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Leader (1850-1860), 22nd March 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 274

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      were not acquainted with the business , —after having awakened discord , inseminated scandal , turned Protestantism into derision , and dated the Jesuits with their ¦ victory , now turned his back on the Malta Protestant College , and repaired to Rome , to receive the reward of his labours : doubtless he will be made a Bishop . " Dr . Achilli designates this opposition of his own partizan 6 as " persecutionj" but , surely , even the Governor of Malta would not have interposed in these matters , and the Bible , truth , and reason ought to have made their way there , if there is any hope of their ever prevailing against the power of darkness : —

      " The Italian Church I had established at Malta augured well , not only for the place itself , but for the whole continent of Italy , and for the island of Sicily also . I do not think it possible for the Anglican Church to prosper in Malta . All the efforts that have been made to that effect , for the last forty-eight years , have proved to the contrary . The English language is not adapted for a people who have received the language of Italy through tradition , from the Knights of Malta , and from

      its commercial relation with Sicily and the Levant , whose merchants carry on their traffic in Italian . Besides , it is to be noted that the people have no sympathy with the religion of their rulers , especially in these times , when they are on bad terms with their governors . Ireland is a speaking example of the truth of this remark . If reform be at all possible in Malta , it must be of Italian origin , and the Italian language must be employed , both for teaching and for worship .

      " My esteemed friend Camilleri , who exclusively devotes himself to the service of his native place , is at length convinced of this fact ; and joins me in the work I am undertaking . " It may be urged that the Maltese have a language of their own , but it is neither studied nor cultivated , and is little esteemed ; it is entirely confined to the lower orders , and is a spoken , not a written , language : the Italian , on the other hand , is the language of the educated classes . I have always advanced these arguments to those who sought to ameliorate the religious condition of this people . I have discountenanced the translating in the Maltese language either the New Testament or the English liturgy ; as has been done by the Bishop

      of Gibraltar ; since whoever in that country desires to read , chooses the Italian language , which is preferred to all others : And it is on this account that none but an Italian Church can hope to supersede the Latin one ; and that only after a long laborious effort . Provided the Italian Church were established in Malta , it would greatly tend to its extension in Sicily , since the place is much resorted to by the Sicilians , both for business and pleasure : and lately indeed by unfortunate refugees . During the whole time that our church , was open , many worthy Sicilians frequented it in preference to any other , and each of these , on returning home , carried with him at least his Bible , with the Christian Catechism , which we gave away on the occasion .

      " All is now over , through a jealousy the most foolish , the most incoherent I ever heard of . \ Veak men suffered themselves to be deceived and overcome , and after having made their first false step , had the folly to persist in and vindicate their error . I witnessed the . fall of a Cliurch , which yet was ' built on the foundation of the Apostles and the Prophets , Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone . ' I had to lament over the destruction of the little work we effected in the Lord ' s vineyard , and the dispersion of the labourers . Oh , how runny tears have 1 shed over the destruction of our infant Church ! God alone knows what I have done to raise and preserve it . Those who , to their eternal disgrace , have occasioned this evil will doubtless meet with duo punishment . At any rate , I luive the consolation of being free from remorse . "

      We say , am en , with all our heart , convinced that the Doctor meant well , but that his connection with the English saints had put him in a , false position . Since his return to Kn / rland , Dr . Achilli , who " views his mission as inseparably connected with his native country , and whose holy ambition is to resume his labours there , sooner or later , in the establishment of an Italian Church' —as , in the meanwhile endeavouring to preserve the germ of it alivo by celebrating Divine worship ' pure and undeiiled

      before ( Jod , ' and imparting religious instruction on the ISabbalh , and at lit seasons to as many of his unfortunate fellow-refugees and others of his countrymen as show themselves desirous of it ; trusting that ' what , is sown in fears will be reaped in joy . ' " Of the Hiiccess of his Ilulian Church in London , we shall say nothing ; for our readers can satisfy themselves on that subject , by personal attendance at liiH chapel . His " fellow refugees , " we arc afraid are rather a tough set of votaries t , o deal with .

      AVt ; once more give our impression that all attempts at religious construction in Italy , are , to say the least ; , premature . It will take t , ime and patience to overcome the loathing of all thinking men in Ital y against the faith of their fathers . Their hatred of ronery is necessarily hasty and indiscriminate . Till they have , carried their war against it to a happy issue , they will not hear one word about anything - , however remotely , connected with it . The Italian Church contemplated by Dr . Achilli , in spite of all his proteHts to the contrary , will also be

      objectionable on the score of nationality . We English have spurned the Pope , especially because he was an " Italian Priest . " The Italians are not likely to welcome even a countryman , however upright and zealous , who appears before them in the name of the " English" Evangelical Alliance . Italian religion , like Italian liberty , must spring from the very heart of the country , free from foreign influence—not only never soliciting , but stoutly rejecting any extraneous aid ; for only in this strict , disdainful exclusiveness can real spontaneousness and self-dependence be found . We fear Sir Culling Eardley and his gifts .

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      THE DREAMER AND THE WORKER . The Dreamer and the Worker : a Story of the Present Time . By K . H . Home , Author of Orion , Cosmo de Medici , &c . 2 vols . Colburn . The eternal antithesis of Men of Thought and Men of Action has furnished R . H . Home with the subject of a novel which rises above the mass of novels by the elevation of its conception and the

      philosophic truth which it embodies , although in point of execution it is open to very serious objections . We are not 3 however , disposed to dwell upon its faults as a work of fiction , inasmuch as both story and character are obviously subordinate in the author ' s mind to the elucidation of those general principles which they set forth . He probably knows quite as well as his critics that his strength does not manifest itself in the invention of a

      story . The twofold condition of our nature , sensual and spiritual , practical and theoretical , with earthy needs and heavenly yearnings , with feet fixed on the ground and eyes following the stars , and the incessant combat waged between these two antagonists may be said to be the source of all poetry and philosophy , and cannot be too often illustrated . It is a subject never old . It is a subject wherein all may behold their own struggles reflected as in a mirror . R . H . Home has chosen the antagonism as it masses itself into two sections of society , in

      the Dreamers and the Workers , with a view of showing to both their limitations and positions . He does not say to the Dreamer : thou art an idle useless creature , living like a drone in this garden of the world ! He does not say to the Worker : thou art the complete , active , useful man , from thee and such as thee will the world receive its right impulse ! He sees clearly enough that the Dreamer is in his sphere also a Worker , labouring with his soul as another labours with bis hands , but that his labour needs the labour of other men to fructify it , no less than the Worker needs the spiritual influence of the Dreamer ere he can become an

      intelligent , useful labourer . While society , with its fondness for broad generalizations , masses men into Thinkers and Doers , as if the distinction held good in fact , Nature , who never generalizes , makes men always both Thinkers and Doers , though to each individual man she assigns in a different degree the predominance of one or other tendency . As no man would be complete without this twofold nature , this capacity for thought and action , so neither would society be complete without the due admixture of Men of

      Thought with Men of Action—that is to say , men in whom the purely theoretic faculty is the leading characteristic , and men in whom the purely active practical tendency is predominant . Action is but incarnated Thought . It is Thought realizing itself in Fact . Nevertheless so strong is the repulsion between Men of Thought ; and Men of Action that a perpetual antagonism is kept up between themthe Dreamer scorning the Worker as an inferior being , the Worker tmeering at the Dreamer aa an idle visionary .

      To reconcile these is the object of Home's novel . He shows them that both are indispensable to each other , and that Thought should accompany Action " like perfect music set to noble words . " lie presents us in Archer with a genuine specimen of the Dreamer , and , what is more , one that would be styled an useless Dreamer : of a lofty rather than a powerful mind , with broad philanthropic schemes and a perfect integrity , writing poetry and

      philosophical novels which bring him neither pudding nor praise , scorned by lii . s uncle and laughed at by ordinary men , Archer is nevertheless of very obvious utility in the- world , if only in thin single respect , viz ., that he is a Dreamer . For |><; sure of this , that no visionary , be he never so derided , exists in vain ; even in the breasts of those who mock at him , his presence and his language , his high aiiriH and enthusiasm awaken the feelings which " lmniness" routine , and daily needs have kept dormant .

      The influence of such men on society is quite incalculable ; they have a transceadant function in social geometry . Archer is shown us as respected and beloved by a few of those around him ; but the author ' s meaning is more strikingly developed in the character of Harding , the Worker . He is an honest ignorant , truthful , hardworking man , with elevation of soul to feel and appreciate the greatness of

      Archer . Accident throws them together , and Archer ' s influence is almost immediately felt . It ends in the Worker becoming an instructed , thinking man , fully aware of the importance of theory , though his own dominant tendency is towards practice . A complete man is thus evolved . Harding is left to pursue his useful career . Archer will continue to exercise that spiritual influence which justifies his apparent idleness .

      Such—as we read it—is the view of life 6 et forth in these pages , but not illustrated with the preci « sion desirable , so that in some respects we may have fallen short of and in some respects overstepped the author ' s intentions .

      Untitled Article

      SPENCER'S SOCIAL 8 TATICS . Social Statics ; or , the Conditions essential to Human Happiness specified , and the first of them developed . By Herbert Spencer . John Chapman . ( Second Notice . ) Having shown by irrefragrable logic that there can be no property in land in a system of true equity , Mr . Spencer next examines the " right of property" itself , and herein separates himself from Proudhon and the Communists whom he seemed to be upholding : — " The doctrine that all men have equal rights to the use of the earth , does , indeed , at first sight , seem to countenance a species of social organization , at variance with that from which the right of property has just been deduced ; an organization , namely , in which the public , instead of letting out the land to individual members of their body , shall retain it in their own hands ; cultivate it by joint-stock agency ; and share the produce : in . fact , what is usually termed Socialism or Communism . " Plausible though it may be , such a scheme is not capable of realization in strict conformity with the moral law . Of the two forms under which it may be presented , the one is ethically imperfect ; and the other , although correct in theory , is impracticable . " Thus , if an equal portion of the earth ' s produce is awarded to every man , irrespective of the amount or quality of the labour he has contributed towards the obtainment of that produce , a breach of equity is committed . Our first principle requires , not that all shall have like shares of the things which minister to the gratification of the faculties , but that all shall have like freedom to pursue those things—shall have like scope . It is one thing to give to each an opportunity of acquiring the

      objects he desires ; it is another , and quite a different thing , to give the objects themselves , no matter whether due endeavour has or has not been made to obtain them . The one we have seen to be the primary law of the Divine scheme ; the other , by interfering with the ordained connection brtwet ^ n desire and gratification , shows its disagreement with that scheme . Nay , more , it necessitates an absolute violation of the principle of equal freedom . For when we assert the entire liberty of each , bounded enly by the like liberty of all , we assert that each is free to do whatever his desires dictate , within the prescribed limits—that each is free , therefore , to claim tor himself all those gratifications , and sources of gratification , attainable by him within those limits—all

      tho . se gratifications , and sources of gratification which he can procure without trespassing upon the spheres of action of his neighbours . If , therefore , out of many starting with like fields of activity , one obtains , by his greater strength , greater ingenuity , or greater application , more gratifications and sources of giatification than the rest , and does this without in any way trenching upon the equal freedom of the rent , the moral law assi gns him an exclusive right to all those extra gratifications and sources * of gratification ; nor can the rest take them from him without claiming for thcmsclvci ! greater liberty of action thiin he claims , and thereby violating that law . Whence it follows , that un equal appoi tionment of the fruits of the earth amongst all , ia not consistent with pure justice .

      " It , on the other hand , each is to have allotted to him a share of produce proportionate to the degree in which he has aided production , the proposal , whilst it is abstractedly just , in no longer practicable . Were all men cultivators of the soil , it would perhatm be possible to for in an approximate estimate of their several claim ** . Hut to itMcertain the respective amountn of help give" by different kinds of mental and bodily labourers , towurdu procuring the general stock of tin : neceusniiiH of lif <" . ' an utter impossibility . We have mi means of making mich a division , save that alluded by the lavr of supp ly and demand , mid thiu meant ) the hypothecs exclude * . " * Inasmuch an the desire for property is an original instinct , according to Mr . Spencer , the right of property follows an a corollary : —

      ' An argument fatal to the Communist theory , is suggested by the . fact , that a deaire for property i » one of the elements of our nature . Repeated allusion has been

      Untitled Article

      • 1 Iuihi ! iiil « roncit « do not itt . nil inilituto ujfiiiiiHt joint-ntork xyHtoiiiH of production ,, n < l lhiiitf , which an > , in nil probability , what bocialiMii iiroiiliettie . ti .

      Untitled Article

      274 tEfte QLeartet . [ Saturda y

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 22, 1851, page 274, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1875/page/14/