —he caused Christian blood to be shed in the fields , in the streets , in the churches of Rome ; and through this blood he opened his way to his temporal dominion . The Pope saved the Prince but destroyed the Priest . So it is the foreign King that spreads the alarm here , not the Catholic priest . Turn now to Piedmont . You see an honourable man dying in his bed surrounded b y his family and claiming the last offices of his religion . He is , by command of Archbishop Transoni , barbarously deprived of the spiritual compact , on account of having , as a statesman , concurred in the framing of a temporal law abolishing certain ecclesiastical privileges already abrogated in all other Catholic countries , even in the kingdom of the bigot King of Naples . The Minister Santa Rosa was a good Catholic , he had never entertained heretical doctrines against the creed ; but he was supposed to have Infringed the temporal respect due to the Court of Rome by the breach of some courtly etiquette . The offended sensitiveness of the temporal power was avenged by spiritual torture . The Prince forgets the merry of the clergyman ; the King is superior to the priest . No ; these two characters cannot be coupled . A hierarchy founded by such a Prince cannot fail to excite the greatest alarm . Now look at the head of the newly established hierarchy . You see a cardinal ; and what is a cardinal ? A Prince of the Roman estates ; nay , one of the heirs apparent of the Papal throne , and of that crown stained with the blood of Christians . In that character he is not an English clergyman , he cannot be at once a Prince of an independent state and a subject of the Queen . Therefore , he may well be objected to as Archbishop of Westminster ; and his claims to the supreme jurisdiction over bishops of Catholic creed in England remain unrecognized .

    THE PRINCELY PRIESTHOOD . Dec . 2 , 1850 . Sir , —Allow me a little corner in your Open Council wherein to raise my voice amongst the general chorus of clamour and opinion on a subject that agitates the mind and the heart of the whole nation , and threatens to disturb that self-possession and calmness which are the best gifts of English judgment , , First of all let me express my sympathy with the impartiality that animates your paper against any display of bitterness and violence either in opinion or in actions , as the best way both to " crush the Papal movement , " and to resist " the Romish aggression . "

    "Whilst I offer these remarks to your consideration , and thus venture my opinion in the Open Council , let me conclude with the first poet of Italy—Dante —• " Ah , Constantine ! to how much ill gave birth . Not thy conversion , but that plenteous dower Which the first wealthy Father gain'd from thec . " An Italian Believer .

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    dDcrn Cntmril .

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    Dec . 14 , 1850 . ] 3 Cf ) t ISLttlXltV . 90 !

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    [ In this department , as all opinions , howbvbr extreme , are allowed an expression , the ed 1 tob . necessarily holds himself responsible for nonh . j

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• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 14, 1850, page 901, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1862/page/13/