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Leader (1850-1860), 17th May 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 464, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      THE FATES OF FRANCE . Revise the Constitution or maintain the Statu Quo , build up the Empire or reconstruct the Monarchy , proclaim Napoleon the Second or Henry the Fifth , intrigue , negotiate , conspire , do anything , in fact , but the one thing needfulaccept the Republic and act with honour . True ; there is no party in France which is not disgusted with the Constitution of ' 48 . True ; there is no party in France which does not desire the revision , in one sense or another , or the total obliteration of the Constitution of' 48 .

      But how is it to be effected ? Does disgust justify dishonour , and desire excuse bad faith ? Will discontent palliate the breaking of an oath ; or attachment to a royal House , in preference to a noble People , excuse barefaced perjury ? The Republic was enthusiastically proclaimed by Paris in revolt on the 24 th of February , from the balcony of the Hotel de Ville , and solemnly accepted by France , from the steps of the Hall of the Constituent Assembly , on the 4 th of May , 1848 . That Assembly devised and enacted a Constitution or Code of fundamental Rules for the future government of France . Under that instrument it was provided that the representatives of the People should be elected by universal suffrage , and that

      the concurrence of a majority of three-fourths of the Legislative Assembly should be necessary to authorise a legal revision of the Constitution . Now in the first place , the Assembly entrusted with the maintenance of that Constitution violated it by abolishing universal suffrage ; in the second place , there is good reason to believe , that certain sections of the party who passed the electoral law of the 31 st of May , 1849 , are about to devise means for the revision of the Constitution , illegally , and that certain other sections of f that party are conspiring to overturn and abolish the Constitution altogether . The illegal revision would be a violation of the Constitution ; the abolition of the instrument would be treachery to the French People .

      What is meant by the word " revision " as it is used ? It means such an alteration of the Constitution as would prolong indefinitely the power and position of Louis Napoleon , and be tantamount to the establishment , of the Umpire , under a constitutional mask . Revision , therefore , means Imperialism , and finds shelter and favour at the lilysee . This policy is advocated by the Ministry — by the 28 (> wlio have enlisted under the banner of Leon Faucber , the superb and unscrupulous Minister of the Interior . But the 286 ar « - incapable of acting alone ; and thus they seek to become connection with the other party , who inarch with " revision , " for a batile-cry , " fusion , " as a means , and the Monarchy of the Bourbonu restored , as an end . " Fusion "—a hopeless , fatal , insane projectspringing from the brain of M . Guizot , who is trying to guide the destinies of France with face averted from the future , and a Monk for Inn pole star . Fusion means a union of all ihe regimesof the so-called princes of the younger aind the so-called king of the elder branch of tne bouse of Boui bon . Fusion , which would combine in one party the Count de Paris with the Count dc

      Chaiubord , the Prince de Joinville with the Duke de Nemours , and the Duchess of Orleans . A hash of feudalism , of the selfish p » licy of the monarchy of July , and the Parliamentary notions and the Parliamentary corruptions of Guizot and Duchatel ! These two parties , — " Revision " , leading to an empire without an emperor , and " Fusion " , to an absolute monarchy without an absolute kingthese two parties set up to be the fates of France ; in their hands they claim to take the threads of her future , which they can either spin or cut at pleasure . But they have forgotten ( now should they remember !) that France has another fate , or destiny , which never yet failed her—The People .

      One would think that ' 89 and ' 93 had been endured in vain ; that the splendid dream of the Empire had been dissipated to no purpose ; that the exile of Charles the Tenth and the flight of Louis Philippe were mere Contes de Fees—old women ' s tales . . . The party of fusion and the party of revision combined make up that boasted " party of order " which is the party of dishonour and treason . We may blush for them , but we need not fear them . France is equal to her great destinies ; and the People , whom these men define as a " vile multitude " , will one day teach them the lesson—for the fourth time . It is , as an English Member of Parliament would say , on the Notice-paper for 1852 .

      Untitled Article

      THE VALLEY OF DEATH AT NOTTING-HILL . Tribes among the Hindoos worship the smallpox as a goddess , and in places nearer home , diseaseproducing regions have been held sacred . Such is the region called by the Sanitary Association " a plague spot scarcely equalled for its insalubrity by any other in London , " namely , the Potteries of Notting-hill . We cannot improve the description given by the Association : — " It comprises some seven or eight acres , with about 260 houses ( if the term can be applied to such hovels ) , and a population of 900 or 1000 . The occupation of the inhabitants is principally pig-fattening ; many hundreds of pigs , ducks , and fowls are kept in an incredible state of filth . Dogs abound for the purpose of guarding the swine . The atmosphere is still further polluted by the process of fat-boiling . In these hovels discontent , dirt , filth , and misery are unsurpassed by anything known even in Ireland . Water is supplied to but a small proportion of the houses . There are foul ditches , open sewers , and detective drains , smelling most offensively , and generating large quantities of poisonous gases ; stagnant water is found at every turn , not a drop of clean water can be obtained , —all is charged to saturation with putrebcent matter . Wells have been sunk on some of the

      premises , but they have become , in many instance !? , useless from organic matter soaking into them ; in some of the wells the water is perfectly black and fetid . The paint on the window frames has become black from the action of sulphuretted hydrogen gas . Nearly all the inhabitants look unhealthy , the women especially complain of sickness , and want of appetite ; their eyes are sunken , and their skin shrivelled . " They not only look unhealthy , but they are so , and occasionally the poisonous atmosphere threatens to do by death what might be done by happier means—to remove the population : —

      " During the three years ending December , 1848 , there were seventy-eight deaths ; of these , sixty-one were under fifteen yeara of age , iifty-five under five years . The average duration of life in the three years was only eleven years and seven months . In the first four months there occurred twenty-eight cases of small-pox , or one to every thirty-six of the inhabitants , while throughout the other part of the parish of Kensington , with a population ol 97 , 000 , only fourteen cases occurred , or one to seven

      thousand—showing that the Potteries district is one hundred and ninety-four times more liable to mnall-pox than the remaining portion of the parish . The same may be said of typhus fever and some other zymotic diseases . " Wilh regard to cholera , it may be remarked , that the diseaHe occurred not only in the same streets and houflcs , but in the mime rooms that hud been visited over and over again b y typhus , ltoomfi were pointed out by the medical of hcer , where three or four persons had recovered from fever in the spring to fall victims to cholera in the summer . " But the poisonoiiH product does not concern only the inhabitants of this Valley of Death : — ' Somo twelve or thirteen hundred feet off there is a row of clean houses , called Grafter Terrace ; the situation , though rather low , is open and airy . On Saturday and Sunday , the eighth and ninth of September , 1 H 49 , the inhabitants complained of an intoleruble stench , tho wind then blowing directly upon the tcrruco from the Potteries . Up to this time there hud been no cauo of cholera among tho iii-

      Untitled Article

      TtlE CHURCH IN MANCHESTER . A powerful contemporary is awakened from his visions of an international millennium in the Crystal Palace , by the jar and shock of our own domestic discords : —" While we are anxiously and yet hopefully hailing the first dawn of a new aera , which is to weld the inhabitants of the earth into one people , we are suddenly reminded of the mortifying contrast between speculation and reality by the spectacle of our own religious dissensions /' And the Times ascribes that mortifying concussion to Rome , who " is now disturbing the jubilee of

      nations by arrogant pretensions and sectarian bitterness , " by occasioning the " aggression " and the debates in Parliament . But there were two to that bargain . Borne could not have frightened the Commons into hysterics if the Commons had not been hysterical ; Ministers , once begun , would not have been plunged in endless squabbles if they had started with an efficient bill—if they had begun by ascertaining the measure of possibility in that matter , and filled it at once . But these dissensions , God wot , are to save the church from danger ! Home threatens to restore her empire ,

      and , to save England , Lord John , newly applying the maxim , "Divide et impera , " divideshis country ! No , it is not from Rome any more than tne Leader that danger to the church of England is to be feared . If her enemies are to be sought out and combated , they will be found at home . It is not the power on tne seven hills that menaces the church , but the Rome within ; and that strange phase of genuine religious zeal is not half so hazardous as the infidelitv—not the opposition

      from without , miscalled infidelity where no allegiance was ever pledged ; but the slender faith of admitted sons , office-beai ers , and ministers . The Church of England is " a great fact" and a living power ; it is the form of the universal and eternal faith which has de facto expressed the convictions of the people of this country ; it is the concrete English form of a truth , has done much work , and has not less to do ; and if it is now in danger , its peril comes from the unfaithfulness of its own servants .

      Take the case of Manchester , as it comes before us this week . While the Bishop of that see is continuing his ungenerous and noxious contest with Mr . Allsop , the invalid curate of Westhoughton , the office bearers of the episcopal parish itself are recording , not for th e first time , a scandal in the Church . Plurality and non-residence have long been abuses of the cathedral establishment in Manchester ; and last year the retiring churchwardens recorded on the parish books a protest against " the retention , by the Reverend R . Parkinson , of the presidency and incumbency of St . Bee ' s , with their emoluments , arising from his

      preferment as one of the canons of Manchester . " But was the protest effectual ? On the contrary , his example is about to be followed by two others of the remaining three clergymen holding eanonries in the cathedral—the Reverend C . D . Wray , who has accepted the valuable rectory of South Runeton , in Norfolk ; and the Reverend R . C . Clifton , who has expressed his intention of retiring to a living that he holds in Oxford , of which tho f duties have hitherto been discharged by a curate . Manchester has a large and an increasing population ; the Bishop , the Archbishop , and two eminent civilians , Dr . Addams and Mr . Baddeley , hold that the cure of souls resides in the dean and canons

      as successor to the warden and fellows of the old College of Christ ; yet of the four clergymen holding high preferments in the Church , three thus leave their posts ! The retiring churchwardens again , this year , record their protest . Now who are these churchwardens ? Are they Dissenters , enemies of the Church , insidious traitors in the camp ? No , they are moKt respectable members of the Chureh—Richard Birley , John Morley , and Thomas Clegg ; gentlemen whose names are not confined to Manchester .

      They are nominated by the Church Reform Association of the place—a society founded a few years back to make the Church of England , at least in Manchester , what it professes to be— the Church of the nation and of the people . That society is supported by the respectable , safe , orthodox Whig organ in the press ; it is ridiculed J ^ rtETWOtoans of Dissent , as a hopeless attempt to / CgjMJO | i ^^ a \ dyiiig corporation . It is the repre-^ A $ r ^ WE society that now record their p ^ /^^»^^ ) HP 49 tue two < iclKy men ' f ° N ° —^ // $ ]) 4 nrt $ ivm 6 fl | er , at such a time as this , in A . 73 * JJPwl ^! ' « fi 9 » " > ' < : h , its interests , and iln cure of ^ ~ ^ l'I ii ' r t ^~— *\ ^^_ F 1 ¦••^ t ^ B _^_^_ fl w ' i / KJwC ^^ i ^ W wron ^'" * avin £ tnat tn ( - cnern ' £ aj I ^ OTJW'XJJ ^ SWWe not to be found on the Cupitoline , H ^ y ^ w ^^^ jil '

      or in Wellington-street , but in the contentious brethren of the Church , still more in her deserters ? We read with dejep feeling the remark in a letter by Mr . Partington ; one of the churchwardens of Westhoughton , sturdily contradicting some of the statements advanced against Mr . Allsop on behalf of the Bishop : — " I hope you and your readers will excuse my plain

      words and bluntness of speech , as I am one of those who are better prepared to follow a plough or spade , scythe or sickle , than for writing letters or for making speeches ; and I am thankful that it has pleased God to place me in that station of gaining my daily bread ; it was the method of life that our Creator first designed us , and a man cannot be busied in the offices of agriculture and a farmer , but many things will come under his observation in drawing his thoughts towards his Maker . "

      A clergy there will always be—a fraternity of men fitted to prepare other minds , busied in the labours of the day , lor thoughts of more enduring things ; a people however distracted by antagonisms and worried into the " voluntary " principle , will always desire to have its trust students and guides of truth ; but it is a bitter accusation of that clergy , when a plain man turns from their dissensions to read the eternal book o > nature for himself —when he turns for commune from his Prelate to his plough .

      Untitled Article

      464 i& 1 > e aeatret- ^ [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 17, 1851, page 464, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1883/page/12/