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Leader (1850-1860), 11th January 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 38, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      Can the necessary funds be commanded from private resources ? That , however , we have no right to consider , if the People are to help themselves . An energetic secretary is wanted , who will devote himself unremittingly to active correspondence . Committee-rooms are indispensable . Lecturers free to travel , and able to speak to some purpose , are the next requirement . A tract propaganda must be added to these , for silent informatidn is the surest precursor of active public opinion . Where will the People find the men or the means ?

      Can a dozen men be produced , who will both work and starve ? for these have been the qualifications for the Peoples' leaders heretofore . Have the Trades Unions another Morison—another Editor of the Pioneer , who will kill himself in two years ? Do there exist half-a-dozen Hetheringtons who will live half their lives in prison , or on the verge of it , and die in penury ? Do you want to know where those are who have really worked for the People according to the light they had ? You will find their names in the Felon ' s Calendar $ their exile is in Norfolk Island .

      You , I am sure , my dear Hunt , will have no contemptuous word , but rather a tear of sympathy for these unfortunate men . Misguided or misinformed they may have been , but you know it would be in vain to look among the middle class , among the better placed and the wiser , for equal devotion . Where else but among the poor do men risk so much and in the name of patriotism , or work so well according to their knowledge ?

      Why , however , have the friends of the People been consigned to such doubtful fates ? Simply because the party of the People has been but a name and not a verity . A party is a delusion , and an impotence without organization ; and organization is impossible with them , according to their present notions . All their movements have been matter of accident . There never existed the elements of certainty in any one of their associations . The best politicians among the People are those who value above all things the public virtue that works for nothing . The People pay the Legislator to tax them—the Soldier to fetter them—the Priest to

      limit their reason ; but they will not pay the Leader who will emancipate them . They have no horror like that of a hired Agitator—not seeing that Agitator is but the name by which the Government designates the Reformer , just as it calls the revolt of free men the " rebellion of a faction " and the martyr a " felon . " But is not the man who is hired to think as honourable as he who is hired to work on a farm ? He who developes opinions , or is an artificer in ideas , is as deserving of his wages as any artificer in iron or brass . True , some leaders turn out venal ; " therefore" say the People , " we will pay none . " They might just as well say , " Some workmen are dishonest , therefore

      we will have all work in future done for nothing . " The result would be you would have no work done just the result which has followed in the other case . We have no public industry . Wherever the People act the same disastrous policy is followed . Look at their meagre , inefficient , uncomfortable Literary , Mechanics' Institutions , and Mutual Instruction Societies . The Committees must not be remunerated , and the consequence is the institutions are neglected , and whole neighbourhoods left to get what knowledge they can out of gratuitous services . For it is esteemed a greater crime that patriotism should live by ita own exercise than that a district should bo left to lie in vice and

      ignorance . Tyranny says many contemptuous things of tho People ; but it never said half the bitter things of them which the People say of each other . If a political teacher in paid , his associates assume that he will become dishonest—ko they starve him to keep him virtuous : and this in the derisive rule they lay down for the preservation of his integrity . The ( iovernrnunt aro more honourable to the People than they to each other , and believe butter of them than they believe of each other .

      My initiation into affairs of progress wiih in company with jncu who estimated above all oMuir virtues , tho virtue which worked for nothing . They would denounce tho patriotism of the , man who accepted u shilling for making a npet : cli , although it had cost him mote to compose it than probably those who heard would tfivc to savo their country . By a perversity of human nature it happens that thoHC whoso who think must livo aw well um thoso who work . No philotiophy is above tho vulgar necessity of eating and drinking . The greatest patriot that ever existed did not ulwuys # o without Ilia dinner . Humpdeu did not deem it necessary

      to go naked , and Washington thought it needful to keep a house over his head . And yet it is very well known , that all the time a man gives to business he takes from patriotism . It was not the failure of Harmony Hall among the Socialists a fewyears ago which caused that lull in the public hope , m which nothing but stagnation was left moving . There are some causes in which failure is no dishonour , when right intention 13 overmatched by evil power . Men must run a race against evil although they lose a few times . In the struggle for right the world will honour the vanquished

      more than the victor . So it was with Harmony . All could have been explained and courage could have been reanimated , but our orators could not face their pay-masters , and the power was withdrawn which had moved over the face of public opinion and excited it with daring and hope . No seduceraent of interest , no blandishments of society , no frown of power , no changes of opinion generate half the defections from the ranks of the People that are occasioned by the suspicion put upon those who serve them long j or the contumely incurred by entire devotion to their cause .

      Mingle amid the Committee of any political association of working men , and what a picture of ardent aspiration and utter public helplessness you there behold : —

      " The world by them is parcelled out in shares , And on their brows sit every nation ' s cares . " Yet , not one of these persons ( all of them being poor ) can attend to public affairs , unless they neglect their homes and their creditors ; and as none of them ought to do this , and the best of them will not , the result of working-class policy is , that none but the rich or the knaves can serve the public cause constantly ; and without constancy of service , no organization is possible . In another letter I will show that the Leaders of parties have taught the People not to form parties , and how they have learned that lesson . Yours in good faith and friendship , George Jacob Holyoake .

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      In Forstbr ' s eloquent and admirable Idfe of Goldsmith there are indignant passages on the treatment of Literary Men by Society , and especially on the want of any forethought or care to alleviate the misery incident to so precarious a calling . Opinions differ as to the propriety of pensions and other means of staving off misery but , meanwhile , as pensions form the only actual reliefscanty as it is—it behoves the public to see that the small sums available are properly bestowed . It is no secret to any one that favouritism has too often taken precedence of real claims } but thia week we

      have to record two additions to the pension list which strikingly exemplify the necessity of a public purse of the kind—viz ., the widow of Bblzoni , the traveller ( how comes it that she has waited so long for this recognition , when the widow of Colonel Gurwood , who had neither claims nor wants , has been some tima on the list ?) , also Poole , the author of Paul Pry , and so many comedies , whose bodily infirmities have long prevented his doing anything towards gaining his own livelihood . Surely , if any persons can claim the public bounty , the aged and the incapacitated rank first .

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      The Dublin Review has an article on " Catholicism as a Conservative Principle , " which both Conservatives and Radicals should read . Strange enough it is in our ears to listen to a defence of Catholicism as identified with the cause of Order , though we admit the truth of the writer ' s views . We should have preferred a demonstration of the cause of Order being the cause of Truth , and Catholicism sacred because true , not because supporting existing institutions . What the reviewer says respecting the present agitation is very striking ; and here is a passage which might read blasphemously in any other pages : —

      " Our position then is , that so far as the middle classes may have succeeded in their attempt to prejudice those below them against Catholics and the Catholic religion , they will be tound to have inflicted a severe wound on principles which they themselves hold most dear . Take , at starting , one obvious instance . The walls of London have lately been inscribed in a vast number of places with the words 'No wafer Gods . ' It has been most , justly observed in regard to this ( most painful as it is to repeat such things ) , ' What consistency is there in persona objecting to a wafer God , who themselves believe in a Unity God ? ' Can those well-intentioned persons who seriousl

      have lately taken a prominent part against us , y think ( if they will only give themselves time to think ) that the cast of thought and temper of mind which they have been fostering by such profane and shallow exclamations as the above will stop just where they would have it atop I—that it will attack the Heal Presence and spare the Trinity ?—that it will sneer at Transubitantiatton , and revere the Son's Consubstantiality ! When these lines are in the reader ' s hands , the season of Christmas will be . iji progress—a season for which the . English have had immcmoriully a special veneration . I" the contemplations of that holy periodlet our Protestant

      , readers approach in spirit to tho stable of Bethlehem ; let them gnze on that little Infant at In " Mother's breast ; let them observe Ilia weakness , H >* helplessness . His speachlessneas ; and remamber that He in the Eternal God ; that He made Heaven and . earth by the mere expression of His will ; that Ho can destroy any ono of us and reduce us to nothing by one sing le breath . ( Jan they really belir . ve this , and yet scrim ™ !! tax us with superstition , or (« lill worse ) oov * r u » w ' ' light mid unnicnmnu : ridicule for our worship of the

      Saored Uoat ? Aoither tho reason surely , nor the imagination , is more startled by the latter than by the former of these worships . And , indeed , of tho readiness with which the evil spirit , recently evoked , extends to tho moHt sacred myntei Us of the Faith , we have » remarkable inutanou in a t '^ nt which we hoard »» very K °° d » ' " rity , viz ., in many places on the wall * , in close juxta-DOMiiiou with ' No Wafer God * , ' anpcitred tlw * Mowing : No Jew God' (!!!) 'No . Pigeon God ; ' In apparent allusion to the Holy Ghost . "

      We have ho often declared our conviction that then ? JH no conaistent alt « rautivu other tlmn CatholiciHin or Spiritualism , that we willingly bring tho battle upon tho puriloiiH ground chosen by tho reviewer in hit * daring attack on Science . He admit ** tliat «\ belief is fast gaining ground which , by s « - bordinutiug all the , plumouuum of nature to usccrtainodl inunuUWo Jawa , rujecfca »© guperstition the

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      38 ' . ' ' Git % f ** ft . ' : [ Patohday ;

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      Final Causes . —The utility-teachers aay that oxen have horns to defend themselves ; but I ask , why is the sheep without any—and when it has them , why are they twisted about the ears so as to answer no purpose at all ? If , on the other hand , I say the ox defends himself with his horns because he lias them , it is quite a different nutter . The question as to the purpose —the question Wherefore is completely unscientific . But we get on farther with the question How ? For if I ask how has the ox horns , I am led to study his organization , and learn at the same time why the lion has no horns , and cannot have any . Thus , man has in his skull two hollows which are never filled up . The question Wherefore could not take us far in this case , but the question How informs mo that these hollowK are remains of thf >

      animal skull , which are found on a larger scale in inferior organization , and arc not quite obliterated in man , with all his eminence . The teachers of utility would think that they had lost their God if they did not worship Him who gave the ox horns to defend itself . But I hope I may be allowed to worship Him who , in the abundance of His creation , was great enough , after making a thousand kinds of plants , to make one more , in which , all the rest should be comprised ; and after a thousand kinds of

      animals , a being which comprises them all—man . Let people serve Him who gives to the beast his fodder , and to man meat and drink as much aa be can enjoy , but I worship Him who has infused into the world such a power of production , that , when only the millionth part of it oornes out into life , the world swarms with creatures to such a degree that war , pewtilenco , iire , and water cannot , prevail against them . That ia my God!—( Joethe ' s Conversations with Lickcrmann .

      Jkhi . 'h Jud ( jki ) iiy Jews . —Dr . Raphael , of Birmingham , says : — " While I and the Jews of the prctumt day protest againttt being identified with the zealots who were concerned in the proceedings against Jesua of Nazareth , we are fur from reviling his character or deriding his precepts , which are , indeed , for the mont part , the precepts of Moses and the Prophets . You have heard me style him ' the Great . Teacher of Nazareth ; ' for that designation I and the Jews take to be hiu due . " " I did not term Jesua of Nazareth an impostor , " ( says M . M . Noah , the American Jew . ) I had never comidtrcd him Huoh . The impostor generally i » ini 8 at temporal power , attempts to tuihaidi / . c the rich and weak believer , and draws around him followers of influence , whom he can control . Jesus wiiH free from faiiatacism : his wan u quiet

      subdued , retii ing faith ; he mingled with the poor , he communed with the wretched , avoided the rich , and rebuked the vain-glorious . In the calm of the evening he nought shelter in the , secluded groves of Olivet , or wandered pensively on the shores of Galilee . He sincerely believed in his miHuidii ; he courted no one , flattered no one : in his political dciiunciut . ionn he was pointed and severe ; in bin religion , calm and subdued . These are not the charuot < riaticH of aa impostor ; but , admitting that wo give a dilferent interpretation to liiu mission , when 1 / j () , ()()() , 000 believu in his divinity , and we sco around us abundant evidence of the hupim-Hs , good fuith , mild government , and liberal feclingH , which spring from l » in religion , what right has any ono to call hint an impostor ? That , religion which ia calculated to make mankind great uud happy cannot be a fiilae one . "

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      Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and pQ iice of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review . r tuua

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 11, 1851, page 38, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1865/page/14/