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Leader (1850-1860), 8th February 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 135, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      The People ' s Cooperative Benefit Building Society . —We have received the third annual report of this society ( where situated the report says not ) , we believe at Greenwich , from which we learn that 3684 new shares have been taken up during the year , making a total to this time of 9804 shares held by investing members ; these , added to the extra shares , 70 in number , held by borrowing members , produce a total of 1050 J chares in force at this time . The amount appropriated during the year is £ 4263 . Total sum appropriated to members to this date , £ 8132 12 s .

      The committee for the formation of a Cooperative Store in connection with the London Association of Working Tailors , 432 , Oxford-street , held their first meeting on Tuesday evening , at the John-street Instition - Mr . H . T . Holyoake in the chair . Several plans were ' discussed , and further deliberation arranged . East London Cooperative Stoke . —On Monday evening , January 20 , a tea party and ball took place in the Brunswick-hall , Ropemakers ' -fields , Limehouse . This store was commenced in June , 1847 , and from meeting in a room by the light of a solitary candle they now have a little hall and shop open every Saturday evening for the

      sale of provisions . They now allow their members to bring articles of their own manufacture for sale or interchange . Seventy members have taken up shares to the amount of £ 2 each , and many of them have been paid up by the members sinking their profits . The total receipts of the Sast quarter have been about £ 200 , the amount of profit ivided 134 P er cent . The store has been carried on by the gratuitous exertion of the members , and much of the decorations and fittings of the hall have been done by the willing hands of unpaid workers . . —James Benny . Cooperative Stores . —Mr . Hardingham , of Worcester , will get the information he desires by writing to the manager , 76 , Charlotte-street , Fitzroy-square .

      Redemption Society . —With , respect to the forthcoming election of candidates for the Welsh Community , we have to say , that all boot and shoemakers being single , who mean to become candidates , must make their intentions known . ' They must provide written testimonials of character . If , by an incorrect testimonial , an individual should get elected , and on arriving at the community is found inefficient , disappointment will be the result . These testimonials must be sent in not later than the 14 th of February . It must be understood that these documents have to be rewritten and sent to all the branches ; this requires time , hence the necessity of being in early with them . In each branch an electoral meeting must be held . The testimonials must all be read to the meetings . After this , it is usual to solicit remarks and information on the facts stated . And then the votes of

      the members must be taken by ballot . Donors and candidates are not eligible to vote . Members are those who have been candidates for six months and upwards , and have paid sixpence for their cards of membership , and been elected full members . The numbers of votes must be sent to Leeds immediately , where they will be counted , and the results of the elections duly declared . Moneys received for the week ending Jan . 27 , 1851 : —Leeds , £ 2 7 a . 3 d . ; Huddersfield , per Mr . Studdard , £ 1 ; Hyde , per Mr . J . Bradly , 8 s . 8 d . ; Sunderland , per Mr . J . Chapman , Gd . ; Communal Building Fund , Leeds , 5 s . ; Hyde , per Mr . J . Bradly , 2 s . For the week ending Feb . 3 , 1851 : —Leeds , £ 1 9 s . 4 d . j Burnly , Mr . Huttly , 12 s . ; Edenborough , Mr . Renton , Is . ; Gildersome , Mr . Dixon , 4 s . 2 d . ; Berkenshaw , 2 s . Communal Building Fund : — Coventry , Mr . Shufflebotharn , 6 s . ; Duggleyter , Mr . Turner , 2 s . 6 d . ; Berkenshaw , Is .

      Halifax . — In consequence of the letters by Ion , we determined to do something towards carrying into effect the principles of cooperation , and I report that we have opened a small store . We number fifty members , with a good prospect of increase . Our rules have been passed unanimously , and we are going to have them enrolled , when I will forward you a copy . The shares arc £ ' 2 per member , payable at not Icbs than 4 d . per week , the profits to remain until increased to £ 5 , £ 3 to be drawn in case of sickness , &c . The proh ' ts , after paying expense of management and five per cent ., to be divided according to the amount spent at the store . A deputation of Messrs . White and Baldwin are appointed to visit our lloohdale friends , to inquire as to their plan

      of doing business , and gain all other information poaoible . Halifax has always been noted for ita activity and usefulness in promoting every progressive movement , and its Educational and Litcrury Institulions testify to the intelligence of its people . It has now taken up the question of association with zeal . The Halifax Class of the Nation at the Redemption Society , now numbers 128 members and sixteen donors , all ardently working . They have just remitted to Leeds , £ ¦ 1 0 13 a . 2 J d . and a saddle and bridle , as a new year's gift to the community in Wales . They meet twice nwcek , and take Owen's Journal , the Christian Socialist , und the Leader , & <; . They feel much indebted to the Leader for the faithful reports and manly advocacy of association , and are delighted to learn of its success and

      cheering prospects . There is also a cooperative store m operation , which is rapidly progressing in numbers of members . They recently deputed two members to the Koohdalc Store , to gain information in management < & « ., and they returned , much pleased witli the kind attention they received . The Halifax Storo intend renting or purchasing more commodious promises for carrying on the objects of the society , the present being much too small . Their first iiiumu . il festival tonic plu . ee- on New "Vcar ' s-day . Mr . Dobson , tho president , in the chair . The meeting w « s addressed by M . <> sNrs . Nicholson , n < 'ii ., White , Whymoml , mid Haldwiit . There are two Cooperative Stores in the immediate vicinity , whieu have been a number of yours in existence , und have produced very profitable rcnults to tho individual members . —R . JLJ .

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      LETTERS ON UNITARIANISM . Letter "VII . Dec . 16 , 1850 . Sir , —Though the Unitarian faith makes its recipients proud , it has not the power to render them zealous in its diffusion . From the excellence which they attribute to their system , from the elevating and regenerating tendencies which they ascribe to it , we should suppose that they would be ready to peril all and expend all , to spread its dominion over the earth . But precisely in proportion to the superiority which they claim for their tenets , are they careless about their dissemination . So far from distinguishing

      themselves by that incessant propagandism which I have spoken of as one of the grand agencies in the success of sects , they can scarcely be said to be Propagandists at all . In many Unitarian congregations , there is scarcely any allusion all the year round to the peculiar Unitarian theology . Now , for a truly noble spiritual teacher , there must always be liigher things than Propagandist preaching . The prophet ' s soul can pour its pith into nothing but the prophet ' s work . But as I am not now speaking of how the prophet can and must manifest himself , whether in one sect or another , or beyond the limit of all sects , it may still be true that while the prophet puts forth his

      being in broader , bolder , holier action , it is the duty of the ordinary preacher , for the sake of his sect to be a Propagandist . Yet , it is a duty which Unitarian ministers have a great dislike to performing ; partly from indolence and timidity ; partly lest they should be called sectarian ; and also , because they know how unpalatable are dogmatic statement and controversial conflict to the leading members of their Hocks . There is abundance of sectarian feeling and no small portion of sectarian bitterness in the Unitarian body ; but it is for those who dare to be vehement and apostolic realities within the body , that the sectarian venom is reserved . So , whatever is beyond the body , that which Unitarianism is most ambitious to take , is

      a perfectly unsectarian attitude ; that is to say , no attitude ut all . For a sect must be sectarian or it is nothing . The more it is sectarian the more it accomplishes the objects for which it exists as a sect . And if sectarian , then intolerant , since it is not there before the world in an organic shape for the purpose of proclaiming and practising tolerance , but in order to give sway to certain principles . A sect which admits that other sects may by possibility be right , should forthwith pass an uct of self-abolition . Hereby , I am offering no encouragement to such furious fanaticism as that which is now foaming and bellowing like a wild beast through tho length and breadth of England .

      Fmiaticism has no relation to truth or falsehood at all . It ia simply the brutal howl of a ferocious and unreasoning antipathy . But we ought not , and especially a sect ought not , in order to escape tho charge of being l ' tinuticul , to use hucIi mild und mincing words , and to take such slow and hesitating steps , that not merely earnestness , but the appearance thereof , vanishes . A sect lifts up its standard in vain unless it assumes that it alono is in possession of the truth . If it disclaim thut aMsuinption , why i . s tho standard lifted up ? All falsehood is deviliah and damnable . l 5 lse why not banish the word falsehood

      from human language * altogether ? A sect , therefort ; , must be incessantly propagandist , incessantly enouncing its own doctrines as true ; , incessantly assailing the opposite doctrines us false ; otherwise men . imiHt conclude that in spite of loud boasting and ostentutious capers now und then , it has really no doctrines to teach . There is , it is true , u society in London under the formidable title of the " British and Foreign Unitarian Association . " Hut the extent of its exertions corresponds but little to the ambition of ita name . Tho only truce of its existence which it gives is to -upend a day once a jear in

      BcU-gloriUcation . A sermon is preached in the morning generally on the same old topic , the power of Unitarianism to change the earth into a universal paradise ; a power however , which , being hoarded like a miser ' s gold , benefits nobody . After the sermon there is a meeting for business at which the accounts are read . Then there is a dinner . Here the most approved Whig politics are the order of the day . Some fat alderman is stuck into the chair , the Unitarians being exceedingly fond of small notabilities in the absence of great ones . " Civil and Religious Liberty all the world over , " of course introduces an allusion to Lord John Russell , which is received with a storm of

      applause , that puniest of the pigmies being regarded by a sect whose chief political element is Whiggery as a kind of archangel , a miracle of patriotic virtue , of oratorical genius' , of wisdom and courage as a statesman . The health of the preacher in the morning is proposed , his sermon having been " the most eloquent to which the chairman ever listened . " The preacher in reply makes a speech praising himself , praising the Unitarian sect , and praising the "Whigs . Then the secretary of the society makes a speech praising the Whigs , the Unitarian sect , but above all and chiefly himself . Then three or four other persons make speeches praising the Unitarian sect , themselves , and the Whigs . Finally , the chairman makes a speech praising the Whigs , the Unitarian sect , and

      the chairman . And so the farce ends . The Unitarians can swallow as much humbug as most men . But the ' British and Foreign Unitarian Association , " with its immense pretensions and its utter imbecility , has become rather more than many of them could stand . Some earnest young men have , therefore , set on foot what is called " The London District Unitarian Society , " which , whatever its shortcomings , has , perhaps , done as much as it had the means of doing . Even , however , if preachers and others in the Unitarian body were animated in the highest degree with the spirit of valiant and pertinacious propagandism , it would be difficult for them to attempt anything of a comprehensive or conquering kind from sheer want of funds .

      It is notorious that the Unitarians , especially the wealthier among them , have a very strong and decided objection to pay down hard cash for spreading abroad the knowledge of that faith which they are continually declaring to be the truest , the best , and the most beautiful . It is so true , so good , and so beautiful , that they are afraid , I suppose , of polluting and degrading it by bringing it into too close contact with so wretched a thing as money . The grand " British and Foreign Unitarian Association , " from whose sounding name we should expect agencies numerous and potent enough to shake the solid globe , does not raise more than four or five hundred pounds a-year ;

      whereas , if the Unitarians were to subscribe as liberally as other sects , they ought to raise just twenty times as much . Where a wealthy Wesleyan gives a hundred pounds , a wealthy Unitarian thinks he is making an enormous effort in giving a shabby guinea or two . If , as the orthodox say , the Unitarian religion be abominable , it has the prodigious advantage of being , in this age of cheapness , one of the cheapest . And , really , is it not asking too mueh-of the Unitarians that , along with their abounding liberality of sentiment , they ehould ^ have at the same time

      liberality of purse ? No one can have all virtues ; and , if a man spends all his days in making sublime professions of charity , why should you be so wanting in taste as to require him to put his hand in his pocket ? And yet , somehow or other , it happens in these degenerate days that money is indispensable to the success of every undertaking , whether large or small . In ancient times , when a noble hospitality flourished along with other noble things , Saint Paul could travel from land to land , and convert nations to the Gospel , with no other income on which he could count but

      insults and buffctings . In these- Brummagem generations , when every human being you meet is drunk with the dream of gold , gold you must have , whether tho object be to cut a railroad or to abolish a cornlaw—to raise a monument to the most stolid of dukes or to spread a religious faith . Now , good Unitarians- ) , my dearly beloved brethren , you must submit to this condition , or , with due expedition , retreat into the limbo of forgotten vunities . In periods when men were heroes , and rejoiced to honour the most heroic , and to exalt them into gods , t \ wy fought for their convictions . At present , political economy being omnipotent , they pay for them . Formerly they poured forth their blood ; now they

      pour forth , their pence . If , therefore , the Umturinna arc to make converts to their belief , they must vastly encrease both their expenditure and their machinery . Tho Methodists say that every soul costs u guinea , that being the sum required , according to their spiritual statistics , for accomplishing every single conversion . To tho Unitarians the article would probably fall rather dearer , as they are- not quite such experienced dealers , and have some disadvantages compared to their competitors in the market . But they ought , like brave men , to make up their mind to the necessity , charming open their reluctant ilsts with the magic words— -No cash , no conversion . It is a pregnant fact that though there exists a ' ? British and Foreigu Unitarian Association , " thy

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      Feb . 8 , 1851 . ] fflfje ILt&ittt . i 35

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      There is 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 his adversary to "write . —Milton .

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      ? [ In this department , as all opinions , however extreme , are allowed an expression , the editor necj 23 sarily holds himself responsible for none . ]

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 8, 1851, page 135, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1869/page/19/