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Leader (1850-1860), 30th August 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 832

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      Untitled Article

      rights ? let us keep them sacred and intact . Have we feelings ? let us maintain their susceptibility . Have ¦ we senses ? let us use them . Our property is our industry—our rights are those of citizenship—our feelings are those of social and domestic life—our senses are the gift of God . Have we been chained to the oar till we are sinewbound ? God forbid ! This is a free land , and we are not slaves . The human wheels are more powerful than either the " stick , " the " carrier , " or the «• roller . " If they say stop—all stop : if they say go on—allgoeson . An engine of a thousand-horse power cannot drive our inclination . Our industry is still our own . Our senses are no longer asleep . We have something to say for our intellect , and more for our immortality . ™

      ....... . , Who are uppermost on the political horizon ? The Free-traders ! And who are they ? The manufacturers ! And who are the manufacturers ? Not Mr . Cobden , Mr . Bright , or Mr . Wilson , but the people of the manufacturing districts . We are , therefore , uppermost , and we will be heard therefore . There was a time when we were slaves . Let the past die ! Amid the few , some are rich in money , some in genius , some in art , some in diplomacy , some in general knowledge . What is there to prevent us from being rich in all these qualifications as well as they ? We are not rich in money—neither was Arkwright—and

      look at the Arkwrights now . We have no such names as Crichton , but Crichton ' s brain was once a clear tablet . We have neither Opies not Ettys amongst us , but Opie and Etty were born among us . We have neither Lord Palmerston nor Lord Aberdeen in our ranks , but let them look about them when the property qualification of members is taken off . We have the same kinds of heads and hands if we would only make a right use of them . We have the means within our own grasp if we could but see that we had . Let us try to understand our position—and saccffes is certain . Your faithful friend , Oliver Bradford .

      Untitled Article

      EELIQIOUS TRACTS . Dundee , August 16 , 1851 . Sik , —Within the last few days a tract has been put into my hands by a friend , no doubt much interested in my spiritual welfare , entitled Glad Tidings of Great Joy . It is published under the auspices of the religious ( or kirk-going ) people of this town . Whether it really contains such " tidings " as render its title appropriate will be for your readers to judge

      by the sequel . It does , indeed , seem strange to me , that rational people can so far deceive themselves as to suppose that their fellow-creatures will be frightened into believing such absurdities as are set forth in this pioua pamphlet . If the orthodox have nothing better to send their " heathen brethren , " it would be well to let the matter alone . Perhaps some of your renders could favour us with the true scriptural idea of joyful tidings ; for such absurd and ferocious statements as those now before me rather tend to aversion

      than conversion . This said religious tract commences , " Header , thou must die , " a fact which , I have no doubt , the readers of the Leader long ago discovered , and adds , " But thou hast that within thee which can never die ; thou ha » t an immortal never-dying soul , " a statement made without even the shadow of a proof ; and which appears "very strange , considering that the whole force of the after arguments rests on its truth . I may here mention that the author of this very orthodox paper neither condescends to reason or give proof for any affirmation he makes . I suppose , like some high in authority in the Church , he trusts to the " sword of the spirit" cutting away all hardness of heart ; and convincing those whom he addresses in the following words : —

      " It may be thou hast gone on day after day , week after week , month after month , yea , year afier y < ar , as unconcerned about your soul ' s eternal state , at » if hell were a tale , and eternity a trifle . But die thou must , how soon thou kuowest not . It may be this hour , this moment ; and , should it be bo , where would that soul be ?" He does not answer , but leaves you to imagine the joyful reply—in hell . Undoubtedly , " glad tidings of great joy . " Again , he goes on to say : — " Dost thou know the wuy of salvation ? 1 'erhapH thou dost not ; perhaps thou thinkest thou canst save thyuelf—that thy bad deeds are not bo bad , but that thy good worka may by Home ineuns or other prevail upon God to forgive thee—that if a man doc « the best he can , ChriHt will do the rent .

      * ' But , my friend , if this in thy way of ualvation , it in u way the Scriptures know nothing of . " Hero are , indeed , joyful news . How pleasant must it be to communicate such " tidings " to poor weak or ignorant men , to assure them that they have every prospect of going down to hell ! Truly this in a memmge f « r thotie who have lew of the world ' s comforts , and can Hay , " silver and gold have 1 none " How little comfort does this autmrancti bring to Hue heart of the " natural man" I but die followers of Ood kttow whereof they have to glory . Mtght we not reasonably »**> tljLO wnt « r of thme

      very glad tidings" whether he has ever done better " than the best he can ? " and what is his hope in consequence ? If only upon such a condition we can become Christians , and be admitted into fellowship with the saints , we run a very bad chance indeed . If we cannot reach heaven till we do better than the best we can , I much fear it will be a very long

      time . It would be needless to occupy more of your valuable space with quotations from this very joyful tract . The foregoing may be considered fair samples of what are issued from the Christian world generally as " glad tidings of great joy . " I have no doubt your readers will concur with me in saying such is the case , especially with the emanations of Religious Tract Societies . When books or tracts are put into the hands of poor ignorant people , containing such horrible and unfeeling sentiments , what must they think ? What awful views must they entertain of God and Christianity ! I leave it to the imaginations of your readers and the patrons of Religious Tract Societies .

      It would give me much pleasure to hear of a plan being established for the promulgation of sound views on religious matters among our poorer brethren . When this is the case , however , I trust it will be on a liberal and enlightened scale—that useful information will not be doled out in small two-page tractsor any mean and dirty tricks practised , like those sometimes resorted to by societies for the dissemination of " glad tidings of great joy . " Yours respectfully , Justitia .

      Untitled Article

      THE PEACE QUESTION . London , August 13 , 1851 . Sir , — " The crimes of peace , " such was the heading of an article in last week ' s Leader that attracted my attention . I was fain to know what ugly charges could be sustained against so gentle and respectable a creature . Some recent tendencies of your journal had warned me that , no longer desirous of being included among the sybarites of pacific repose , you had begun to regard war as a praiseworthy weapon of human intelligence , and to seek for what I almost fear from your example I ought now to call the bubble progress at the cannon ' s mouth . But I was happy to observe , when I came to read the counts of your indictment , that they were very singular and

      not very strong . Certain embarrassments , such as the redundancy of unemployed naval and military officers , and the publication of obscene prints in Holywell-street , are urged in illustration of the criminal offences of peace . Now , assuredly , a redundancy of unemployed naval and military officers does seem , whether for good or evil , a very natural result of peace , and yet if you wish to discover how long years of peace have diminished this very excess , you have only to compare the half-pay list of 1851 with any such list more immediately subsequent to the war . It may then occur to you that war , unless you mean it to be everlasting , must one day terribly aggravate a redundancy , from which , through it , you hope to be relieved .

      Next , as to the rubbish of ITolywell-street . In the very same breath with which you justly ascribe this prurient taste to the vicious organization of society , you astound us by regarding it as the symptom of a disease , * ' the causes of which we firmly believe are to be sought , by the light of present observation , no less than of history , in the enervations of peace . " Well , then , turn to such of your foreign friends as are old enough to recollect the period when Prance was a camp , Europe a slaughter field , and the purity of the public , therefore , according to your theory , at its maximum , for information as to the state of the Paris print shops at that time . If the answer does not satisfy you—though I suspect it will—I have it in my power to give you some curious illustrations of what former history does actually teach us on this matter .

      1 know I am intruding upon your epace , but permit me to add another word . You begin your article with an exclamation : —" How many momentous questions would be solved , for the day at least , b y a good stirring war ! " 1 pass over the expression " for the day ut least , " reminding me though it does of the old heroic practice in medicine , which virtually removed a present symptom to the certain destruction of future health , merely asking you to convert your opening sentence from the exclamatory into the interrogatory form , and then to answer it yourself . What and how many the momentous questions arc which would find a favourable or unfavourable issue in war in precisely what we require to know . To determine thin is the right way of grappling with the . matter . Will you be good enough to attempt it ?

      You further observe— " Present appearances indicate either a -war of Emancipation for Peoples ugaiiiHt Absolutism , or u war of Northern Absolutism ngaiiiNt the ultra civilized deyennacy of Western Europe . " Allow me to unk how the two membera of the sentence can stand together ? If there be everywhere abroad that noble ardour which shall impel Peoples to auaert their Emancipation against Absolutism , where i » that "degeneracy" which m to tempt

      Northern Absolutism to the attack ? Moreover what is meant by " ultra-civilized degeneracy , " and where is it to be found ? Even in the capacity for martial prowess , which of the bulwarks of Western Europe is it that is not in this respect more formidable than it ever was ? Surely language such as I have quoted belongs to that order of phrases which if fitly introduced into circulars addressed to Continental Democracy , are very unfit to be add ressed to English Democracy .

      Excuse my bluntness . I have hailed the appearance of the Leader , and have watched its progress with interest . I rejoice in its ability ; I love its Socialism ; I admire its outspoken tone on theology . I have no great horror of its Democracy , though if might perhaps somewhat differ from , it as to the essential value of political form—and , I may add , that here and there I may have done it some trifling good . But it is precisely because such are my feelings towards it , that I deprecate a tone of writing which has lately appeared in it—which is derived from impositions which I think I can readily trace to their source—impositions damaging , as in the article I have criticised , to its just reputation for talent , and not at all calculated either to advance that cause of

      progress to which I believe it to be sincerely attached , or to gain—I speak from some experience here—the confidence of those English People to which I presume it looks for its support . Amicus .

      Untitled Article

      THE POWER OF EDUCATION . London , August 18 , 1851 . Sir , —In continuation of the subject of my last letter , I have to endeavour to make evident what are the errors which have hitherto made the formation , of a really wise and good character an impossibility , and that of an erring and inferior character an inevitable result ; and what are the principles of demonstrable truth and the new science of education , the consistent application of which to practice will make the attainment of the opposite results an equally natural and inevitable consequence . Hitherto all education has been conducted under the influence of the following suppositions : — 1 . That man is by nature bad , or prone to prefer the wrong or evil to the right or good . 2 . That he possesses a " free will , " or a will of which he is himself the primary and sole-exciting cause , by which he is able to overrule his natural badness at his pleasure , and to make it his pleasure so to overrule it ; and by or in obedience to which he is able to determine , and does determine , the formation of his character , his feelings , his convictions , and his will or decision to act at his pleasure . 3 . That , as he possesses this free will or independent power to control the formation of his character

      and his feelings , convictions , and wills , he has merit and deserves praise and artificial rewards when his character and his feelings , convictions and wills are what his fellow-men regard as good ; and has demerit and deserves blame and artificial punishments when they are what his fellow-men regard as bad . ( A logical inference from the free-will premises ; although it is moat illogical to attribute to man demerit or desert of blame and punishment for having a bad nature , which he cannot be supposed to have

      made by his free will . ) 4 . That the attributing of merit and demerit , and the employment of praise and blame and of artificial rewards and punishments , are useful and necessary means to influence to the adoption of that which is good in character , feelings , convictions , and will , and to the avoidance of that which is evil . ( A supposition logically inconsistent with the idea that character , &c , are produced by the influence of a free and independent will . ) Now a knowledge of facts makes it evident with scientific certainty , that these four suppositions are false ; for they are inconsistent with all facts having reference to the nature of man and the formation ot

      his character , &c . ;—and that any system of education of which they form the basis , must be a false system , and in a high degree injurious—must effectually pievent the attainment of rationality , wisdom , consistent goodness , and happincHK , and must of necessity V ro " ducea character of irrationality and inferiority , hig l » JV injurious to its possessor and to society . This knowledge makes it evident : — 1 . That man is good by nature , or prone to prefei right or good to wrong or evil ; for hupp inettH » s good , and it is natural to man , as to all other »«»^} en ^ existences , to desire and pursue- happ iness , A " been

      bin past errors' huve arihen from his having ' ignorance—an ignorance which he did not m '" . » and for which , therefore , he cannot denerve Wain © , and which he would not have retained so long » had previously had the power to discover the trul , or if the truth had been made known to him ; an from his liuving udopted , in consequence ot t > ignorance , false idcau of right and wrong , or ot tn » which ia conducive or detrimental to hit ) happim ' " ' by which false ideas he has been led into eiror an evil continully , and—his naturul feelings and « c « "" ^ having consequently been perverted , or * J | rl ° J *! L j , developed , through , the false education w ^ r !* ° JTf error * have produced— -hia instinctive p **** "

      Untitled Article

      832 fffie Hea& * t % [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 30, 1851, page 832, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1898/page/20/