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Leader (1850-1860), 19th April 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 376

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      Untitled Article

      so freely use the term Atheist to prove and define what they call God , and after such proof to show that H . B . is a disbeliever ; they will then have an unquestionable right to apply to him . the term Atheist . I do not recognize the accusation so gratuitously preferred by Mr . Holyoake—an assumption of insincerity , that you hold " the principles of Miss Martineau , but lack the courage to say so . " It is such unjustifiable supposition and misconception , that I ust no rational mind would repeat it .

      I never entertained the idea that the principles of the Leader were the same as Miss Martineau's : but , after all the advances you have made for liberty and free thought , I did express my surprize that you should attempt to defend what appears to me untenable ; that which you have admitted cannot be proved . There is nothing vague in asserting that there are thousands who have come to these conclusions , for the Reasoner is no qualified boundary of the statistics . I have met with great numbers , in all our large towns , who never read the Reasoner , but have come to these conclusions , not from ignorance of , or indifference to , religion , but from matured judgment and intelligence , which has induced them to reject it .

      I assent to Mr . Holyoake ' s classification of Atheists , as I never intended to include those whose intelligence is beneath our notice . I will dispose of the rest ( as I do not intend to resume this subject ) by stating , my object is neither to impugn the motives of others , or to cavil at another ' s opinion , but simply to state my own views , which I considered truth ; and that no effectual progre .-s will be made until the mind is free from superstitious error . The leisure moments of a working man do not enable him to cull the flowers of rhetoric or to display the ability of a cultivated mind . But his voice should be no less potent for truth -when it is devoted to its advocacy . I am , Sir , with much respect , Yours truly , H . B .

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      PRIZE ESSAYS . April 17 , 1851 . Sir , —Essays have been received on each of the subjects proposed in the Leader of the 22 nd ultimo , and you will now oblige me by retaining the enclosed £ 5 Bank of England note as a prize to be awarded to the writer of the best essay upon the next subject , " Repentance , being the Remission of Sins . " All writers upon theology , and members of every religious sect , are invited to compete for this prize ; and are requested to forward their essays , to C . C , 8 , King William-street , Charing-cross , on or before the last day of the present month . Yours , truly , A Constant Reader .

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      ON TEETOTALISM , SCURVY , AND BEER . Leeds , March 15 , 1851 . Sin , —In the first volume of the Lender I regretted to observe that you had given credit and currency , as to a fact , to the mere assertion of Dr . T . A . "Vau » han , the medical superintendent of the station at Aden , * ' that the sailors in temperance ships Avere peculiarly liable to scurvy , because of the non-allowance of spirit rations . " In the medical and other journals , since the appearance of T ) r . Vaughan ' s letter in the Times , full refutations of his hasty hypothesis have appeared ; but I have observed no correction of his error in the

      columns of the Leader , which now appears as the advocate of beer . I trust , however , Unit you -will gladly hear both sides on this question , and thus obviate a . suspicion to which otherwise your admirable ! paper might be exposed , of ranking amongst the already too numerous opponents of the temperance movement ; often unserupulousopponents who eagerly eeize on everv fact , or rumour of a fact ( as in the ease of the increase in the consumption of opium , now traced to a very different cause ) , and pervert it into an argument against teetotalism . Even the alleged facts do not at all warrant , Dr . Vaughan ' s conclusion ;* he simply confounds coincidence with causation .

      ' Scurvy is very bad in several ill-ventilntcd , ill - provisioned , gas-exhaling coal vchscIn ; these vessels also happen to have no spirits allowed ; ergo , this one negation is the positivociiu . se of scurvy . " Well might the more ; philosophic amongst the medical profeHt-ion be ashamed of such logic ; an for example , a writer in the Mudico-Chiruryical Review , for January , who in " constrained to nay that Dr . Vaughan ' tt letter betrays a , degree of ignorance and careless reasoning which we an ; very sorry to m « et with in a member of our profcuuion holding an important public appointment . '

      Tlie reviewer goes on to affirm that " all the experience of those most conversant witli the tmhjcct loads to the conclusion that the eHftenliul cause of the disease , without which no other can be effectual , \ h tho -want of fresh vegetables . " It in not , therefore , in total ubHtinence from spiiitH , butfiorn fresh vegetables that we must , seek for the cause of ncurvy , and , in tlie want of these , to the bent substitute , unadulterated lime-juice .

      Contrast with the loose suppositions of Dr . Vaughan the accurate observations and close reasonings of Dr . Bryson , as contained in his paper " On the Outbreak of Scurvy in the British and American squadrons engaged in the blockade of the River Plate , " a few years ago , while the French squadron , under the same circumstances , enjoyed comparative immunity from the disease , though they had no spirit rations , but , instead , a small quantity of acid and astringent red wine . More than this , the British soldiers had a daily ration of rum , but , the battalion of British Royal Marines was placed under the French regimen . Now for the result . " Amongst the soldiers , many cases of scurvy occurred , while the marines entirely escaped . ''

      " A more forcible argument than this , " adds Dr . Bryson , " in favour of the total abolition of the daily use of spirits in the navy , in the army , and in merchant vessels , could hardly be adduced . " Of course I do not ascribe the cure to the alcohol in the wine , any more than to the alcohol in the rum ( for where an acrid narcotic is , however sheathed and di > guised , and whether in wine , beer , or cider , no beverage can be absolutely " wholesome" ) , but partlytotheless degree of injury inflicted by the weaker stimulant , and partly to the presence of vegetable acids in the red wine . Dr . Bryson confirms this view , for he remarks that a proper supply of vegetable acid ( whether in food or drink ) is alone requisite to effect the cure of scurvy .

      Permit me to add , in conclusion , that in the north of England there are hundreds of thousands of individuals ( the most energetic supporters of educational , sanitary , and social reforms ) who , having given up their ( limited ) use of alcoholic stimulants , including home-brewed beer , find themselves much better , and can now devote their economized means to far more needful and natural objects of association than " breweries , " in which good solid food is converted into verv questionable drink .

      Wishing you every success in your practical assertion of the right and duty of free-thinking and freespeaking , I remain , yours truly , F . R . Lees .

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      • Iliii limgiia ^ o wiih curiuHHly liiconiiiuli ¦ iii . H < " miyn , "tint woratca « oti attain invariabl y in hiicIi vttnnnlf ) as do not nllow Bjilrit . " "Why uccin , if Ihu fuctn wen : no'f

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      " THE SOCIALIST HYDRA . " Glasgow , March 3 , 1851 . Sib ,, —I perceive that the old constitutional friends of that order which the sword has established , are grievously alarmed at the progress which the principles of Socialism are making in this and every other civilized country . In their eyes the growing importance of Democracy is sufficiently alarming ; but when it is allied to Socialism it increases the magnitude of the evil to a fearful extent .

      John Bull has lately been conjuring tip dreadful conspiracies and supposing that the Democratic Socialists are on the very eve of a bloody revolution , when all the sacred influences of society will be set at naught , and another reign of terror will be established . The Edinburgh philosophers are more temperate than John , and endeavour to convince the Socialists of their errors by sophism and science , and point out the beauty and utility of competition and political economy . They admit , however , that Socialism may prevail in the far-distant future , when men are more generally Christianized than they are at present .

      London and Edinburgh have had their day on the subject , and my attention has just been directed to a leading article , headed as above , in the Tablet , a Dublin paper , of the 1 / itb ultimo , in which the Socialists are characterized as conspirators , incendiaries , and demons working at the instigation of the Devil " to overthrow and shake to its foundations the fair and wise edifice of European Society , constructed by the wisdom of statesmen , the foresight of legislators and Kings , the holy purposes and prudent counsels of the saints and sa ^ es of eighteen

      centuries . " I perceive that the Tablet is the organ of the old Conseivative Catholics , who Ktill hold to the divine ri f ^ ht of Kings and the supremacy of their Church , both in polities and religion . They are so much accustomed to look on the glory of the past , that they cannot admit any progress in the future , and yet they have a dim instinctive feeling that the work of progress is going on , and in order to arrest it , they have dogmatically resolved to stand Btill , and brand with the foulest epithct . n the iiicreaniniij army of progress . But . vain i , s all their futile efforts . Like Galileo in the midst , of the tortures

      inflicted by the Hiime vindictive spirit , winch iH mil ! striving to rule , tlie spirit within hint impelled him to cry out , " it moves , it mown ; " and ho also is man moving on to hin final destiny , and no human elf ,, it can arrest . lii « jiro ^ iess . " European society" ( mivm the Tablet ) , *• the Bynt « in of political and nociul order under which we live , owcn its perpetuity to ChriHtianity . " Then it pjoes on to tdmw thut the object of Maz . zini and bin unholy confederates , in collecting an tinny in Switzerland , wan to destroy Christianity by destroying the Pope . " Hut Socialism , whilst it wiih convinced that to drntroy civilization . Christianity must first be destroyed , hiiw clearly that the key-Htono of Christianity was the Pope . If , by un impossible nuppoHition , the divine institution of the ; 1 ' upucy wero to bo dissolved , first Chrintiunity would

      go , and then civilization . " Here the poor Tablet h *» some slight glimmerings of the truth , it is beginning to see ' men as trees walking" ; but , like the Egyptian mummy , it is so wrapt up in the past , that it cannot see that it is the inevitable doom of its Christianity and its civilization to be destroyed . It even proves by its own words , that the very men whom it abuses in the most unchristian language , are the agents employed by Divine Providence in its destruction . It says , " that there are restless spirits of every country , and that they hate the world , and the world ' s law . " Christ has said , that his kingdom is not of this world , and , consequently , he would not allow the sword to be lifted even in his own

      defence , or to support the establishment of his kingdom . The Tablet cannot perceive that there are two Christianities for two worlds . " I come not to send peace on earth , but rather a sword , " this is the first leligion , and it has been established by the only apostle who used the sword , and by the sword its existence is still maintained . I entirely agree with the Tablet in saying that the Pope is the foundation of the Christianity and civilization which has hitherto prevailed , " Whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power , and signs , and lying wonders , and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish . " " Forbidding

      to marry , and commanding to abstain from meats . " " Having a form of Godliness without the power . " I even agree with it " that other religions are but fragments torn off it at different times from the system which it presents to the obedience of this world . " They have all allied themselves to that despotism which has ruled the people with a rod of iron . This is the hydra which muse be destroyed before the Gospel of glad tidings can be established . The old religion perceives some indications of its own destruction , but it cannot see the full extent and rapid

      growth of the second gospel . In every country earnest men are rising up in defence of the new faith ; men who hate the world and the world ' s law ; men who have refused to fall down and worship the beast whose dominion over the kingdoms of the earth is fast drawing to a close . Their mission is to build up a new system to take the place of that which is decaying . This law of God prevails in government , science , and religion , as well as in all other works of nature , I , as a humble disciple of the new faith , rejoice exceedingly to hear the howlings of alarm raised from the three principal cities of this

      great empire . I also beg to congratulate the Tablet in its joyful exultation at the happy return of the Holy Father to Rome ; more especially as the manner of his return is in strict accordance with his religion . Unlike his Master , he did not return on an ass ' s colt , with the people bestrewing his path with palm branches and singing the glad hosannas of welcome and joyful song . No , he came back in direct opposition to the wishes of his own people , and was hailed by the deep and bitter curses of the injured and oppressed as the deadliest enemy that could enter the gates of their city . In the words of the Tablet , " It was that sagacious man Louis Napoleon that directed the strength of the Republic to the restoration of the Holy Father . "

      " France appeared before the world as a Christian Republic . The new order of things was thus happily begun and consecrated , one may say , by the blessing of a Pope . " Some will lament that these unholy means were resorted to in order that the Pope might be enabled to return ; but it is right that it should be so , that his mission hhould be made manifest to all those who are still wavering in his faith . " Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself , and they enter in and dwell there , and the last Htate of that man is worse than the first . " He did not enter in by the grace of ( Jod working in the heads of the people , in order that they might bless hifi return ; be entered in by the consecrated blessing of 150 , 000 French bayonets Hlaughteiing his people , to prove to them that 14 the last state of that man is worse than the first . "

      Ibe fulnepH of bis iniquity must be Accomplished before his final doom is proclaimed to the world . It must be clearly proved that the power of the sword is the rock on which the first Church ia founded , and if tbt ; ff aU'H of Hell shall not prevuil against it , I have no doubt but the gatoH of Heaven will scatter it into that ^ -vcrluHtiiiK oblivion which the darkness of its decdit merits . To the Chrintinn Socialists in this country I would Hay , ( Jo on wiih the noble work ¦ Which ( lod has placed in your hands , rescue the needy from the

      Ki'UHp of the oppressor , loose tho bonds of iniquity , urid let the captives ^ o frets . 1 ' iocluim the new law of love and biothcrbood , and tench uh to bear one another ' * burd < us , no that , we muy introduce a new mid brtter era that , will spontaneously spread itself throughout the whole woild . To yoii , the doleful IrtinentntionH of the Tablet and other organs of the pant , about , the magnitude of the tremendous peiils which now threaten the immediate ruin of all their old institutions , will appear but uh harbingers of tho coming day . YourH , sincerely , S . Wbuwood .

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      376 © f ) £ ULtatStT . [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 19, 1851, page 376, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1879/page/22/