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    " . Tub one Idea which History exhibits as evermore developing itself into greater distinctness 13 the Idoa or Hamamty—the noble endeavour to throw down all the barriers erected between men by prejudice and one-sided views ; and by setting aside the distinctions of-Religion , Country , and Colour , to treat the whole Human race as one brotherhood , having one great object—the free development of our spiritual nature . "—Humboldt ' s Cosmos

    sPonttntsi : News of the Week— Page National Charter Association 5 A French Bloodman 11 r The Conservative A < mPot nf nnnUH . m ia The Threatened Kaihvay Strike .... i Taxes 011 Knowledge 6 The Dresden Conferences 12 Thk Aurs- Socialism 18 Protestantism , Popery , and Puseyism 3 Commitment of Mr . Sloane D 6 An Irish Freehold Land Society ' ' . ' . ' . ' . \ i Which Theatre shall I -o to IS S ^^ KSk" :::::::: | Sp ^? -.. "f .:::::: ! &- "S 3 K ^ 2 x . " ^ - ' 5 ^ f d ~" - ::::::::- » _ SSS , « :::::::::::::::: I ISSiSr .:::::::: ; ::::::::: ; : ? Sffil ; { f " -. ta .-u . iiv . * * ... The Crystal Palace 5 Public Affairs— . Friends in Council \ y n llIun ¦ . •••;• ••• X . , "' iV . '" ;"" . !! Se , f-Supporting Workhouses 5 A Ne ^ ' -NoP ^ eryi '• Cry" ::::. ' ::: ll Hesper " ........ . 18 riS ^ . ^ . . P . ?? . 1 ! :.. ^ 1-24

    No . 41 . SATURDAY , JANUARY ' 4 , J 851 . Price 6 d .

    ADDRESS .

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    . * . With the new year we commence a Second Volume of the Leader . We do so with a feeling of grave satisfaction which rises above pride , and is more confident than hope . We are now able to substitute for mere promises an appeal to our First Volume : it must speak for us . We know , even better than the most critical of our readers—and some of the most friendly have been among the most critical—where the work has fallen short of our whole scheme ; indeed , there needs no great demand upon our candour to proclaim that we have not yet presented our readers with such a paper as it is still our steadfast aim to produce . We will not plead the obstacles of various kinds which have had to be vanquished ; but we do confidently appeal to the thoroughness and resolute spirit in which the enterprise has been pursued . We have had the great aid of writers whose contributions any journal might be proud to own—Landor , Mazzini , Harriet Martineau , Newman , Foxton , I ' roude , Kingsley , and other well-known names , no less than names which will make themselves conspic uous hereafter—and , with some allowance lor details , we can say that the spirit of our proves has been faithfully kept . Success has proved that the Leader had a large Public ready to respond to its advocacy of unre-Btncted expression of thought . Many and grave IurV - d ° Ubt 8 ° f frlend 8 ™ * ° I ) OS 8 ibility of inding a class numerous enough to establish ^ powe r ful organ . Those doubts have been aijnced . Not only has our circulation surpassed » e ex pectation of experienced men , but it has indicl n t mUCh Wlder Und m ° mixe ( I I ) ublic th ™ » W have been anticipated . As in Religion , it ia the changing forma of human opinion bo much _ the eternal influence of reverent belief and active me WC U 1 > peal to > " <>> ^ Politics , the theories and ^ i < ie L th v : hunKingliour 8 arc as nothi " * fiw . 1 H |> mt of ear « e « t > hopeful , generous ¦ I ririt 7 7 8 hOUl < 1 UCtUat ° them ' And thi » which i 8 ° ° ne 8 t a welcome > that the Leader , * Publiahea , almost weekly , opinions that would LlOWN KUITION , ]

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    nave brought , a few years ago , fines , imprisonment , and bigoted wrath as consequences , has , up to this period , incurred not only no persecution , but even none of that virulent aspersion which formerly assailed free speech , and blackened characters when it could not answer arguments . The fact is significant . We boast also of another good achieved : our experiment has given encreased boldness to other journals ; and if the Leader has done nothing else it has done some service in proving the safety of plain speaking . We have done our utmost with the means at disposal , and have been generously met by the public , as became it . Jules Janin wittily says there is nothing so successful as success . We have found it so . Obstacles have given way before our accelerated pace which we imagined it would take many months to overcome . Among those obstacles let us name Distrust . Some , doubting our courage , complained at first of our not being bold enough . Have they not seen that we have the courage of our own opinions ? We cannot be asked to have the courage of theirs . Others again thought us too bold . Have we been more so than sincerity demanded ? A third class doubted our keeping to the principles of fair play all round . The recent agitation against the Catholics tested that . While opposing the principles upon which Catholicism stands with a more uncompromising hostility than any other paper ( except the Dispatch ) , we were the first , as we have been among the warmest , supporters of the rights belonging to Catholic conviction . A Catholic and a stranger writing to us on this subject says , " You uphold a cause , perhaps the most opposite of all to ours , but you do so in a fair and noble spirit ; and I should be ungrateful and untrue to my own feelings if I did not warmly express how deeply I appreciate your genuine love of fair play and your generous abhorrence of persecution . " In Politics we know that we have won the confidence of classes that doubted the existence of any sincerity or zeal , and most proudly do we appeal to the amount of trust accorded to us by the working classes' —most proudly , because , while their trust haw ho often been abused , their judgment has been

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    sharpened , and their approval is backed by keen thought and a practical stake . We have more than once attacked their idols , and thereby incurred a distrust which only the admission of our sincerity as shown throughout , has been able to remove . But our support has not come mainly from the class needing a forlorn hope : we have hearty support and encouragement from the prosperous and orthodo ^ . It is with a pride not wholly selfish we say that the Leader is welcomed as warmly by numbers who oppose its opinions as by those who share them : indeed , while many " Liberals" flinch from our boldness , and are afraid to support us—or do so in private—we are cheered in our labours by men of eminent position in Church and State—by the unquestionably orthodox and by steady Conservatives—by men in short who , while rejecting our opinions , sympathize with the spirit of freedom and fair play which it is our constant aim to cherish and call forth . This forms for us , not merel y a wider circulation than our own party could afford , but also a much wider sphere of influence and greater chance of ultimate good . Could we publish heaps of confidential letter * which have been burnt offerings to Silence , w « should astound the public : men would think they were living amid a general social " conspiracy to promote the spirit and opinions of the Leader . Thus , whether we look at the actual state of our circulation , which from the first has grown with steady encrease , or to «'^ lie « tate of public opinion and the position held in it by the Leader—and wo beg earnestly t ^ aay that this is plain truth , not idle self-glorification—our prospects are inexpressibly cheering—they lighten toil and Htimulate us to fresh endeavours . Except a slight change in the structure of our materials , which will be observed in this numbera change meant to facilitate the details of editorial and typographical arrangement , and noun ? fullcr developmeut of our scheme as we proceed—the Journal will remain what it has hitherto beo | i . May we preserve the confidence of our friends and extend the sphere- of usefulness in the cauao of Free Thought .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 4, 1851, page unpag., in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1864/page/1/